It doesn’t appear there was too long a conversation between Dutch manager Andruw Jones and Diamondbacks prospect Druw Jones about working together in the World Baseball Classic.
“We obviously love our relationship, we joke around all the time. He says, ‘You have to come play for me, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ So I was like, “Yeah, I just have to wait for team approval on everything.” “And I was super pumped to have this opportunity,” Druw Jones said. Arizona Sports.
The Joneses are the first father-son, manager-player duo in WBC history.
Coming into camp, manager Torey Lovullo wanted to emphasize defense after a poor season on that side of the ball in 2025. So far this spring, they have made seven errors in 10 games, a pace of 113 games in 162.
Some have been committed by minor league players who continue to grow defensively, but the overall defensive effort has some gaps to begin with.
That’s not to say the D-backs will be a bad defensive team overall in the upcoming regular season, with gold-caliber players like Carlos Santana and Nolan Arenado currently missing from the team preparing for the WBC, but there have been frequent defensive lapses thus far.
Now we know the team that offered Merrill Kelly a 3-year contract…and why he turned them down. sign a 2-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The MLB starting pitcher opened up about his contract negotiations this offseason, revealing that he received a 3-year offer from the club. San Diego Padresin MLB free agency.
One of the reasons he ended up choosing a 2-year contract with Arizona?
Taxes in California.
Paul Goldschmidt (USA): With 63.8 career WAR, I feel like he’s 99% locked in, but Hall voters can be tough on first basemen – see Keith Hernandez, Will Clark and Fred McGriff (who came in only via the era committee) – and Goldschmidt has 372 homers and might not reach 400, which some voters might believe is a must for a first baseman. Still, Todd Helton was voted in a few years ago with 369 home runs and 61.8 WAR, so Goldschmidt — with an MVP award and two second-place finishes — will get in eventually.
{Ed. Note: Ketel Marte was also mentioned in this article in “Tier 4: You Never Know.”}
Enter right-hander Grichuk, who split last season between the Diamondbacks and Royals, the last of his fifth team in five seasons, after the Blue Jays (for whom he played from 2018-2021), Rockies (2022-23), Angels (2023, his first major league games with the team that took him one pick ahead Mike Trout in 2009) and the Diamondbacks (2024-2025). Grichuk was exceptionally effective with Arizona in 2024, hitting .291/.348/.528 (139 wRC+) with 12 homers and 1.6 WAR in 279 plate appearances, but he slipped to .240/.277/.457 (96 wRC+) with seven homers in 188 plate appearances before being exchange to the Royals for launching a hope André Hoffmann on July 28. Things went from bad to worse for Grichuk in Kansas City, as he hit just .206/.267/.299 (56 wRC+) with two home runs in 105 plate appearances. He was exactly at replacement level with the Diamondbacks and 0.4 wins below replacement level with the Royals.
Major League Baseball announced today that the Spring Breakout Series will be played as a tournament in 2027 and 2028. It will be a single-elimination style with two champions crowned, one in the Grapefruit League and one in the Cactus League. The tournament will not start in 2026 so as not to conflict with this year’s World Baseball Classic. {Ed. Note: I love this idea!}
