Introduction
Based on everything I’ve seen, it is incredibly difficult being a general manager of a major league baseball team. You have to balance the needs of the present and the future, wrangle the egos of any number of high-profile individuals, and negotiate with a media ecosystem that must always be fed and is likely less sympathetic than ever before. It also requires knowing when a veteran player might have to be released or moved to give a prospect or younger player an opportunity for more playing time. That final responsibility now faces Mike Hazen as Alek Thomas continues to struggle at the plate in his fifth major league season – his slash line for the year sits at .194/.239/.358 entering Saturday’s game against the Padres. And there are multiple high-level prospects currently sitting down in Reno chomping at the bit for an opportunity including Tommy Troy, Ryan Waldschmidt, and eventually A.J. Vukovich when he returns from injury. That’s also not taking into account Jordan Lawlar’s eventual return to the mix when his recuperation and rehabilitation are complete after looking much more like the former top prospect he was supposed to be in the season’s first few games. By my count, that would put six outfielders on the roster if you include utilityman Tim Tawa in the calculation (Thomas, Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Lawlar, and Jorge Barossa).
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Obviously, there aren’t enough at-bats to go around with that many outfielders and some decisions will need to be made about the roster – a problem further complicated by impending Rule 5 Draft eligibility for several top prospects including Troy (December 2026) and Waldschmidt (December 2027). Thomas has been a mainstay in the Arizona lineup since debuting in 2022 other than a down year in 2024 when he was hampered by a left hamstring strain that kept him out of the big leagues for most of the season. Amazingly, he’s already amassed over 1,400 plate appearances in his career and has likely demonstrated his ceiling at the plate.
Tommy Troy
Presumably the most likely candidate to be called up from Reno given his aforementioned Rule 5 eligibility, Troy has flown under the radar somewhat, appearing just once on the Top 100 list for MLB Pipeline prior to the 2024 season and promptly falling back off it. Thankfully, he’s thrived out of the spotlight appearing at six different defensive positions – including all three outfield positions – while making some excellent offensive contributions. The team seems to view him as another superutilty player given the crowded outfield, but putting him at second base seems counterproductive to me given how entrenched Ketel Marte is there. Regardless, in 61 combined games with the Aces, Troy possesses a .308/.396/.457 slash line and likely has little seasoning left with AAA before making his major league debut. Now it’s just a question of where he’ll play.
Ryan Waldschmidt
One of the last minor leaguers to be reassigned to minor league camp out of Spring Training, I thought there was a real, but slim, possibility Waldschmidt might make the big league club for Opening Day, but the front office decided to delay his debut given that he hadn’t yet even appeared in AAA before this season. The organization’s lone representative on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospect list, Waldschmidt has continued to impress since being drafted two years ago with Corbin Carroll’s Prospect Promotion Incentive pick. There isn’t quite the same kind of urgency for Waldschmidt as there is for Troy since he has another year of eligibility before being exposed to the Rule 5 Draft, but the ceiling for the young righty seems pretty high. He certainly hasn’t appeared intimidated by the highest levels of the minors, posting a .313/.422/.510 slash line through his first 25 games in Reno while roaming centerfield. I suspect that Waldschmidt is a prototypical September call up that gives him an opportunity for a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2027 – assuming baseball is still around then.
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Conclusion
While Thomas seems like an excellent person and still holds the honor of one of the biggest swings in D-Backs history, it’s time that the front office starts having some serious conversations about his future with the organization if they haven’t already. He’s clearly an extremely capable defender who’s capable of using his excellent speed to cause chaos on the bases to make up for an underwhelming offensive contribution, but that strikes me as the profile of a fourth outfielder or depth piece rather than a starting outfielder in the major leagues for a contending team. I suspect that when the roster crunch eventually does hit, Barrosa will find himself as the odd man out first given his similar player profile to Thomas (with worse numbers) and a lack of minor league options leaves him the most vulnerable. But the time to make a decision about Thomas is approaching and would be made much easier if he started hitting even a bit more than he has in the past – like hitting a two-run homer this afternoon as I was writing this piece.
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