{"id":791047,"date":"2026-07-10T09:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791047\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:08:17","slug":"diamondbacks-designate-pavin-smith-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791047\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Designate Pavin Smith For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The D-Backs are designating first baseman\u00a0Pavin Smith<\/a> for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic<\/a>. Rookie outfielder\u00a0Ryan Waldschmidt<\/a> will be recalled from Triple-A Reno to replace him on the active roster.<\/p>\n

That might mark the end of nearly a decade in the organization for Smith, whom the D-Backs selected with the #7 overall pick in 2017. The lefty batter has shown intermittent offensive flashes but ultimately hasn\u2019t provided enough from a bat-first position. Smith has yet to top the 11 home runs or 27 doubles he tallied during his first full big league season in 2021.<\/p>\n

Smith was up and down from Triple-A for the next couple seasons. Aside from minor league rehab assignments, he has been in the big leagues since August 2024. Smith popped nine homers with a .270\/.348\/.547 batting line over 60 games that season, but that hopeful breakout proved short-lived. His strikeout rate spiked the next year, though a jump in his average on balls in play resulted in a solid .258\/.362\/.434 slash across 288 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

That was enough for the D-Backs to roll with Smith as the strong side of a first base platoon this year. They\u2019d traded\u00a0Josh Naylor<\/a> at the deadline and focused their offseason resources on starting pitching. Smith would ideally split time with either\u00a0Tyler Locklear<\/a> or free agent signee\u00a0Carlos Santana<\/a> at first base. That didn\u2019t work out. Locklear has spent the entire season in Triple-A, while Smith and the since-released Santana both struggled and got injured early in the season.<\/p>\n

Smith was down from April through the beginning of June. He underwent surgery in mid-April to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Smith hasn\u2019t hit at all since returning, batting .141 with one homer across 28 games. He has a league average .241\/.325\/.394 batting line in more than 1600 plate appearances over parts of seven seasons.<\/p>\n

Arizona\u2019s first base group has been the worst in MLB by far.\u00a0Ildemaro Vargas<\/a> has been one of the league\u2019s least productive hitters since his improbable 24-game hit streak to begin the season. Rookies\u00a0Jose Fernandez<\/a> and LuJames Groover<\/a> have struggled in limited playing time.<\/p>\n

D-Backs first basemen have an overall .210\/.253\/.303 slash line across 366 plate appearances. It\u2019s their most obvious area to address if they buy at the deadline, preferably with a left-handed bat<\/a>. Cincinnati\u2019s\u00a0Nathaniel Lowe<\/a> would seem an obvious target given his affordable $1.75MM base salary.\u00a0Kody Clemens<\/a>,\u00a0Gavin Sheets<\/a> and\u00a0Jake Burger<\/a> are a few others who could be available on the trade front.<\/p>\n

Waldschmidt, Arizona\u2019s top prospect, is up for the second time this season. He struggled to make contact consistently in his first look at MLB pitching. Waldschmidt has hit well against Triple-A arms and has been on a nice run since being optioned in mid-June. The D-Backs presumably wouldn\u2019t bring him back up to play sporadically. He should be in the everyday lineup in left or center field, moving one of Max Kepler<\/a> or\u00a0Tommy Troy<\/a> to the bench.<\/p>\n

The D-Backs have five days to trade Smith or place him on waivers. He\u2019s playing on a $2.25MM arbitration salary, around $950K of which has yet to be paid. Smith is a little shy of five years of service time and would forfeit his remaining salary if he elects free agency, so he\u2019d very likely accept a Triple-A assignment if he goes unclaimed on waivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The D-Backs are designating first baseman\u00a0Pavin Smith for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Rookie outfielder\u00a0Ryan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,33767,259132,85],"class_list":["post-791047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-pavin-smith","tag-ryan-waldschmidt","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}