The Arizona Diamondbacks have been rumored for a third baseman for quite a while and now the club seems to have found their man.
Evan Longoria has signed a one-year contract with the team. It was Jon Heyman who first reported the news.
He will get four million dollars and he could get one more through good performances during the season.
Clearly, he knows what he’s getting into, having spent the last five seasons in the NL West with the Giants. He therefore knows the DBacks.
So he must know that they will have a club not worse.
Do we expect to see them make the playoffs? Not necessarily, no. But we can expect to see them be more competitive than in the past.
It might be tougher on the mound (especially if Madison Bumgarner continues to have some ups and downs and Zac Gallen goes it alone), but offensively it should be drinkable.
Gabriel Moreno, Christian Walker, Ketel Marte, Evan Longoria, Nick Amhed, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Corbin Carroll, to name a few, should be able to do a good job in 2023.
Will that be enough to win the division in 2023? Obviously not. The Padres, Dodgers and Giants, in order, are currently my favorites to claim the division title.
But you have to start somewhere and the club will have to do what the Tigers were supposed to do in 2022, but didn’t: take a step forward.
