3 Possible New Stations For the "Freight Train"

This is going to be hard for some of you to read but David Peralta needs to move on and let some of the younger players take his spot. Baseball is not like some other sports where age and physical limitations are the only things that force you to move on. In baseball, only the conclusion of a contract makes you move on. This is the final year of Peralta's 3-year $22MM contract that will pay him $7.5MM at age 34 turning 35 before the regular season ends. He has had a great 9-year run with a 15.0 career WAR, a .283 career batting average, and 106 career home runs. But, to give this situation some context, this season he has a .07 WAR, a .232 batting average, and 8 home runs.

David Peralta is a long-time fan fave of the Dbacks, but could be traded come August 2nd.

It would be different if the Diamondbacks did not have a slew of young, hungry, cheaper outfield talent waiting in the wings. Counting David, on the 40-man roster 10 of the players are outfielders.

St. Louis Cardinals

Let's take a look at their outfield. First, in center, they have Harrison Bader. He has no power whatsoever, he has 55 hits for the season, and 12 of them have been for extra bases with only 19 RBIs. His game is speed, he is 2nd on the team with 14 stolen bases. But he has only walked 11 times in 228 plate appearances. Left fielder Tyler O'Neill has 20 fewer games than Bader and they are basically the same player. O'Neill has 34 hits with 9 of them being extra bases. He only has 5 stolen bases and has walked 13 times. Bader has a batting average of .258 and an OBP of .303 while both of Tyler's are lower at a .221 batting and .273 OBP. Dylan Carlson is a young player trying to find his way in the majors so we will give him a pass, and Peralta won't play right anyway. Dickerson is currently on the IL, and Nootbaar was just recalled.

Who Should the Diamondbacks Target?

The guy in the St. Louis farm system I would go after is right-handed pitcher and #27th ranked prospect in the Cardinals system, Jake Walsh. He is not a top-level prospect, but he has a fastball he can reach triple digits with when he has to. Plus, he also has a 12-6 breaking 83-84 MPH curveball and his third pitch, which he rarely uses is a change-up. He has had some control issues in the past and had Tommy John surgery in late 2019. But I like his upside as a flame throwing,

Tampa Bay Rays

So currently on their 40-man roster, they have 6 outfielders. We will start with the most notable in Kevin Kiermaier, who by the way is the club's oldest player as well at 32. He is known for his defense, in 2022 he has only had 1 error in 129 chances, all in center field. With a .992 fielding percentage. But that comes with an offensive price, which would be a 50% ground ball rate, 28.7 strikeout rate, the highest of his career (league average is 21.6%), and his lowest walk percentage at 4.8% of his career when the league average is 8.3%. Harold Ramirez has played mostly DH in 2022 for the Rays. Now, he gives you a nice .297 batting average and 47 hits, but only 10 of those 47 hits have gone for extra bases. He hits the ball on the ground a lot, his ground ball percentage is 52.9% while his fly ball percentage is a putrid 15.0%. Good average, no power. Brett Phillips has played in 49 games and is batting .173 with 10 RBIs, ouch.

Manuel Margot does have the second most hits on the team with 54 and he owns a robust .303 average, but like Ramirez, he has only 14 of those 54 hits for extra bases. Josh Lowe has only played in 19 games, but he is batting .188 with 1 home run and 6 RBIs. Randy Arozarena is the best average performer across the board with 7 home runs, 14 doubles, and 31 RBIs to go along with 12 stolen bases. Collectively this group of 6 outfielders doesn't even have 25 home runs combined. I would say they need an upgrade. Peralta in left, Kiermaier/Margot in centerfield, and Arozarena in right.

Who should the Diamondbacks Target?

Ryan Yarbrough is a left-handed pitcher who has been used in a starting and relief role in his 4 years with the Rays. This season was not a good one for the southpaw, and he was sent to the minors because of it. Ryan was 0-3 with a 5.65 ERA in only 28.2 innings. But, if you look at his career numbers, he may be a candidate for a bounceback. In his 4 seasons, his record is 37-26 with 119 walks and 426 strikeouts with a WHIP of 1,194. Plus, he is starting to get expensive, at least for the Rays. He is signed for $3.8MM this season with 2 more arbitration years left, therefore he is not a free agent until 2025.