The Road to the World Series starts here!
Opening Day!
It’s finally arrived. We made it through the long, dark offseason. We made it through Spring Training, which is never as fun as we tell ourselves it will be in December. Now it’s here. A day where, for almost all teams (Sorry White Sox and Rockies!) hope springs eternal. Hope that your team will live up to expectations. Hope that your team will defy expectations. Today, it doesn’t matter, for we finally have baseball and all again is right in the world.
The Diamondbacks will start their season against the aspiring Chicago Cubs. After a mediocre season in a weak division, the North Siders made a slew of moves, including trading Cody Bellinger to the Yankees and bringing Kyle Tucker and Ryan Pressley to Chicago from the Astros. The end result is a much improved Cubs team that stands to make some noise in the still weak NL Central.
If you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re familiar with the moves the Diamondbacks made in the past few months, the biggest of which, of course, was their surprise signing of Corbin Burnes, arguably the best pitcher on the market. That marks the second year in a row that they’ve pulled off a similar surprise like that. Hopefully, injury and other bad luck will allow that to turn out differently this time around.
Game 1, 3/27 7:10PM: Zac Gallen (14-6, 3.65 ERA, 115 ERA+, 1.26 WHIP) vs Justin Steele (5-5, 3.07 ERA, 130 ERA+, 1.09 WHIP)
Gallen is coming off a down year by his standards, where he was merely an above average pitcher, rather than a Cy Young candidate hurling scoreless innings streaks. His hamstring held him back some, but beyond that it was a chronic case of never seeming to have his best stuff. Of all the Diamondbacks pitchers, I think I am most looking forward to seeing how he further develops under new pitching coach Brian Kaplan.
Steele is coming off a season where he delt with on and off again elbow issues, limiting the number of starts he was able to make to only 24. He pitched through the injury for a decent amount of time last year, but he was still able to put up his third consecutive season of ERA+ over 130. He has already put up one start so far this season, in the Tokyo Series against the Dodgers. It was a rough one, giving up five earned runs in just four innings, including two home runs.
Game 2, 3/28, 6:40 PM: Merrill Kelly (5-1, 4.03 ERA, 104 ERA+, 1.16 WHIP) vs. Jameson Taillon (12-8, 3.27 ERA, 122 ERA+, 1.13 WHIP)
It was largely a lost season for Kelly in 2024. A string of injuries held him back, and even when he wasn’t injured, an ongoing battle with cramping while pitching limited the lengths of some of his starts. Much like Gallen, Kelly stands to benefit from Kaplan joining the team, especially his stated goal of tying in health and fitness into the pitching side of things more.
On the other hand, Taillon is coming off his best season since 2018 when he was still in Pittsburgh. His 122 ERA+ matches his 2018 number, and most importantly, he brought his HR/9 significantly, after it had gotten away from him between 2019 and 2023. The storyline for him will be if that continues again, or if he slides back towards his previous years with the Yankees and Cubs. He did not pitch in Tokyo.
Game 3, 3/29, 5:10PM: Brandon Pfaadt (11-10, 4.71 ERA, 89 ERA+, 1.23 WHIP) vs. Shota Imanga (15-3, 2.91 ERA, 137 ERA+, 1.02 WHIP)
In 2024, Pfaadt was not the best pitcher the Diamondbacks had, but he was beyond question the most reliable. He was the only pitcher to not get injured, and therefore gave the most starts. He struggled in some areas. Home runs, while lower than they were in his MLB debut, still had a tendency to bite him, as did the semi-regular big inning. That said, however, his ERA underperformed his FIP by over an entire run, so there is hope that he could get closer to the 3.50 ERA mark if he can better work around any defensive miscues or other events that can derail him.
In his first season in America, it’s hard to say that Imanga did not live up to his billing. An ERA+ of 137 is impressive for any pitcher, but given the challenges of switching to an entirely different league just adds to the difficulty factor. He seemed to be jumping right back where he left off in Tokyo, putting up four no hit, scoreless innings against the Dodgers under those bright lights. There was still plenty of traffic on the bases, though, considering he issued four walks.
Game 4, 3/30, 1:10 PM: Eduardo Rodriguez (3-4, 5.04 ERA, 84 ERA+, 1.50 WHIP) vs. TBD
When Rodriguez looks back on his career, I don’t think he’ll spend too much time on his 2024 season. Injuries prevented him from making a single start until August 7th, and he was inconsistent at best, if we’re being generous, after that. He only had two starts where he didn’t give up multiple runs and gave up five runs three different times. Needless to say that was not what he, Hazen, or us as fans were expecting from the marquee offseason acquisition. Leaving spring training healthy is a great start for him in this 2025 season, and we look forward to seeing if he can living up to his billing in Season 2.
Conclusion
I foresee several well pitched baseball games in our future this weekend. The Diamondbacks offense will have it’s work cut out for it on their quest to repeat as the best offense in baseball. Conversely, it will also be interesting to see how the Diamondbacks starting pitching fares on their comeback tour. My prediction is that we see a series split (always the most likely outcome in four game series anyway). Slightly disappointing, but a solid start to the 2025 season.
Go Dbacks!