Arizona Diamondbacks: Zack Greinke, bullpen questions persist

With his outing, Wednesday, Zack Greinke of the Arizona Diamondbacks said he felt fine and no issue with a groin injury.

While significant attention focused on the health and production of righthander Zack Greinke late Wednesday afternoon on a back field at the Salt River training facility, a subplot continues to fester for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Originally slated to open the season as Arizona’s starting pitcher and now scratched, Greinke, who suffered a right groin injury last week, appears uncomfortable to speak about his condition, and a willingness to ignore the malady. Instead, manager Torey Lovullo has been the face of injury updates and remains cautious relative to Greinke’s daily condition.

Meanwhile, issues persist in the bullpen. Though Lovullo likes to remind listeners that competition remains stable for a few remaining spots on his pitching staff, the reality is the Diamondbacks appear light years away from not only naming a closer but whether the closer will be by committee or dictated by an individual’s production.

At any rate, both Greinke’s recovery and stability, particularly at the back end of the bullpen, remain priorities. The sense of urgency is exacerbated because the championship season begins next Thursday night at home against the Colorado Rockies.

First, Greinke.

Because of production over his 13-year major league career, Greinke’s status as one of the elite pitchers in the game remains entrenched. Given the fact he will command a $34 million salary in 2018, puts Greinke under an intense microscope. The groin injury does not alter his traditionally uncomfortable sessions with the media and his agenda of game and bullpen preparation.

Perhaps the principal concern is the severity of the groin issue, and that’s something which the organization, and Greinke on Wednesday, pointed out with minimal concern. When asked about his physical condition after the mound effort Wednesday, Greinke told Call to the Pen there were merely no issues.

“It was all right,” he quietly said in reference to Wednesday’s outing. “Got some outs and felt pretty good. My groin’s feeling pretty good at the moment. Threw 60 pitches (Wednesday) and don’t know what the plan is for the next time.”

Though Greinke pitched under controlled conditions against Diamondbacks’ minor league players, except for catcher Chris Herrmann who went 0-1 and a walk against Greinke, the plan laid out called for Greinke to face the San Francisco Giants in a scheduled spring game Wednesday night. Instead, the Diamondbacks pushed Greinke onto a backfield and controlled the environment.

Though he finished with 60 pitches and 34 for strikes, Greinke was limited to about 17 pitchers per inning in the four frames he threw. The exception was the fourth in which he tossed 20 pitchers and faced batters who recorded four outs. Afterward, he told Call to the Pen that he would like to face major league competition in his next start (likely Monday night in Chase Field against Cleveland in a pre-season game), but was matter-of-fact when discussing the reality of missing the Diamondbacks’ opening day assignment.

“I’m just not capable of doing it this year,” he said. “It’s too late to do anything about it now.”

Equally concerning remains the nature of the bullpen.

With one week to go until the curtain rises, there is no named closer and Yoshi Hirano, who was thought to have an inside path to the job, was pulled from an assignment against the Giants Wednesday night. Also in consideration for that important back-end assignment are Brad Boxberger and Archie Bradley.

In the simulated game in which Greinke pitched, Bradley, Boxberger and Jorge De La Rosa tossed one scoreless inning each. Afterward, Lovullo told Call to the Pen, decisions surrounding both the closer and the general population of the bullpen, remain fluid.

“What I’m looking for in a closer is a comfort zone and solid stuff,” he said. “We have several strong candidates and decisions will not be easy. I thought (Boxberger) threw the ball extremely well (Wednesday) and was effective with all of his pitches. We’re drilling down on this and other decisions.”

Injury status and more …

More from Call to the Pen

Right fielder Steven Souza Jr. left Wednesday night’s game with an apparent bruised right shoulder. He sustained the injury while diving for an eventual double off the bat of the Giants’ Brandon Belt. The Diamondbacks provide no immediate injury report.

On the diamond, Arizona suffered its’ worse loss of the spring Wednesday night. The Giants pounded out a 14-0 win before a sell-out crowd of 12,888 at Salt River.

This game was over in a hurry. Arizona starter Matt Koch surrendered hits to the first five Giants hitters of the game, including a pair of home runs. Joe Panik led off the game with a blast over the right-field fence. Brandon Belt followed with a single and then Andrew McCutchen took Koch deep over the left field fence for a 2-run bomb. Buster Posey‘s double, a bloop single to right by Evan Longoria and a groundout by Brandon Crawford produced four, first-inning runs.

For the game, the Diamondbacks managed eight hits, while the Giants hammered out 21 hits.

Next, the Diamondbacks take on the Chicago White Sox Thursday night in a night game at Salt River. Taijuan Walker (1-0. 6.00 ERA this spring) gets the nod and goes against Sox righty Miguel Gonzalez (1-0, 7.88 this spring).

Next: With Zack Greinke out, Robbie Ray will likely open season

On Friday night, the Diamondbacks play their third straight night game and take on the Cleveland Indians in Goodyear. Lefty Patrick Corbin will oppose right-hander Mike Clevinger as starters.

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