How a Surprising Defensive Shift Is Changing the Game Overnight
Introduction
One of the many reasons for the disappointing D-Backs’ 2025 season? Their dismayingly ugly defense. It felt like a constant refrain throughout the season’s broadcasts when either Steve Berthiaume or Bob Brenly would remark on how defensive errors or miscues drive a manager like Torey Lovullo crazy. That ugliness caught my eye early and never really seemed to be resolved throughout the season. Frustratingly, none of Torey’s mental anguish or pleading seemed to make much of a difference. I don’t want to overstate the problem. It’s not as if their defense was terrible – depending on your preferred metric, they were anywhere from 11th in the majors by FanGraph’s defensive rating to 24th by Baseball Reference’s defensive runs saved. But those rankings are both significant steps backwards compared to the previous year when the D-Backs were first by the latter and seventh by the former en route to an 89-73 record. Obviously, it wasn’t the only factor in their slippage between the two seasons, but now that Spring Training is upon us, the team’s defense will be under intense scrutiny – especially since none of the projected rotation members are likely to be strikeout artists and will instead depend on a stalwart defense to keep runs off the board. So what improvements can be made to make sure that comes to pass?
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