Like his Arizona bullpen counterpart Kevin Ginkel, now-sixth-year veteran Ryan Thompson saw successes pile up last season, but entering spring training is all about improving his craft for the team’s greater good. Expanding his current pitching arsenal and holding baserunners are two focus points for the side-arm specialist.
“My dad told me at a young age, he said ‘you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse,'” Thompson said Friday on Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke. “That’s why I love spring training so much is because you get to see everybody who had five months off and see, OK, what did you do with those five months?”
While Thompson didn’t get into specifics, he did say adding new pitches to his skillset is among his priorities. In 2024, Thompson leaned heavily on his sinker, offering it to batters about 64% of the time while utilizing two other pitches (slider and four-seam fastball) only 25.7% and 10.2% across a career-high 67 games, respectively.
In adding new pitches to his bag, Thompson said he also hopes to glue more baserunners to first base. He conceded that sidewinder-style pitching allows batters to knock around singles but that is no excuse for them getting into scoring position.
“At this point in my career, you got to keep guys off second base,” Thompson said. “It’s kind of dialing all the mechanical stuff that I’ve been working on for the past who knows how long, having that delivery that keeps them on first base.”
The 6-foot-5 Thompson enters spring training at Scottsdale’s Salt River Fields with tangible goals but as long as he is a member of the desert club, he wants to fill intangible pitching gaps. In his words, Thompson thinks of himself as “grout.”
“It’s like Guardians of the Galaxy, ‘I am (Groot),’ Thompson said. “I’m not here to see what I can get from (my teammates). I want to add to this team.”
Collectively, since being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023, Thompson has been a trusted arm in the seventh and eighth innings for D-backs manager Torey Lovullo. His 18 career postseason appearances are the most among all Arizona pitchers, and while past and pending starters Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery have World Series rings, the quantity of those reps can’t be understated in importance. Especially in light of a club with high expectations, experience can only help secure a spot in the big playoff dance.
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Very matter-of-factly, Thompson said he doesn’t think the 2025 version of the Arizona Diamondbacks needs one defined closing pitcher.
“Whatever the decision they decide to make, we’re going to be in a good spot. … I think our bullpen, we have the options to close,” Thompson said. “If we got a closer in the open market, it’d be awesome. If we don’t get one, we will be fine.”
He called the club’s starting pitcher depth, with seven potential starters in his mind, “really scary” from top to bottom.
Specifically, Thompson dished out praise to a slimmed-down Montgomery, who was relegated to the bullpen in late August. He said the southpaw is “30 lbs. lighter” and is set “to dominate for us” after a career-worst season that produced an ugly 6.23 ERA.
Ryan Thompson loves the unlimited access to Salt River Fields
For cold-weather teams like the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals, to name a few, spring training is a big breath of fresh air. Whether MLB players gear back up in Florida’s Grapefruit League or Arizona’s Cactus League, the transition can be jarring if their recent existence has been snow storms and indoor batting practice.
But the D-backs, whose spring training facility is in their backyard (roughly 20 miles apart), have year-round access.
“It’s not a culture shock for us to come in here from a different place of the country,” Thompson said. “So, we have trainers here. We have strength coaches here. We have pitching coaches here. We have everything we could need. Right now, it’s just a super easy transition.”
And that unique access was brought up when Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes was first introduced. He was asked if the proximity could be leveraged to retain stars like himself and draw in new prospects.
“Whenever I’m recruiting guys in future years, it’s definitely a point I’ll bring up. I think there’s value in knowing you’re going to be in one spot for that long,” Burnes told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo in mid-January.
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