Diamondbacks Officially Release Veteran Outfielder

Kepler was signed to a one-year contract by Arizona earlier this season, back on June 7.

At the time, Kepler was still not eligible to land on an active roster, as he was still serving an 80-game suspension due to a positive performance enhancing drug test following his 2025 season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Diamondbacks were making a bit of a gamble by signing Kepler, though not in the financial sense. He was not making a high dollar amount; the deal was for the veteran minimum.

But Arizona was hoping to get some production and power from a left-handed hitter not named Corbin Carroll or Ketel Marte. They have particularly struggled against right-handed starting pitchers this year.

Unfortunately, Kepler was not able to provide that type of offensive boost in his time with the Diamondbacks.

He hit to just a .205/.262/.303 triple slash line and a .565 OPS with seven doubles and two homers over the course of just 41 games (145 plate appearances).

His clutch moments were few and far between, and he struck out 32 times in that span. His outfield defense did not provide enough value to offset the offensive struggles, either. Kepler posted -0.6 average WAR (between Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs) despite such a limited sample size of playing time.

And yet, the Diamondbacks' outfield is still quite jammed. Corbin Carroll is dealing with a back issue, but has still been Arizona's most productive outfield bat, as expected. Tommy Troy and Jordan Lawlar are now both healthy and splitting reps, while rookie Ryan Waldschmidt has shown some promise in his rookie season, as well.

The D-backs also have Lars Nootbaar, who they traded for at the Deadline, and they just activated veteran Lourdes Gurriel Jr., though he's been injured and his bat has been even less productive than Kepler's.