Checking in on the Diamondback Youth Movement in 2026
AP Photo/Rick Scuteri May 8 Diamondbacks promote top prospect Waldschmidt| AP News
Coming into the season most projections had the Arizona Diamondbacks looking at a .500 record in the 2026 season. If things went well, a playoff berth could be in the cards, and if things went poorly, they’d miss the postseason for the third consecutive season which would likely spell the end of manager Torey Lovullo’s tenure. The Diamondbacks weren’t going to overtake the Dodgers in the NL West, so a postseason berth would need to happen via the Wild Card.
Now it’s two and a half months into the 2026 season, and the Diamondbacks are still officially right in the middle of the playoff mix, currently sitting with a record of 38-36. This puts them 9.5 games behind the Dodgers and a half-game behind the Padres in the NL West, but only a half-game back of the last Wild Card spot.
It’s been a strange season for the Diamondbacks, and a .500 record actually seems fairly successful at this point.
The team’s perennial top-prospect Jordan Lawlar was finally playing well at the major league level to start the season, but then got injured (again). Their top offseason pitching acquisitions, Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, have shown erratic control while looking like shells of their old steady selves; two of their best hitters, Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo, had slow starts to the season; and the typical bullpen woes have bubbled back up.
Kelly and Gallen returned to the Diamondbacks in the offseason and were expected to bring stability to the starting rotation. The two pitchers were Arizona’s most consistent arms over the past few seasons. Things haven’t gone as planned, however, as they both have losing records with individual ERAs over 5.30 and WHIPs over 1.50.
Other important rotation pieces have either been demoted (Brandon Pfaadt) or struggling with consistency (Ryne Nelson). Fortunately, Eduardo Rodríguez has carried his momentum from the World Baseball Classic into the MLB season. Rodríguez is 5-2 with a career-best 2.55 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. Veteran right-hander Michael Soroka has also provided some strong starts for the Snakes.
This season has also featured the debuts of prospects Ryan Waldschmidt, Tommy Troy, LuJames Groover, and Jose Fernandez.
Troy, the franchise’s #4 prospect, debuted on May 24 and is hitting .214 with two home runs and four RBI through 21 games. He’s another player in the Corbin Carroll mold, with similar size and speed, but with less top end power. He hit 15 home runs and knocked in 65 RBI across 125 AA/AAA games in 2025, while adding 24 steals.
Fernandez and Waldschmidt made a splash right away, providing offensive jumpstarts upon their arrivals, and offsetting some of the inconsistencies from the rest of the roster.
Fernandez, with a strong 6’3” frame and possessing speed that nearly matches that of Corbin Carroll, hit two home runs in his first major league game on March 31. He slashed an excellent .325/.349.470 with three home runs and 12 RBI in March and April.
AP Photo/Darryl Webb March 31 Jose Fernandez hits 2 home runs in MLB debut
Fernandez also brought value with his defensive flexibility, stepping in for starts at first base, second base, and shortstop depending on where the team needed him. Eventually, he did slow down after the fast start as he hit the speed bumps that many young players experience.
He slashed just .181/.224/.236 in May and was especially befuddled by offspeed pitches, managing a meager .130 average against those pitches. Fernandez racked up 40 strikeouts against only seven walks in 55 MLB games. It wasn’t surprising considering that he essentially jumped from Double-A to the bigs, playing in only one Triple-A game before hitting the Majors on March 31.
His slowdown in May led the Dbacks to dispatch him back to the Minors on June 5. Diamondbacks manager Torey Luvello said the team was hoping Fernandez could spend some time to focus on his swing and consistency.
“We wanted to get this foundation of at-bats in Triple-A to where he understands the swing mechanics and what’s happening around him to see the baseball and impact the baseball. He’s going to play at the big league level for a long time.” (Lovullo, Diamondbacks notebook: Why was Jose Fernandez sent back to the minors?)
The Dbacks called up Groover, their #10 ranked prospect, to take Fernandez’s roster spot. Groover has made starts at first base and third base, but has contributed the least of the Snakes’ prospects thus far, hitting only .161 with two RBI in nine games.
