SCOTTSDALE — Eugenio Suarez slid to his right to snag a would-be base hit, got up and threw a one-hopper to first baseman Josh Naylor, who athletically dug it out with his right hand to end the inning against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.
The corner-infield duo has been terrific this spring at the plate, as well, which continued in Tuesday’s 3-2 win at Salt River Fields.
They combined for a 4-for-5 batting line with two hits apiece. Naylor rose his spring average to .483 (14-for-29), while Suarez is up to .393 (11-for-28).
Spring stats are meant to be taken with a grain of salt, but in terms of early standouts, Naylor and Suarez — plus Corbin Carroll — have swung the hottest bats.
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“I’m honestly pretty bad in spring,” Naylor, who actually has decent career spring numbers, said. “I don’t search for results in spring training. I search for feels. Search for just good at-bats, quality of at-bats. If I get a hit, cool, if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. Stats don’t matter. Winning or losing doesn’t really matter here.
“You get put in situations that you’re going to go through in the season, so you may fail here, but you’re gonna fail here to succeed in the season, you know?”
Perhaps Naylor isn’t crushing the baseball the way he’s expected to in the regular season without a home run yet, but he’s riding a nine-game hitting streak and previewing a lot of the traits that have made him successful to D-backs fans.
Naylor puts the ball in play and does not strike out at a high clip, and this year he’s attempting to put his previous two campaigns together to build out a more complete profile.
In 2023, he set career highs with a .308 average and .843 OPS while hitting 17 homers. Last year, his average dipped to .243 but he crushed 31 home runs with 108 RBIs.
“I continue to work every day with the guys here, the hitting staff is incredible,” Naylor said. “I just try to swing at good pitches. And when you do that, you have good results.”
Suarez has maintained the outstanding form he displayed in the second half last season, playing winter ball in Venezuela over the offseason to bridge some of the gap.
Suarez worked a .942 OPS and 20 home runs in the second half last year and has crushed the ball this spring with four doubles and two home runs in 12 games.
“Obviously my body feels good, that’s all that matters,” Suarez said. “I have my confidence high and results on the field are going to be there. I just want to put my mind in the right position and my body too and put everything together on the field.”
Naylor and Suarez will be options for the Diamondbacks to use in the cleanup spot after Christian Walker’s free agency departure.
Josh Naylor learning the right bounces
Naylor went into more detail explaining the defensive adjustment a first baseman makes to new infielders, as not every ball bounces the same.
Naylor is replacing three-time Gold Glove winner Walker at first base, and he has taken the responsibility of maintaining strong defense over there very seriously.
“I’m learning that Geno, I don’t know how he does it, but he has this incredible soft backspin that he throws, but also it’s firm,” Naylor said. “So when he skips it, I know it skips long and I can stay back a little bit more. (Geraldo Perdomo), so far, he’s kind of short-hopping it to me. So I’m getting used to that.
“I try to protect the infielders … scoop it if I can to win them their Gold Gloves. Their Gold Gloves are just as important to me, and hopefully I can win one one day, but I try to protect them anyway I can to eliminate them from getting an error.”
Jordan Montgomery’s outing moved to backfields
Left-hander Jordan Montgomery’s next appearance will be on the backfields as he looks to make adjustments from a bumpy first spring appearance.
Montgomery threw 28 pitches with only 11 strikes on Saturday at the Cincinnati Reds, allowing five earned runs while recording one out. Cactus League results can be taken with a grain of salt, but Montgomery acknowledged afterward he needs to throw more strikes.
“Monty is going to throw on a backfield with rain coming, with the ability to kind of manipulate a little bit and make sure that he gets that time,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We just felt like it was super important he gets on the mound and he continues his progression. (Pitching coach Brian Kaplan) identified a couple things he wants to work on.”
Lovullo said he thinks the outing will occur on Thursday, but the weather may play a factor.
Throwing on the backfields allows Montgomery to make real-time adjustments, which is not uncommon this time of year. At the same time, it is not a real game, and the optics are not sparkling given his 2024 performance paired with Cactus League debut.
At the end of the day, this is the time of year to get right for the regular season, and this was deemed the most effective way to get him reps this week.
Montgomery entered the spring having lost weight to increase mobility and looking to rebound from a 6.23 ERA, but he was halted early by a strained finger.
“Everybody has kind of a weird first one or weird second one,” Kaplan told Arizona Sports. “I know he was trying to find it with better momentum out of the gate, but his sides have been really good. His shapes have been really good. Trying to find the sinker, changeup shapes he’s had in the past, trying to tighten up the curveball … Just getting a good one in the next time and building off from that.”
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