The defending National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks enter the 2024 season with a target on their back.
They girded for it, supplementing with rotation starters Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez and power bats Eugenio Suarez and Joc Pederson, and they are fine with it.
Relish it, truth be told.
“A target is earned,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “I think it is something to be proud of. Something to be aware of. I think you can use it to your advantage. It doesn’t always mean that you are getting people’s best, but it means people are trying real hard.
“With our skill set, with the speed and unpredictability, I think we can use that to our advantage.”
Expectations are something else again. The Diamondbacks won 84 games a years ago, and oddsmakers set a similar target entering the season. Bet365 listed the win total at 83.5.
The Diamondbacks were listed as +1100 to win the NL West and are certainly not the favorite after the offseason spending done by division rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers (who won it last year), the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres.
“We know we are on the right trajectory,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We know that good things are expected to happen, but we can’t just roll it out there and say just because we did it last year we’re going to do it this year.
“We should be proud of what we accomplished last year, and we are. We have cycled through that and digested that. We have maintained that standard and we are going to uphold that.”
Walker and teammates had conversations on opening day about to handle the heightened expectations that come from the outside in the wake of their eye-opening run to the World Series last season.
You know the story. After qualifying for the playoffs on the penultimate day of the 2023 regular season, after a loss to Houston that day, the Diamondbacks beat Milwaukee, the Dodgers and Philadelphia to make their first World Series since winning it all in 2001.
Never mind that the Diamondbacks were arguably better equipped for that playoff run than the pitching-challenged Brewers and Dodgers in the first two series. Their success seemed to shock some.
That was then, and the Diamondbacks are treating it as such.
“I think ideally, we don’t have any expectations,” Walker said. “I think we have a standard. We show up to the park knowing what each other needs. The less expectations and the more we can stay day-to-day, I think that is where we are going to be our best.”
The Diamondbacks have been at their postseason best on the first weekend.
They dominated the Colorado Rockies in the first two games of the regular season, riding a torrid offense and strong starting pitching from Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, among the best 1-2 combinations in the league and among the reasons they remain confident entering 2024.
Arizona set franchise hitting records in the 16-1 victory in the season opener, when they batted around twice and scored 14 runs in the third inning. The inning was so long — 40 minutes and change — that Gallen twice retreated to the indoor batting cages to throw a few pitches to stay loose.
The 14 runs was a record for one inning, as were the 13 hits and the 18 plate appearances. Geraldo Perdomo singled in his first two trips, and he was on deck when the last out of the third was made or he would have batted with a chance to tie the major league record for hits in one inning held by Gene Stephens and Johnny Damon.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. homered and had five RBIs, a team record for opening day.
“It’s a constant battle,” Walker said of maintaining an even keel.
“You see the lineup. Throw up 13 hits in an inning, it’s hard not to get excited and think about the year. But I think day-to-day, inning-to-inning, and just being prepared and the game will take care of itself.”
The Diamondbacks were good about maintaining their composure in the 2023 playoff run. They fell behind Brewers’ right-hander Corbin Burnes 2-0 in the first inning of the first game of the wild card series and lost catcher Gabriel Moreno in the second game because of a concussion before sweeping the two-game series.
They rolled through the Dodgers in the NLDS and fell behind Philadelphia two games to none and three games to two before rallying to win the NLCS in seven games.
The learned experience is something to lean on.
“That is something we can identify with now,” Walker said. “We are fighting until the last pitch. Every moment the other team has to be on their game or we are going to take advantage of something. All that goes to our advantage.”