Diamondbacks putting up one of greatest offensive seasons in club history

The Arizona Diamondbacks have never led Major League Baseball in runs over a full season, but they are in position to change that.

With just more than a month left in the 2024 regular season, Arizona sits atop the MLB leaderboard with 701 runs, 32 ahead of the New York Yankees in second.

The D-backs’ offense has lifted the club into the upper echelon of major league contenders heading into the final stretch at 75-56, despite a potentially overwhelming number of injuries and early-season inconsistency.

The Diamondbacks are also putting up one of their most impressive statistical seasons since the inaugural 1998 campaign.

Arizona’s 5.4 runs per game ranks second in franchise history. The second-season Diamondbacks in 1999, a club that won a franchise-leading 100 games, averaged 5.6 with standout seasons from newcomers Luis Gonzalez and Steve Finley along with Jay Bell and Matt Williams.

In order to catch the 1999 squad, the D-backs would need 207 runs in the final 31 games, an average of 6.68. Arizona leads the league with 6.52 runs per game since July 1.

The two eras were so different, however, as the Diamondbacks are piling on runs in a league where scoring is down at 4.4 runs per game. In 1999, MLB’s average runs per game output was 5.1.

Chase Field — then Bank One Ballpark — was also decades away from adding the humidor which has successfully reduced home runs. Since 2019, the once homer-happy Chase Field has been a bottom-10 ballpark for long balls.

The production in a more pitcher-friendly home has boosted the 2024 group’s park-adjusted OPS+ (100 league average) to 114, 13 points higher than 2001.

Arizona’s offense during the first half of the 2024 season was a lot more hot and cold, with staggering outputs of 16, 14 and 17 runs helping its run differential. Perhaps that makes it difficult to call Arizona the best hitting team of the entire season.

But this is the best offense in baseball right now and has been for two months through a combination of lineup depth, power and building innings.

Diamondbacks on track for historic offensive season thanks to a deep lineup

It seems that after every game, whoever ends up with cameras and microphones in front of them says a similar line. Something to the effect of, “it seems like every night there’s someone new helping us.”

Perhaps there is no better example of this than what the team has accomplished over the past couple of weeks. Ketel Marte, a National League MVP candidate at the time, suffered an ankle injury on Aug. 10. Cleanup hitter Christian Walker and red-hot Gabriel Moreno had landed on the injured list over the previous few weeks.

From that Aug. 10 game on, Arizona has scored double-digit runs five times and leads MLB in scoring by 24 runs.

With the Joc Pederson and Eugenio Suarez offseason additions, this is a more powerful lineup than last year’s World Series team. Jake McCarthy’s breakout and Corbin Carroll’s second-half power turnaround have likewise been pertinent to keeping the ship on course despite the injuries.

And it helps to have new faces slide in red-hot like Josh Bell at the trade deadline and Adrian Del Castillo after his call-up.

Weighted runs created plus — like OPS+ — takes external factors to compare hitters on a scale where 100 is league average.

Since July 2 at Dodger Stadium, when the D-backs kicked off an electric 17-8 month, Arizona’s 10 hitters with the most plate appearances are all above 100. Nine of them are above an outstanding 120.

The 10 are Suarez (169), Carroll (133), Geraldo Perdomo (121), Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (108), McCarthy (149), Marte (190), Pederson (189), Walker (134), Moreno (150) and Bell (124).

Suarez and Carroll had respective wRC+ numbers of 67 and 77 entering July. Suarez appeared close to being released, and external talk of Carroll revolved around whether he needed an option to figure his swing out.

Since then, Suarez leads the league with 47 RBIs. Carroll has scored 46 runs. Carroll has reached base in 34 straight starts, the second-longest streak in team history (Bell, 39).

Diamondbacks pair power and patience

The club will in all likelihood not set a franchise record for homers this year — especially without any more games at Dodger Stadium. But the D-backs have provided a steady stream of slug with multiple home runs in 26 games since the start of July, which paces MLB. That usually leads to wins, as the D-backs are 37-12 when they hit multiple homers compared to 13-31 when no balls leave the yard.

Last year, the D-backs finished with four 20-home run hitters and they already have matched that output (Marte, Walker, Suarez and Pederson). Gurriel has 15 and has shown since his arrival last year how scorching hot he can get when in a groove. Carroll has 14, six in the month of August alone.

The D-backs have never had six players hit 20 homers in a season. Their record is five from 2005 (Tony Clark, Troy Glaus, Luis Gonzalez, Shawn Green and Chad Tracy).

What has helped accentuate the power is the number of runners getting on base to build innings in which crooked numbers are possible.

As a team, the D-backs are jostling with the Yankees for baseball’s best on-base percentage (.335), and Arizona ranks fifth in walk rate (9%).

Working walks, putting the ball in play and overwhelming opponents with speed has been a calling card for the offense the previous two years. Home runs have added an additional level of danger, but it’s simplistic to single it out as their calling card on offense.

The D-backs have the most plate appearances, hits and best wRC+ with runners in scoring position this year, aided by top-five strikeout and walk rates. Arizona ranks second behind the San Diego Padres with a 123 wRC+ in high leverage this year — moments that most impact the game’s win probability.

They are creating chances to beat opponents in different ways from a go-ahead three-run homer by Suarez at Fenway Park on Sunday or two straight wild pitches against the Rockies after heads-up baserunning — still a notable strength.

The wild pitches example takes a bit of fortune, but teams can create luck in these ways.

Reinforcements are expected back soon, particularly Walker and Marte, who may not need long progressions once cleared.

A team that invested so much into its starting rotation only to see it struggle to live up to expectations (4.70 ERA) due to injuries and unexpected veteran struggles has made up the difference to this point on the other side of the ball.

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