SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The day was about pitchers and catchers having their first official workout of the spring, but a position player made news at Diamondbacks camp Tuesday as Carlos Santana's one-year, $2 million deal became official.
The addition of Santana, a switch-hitter, gives the Diamondbacks the complementary first baseman they had been looking for this winter to go along with the left-handed-hitting Pavin Smith.
A veteran of 16 MLB seasons with plenty of playoff experience under his belt, Santana is a former All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner who is the Majors’ active leader in walks with 1,330. He has a career .352 on-base percentage and an above league average 112 OPS+.
For the Diamondbacks, it was Santana's defensive ability that jumped out as they made a concerted effort to try and improve that aspect of their team this offseason. In addition to Santana, Arizona also added third baseman Nolan Arenado, who has long been an outstanding defender.
Arenado and Santana are better defenders than the Diamondbacks’ corner infielders last year, third baseman Eugenio Suárez and first baseman Josh Naylor, both of whom were dealt at the Trade Deadline.
"One of the things that we were out to do this offseason coming off of last year was a commitment to really fortifying our defense," Arizona GM Mike Hazen said. "I feel like we've tried to stay somewhat stubborn to that."
Smith, a former first-round pick, will get his share of at-bats against right-handed pitchers, but could also see some time at designated hitter, as could second baseman Ketel Marte and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. when he returns from his ACL injury.
"Carlos is certainly stronger versus lefties, Pavin stronger versus righties," Hazen said. "From a defensive standpoint, we expect Pavin to grow and improve. We've bounced Pavin around quite a bit. We've never really given him a spot to sort of solidify himself defensively. We'll be doing that this year. So he's going to continue to improve. I think that position, more than any other, experience and reps and hard work can yield significant improvements."
Manager Torey Lovullo prides himself on his teams playing fundamentally sound baseball, and last year he said he felt the team gave away some games early in the season due to sloppy play and poor defense.
The Diamondbacks have found out the hard way over the past two seasons that every game matters. In 2024, they lost out on a tiebreaker for the final NL Wild Card spot, and last year they were in the chase for a Wild Card spot up until the final weekend of the season.
With that in mind, the Diamondbacks will approach Spring Training a little differently this year.
"I think we're going to create some higher intensity practice," Lovullo said. "I don't want to be misleading; we always try to do that. But I think things maybe got away from us last year, and we played sloppy baseball defensively in the first month and a half of the season and we were playing catch-up. I don't like that. I want to get out in front and be a pacesetter and do things the right way at the right pace. So yeah, I think we're going to ramp up some of the intensity with some of the drill work from a defensive standpoint."
Every pitcher who was supposed to be in camp was there, but some notable ones are still rehabbing significant injuries.
That includes ace right-hander Corbin Burnes, as well as co-closers A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez.
All three said their recoveries were going well, with Puk likely the first of the bunch to return, Burnes hoping for around the All-Star break and Martinez sometime in the second half.