For his part, Waldschmidt, the #30 ranked prospect in the MLB, debuted on May 8 and hit .284/.346/.378 over the rest of the month, adding seven RBI and five steals. Like Fernandez, he showed he has a bright future at the MLB level, flashing the contact and on-base skills that propelled him to the top of the Diamondbacks’ minor league system. He had six multi-hit games in May, including a three-hit performance on May 18 when he had two doubles and two steals against the Giants.
Despite this success, and much to the chagrin of Diamondbacks fans still stinging from Fernandez’s demotion, Waldschmidt was sent back to Triple-A Reno on June 15 upon Lourdes Gurriel’s activation from the IL.
While Fernandez’s demotion seemed logical given his reduction in playing time and lack of Triple-A experience, the optioning of Waldschmidt left many Arizona fans scratching their heads.
Waldschmidt nearly made the big league roster out of spring training, and has succeeded at every level of the minors during his career. He has slashed .288/.421.463 hitting in 182 games, including a line of .309/.423.498 in 68 games in Double-A in 2025. Waldschmidt has looked completely comfortable in Triple-A as well, hitting .289/.400/.477 in 34 games.
Yes, both Waldschmidt and Fernandez hit cold streaks, but their play is exactly what you’d expect. They need some further time to fight through issues at the plate and major league at-bats to work out the kinks. Cycling young prospects up and down can wreck their confidence and doesn’t allow them to build consistency.
At the same time, veterans Pavin Smith and Jorge Barrosa have remained safely on the big league roster, despite similar offensive struggles. At this point in his career, we know exactly who Smith is. He’s shown occasional promise, but has generally underperformed his first-round-pick status. He has only played over 100 games in a season once, has hit .244 in his career and has single season highs of 11 home runs and 49 RBI. At-best, he’s a league-average player who could contribute in a platoon situation.
This season, Smith has been injured most of the year and is hitting .152/.293/.242 with one home run and four RBI in 14 games.
With Barrosa we have less evidence to draw conclusions from, but it’s clear he’s not a starter on a major league team. He has a career slash line of .160/.208/.278 in 92 major league games.
Yet Smith and Barrosa weren’t optioned, and keeping them around lowers Arizona’s offensive ceiling as a team. The Diamondbacks are currently tied for 27th in the league for home runs and OBP, and 23rd in the league in batting average and slugging.
It’s clear they need all the firepower they can get, especially while chasing the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West. Why not go for broke and let the rookies play?
A full lineup of potential this season could look like this:
C - Gabriel Moreno
1B - LuJames Groover2B - Ketel Marte/Tommy Troy
SS - Geraldo Perdomo
3B - Nolan Arenado/Jordan Lawlar
LF - Lourdes Gurriel, Jr
CF - Jordan Lawlar/Tommy Troy
RF - Corbin Carroll
DH - Ketel Marte/LuJames Groover
When the franchise made their “Snakes Alive” surprise World Series run in 2023, it was behind the play of young players such as Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy, Gabriel Moreno, and Ryne Nelson.
On Wednesday, Arizona’s GM Mike Hazen left no doubt on where the team stands as the trade deadline nears.
“I’m planning on buying. I’ll answer that question for you,” Hazen said. (Hazen, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen: 'I'm planning on buying' - Arizona Sports).
It would do the team well if Hazen took an aggressive approach to the youth movement for the rest of the season.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nate Kosher grew up watching terrible low-budget Twins teams at the Metrodome before eventually converting to the Arizona Diamondbacks (the power of teal and purple in the 1990s). Nate has been writing about sports for over 20 years and worked as a staff writer and podcast co-host for Pitcher List from 2022 - 2025. He’s a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) and has written for the IBWAA’s newsletter, Here’s the Pitch. Nate now focuses most of his baseball writing on his Substack newsletter Runs Produced. His goal is to someday visit all 30 MLB ballparks and he believes Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame.