The Diamondbacks are making a roster move that comes with a little bit of surprise attached: catcher James McCann is back.
McCann’s last game action came on May 18, and he landed on the injured list the following day with an expected recovery window of 4-6 weeks. He’s been out a bit longer than that estimate, but given that he’s a catcher and turned 36 while on the IL, the extra caution makes sense. The bigger question now is what Arizona can reasonably expect from the bat.
Before the injury, McCann was in a rough stretch offensively. In 22 games and 62 plate appearances, he hit .203/.217/.254 with 17 strikeouts and just one walk, good for a .471 OPS. That mark is actually lower than the .555 OPS posted by Adrian Del Castillo for the Diamondbacks this season.
Arizona also got a look at where its attendance numbers stand after the homestand wrapped up yesterday, and there has been some movement in the right direction. Back in late May, the club’s year-over-year drop had been a massive 5,413 fans per game, which was the worst decline in MLB and more than twice the next biggest dip. There were some obvious factors in play, including two “home” games in a small stadium in Mexico City and a heavy dose of weekday games, which usually draw less.
President Derrick Hall said, “We are right on pace with our projections,” and expected the club to finish with an overall total about the same as it had in 2025.
Since then, the gap has narrowed considerably. With 46 home games now in the books, the Diamondbacks are still behind last season’s pace, but that deficit has been cut by 59 percent in roughly six weeks. The current shortfall sits at 2,194 per game, with Arizona now ahead of three teams.
A big part of that rebound came during a four-game stretch against the Dodgers, when weekday crowds helped push the average to more than 35,000 per game. The finale drew 42,000, and outside of Opening Days, it was the highest Thursday crowd at Chase Field since April 2023.
In Other News...
Diamondbacks Face A Tough Michael Soroka Decision This Winter
Michael Sorokas first months with Arizona offered a reminder of why he still draws attention around the league. The right-hander arrived after stops with the Nationals and Cubs, and the Diamondbacks quickly saw the version of him that once made him a Braves standout, including a sharper pitch mix after he added a cutter. He even flashed it in a big way early on, giving the club a glimpse of the upside that has always made his career such an interesting study.
Now the conversation has shifted from what Soroka can do on the mound to what the Diamondbacks should do with him beyond this season. He has already given the organization enough to keep the debate alive, but injuries have also shaped too much of his recent track record to make the answer simple. Arizona will have to weigh the appeal of keeping a pitcher with real swing-and-miss ability against the uncertainty that has followed him for years. [Read more 🡒]
Who Truly Carried The D-Backs In A Defining June
June gave the Diamondbacks a pretty clear snapshot of what can carry a team through a long summer stretch. Ketel Marte kept coming through with power and big swings in late innings, while Zac Gallen turned in the kind of month that put him on the All-Star stage for the first time. Between Martes impact in the middle of the order and Gallens steady work on the mound, Arizona had two different kinds of anchors during a month that demanded both offense and run prevention.
The flip side came in the kind of ugly loss that can linger well beyond one night, when the Twins blew the game open and left the Diamondbacks sorting through the fallout. Torey Lovullo did not hide from it afterward, saying the club needed to pitch, prep, coach and manage better, and the roster move that followed showed how quickly the pressure can tighten in a month like June. For Arizona, the bigger question now is whether the same players who helped steady the group can keep doing it when the margin for error gets thinner. [Read more 🡒]
Ketel Marte Has Diamondbacks Fans Eyeing Another Big Night
Ketel Marte is the kind of hitter Arizona can lean on when the matchup lines up, and this one does. German Marquez is back in the picture after a forearm injury, and the right-hander has had trouble keeping the ball in the park this season, which is exactly the sort of opening that can turn a routine night into a loud one for a lineup with Marte in the middle of it.
Marte has also handled Marquez well enough in past meetings to make Diamondbacks fans pay attention, with extra-base damage already on the ledger and a track record that suggests comfort against this particular arm. For a team trying to squeeze every bit of offense out of its best bats, that history is enough to make another big night feel less like a guess and more like a possibility. [Read more 🡒]