Former All-Star Evan Longoria Starts Rehab Assignment With Arizona Diamondbacks

Tampa Bay Rays legend Evan Longoria has been out since July with a back injury, but he is now back on track to return to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Evan Longoria has started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Reno, the minor league club announced Thursday.

The former All-Star went 0-for-2 with two walks in his first game with the Aces.

Longoria has been on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain since July 29, missing Arizona's last 20 games as a result. The Diamondbacks are 7-13 since Longoria went down, and they now sit in sixth in the race for the three NL Wild Card spots.

Before he got hurt, Longoria was hitting .238 with 11 home runs, 24 RBI and an .803 OPS and 0.9 WAR through 55 games in 2023. The 37-year-old veteran was batting .167 in July, however.

Longoria had settled into a platoon role of sorts with Josh Rojas and Emmanuel Rivera at third base this season. Rojas has since been traded to the Seattle Mariners, though, while Rivera has been optioned to Triple-A Reno.

The Diamondbacks traded for veteran Jace Peterson at the deadline to help fill in at the hot corner, then they called up prospect Buddy Kennedy on Aug. 12. The former is batting .185 with a .498 OPS, compared to the latter's .200 batting average and .629 OPS in Arizona.

Longoria may be able to boost those numbers when he does eventually return, but he is not the superstar he was with the Tampa Bay Rays.

After winning AL Rookie of the Year and guiding Tampa Bay to an AL pennant in 2008, Longoria went on to earn MVP votes in each of his first four major league seasons. Longoria missed a total of 12 games from 2013 to 2017, carving out major real estate on the Rays' all-time leaderboards in the process.

Longoria hit .270 with an .823 OPS across 10 seasons as a Ray, totaling 261 home runs, 892 RBI, 338 doubles, 569 walks and 780 runs – all of which are the most in franchise history.

In 2018, Longoria signed with the San Francisco Giants, where he hit .251 with a .750 OPS in just 95 games a year. He was unable to add to his totals of three All-Star appearances, three Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger, leaving the Bay this past offseason in favor of the desert.

Arizona could welcome Longoria back to the lineup during its upcoming one-week homestand. The Diamondbacks will host the Texas Rangers on Monday and Tuesday, then the Cincinnati Reds for four games following an off day.

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