Less than 100 games remain in the MLB season and the Arizona Diamondbacks are not only leading the NL West, but they are also battling with the Atlanta Braves for the best record in the NL and have a top five record in the entire league.
What is going on with the Arizona Diamondbacks?
The Diamondbacks have put it all together, with rookie sensation Corbin Carroll not only on pace to be the unanimous NL Rookie of the Year, but he’s currently third in early NL MVP polling. The kid has done it all for the Diamondbacks as he has a .998 OPS, hitting .313 with a team leading 14 home runs and 19 stolen bases. He is the optimal dual-threat player and, on top of that, is a great and versatile defensive outfielder.
Alongside Carroll, long tenured Diamondback Ketel Marte is slashing .280/.350/.473 and a versatile defender, Christian Walker is tied for the team lead in RBI with 39 and the man he is tied with, newly acquired Lourdes Gurriel Jr., is playing some of the best baseball in his still young career.
On the bump, the Diamondbacks are spearheaded by possibly the best one-two punch in all of baseball with Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. Gallen emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball last year. He finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting last year with a sub-3.00 ERA. He also had a streak of six straight starts of six or more scoreless innings of baseball. He went on an equally impressive streak earlier this season, when he tossed 28 straight scoreless innings of baseball. Merrill Kelly has matched Gallen every step of the way, creating a very reliable and dominant front end of the rotation.
All this to ask: are the Diamondbacks legit contenders? My honest answer is yes. Entering Wednesday, they held a tie with Atlanta for the best record in the NL and had a three-game lead over the Dodgers for the top spot in the West, 5.5 over the San Fransisco Giants and 8.5 over the very disappointing San Diego Padres, who I said were the team with the most pressure to win a World Series. If they keep pace, they’ll most likely be duking it out with the Dodgers the rest of the way. But should they slip up, they’ll still land comfortably in one of those two Wild Card spots.
What is most important is how they operate as a team. They aren’t hitting a ton of home runs, which isn’t really the formula to winning a World Series anymore. But they are top five amongst all teams in batting average, RBI and stolen bases. They hit for average, and they are aggressive on the base paths. They also have the aforementioned Gallen and Kelly, and having two top tier pitchers is all too important come playoff time.
After missing the playoffs for five straight seasons, and having a 110-loss season in 2021, the Diamondbacks have finally positioned themselves to not only compete this year, but be competitive for years to come.