SEPTEMBER 5: The D-Backs officially announced Nelson’s promotion Monday afternoon. Reliever Luis Frias was optioned to Reno to free an active roster spot, while the club created a 40-man vacancy by recalling infielder Yonny Hernandez and putting him on the major league 60-day injured list. Hernandez, who strained his left calf while in the minors, is officially done for the season. He’ll be paid at the prorated MLB minimum rate for the remainder of the season
SEPTEMBER 4: Diamondbacks pitching prospect Ryne Nelson will make his MLB debut on Monday, manager Torey Lovullo told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters. Nelson isn’t on the team’s 40-man roster, so at least one corresponding move will need to be made to create space for the 24-year-old right-hander.
A second-round selection in the 2019 draft, Nelson received some top-100 attention prior to the season, with The Athletic’s Keith Law rating him 74th on his list of baseball’s best prospects and Baseball America rating Nelson 96th. Law felt that Nelson was “the safe bet who offers the strongest combination of current stuff and command” among Arizona’s top pitching prospects, which was enough for Law to rate Nelson slightly ahead of other notable D’Back hurlers Drey Jameson and Brandon Pfaadt.
Nelson will be the first of that pitching trio to make the majors, though Nelson has had a rocky time in his first exposure to Triple-A baseball. Nelson has a 5.43 ERA over 136 Triple-A innings this season, with a 21.6% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate. That walk rate is Nelson’s best over his three pro seasons while his strikeout rate is by far his lowest, and Nelson has also allowed 25 homers. However, as Piecoro notes, these results are certainly influenced by the hitter-friendly conditions of Triple-A Reno and in the Pacific Coast League in general.
Nelson’s fastball is his signature pitch, averaging only around 93-94mph but with a lot of spin. BA gives Nelson’s fastball an impressive 70 grade on the 20-80 scale, while Pipeline is a little less bullish with a 60 grade. Pipeline’s scouting report also gives plus grades to Nelson’s curve and slider, and according to some D’Backs personnel, the slider could eventually become the right-hander’s best pitch.
It is worth noting that Nelson is still something of a work in progress as a pitcher, as he was a two-way player at Oregon and didn’t turn solely to pitching until 2019. Between that relatively late start and the canceled 2020 minor league season, BA’s scouting report feels Nelson “could still have significant growth ahead of him.” For example, he has made enough improvement with his control that he now looks like a viable starting candidate, whereas there was some feeling that Nelson would ultimately end up as a reliever.
The Diamondbacks see what Nelson can do in Monday’s start against the Padres, and possibly for the rest of September. Lovullo said the club is moving to a six-man rotation in order to rest some arms and keep everyone fresh in the final month of play, with an eye towards juggling the rotation in advance of a September 20 doubleheader against the Dodgers. After an day off on September 8, the D’Backs play 18 games in a 17-day span before their next off-day.
Of the three pitchers mentioned above, Nelson has the most AAA experience. I think that was the primary motivation for promoting him first. Pfaadt definitely has the eye popping ERA and KO totals at AAA, but only about 5 starts. Jameson has the 100 MPH heater, that I personally believe should be promoted as a closer/reliever initially and maybe later transition into a starter.
I agree on Jameson, though I’d prefer they keep him in the bullpen.
Sufferforsnakes: Why pigeonhole Jameson as a RP? If he doesn’t succeed as a starter then they can bump him to the ‘pen.
Actually, I’d like to see how his stuff works as a closer. Last night’s game was more proof they need help there.
Prospectnvstr
In general, I react the same you did about pigeonholing pitchers this early in their career for relief. But the Dbacks have a really pressing need to shore up the glaring team weakness in the bullpen and specifically at the closer position. I also think the Dbacks organization has traditionally been weak in developing relievers. So those two things/reasons lead many of us Dbacks fans to call for more concentration on picking key prospects to earmark for the back end of the bullpen.
Expanding on this organizational weakness of developing relievers for the big league club…
I’m thinking of several pitchers who were “converted” from starter to reliever in the Dbacks minor league system—Jackson Goddard, Mack Lemieux, Josh Green and Jeff Bain. You’re probably saying “Who? Never heard of them!” And I guess that’s my point. 4 examples that haven’t worked out so far.
Scott…..Jose Valverde! Lol
Papa Grande!
Dbacks brass are making good on their commitment to promote prospects this year. First, it was position players, now pitchers. Everyone expected the position players to make an immediate impact, and they have. The expectations about pitchers was uncertain. Tommy Henry has been surprisingly good.
Ryne Nelson’s AAA numbers are not eye popping like Henry’s and Brandon Pfaadt’s, but Nelson has the most starts and innings at Reno. He looks to have a high floor (solid 4th or 5th starter), but his projected ceiling isn’t nearly as high as Henry or Pfaadt’s.
Pfaadt only has 6 AAA starts, so he may not even get called up this year, but he’s the one I’m most excited about next year. He has a ridiculously excellent 1.95 ERA in those 6 AAA starts, and routinely has double digit strikeouts. Those numbers are insane for the extremely hitter friendly PCL!
Cool, Diamondbacks are the free game today on mlb.tv.
D’Backs have to do something with Melancon, he is owed 7mil next season, will they just pay off the remaining year, and let him go. So hopefully they will be in the market for a solid closer.
I just took a look at Melancon’s career stats and found a very interesting pattern. Every 5 years, Melancon has a Bad year, followed by 4 Good years. So, maybe hang on another year and see if the pattern repeats?
Here are the numbers:
YEAR ERA
2012. 6.20. Bad Year
2013. 1.36
2014. 1.90
2015. 2.23
2016. 1.64
2017. 4.50. Bad Year
2018. 3.23
2019. 3.61
2020. 2.78
2021. 2.23
2022. 5.20. Bad Year
Yes. And Kennedy. If we’re in it late we can trade at the deadline if need be. Hope we need nada!
Dang, what a debut from the kid!
7 IP
4 Hits
0 Runs
0 BB
7 SO
The Padres are in trouble, man.
Yep, other Pads fans have their heads in the sand and refuse to believe it, but this is not a playoff team. Getting shut out by a guy with a 5+ ERA in AAA is just embarrassing. None of the deadline trades have worked out at all, no matter how much they made sense on paper. I think Preller will be fired.
Padres aren’t in trouble…except for the fact they are now the 3rd best team in the NLW.
I was looking at all the ex-Padres players and farmhands doing their thing for another team. There seems to be a fair share of hits & misses. I noticed though that aside from Gore getting regular work at the top level, not many of the prospects during the Preller Era have…