The Arizona Diamondbacks don’t want to use injuries as an excuse, but the scope has been impossible to ignore.
Manager Torey Lovullo broke the news on Friday that reliever A.J. Puk underwent season-ending elbow surgery, while catcher Gabriel Moreno’s imaging revealed a fractured pointer finger on his throwing hand. In the minor leagues, catcher Adrian Del Castillo went down with lower back discomfort, while left-handed pitcher Tommy Henry will also need Tommy John surgery.
The Diamondbacks now have six players on the 40-man roster who are out with Tommy John surgeries or revisions: Puk, Henry, Justin Martinez, Corbin Burnes, Jordan Montgomery and Blake Walston. Cristian Mena (shoulder), Kendall Graveman (hip) and Christian Montes De Oca (back) are also down with injuries.
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Losing the ace of the staff in Burnes, two closer options in Puk and Martinez, a veteran bounce-back candidate in Montgomery and several younger arms as pitching depth is extreme. Puk and Martinez already underwent Tommy John surgery, so Martinez is having a revision with an internal brace. Puk’s exact requirements are still to be determined, but a brace instead of a ligament replacement would cut down on recovery time. These injuries will impact the 2026 D-backs, as well.
The only other season in Diamondbacks history that compares in terms of time missed for Tommy John surgeries was 2014. Patrick Corbin, Daniel Hudson, Matt Reynolds, David Hernandez and Bronson Arroyo spent all of or most of the season on the IL recovering from the procedure. The 2014 D-backs — whose injury problems were broader than five pitchers — finished with 63 wins, and the club went through drastic changes (replacing manager Kirk Gibson with Chip Hale and bringing in Dave Stewart as general manager).
The current squad has managed to teeter around .500 all year, remaining competitive for a Wild Card spot but in need of a run to push up into that top six. The offense is amongst the best in MLB, but it is hard to string wins together when the pitching has been so volatile.
There are many reasons why Arizona’s pitching staff has an unsightly 4.85 ERA. The rotation has had its ups and downs, and underperformance from key bullpen pieces has hurt the unit’s depth. Fielding issues have not helped, although the defense has improved. But it is hard to see the Diamondbacks struggle to hold leads and not think of what Martinez and Puk could do for them.
“ J-Mart and A.J. going down is not exactly what we envisioned when we felt we had a good bullpen,” general manager Mike Hazen told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Wednesday. “But that’s an excuse and injuries are no excuse in this job. Zero. Everyone has them.”
“We’re not the only team,” Lovullo said last weekend. “We are definitely not the only team, and I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for us. We don’t live in that space.”
The Diamondbacks have been beat up by the current pitching injury epidemic in Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers have 12 pitchers on the 60-day IL, including big-name free agent additions Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell. Even with a massive payroll (which equips them better to handle injuries than a mid-market club like the Diamondbacks), that’s a strain. The Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians have seven pitchers on the 60-day IL each.
MLB released a report last offseason that said pitcher IL stints ballooned from 212 in 2005 to 485 in 2024, while days on the shelf increased from 13,666 to 32,257. Increasing velocity, spin rates and maximum effort styles of pitching are potential contributors. These extend to amateur ball, as this has become a baseball problem, not just a Major League Baseball problem.
The Diamondbacks have their protocols to keep pitchers healthy, processes that have not changed much in recent seasons, Lovullo said last weekend. They were on the lower end of pitching injuries from 2020-23, but there has been a spike in injured list stints and setbacks over the last couples years. This will be cause for reexamination.
“ I think we’re on the conservative usage side,” Lovullo said in a press conference last weekend. “I’m not gonna break protocol because I don’t want this to happen. This is the space I live in, is to protect these players. Sometimes I gotta protect them from themselves, but I gotta protect them from me too, because I will use a guy until he can’t be used anymore.
“That’s not the game at this present time because there is so much information that’s telling us that they’re red lined and you’re putting them in a spot that you’re gonna possibly ruin their career for a year. We examine everything we do here and then cross examine it. … It gives me information and it gives the next guy information and every department as to what we should potentially be thinking about why they’re happening. Major League Baseball, I’m sure they’re trying to figure that out as well, because they want their best players playing.”
Diamondbacks pitching injuries in 2025 (40-man roster)
60-day IL
– Cristian Mena-Strained shoulder
– Christian Montes De Oca-Lower back surgery
– Corbin Burnes-Tommy John surgery
– Jordan Montgomery-Tommy John surgery
– Blake Walston-Tommy John surgery
– A.J. Puk-Tommy John surgery
– Justin Martinez-Tommy John surgery
15-day IL
– Kendall Graveman-Hip impingement
7-day IL (Triple-A)
– Tommy Henry-Tommy John surgery
– Jeff Brigham-Undisclosed
– Drey Jameson-Elbow inflammation
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