Diamondbacks' Rotation Taking Pressure off Bullpen, Offense

The Arizona Diamondbacks' starting rotation came into the 2025 season in a bit of a slump. But - in perhaps a macrocosm of each individual start - after a rough beginning, Arizona's starting arms have settled in, with a stretch of six straight Quality Starts.

Those six straight starts have seen solid, deep outings from each member of the rotation. Zac Gallen bounced back from a pair of early runs to deliver six innings, Merrill Kelly has looked excellent since his poor Yankee Stadium outing, and Corbin Burnes gutted out a six-inning Quality Start en route to a thrilling five-run ninth-inning comeback.

And they're getting good, consistently deep outings from Eduardo Rodríguez and Brandon Pfaadt as well.

This success is a result of general manager Mike Hazen's meticulous roster construction, as he's handed out plenty of hefty contracts to compile the best five arms available to the D-backs.

Hazen, speaking on Arizona Sports 98.7's Wolf & Luke show, said this string of Quality Starts has meant "a lot" to the team offensively.

"I think the consistency that it gives your team, what it does for the position players... And we've been behind a decent amount lately. We have, even in some of these starts, we've given up some runs early," Hazen said.

"But they've settled in and given us six innings. And when the position players see that over time, I think they walk out onto the field every night being like, 'alright, we need to get three or four runs. We're going to win this game.' So I think it's very important from that standpoint mentally."

But perhaps one of the most important effects of consistently solid, deep outings from the rotation comes down to bullpen usage. Hazen said the starting success helps regulate how often relievers are used, and can allow them to remain at their best without being overused.

"The amount of consistency [the string of Quality Starts] gives to the manager and the pitching coach in deploying the bullpen is also very, very important. The amount of innings that your bullpen throws over the course of 162 games matters a lot. And that gives a lot of help so that you're not running Shelby [Miller] and [A.J. Puk] and [Justin Martinez] out there every single day or every other day.

"So I think, again, all these things are interrelated. But that's why that becomes so important. It's not about having six shutout. Getting into the sixth and seventh inning is critically important over the course of a long season," Hazen said.

And Arizona's bullpen has looked quite sharp so far. While regression can hit at any time, the D-backs' bullpen ERA sits at an above-average 3.59 in the young 2025 season. That contrasts somewhat starkly with 2024's 4.41, which ranked 24th in MLB.

Of course, that can also be attributed to an increase in both velocity and overall relief talent.

"I like the way the bullpen's come together. I think there's more than just three pitchers out there. In the short run of April, you can figure out using three to four pitchers [per game] over the long haul of the season, [but] you can end up burning some of them out. And I like the way that's going," Hazen said.

"And that goes hand-in-hand with how we're going with our starting pitching. The starting pitching has certainly been better. But I think all those things are semi-interrelated. As we started to play better defense, we've seen the starting pitchers start to throw the ball really well. And that's good to see."

It's not guarantee that the D-backs can maintain the pace of Quality Starts each and every outing, but on paper, the rotation could shape into one of the better units in all of baseball. The length which which they have delivered outings has been critical to both the offense and the relief corp, and Hazen thinks that trend could remain relatively consistent.

"These are all very established, good starting pitchers that have good stuff, and they're going to go out there. It's all going to even [out]. And as we play good defense and pick up the ball behind them, I think we're going to see a lot of consistency out of that group," Hazen said.

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