It doesn’t sound like there was too long of a conversation between Netherlands manager Andruw Jones and Diamondbacks prospect Druw Jones about teaming up in the World Baseball Classic.
“We, obviously like our relationship, we just joke back and forth all the time. He’s like, ‘You got to come play for me, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah, I just got to wait on the team’s approval on everything.’ And I was super pumped up to get the opportunity,” Druw Jones told Arizona Sports.
The Jones’ make up the first father-son, manager-player duo in WBC history.
Coming into camp, manager Torey Lovullo wanted to emphasize defense after a poor season on that side of the ball in 2025. So far this spring, they’ve committed seven errors in 10 games — a 162-game pace of 113.
Some have been committed by minor league players who are still growing defensively, but the overall defensive effort has had some holes in it to begin.
It’s not to say the D-backs will be a poor defensive team overall this coming regular season, with gold glove-caliber players like Carlos Santana and Nolan Arenado currently away from the team preparing for the WBC, but there have been frequent lapses defensively thus far.
We now know the team that offered a 3-year deal to Merrill Kelly … and a reason he spurned them to take a 2-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The MLB starting pitcher opened up about his contract negotiations in the offseason, revealing that he had a 3-year offer from the San Diego Padresin MLB free agency.
One reason he ended up choosing the 2-year deal with Arizona?
Taxes in California.
Paul Goldschmidt (USA): With 63.8 career WAR, I feel like he’s 99% of a lock, but Hall voters can be tough on first basemen — see Keith Hernandez, Will Clark and Fred McGriff (who got in only via the era committee) — plus Goldschmidt has 372 home runs and might not get to 400, which some voters might believe is a must for a first baseman. Still, Todd Helton was elected a couple of years ago with 369 home runs and 61.8 WAR, so Goldschmidt — with one MVP Award and two second-place finishes — will eventually get in.
{Ed. Note: Ketel Marte was also mentioned in this article in ‘Tier 4: You never know’.}
Enter the righty-swinging Grichuk, who split last season between the Diamondbacks and Royals, the last of those his fifth team in a five-season span, following the Blue Jays (for whom he played from 2018–21), the Rockies (2022–23), the Angels (2023, his first major league games with the team that chose him one pick ahead of Mike Trout in 2009), and the Diamondbacks (2024–25). Grichuk was exceptionally effective with Arizona in 2024, batting .291/.348/.528 (139 wRC+) with 12 home runs and 1.6 WAR in 279 plate appearances, but he slipped to .240/.277/.457 (96 wRC+) with seven homers in 188 plate appearances before being traded to the Royals for pitching prospect Andrew Hoffmann on July 28. Things went from bad to worse for Grichuk in Kansas City, as he hit just .206/.267/.299 (56 wRC+) with two homers in 105 plate appearances. He was exactly replacement level with the Diamondbacks, and 0.4 wins below replacement level with the Royals.
Major League Baseball announced today that the Spring Breakout series will be played as a tournament in 2027 and 2028. It will be a single-elimination style with two champions crowned, one in the Grapefruit League and one in the Cactus League. The tournament is not starting in 2026 so as to not conflict with this year’s World Baseball Classic. {Ed. Note: Love this idea!}
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