Former D’backs shortstop John McDonald (16) dives for the ball in the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels during a spring training game. Image: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

One of players who began with the D’backs this spring will be playing against them moving forward as word spread yesterday that veteran infielder, John McDonald, was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

McDonald came over in the August 23, 2011 trade that sent second baseman Kelly Johnson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Aaron Hill and John McDonald. The defensive wizard would finish his tenure as a D’back with a .230/.278/.344 slash line with six home runs in 256 at bats spread over 89 games. He also was part of the 2011 playoff team, the veteran’s first appearance in the playoffs over his 14 year career.

At the time of the trade, it seemed as though McDonald would provide a nice buffer zone for the club as he is easily one of the best defensive shortstops to play the game and the team had lost Stephen Drew just a month earlier to a season ending ankle injury. Looking back now, that may have been Kevin Towers’ best trade to date. McDonald’s swift work on the infield helped the club finish just .001 behind the Braves for the best fielding percentage in the N.L. in 2012 and Hill was likely the team’s most consistent player over the entire 2012 season.

Still, as Tower’s continually brought over shortstop after shortstop this winter, the move that would send the 38 year old to another team was practically inevitable. Just to recap quickly, this winter saw: Cliff Pennington, Didi Gregorius, and Nick Ahmed come over to compliment Willie Bloomquist, John McDonald and Chris Owings, the team’s top shortstop prospect before the acquisitions of Gregorius and Ahmed.

The issue that this team still faces is that even with all six of these players, they still don’t have an everyday shortstop. Sure, Gregorius, Ahmed, and Owings weren’t expected to be ready for 2013 anyway and we all know that Towers is all about developing talent from within the farm system rather than buying free agents starters so we can omit them here from even making the opening day roster.

Willie Bloomquist, in my opinion, is hands down our best option and in 2012 the veteran did more than a sufficient job at manning his position. Kirk Gibson’s concern throughout much of last season was his longevity over the course of a 162 game season and whether or not the 35 year old could withstand the daily grind. This led to Bloomquist typically playing two days, off the next. This was frustrating as a fan since he seemed to have a multi-hit game every other night and even if he finished 3 for 4 the previous evening, Gibby would sit him.

Then, to make my case even worse, Bloomquist did indeed begin to have health issues sometime in late July and missed nearly the entire months of August and September with an ailing back. So, now a year older can we really expect Gibson to trust him in 2013?

It looks like we’ll just have to hope that Pennington’s paltry 2012 season that saw career lows in just about every offensive category was just an enigma in a career that typically sees an on base percentage upwards of .320 rather than his .278 last season. With Bloomquist and Pennington, the team should be OK getting through the 2013 season, barring an injury that would shake things up once again.

Either way, with McDonald now gone, the club will surely miss his presence in the dugout as well as his sure-handedness while roaming the infield. Here’s what manager Kirk Gibson had to say about the him:

“He’s the ultimate professional. Great leadership on and off the field. Really helped drive us to a different place as a team. Contributed a ton.”

Take a look at this spinning play by McDonald last season and how fast he gets rid of the ball on this play.

Follow me on Twitter at @ndougherty313 and our team at @venomstrikes.

Image: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Spring isn’t all sunshine when it comes to battling for a spot on a 25-man roster for players, either.

The D’backs starting lineup is pretty much set heading into 2013 meaning the battles will be in the back end of the rotation, the bullpen and on the bench.

Miguel Montero, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill, Martin Prado, Chad Pennington, Gerardo Parra, Jason Kubel, Adam Eaton, Cody Ross and Willie Bloomquist are locks along with Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill, Brandon McCarthy and Wade Miley in the rotation. In the bullpen, JJ Putz, Heath Bell, David Hernandez and Brad Ziegler are also pretty much assured spots.

With the D’backs likely to carry 12 pitchers that leaves one starter, three reliever spots and three bench spots open.

Starting spot battle: Tyler Skaggs vs. Randall Delgado

Delgado was acquired in the Justin Upton trade along with Martin Prado. Delgado is probably projected for a back-end starter for his career and has solid stretches throughout his career so far. He owns a career 3.95 ERA over 127.2 innings in the majors. Skaggs has been a top-tier pitching prospect for a few years and appears to be ready to pitch a full season in the bigs. Skaggs owns a career 2.98 minor-league ERA. He did struggle a bit in his brief appearance with the D’backs last season with a 5.83 ERA over 29.1 innings.

Edge: Skaggs

Three bullpen spots: Patrick Corbin vs. Tony Sipp vs. Matt Reynolds vs. Josh Collmenter

Sipp and Reynolds have each spent quality time in the majors with solid results. Sipp has thrown 220.1 innings over the past four seasons with a 3.68 ERA and Reynolds has thrown 126 innings over the past three seasons with a 3.93 ERA. Reynolds and Sipp, both lefties, are solid bets to make the bullpen.

That leaves the final spot for Corbin and Collmenter to battle it out. Corbin is also a leftie and was effective over long stretches in the beginning of last season but then struggled down the stretch. Collmenter on the other hand, struggled mightily early and then picked it up as the season progressed. Edge: Collmenter

Bench Spots:

Back up catcher – Wil Nieves vs. Rod Barajas

Nieves was productive in limited time with both the D’backs and Rockies last season, hitting .301/.330/.410 over 89 plate appearances. On the other hand, Barajas was pretty awful in 321 plate appearances for the Pirates in 2012. He hit .206/.283/.343 for the season.

