Diamondbacks Designate Carlos Santana For Assignment

The Diamondbacks announced that left-hander Mitch Bratt has been recalled from Triple-A Reno. Fellow lefty Kohl Drake was optioned to Reno as a corresponding move. MLBTR covered the Bratt promotion yesterday. Additionally, the Snakes announced that first baseman Carlos Santana has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and designated for assignment.

Arizona signed the veteran Santana to a one-year, $2MM deal in February. Even though he was entering his age-40 season, the Snakes felt he could play a useful role on the club. Despite his age, he has continued putting up good defensive numbers at first base. His offense declined over the years but the switch-hitter has generally been better against lefties and could perhaps at least serve a short-side platoon role with the lefty-swinging Pavin Smith.

It hasn’t played out as it was drawn up. He appeared in eight games before a strained right adductor put him on the injured list a week into April. He put up a dismal .083/.154/.125 line in 26 plate appearances before landing on the shelf.

He started a minor league rehab assignment in May but he re-injured his adductor, per Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. He began another rehab assignment on June 5th but has put up a .130/.333/.261 line in eight minor league games in that span. Rehab assignments for position players have a 20-day maximum. Santana was coming to the end of that window but the Diamondbacks have decided to cut him loose instead of putting him back on the roster. Ildemaro Vargas has taken up the platoon role with Smith and will presumably continue doing so.

Santana will now head into DFA limbo. He surely won’t have trade value, given his performance this year. As a veteran player with years and years of service time, he has the right to reject outright assignments while retaining his salary commitments. The Snakes might skip that formality and release him. One way or another, he’ll likely be a free agent in the near future.

At that point, it’s possible there would be more interest. The Diamondbacks would stay on the hook for the remainder of Santana’s salary. Another club could sign him and would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster.

As recently as 2024, Santana was able to produce 2.9 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs. He hit .238/.328/.420 that year with strong defense to boot. However, he dipped to .219/.308/.325 last year and has been even worse here in 2026. It’s possible the adductor issue is lingering. As mentioned, he only played eight games during his recent 20-day rehab window, only once playing on back-to-back days. He might be limited to minor league offers as teams may want to get a look at him before making any roster commitments.