Wednesday, March 12

Welcome to the D-backs Beat newsletter! I’m Steve Gilbert, and I’ve been writing about the D-backs since 1998. Let's get right to it …

Friday’s Spring Breakout game against the Royals will give Diamondbacks fans a chance to get an up close look at last year’s Draft class, one the front office wants to showcase. 

Outfielders Slade Caldwell (first round, 29th overall) and Ryan Waldschmidt (Player Performance Incentive, 31st overall), shortstop JD Dix (Competitive Balance A, 35th overall), catcher Ivan Luciano (second round) and right-handers Daniel Eagen (third round) and Connor Foley (fifth round) headline the Spring Breakout roster for the Diamondbacks. 

“One of the groups I'm really excited to see are the guys that no one else has quite got to see yet, which is the new Draft class that just got injected into the system,” director of player development Chris Slivka said. “I think a lot of guys in our system have already been showcased to the industry and the public in general, but these younger guys that everyone’s kind of yet to see, really excited to see how those guys perform.” 

Let’s take a look at each one, with comments from Slivka: 

OF Slade Caldwell (No. 3 in D-backs organization per MLB Pipeline): “He's fun, right? Really high-energy player. He grinds out his at-bats -- really love the way he conducts his at-bats and manages counts at such a young age. The game doesn’t speed up on him. We’ve already seen him work some really quality at-bats against Major League pitching in Spring Training games. He can really go get it in center field, really good instincts. He’s a gamer.” 

OF Ryan Waldschmidt (No. 6): “He does as good a job as anybody I’ve seen coming out of the Draft of really maximizing his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses. He’s got elite plate discipline, really good bat-to-ball skills. He’s only scratching the surface defensively too, so looking forward to seeing how he does. I know he had a home runs [Saturday in the Major League game] and almost had one [Sunday], but he’s someone we’re really excited about showcasing his abilities.” 

SS JD Dix (No. 12): “He can flat-out hit from both sides of the plate. Still super young and developing physically. His defense has come along tremendously since he first got here, still building arm strength -- he had surgery pre-Draft -- and he’s still building back from that. He’ll be run out as a shortstop this year. Can really manage an at-bat.” 

C Ivan Luciano (No. 28): “He has an extremely high acumen, high aptitude, behind the plate. Has a chance to have a really well-balanced defensive skill set. But like Caldwell, Dix and Waldschmidt, he can really manage an at-bat. Like, these guys have really pro at-bats and really know how to control the count. We are really excited about him.” 

RHP Daniel Eagen (No. 16): “His breaking stuff is really interesting. Velocity has been up a tick this spring, a testament to his work and what he’s done this offseason. Curveball is nasty -- it’s a hammer. He’s continuing to get a feel for his slider and then we’ve added the split to continue to round out his arsenal, but [we're] also having him focus on his strengths.” 

RHP Connor Foley (No. 23): “His stuff has been electric, he’s been mid-90s with late life at the top of the zone. We’ve tweaked his slider and retooled that pitch a little bit, and it’s pretty nasty right now. His changeup was a strength for him in college and continues to be. We just need to continue to refine his ability to attack the zone, but the stuff is electric.” 

Two others to watch

Of course, two others who will draw plenty of attention and who played in the game last year are outfielder Druw Jones, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, and shortstop Tommy Troy, who was taken with the 12th overall pick in 2023.  

Here’s what Slivka had to say about them: 

Druw Jones (No. 7): “He's an elite defender, he’s as good as they come. Offensively last year he really came along, started to make some really good progress there. His approach is really strong. Continuing to have him work on capitalizing on the mistake breaking balls and working on some different things with him offensively." 

Tommy Troy (No. 8): “He really had a good Arizona Fall League [campaign] -- we were all happy with the Fall League he had. He’s going to be settling in more at second base this year and we’ve seen some really good progress defensively there with him. From an offensive standpoint, everything is arrow up.” 

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