Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here. All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Diamondbacks Top Prospects
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Ssssneaky Snakes
- Casey Anderson, RHP
- Anderson Cardenas, RHP
- Sam Knowlton, RHP
- Erick Reynoso, RHP
- Alvin Guzman, RHP
These are developmental sleepers in the early stages of their pro careers. The 6-foot-4 Anderson got over-slot money in last year’s 11th round out of Utah Valley. He’s a projectable low-90s righty who generates promising action on both his slider and changeup. He’s in the Visalia rotation. Cardenas was the best DSL arm from last year and is just about to turn 18. He’s a wispy 6-foot-3 or so, looked loose on tape last season (he got rocked against a loaded Dodgers lineup earlier this week), sits 87-92 with rise and run, and his slow curveball and changeup have promising movement. The 6-foot-8, 23-year-old Knowlton was a Day Three pick out of South Alabama who threw really hard at the 2023 Draft Combine and has continued to do so in pro ball. He didn’t pitch a ton in college and might be able to hone his control enough to be a mid-90s/cutter reliever. Reynoso, 21, is a 6-foot-4 righty sitting 93-94 with a good breaking ball on the complex. Guzman is a former tooled up outfield prospect whose contact issues have led to a conversion to the mound. He still hasn’t faced hitters in live games, but he’s been up to 94 in the bullpen and is working on a changeup.
Hurt by Injuries
- Nate Savino, LHP
- Landon Sims, RHP
Savino was a comp round high school prospect who regressed at Virginia. He was an interesting pro ball bounce-back candidate, but he hasn’t thrown a pitch yet due to a shoulder injury, which has him shelved again to start 2024. Sims peaked as a nasty underclassman long reliever at Mississippi State. He needed Tommy John shortly after moving into the rotation and his best velocity hasn’t returned in pro ball. He’s been sitting in the low 90s.
Pitching Depth
- Jamison Hill, RHP
- Christian Montes De Oca, RHP
- Ricky Karcher, RHP
Hill was 2021 senior sign out of Fresno State who has become a durable kitchen sink righty. He’s at Double-A. Montes de Oca and Karcher are upper-level relievers with upper-90s arm strength that they rely on in lieu of other skills and pitches.
Tough Profiles
- Andrés Chaparro, 1B
- Tim Tawa, 2B
- Gavin Conticello, 1B
Chaparro, who’s here on a minor league deal, has been a good upper level hitter for a few years now and owns a career .253/.342/.443 line. It takes such an exceptional level of offensive performance to profile at first and Chaparro isn’t quite there, but he’s great to have around in case of injuries. Tawa has a bit more defensive versatility than the rest of this group (2B/3B/OF), but he’s more of a 30 bat with 40 power. Conticello was a 2021 over-slot eighth round high schooler who, at 6-foot-3, is still a raw, projectable lefty power bat.
Young Middle Infielders
- Demetrio Crisantes, 2B
- Adrian Rodriguez, SS
- Yerald Nin, SS
- Anderdson Rojas, UTIL
Crisantes, 19, was the best player on a great high school team in Nogales and a 2022 seventh rounder. He’s the most procedurally advanced player in Arizona’s complex group and has a quick set of hitting hands. He’s going to be limited to second base and is not especially projectable. In the round following Crisantes, the Diamondbacks drafted Rodriguez out of the International Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico. He’s a fantastic rotational athlete with a very compact build, a potential utility infielder. Nin, 18, signed for nearly $1 million a couple years ago and has scuffled a bit on both sides of the ball. He’s still very young and has room for strength on his nickelback build. Rojas is a speedy little multi-positional player whose best shot at playing a premium position is probably center field. He has struggled on the infield.
System Overview
This is one of the deeper and more exciting farm systems in baseball largely due to its growing pipeline of Latin American talent. For the last couple of years, Arizona’s backfields have been full of big time athletes with exciting physical projection, most of whom are still just getting going in the lower minors. With Belfi Rivera and others set to begin their pro careers in the DSL, that will probably be true for at least another few years. The 3-to-2 ratio of position player prospects to pitchers on this list is atypical of what comes out of the oven for most systems — that ratio tends to be more even and slightly skewed toward pitchers because of industry need. Hit tool risk is pervasive in this system, and with that will probably come attrition across the hitters covered here. There are still a few counterexamples (like Alberto Barriga and Cristofer Torin), but it feels like the org has gotten away from the smaller, short-levered types they targeted in the past. The Diamondbacks have had pretty awful injury luck during the last few seasons. Tommy Troy’s hamstring injury marks four consecutive years of the D-backs’ first round pick dealing with some kind of malady during his first full pro season. Five of their top 11 prospects have had a severe injury at some point during the last year. Especially when you are also dealing with multiple injuries at the major league level, as the Diamondbacks are right now, injuries can compound as more and more pressure is put on those who are currently healthy to carry more of the burden. This is especially true with pitchers. Some of Arizona’s injured prospects will be out until very close to the trade deadline or after it, giving sellers a pretty narrow window in which to see them. The additions of Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery indicate Ken Kendrick is going for it, which might mean he’ll also take on salary via a deal or two. With so many prospects who could conceivably lead to a trade’s consummation injured, it could make it a little tougher to push a swap to the finish line.
