Diamondbacks designate former first-round pick for assignment

The Diamondbacks announced Wednesday that they designated first baseman/designated hitter Seth Beer for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to top pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt, whose previously reported promotion has now been formally announced by the team. Righty Peter Solomon was optioned to Triple-A Reno to clear a spot for Pfaadt on the 26-man roster. Pfaadt will make his MLB debut and start Wednesday’s game for Arizona.

Beer, 26, was acquired from the Astros alongside Josh Rojas, Corbin Martin and J.B. Bukauskas in the 2019 deadline trade that sent Zack Greinke to Houston. He’s seen brief MLB time in the past two seasons but posted a .208/.294/.292 batting line in a total of 136 plate appearances.

Broadly speaking, Beer has a much more productive track record in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.370/.460 with 32 home runs, 55 doubles, an 18.2% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate in 916 trips to the plate. That said, the year-to-year breakdown of Beer’s Triple-A production is less encouraging. After posting a strong .287/.398/.511 batting line there in 2021 (128 wRC+), his numbers dipped to about league-average in 2022 and have fallen all the way to a .200/.266/.314 slash in 79 plate appearances to begin the current season.

Beer, the No. 28 overall pick in the 2018 draft, was always viewed as a bat-first prospect who’d need to hit at a very high level to justify his lack of speed and defensive upside. He did that up through the 2021 season, but the past two years have brought about a downturn. That said, he still has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, so a team in need of a left-handed bat with some power potential could view the 26-year-old as an intriguing buy-low candidate. The D-backs will have a week to trade Beer or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he were to go unclaimed, he wouldn’t have the ability to decline the assignment, as he has neither three years of MLB service nor a prior outright assignment in his career.