PHOENIX \u2013 The 2025 Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 bullpen was a revolving door of injuries and uncertainty. Manager Torey Lovullo\u2019s remedy for this season\u2019s relievers may be even wackier \u2013 zero left-handers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seventeen different Diamondbacks recorded a save for Lovullo a season ago in a campaign that saw the team win 80 games and finish fourth in the National League West. To put that in perspective, no MLB team had ever utilized more than 14 pitchers to close out a game before the record-breaking season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For a club that ranked top-10 in the league in nearly every major offensive statistic, the chaotic bullpen lagged behind, finishing bottom five in reliever ERA, WHIP and strikeouts per nine innings. A solution to that problem was the biggest question staring back at general manager Mike Hazen this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to build out as much depth in the bullpen as possible,\u201d Hazen said of his hopeful answer to the reliever conundrum. \u201cWe want to increase the stuff that\u2019s out there, the swing and miss that\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lovullo, meanwhile, viewed this year\u2019s spring training as an opportunity for competition to breed success. In February, when he was asked how many spots were up for grabs in the bullpen, his reply was succinct.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll eight of them,\u201d Lovullo said. \u201cEarn it. Nothing is going to be handed to you. There is nothing for free in this game, and we\u2019ve got to get back to that concept.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Diamondbacks shipped out of Salt River Fields and the final trimmings were made on the Opening Day roster, the winners of that bullpen competition were revealed: eight relievers who all throw from the right side. It\u2019s the first time in the Lovullo and Hazen tenure, now entering year 10, that no southpaws in the pen will break camp with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a lefty in the bullpen. I\u2019m very well aware of that. However, we feel very comfortable with some of our reverse-split guys that can go out there and attack left-handed hitters,\u201d Lovullo said of the decision to exclude a lefty. \u201cI want very trusted relievers back there that are going to fill up the strike zone, create swing and miss, and create weak contact. That\u2019s our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injuries played a role in the decision by Lovullo and Hazen. Left-handed stalwarts A.J. Puk and Andrew Saalfrank are still recovering from Tommy John and shoulder surgeries respectively, and were never options for the Opening Day bullpen. Puk has begun throwing short bullpens, but likely won\u2019t be ready to return until closer to July, while Saalfrank\u2019s surgery was season-ending. Lovullo wants to make sure there\u2019s not a continuation of the rash of pitching injuries he had to work around last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through last year with some big injuries, so we might adjust the usage in the early parts of the season, April and part of May, so these guys can step on the gas pedal,\u201d Lovullo said of his strategy to ease pitchers into full workloads. \u201cLast year was rough, and we\u2019ve learned a lot from that, me especially.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the eight players making up the Opening Day bullpen are settled, the one who runs out to toe the rubber for the first save opportunity of the season is still a mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul Sewald is option number one. The veteran reliever signed a late-offseason contract with Arizona in February, and reunites with the squad he pitched for in 2023 and 2024. Sewald recorded a franchise-record six saves with the Diamondbacks during their playoff run to the World Series in 2023, and has 15 or more saves in three of his past four seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel are two more seasoned Diamondbacks familiar with the closer role, combining for 24 saves in their careers. Both righties will provide stability and comfort for Lovullo as he navigates the new-look pen, but whether they still have the juice needed to close out games is up in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan Lo\u00e1isiga is one more intriguing option who could eventually slide in as the closer with strong performances. After eight seasons with the New York Yankees, Lo\u00e1isiga signed with Arizona as a non-roster invite in January, and struck out nine in his eight spring training innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lo\u00e1isiga has been plagued by injuries as a big leaguer, but features the stuff and swing-and-miss qualities Hazen and Lovullo crave. The right-hander has ranked in the 86th percentile or better in average fastball velocity every season of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter who the closer is out of the gates this year, the roster construction quirkiness will immediately be put to the test as the Diamondbacks open the season Thursday in Los Angeles against their division rivals and the back-to-back World Series champions, the Dodgers. How Lovullo chooses to manage the late-game matchups between his staff and LA\u2019s left-handed hitting stars, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Freddie Freeman, will be under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2026\/03\/26\/arizona-diamondbacks-opening-day-bullpen\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org”>Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/favicon1.png?resize=85%2C85&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanonical Tag:<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Tag\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArticle Content:<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeft behind: Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 Opening Day bullpen is all righties<\/p>\n Shay Moloney, Cronkite News PHOENIX \u2013 The 2025 Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 bullpen was a revolving door of injuries and uncertainty. Manager Torey Lovullo\u2019s remedy for this season\u2019s relievers may be even wackier \u2013 zero left-handers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seventeen different Diamondbacks recorded a save for Lovullo a season ago in a campaign that saw the team win 80 games and finish fourth in the National League West. To put that in perspective, no MLB team had ever utilized more than 14 pitchers to close out a game before the record-breaking season.