PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks probably never imagined they’d ever have to send trusted reliever Kevin Ginkel down again. A lot had to go wrong to option top prospect Jordan Lawlar less than three weeks after calling him up.
The Diamondbacks have found themselves in a precarious position under .500 at the dawn of June, and sending out the struggling Ginkel and Lawlar gives two important members of the organization a chance to reset and return in better shape, whenever that may be.
Ginkel allowed five earned runs in a collapse loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, raising his ERA to 12.60 since he came off the injured list a month ago. Lawlar went 0-for-19 with three defensive errors in his brief MLB reemergence.
Reliever Jeff Brigham was brought up to fill in for Ginkel on the roster, while Arizona re-signed utility infielder Ildemaro Vargas in place of Lawlar. Veteran reliever Joe Mantiply, meanwhile, was designated for assignment.
How Kevin Ginkel can get back to Diamondbacks
It looked like Ginkel had turned a corner after a tough stretch fresh off the IL. He went five straight appearances without a run allowed before giving up six runs in his last two games.
There has been a strange trend with his appearances, as for the first time in his career, he is throwing more than 50% sliders while not showing the same trust in his heat.
“I think Kevin, some of the stuff we talked about were really around fastball command with the two-seamer and the four-seamer,” general manager Mike Hazen told Arizona Sports. “He is throwing a lot of sliders, and his slider’s a weapon, but setting that up probably a little bit better mostly with the fastball plays very well.”
“He’s got great stuff, we know what it looks like,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I just felt like from my seat and the things I saw that he lacked the finish and the consistency of his pitches. He’s got a great two-seam fastball, great four-seam fastball, yet he was turning away from that and going to the secondary stuff.”
Lovullo told Ginkel he wants to see him back on the 16th day, as pitchers who get sent down must remain in the minor leagues for at least 15 days, barring an injury replacement situation.
Lovullo presented the possibility that the team fast forwarded Ginkel into high-leverage moments right off the IL, although Hazen rebuked that notion.
“I think he was prepped and ready, went on a rehab assignment,” Hazen said. “I think maybe just needs a little more time mechanically and execution-wise to get things smoothed out a little bit.”
Ginkel had not been optioned since June 12, 2023. When he came back, Ginkel had the run of his career with an 0.54 ERA over his next 16 appearances.
He became a lockdown setup man in the postseason and has been a mainstay when healthy since.
“What I said to him is, ‘I never thought I’d ever have this conversation with you or have to say the words that I’m getting ready to say to you, but we’re gonna option you down,'” Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo. “I wanted to let him know that it wasn’t anything that any of us predicted. At the end of the day, we just gotta get the job done.”
Bottom line: Ginkel needs to find command and confidence in his fastball combo.
What does Jordan Lawlar need to do to return?
From several accounts, Lawlar “worked his butt off” to make this latest MLB opportunity work, but it didn’t on all levels.
Not only was he 0-for at the plate, but he struck out nine times and there were clear flaws in his approach as major leaguers punished him with breaking balls.
Defensively, he had positive moments at three positions, but a couple mistakes, namely a throwing error in Wednesday’s 10-1 loss to Pittsburgh, were costly.
“There’s pieces of all of it,” Hazen said on the decision to send Lawlar down. “I think from an at-bat standpoint, we want to continue to push getting on base and seeing pitches and grinding at-bats at the bottom of the lineup.
“We’re all aware that it’s a very small sample of at-bats and he didn’t get everyday at-bats. He’s gonna get those at some point. Him being comfortable at second base … he’ll play that a little bit down there still but get back to shortstop and third, as well.
“We felt like he was ready to come up and play on our team. I still feel like he handled himself defensively, made some incredible plays and it is what it is. We just felt like, given how things had gone, given how the team’s going, he was better served going down and playing every day at Reno.”
Without an everyday job, Lawlar was filling in roughly three times per week. He started six of 15 games he was up for.
In 22 plate appearances, Lawlar saw 48 of 76 pitches as breaking or offspeed, and his whiff rate surpassed 50% on said pitches.
Lovullo said he saw instances where Lawlar would commit to a fastball whether it was a ball or a strike instead of controlling the zone. Being aggressive at the plate isn’t inherently a bad quality by any means, but the team wants to see him grind out more at-bats.
“I didn’t want him to go 5-for-4 every game,” Lovullo said. “I know that’s impossible, but what I want him to do is swing at strikes. I want him to control the zone, set up pitchers, get the pitch you’re looking for and have an all-field approach. We saw a lot of bat speed, but we saw a lot of swing-and-miss, and he was very predictable on the pitch that he was looking for.”
Lawlar is 22 years old with great work habits and will learn from this experience.
Hazen said he did not know what the exact situation would be where they call up Lawlar again, but he said they’ll be prepared to do so if the need arises and he is ready for another chance.
Bottom line: Lawlar can’t be one-dimensional against major league arms and must check off pitches he cannot handle.
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