Arizona Diamondbacks

Track Record: Jarvis opened eyes with an impressive four-start, pre-quarantine stretch at Duke, giving the D-backs enough reason to snag him with the 18th overall pick and sign him to a $2.65 million deal in 2020. He touched two levels during his first full pro season, generally holding his own despite being sidelined for six weeks by an oblique injury.
Scouting Report: Jarvis has the components of a future rotation piece. His repertoire is four pitches deep, starting with a fastball that averages 94 mph. His best secondary offering is his changeup, a plus pitch that gets good action because of his ability to pronate. His curveball and slider can sometimes blend together but both are considered at least average pitches. Coaches say he still is learning to best utilize his stuff, noting he sometimes throws too many strikes and still needs to refine his ability to get hitters to chase.
The Future: The D-backs remain high on Jarvis’ potential. They see a pitcher with four distinct pitches and the aptitude and commitment to improve and see no reason why he won’t put things together, seeing him as a future mid-rotation starter. He likely will open this season back in Double-A.

Track Record: After the D-backs selected Cecconi as a draft-eligible sophomore with the 33rd overall pick in 2020, he wasted little time opening eyes inside and outside the organization, showing overwhelming stuff during his time at the alternate site and instructional league. Slowed by injuries during his first full season as a professional, Cecconi couldn’t quite rediscover his high-end form, but he finished 2021 with a solid performance in the Arizona Fall League.
Scouting Report: During the year, Cecconi dealt with both left wrist and right elbow issues. The elbow problem brought an early end to his regular season but wasn’t too serious since he returned a couple months later for the Fall League. Coaches say his delivery got out of whack during the year. In 2020, he featured a fastball that sat around 95 mph and touched the upper 90s with a wipeout slider. Last year, the fastball sat at 93, with the rest of his repertoire a tick down, as well. He has room to add strength to his frame, which should help his stuff tick back up.
The Future: Coaches believe that electric stuff is still in there; the hope is that with a fully healthy season he can tap into it the way he did in the past. He likely opens the year back in High-A with a chance to move quickly.

Track Record: Robinson was viewed as perhaps the highest-upside position player in the D-backs system entering 2021, but it turned out to be a lost year due to legal issues stemming from a confrontation with a law enforcement officer in April 2020. Robinson pled to a felony assault charge in August 2021 and was sentenced to 18 months’ probation and 150 hours community service. With a felony on his record, his visa status was up in the air, putting him in limbo.
Scouting Report: Robinson once was viewed as a potential five-tool player, with gobs of athleticism creating reason to dream on a massive upside despite some lack of refinement around his game. With the pandemic and his legal problems costing him two years’ development, his future is harder to predict than ever. Other than instructional league in 2020, when he swung and missed an alarming amount, he has been limited mostly to informal workouts at the team’s training facilities.
The Future: The D-backs were hopeful he would get back on the field in 2022 and added him to the 40-man roster in November. He will be on the restricted list until he is cleared to resume his career.

Track Record: An undersized infielder without especially loud tools, Bliss raised his stock with an impressive junior year at Auburn, connecting for 15 homers while maintaining the bat-to-ball skills for which he always has been known. The D-backs’ scouting department was won over by his consistency, his feel for the game, his ability to hit and his makeup.
Scouting Report: Bliss set out to hit for more power last year, doing so by using a more refined approach to pull certain pitches with authority. He has an aggressive mentality at the plate, a feel for finding the barrel and the ability to shoot line drives to all fields. He answered questions about how his newfound power would translate from aluminum to wood bat by slugging a solid .443 in Low-A. Defensively, he has good hands, range and footwork, making up for a fringe-average arm with a good game clock. He opened eyes with his play at shortstop but some still think the arm could force a move to second.
The Future: The D-backs see a player able to get more out of his ability than meets the eye, and they hope the power continues to play as he advances. If it does, they could have an above-average regular up the middle. If not, he could profile best in a utility role.

Track Record: McCarthy’s career seemed stalled, first by injuries in 2019 and then by the pandemic in 2020, but after retooling his swing during quarantine, he opened eyes at instructional league that fall and carried his momentum into the 2021 season. McCarthy played well at both Double-A and Triple-A, earning a late-season promotion to the majors, where he held his own across 24 games.
Scouting Report: McCarthy’s best tools remain his defense in center field and his speed. He gets good reads and takes accurate routes in center and likely was the D-backs’ best defender in the majors at the position all season. In addition to his blazing speed—Statcast rated him among the Top 10 fastest players in baseball—McCarthy also is a smart, aggressive baserunner who looks to take the extra base. He tapped into more power than before thanks to his reworked swing; his 17 homers in 2021 were more than his previous career total in college and pro ball combined. It came with more swing and miss but club officials are hopeful that comes down as he continues to refine his swing.
The Future: McCarthy has the skill set to carve out a solid big league career—and he figures to come into spring training with a chance to win the center field job on Opening Day.

