Diamondbacks To Retain Manager Torey Lovullo

Lovullo has been the skipper in Arizona for a decade now. 2027 will be his 11th season at the helm. His tenure has had plenty of ups and downs. The team won 93 games and made the postseason in his first campaign. They hovered around .500 for a few years after that and had a nightmare season in 2021, losing 110 games that year. The club stuck with Lovullo through that. After another losing season in 2022, they had a huge step forward in 2023. They only won 84 games but got hot at the right time and made run to the World Series, falling to the Rangers in five games.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing since then. The club increased its win total to 89 in 2024 but missed the playoffs. They dipped down to 80-82 in 2025 and there were reports of clubhouse discord related to accusations that Ketel Marte was getting away with a lack of work ethic.

The Snakes brought Lovullo back for 2026 but let him continue in the final year of his contract. It’s pretty rare for managers or executives to be in lame-duck status but that’s how Lovullo and the team proceeded through 2026. The results of the season were mixed. Arizona was in contention for most of the year but again fell just shy of a playoff berth with 86 wins. There was more Marte drama, as he reportedly didn’t show up for a game at Fenway in August. He was initially placed on the restricted list but was later moved to the injured list with a knee injury.

As the season ended and Lovullo’s contract was about to expire, his future was unclear. He spoke to the media after the final game of the season, with video relayed by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, seemingly unclear of his own status. “I don’t know where it’s at,” he said. “I have some decisions to make. I have some things to think about, as do the D’Backs. Where it goes from here, I don’t know.”

Despite the mixed on-field results and the reports of discontent behind the scenes, there have also been signs that Lovullo is well respected in Arizona and around the league. Alex D’Agostino of SI recently spoke to various players on the roster who expressed their fondness for playing under Lovullo. Team CEO Derrick Hall clearly views things similarly. “If he walks out this door, he’s going to get a job in a heartbeat,” Hall said this week, per Weiner. “And he should because I do think he’s one of the best managers in the game.”

Hall may have been correct. The uncertainty around Lovullo was enough for at least one other club to sniff around. It was reported earlier this week that the Mariners had Lovullo as a leading candidate for their managerial vacancy. It now seems Seattle will have to cross his name off the list.

The Diamondbacks came up just short in 2026 but have a lot of good things in place for 2027. Their lineup core is essentially all coming back. James McCann and Ildemaro Vargas are the most significant free agents on the position player side. The pitching staff has a few more notable guys heading to the open market but the Snakes can go into 2027 with an on-paper rotation consisting of Eduardo Rodríguez, Corbin Burnes, Brandon Pfaadt and Merrill Kelly. There’s mutual interest in a reunion with Michael Soroka. The late-game trio of Juan Morillo, Brandyn Garcia and Justin Martínez will all be back next year as well.

The club still feels Lovullo is the right man to lead them back to October, so they have locked him up before the Mariners or any other club could get a chance to pluck him out of Arizona. The front office will try to bolster the roster before Opening Day to give him the best chance of success.

Photos courtesy of Joe Rondone, Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images