Arizona Diamondbacks

In addition to bringing in one of the greatest active arms in the game in Madison Bumgarner, the Dbacks also added a pair of solid outfield bats. One of them was Starling Marte, acquired in a trade with the Pirates, who could drastically improve the team’s performance at the plate.

Still, the starting rotation doesn’t necessarily only come down to MadBum. Robbie Ray, after recording career-high 235 strikeouts in 2019, returns as one of the staff’s aces. The rotation is completed by Luke Weaver, Zac Gallen, a promising arm that will pitch his first full year after coming from the Marlins, and either Merrill Kelly or Alex Young. The team is ready to build on the 11th-best pitching staff in the league and establish one of the best rotations in baseball. That will be even without starter Mike Leake, who was among the first players to opt out of the season.

The club’s batting lineup finished at the same place in terms of runs scored. Ketel Marte led the team with 7.1 WAR and over .900 OPS during an MVP-caliber campaign. Also, Eduardo Escobar and Nick Ahmed both put on a positive display for the team at the plate. By getting Marte and Kole Calhoun, the Diamondbacks fill two holes in an already solid lineup.

Arizona will have an extremely tough task to fulfil its potential in the same division with a championship favourite like the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nevertheless, there are legitimate reasons to believe that the Diamondbacks‘ rotation could be even better heading into the year and that the team is ready to be nearly as consistent as the Dodgers throughout a sixty game season. The schedule, which also includes a better Padres roster and a couple of very dangerous teams from the AL West, could make the campaign a further challenge. However, Arizona is more than ready to become MLB’s sweet surprise in 2020.