Why Adrian Del Castillo Wasn't Called Up to Replace Pavin Smith

The Diamondbacks lost another bat, with Pavin Smith going on the injured list with a strained oblique. Without clarity on the severity of the injury, the initial assumption is that Smith will be out at least four weeks.

As the corresponding move, the team called up Tristin English from Triple-A Reno. They recalled Tommy Henry from Reno, then placed him on the 60-day injured list to free up a 40-man spot for English.

A move I deemed impossible before, Henry will now gain major league service time while on the IL. D-backs manager Torey Lovullo told reporters, including Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, that the left-hander underwent an internal brace procedure. That is a shorter recovery time than Tommy John surgery, which can be as long as 15 months, with the internal brace taking about 12-13 months. That will allow Henry to be a potential option for the rotation or bullpen in the second half of 2026.

At first glance, it’s a move that doesn’t make a lot of sense in terms of roster construction. English is a right-handed bat, and the team already has their right-handed DH with Randal Grichuk. They had the left-handed hitting Adrian Del Castillo in Triple-A Reno if they wanted to go that route to replace Smith one-to-one if they wanted to.

The decision likely came down to Del Castillo having just returned from two separate stints on the injured list himself. A shoulder injury that was bothering him all spring and lower back spasms have limited him to just nine games in Triple-A. He has good numbers in that short stint, slashing .294/.432/.471 in 44 plate appearances. He’s hit two home runs, with exit velocities of 109.1 and 105.7 MPH.

However, it’s worth noting that the sample size is too small to make any big decisions. His season includes only 81 swings and 26 balls in play. That’s hardly enough data for swing decisions, batted ball contact, strikeout, and walk rates to stabilize. It’s possible in 2-3 weeks that Del Castillo could get a shot, especially if Smith has a Grade 2 strain.

In those nine games, Del Castillo has posted a chase rate of just 17.5%. It’s much lower than his 25.7% chase rate in Reno last season. However, he’s only seen 184 pitches (97 out of the zone), so the sample size is very low and not to be considered reliable yet.

It’s unclear what the team will do with the DH position. Grichuk has a bit of a runway to get some at-bats vs. right-handed pitchers, but they’ll want to play English at some point. With his 40-man clock started, the team has three options with the 28-year-old first baseman.

You can read more about how English has performed in Reno, although the metrics only go through the end of June.

Post Script: I only wrote this because there was no explanation from manager Torey Lovullo on why English was chosen over Adrian Del Castillo yesterday. The roster move was announced by the team on X at 11:57 am (Lovullo’s media sessions typically at 11:00-11:05 am for a 1:10 pm start time). We should have a better idea of how long Smith will be out, and possibly an explanation from Lovullo why Del Castillo wasn’t called up before the series opener against San Diego.