Young Diamondbacks Reliever Discusses Growing Pains

For better or worse, the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to live and die by their young group of relievers after injuries and underperformance have plagued their bullpen in the 2025 season.

Arizona is in the midst of some turmoil, both on and off the field. Those very same young arms recreated a familiar tune of late bullpen meltdowns, sending the D-backs into an ugly series loss against the Rockies to close out their recent road trip.

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But when you're dealing with a young, inexperienced relief corps, those bumps in the road are often an inescapable part of the journey. Dominant outings may be followed up with blowup outings, or vice versa.

One such example is Andrew Hoffmann, the 25-year-old right-hander acquired in the trade that sent outfielder Randal Grichuk to the Kansas City Royals.

Hoffmann has shown flashes of extreme potential and talent, but was also tagged for four earned runs on Saturday, as the D-backs went on to blow a five-run lead.

Hoffmann spoke with Diamondbacks On SI's Jack Sommers Monday about his rough performance against Colorado, and how he's looking at those results moving forward in his major league development.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Andrew Hoffmann On Growing Pains

"I want to be good every time I go out there," Hoffmann said.

"I mean, when [Torey Lovullo] calls my name, I want to go out there and put up a zero and help the team as much as I can. I understand there's going to be bumps and here and there being young, but everybody in the bullpen wants to get the job done when your name's called."

The life of a leverage reliever is an unforgiving one. Hoffmann had a 2.70 ERA in his first 10 innings. After Saturday, that number is now 6.10.

While he did give up two doubles, the fatal blows came in the form of two walks — both times, Hoffmann had those batters in two-strike counts.

Hoffmann acknowledged the need to cut down on the walks and put batters away once ahead in counts.

"I was getting ahead of guys, just wasn't winning the 0-1's and the 1-1's to stay in the counts. ... If you're going to walk two guys you've got to keep it to one run," he said.

"You can't turn one into two and then two into three, three into four. Just stay competitive. Whenever you walk guys, you put yourself in a bad situation.

"I think that's the name of the game, being a reliever, is being efficient so you're available every day."

Hoffmann certainly has good stuff, when tunneled and located properly. His hard, diving changeup has the potential to develop into an elite offering at the major league level.

The mark of a good reliever is one who takes those growing pains and is able to spin it into future success. The tall righty said his stuff was functioning properly, he just needs to limit non-competitive pitches.

"Everything feels fine. It was just a bad outing," he said. "Being competitive in the zone and then being competitive out of the zone. I just didn't get the chase that I was getting the day before on Saturday."

Regardless of a blowup outing here or there, the D-backs have a group of young, newly-acquired relievers who figure to step into a larger role as the team looks to be competitive in the coming seasons.

Hoffmann clearly has stuff that will allow him to compete at the MLB level, and doesn't seem to be lingering too hard on poor results. He's also been scoreless in four of his first six appearances with the D-backs.

ERA rarely tells the whole story of bullpen arms, and Hoffmann's story is just beginning.

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