Track Record: Canzone capped a solid career at Ohio State by putting together a big junior season in 2019, reaching base in a school-record 59 consecutive games and leading the Big Ten in a number of offensive categories. After missing the pandemic-canceled season in 2020, he started slowly in 2021 but eventually heated up in High-A, earning a promotion to Double-A and finishing with a strong showing in the Arizona Fall League.
Scouting Report: The lefthanded-hitting Canzone is a bat-first prospect with the potential to impact the game with his power and patience. Though he had below-average walk and chase rates in 2021, those numbers improved after an initial adjustment period at both High-A and Double-A. An adjustment to the finish on his swing helped him get more of his hard-hit balls in the air and toning down his leg kick helped him stay more under control. He likely profiles best in left field due to his below-average speed and arm strength. He was working out at first base in the fall in hopes of increasing his versatility.
The Future: Canzone is an advanced prospect with a bat that appears close to being major league-ready. The D-backs project to have a crowded outfield situation going forward, so he likely will need his bat to remain hot in order to push his way into the mix.

Track Record: Frias has worked his way steadily through the system since signing for $50,000 in 2015, adding size and improving the quality of his stuff along the way. He reached the majors in 2021, but did not exhibit the sort of command and control typically seen from a starter, leading many to assume his future role likely will be in relief.
Scouting Report: Frias averages about 95 mph with his fastball, occasionally touching 99 mph, holding his velocity deep into games. He throws a pair of breaking balls that can occasionally blend together. He also has a split-change that has yet to truly take hold. He threw strikes at High-A and Double-A last year, but struggled to limit walks during a five-start stint in Reno. He also walked five in 3.1 innings during a September callup.
The Future: Frias’ lack of refinement has many thinking he might shift into a relief role, in which he could pare back his repertoire and focus mostly on his monster fastball and plus curveball. Still, starting isn’t off the table. His path, at least in the short-term, could be determined based on how things shake out in spring training.

Track Record: Martin rocketed through the Astros system, reaching the majors in 2019. Shortly after, he went down with Tommy John surgery and was subsequently dealt to the D-backs in the Zack Greinke trade. The D-backs thought they were getting a surefire rotation piece, but thus far Martin has yet to deliver on expectations, struggling to stay healthy in 2020 and then pitching poorly in the major leagues in 2021.
Scouting Report: There weren’t many bright spots to Martin’s 2021 season, in which he allowed 19 earned runs in 16 innings in the majors, but one was the fact that his pre-surgery stuff returned mostly intact. He sat in the 94 mph range with his fastball and exhibited the same movement profiles on his secondary pitches. Nothing he had seemed to fool big league hitters, however, and opinions vary on what went wrong. His command might have backed up and his confidence took a hit. He also was shut down again with more elbow problems, though he got back on the mound and was healthy before heading home for the offseason.
The Future: Rather than getting a chance to settle in after surgery, circumstances prompted the D-backs to bring Martin to the majors more quickly than they had hoped in 2021. They are hoping another year removed from the injury and a smoother path back will help him get back to being comfortable and confident on the mound.

Track Record: Del Castillo was considered one of the better college bats in his class entering the spring, but his production at the plate fell off, and with some clubs unsure about his defensive home, he fell to the 67th pick, where the D-backs snapped him up and paid him a $1 million bonus.
Scouting Report: Despite the down year, the D-backs were drawn to Del Castillo’s bat. They see a quality lefthanded swing with an advanced approach and the ability to flat-out hit, evidenced by having more walks than strikeouts in his college career. They believe his pre-draft struggles were to due to changes he made to try to add power, and they hope that with his focus back on barreling balls up rather than lifting them, he’ll eventually develop into a plus hitter with average power. The club seems to have fewer concerns about his defense than some others, seeing him as at least a decent receiver and blocker whose fringe-average arm can be offset by on-target accuracy and a quick release. Because of the pandemic, Del Castillo has had only one full season at catcher since high school, and the club hopes more experience will allow him to continue to develop behind the plate.
The Future: The D-backs hope Del Castillo eventually looks a little like Alex Avila in his best years. He figures to open this season in High-A.

