Arizona Diamondbacks: Giving players their final letter grades
Arizona Diamondbacks: Consistent contributions from their infield.
Nick Ahmed: A+
Ahmed had the best season of his career in 2019. He had career highs in hits, batting average, home runs, RBI’s, and on-base percentage. He also played in 158 games, which is also a career-high. The fact that he was so durable and had his best season ever, earns him the A+.
Eduardo Escobar: A+
Escobar also had a fantastic season. Not only did he set multiple career highs this season, but he also hit for power and for average. He led all of Major League Baseball with 10 triples. He also had 35 home runs and 118 RBI’s, career highs by quite a bit in both categories. He was also durable appearing in 158 games as well.
Kevin Cron: C
Cron joined the team at the end of the season and appeared in 39 games. He wasn’t in enough to go either high or low, which is why he is just at a C, not enough games, to really make a judgment on his season.
Flores was another wonderful breakout and a luxury for manager Torey Lovullo to bring off the bench or give guys rest days. He only appeared in 89 games, the fewest of his career, but set a career-high in batting average, hitting .317. His previous best season was .271.
Jake Lamb: D
Lamb has never been able to stay healthy since his 2017 All-Star season. He was wildly inconsistent and simply didn’t bring much to the team this year, hitting a paltry .193.
Another rookie brought up for the end of the season who simply didn’t have enough opportunities to really judge his season.
Josh Rojas: C
Rojas came to the team by way of trade as one of the top prospects in the Houston Astros farm system. He also didn’t have enough appearances to really judge his season, thus the C grade. He did show promise in the games he did appear in.
Vargas played well in the most major league exposure he has had to this point in his career. He appeared in 92 games and hit .269 and actually still has his rookie status intact after this season.
Christian Walker: B-
Walker is another young player who finally saw a lot of game action as he played in 152 games this year. He hit .259, but the grade is lower simply because of the guy he replaced over at first base, Paul Goldschmidt, set the bar so high.
Alex Avila: D
Avila did what he could behind the dish, but he just didn’t contribute much to the team at the dish. I was hoping for more from him.
Carson Kelly: B+
Kelly had a fantastic season. In his first full season really handling the catching duties he hit .245, homered18 times and drove in 48 runs.