The Arizona Diamondbacks split the opening 10 games of the season, 5-5, which is better than their 4-6 start last season but perhaps disappointing considering the lofty expectations coming into 2025.
A hamstring strain to star player Ketel Marte adds a level of unease to open the campaign.
It is very early, only two rounds through the starting rotation, and the D-backs have lost some close games (1-3 in one-run games so far).
They won two of three against a New York Yankees team that has gone 5-1 otherwise but followed that strong effort with a series loss to the Washington Nationals. The Diamondbacks return home for six games this week against the Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers.
It is too early to draw many conclusions from this opening stretch, but we can lay out the early trends to keep track of.
Diamondbacks falling behind
The Diamondbacks have played from behind a lot already. Their comebacks provided thrills, such as the eight-run eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs and Eugenio Suarez’s go-ahead grand slam at Yankee Stadium. Having to come back every game is not sustainable, though.
The D-backs trailed at some point in every game except one, their second win over the Yankees. Arizona went down by multiple runs in seven of 10 games, falling behind by two or more runs within the first four innings of six games.
Rotation ups and downs
Their 12 first-inning runs allowed leads baseball.
Starting pitching has been inconsistent to start the year from a rotation with a lot of pedigree.
Arizona’s starting pitcher ERA is 5.96, No. 27 in MLB. It’s responsible for the fifth-most walks (23) but also the second-most strikeouts (57). The defense has not helped, but more on that later.
It is a tiny sample size, and outings from Brandon Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez in particular looked better in two starts than the numbers say.
Corbin Burnes, who signed a $210 million deal, was not sharp on Sunday against the Nationals with four walks and seven hits in five innings of work. Looking at previous seasons, Burnes was stellar out of the gates last year but started off pretty lousy over his first two outings in 2023 before kicking into gear.
Zac Gallen: 10.2 IP, 4 ER
Merrill Kelly: 9 IP, 10 ER
Brandon Pfaadt: 12 IP, 7 ER
Eduardo Rodriguez: 10.1 IP, 7 ER
Corbin Burnes: 9.1 IP, 6 ER
Zac Gallen owns the best start of the season with his 6.2 scoreless-inning masterpiece in which he struck out 13 Yankees.
Offense heating up late
The offense has mostly been solid, ranking fifth in scoring (5.8 runs per game) and OPS (.800). But it has taken a bit to get going. Arizona through the first six innings ranks No. 11 in scoring while only hitting .223.
From innings 7-9, Arizona is batting .328 with the second-highest scoring output in MLB with 28 runs.
This offense has gotten after it late, but slower starts paired with shaky starting pitching so far has created too many holes to dig out of.
Corbin Carroll is off to a great start
Carroll, after breaking out of a three-month struggle at the plate last year with a great second half, is off and running.
Through 10 games, Carroll is slashing .282/.391/.641 with three doubles, three home runs and a triple. Carroll did not hit his third home run of the season last year until July, and he blasted three against the Yankees and Nationals, including two in one game.
Even against the Cubs, when the hits were not falling, he made some loud outs. He smoked a 115.7-mph lineout, the hardest-hit ball of his career, per Statcast.
With Marte sidelined, the Diamondbacks will need Carroll to be the engine of the offense from the top of the order.
Alek Thomas and Pavin Smith also off to promising starts
Thomas — who never got going at the plate last year due to hamstring issues — is likewise off to a promising start. Thomas has only played in six games because he is splitting time with Jake McCarthy in center field, in which time he’s 8-for-21 (.381) with two doubles and a triple.
Smith, having to fill in a key role as the designated hitter against righties, is batting .350 in nine games, delivering two hits on Sunday.
They are not the only players who started the season well (Geraldo Perdomo and Randal Grichuk come to mind), but they both had a certain curiosity surrounding them coming in.
Defense has to get a lot cleaner
The Diamondbacks committed seven errors in 10 games with several more missed opportunities to make plays defensively.
A bottom five defensive runs saved clip of -4 tells part of the story of a unit not helping out its pitching staff up to the standard the club has set for itself.
Over the weekend in Washington, finishing plays in the outfield was a struggle, from Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s ill-advised all-out attempt miss on Saturday to Carroll not coming away with a catch on a ball that hit his mitt on Sunday.
Flips over to first base with the pitcher covering the bag also resulted in mix-ups. The Diamondbacks emphasize their defense and work hard to get up to speed in spring training.
They will need to pick up the baseball more effectively as quickly as possible to avoid critical losses on the margins.
Bullpen has been pretty good
The Diamondbacks are 3-for-3 in save opportunities with A.J. Puk picking up two and Justin Martinez one.
Martinez has been nasty to start the year, with 3.2 scoreless innings and six strikeouts.
Newcomers Shelby Miller and Jalen Beeks combined for 12.1 innings and one earned run, with Miller re-introducing himself as a reliever after a failed tenure as a D-backs starter (2016-18).
Puk has been bit by a couple long balls but has bent without breaking and blowing a lead.
Overall, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has a respectable 3.79 ERA while Kevin Ginkel and Kendall Graveman continue to work back from injury.
Jake McCarthy in dubious territory
McCarthy had a very good season in 2024, however his 2025 has gotten off to a silent start.
After failing to come through as a pinch hitter during a crucial moment of Sunday’s game, he fell to 0-for-19 on the season.
If you take out pitchers, only three players in club history have reached this many at-bats without a hit out of the gate, per Stathead. Carson Kelly went 0-for-19 in 2022, and Domingo Leyba started 0-for-22 in 2021 — granted, Leyba’s major league season started in May.
Baseball is wacky
First baseman Josh Naylor already has three stolen bases before Carroll even has swiped one base.
Meanwhile, catcher Jose Herrera — who entered the season with one MLB home run — has more homers than Naylor (1-0), who hit 31 bombs last season.
Because baseball.
Also, Eugenio Suarez’s first five hits of the season were home runs, which won him the first NL Player of the Week award. He is one of three players since 1900 to do this.
And yet, Perdomo leads the team in RBIs with 12, helped by hitting a grand slam at Yankee Stadium, his first career home run batting right-handed.
What is going on in the NL West?
It is way too early to lock in on the standings, but the National League West is off to a ridiculous start. The San Francisco Giants are 8-1, followed the Los Angeles Dodgers at 9-2 and the San Diego Padres at 8-2.
According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, this is the first time in the divisional era (1969) in which two teams in the same division started 8-1 (Giants and Dodgers).
