Arizona Diamondbacks missing Jean Segura – and his bat
By Kyle Cardoza
Jean Segura earned votes for Most Valuable Player during his lone season with the Diamondbacks. But that wasn’t enough to keep him around any longer. Now Arizona might regret trading him in 2016.
The Arizona Diamondbacks could have had a legitimate pitching staff accompanied by a stellar franchise shortstop. And they could have avoided their middle-infield troubles if they refrained from making a move in 2016.
But alas, it’s too late to dwell on the past – even if it’s frustrating to see Jean Segura play at such a high level. That goes without mentioning Mitch Haniger and his presence in Seattle.
Arizona’s front office moved on, remaining optimistic about Taijuan Walker and Ketel Marte. Walker pitched almost a full year in 2017 but underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Marte has a whopping .592 OPS this season, clocking one home run and contributing 10 RBIs. Nevertheless, a positive aspect of Marte’s game this year has been his discipline. He drew 14 walks and whiffed just 26 times up to this point.
The Diamondbacks will look at every silver lining at this point, no matter how minute.
Surely, the Mariners earned the better half of the deal, at least based on statistics from the previous two seasons. Arizona believed that pitching superseded hitting as the main focus.
It was unsure how Segura would handle the pressure of being involved in a larger deal. High expectations either lead to renowned success or complete failure. It is rare to see something in between those results.
However, Segura hit the ground running for the Mariners. He’s hit .304 for them across 733 at-bats with a combined 34 stolen bases and 115 runs scored across 174 games.
Although his 2017 numbers weren’t as impressive as what he achieved on the Diamondbacks, they were good enough to have Arizona realize what it lost.