\u00a0<\/p>\n For a club that ranked top-10 in the league in nearly every major offensive statistic, the chaotic bullpen lagged behind, finishing bottom five in reliever ERA, WHIP and strikeouts per nine innings. A solution to that problem was the biggest question staring back at general manager Mike Hazen this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to build out as much depth in the bullpen as possible,\u201d Hazen said of his hopeful answer to the reliever conundrum. \u201cWe want to increase the stuff that\u2019s out there, the swing and miss that\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovullo, meanwhile, viewed this year\u2019s spring training as an opportunity for competition to breed success. In February, when he was asked how many spots were up for grabs in the bullpen, his reply was succinct.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll eight of them,\u201d Lovullo said. \u201cEarn it. Nothing is going to be handed to you. There is nothing for free in this game, and we\u2019ve got to get back to that concept.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Diamondbacks shipped out of Salt River Fields and the final trimmings were made on the Opening Day roster, the winners of that bullpen competition were revealed: eight relievers who all throw from the right side. It\u2019s the first time in the Lovullo and Hazen tenure, now entering year 10, that no southpaws in the pen will break camp with the team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lefty in the bullpen. I\u2019m very well aware of that. However, we feel very comfortable with some of our reverse-split guys that can go out there and attack left-handed hitters,\u201d Lovullo said of the decision to exclude a lefty. \u201cI want very trusted relievers back there that are going to fill up the strike zone, create swing and miss, and create weak contact. That\u2019s our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Injuries played a role in the decision by Lovullo and Hazen. Left-handed stalwarts A.J. Puk and Andrew Saalfrank are still recovering from Tommy John and shoulder surgeries respectively, and were never options for the Opening Day bullpen. Puk has begun throwing short bullpens, but likely won\u2019t be ready to return until closer to July, while Saalfrank\u2019s surgery was season-ending. Lovullo wants to make sure there\u2019s not a continuation of the rash of pitching injuries he had to work around last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe went through last year with some big injuries, so we might adjust the usage in the early parts of the season, April and part of May, so these guys can step on the gas pedal,\u201d Lovullo said of his strategy to ease pitchers into full workloads. \u201cLast year was rough, and we\u2019ve learned a lot from that, me especially.\u201d<\/p>\n While the eight players making up the Opening Day bullpen are settled, the one who runs out to toe the rubber for the first save opportunity of the season is still a mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul Sewald is option number one. The veteran reliever signed a late-offseason contract with Arizona in February, and reunites with the squad he pitched for in 2023 and 2024. Sewald recorded a franchise-record six saves with the Diamondbacks during their playoff run to the World Series in 2023, and has 15 or more saves in three of his past four seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel are two more seasoned Diamondbacks familiar with the closer role, combining for 24 saves in their careers. Both righties will provide stability and comfort for Lovullo as he navigates the new-look pen, but whether they still have the juice needed to close out games is up in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jonathan Lo\u00e1isiga is one more intriguing option who could eventually slide in as the closer with strong performances. After eight seasons with the New York Yankees, Lo\u00e1isiga signed with Arizona as a non-roster invite in January, and struck out nine in his eight spring training innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lo\u00e1isiga has been plagued by injuries as a big leaguer, but features the stuff and swing-and-miss qualities Hazen and Lovullo crave. The right-hander has ranked in the 86th percentile or better in average fastball velocity every season of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n No matter who the closer is out of the gates this year, the roster construction quirkiness will immediately be put to the test as the Diamondbacks open the season Thursday in Los Angeles against their division rivals and the back-to-back World Series champions, the Dodgers. How Lovullo chooses to manage the late-game matchups between his staff and LA\u2019s left-handed hitting stars, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Freddie Freeman, will be under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Content\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTracking snippet:<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Snippet\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Shay Moloney, Cronkite News March 26, 2026 PHOENIX \u2013 The 2025 Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019 bullpen was a revolving…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":683595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[1279,1266,50806,62,14503,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-683594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-mlb","tag-opening-day","tag-sports","tag-torey-lovullo","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116296613026440924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMarch 26, 2026<\/p>\n