The Arizona Diamondbacks announced on Wednesday prior to their game against the San Diego Padres that they made two more final September call-ups to the major leagues. Since the team's Triple-A affiliate Reno won their championship, the parent club recalled outfielder A.J. Pollock and selected the contract of first baseman Mike Jacobs. Pitcher Trevor Bauer was not called up.
Pollock was brought up because of his success in the minors and also to give the team more options in the outfield and on the basepaths. Centerfielder Chris Young is still troubled with a quad injury and is not available to start. Manage Kirk Gibson said that Young might be able to be used as a pinch hitter late in the game, but if he reached base safely he would probably have to be lifted for a pinch runner.
Jacobs was brought up to be another lefty bat off the bench and also the team has not technically had a backup first baseman to Paul Goldschmidt. Ryan Wheeler has been the backup, but is primarily a third baseman.
The one thing that most people want to know about the minor league call-ups is whether Trevor Bauer will join the big league club. He will not.
The reason?
"I just think with Trevor we just looked at his innings, 150-160 with the playoffs and it's been a different type of year," said Gibson. They decided as an organization to let him rest and recuperate after a successful year. In his time in the minors, Bauer went 12-2 with a 2.42 ERA and 157 strikeouts in over 130 minor league innings. "We thought he had a very good year," said Gibson. "He might be our minor league Pitcher of the Year."
There was also the issue of playing him at all. The team wasn't going to move anyone out of the starting rotation and, according to Gibson, if the team needed someone, Josh Collmenter deserves the start, and the team wasn't going to throw him out of the bullpen.
There are likely other reasons to do it as well, as there have been questions about his readiness and maturity. His first stint in the majors was rough. In addition to the very valid reasons given, it will serve as a message to the young pitcher that he still has things to work on. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Here are tonight's starting lineups:
Padres:
- Everth Cabrera, SS
- Logan Forsythe, 2B
- Chase Headley, 3B
- Carlos Quentin, LF
- Yonder Alonso, 1B
- Mark Kotsay, RF
- Will Venable, CF
- John Baker, C
- Edison Volquez, P
Dbacks:
- Adam Eaton, CF
- Aaron Hill, 2B
- Justin Upton, RF
- Miguel Montero, C
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Jason Kubel, LF
- Ryan Wheeler, 3B
- John McDonald, SS
- Trevor Cahill, P
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