Yet Another D-backs Reliever Hits Injured List While One Returns

The Arizona Diamondbacks' injury season from hell continued on Friday with the announcement by manager Torey Lovullo that lefty Jalen Beeks is going on the 15-day injured list with lower back inflammation.

The D-backs now have 15 players on the IL, including five starting pitchers, seven relievers, and three position players.

The corresponding move will be to finally activate the oft-injured Kendall Graveman, who has been on the IL since June 8 with a hip impingement.

Beeks was signed to a one-year free agent contract a day before the season started and made an immediate positive impact in the Diamondbacks' bullpen. Working in 12 of the team's first 25 games, he allowed only one earned run and eight hits in 15 innings.

Manager Torey Lovullo leaned on him heavily, and that began to show. He blew a save on April 26, allowing three runs in an eventual 8-7 extra innings loss to the Braves.

From that point until his most recent outing July 6, Beeks appeared in 30 more games, throwing 26 innings and posting an unsightly 6.58 ERA.

There was probably a bit of bad luck in that stretch, as his FIP, or fielding independent pitching, was 4.36 over the same span.

For the full season, Beeks has thrown 41 innings and has a 4.39 ERA along with a 3.70 FIP. He's allowed six of 17 inherited runners to score, 35%. That's slightly worse than league average 32%.

Beeks has a -0.3 WPA, or Win Percentage Added. Another way to view that is he has a .762 OPS against in high-leverage situations, and .527 OPS against in low-leverage.

The upshot summary of Beeks' season to date is he has been a go-to guy for Torey Lovullo, more than he should have been, out of necessity.

Always willing to take the ball and do whatever necessary for his team, Beeks has been pressed into a higher-leverage role than was intended, and the workload caught up to him.

Hopefully a couple weeks off to heal his back and regenerate his arm will breathe new life into him for the stretch run.

Graveman was signed as veteran setup reliever with closing experience. He missed all of 2024 due to shoulder surgery, and then began the 2025 with a lumbar strain.

He made his season debut May 13, and pitched in seven games through the end of May, allowing only one run on seven hits, three walks, and three strikeouts.

As the calendar flipped to June, the hip issue popped up and Graveman was held back to try to work through it. He gave up a run on two hits on June 5.

Then two days later he was tagged for six runs on five hits, including a homer in one inning of work. He went on the IL a day later with the hip impingement.

How much Graveman is able to contribute remains to be seen. But Lovullo will need to lean on him as the bullpen is completely decimated.

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