Introduction
With the regular season now underway for both Major League and Minor League Baseball, I think now would be a good time to look at the best individual performance at each position in the Diamondbacks farm system. For the reader’s sake and my sanity, we’re just looking at the starting tackles and the corner infield positions today, otherwise this would be very long.
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Before I do that, I want to congratulate the D’Backs Double-A affiliate, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, on winning the Texas League Championship. Winning the championship is great for the development of the team’s younger players, especially those who did not have the best individual season this year. That said, about half of the players mentioned in the next few articles will be on the team.
Starting Pitcher
David Hagaman is the clear and obvious answer for the best starting pitcher in the Diamondbacks system in 2026, and the most likely pitcher to actually be named the MILB Dbacks pitcher of the year. There really isn’t much of a struggle, especially knowing the context behind the numbers.
Hagaman, who was acquired in a trade last summer with Merrill Kelly, began the year with high-A Hillsboro in the pitcher-friendly Northern League. Through 15 games, Hagaman pitched 71⅓ innings with a 3.03 ERA, 4.10 FIP, and 4.15 xFIP. It’s good enough for a major league player to have a very impressive 61 ERA- and a slightly less impressive 84 FIP-. His 10.85 strikeouts per nine innings and 28% strikeout percentage are very impressive as well. That alone wasn’t enough to make him pitcher of the year, but what he did after being promoted to Double-A Amarillo, a much friendlier Texas league, made him the pitcher of the training camp of the year.
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Hagaman started seven games, 35 innings with a 2.55 ERA, a 3.22 FIP, and a 3.79 xFIP. His hitting percentage went up to 32.4% and 11.72 strikeouts per nine innings. He also walked with less bang, going from 10.7% to 8.5%. In the friendly Texas league, that translates to 43 ERA- and 75 ERA-. Hagaman struggled with walks, though, in the regular season coming off a Texas League division series and championship run. It will be interesting to see if he returns to Double-A next season, gets promoted to Triple-A Reno, or maybe even has a chance to make his MLB debut with a strong showing in spring training. My first article in depth on Dbacks prospects has a scouting report if you’re interested in reading more about it, which you can read here.
Face
Gabriel Moreno won the NL batting title, which I’m going to show now because it really helps show how strong the Diamondbacks lineup is right now from top to bottom, and how many of those times this year have been very good, which is how this series has turned in another direction for many.
The Dbacks confirmed that position of strength after taking a first round pick in highly regarded college catcher, Ryder Helfrick, who was going to have a solid professional debut in the Low A level California League. Despite putting up a solid three-point line of .245/.327/.521 with a 104 wRC+ in just 24 games, that’s only 24 games, so he’s not an all-star here.
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Josep Villarroel has put up eye-popping numbers in these 47 games this summer, but it’s also his 17th year in the Dominican Summer League, so you’ll have to take these counts with a huge grain of salt, which is why he’s not my All-Star, but another honorable mention. He said his numbers are really good, it’s a small sample size and very young. Combined, the Dbacks hit .303/.500/.485 with a .493 wOBA and 148 OPS+ on DSL teams. Villarroel will almost certainly make his state debut with either the ACL Dbacks or the Visalia Rawhide next season, which will give us a much better perspective to evaluate.
It’s also not Albert Barriga, who split the bowl-friendly Northwestern League for 40 games, hitting .259/.345/.490 with a 113 wRC+. It’s not because he struggled in the most friendly Texas League since he was promoted, hitting just 237/301/362 with a .302 wOBA and 55 wRC+ in 57 games. He is one of the players named in the intro who I think will benefit a lot from the experience of running a championship in Amarillo. Barriga is probably the most unique prospect to catch here, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how he stacks up next season.
Ivan Luciano made a solid argument for his above-average play in 2026. Luciano played most (85 games) of the season in Visalia, where he hit 264/.375/.441 with a .372 wOBA and 109 wRC+. In 12 games in Hillsboro after being promoted, he hit .279/.380/.465 with a .383 wOBA and a 122 WRC+. Through the two levels, Luciano put up a solidly above average tripleslash of .266/.376/.444 with a .374 wOBA and 111 wRC+. One of his teammates (at the beginning of the season) has a much more solid reason from his numbers, and this is Carlos Virahonda.
Carlos Virahonda started the year with 48 games in Visalia in which he hit .273/.359/.508 with a .383 wOBA and a 115 wRC+. He was then promoted to High A Hillsboro and in 50 games, and in a much more pitcher friendly league, he would hit .272/.393/.468 with a .391 wOBA and 127 wRC+. He would then play his season in four games with Double A Amarillo, where he would go 4 for 15 with a double and a homerun while hitting three times to give him a .267/.389/.600 and 134 wC+. In 108 games across all three levels combined, Virahonda hit .272/.377/.493 with 18 HRS, a .388 wOBA and a 122 wRC+. To cap it all off, he also had a fantastic season with Amarillo, playing a key role in the offense.
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If you’d like to read more about birdwatching, check out this article from earlier this season.
Third Base
Danny Serretti could easily be the star at second base, but he had a little more innings at third base. There also really aren’t any other obvious candidates at the position, other than second base which is just as stacked as catcher, so we’ll stick with Serretti here. I had an article on the context of Serretti earlier this season, which you can read here if you are so interested.
Serreti spent much of his time going back and forth between Amarillo and Reno, even returning to play a key role in Amarillo’s championship. In 74 games in Amarillo, he hit 272/.418/.510 with a .413 wOBA and a 124 WRC+. In 35 games in Reno, he hit .316/.421/.513 with a .419 wOBA, a .357 xWOBA, and a 129 wRC+. His slugging percentage dropped from 17.8% to 14.9%, but I’d attribute that to a higher batting average, which was backed by a slugging percentage within .3% of each inning, while Serretti hit 22.4% in Amarillo and 22.7% in Reno. Overall, Serretti finished his season hitting 287/419/.511 with 19 homeruns, 11 stolen bases, a .415 wOBA and a 126 wRC+ in 109 games.
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The only other third baseman in the same ballpark (sometimes literally) was LuJames Groover, who was above average in Reno, but was working at the MLB 2026 level.
First Base
Finally, at least this week, we have another position with one clear and obvious choice.
Manuel Pena broke out in a big way in 2026, hitting 26 homeruns in 61 games with Amarillo while also posting a triple slash line of .311/354/.673 strong .428 wOBA and 134 wRC+ in the first half of the season. He didn’t cool off significantly after being promoted to Reno, but overall in 112 games he had a 108 wRC+ with 31 HRs. The only other first baseman who had better numbers in the Dbacks farm system were Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear and I don’t think anyone reading this wants to hear more about either player.
That’s it now! Next time I will look at the middle infield and outfielders.