Ildemaro Vargas, Tim Tawa covering up Diamondbacks’ first base hole (for now)

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks have one of the most productive first base platoons in all of baseball when looking at the past month, which is a stark turnaround considering the club was on pace for the lowest OPS from its first basemen in over a century.

On July 9, Diamondbacks first basemen had combined for an OPS of .549, which would have been the lowest from the position in baseball since 1920.

Coming into Thursday since they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers from July 10-12, Arizona first basemen own an OPS of .864. That ranks fifth, ahead of the Atlanta Braves (Matt Olson), Philadelphia Phillies (Bryce Harper) and Dodgers (Freddie Freeman).

How is this happening?

During a period of the season when superstars Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte have struggled to get rolling, it has been the depth of Arizona’s lineup that has picked up the slack. Tim Tawa and Ildemaro Vargas have played a significant role in that.

Tawa has been optioned twice this season and recalled, as he fell out of the playing time rotation in May. His best stretch of the season was during that triumphant Dodgers series, and entering Thursday he has been a .300 hitter with the highest slugging percentage (.550) on the team.

He also leads the team in hits with 24 despite splitting reps at first base and in the outfield.

“I think a young player becomes a major league player when he’s convinced his game can work here, and Tim is going out there in a very consistent way and hammering balls to the pull side,” manager Torey Lovullo said after Tawa’s home run on Wednesday.

“I think I’ve always had confidence,” Tawa told Arizona Sports. “I think it’s just about actually implementing it, actually doing the stuff that you’re capable of. … It’s definitely nice to get a little rhythm going. I still have a lot to prove to myself and everybody else that I can do this consistently.”

Vargas’ season has been as volatile as it gets, with the highest peaks of his career and some alarming lows. He won the National League Player of the Month for March/April as a 10th-year journeyman, one of the feel-good stories of the season in Arizona.

He was then statistically the single worst hitter among the 246 players with at least 120 plate appearances from May 2 to July 1 (.443 OPS).

At that point, Pavin Smith was not hitting, Carlos Santana was having trouble getting back from the injured list, rookie LuJames Groover was struggling to find his place and first base looked pretty hopeless. Arizona eventually designated both Smith and Santana for assignment and optioned Groover for more Triple-A reps.

Without an obvious answer, the rolodex landed on Tawa and Vargas — and eventually Tyler Locker when he got called up after the All-Star break — and it started to work. Vargas has hit .350 since that Dodgers series. Locklear has not played quite as frequently, but he’s hit .276 with an .819 OPS in 10 games since getting called up.

Lovullo said he would roll with the “King of the Court” for playing time, but no one seems to want to put the ball down.

“I know I went with King of the Court, but it seems like Tawa has found a little bit of a home there,” Lovullo said. “And then Vargas has been an emotional leader for us as somebody who plays with energy.

“Tawa has won some games for us, there’s no doubt. But so has Vargas. If you look at the night that Locklear had (Wednesday), he had a couple really big hits for us. I like the production. I like the fact that they’re all competing for playing time, but they’re relaxed when they do it.”

Tawa has cut down on his strikeouts and driven the ball in the air more consistently. He hit one home run and two doubles over his first 33 games. In 22 games since that Dodgers series began and coming into Thursday, he has five home runs and five doubles.

Tawa said the biggest change he made was getting set in a hitting position earlier, which has improved his timing.

Vargas has largely eliminated his pop-ups (23% in May, 7% in July) and started spraying more line drive, using the middle of the field. His batting average on balls in play in June was a putrid .109, and it jumped to .373 in July. Part of that is likely fortune, but the contact quality tells the bigger story.

“I maintain the same confidence,” Vargas told Arizona Sports in Spanish. “I continued working in the cages, with the hitting coaches and thank God I was able to get up.”

Will this last?

To this extent, that is going to be very difficult, due to the combination of the up-and-down nature of Vargas’ season while Tawa and Locklear have to prove they can be consistent. The at-bat quality and contact has been better, which does provide some optimism.

The Diamondbacks wanted to add a first baseman at the trade deadline on Monday and nearly did, but they traded for outfielder Lars Nootbaar and left the first base position where it is.

Even if there is a step back to some degree from this top-five level, Vargas, Tawa and Locklear have patched up a massive hole during a critical time of year, when the Diamondbacks needed to push to become buyers at the trade deadline all while their biggest names scuffled.

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