ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

ESPN: As is, D-backs’ offense would be historically poor for a playoff team

Jul 23, 2018, 11:06 AM

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Patrick Corbin, center, is visited on the mound after allowin...

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Patrick Corbin, center, is visited on the mound after allowing three runs during the third inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, July 15, 2018, in Atlanta.(AP Photo/John Amis)

(AP Photo/John Amis)

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense has been anemic throughout the 2018 season.

A combination of injuries as well as poor performances have hurt an offense that has averaged only 4.4 runs per game and a poor .231 team batting average.

ESPN’s Dan Szymborski projected how the remainder of the 2018 MLB season will play out, and he isn’t too high on the D-backs presently.

The D-backs offense has produced a lowly OPS+ of 82, and that’s bad news considering there has only been one team to make the postseason with than low of an OPS+.

How bad is an OPS+ of 82? There are 430 teams that have made the playoffs, going back to 1903. There are also 430 playoff teams that can beat an 82 OPS+ at the plate, the current all-time low being the 83 OPS+ produced the Diamondbacks in 2007. If there’s any team in baseball that needs to find a way to acquire offense, it’s Arizona. When Paul Goldschmidt was slumping in May and the Diamondbacks lost A.J. Pollock, the team scored fewer than three runs a game that month.

Despite the poor offense and up-and-down starting rotation, the D-backs still remain in the postseason hunt.

Szymborski gives the D-backs a 33.8 percent chance of making the playoffs as currently constructed. The Dodgers’ acquisition of Manny Machado boosted L.A.’s chances of winning a sixth straight NL West title, as well as hurt the D-backs’ postseason aspirations by Arizona not being able to acquire a player it coveted.

Unfortunately for all of the other contending teams, Machado was the easiest way to add two wins; with him off the table, it probably will take some creativity and/or more than one transaction to beat what the Dodgers just managed to do.

Szymborski projects the D-backs will finish the season at 86-76, tied with the Rockies for second place in the division.

The D-backs currently 1.5 games behind the Dodgers in the division and are 1.0 game behind the Braves for the second Wild Card spot.

With a little more than a week until the trade deadline, the D-backs expect to be active in trying to improve the current roster.

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ESPN: As is, D-backs’ offense would be historically poor for a playoff team