COOPERSTOWN, N.Y — Randy Johnson experienced most elements of a franchise’s arc during the eight seasons he spent spread out over two tenures with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
As a free agent signee following the team’s debut season in 1998, Johnson missed the nascent stages of the Diamondbacks’ development.
He won the next four National League Cy Young Awards for Arizona, which became the fastest expansion baseball team to make the playoffs in 1999 and the fastest to win a championship in 2001 — when Johnson shared World Series MVP honors with Curt Schilling after going 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA in three appearances — before getting back to the playoffs in 2002.
Randy Johnson in 6 seasons with the Dbacks (ages 35-40 seasons): Four straight Cy Young awards, Cy Young runner-up, three ERA titles, five strikeouts titles, five seasons of at least 245 innings, co-World Series MVP, a perfect game and a 20-strikeout game. pic.twitter.com/0aCllBuDhH
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) May 8, 2020
The Diamondbacks’ run ended with a thud in 2004, when Johnson tossed a perfect game while going 16-14 for a team that finished 51-111. Johnson was dealt to the New York Yankees but returned home prior to the 2007 season and went 15-13 with a 3.89 ERA over the next two years for retooled Arizona, which made the NL Championship Series in 2007 and went 82-80 in 2008.
A decade-and-a-half later, Johnson is getting to experience what it’s like to bear the fruits of a rebuild he endured with the Diamondbacks, who lost 110 games in 2021 but have spent most of this season atop the NL West and entered Wednesday tied for the final two NL wild card spots with the San Francisco Giants at 55-47.
“I think things are starting to rise to the top,” said Johnson, who has been a special assistant for the Diamondbacks since 2015, the year he became the first player to enter the Hall of Fame sporting an Arizona hat on his plaque. “Had a lot of acquisitions, trades, draft picks. And I think there’s been a lot of moments and seasons, like any team kind of goes through, where you’ve got to kind of go through the growing pains.”
The Diamondbacks’ top three starting pitchers — NL All-Star Game starter Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Tommy Henry — have gone a combined 25-11 with a 3.39 ERA in 53 starts. Gallen was acquired from the Miami Marlins in 2019, Kelly signed with the team in 2018 following four seasons in Korea and Henry was Arizona’s second-round pick in 2019.
If the Diamondbacks trade for Shohei Ohtani, he would electrify the Valley over the next few months — and it would be the absolute wrong decision.https://t.co/Qw08v2tVFm
— Kyle Odegard (@Kyle_Odegard) July 25, 2023
Among everyday players, Ketel Marte, who was acquired from the Seattle Mariners following the 2016 season, has continued solidifying himself as one of the best position players in franchise history by hitting .294 with 17 homers, 55 RBIs and a .892 OPS. Christian Walker, who was claimed off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds in 2017, is on pace for a second straight 30-homer season and has an OPS+ of 133, which would easily set a career-high.
“They’re paying the dividends of developing their younger players — offense and pitching — and things are starting to pan out much better,” Johnson said.
Of course, the preeminent position player for the Diamondbacks and the one whose arrival could portend a potentially golden era for the franchise fueled by homegrown stars is NL Rookie of the Year favorite Corbin Carroll, who made the All-Star team and enters today hitting .282 with 21 homers, 57 RBIs and 29 stolen bases. Only Mike Trout (30 homers and 49 stolen bases in 2012) has gone 30/30 as a rookie.
In an appropriate melding of his past and present interests, Johnson — who spoke last Saturday after hosting a display of his photography at the Fenimore Art Museum — said he enjoyed spending time with Carroll and another promising prospect, 2022 first-round pick Druw Jones, while taking pictures of the duo for a Topps promotion.
While Jones and Jordan Lawlar are still apprenticing within a farm system ranked by MLB.com as the third-best in the majors entering this season, Carroll gives the Diamondbacks the everyday lynchpin they’ve been searching for since Paul Goldschmidt.
The potential Hall of Fame first baseman accumulated 39.9 WAR — second-most in franchise history behind Johnson — in seven-plus seasons with the team before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals following the 2018 campaign.
“He’s off to a great start — hopefully he plays 10, 15, 20 more years,” Johnson told Compare.bet. “Get the most out of the game right now, while you have your youth on your side, because eventually you start slowing down. You can never foresee injuries or anything like that, but right now, he’s dynamite.
“It’s nice that the Diamondbacks have a franchise player. And Corbin Carroll is that.”
