This season for the Arizona Diamondbacks have been an absolute nightmare, as the club has the worst record in baseball (8-21) and winning games at home hasn’t come easy. The team has won two games so far and has yet to win a series at home. Will the addition of Lucas Harrell help them rebound?
To make matters worse, the starting pitching has looked abysmal with Arizona boasting the highest staff ERA in baseball at 6.32. This poor start by the rotation has forced the team to move some pitchers into the bullpen.
Trevor Cahill and Randall Delgado are now pitching from the bullpen instead of starting every five days. Arizona replaced them with reliever Josh Collmenter and rookie pitcher Mike Bolsinger.
The team recently made a move to add some pitching depth by acquiring right-hander Lucas Harrell from the Houston Astros for a player to be named later or cash considerations.
Excited to be in the diamondbacks organization.
— Lucas Harrell (@LucasHarrell34) April 28, 2014
This might seem like terrific news that the team landed a starter, but that’s until you look at Harrell’s career so far. He had an ERA of 5.86 in 153.2 innings pitched with 89 strikeouts and 88 walks last season. He also surrendered 20 home runs and allowed 100 earned runs in addition to posting a WHIP of 1.71. The opposition had no problem making contact with a .289 batting average against him, including right-handed batters hitting at a .329 clip.
Let’s fast forward to this season, Harrell has a 9.49 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched across three starts with nine strikeouts and nine walks. He has a WHIP of 2.27 and opposing teams have a .345 batting average against him.
Those numbers don’t scream rotation savior, but he pitched well in 2012 with a 3.76 ERA in 193.2 innings to include 140 strikeouts and 78 walks. He also had a WHIP of 1.36 during that season.
He has shown some ability to be a better than average starter, but it’s perplexing why the D-backs would make this move. He’ll be assigned to Reno, joining Randy Wolf and eventually top-pitching prospect Archie Bradley, who is currently on the DL.
Photo: Kyle Terada, USA Today