{"id":866452,"date":"2026-08-24T07:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866452\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T07:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:52:31","slug":"diamondbacks-designate-zack-littell-for-assignment-place-michael-soroka-on-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866452\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Designate Zack Littell For Assignment, Place Michael Soroka On IL"},"content":{"rendered":"

8:35PM: Manager Torey Lovullo downplayed the seriousness of Soroka\u2019s injury, telling the Arizona Republic\u2019s Jose M. Romero<\/a> and other reporters that \u201che\u2019s going to hopefully be ready on Day 16.\u00a0 The plan is to give him a couple of days down, get him back up on the bump and miss as few days as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

1:07PM: The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Drey Jameson<\/a> has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. He had been out since late July with right hip inflammation. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Zack Littell<\/a> has been designated for assignment. In a separate move, MLB.com\u2019s Steve Gilbert<\/a> reports that righty Michael Soroka<\/a> is going on the 15-day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Righty Gerardo Carrillo<\/a> is being recalled to fill Soroka\u2019s active roster spot. The team\u2019s 40-man roster stands at 39 with these moves.<\/p>\n

Littell joined Arizona on a major league deal a couple of weeks ago after he was released by the Nationals. The Diamondbacks only owed him the prorated league minimum, as the Nats remain on the hook for most of the guaranteed money. Having worked as a swingman with Washington, Littell\u2019s new club opted to use him in long relief. That started out nicely, as he worked 4 2\/3 scoreless innings on just 45 pitches on August 10th in a piggyback role behind Soroka.<\/p>\n

Littell\u2019s next two appearances were nowhere near as good. He got torched for eight runs (six earned) in 3 2\/3 innings on August 17th against the Red Sox. Just yesterday, he allowed four earned runs in another 3 2\/3 innings, throwing 65 pitches in the process. The combination of Littell\u2019s poor results and yesterday\u2019s high pitch count make today\u2019s DFA unsurprising.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll now get swapped out for fresh arms in Jameson and Carrillo. The former has a 4.67 ERA in 17 1\/3 big league innings this year, while the latter has thrown 13 2\/3 innings with a 0.66 ERA. One of them will presumably take over the long relief role, with the other working in low leverage spots. Littell, meanwhile, has the service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his guaranteed money, so he could try electing free agency and latching on with another team for the last month and change of the season.<\/p>\n

While Littell\u2019s DFA subtracts an ineffective arm from the bullpen, the loss of Soroka will be much more impactful on the rotation. The 29-year-old righty started yesterday\u2019s game and allowed six earned runs in 3 1\/3 innings, giving up six hits along with three walks and one hit batter. That was a rare dud in what has otherwise been a strong bounce-back campaign for Soroka. In 18 starts for the Diamondbacks, he has a solid 3.40 ERA, 3.79 SIERA, and 23.0% strikeout rate. FanGraphs values him at 2.4 wins above replacement, which ranks second on the team behind Eduardo Rodriguez<\/a> (2.6 fWAR).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunately not the first IL placement of the season for Soroka. He previously missed time from late June to early August with a left glute strain. He returned on August 10th and was effective over his next ten innings before yesterday\u2019s blow-up. It\u2019s possible that Soroka\u2019s shoulder was affecting his performance, and he\u2019ll now go back on the IL in an attempt to rest it. The team hasn\u2019t provided a timeline on Soroka, though with barely a month left in the season, it\u2019s possible he won\u2019t be back in time to aid in the team\u2019s push for a Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n

The rotation may have to make do with what it has for now, as Corbin Burnes<\/a> and Zac Gallen<\/a> are still a ways off from returning, according to Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports<\/a>. Both Burnes and Gallen are making progress but are not stretched out yet. Burnes is working his way back from June 2025 Tommy John surgery. He threw a live batting practice session on Friday and will throw two innings in a camp game on Tuesday, per the team\u2019s official injury report<\/a>. Gallen, out since mid-July with right elbow inflammation, threw a bullpen session yesterday and will continue to work up from there. Burnes and Gallen will both need rehab assignments and won\u2019t return until some time in September.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of David Butler II, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"8:35PM: Manager Torey Lovullo downplayed the seriousness of Soroka\u2019s injury, telling the Arizona Republic\u2019s Jose M. Romero and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,435261,185033,33565,591,85,24613],"class_list":["post-866452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-drey-jameson","tag-gerardo-carrillo","tag-michael-soroka","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-zack-littell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866452","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=866452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}