Edge: Nieves

With an outfielder and a utility player in Bloomquist on the bench already, the D’backs have some flexibility in the two remaining bench spots: Eric Chavez vs. John McDonald vs. Tony Campana vs. A.J. Pollock vs. Matthew Davidson

Edge: Chavez and McDonald

Image: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

The D’backs have made several trades and acquisitions in the last few months in an attempt to facilitate progress. There is no need to recap them here as you can read all about them in previous posts on Venom Strikes.

For now, let’s just look at the roster position by position and see if the team has progressed or regressed with certain acquisitions. If a position will be filled with a returning player, let’s look at whether a progression or a regression should be expected.

At catcher, Miguel Montero will be back coming off a stellar 2012 campaign. He caught a career-high 141 games for the D’backs and accumulated 15 home runs, 25 doubles and a .391 On-Base Percentage (10^th best in the league).

While the OBP was much higher than his previous career best, .355 in 2009, his other numbers indicate that the D’backs should expect a similar performance in 2013 with perhaps a tick up in power. Montero had a high Batting Average on Balls In Play that might cause a drop in his batting average but his career-best walk percentage in 2012 shows more discipline at the plate that should carry over into 2013 and keep his OBP high.

Verdict: Some progression.

At first base, Paul Goldschmidt also returns in 2013 as the full-time man at first. He had a breakout 2012 season but not in the way expected. Goldschmidt was seen as an all-power guy that lacks discipline at the plate. Instead, he showed he had plenty of discipline at the plate – a .359 OBP – and not as much power as expected – 20 home runs. However, Goldy also hit 43 doubles, tied for ninth-best in the league.

It’s safe to assume that a few of those doubles will turn into home runs in 2013 and we’ll see a tick up in Goldschmidt’s slugging percentage. If that uptick in power comes with a similar discipline at the plate, Goldy could be an elite power bat. Combine that with his pretty good defense, and Goldschmidt could possibly be a six-win player.

Verdict: Progression.

At second, Aaron Hill completes a returning right side of the infield. Hill had a career year in 2012, showing off his power, 26 home runs, his plate discipline, .360 OBP, and outstanding defense. He ended with 4.6 bWAR.

The biggest reason for Hill’s return in power was a big uptick in his HR/FB percentage. He had an 8.9 percent number in 2012 after three straight years of under four percent. But the 8.9 number is not his career high. In 2009, he had an 11.7 percent number and a 10.8 in 2010. But those two are really not sustainable. Perhaps he regresses closer to his career average, which will drop his power numbers just a bit. His defense and OBP should be similar.

Verdict: slight regression.

The D’backs spent the entire offseason in search of a shortstop, a big hole last year. To this point, it’s unclear who will be starting on opening day but it will definitely be a new name. Newcomers Cliff Pennington and Didi Gregorius are both stellar with the glove up the middle. That’s where they will make most of their impact. Last season, Willie Bloomquist and John McDonald split time at short.

Bloomquist was bad defensively but provided some value on offense. Alternatively, McDonald was pretty good defensively, but provided zero value on offense.

Pennington and McDonald are similar players. Pennington provided almost two bWAR on defense alone last season but only provided replacement level production on offense despite 462 plate appearances.

There seems to be no room for improvement for Pennington after five seasons in the league. If the D’backs hope to improve at shortstop, they’ll have to rely on the offensive progression of Gregorius. If he progresses to even league average offensively, Gregorius can be an outstanding player for the D’backs for years to come. If he doesn’t, the D’backs will essentially have a John McDonald on their roster for years to come.

Verdict: Same

The D’backs seem to be set on bringing Chris Johnson back at third base. Johnson spent half of 2012 with Houston before being acquired by the D’backs. He basically hit his career numbers across the board with a .281/.326/.451 slash line in 2012. There’s no reason to see much progression or regression.

Verdict: Same

Left field is one of the question marks for the D’backs after the signing of Cody Ross. It seems that one of Jason Kubel, Gerardo Parra or Justin Upton will be moved to make room for Ross in the lineup. For now, I’ll assume that Kubel will be moved. In that case, Ross, Parra and center fielder Adam Eaton will form a three-man rotation in left and center. So I’ll take a look at both positions together.

Parra and Eaton both hit left-handed while Ross is right-handed. In a perfect world, Parra and Eaton would hit against right-handed starters while Ross is moved in to either center or left against lefties and to spell Parra or Eaton at other times. However, Ross was also signed to a three-year, $27 million dollar deal. That suggests he’ll play more than just as a platoon and fourth outfielder.

So who sits, Parra or Eaton? Ross has played 387 games in center and 534 in a corner-outfield spot. In any case, it’s difficult to project just how the 162 games will be split up between the three players, with Eaton and Ross taking over for Chris Young and Kubel in the outfield.

Eaton could be the leadoff hitter the D’backs have been searching for with a similar defensive ability to Young. Ross is probably pretty similar to Kubel from the opposite side of the plate. But with Eaton, it should be a slight improvement overall in left and center.

Verdict: some progression

I’ve written extensively about Justin Upton and how highly I think of him as a person and player. It’s not hard to see that he had a down year last season. But he still delivered good value with plate discipline, smart base running and good defense.

All of those attributes should continue in 2013 and I believe he will have a big bounce-back year in the power department. In fact, as a glimpse to tomorrow’s piece, I have a bold prediction that Upton will demolish his previous career high in home runs with 40 bombs in 2013.

Most of his power was zapped for the start of the 2012 season with a nagging thumb injury but he had six home runs in September once he was fully healthy. I expect he maintains that pace in 2013 and hits 40 home runs in a possible MVP campaign.

Verdict: Big Progression

I’ll take a look at the starting rotation and bullpen tomorrow. Keep an eye out.