Landon Sims is Ready and Going to Compete for Every Strike

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a future potential stud reliever working his way up the minor leagues right now. However, with that comes plenty of learning curves and development especially since it involves him reinventing himself after Tommy John surgery in college. His name is Landon Sims.

The No.18 prospect of Arizona, Sims, is in camp as a minor league reliever, and is getting to work in some of the big league Spring Training games including Sunday's game in Las Vegas. He got to experience traveling as an MLB player.

Plus, this is his first fully healthy off-season with no ailments to recover from. That's a big thing for a player as he can have a normal off-season full of rest and preparation instead of rehab.

Speaking about his off-season, Sims said "[I] really felt healthy going into this year. Just had some lingering stuff coming around, last two spring trainings coming back with TJ and everything. So, full healthy offseason was really good. Feel really strong right now and really looking forward to a good year."

Minor league games aren't known for garnering thousands of fans, especially over 10,000 in the lower levels of the minor leagues. That's why it took a few pitches for Sims to get used to pitching in front of such a large crowd in his first few appearances this Spring.

"It's been a minute since I threw in front of a big crowd, but once I settled in, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. You try to keep the moment the same every time, but sometimes it gets a little big on you. It was good to settle back in."

Sims got promoted midway through last season from Single-A Visalia to High-A Hillsboro and pitched well at both spots. He had a 2.12 ERA with Hillsboro over 34 innings to end last year. Speaking to Jack Sommers of Diamondbacks On SI, he shared just how strong a season it was for him, especially with it being his first full healthy season off Tommy John and other injuries.

"I think it was a mixed bag of things, but I think the further along I got from surgery and once I hit the 50 inning post-op mark, right when I felt like I was getting back to normal, the confidence was starting to come back. Arm was feeling healthy."

"Right when I got called up to Hillsboro last year was right around 50 innings post-op, and I brought the momentum into Hillsboro that I ended with Visalia with. It was a really good year. My main goal was to have a full healthy season, and that was accomplished. It was a successful season."

Sims mentioned that he "subconsciously" changed his mechanics and it took a while to get back to his usual mechanics and that as he pitched more, "things kind of ironed themselves out."

Sims' walk and hit rate both went down significantly over the course of the year and from 2023. When asked what caused that to happen, Sims said, "I think the biggest thing was just confidence, really believing in myself, and my arm again was really big for me."

When asked what he wants fans to know about him, he shared to everyone that "I think the biggest thing is that I think my competitiveness will show with every opportunity I'm going to get. I feel like I'm a really competitive guy. I'm going to go 10 toes down in whatever I'm going to do and give them my all, for sure."

If all goes right, Sims could reach Triple-A by the end of this season and set up a potential MLB debut in 2026 with the Diamondbacks. Good luck to him this season in either Hillsboro or Amarillo depending on where the D-backs send him.