Diamondbacks manager’s ironic comment resurfaces after Blake Snell signing

Lovullo’s response may have tempted fate. He only has himself to blame for Snell choosing to sign with yet another NL West team.

Kidding aside, the NL West has certainly attracted some of MLB’s best talent over the last half-decade. The Dodgers acquired baseball’s biggest star in Shohei Ohtani this offseason. The two-way slugger joined a clubhouse that had already added fellow MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman over its last four seasons.

The Padres, who last employed Snell, signed Xander Bogaerts last offseason and also got two years of Juan Soto. Padres third baseman Manny Machado, like Snell, moved from one NL West team to another when he left the Dodgers to move to San Diego in 2019.

But despite the stacked competition in the NL West, the Diamondbacks have still been able to compete with less talent on paper. But the road to another NL pennant got much tougher for Lovullo’s squad.