Pfaadt Reassigned to Minor League Camp in Surprise Roster Move

The right hander had been in competition for the opening week fifth starter's spot

The Diamondbacks announced 11 roster moves today, with one of them coming as somewhat of a surprise

Optioned to Triple-A Reno:

INF Seth Beer

INF Diego Castillo

Reassigned to Minor League camp:

RHP Brandon Pfaadt

LHP Jesse Biddle

RHP Jandel Gustave

INF Buddy Kennedy

RHP Zach McAllister

C Dominic Miroglio

INF Yairo Muñoz

C Ali Sánchez

RHP Mitchell Stumpo

Pfaadt had been by far the most  consistent and effective of the four starters in the spring training competition for the fifth starter's role. The team continually stressed that no one pitcher had a leg up heading into camp and it would come down to how well they competed and met criteria.  But clearly the excellent performances from Ryne Nelson and Drey Jameson last September still weigh heavily in the team's deliberations, as they should. Performing well in MLB goes a long way to establishing some sense of incumbency.  

Asked if it was really just as simple as if other guys were just ahead of him , and it was other guys turn at the moment Lovullo conceded that was indeed the case

"Possibly, thats a good way to look at it. That's not to say he wasn't given an opportunity, he was right in the mix. I think there's some other guys that have proven it at this level that are going to be looked at a little bit differently. There's something to that. "

That said today's move is still surprising. Both Lovullo and GM Mike Hazen spoke all off season and at the beginning of spring about how important competition would be and players would need to earn their spots. About 5 days ago manager when  Torey Lovullo talked about what he was looking for from the pitchers competing in camp he said:

"Being able to duplicate your delivery throwing quality strikes, maybe having a two pitch setup, finishing off hitters the way you're supposed to when you get two strikes on them. Those are the things that I start to zone in on. Those will be separators for me when making some decisions."

Here are the spring numbers of the candidates so far

Michael McDermott

Nobody from this group has been more effective at finishing off hitters and throwing quality strikes. Pfaadts four pitch mix has been on display all spring.  He's only had one bad inning and 10 of his twelve innings have been scoreless.  

But Jameson is similar in that a bad inning or two inflated his spring ERA, but his K/BB ratio is still good. He was reportedly hitting 100MPH in a AAA game this week. And Nelson pitched very well in his most recent start. Tommy Henry, who pitches today, has been doing better of late as well. 

Lovullo, when speaking about the decision had this to say:

"The thinking is we have a lot of guys that are competing for one spot. He of course was given an opportunity , we loved what we saw. It was just time to get him back to the minor leagues and get him stretched out and get him moving in the right direction so he can prepare for his season. "

"We evaluate everything, we loved the stuff. We just felt like it was the best situation for him and his development at this point in time to go down and continue growing and learning. He's going to find himself in the big leagues at some point, but we just felt it was the right move at this time."

All of this goes under the category of good problems to have perhaps. And Pfaadt is likely to make an appearance in MLB sooner rather than later. But it's still a bit of a head scratcher why he was reassigned at this time, Lovullo's comments notwithstanding. 

None of the other players optioned or reassigned today were expected to make the opening roster, however several of them had notable performances this spring, as we highlighted in this morning's round up.