The Arizona Diamondbacks are flirting with chaos, in a good way. Shifting infielder Jordan Lawlar — a blue-chip shortstop by trade — into outfield reps isn’t just a developmental experiment; it’s an organizational fork in the road.
You don’t hand a prized infield prospect a new glove unless you’re actively re-drawing your depth chart and testing which pieces are essential versus expendable. That kind of bet creates ripples, and if you’re the Cincinnati Reds, armed with pitching the D-backs covet and a logjam of near-MLB talent, those ripples look a lot like leverage.
That brings us to the D-backs center fielder Alek Thomas, the kind of player who can look ordinary on a stat line and indispensable on a roster card.