Eugenio Suarez Scratched, Alek Thomas' Return Pushed Out

Here are the notes from Torey Lovullo's media session today. There are some important health updates.

Eugenio Suárez was scratched due to left side tightness. He has not had any imaging, but the team made a late lineup change just before the game with the Giants today. Lovullo described it as precautionary and he is considered day-to-day. 

Alek Thomas (wrist) is not yet able to resume swinging a bat, and his timetable seems to be getting lengthened. When the injury first occurred, Lovullo said Alek would be down at least three days. Today Lovullo said  that he was told at the time of the injury it would be five or six days before Thomas could return to the lineup. It sounds like this could take a while. [Thomas] "is still working through the early parts of this soreness, getting that inflammation out is very crucial, and once he feels better he'll start to resume some baseball activity."   

Kevin Ginkel (elbow) has still not thrown his live bullpen session. He's been throwing bullpens however, and there is no concern for him at this time. 

Joc Pederson's wife had a baby boy, their fourth child. He returned to camp today after taking a couple days off. He was originally in the lineup today, but A.J. Vukovich was a late replacement as Pederson will get a couple days to ramp up again. He has no health issues. 

Zac Gallen will throw a simulation game around 2:45PM on the backfields tomorrow, and push back his first Cactus League game further, most likely to March 7th. Merrill Kelly is scheduled one day behind Gallen.

The rotation order through the first series against Colorado is set up to be Gallen, Kelly, Eduardo Rodríguez and Brandon Pfaadt. Lovullo joked that he had the right to change his mind. 

Backup Catcher: Lovullo was asked what he's looking for in a backup catcher. 

"Consistency with receiving the baseball. Blocking the baseball, following a game plan. Stepping in there for the 40 plus games that you're probably going to start and not have the team take a step backwards. Play with energy, be adaptable, understand the opponent. We have some really good candidates here in this camp."

When asked his initial impressions of Tucker Barnhart, Lovullo said "just what I told you, exactly what I was describing. I know that [Jose Herrera] is the exact same way. They're very similar in those areas." 

Not mentioned at all was hitting. Both catchers have struggled mightily to get on base over the last two years. Barnhart has a .286 OBP since 2022, and Herrera has a career .272 OBP. No matter how good the defense, if they are automatic outs in the lineup it's going to have an overall detrimental effect on wins and losses.  League average OBP for catchers was .303 last year, and of course backup catchers are likely to be lower than that. So with some marginal improvement in OBP from either of them the D-backs could be in decent shape at the backup catcher spot compared to other teams.