Young D-backs Pitcher Shut Down With Shoulder Injury

The bad injury news continues to pile up on the Arizona Diamondbacks. On Thursday, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters that right-handed pitching prospect Cristian Mena has been shut down from throwing after "re-aggravating" an injury to his Teres Major (shoulder) suffered in the 2025 season.

Mena was one of the casualties of 2025's rain-soaked affair with the Cincinnati Reds. With a wet ball, Mena was forced to tighten his grip. Before the game was eventually suspended due to the weather conditions, the young righty had injured his shoulder.

Mena had been progressing in spring training, appearing to be in good health. He had been throwing bullpen sessions at Salt River Fields (albeit at a slowed rate) already.

"We've been talking to him about his health and his bullpens. We've been slow playing that," Lovullo said. "But we are going to pull him totally back out of all drills, all throwing programs, and let him rest for right now. What that process is, I'm not sure."

Arizona Diamondbacks' Cristian Mena Shut Down from Throwing

Lovullo said the re-aggravation occurred on Wednesday. Mena underwent imaging the same day.

"He was progressing. He was doing very nice. But we got some feedback from him, and he just felt something that wasn't right yesterday."

As of now, Lovullo said surgery is not something that has been considered for Mena.

"We're going to slow play it, pull back a little bit, and let that thing heal up," the manager said.

Losing Mena for significant time could be a bigger blow to the D-backs' pitching staff than it might appear on the surface.

The righty had appeared to be on the brink of a legitimate MLB breakout. He made three appearances with the D-backs in the 2025 season, allowing just one earned run over 6.2 innings. That lone run was a solo homer in the very game in which he came up injured.

Most impressively, Mena delivered 3.2 innings of scoreless long relief against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first appearance of 2025. He struck out five, allowed one walk and did not surrender a base hit.

Mena is still just 23 years old, and still has prospect status, ranked No. 11 among Arizona's prospects and No. 4 among D-backs pitching prospects at the conclusion of 2025. He was the return of the trade that sent outfielder Dominic Fletcher to the Chicago White Sox ahead of 2024.