Track Record: Henry was a big-game pitcher at Michigan and helped the Wolverines make a memorable run through the College World Series in 2019. Viewed as a relatively polished starter with a deep repertoire, Henry was pushed to Double-A to start his first full season and struggled with the aggressive assignment, logging a 5.21 ERA in 23 starts.
Scouting Report: Henry’s fastball has ticked down to sit 91 mph and both his slider and curveball need improvement, with some sense he may be best served blending them into a slurvy offering. His changeup is solid-average and he learned in Double-A how much he needed to rely on it to keep hitters off his fastball. Henry struggled with below-average control throughout the year, but the D-backs’ internal numbers showed his performance was more indicative of someone with a run and a half lower ERA.
The Future: Henry’s upside remains limited by his lack of overpowering stuff, but the D-backs still view him as a potential back-end starter. He’ll be tested at Triple-A Reno in 2022.

Track Record: Beer became the fourth and final player from the Zack Greinke trade to reach the majors for the D-backs when he made his debut in September. He connected for a pinch-hit homer in his first big league at-bat, but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in his first inning in the field diving for a ball.
Scouting Report: As always, Beer remains a bat-first, if not bat-only, prospect. He hits the ball to all fields, is good at working counts and makes a decent amount of contact even when expands the zone. Beer’s power is closer to average than plus, but he gets to it enough to make a difference in games. Beer’s defense at first base remains subpar, with evaluators differing only on whether it is playable. He is a slow mover with poor hands and is a liability in the field.
The Future: A universal DH would help Beer’s cause, but many evaluators see him as a good hitter rather than a great one, projecting him more as a second-division slugger.

Track Record: Elbis was an athletic, projectable righthander who recently converted from the outfield to pitching when the D-backs signed him for $275,000 in 2019. He opened eyes in his debut in 2021, showing good command, a solid repertoire, pitching acumen and an impressive work ethic.
Scouting Report: Elbis does not overpower hitters with pure stuff, but he locates his 91-94 mph fastball well, commanding it to both sides of the plate and showing the ability to elevate. His changeup is his best secondary pitch, eliciting swings and misses and weak contact, and he showed an improved curveball after switching to a spike grip. He also has a slider that shows promise. He has a clean, sound delivery and a quick arm. During the Arizona Complex League season, Elbis took it upon himself to go to Chase Field to try to learn by watching big league pitching, which coaches saw as evidence of his drive to improve.
The Future: Just how much projection he has left is up for debate, but even without big gains in velocity or secondary stuff, he has the makings of a back-end big league starter.

Track Record: Martinez was a former outfielder who only recently converted to the mound when the D-backs took a $50,000 flier on his athleticism and arm strength by signing him in March 2018. He quickly made significant strides, improving his velocity into the upper 90s while showing some feel to spin a breaking ball, but he suffered a setback early in 2021 when he ultimately required Tommy John surgery in July.
Scouting Report: Martinez is known for a fastball that regularly sits in the upper 90s. He also has a slider that flashes plus but is inconsistent and a split-change that needs refinement. He struggled with his strike-throwing early last year but started to show improvement by picking up the tempo in his delivery to make things less rigid and more fluid. He still has work to do but continued to show enough to look like a starter. He has a strong frame and is a hard worker, someone coaches say is eager to soak up information.
The Future: Surgery will wipe out a good chunk of Martinez’s 2022 season, but he is still young and will pitch most of 2023 at age 21. As such, he still has time to make good on his high-upside potential.

Track Record: The D-backs bet on Grammes’ athleticism when they drafted him out of Xavier despite the former two-way player’s relative inexperience on the mound. He looked like a quick study during his time at instructional league in 2020, but he did not pitch well early in the 2021 season, then went down with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery.
Scouting Report: Before surgery, Grammes still had some of the best stuff in the system. His fastball averaged 96 mph to go with a slider, curveball and changeup, the latter two lagging behind the others. He is raw when it comes to his pitching acumen and had managed to get by on stuff and athleticism before last year. A former two-time state wrestling champion, he is an excellent competitor who keeps his emotions in check on the mound.
The Future: The injury pushes back Grammes’ timeline and might point him more toward a future in the bullpen, but it will give him a chance to learn how hard he’ll need to work in order to make it back. With a big fastball and usable secondary pitches, his stuff will play regardless of the role.

Track Record: The D-backs gave Guzman $1.8 million, making him their top international signing in 2018, doing so on the strength of his athleticism, tools and feel to hit. Thus far, it hasn’t come together for him in games on a consistent basis, but he did enjoy a stretch of production in the Arizona Complex League that gave a glimpse of what he is capable of doing.
Scouting Report: When Guzman is locked in at the plate, he can look like he has about as much ceiling as any player in the system. For those who believe in his potential, he is at least a four-tool player—maybe five if you expect the power to come along. He should stick in center field and has a strong and accurate arm. He has speed that can impact the game. Guzman can be inconsistent at the plate, getting too aggressive and giving away at-bats, and evaluators say he needs to shorten up his swing and make it more repeatable in addition to improving his approach.
The Future: Guzman has a lot he needs to clean up, but this would be a good time to do it since he is going into a protection year. He figures to get a shot at full-season ball in 2022.

