Arizona Diamondbacks: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Out west, the Arizona Diamondbacks look to play Cinderella in a crowded National League. But they may just be one of the top dogs in reality.

To the surprise of many, the Arizona Diamondbacks over-performed in 2019, winning 85 games and finishing fourth in the NL Wild Card standings. This came after the D-Backs lost their best player in Paul Goldschmidt to the St. Louis Cardinals in the offseason.

Quiet and under-the-radar, the D-Backs now head into 2020 on the back of a feel-good 2019 performance and having tweaked the roster just enough to potentially put them over the top.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

The D-Backs certainly surprised me last year with the success they had. I thought they looked like one of the worst teams in baseball on paper, and with the loss of Paul Goldschmidt, their offense was going to suffer tremendously. Outside of Eduardo Escobar and David Peralta, I thought this offense was going to be one of the worst in the league.

But silly me, I totally overlooked Ketel Marte and Carson Kelly who both broke out in 2019 as Kelly smashed 18 home runs and Marte was actually fourth in MVP voting hitting .329 AVG/.389 OBP/.592 SLG/.981 OPS with 32 homers and 92 ribbies. Christian Walker had himself a solid year as well, slugging 29 home runs.

Then came this offseason, where they added one of the Pirates’ best players in Starling Marte to be their everyday centerfielder, as well as swapping out the injury-prone Steven Souza Jr. for one of the best defensive corner outfielders in baseball in Kole Calhoun.

And don’t forget the extension they gave Nick Ahmed who hit 19 homers of his own in 2019 and is bursting onto the scene as one of the premier defenders at shortstop with two-straight Gold Gloves.

Arizona Diamondbacks: 2020 Preview, Prediction

As for the D-Backs’ pitching staff, this was a group that managed to keep its head above water last season in the wake of losing Patrick Corbin the previous offseason (like they had Goldschmidt) and Zack Greinke mid-year in a major trade with the Astros to acquire a boatload from the eventual AL pennant champs such as Seth Beer, Josh Rojas, Corbin Martin, and JB Bukauskas.

More from Arizona Diamondbacks

• Can we expect late-season runs for the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks?
• MLB rumors: Arizona Diamondbacks taking less aggressive approach at MLB trade deadline
• Trade deadline: NL West for sale, plus Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks wish list
• Arizona Diamondbacks: Are they a pretender or contender for the NL West and more?
• Mike Hazen’s impact on the Arizona Diamondbacks: An interim grade

They swapped out their best pitcher in Greinke and chose not to re-sign Corbin and they still came in at 12th in baseball in team ERA. They also managed to get their hands on Zac Gallen from Miami in mid-2019 and he wound up pitching to a 2.89 ERA in eight starts with the D-Backs.

The D-Backs now have Gallen, Luke Weaver who they got from the Paul Goldschmidt trade, Robbie Ray who racks up strikeouts like crazy (over 200 in 3 of the last 4 years), two veterans in Mike Leake and Merrill Kelly, an abundance of younger arms coming up like Taylor Clarke, Jon Duplantier, Alex Young, and Taylor Widener, and perhaps the most clutch postseason pitcher (certainly of this generation) in Madison Bumgarner who they signed this offseason.

On top of that, they added Hector Rondon and Junior Guerra to their bullpen mix with Andrew Chafin and a very underrated closer, Archie Bradley, already locking it down at the back end.

There’s not much to dislike about this team heading into the 2020 season. They’ll have a solid lineup with plenty of power, a pitching staff with a mix of vets and young studs that will wind up being one of the best staffs in baseball, an improved bullpen, a manager on the rise in Torey Lovullo, and extreme momentum carrying over from last season.

The Dodgers, for the past seven seasons, have ruled the NL West, but the D-Backs haven’t been far behind with three-straight above .500 seasons under their belt as they head into 2020. And if it wasn’t for the Giants’ three recent championships and the Dodgers’ division-winning streak they’ve been on, the D-Backs would most certainly be a bigger name in baseball.

As I look at the National League heading into 2020, the Dodgers certainly jump out to me as a prohibitive favorite to win the pennant. But who is their biggest competition? I have the Braves and Cardinals winning their divisions again this year, but does that mean those two are the biggest threats?

Honestly, I think this is going to be a year where the two best teams coming out of the National League are also going to be from the same division. Unfortunately, that probably means we’ll have them match up in the NLDS instead of the NLCS (if at all), but I feel good in saying that the D-Backs are the second-best team in the NL this season and that they’ll give the Dodgers their best shot in the NLDS if they can get past a Wild Card game.

Do not sleep on the Diamondbacks this year. I have them finishing second in the NL West (97-65 record if it were a full year) and hosting the Wild Card Game against the New York Mets. That means deGrom vs. Mad Bum in a Wild Card matchup. Yes, I think rather highly of this team. Great manager. Great organization. Roster that is severely underrated. I love this team in 2020.