The Diamondbacks parted ways with pitching coach Brian Kaplan quickly at the end of the season, ending his tenure in the position just shy of two years. But they appear to have wasted no time in getting a replacement, with reports this afternoon that they will be hiring the bullpen coach of the San Diego Padres, Ben Fritz. Dennis Lin of The Athletic first reported the news. Fritz has been with the Padres’ organization since 2015, and took over as bullpen coach in 2020. This has been his seventh season, with some occasional temporary stints as the team’s overall pitching coach.
He was a first-round pick (30th overall) of the Oakland A’s in the 2002 draft, out of California State University, Fresno. However, his progress through their system was derailed by Tommy John surgery which cost him basically the entire 2005 season. He was never quite the same after, his career peaking in 2006 with 17 starts for Triple-A Sacramento, going 6-6 with a 5.83 ERA. Fritz had a brief stint in the Tigers farm system, and a couple of years in indy ball, before hanging up his cleats after the 2010 season, and eventually moving to the coaching side of the game.
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It’s reported that he was also considering a job in the Rockies’ major-league staff. Though being a pitching coach at Coors probably ranks alongside snake milker, in terms of overall appeal. It’ll be interesting to see how his experience with the Padres’ bullpen shifts over to Chase Field. Whole the D-backs’ relief corps was much improved over previous seasons, by most metrics beyond Win Probability, they were no better than middle of the pack. The Padres had a bullpen ERA of 3.53, fifth in the majors and more than half a run better than ours. They were better still by other numbers; second in FIP and xFIP, first in xERA, and San Diego’s fWAR of 8.0 was twice that of Arizona.
Of course, a lot depends on what you have to work with. Having Mason Miller in any bullpen is going to be a bit of a help, to put it mildly. But there is definitely room for improvement in Arizona. We could do simply with missing more bats. The D-backs’ relief strikeout rate this year was ahead of only a handful of teams, at 7.85 K/9 IP. The Padres’ bullpen were again in the top quarter, fanning 1.5 more batters per game than us. Fritz will be working with assistant pitching coach Owen Dew and bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, whom Steve Gilbert reports will be returning in 2027, who also notes this is likely to be the only change to the staff.
It’s interesting to note that, while Torey Lovullo is now among the longest-tenured managers in the majors (behind only Dave Roberts of the Dodgers and Kevin Cash in Tampa Bay), the team has gone through a slew of pitching coaches since Lovullo took over in 2017. Fritz will be the fifth man to occupy the role in that time, with nobody lasting longer than three seasons:
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Mike Butcher: 2017–2019
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Matt Herges: 2020–2021
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Brent Strom: 2022–2024
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Brian Kaplan: 2025–2026
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Ben Fritz: 2026–present
We’ll see if Fritz can work some magic. His “to-do” list will included fixing Merrill Kelly, getting Corbin Burnes back to his old form, and maintaining the bullpen improvements, despite the loss of a number of arms. Then there’s completing the development of prospects such as Mitch Bratt and Kohl Drake. All of which suggest Ben is going to be a busy man.
