Diamondbacks to promote Kevin Cron

Diamondbacks promote corner perspective infield Kevin Cron John Gambadoro from 98.7 Arizona Sports (Twitter link). Nick Piecoro, from the Republic of Arizona, had already announced that the move was about to happen.

Cron, 26, is the younger brother of the first-baseman of the Twins C.J. Cron. Although he's not a first round pick like his big brother and he's not even among the top 30 hopes of Arizona's pre-season ranking system. from MLB.com, Baseball America or Fangraphs, it has become increasingly difficult ridiculous figures that he has posted with Triple-A Reno. It is well known that the Pacific Coast League (Reno in particular) is a paradise for the batters, but to top 21 circuits in 199 appearances on plate is worthy of attention, whatever the environment. These 21 long balls lead the entire baseball league.

Young brother Cron has long been a productive hitter, but his offensive play has exploded to new heights this season. Beyond the number of ridiculous home runs, it increased its market rate from 8.2% in 2018 to 13.6% in 2019, while reducing its exclusion rate from 22.8% to 16, 6%. The result is a line of .339 / .437 / .800 hitters that seems to have been removed from a video game. Of course, getting this production back to the big leagues is an entirely new task, but given the difficulties the Diamondbacks have encountered in scoring goals in the last two weeks, it's understandable that they've decided to see if Cron is effective. up to the challenge.

Arizona's offensive got off to a fast start in 2019, boosted by good early results Adam Jones, Christian Walker, Ketel Marte and others. These three bats, however, have fallen cold in recent weeks, as has the offense as a whole. Since the beginning of May in Colorado, with 26 three-game series strokes, the Diamondbacks have scored 59 points, a much more pedestrian average of 3.6 points per competition. They scored only 12 points in a series of five straight defeats, losing their NL Wild Card title to a 2.5-game deficit in that race.

Cron can step in and give the struggling Walker (0.148 / .223 / .259 in 60 AP since this Colorado series) a sigh of respite to first base. He also has 600 innings of experience at third base, so he could join in on the occasion and Eduardo Escobar play in stopover or second base for a day – or simply give Escobar a break. The D-backs do not have interline playoffs until June 7, but if Cron stays on their list, they will have a DH point to work with a three-game set in Toronto this weekend.