Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question … are they good? We give an overview of team strengths, weaknesses, and other things to know, using Defensive Runs Saved and other stats as the basis for our evaluation. To see the full series, click here.

2025 Team Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 23rd

Team Strengths

After Christian Walker’s departure the Diamondbacks sputtered at first base last season, finishing with an MLB-worst -11 Runs Saved. So this offseason they added the best defensive first baseman available, soon-to-be-40-year-old Carlos Santana. Santana has finished in the top three in Runs Saved among first basemen in each of the last three seasons. The only question is how far he can go before age catches up to him?

Most Defensive Runs Saved – First Base – Last 3 Seasons

The trade for third baseman Nolan Arenado got bigger headlines. He’s had 6 Runs Saved there each of the last two seasons. He’s still pretty good though maybe not as amazing as he was in Colorado. But he should definitely help. The Diamondbacks haven’t gotten positive Runs Saved from third base since 2019.

The Diamondbacks have four other players who are good defenders with varying degrees of reliability. Catcher Gabriel Moreno is a past Fielding Bible winner with good Runs Saved numbers for both pitch framing and pitch blocking.

Second baseman Ketel Marte has had seasons with 14 and 10 Runs Saved there and has only one season with negative runs saved at the position

Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo had 10 Runs Saved there in 2024 though that dropped to 3 last season.

Right Fielder Corbin Carroll had a career high 7 Runs Saved at the position last season.

If they’re all healthy, that’s a pretty good set of six players.

Team Weaknesses

Jordan Lawlar has not played center field in his professional career but the Diamondbacks are going to give him a try there, partly because his bat could be quite good and partly because there’s no room in the infield for him. We don’t know how this will go long-term but at least until the season starts, this is the team’s biggest defensive question mark.

Other Things To Know

Lawlar’s presence in center field means Alek Thomas shifts to left field. We’d expect him to do decently there even though he had -7 Runs Saved in center last season. A study that my former colleague Andrew Kyne did in 2019 showed that – on average – center fielders who moved to a corner spot improved by 8 Runs Saved from their center field total.

Thomas has shown in the past that he could handle center field, with 7 Runs Saved in 2022 and 5 Runs Saved in 2023. If he plays at that level as a left fielder, he’s going to be very good there.

Are the Diamondbacks A Good Defensive Team?

There is a lot of variance with how good this team could be defensively. We aren’t going to be listing six players in the strengths section often, but those six players could combine for 20 Runs Saved just as easily as they combine for 60. And Lawlar could end up with -15 in some scenarios, 0 in others (if he’s a positive in center field that will be a really good story).

So for now, it’s a shrug emoji. Your guess is as good as mine.