What D-backs Learned About Young 2025 Roster

"A connected team is a dangerous team," was the phrase manager Torey Lovullo brought to fame during the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2023 pennant-winning run.

That World Series seems like forever ago, as Arizona sits at home watching the playoffs from afar in 2025. But despite 2025's ultimate playoff-less result, that 2023 brand of connectedness — that dangerous nature — began to shine through a young, decimated D-backs roster once again.

Despite trading away veteran contributors, Arizona found itself in a spot to contend for the postseason in the final weeks of the year. They took their playoff odds down to the very last series.

Not to claim moral victories, but that fact speaks volumes about the young players Arizona has on its roster. Lovullo said the same in Arizona's end-of-season press conference.

What Lovullo, Hazen Learned About Diamondbacks' Young Roster

"I learned that they're gritty, and they're hungry, and they're prepared, and they're not afraid," Lovullo said. "That's the most important thing."

"I want to put a team of players out there that is not afraid and has a zero-back-down mentality, and they want to get in the middle of the ring and duke it out, and that's what I learned about some of the current players that we had that blended in with the youngsters."

The growth was apparent across the board. Blaze Alexander showed signs of becoming a budding star utility player. Jordan Lawlar began to show success at the plate. Arms like Taylor Rashi, Andrew Saalfrank, Brandyn Garcia and Philip Abner made unexpected contributions to the bullpen.

"I've targeted him several times, but Phillip Abner started in Hillsboro in High-A ball and was facing Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman... in the most critical point of the season for us, and executing," Lovullo said.

"We're proud of what they do in player development. Those boys come up here ready to go, and we need that."

But the theme toward the end of 2025 mirrored 2023 — in a way that may offer a bit of a concern. Playing with nothing to lose lends itself to exceeding expectations. But Arizona fell well shy of the pre-season expectations.

GM Mike Hazen was similarly impressed, but noted what those surpassed expectations meant as 2026 now lays in focus.

"I think the most challenging thing for that young group of players who may have felt like, 'Ah, no one expects us to do anything, it's all good, no problem,' starting on April 1 of next year, we are going to expect that, and we'll see what the performance has turned into then."

"Because that's going to be the biggest area of growth, when it becomes, 'Hey, nobody expects anything of me,' now it's going to be, 'Okay, you did it for that two-month window, that was great, can you go do that again, now that everybody's relying on you?'"

It's not to say that young stars can't continue in an upward trajectory, but they'll need to find a path from living on their connected, underdog nature to performing at a consistent level when contention is an expectation.

2026 will be an interesting season, to say the least.

Arizona Diamondbacks Latest News