With all of the young talent on this Diamondback roster at all levels of the farm system as well as in the majors, the future looks bright, the only two questions moving forward are…
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Can the D-Backs pitching continue to get better over the next season or two while these young bats get their feet under them?
Also, is Torey Lovullo the manager for this team in 2023 and beyond?
At the end of 2021, most fans were shocked that Lovullo received a two year extension, with only one year garunteed.
He came into the franchise in the 2017 season, a season that showed success in a lot of areas, including the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Then in 2018 and 2019 he lead the team to a respectable winning record, but a record barely over .500. The city had a buzz around it from the 2017 playoffs, the city still had winning hopes, that was until the front office decided to get rid of any and all players producing and instead focus on a rebuild.
Losing all-star caliber players for prospects is usually a sign that things are going to get bad. However after two 2nd place finishes and a 3rd place finish in the division, the D-Backs dropped to dead last in a shorten 2020 season and again dead last in 2021.
This season, 2022, the sun is starting to show again, rising over South Mountain to shine upon the valley once more. The prospects the franchise traded for are starting to show their faces, and these kids can play!
Besides pitchers, the majority of this team is under 25 and still finding their footing at the major league level. Under them are 4-5 triple A players who will be in the majors before this season is over with, and a few more prospects set to take the field 2023 and ’24, including this years first round pick Druw Jones.
The way the farm system is set up, this team who is highly competitive this year, without winning results none the less they are competitive, will be actually competing again next season, and this time instead of building through trades, they have built a foundation.
Instead of a 2-4 year window left lightly a gap, this window isn’t even there, it has been blown off the henges leaving behind a hole in the wall big enough for the light rail to run through.
With the right manager, and the right pitching rotation, this team will be contending with the Dodgers, Padres, and Giants for the division; yearly. (Sorry Rockies fans)
The pitching we will have to wait and see.
For the manager, I think there are three ways to look at this. As a fan, as the front office, and somewhere in the middle.
For the fans, it is easy to see 3 losing seasons in a row and want the person managing the team to be fired. He has not shown he can lead this team to winning anything significant, at least not since the two best players when he got here left in Goldsmith and Martinez.
That leaves the question, is there a culture that has been built with this young core that shows something bigger coming? Is he doing anything right now that shows once this team matures that he can lead them to being a winning franchise? Will he be the guy to make us better, or the guy that holds us back?
These are questions, I am sure, that the front office is trying to answer right now.
Or have they already answered these questions behind closed doors?
Now for the in between.
The two year extension the team extended to Torey prior to this season tells me he is not the guy they want leading the future of this club. The extension gave the front office two seasons to evaluate and decide what is best moving forward. With a roster full of young guys who in most franchises would still be triple A, this franchise is building for the next 10 years, not for now.
The extension told me, especially the club option for the second year, that the front office has made a decision to wade in the water for a season or two while players mature. Once these players are ready to take the floaties off and dive into the deep end, Lovullo will not be a part of it.
He is a good manager, not a great one, and I believe he is simply holding the spot for the next two months before a quiet good-bye in the off-season. After six seasons where the first three years and the last three years are polar opposites. Three winning seasons followed by three losing ones.
This 2022 season for the Diamondbacks has been a typical under the radar one, but for the D-Back faithful it has been a season full of promise, and hope for the seasons to come. Feels like a new day in Chase Field lately, the future looks bright, with or without Torey Lovullo at manager.
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Rowan Donaghey is a MLB insider and breaking news reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on twitter via @RowanDonaghey
