Diamondbacks add Tim Tawa, Joe Elbis to 40-man roster
The Diamondbacks add two players to their 40-man roster ahead of the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft.
The Diamondbacks have added two players to their 40-man roster, selecting the contracts of infielder Tim Tawa and right-hander pitcher Joe Elbis per the team’s transactions tracker. Both players will be protected from the Rule 5 Draft next month.
Tawa was the least surprising of the two, as he was coming off a big year between Double-A and Triple-A and I had him as a 40-man roster candidate. For the 2024 season, he hit .279 with 31 home runs and 90 RBI. During the entire season, he did not have an OPS below .730 for any particular month, showing both the consistency at the plate but also a minor reflection of the offensive environments he played under.
Tawa was drafted by the Diamondbacks out of Stanford in the 11th round of the 2021 MLB Draft, with the idea he’d quickly ascend up the ladder. After getting to Double-A his first full season in 2022, he stalled there for a couple of years before breaking through in 2024. With Amarillo, he had a wRC+ of 131, and then 139 in Reno. That consistency is likely why the D-backs decided to roster him.
As a multipositional defender from the right side of the plate, he projects as an end-of-the-bench player. With an ETA as early as the 2025 season, and capable of already providing depth, he was going to be one of the top targets in the Rule 5 Draft. He hit lefties well in 2024, with a .312/.386/.528 slash with a 26/14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 140 plate appearances. With the D-backs, he profiles as additional infield and outfield depth, although he’s most likely to start against lefties.
Elbis is a bit of a surprise, as I personally believed he wasn’t close enough to the big leagues to be selected. In fact, I listed him as a potential Rule 5 candidate to be selected in the minor league phase. Considering the organization values him as a potential contributor for the 2025 season, I probably need to re-evaluate where I have him and try to find things I might have missed.
For the 2024 season, Elbis pitched to a 3.39 ERA between Hillsboro and Amarillo. He was particularly dominant between April 28 and June 11, pitching to a 0.58 ERA and a 41/8 K/BB ratio in 8 starts. During those eight starts, he never allowed more than one run to score. Both he and fellow prospect Spencer Giesting, his teammate in Double-A, were stringing together quality starts to see who could do better than the other.
After a dominant run with Hillsboro, he got promoted to the extreme hitter-friendly environment in the Texas League and Hodgetown and held his own. While he has a 4.60 ERA in 8 starts in Double-A, it is somewhat misleading because he has four quality starts and in three of them has completed seven innings. While relies on pitching to contact, he can be an effective innings-eater in the back of a rotation.
Once a promising pitching prospect, getting Top 10 looks entering the 2022 season due to his ability to throw strikes and a repeatable delivery. However, his career was put on hold that season due to a shoulder injury. He has since rebounded and has worked his way up to Double-A with 48 combined starts over the last two seasons. He’s put the injury issues behind him somewhat and has made steady progress. It was enough progress that the D-backs decided he was worth rostering.
With Tawa and Elbis added to the roster, the remaining players left exposed to the Rule 5 Draft in the MLB phase is Kristian Robinson, Kyle Backhus, A.J. Vukovich, Caleb Roberts, and Austin Pope. Of the six, Robinson and Backhus are the most likely to get selected, with the latter having a solid chance to stick.
The Rule 5 Draft will take place on December 11, the final day of the Winter Meetings. There is a two-round MLB phase followed by a four-round minor league phase, in which Rule 5 eligible players not on a Triple-A roster could be selected.
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Michael McDermott has been writing about the Arizona Diamondbacks, and their minor league system, for 9 seasons for AZ Snake Pit, Diamondbacks on SI, and Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X at x.com/michaelmcdmlb or at Bluesky.