It is day 1 of 162. People will say “it is early,” they will tell you not to panic, but you are certainly allowed to celebrate. Opening Day is here! They are putting the finishing touches on the stadiums, the broadcasters are resting their throats, the camera operators are working on their reflexes, and the umpires are doing their strike 3 calls in the mirror. But more than that, the clubs are finalizing their 26-man rosters. For the Arizona Diamondbacks that means adding 2 new pitchers, DFAing one player, and placing another on the 60-day IL.

If you are a fan of this team, none of these moves should be much of a shock to you with the happenings over the last 3 to 4 days. We will start with the obvious move, placing Jordan Montgomery on the 60-day IL, as he is preparing to have Tommy John surgery soon. Arizona officially announced his replacement today when they made the 1-year $1.25M contract of Jalen Beeks official.

Beeks, who has pitched in the majors for 6 seasons, is currently 31 years of age. Last season he split time with 2 different underwhelming clubs, the Pirates and the Rockies. With those 2 clubs he had a 4.50 ERA with a strikeout rate of 17.6% along with a 8.7% walk rate and a ground ball rate of 45.1%. His home runs per nine innings were below 1 at .77% which is particularly impressive considering he pitched 49.1 of those innings for the Rockies. In his 6 seasons he has been in 202 games and 347.2 innings, he 23-15 with a career 4.40 ERA and 15 saves to his credit. His strikeout and walk rates are both below average, and his ground ball average and home runs per 9 innings are also below average.

Kevin Ginkel, Kendall Graveman, and now Jordan Montgomery will all start the season on the IL for the Diamondbacks. The signing of Beeks will give the bullpen another arm and, because he is left handed, it will allow Skipper Torey Lovullo the ability to mix and match with another lefty, especially when he wants to use A.J. Puk as his closer, who is also left-handed. Plus, as an added bonus, Jalen was also originally drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 12th round of the 2014 draft. Current Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen was the Vice President and Assistant General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2014.

The Diamondbacks also DFA’d catcher Rene Pinto. This means the Snakes have 7 days to either work out a trade or a team may make a waiver claim. Arizona made a waiver claim on him from the Orioles, and another team may do the same if they need catching depth and don’t mind his slash line of .231/.263/.404 over 237 career plate appearances in the Show.

That move made room for the Snakes to add RHP Shelby Miller. He was originally chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 19th pick in the 1st round of the 2009 MLB draft, now he essentially becomes the 26th man for the Arizona Diamondbacks 16 years later. Miller has had stints with 7 clubs, including the Dbacks from 2016-2018. His ERA has been as high as 10.69—ironically with the Dbacks—and as low as 1.71 in 2023 with the division rival Dodgers.

He was more than likely given this spot on the major league roster because of his short yet productive 7 inning stint in spring training where he had a 2.57 ERA with 11 strikeouts and 0 walks.

The bullpen configuration will change as the weather gets warmer, like it does with every team. These 2 arms will sustain the bullpen currently, and then the powers that be will decide these pieces of the bullpen puzzle moving forward, as this team hopefully moves forward toward a play-off berth.

Photo Credit; Peakpx, Yardbarker, Instagram, MLB.com

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