Track Record: Tawa won Gatorade Player of the Year honors in football three times and baseball once during his prep career in Oregon and was seen as a legit baseball prospect after a big freshman year at Stanford. But injuries and poor performance hurt his stock, and after the D-backs selected him as a senior sign last year, he put together the most productive offensive season of any of the club’s debut players.
Scouting Report: Tawa profiles as a versatile and athletic up-the-middle player. He has tools, namely his plus speed, and showed some ability to put together good at-bats and produce in Low-A, though he was old for the level. He has a simple, efficient swing with good bat speed and generated good batted-ball data in his debut. He played mostly second base and the outfield, logging the most innings in center, and is viewed as an above-average defender with an average arm at each of those positions.
The Future: Tawa suffered a left shoulder injury that might have affected his performance across two seasons at Stanford. Now healthy after surgery, the hope is that he is back to the type of prospect he appeared to be years ago. He profiles best as a super-utility player. He figures to open the year in High-A.

Track Record: Knowing he had an unrefined game, the D-backs gambled on Espinal’s athleticism when they gave him a $200,000 bonus in 2018. In an up-and-down 2021 season, Espinal showed glimpses of the sort of impact profile he can provide while also looking like a player who still has a long developmental timeline ahead.
Scouting Report: Espinal has an array of tools along with a strong, athletic frame. He has blazing speed and the ability to stick in center field. Offensively, it’s tough to figure out what he’ll become. He performed poorly in Low-A to start the year and was sent back to Arizona, where he worked to retool his swing. With his upper and lower halves better synched up, he raked in the complex league, then returned to Low-A and performed there, as well, hitting a combined .330/.409/.482 over his final 31 games before a groin injury ended his season.
The Future: Espinal needs to improve his approach at the plate, and his reads and routes in the outfield need to get better, as well. He lacks good instincts, so reps and experience are of the utmost importance. But the tools are there, and his strong finish provides hope that he is making progress.

Track Record: Patino has been a well-regarded player within the organization for years, his strength, build and athleticism—not to mention his performance early in his career—giving evaluators reason to dream on a massive upside. As they did with almost all of their prospects last year, the D-backs pushed Patino, starting him in Low-A. He might not have been ready for the challenge.
Scouting Report: Patino fell flat in full-season ball, both expanding the zone and swinging and missing at well above-average rates. He probably deserves some slack due to a recurring groin issue. The injury bothered him at the start of the year and then cost him about 2 1/2 months in the middle. He might have pressed in hopes of making up for his subpar start and could not dig his way out. He also allowed his swing to get big, incorporating a leg kick that might have hurt his timing. At his best, Patino is a physical, tooled-up player with the potential for an impact power/speed profile. He was seen as a possible center fielder but now is more likely to end up on a corner.
The Future: The club hopes Patino returns to camp fully healthy, and that he is able to learn from his struggles last year. He figures to open the season back in Low-A.

Track Record: Fernandez signed for $275,000 in January 2021, far from the top bonus in the D-backs’ international class. But he was pushed as aggressively as anyone, making his pro debut some six months later in the complex league. Given the age differential, he mostly held his own at the plate, showing some flashes of the ability that has many in the organization excited about his future.
Scouting Report: Fernandez has a loose, easy swing with a clean path and feel for the barrel. He has a lean frame with room to add significant strength, making it easier to envision at least above-average if not plus power. He swung and missed at an alarming 43 percent rate, though he was often playing against competition several years older. He has good hands and footwork and smooth actions at shortstop. For some, the only question about his future position is in how his body develops.
The Future: Those willing to dream see the frame and tools of modern-day, middle-of-the-lineup shortstop. His debut showed he has a ways to go, but he has the makeup and work ethic teams like to see when they project on developmental gains.

Track Record: The D-backs liked Pena’s sweet, lefthanded swing, his sound approach and his ability to stick on the infield dirt when they signed him for $1.2 million in January, giving him the largest bonus of any player in the club’s 2020-21 international class. He debuted in the Dominican Summer League and held his own, impressing evaluators with the quality of his at-bats.
Scouting Report: Pena’s supporters have little doubt about his ability to hit. He has a clean, loose swing and a good feel for putting the barrel on the ball. He gets good marks for his advanced approach at the plate. He also works deep counts and controls the zone well. Defensively, he has good hands and a solid, accurate throwing arm, but he lacks the kind of range necessary to stick at shortstop. Evaluators expect him to shift either to third or second. He impressed the organization with his mature work habits and his dedication and focus on improving.
The Future: After a solid debut, Pena likely makes his way stateside for the first time in 2022. Those who believe in him see a potential impact hitter in the mold of Eric Chavez or Rafael Devers, only with less power.