ESPN REPORT: Arizona Diamondbacks head coach is being fired due to….
The Arizona Diamondbacks have had a chaotic season but not in the ways they prided themselves on last year. Between injuries, 12-run outbursts followed by cold stretches, relievers hitting in the 11th inning and bees, itās difficult to know what to expect at the ballpark on a given night.
Corbin Carrollās stalled early-season performance has contributed to the variance (probably not the bees part), and his five RBIs Tuesday at the Cincinnati Reds were an auspicious sign looking forward.
There is a certain gear Carroll adds to the offense when humming.
āItās a fairly high bar he set for all of us watching him play that we scrutinize what he does to the degree we do. We know how dynamic he can be,ā general manager Mike Hazen toldĀ Arizona Sportsā Wolf & LukeĀ Wednesday.
āI think itās exacerbated a little bit by (Geraldo) Perdomo and (Alek) Thomas being out, the sort of guys we have running around and playing small ball and creating a certain level of offense. Itās sort of been reduced now to Jake (McCarthy) and Corbin in a lot of ways that have a lot of that in their game ā¦ Our offense has been inconsistent through the first month and has put us in challenging situations and we need to get that straightened out. Heās a big player in all that. So itās good to see him start to get rolling down the other side. He is such a good player that I would hope this is gonna continue for us.ā
The D-backs returned Carroll back to the leadoff spot after he dropped toward the bottom of the order on April 24 while hitting .215.
He popped up on a pitch up-and-in to lead off the game, a spot opponents have targeted as a weakness. Carroll, though, rebounded for his second straight multi-hit game, including his second home run of the year. Better yet, he launched a pitch up at the letters over the left-center field wall against southpaw Justin Wilson.
He went 0-for-4 but reached on an error and a walk Wednesday as the D-backs won their third straight game.
Carroll was very open about his struggles Saturday, noting the flatness to his swing he is working through in order to create attacking angles. He has been getting under the ball with a 15.1% pop-up rate compared to 7.3% last year.
Hazen complimented the dedication to improvement Carroll has shown throughout his career, from sitting in the stands after shoulder surgery in 2021 to working on puttingĀ his current slump behind him.
āWhat you see publicly is very much a reflection of what we see privately so thereās not really a lot of discrepancy there,ā Hazen said. āI would agree that having an elite performer that has that level of self-reflection and humility about is awesome, right? Itās our dream. Itās an organizationās dream.
āAt some point, the caring so much can get in the way at times because youāre not gonna be perfect. Nobodyās gonna be perfect. This game will trash you as an offensive player if your expectation is youāre gonna go out there and hit a rocket every time you go up there. ā¦ Iāll say like Mookie (Betts), go talk to Mookie day-to-day and thereās a lot of, āI could be way better than I am.ā ā¦ I think Corbin has a lot of that in him and I think thatās what drives the greatest to the heights that they do.ā
Perdomo and Thomas ā plus Jordan Lawlar ā represent a lot of speed on the injured list. Meanwhile, Carrollās on-base percentage this season is .297, down from .364 even with a higher walk rate.
Both elements contribute to Arizonaās steals being down to 23rd in MLB with 17. Carroll still leads the team with eight and McCarthy has three.
Last year the D-backs were second in steals, while Carroll ranked third in MLB with 54 stolen bases and second in extra bases taken percentage. No one created more chaos.
Hazen said the offense at times has overemphasized searching for power and he expects the lineup to be more dynamic going forward, especially when healthier. Carroll turning this around would provide more chances for hit-and-runs and awestruck moments of him zooming around the bases. Standouts Ketel Marte, Christian Walker and Joc Pederson would get more opportunities to drive in runs, as well.
āI think youāll see some lineup configurations where itās going to be a lot more dynamic in terms of the speed, the ability for us to put a lot of pressure on defenses,ā Hazen said. āWe were never really built to go out and bash. I donāt ever foresee us in the top five to 10 in home runs. I think weāre going to be more of that team one through nine that we saw at the end of the year and into the playoffs where we had the ability to beat you in a lot of different ways and to date we havenāt quite been able to put that together but thatās what weāre searching for.ā