Corbin Carroll frustrated to miss WBC, relieved injury won’t linger far into regular season

SCOTTSDALE — It was a shock to no one that Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll was back at Salt River Fields training on Thursday, one day after undergoing surgery on a broken hamate bone in his right hand.

It was not his throwing hand that he injured, so Carroll back out tossing weighted balls against the wall.

Carroll knew something was wrong after he hit a foul ball in live batting practice on Tuesday. He explained that he felt something “wiggling around” in his hand/wrist area.

“The hamate hook kind of pops off and gets lodged in there and starts pressing on the nerve in there. So I could definitely feel it,” Carroll explained.

The hamate bone in the wrist area is small with a hook, and baseball players are prone to breaking it due to the force of striking a ball. That typically leads to surgery to remove it.

The timing of the injury is somewhat fortunate for the Diamondbacks, all things considered.

Carroll expressed disappointment that he will miss the World Baseball Classic, saying he wished his Team USA teammates good luck and left their group chat.

At the same time, typical return timelines from broken hamate bones for baseball players are 6-to-8 weeks, so he is not expected to miss many regular season games if he is not back by Opening Day.

“(The WBC) was something I was really looking forward to, spending time around such quality players and getting to represent the country obviously would’ve been one of the biggest honors of my career,” Carroll said. “Definitely bummed to miss it, but at the same time, happy this isn’t something that’s happening midseason to miss bunch of games.”

Diamondbacks OF Corbin Carroll is “very disappointed” on missing the WBC with a broken hamate bone. He's also happy the injury didn't pop up midseason. pic.twitter.com/Wq2ThV9rdy

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) February 12, 2026

In the meantime, Carroll has to stay away from using his right hand, but there’s a lot else he can do to prepare his body for the season. He mentioned modifications in the weight room and training room, along with the ability to use his legs and keep throwing.

“ It’s probably blessing in disguise it happened now versus a month from now,” general manager Mike Hazen told Arizona Sports.

“Hopefully it’s minimal time missed from the regular season-on. Obviously he’s gonna miss a lot of spring training. … He’ll be able to run, he’ll be able to throw because it’s not a throwing issue. So we’ll be able to do those, which is great. There’ll be an at-bat volume that he’s missed. So I think from spring training and beyond, that’s the biggest thing that he’ll be lacking.”

Carroll has seen 49-60 plate appearances in Cactus League games over the past three years, not to mention the dozens of live batting practice reps on the back fields, so he will be behind to a degree when he returns.

When that is and whether it is before or after Opening Day is still to be determined.

Manager Torey Lovullo said it was hard to say so recently after his surgery, while Carroll said he’s taking the process a day at a time and focused on getting out of a cast first and foremost.

“He had surgery yesterday morning and 24 hours later, he’s out there working,” Lovullo said. “There’s a process and there’s a plan for him. We want to make this the shortest time possible to get him back on a big league field in a hot game during the regular season. I don’t know the timeline.

“I know he is frustrated. I know he wants to play every inning of every game. … This is something out of his control. He’s just gonna have to sit down for a little while and heal up.”

Corbin Carroll is here.
Throwing with his broken hand in a cast. @12SportsAZ pic.twitter.com/8DeRyDKR1y

— Cameron Cox (@CamCox12) February 12, 2026

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. update

Fellow injured Diamondbacks outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. arrived at camp, and he gave Lovullo quite an optimistic timeline for his return from a torn ACL.

“He said Opening Day to me yesterday when I saw him, that’s how good he’s feeling,” Lovullo said.

“It is not gonna be Opening Day, I can assure you that. … I don’t want to start to give a target yet, we gotta see how he is. But when I talked to him yesterday, he’s been hitting, he’s been running, he’s been doing a lot of things that he says he feels very comfortable with, which leads me to think he’s been getting after it and he’s ahead of the game plan.”

The Diamondbacks are exploring their internal options to fill in outfield spots, including moving center fielder Alek Thomas around and having Jordan Lawlar get reps in center field.

Adrian Del Castillo banged up

Catcher Adrian Del Castillo has been off to the side as the fellow backstops have gone through drills over the first three days of camp.

Lovullo said Del Castillo is dealing with a left calf issue, so he will be slow-played in spring training.

When Del Castillo heals up, he will return to catching, as Lovullo made it clear to the 26-year-old that he is not switching positions at this time.

“What you do behind the plate and how you swing the bat is very unique, and I want to capitalize on your ability to get behind the plate,” Lovullo said he told Del Castillo.

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