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After another round of send-outs on Sunday, the Diamondbacks have 46 players remaining in major-league camp. Presumably, 26 of them will make the Opening Day roster. The other 20 will open the year in the minors or look for opportunities elsewhere.
Some players are particularly recognizable, such as 2023 NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and NLCS MVP Ketel Marte. Others, such as Blaze Alexander, have yet to play a single game in the majors, but their prospect pedigree and Cactus League numbers make them strong candidates to do so. Still others have performed well, but gone largely unnoticed. Here, we are focusing on them.
Mind you, none of these guys are locks to make the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day roster — far from it, in fact — but they are still in major-league camp for a reason, and their names are worth knowing as the 2024 season gets under way. Let’s dive in.
The Diamondbacks signed 26-year-old reliever Ricky Karcher to a minor-league deal in December. The right-hander’s spring training stats worsened on Monday as he gave up three runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Oakland A’s, but he had not given up a run in his three prior Cactus League outings.
Karcher is not a finished product, but he averaged nearly 97 mph with his sinker on Monday and 98 mph with his four-seamer. He also features a changeup in the low 90s and a cutter in the high 80s.
“The stuff is electric,” manager Torey Lovullo said last week after watching Karcher throw a live bullpen session. “The stuff is unbelievable. I watched it out there where he was sequencing well, he was driving pitches into the zone.
“I feel like he has accepted the coaching and he’s on his way. He’s got one of the best pitching coaches in baseball that’s working with him every day. All the tools and all the ability, I’ve seen come out.”
As with many hard-throwing relievers, Karcher’s primary issue has been command. In 60 1/3 innings with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate in 2023, Karcher issued 72 walks. That works out to a sky-high 24.8 percent walk rate, which was almost double that of the season prior, which he also spent in Triple-A.
It was not long ago, however, that Karcher was viewed as a potential backend bullpen weapon. Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs pegged him as the Reds’ 20th best prospect entering last season. While Karcher’s stock has fallen of late, it still seems possible that he could find his way into a middle relief role — or possibly more — if he can get his walks under control.
Notably, Karcher has pitched in exactly one game in the majors, and he was not exactly eased in. On June 12 of last year, Karcher was called upon to protect a 5-4 Reds lead in the bottom of the 10th against the Royals (with the ghost runner, of course, starting the inning at second base). It was not pretty exactly, but Karcher managed to escape the frame without letting a run score, notching his first career save.
His postgame interview was a memorable one.
“It’s like a movie, bro,” Karcher said on Bally Sports Ohio. “It doesn’t even feel real, man. It’s incredible. Holy sh-t.”
Three days later, Karcher was optioned to Triple-A Louisville.
Once viewed as one of the Diamondbacks’ better starting pitching prospects, Josh Green is now 28 and has fallen off the prospect map. The Diamondbacks moved him to the bullpen in 2021, and, more recently, he has turned in promising results.
So far in spring training, Green has allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts. At his best, he generates a ton of ground balls with an arsenal that primarily features a sinker and slider. As of now, 13 of the 16 batted balls against him in the Cactus League have been on the ground.
In the first half of the 2023 season, Green posted an impressive 2.05 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in 30 1/3 innings in the hitter-friendly Texas League with Double-A Amarillo. He did not have the same success after being promoted to Triple-A Reno — a 6.75 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 34 2/3 innings — but he turned in impressive ground-ball rates just shy of 60 percent at both stops.
Green will probably open the year in the minors, but he is someone to watch as the inevitable game of musical chairs in the bullpen runs it course throughout the regular season.
Last year at this time, Corbin Martin was turning heads in Diamondbacks camp and on track to make the Opening Day roster. Then, he saw his entire season wiped out by a torn lat in his right shoulder. Now, Martin is healthy again, and he believes his career is just getting started.
Once the prize of the Zack Greinke trade, Martin has dealt with one injury after another since being acquired by the Diamondbacks in 2019. He has logged only 38 1/3 innings in the majors in that span. Nonetheless, while it appears that Martin’s days as a starting pitcher might be behind him, his stuff could play well as a reliever.
Coming off shoulder surgery, the Diamondbacks have slow played Martin this spring. He last faced hitters in a live bullpen session on March 8, and he is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut on March 12 against the San Diego Padres in Peoria.
According to manager Torey Lovullo, Martin’s four-seam fastball was clocked as high as 97 mph in his recent bullpen session. He also showcased a sharp breaking ball.
“He looked real good,” Lovullo said.
Whether Martin is an option for Opening Day remains to be seen. On paper, he will only have time to get into a handful of Cactus League games. Even if he isn’t ready for Opening Day, of course, he could still join the big-league bullpen at some point during the season.
Humberto Castellanos pitched for the Diamondbacks as recently as May of 2022, but manager Torey Lovullo reintroduced himself to Castellanos at the beginning of camp because he did not recognize him. Turns out there was a good reason: Castellanos is around 30 pounds lighter now than he was two years ago.
Still only 25 years old, Castellanos served as pitching depth for the Diamondbacks in 2022, tallying a 5.68 ERA in 44 1/3 innings. He then lost part of the 2022 season and all of the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery.
This spring, Castellanos has looked good. In 7 2/3 innings of work, he has allowed no runs on just two hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
“Very similar,” Lovullo said of Castellanos’ stuff now compared to two years ago. “Normally, when you see somebody coming off an injury, sometimes they’re competing internally. And you can sense it and they can’t just let pitches go. I think he is in a really good spot, and the competition is between he and the batter and he is executing at a very high level.”
It seems unlikely that Castellanos would make the team out of the gate, but Lovullo said that Castellanos has entered the conversation to be part of the team’s starting rotation depth for 2024.
Once a well-regarded pitching prospect in the Cleveland Guardians’ system, 26-year-old Logan Allen has spent time in the Orioles, Rockies and Mariners organizations over the past two years before signing a minor-league deal with the Diamondbacks this offseason. He is one of 10 or so pitchers still in camp who is being stretched out.
In three Cactus League appearances, Allen has tallied six innings of one-run ball with two walks, five strikeouts and only three hits allowed.
“Real good glove side,” Lovullo said of Allen prior to his most recent outing. “Able to work pitches on that part of the plate. Has been around the zone and getting outs and making pitches, and been very impressed by what he’s done.
“It’s hard for somebody to come in and get an opportunity the way he has gotten it with the amount of starting pitchers that we have and kinda hold serve. He has been throwing the ball extremely well.”
Allen made his major-league debut in 2019, but has tallied only 96 1/3 career innings in the majors. He has a career 5.89 ERA and 1.66 WHIP.
As with the other players on this list, it seems more likely that Allen would start the year in Triple-A Reno than in the majors. Nonetheless, he has looked good in spring, and he could serve as a depth option for the Diamondbacks in 2024.
Top photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic
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