Corbin Carroll says mom took care of Seattle homecoming, has caught up with Alek Thomas

Any time you can go home and see family and friends it’s a good time, but when you’re Arizona Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll and the return includes routinely performing in front of 40,000 people, the time is that much more special.

The D-backs were swept in the three-game weekend series against the Mariners, and yet the trip being mere miles from Carroll’s high school meant he had plenty of reasons to smile.

He told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday that “over 100 (family and friends)” were able to come to see him compete. And he had a little help getting the large groups together.

“I got really lucky. My mom handled that. She got like a group ticket package, and kind of was like, ‘Hey, let’s all sit together, get a good group,'” Carroll said.

The Seattle native hadn’t played at T-Mobile Park since April 2024, with the Mariners in Phoenix last season, and he admitted to letting his eyes wander a little more than usual at the place he used to watch around 10 games per year as a kid.

Carroll’s love for Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki has been well-documented but his Mariners fandom reaches much deeper than that.

“King Felix (Hernandez) and the King’s Court, everyone’s got their K signs,” Carroll said of his fondest memories growing up watching the Emerald City ballclub. “That was probably the coolest little gimmick that they had there.”

Hernandez, the right-handed Venezuelan, won his first and only Cy Young Award in 2010, which was right in the prime of Carroll’s ballpark memory bank, as the outfielder said he first recalls action in 2006 and 2007.

 

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Carroll didn’t have his best offensive stuff in Seattle — 3-for-14 and two runs scored — but is still sporting a .287 batting average and .916 OPS through 55 games.

“Yeah, (the Mariners) pitched really well,” Carroll said. “So you got to kind of tip the cap there. But in my mind, you can’t let something like that, running into a hot team like that, change your approach as a team.

“In some sense, you have to have a short memory, you’ve got to stick with what’s been working for us the whole year and just keep going.”

Corbin Carroll has been keeping tabs on former teammate Alek Thomas

With the Dodgers in town for a four-game series and top of mind, it will mark the first time the clubs meet since former D-backs outfielder Alek Thomas was shipped to L.A.

Carroll and Thomas made their respective MLB debuts within four months of each other in the 2022 season, and the former said he’s had a few conversations with the latter since the May 12 trade.

“Just kind of asked him how he was liking what he was working on, when he was doing his swing stuff. And yeah, he was complimentary. He said he liked what (the Dodgers’ coaching staff) were working on and saw he got into maybe an ACL game the other day, maybe trending towards getting back to really competing,” Carroll said. “I always wish a guy like that you’ve played so long with and had so much, just so many experiences with, you wish him all the best.”

The ACL Dodgers activated Thomas on May 26, according to the MLB transactions page, and his most recent major league action came on May 7 for the D-backs against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Compete with the Dodgers? Carroll thinks the D-backs can

Veteran pitchers will slowly come off the injured list this summer for Arizona, and with the surge of young talent like Ryan Waldschmidt and Tommy Troy, Carroll said the D-backs can challenge the two-time defending World Series champions.

“Yeah, I mean we’ve got a talented team,” Carroll said. “I think, reasonably, a lot of things would have to go right for us, but I just feel like we have the players and the staff and the will to go out there and compete with anybody. So, I wouldn’t put anything out the question.”

He added that there’s nothing that Los Angeles could do that would catch Arizona off guard with the divisional familiarity they share.

 

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Is Carroll feeling any extra emotions with Wednesday’s task of facing Shohei Ohtani and his 0.82 ERA?

“Yeah, obviously he’s been having an incredible year, especially on the mound, and I feel like his highlights are everywhere and so if you’re a fan of baseball you’re pretty aware of what that guy’s doing,” Carroll said. “So, definitely understand that he’s going to be a real tough task here in a couple days and just excited for the opportunity.”

Carroll is 1-for-3 with two strikeouts in his career against Ohtani.

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