Diamondbacks Interested In Carlos Santana

As the Diamondbacks continue to look for first base help, the club has shown interest in Carlos Santana, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports.  John Gambadoro of 98.7FM Arizona Sports adds more detail, saying that Santana is just one of multiple first basemen the Snakes are exploring, and no deal appears to be close.

A veteran of 16 MLB seasons, Santana has a reputation as a clubhouse leader, which Gambadoro says adds extra appeal for the D’Backs on top of Santana’s contributions on the field.  Santana is a strong defensive first baseman who finally won his first career Gold Glove in 2024, and that same season saw him hit .238/.328/.420 with 23 homers over 594 plate appearances for the Twins.

That solid 113 wRC+ campaign was followed, however, by an 82 wRC+ performance over 474 PA with the Guardians and Cubs in 2025.  Santana inked a one-year, $12MM free agent contract to return to his old stomping grounds, but this third stint in Cleveland didn’t work out, as Santana was released in late August.  The Cubs signed Santana as bench depth heading into the playoff stretch, but he had just two hits over 19 PA in a Chicago uniform and wasn’t part of the postseason roster.

Over 474 total PA in 2025, Santana hit .219/.308/.325, with his OBP and slugging percentage each representing new career lows.  His 11% walk rate was still very good and he avoided strikeouts at an above-average rate, yet the near-total evaporation of Santana’s power was hard to ignore, especially for a player in his age-39 season.

The switch-hitting Santana had a big dropoff against left-handed pitching, which was noteworthy since Santana has been much more productive hitting from the right side of the plate than the left side in recent years.  Since the left-handed hitting Pavin Smith would be Santana’s platoon partner in Arizona, Santana would almost exclusively be facing southpaws, which might help him get back on track.

The D’Backs are the first team publicly linked to Santana’s market this winter, which isn’t surprising as he enters his age-40 season looking for a bounce-back performance.  Santana previously rebounded from down years in 2020-21 to deliver more respectable numbers in 2022-23, but the question is naturally how much longer than the first baseman keep avoiding Father Time.  Beyond his career track record, Santana’s strong glove does give him some advantage over other first basemen still on the market, which might help him with a team like Arizona that only needs a part-time first base bat.