Introduction
While it is still early in the season, I can’t help but notice that while the team is struggling at the MLB level, there’s several of the Dbacks top prospects playing very well for the D’Backs AAA level affiliate, the Reno Aces. There are also a couple veteran relief pitchers that have been pitching very well, who merit discussion, but who I won’t be discussing in this article. (NOTE: We’re just just under a full month into the Minor League Baseball season, so small samples abound, especially with
the relief pitchers. Just a few good/bad outings and games can turn these numbers upside down, so this is just a fun exercise. It’ll be another month before any Minor League stats should be taken seriously. All stats in this article through 28th April, 2026.)
The Hot Hitting Prospects
Top 100 overall prospect Ryan Waldschmidt (Fangraphs |B-Ref player pages) has unsurprisingly been one of the Reno Aces best hitters. The 23 year old right handed hitting outfielder has played mostly center field in the 2026, but is capable of playing all three outfield positions competently. Through his first 131 plate appearences, he’s hit .303/.400/.505 with a 122 wRC+ and a .408 wOBA.
Tommy Troy ( Fangraphs|B-Ref), the 12th overall pick in the 2023, in his first 122 plate appearences is hitting .317/.405/.481 with a 120 WRC+ and .404 wOBA. Troy has seen the majority (60%) of his starts at second base, but surprisingly has spent a good chunk of time in left field and couple games worth of innings in center.
LuJames ‘Gino’ Groover III ( Fangraphs|B-Ref) through his first 127 plate appearances is hitting .340/.440/.427, with a 123 wRC+ and a .410 wOBA. He’s spent slightly more than half his time in the field this season at third base with the rest spent across the diamond at first.
Kristian Robinson’s ( Fangraphs | B-Ref ) history has been discussed so much that I’m not going to discuss it here other than the very short version. Once a top prospect, legal issues that came as a result of cannabis induced psychiatric episode along with pandemic kept him away from baseball for three years. Robinson is probably not the star outfielder we thought he was, but he is a perfectly servicable outfielder with an intriguing mix of power and speed. In his first 110 plate appearences in 2026, Robinson is hitting .286/.400/.484 with a 119 wRC+ and a .402 wOBA. Robinson is capable of playing all three outfield position as well, with a better throwing arm than any of the other outfielder on the MLB roster.
The biggest reason to not call up any of these four players is finding regular playing time, along with service time and roster considerations. Ryan Waldschmidt and Kristian Robinson are (arguably) an across the board upgrade over current Dback OFer Jorge Barrosa, but if they’re only on the roster as the fourth outfielder, they won’t get as much playing time as needed to further develop as hitters. With his .524 OPS and 46 wRC+, Tim Tawa has been a below average hitter in 2026, so bad that he’s been worth -0.3 WAR. Lourdes Gurriel may only have recently been activated of the Injury List, but he’s already matched Tawa in negative WAR despite having played in 10 fewer games. The aforementioned Barrosa’s job is arguably pretty safe, despite the 79 wRC+, he’s an above average outfielder who’s put up .2 WAR thanks to his defense. In a similar vein, the defensively gifted Alek Thomas is once again struggling offensively, and while he still is putting up positive value, his defense isn’t that much of an upgrade over Waldschmidt’s to make his job safe either. Theoretically Waldschmidt and Robinson could replace Barrosa and Thomas , and while there would almost certainly be a drop off defensively, the potential for a massive offensive upgrade could might very well be worth it.
Tommy Troy, who has the most defensive versatility thanks to his ability to play both infield and outfield, is an obvious choice to replace Tim Tawa on the roster. As long as the Ildemaro Vargas/Nolan Arenado experiment continues to be successful, and Jose Fernandez continues to rake, I can’t imagine we’ll see Groover anytime soon, unless Adrian Del Castillo just completely fails to provide any offense at DH. Which is unfortunate, as Groover statistically has been the best hitter on the Aces, while also having the exit velocity and batted ball data that legitimizes his production as more than a PCL induced fluke.
Pitching Prospects Having Success Shutting Down A Punishing PCL
Amongst the actual ranked pitching prospects on the Aces, Mitch Bratt (Fangraphs|B-Ref) has been the most effective of the starting pitchers in the Aces rotation so far. In his first five starts, he’s put up a 2.84 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, with a 50 ERA-. His 4.35 FIP and 4.64 xFIP aren’t exactly inspiring but overall those are very solid numbers for a starting pitcher in hitters haven that is the Pacific Coast League.
Yilber Diaz (Fangraphs|B-Ref) and Brandyn Garcia (Fangraphs|B-Ref) have combined to form a very effective relief duo. In his 10 relief appearances, he’s put up 13 ⅔ IP while striking out 20 batters (a 34% SO%) and walking just five batters (9.3BB%) His 1.32 ERA and 24 ERA- are absolutely stellar, though his 3.11 FIP and 2.90 xFIP do suggest his ERA won’t stay that low forever. Brandynn Garcia has also appeared in 10 games, putting up 12⅓ IP with 18 strikeouts and 10 walks. His 2.19 ERA works out to a 39 ERA-, though his stats do seem like they’re do for some regression, as indicated by the 4.58 FIP and 4.35 xFIP.
It’s almost certainly a matter of when, not if Yilber Diaz and Brandyn Garcia get called up in 2026, and there are already candidates in the bullpen for them to replace. The most obvious would be Paul Sewald, but arguements could be made for Ryan Thompson as well. Originally I was going to mention Andrew Hoffman, but the latter was sent down for Philip Abner whilst writing this article.
It’s actually somewhat fitting that the most obvious candidate in the starting rotation that Mitch Bratt could potentially replace is the pitcher the Dbacks traded away last summer to acquire him (along with Hagaman and Kohl Drake), Merrill Kelly. To be as blunt as possible, Merrill Kelly has not been good at all so far this season, and his performance so far has been troubling. In his first start back in a 4-3 win against the baltimore Orioles, Kelly pitched 5 ⅓ innings, allowing a pair of earned runs on five hits and four walks. It doesn’t sound that bad, but it was a messy outing saved thanks to Ildemaro Vargas and Jose Fernandez’s offense, though he does deserve some extra credit for a successful pickoff throw of a runner on third. Kelly’s 2nd outing was a disaster: 4⅓ innings, 8 earned runs allowed on 10 hits ans 3 walks. Of those ten hits, half of them went for extra base hits, three of which were homeruns. His most recent outing wasn’t any better. He pitched 5 ⅓ innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits and five walks, with another homerun allowed. All that adds up to a 9.20 ERA with 8.78 FIP, which has cost the Diamondbacks -0.5/-0.6 fWAR/bWAR. It’s still early and he can turn it around, but if his season continues like this, then I would think that eventually a move will have to be made. Alternatively, Ryne Nelson and his 7.71 ERA or Brandon Pfaadt and his 5.54 ERA aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire either.
Conclusion
Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen has quite a few options in AAA that could potentially bolster the Major League roster. Which of these players do you think is most likely to be able to contribute to an MLB roster right now? Is there a prospect on the AAA or even AA roster that you feel is more deserving of a call up?Which player on the MLB roster do you think will be the next to go after Andrew Hoffman? Who do you expect to be called up first? Let me know in the comments down below!
Next Week: We wrap up the Top Prospect series by finally ranking the Dbacks top pitching prospects.
