The Diamondbacks added infielder Tim Tawa and right-hander Joe Elbis to their 40-man roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Arizona’s roster count sits at 37.
Tawa, a 25-year-old utility player, was Arizona’s 11th-round pick in 2021. The Stanford product is primarily a second baseman but can bounce around to the corner infield or any outfield spot. The right-handed hitter split the ’24 season between Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno. He hit 31 homers with a .279/.349/.519 batting line across 613 plate appearances. The power output is surely inflated by his favorable home parks, but Tawa’s versatility and minor league production could make him a solid bench piece.
Elbis, 22, is a starting pitcher who reached Double-A. The Venezuela native combined for 135 1/3 innings of 3.39 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A this year. While his 20% strikeout rate isn’t overpowering, he showed solid control with an 8.3% walk percentage. He’ll begin the ’25 season as minor league rotation depth.
Two players with mid-1990s sounding names. Impressive.
The most interesting part of the Dbacks decision who to protect this year is that they chose Not to protect Kristian Robinson. He had a mixed, but mostly poor year at AA, but an eye opening performance in the Salt River Rafters Championship season this month, so maybe he made a big jump? Will any team take a chance on him? He was a highly regarded 19 year old prospect, but now at 23 and after a 4 year hiatus from organized baseball,is he back on track or past his prime?
I don’t think he’s made a big jump. I’ve been tracking his batted ball metrics in the Arizona Fall League and there were a couple interesting notes of it. He was hitting the ball hard, with a hard-hit rate of 45% on 40 balls put into play with Statcast data. However, there was a lot of low-launch (under 20 degrees) on his hard-hit balls, so he didn’t slug as much (.455 SLG vs. a .318 BA).
He might get selected in the Rule 5 Draft, like Deyvison De Los Santos last year, but he’s very unlikely to stick to a major league roster barring significant improvements to his strikeout rate (27.8% in AFL, 35.7% in regular season). Even should he make a club, he’s a 5th outfielder at most which will hurt his development rather than a season in both AA and AAA. I think we’ll see progress in 2025, then he gets added to the 40-man roster at the end of the season.
From what I’ve seen, the tools are still there. He’s ripping the ball 114 MPH on a line and can get down the line very well (I think Statcast clocked him at 31.0 ft/s on one run although I doubt the validity since that’s faster than Bobby Witt Jr.). He’s had to deal with a lot and 2024 is really the first year he’s had in a long time where he can focus on being just a baseball player.
From talking to him, he’s a very humble guy and very grateful to still be playing baseball. He’s accomplished a lot to get as far as he has in just 2 seasons but he still needs that one breakthrough season to get to the major leagues. I’m hoping he gets a chance to finish his redemption arc with the D-backs, so I’m hoping teams pass on him.
Thanks Michael for sharing those stats. I too see that he hasn’t found a way to get to his power consistently, which was his original calling card. And Fall League stats are still a bit of a small sample size, but I think hitting for average, stealing bases and playing on a championship team helped his confidence. I certainly don’t think he’ll make the opening day roster, but depending on his progress at AAA Reno this coming year, we might see him as a late season call up? I’m routing for him to get to the Bigs at some point.
I was wondering if the Dbacks and Robinson had reached an understanding that Robinson would be best served with a fresh start with another organization? Either way, it could be a great comeback story!
I’m guessing Cerda wasn’t protected. I’d love to see the Tigers pick him up in a trade and give him a 40 man roster spot.
Cerda isn’t ready to be a big league backup catcher yet. However, the more interesting part of this will be if they add him to the Triple-A roster to protect him from the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. If left unprotected from that, he probably goes early.
Good choices. Glad they didn’t waste one on Robinson.