Diamondbacks Non-Tender Candidates
Looking at players who could make sense for the Diamondbacks to cut loose at the deadline to tender controllable players with contracts for 2025.
The deadline to tender pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible players is coming up quickly, as they’ll have until tomorrow to decide whether or not to tender such players with a contract for 2025. The Diamondbacks have eight players eligible for salary arbitration for next season along with the numerous pre-arbitration eligible players on the 40-man roster.
Heading into the deadline, there are three players on the D-backs’ 40-man roster who could be on the chopping block.
LHP Brandon Hughes
Hughes was non-tendered by the Cubs a year ago and signed as a minor league free agent with a camp invite. While he did not make the Opening Day roster, he had four separate stints in Arizona. He pitched primarily in low-leverage situations and had an 8.15 ERA in 15 games.
One strength was his ability to get swing-and-miss. Hughes sported a whiff rate of 28.5%, on the strength of his slider pushing a 52.5% rate, and a strikeout rate of 23.6%. However, there were also walk issues and he was crushed when batters put the ball in play against him. He surrendered a 21.4% barrel rate per ball in play and 13.5% per plate appearance. The combination of a subpar walk rate and the inability to avoid the barrel makes him an easy non-tender candidate for the second year in a row.
C José Herrera
In three seasons, Herrera simply hasn’t been up to par as the primary backup catcher. They tried going a different route in each of the past three seasons when his bat struggled, recently turning to Tucker Barnhart in the first half of 2024. In 130 career games, he has a triple slash of .207/.278/.259 with one home run, 51 OPS+, and -0.7 career bWAR.
Herrera is by reputation a good defensive catcher, but the metrics paint him more as an average catcher. In 937 2/3 innings behind the plate, he is credited with -3 fielding runs on Baseball Reference and +1 on Baseball Savant. He has an above-average throwing arm and gets the ball down to second base in good shape, with a pop time around 1.93 seconds.
Further complicating the situation is Herrera will be out of options in 2025. By non-tendering him, they can bypass the waivers process and try to re-sign him to a minor league deal to compete for the backup job. However, given the candidates on the 40-man roster, he is the best choice to be the backup if they don’t make a move. The going rate for a backup will be $4-6 million per season.
LHP Kyle Nelson
Kyle Nelson missed all but one month of the 2024 season as he developed thoracic outlet syndrome and tried to pitch through it. At the end of April, he was put on the injured list and was sent to Dr. Gregory Pearl to undergo surgery to address TOS. He should be a full go for Spring Training with plenty of time to rehab from the surgery.
The likelihood that Nelson gets non-tendered is slim to none. He sports a career 4.26 ERA with strikeout and walk rates close to the major league average. A.J. Puk and Joe Mantiply are virtual locks to make next year’s roster, so it’ll come down to if the team is willing to roster a third lefty. Nelson will be arbitration-eligible for the first time, but isn’t likely to cost too much with a projected salary of $800K.
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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.