When spring training begins at Salt River Fields on Wednesday morning, the Arizona Diamondbacks will have a team that looks strikingly similar to the one that finished last season. That is not to say they are running back the same club that won 74 games a year ago, but it is clear they are not pinning their hopes to contend on their winter moves.
Beyond Carroll, the Diamondbacks have a stable of young players with varying amounts of major league experience, all of whom could conceivably emerge as significant contributors. “Those areas for us, if those things improve, I think there’s some ceiling to where we can go,” Hazen said. “I don’t know how far that ceiling goes. I don’t know what the reasonable expectation should be for a younger team. As much as we all dream on what that ceiling could be, it doesn’t happen that way.”
And any of the team’s new relievers — from Andrew Chafin, Miguel Castro and Scott McGough, who signed major-league deals, to right-hander Carlos Vargas, a trade acquisition, to right-hander Jeurys Familia, in camp on a minor-league deal — could help solidify what was a dreadful bullpen last year. Said Ahmed: “I like the way our young guys came up last year. We’ve got guys who are hungry and get after it. You can see how many guys are floating around the facility now just getting work in. I love our young guys. I love some of the veteran guys that we brought in, like Longoria and Lourdes Gurriel. I think those guys are going to add a lot to our team.”
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