Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country.
Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.Our previous poll ended up a fairly one-horse race, with Ryne Nelson our chosen man for Opening Day starter. That… did not turn out to be the case. We’ll see if Torey Lovullo takes our advice any better when it comes to the role at the other end of the game. For we
asked who you wanted to see close games out for the D-backs, in the absence (for now) of Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk. They filled the role in 2025, before succumbing to the epidemic of elbow-itis which plagued baseball last year. There are certainly no shortage of possible candidates – albeit none you perhaps might want pitching to save your life.
This was reflect in results which weren’t exactly a ringing endorsement of any particular candidate. None of the five candidates (plus the long-serving veteran, “Other”) received even thirty percent of the vote. It was close at the top with the leading three all receiving between 20% and 26%. But just about everyone received a reasonable amount of support. I’d also like to thank Mrs. Jameson for showing up. Here are the full results.
It’s perhaps a little surprising, to see Loasiga – a non-roster invitee to spring training, who isn’t on the 40-man roster or a major-league contract – top of the heap. But, of course, neither of those are a prohibition on pitching in high-leverage situations and doing it well. We only have to look back to last spring, where Shelby Miller was in exactly the same situation, roster-wise. After Puk and Martinez went down, he ended up becoming the closer, and at the end of the year, led the Diamondbacks in saves. Of particular note, Miller came into the 2025 campaign with just three saves over 103 appearances out of the bullpen, since becoming a full-time reliever post-COVID.
I figured it might be worth putting together a little chart of the stats for the five contenders. So, below you will find for each man, their number of relief appearances at the MLB level, the saves recorded there, their career ERA+ (to indicate overall level of effectiveness), and the ERA+ they posted last year. Obviously, the amount of work involved in determining the last varies dramatically, from Ryan Thompson’s 41.1 innings, all the way down to Drey Jameson’s… three. So bear this in mind, especially with regard to Jameson, whose total experience in MLB is still only 68 innings, and half of that came as a starter. That may be a factor in why he ranked so badly in our poll.
I’d kinda forgotten how long Ginkel has been around. This will be his eighth season in the majors, which will actually tie the franchise record (Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen are also going to be in their eighth, matching the mark of Randy Johnson and Andrew Chafin). In relief appearances and saves, he ranks second among the candidates, though is obviously quite a distance behind Paul Sewald in both. The problem with Sewald is, he hasn’t actually been a very good pitcher, judging by ERA+. Experienced or not, he was below average both last year, and for his career as a whole. On the other hand, his velo is up this spring, for what that’s worth.
I’ve a feeling it’s going to be that crafty journeyman, A.N. Other who is going to end up taking the role, with Lovullo using the dreaded (by fans, at least) closer by committee. However, all of these pitchers are right-handers, which is going to limit the scope for the manager to play late-inning match-ups. They do have somewhat different approaches, to be fair. The advantage of such an approach is it might be less susceptible to the equally dreaded (by fans, at least) Lovullo loyalty, where he sticks with “his guy” beyond what feels rational. If there is no single “his guy”, then he should be willing to switch out at the drop of a blown save or two. We shall see.
