Diamondbacks To Hire Ben Fritz As Pitching Coach

The Diamondbacks have a new pitching coach. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Arizona has snaked Ben Fritz away from the Padres. He has been working as the bullpen coach in San Diego. The Snakes parted ways with pitching coach Brian Kaplan earlier this month.

Fritz, 45, was a first-round pick of the Athletics back in 2002. He pitched in the minors through 2008 but never made it to the big leagues. He kept pitching in indy ball through 2010. The Padres gave him a minor league coaching job in 2015. He got the bullpen coach job at the big league level ahead of the 2020 season. He was briefly the pitching coach in 2021. Larry Rothschild was fired from that job in August of that year. Fritz held the job the rest of the way and then Ruben Niebla was hired in October.

For what it’s worth, the Padres have had good results in the pitching department in recent years. From 2020 to 2026, San Diego pitchers posted a collective 3.86 earned run average, behind just six other clubs. The Diamondbacks had a 4.55 ERA in that same time frame, better than just three teams.

It’s always tough to determine how much credit or blame to give to an individual coach, since he can only work with the players on the roster and is also just one member of a larger staff. But it seems Fritz has a good reputation in the league. He reportedly drew some interest from other clubs last year. Lin’s report from today notes that the Rockies were interested in him for their pitching coach vacancy but the Diamondbacks have managed to bring him aboard.

Fritz will try to improve things in Arizona. The team has spent a lot of money on pitching in recent years, signing free agents such as Corbin Burnes, Eduardo Rodríguez and Jordan Montgomery, in addition to re-signing Merrill Kelly. The 2026 squad had a collective 4.19 ERA, putting them 18th in the majors.

Going into next year, they project to have Kelly, Rodríguez and Brandon Pfaadt in the rotation. Burnes should be in there, though with some workload concerns. He spent most of 2025 and 2026 rehabbing Tommy John surgery and had some shoulder problems as he made his way back. Ryne Nelson could have a spot at the back end, though the Snakes and Michael Soroka also have mutual interest in a reunion.

In the bullpen, there could be a lot of turnover. Jonathan Loáisiga, Kevin Ginkel, Taylor Clarke, Ryan Thompson, A.J. Puk and Dennis Santana all just became free agents. There are some encouraging holdovers nonetheless. Justin Martínez returned from a Tommy John surgery layoff late in the 2026 season. Brandyn Garcia and Juan Morillo seemed to have breakouts, both posting ERAs south of 2.25 with strong underlying numbers. The Diamondbacks will surely change the makeup of the group by making some signings and trades before the next season begins.