Christian Montes De Oca… We hardly knew you…
Roster moves
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 39.
- Reinstated from the 15-day injured list: RHP Justin Martinez (right shoulder inflammation)
- Optioned to Triple-A Reno following Wednesday’s game: RHP Christian Montes De Oca
That’s got to be one of the longest phantom stays on the D-backs roster ever. Montes De Oca was called up on May 16, and spent almost a week on the active roster, without getting into a game, before being sent back down on May 22. There have been a lot of questions as to what the point was of having a reliever who didn’t get used – especially considering the stress on the bullpen. I can only imagine his intended role was in long relief, if a starter got blown out early. That hasn’t been the case over the past week: every Arizona starter has gone at least five innings, with the average being six. Yesterday, with his departure looming, it was too high-leverage to give him his debut. Better luck next time, Christian.
Meanwhile, the team gets Martinez back, and fingers crossed he will return to the dominating form he showed at the beginning of the season. He struck out nine batters over his first 5.2 innings, without issuing a walk. But over the 4.1 frames before he hit the IL, Martinez had an atrocious K:BB ratio of 2:6, and was kinda lucky still to have an ERA as low as 2.70. But if he can stabilize the back of the bullpen, that’s going to be a big help. Because the way schedule looks for a bit, there should be a decent number of wins to be saved over the next couple of weeks. Not that the Cardinals should be overlooked. They recently put together a nine-game winning streak, part of a spell where they won 12 of 13.
Hopefully they have cooled off a bit since, and the D-backs will be able to get back to winning series. Not that losing a series in Los Angeles to the Dodgers is a disaster. But after the win in the opening game, losing in extras and then to one bad pitch from Corbin Burnes certainly felt like a bit of a disappointment. After having taken a couple of days away from watching the team, I’m hoping to be back on the horse this evening, after a day at work best described as “aggravating”, to put it mildly. There may be some beer in my future, and I could certainly also use a Diamondbacks win to restore my normal good humor and optimistic nature. Do not disappoint me, D-backs!