Tuesday, October 14

Welcome to the D-backs Beat Newsletter! I’m Steve Gilbert and I’ve been writing about the D-backs since 1998.

The 2025 season was certainly a strange one for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It started with high hopes after the offseason signing of right-hander Corbin Burnes and the postseason was the organization's expectation.

Sloppy play early in the season hindered their start, but it was the steady drip of injuries to key pieces over the first two months that really proved costly.

Burnes as well as co-closers A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez would undergo Tommy John surgery and a stretch heading into the Trade Deadline in which the Diamondbacks dropped eight of nine games forced general manager Mike Hazen to be a seller.

Despite all of that -- and thanks in part to the Mets' collapse -- the Diamondbacks found themselves in the thick of the race for the NL's final Wild Card spot and were not eliminated until the 160th game of the season.

As the attention shifts to 2026, here are four questions the Diamondbacks will have to answer:

Will Zac Gallen be back?
Gallen has sat atop the Arizona rotation since coming over at the Trade Deadline in 2019, but he is now a free agent for the first time in his career.

The 30-year-old uncharacteristically struggled through the first few months of the season and had a 5.60 ERA at the Trade Deadline. Hazen was open to trading Gallen at the time but did not receive what he felt were suitable offers.

Gallen turned around and helped lead the team's revival, compiling a 2.82 ERA in his first 10 starts after the Deadline.

The Diamondbacks will almost certainly give Gallen a qualifying offer, but given his performance over the final two months of the season, he will likely turn it down and seek a multi-year deal on the open market.

Both sides have expressed an interest in having Gallen return to Arizona, where he makes his home, but whether the Diamondbacks are able to afford him is the question.

How will they rebuild the bullpen?
Bullpen struggles have been a recurring theme for the Diamondbacks in recent years and they've tried several different avenues to fix it.

They have tried signing big name free agents like Mark Melancon or taken chances on lower profile guys like Brad Boxberger.

The Diamondbacks will get both Puk and Martinez back next year, likely before the All-Star break, if not right around it, and Kevin Ginkel is expected to return from injury as well.

But they will need more, and Hazen is determined to build more depth at that spot. Whether that’s through free agency or trades remains to be seen.

What will be Jordan Lawlar's role?
This is a question that will likely bleed into next spring, but Lawlar has reached a point in his development where he should be contributing at the big league level. What position will that be? Stay tuned.

Drafted as a shortstop, Lawlar is blocked at that position by Geraldo Perdomo, who had an MVP-caliber season and is signed to a club-friendly long-term deal. With that in mind, Lawlar saw some time at second and third base in the Minors last year.

After being promoted he played third and after starting out well defensively he struggled to the point where manager Torey Lovullo decided he would only use him as the DH while the team rebuilt his footwork and mechanics at third.

Offensively, Lawlar started slow, but began to show the potent bat that led Arizona to select him out of high school with the sixth overall pick in the 2021 Draft.

Lawlar will head to the Dominican Republic this month to play winter ball and will get a look there, not just at third base but in center field to see if that might be an option for him next year.

How do they get off to a better start?
Lovullo is a stickler for fundamentals, and his team's struggles defensively early in the season caused him plenty of sleepless nights.

In 2023, the Diamondbacks made the postseason by one game. In 2024, one more win would have gotten them into the playoffs. In 2025, a few more wins in April might have made the difference again.

That's why Lovullo said he is going to do a deep dive this winter to find out if there are changes that can be made to the Spring Training routine that would help his team get off to a crisper start.

That could be more high-intensity drills, or a different mindset, but whatever he comes up with, he began laying the groundwork with players during their exit interviews. Easing into the season will not be allowed in 2026.

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