Overview
- Rating: 3.78
- 2025 stats: 1-2 W-L, 36.1 IP, 5.12 ERA, 6.29 FIP, -0.1 aWAR
- Date of birth: April 18, 1990 (age 35 season)
- 2025 earnings: $2 million (1 year deal)
- 2026 status: Free agent
Voting overview
2025 review
Another 1AZfan1 player review, another player who last played in the Major Leagues in 2023 before joining the Diamondbacks this year. In Anthony DeSclafani’s case, 2024 was missed due to injury, specifically,
elbow surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his throwing arm. DeSclafani had spent the prior 3 seasons with the San Francisco Giants, then in January of 2024 (with one year left on his multi-year deal) he was traded twice, first to the Mariners for Robbie Ray and then to the Twins for Jorge Polanco. Unfortunately for the Twins, he never threw a pitch for them. It was announced he underwent elbow surgery in March 2024 and would be out for the entirety of that season.
This brings him to 2025, where Anthony still wasn’t healthy enough to pitch in Spring Training, so he continued his rehab into the season until the Yankees called and signed him to a minor league deal in May. After spending one month in Scranton pitching for their AAA affiliate to the tune of a 4.50 ERA, DeSclafani was granted his release from the organization and quickly signed on with the Diamondbacks on a big league deal. His immediate role was as the long man in the bullpen, but with how hard the starting pitching depth had been hit to that point in the year, the team knew he would be able to provide valuable depth as a starter if necessary.
His first 4 appearances with the Diamondbacks were all in long relief out of the bullpen and they were of varying quality. The first 2 appearances he gave up a combined 6 Runs in 4.1 IP, but his next 2 games were scoreless across 5 IP including a 3-inning Save (his first career Save!). After about 3 weeks with the club, DeSclafani made his first start with the D-backs, a spot start against the Royals on July 6th. Torey Lovullo said the start was designed to give the rotation an extra day of rest since they were in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in as many days. DeSclafani could only last 4 innings in that outing, giving up 4 runs and taking the Loss, then it was back to the bullpen.
DeSclafani spent the balance of July as a long reliever and pitched pretty well, notching his first Win with the team and adding another 3-inning Save to his tally. He only allowed 1 R over 10 IP in that time. Then, on August 1st with a Merrill Kelly-sized hole in the rotation, Anthony made his second start with the Snakes and was a part of the rotation for the next 2 weeks until he went on the IL with a thumb injury. His 3 starts during that stretch alternated from bad to good to bad, none of them lasting longer than 4.1 innings.
After his thumb healed in early September, he returned to the D-backs bullpen where he made 2 fairly disastrous appearances in the span of a week, allowing 6 combined Runs in 5.2 IP. The day after his appearance in Minnesota on September 14th (where he was actually credited with a Hold despite allowing 2 R in just over 2 innings of work), the Diamondbacks designated DeSclafani for assignment, and a few days later he was officially released. DeSclafani didn’t sign with another team over the final couple weeks of the season.
2026 outlook
Anthony DeSclafani is a free agent this offseason and will likely find himself a home in time for Spring Training, but it remains to be seen whether any teams believe in him as Major League arm or if he’ll have to sign another minor league deal. He’s certainly no spring chicken anymore, but he seems to have rebounded from his 2024 arm surgery well at least as far as velocity and ‘stuff’ is concerned. He doesn’t have quite the same zip on his fastball that he did in his prime, but his Stuff+ metrics this past season were the best or near the best he’s had in his entire career. I’m not sure how that squares with his career worst outcomes he suffered through in 2025, but there’s definitely enough in there for teams to kick the tires on and see if he can provide rotation-depth/long relief.
