Daniel Hudson pitched last night for the Diamondbacks for the first time since 2012, when he underwent his first of what ultimately became two Tommy John procedures. He tossed a scoreless frame and reportedly sat at 95 mph with his fastball. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes up the 27-year-old’s comeback, which surely provides some hope to other hurlers who have recently received their second new ulnar collateral ligament. Hudson signed a minor league deal to stay with Arizona, but earned MLB service time as he was added to the 40-man roster and DL’ed all year. He will have over four years of service heading into the offseason, but the club will have the chance to retain him through a $800K option. MLBTR congratulates Hudson on his return to action.
Here’s the latest out of the division …
- Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers indicated that he may be ready to hand the reins over to a young middle infield combination next year, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports. “In a perfect world, long term, I think hopefully it’s [Didi Gregorius] and [Chris Owings] with [Aaron Hill] kind of moving around from second to third,” said Towers. “My gut is that I think it will work. I love both of those guys. Didi is probably our best shortstop defensively. C.O. is probably the best offensive middle infielder we have. He seems to be comfortable at second.” In that scenario, Hill will function as a rather expensive ($12MM in each of the next two years) utility option. Towers also indicated that he may well retain Cliff Pennington, who is arb eligible for a final time. With top third base prospect Jake Lamb seemingly ready for a chance at the bigs, in spite of his difficulties in a brief call-up thus far, it will be interesting to see how Arizona proceeds with filling out the non-Paul Goldschmidt portion of its infield (even after clearing Martin Prado out of the picture).
- Though the Giants farm system generally does not draw rave reviews from outside, the club is higher internally on its slate of youngsters, writes Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com. “We always have what we need,” said club vice president Dick Tidrow. “We have turned down trades for all of these guys,” Tidrow added, referring to the current active roster players who came through the San Francisco system (including its recent call-ups).
- Former Padres closer Heath Bell says that he hopes to join the club next year after taking the latter portion of 2014 off, Barry Bloom of MLB.com reports (Twitter links). Bell said that he asked the Yankees to release him when they failed to bring him onto the MLB roster. The 36-year-old righty was highly productive in San Diego, where he pitched to a 2.53 ERA in 374 innings over five seasons.
- New Padres GM A.J. Preller will, of course, make the call whether to give Bell another run in San Diego. As MLB.com’s Corey Brock reports, Preller’s lengthy to-do list would appear to have a few higher priorities at the moment. After getting his arms around the organization, including most of its minor league affiliates, Preller is now turning his focus to the big league club for the end of the season. “Some of the newcomers, [see if] can they break in, be part of the club in the last month and set themselves up for net spring and get in a spot where they can compete to make the team,” Preller said of what he was watching for. “And for guys like Tyson Ross and Ian Kennedy, you want to see them finish strong.”
Nice to see Hudson back on the bump. He was one of my favorite up-and-coming pitchers a couple years ago. Hopefully he’ll be back in the rotation next season.
Towers finally said what I’ve been calling for the last two years. I think they should still trade Hill, Trumbo and Montero for some pitching. Having Marte & Ross (difficult to trade) coming off the bench with Inciarte (LF), Pollock (CF) and Peralta (RF) as your starting OF. Lamb can hold his own at 3B if they let him play consistently.
If Black and Balsley are still around next year, I definitely hope Balsley is, it would be interesting to see if they could get Bell back on track. Adding an effective Bell to the back end of the pen with Benoit, if he isn’t dealt this winter, and Quackenbush could really be something next year.
Bell is done. The Padres would have a better chance with Trevor Hoffman coming back.
Beersy I typically agree with you but Bell would indicate more of the same. Towers and Bell need to accept things have changed and the Padres have moved on without them.
Kudos to Hudson for the many years rehabbing and sticking to what he loves. Also, it is good to see a team stick to their player, especially when things went bad and they didn’t have to. Gain MLB service time wasn’t something the Diamondbacks needed to do, but I am glad they acted to stick with Hudson through both surgeries and rehabs. A very good story from my favorite team in the desert.
Gregorius still doesn’t seem like he’ll hit enough to stick. I hope he is being showcased for a trade over the offseason. Owings should be the SS, Hill at 2B and Lamb at 3B to start the season. Hill’s stock is low and it is not a good time to trade him. If he starts out hot next year, that is the time. Best to change the trading habits of the decision makers in AZ, because they have come out on the bottom of so many recent trades due to “trading low”. Flipping Gregorius while he’s hit well enough and defended superbly is when he will be able to fetch the most return. Being that he’s Towers favorite, a replacement of the GM is the only way I can imagine logic prevailing.
We really don’t need Didi to hit more than .240 when he’s savings more runs on average. They would also have a powerful infield of Lamb, Owings, and Goldschmidt to say nothing of Pollock and Peralta in the OF. Not everyone on a team needs to hit .300 or more.
Forget coming back…that Bell has already been rung in SD.
If KT joins the Padres you better watch out because he loves Bell. As a Dbacks fan I would love to see that happen.
Why would KT join the Padres? They have a new GM already. Have fun with him, though I doubt he has much longer in AZ.
This was pretty much on the nose.
Yup. Towers is already gone as Arizona GM, though not yet out the door, and there was never anything coming from the Padres about him coming back to San Diego. Those zombie rumors are hard to kill. Maybe Cashman will hire him again as advisor, like he did when KT was canned in San Diego, but Cashman needs to get his own extension first.