Torey Lovullo Makes Blunt Statement on Diamondbacks' Poor Defense

"The defense has been very bothersome to me this year," Lovullo said.

"It's been inconsistent, it's been slow, it's lacked initiative and creativity. It's the middle of August, maybe the beginning of August, where it's started to take off. So that's several months of baseball that I feel like we let get away from us now."

Some may point fingers at infield coach and former third base coach Shaun Larkin, on the job for the first time in 2025 following the departure of Tony Perezchica.

Lovullo insisted the blame does not lie on Larkin, but the results did not match the method.

"I believe in high-intensity training. ... I believe in constant coaching, overviews, like reviewing what your day is like, constantly talking about it. And Larkin was doing that. But I think there was some newness to the whole environment for a lot of different reasons.

"First-year coach, this was not his fault. I think we were all doing what we thought we could do to get these guys as ready as possible, it just showed up the wrong way.

"I think there was some curiosity about how we'd be instead of some directness as to what we were. And our standard is a very high level of that," Lovullo said.

The skipper said he wants to hold his team to a lofty standard next season, and may make some changes to the training regimen.

"The drill packages might change a little bit. The bottom line is, I want us to go as long as we can next April without making an error and without making a baserunning mistake."

"It seems like, 'Oh, this is brand new. It's OK. I can make these mistakes.' No, it's not OK. I want us to go into mid-May without getting thrown out. I want us to go to mid-May without making an infield error. That's my mindset. I want to put that on everybody," Lovullo said.

Arizona Diamondbacks Infield Personnel Changes

Arizona has undergone immense changes to its infield, both before and after the season began. A three-time Gold Glover in Christian Walker left first base in the hands of Josh Naylor.

Naylor's -6 Defensive Runs Saved and four errors were not due to lack of effort. Arizona's Opening Day first baseman put in plenty of early work. But he wasn't the same safety net the rest of the D-backs' infield was used to throwing to.

Meanwhile Eugenio Suárez — a normally-solid third baseman — committed 12 errors in just a few months with Arizona. He committed 10 in all of 2024.

"We had what I considered a very veteran infield," Lovullo said. "We didn't know a lot about Josh Naylor. He was fielding the ball side-to-side, I'd never seen that. So we had to get him kind of anchored and fielding the ball moving forward.

"Geno was first steps and reactive to some balls down the line or moving laterally. So that stuff we could have trained a little bit harder, I'm sure.

"Losing Walker as an infield leader was massive for us. He's a Gold Glover, right? You don't replace him. ... You slowly take for granted the things that he did well when you see somebody else get over there, and it looks a little bit different," Lovullo said.

The manager was certain to emphasize that Naylor's effort as "as good as I've seen," and that any discrepancy between he and Walker was certainly not for lack of effort.

But ultimately, Lovullo wants to hit his defense a little harder this coming Spring. The D-backs have seen growth defensively out of infielders like Blaze Alexander, Jordan Lawlar and even Tyler Locklear.

Arizona has begun to return to its former defensive ways, but there are going to be changes to re-emphasize those best practices this offseason.

"At the end of the day, we know what we have, and we're not going to take it for granted. Whether you're a vet or not, it's on. We're going to train hard, and I'm going to make that demand," Lovullo said.

Arizona Diamondbacks Latest News