Nearing the end of September, who are the best Dbacks call-ups ever?

Dbacks Best September Call ups 2005-09′

2005 Dustin Nippert

Dustin was drafted by the Diamondbacks and came up through their system. He was a bullpen arm for the team from September 2005-07′. In that time, he pitched in 41 games, had a 2-3 record, and a 6.43 ERA. He wasn’t great by any means but did prove rather essential to helping the 07′ team capture the division title that year. He went on to play three more seasons with the Texas Rangers before never appearing in the MLB again. However, he did play excellently in the Korea Baseball Organization until 2018. In 2016, he won the MVP award for the KBO. Nippert also holds the record for most years played as a foreign player in the KBO.

2006 Miguel Montero

Everyone knows who Miggy is. The catcher that was voted by the fans onto their 20th Anniversary best player team played the majority of his career with Arizona. Over his 9 (06-14′) seasons with the team, he hit 97 HRs, 448 RBIs, and had a 103 OPS+. He made the All-Star team twice while with the club. Additionally, he was invaluable with the 2011 playoff team serving as the main catcher on that squad. He holds the record for most games caught by a catcher for the Diamondbacks. Miggy went on to play three-plus seasons with the Cubs, in which he won the World Series in 2015. He finished his career with a final season in 2018 with the Nationals. Final thought, he caught Edwin Jackson’s No-Hitter in 2009. Now, you can find him as a sports agent for baseball players.

2007 Emilio Bonifacio

This was the beginning of a long tenure for Emilio in the MLB. In fact, he last appeared in the MLB in 2020. Perhaps we haven’t seen the end of Emilio yet. Nonetheless, the speedy infielder/outfielder who hits for contact and steals bases was only with Arizona until mid-2008 when he got traded to the Nationals. He’s a journeyman player having played with 8 different teams in his career. Let’s see if he can continue his career, although he hasn’t played in the minors yet this year.

2008 Josh Whitesell

Josh Whitesell never got established in the bigs. Instead, he played parts of 2008 and 2009 with the Dbacks hitting 2 HRs and 14 RBIs. I wouldn’t blame you for not remembering him. He continued to play in various leagues until 2015 when he apparently retired. Now, he’s a sales rep for a medical company. One interesting note about MLB debuts in 2008 is that Max Scherzer made his debut this year with the club.

2009 No One

The Diamondbacks had a rough 2009 prompting the promotions of many rookies to the Big Leagues. While none of them debuted in September, there were some fun names to remember. Some of these players were Aussie Trent Oeltjen, Rusty Ryal, Clay Zavada, and Gerardo Parra. As you may know, Trent went on to play two more years with the Dodgers. Trent now runs a baseball facility company helping young players in Australia and the USA to achieve their dreams. He also does extreme running and swimming, most notably pairing up with Eric Brynes for multiple adventures.  Parra of course won the World Series with the Nationals in 2019 and is still playing in the big leagues today. Rusty went on to play in multiple foreign leagues and now is a successful advisor to people wanting to become business owners or copywriters.