The Diamondbacks released reliever Shawn Dubin from his minor league deal, according to the MiLB.com transaction log. Arizona also re-signed first baseman Luken Baker on a new minor league contract. Baker had briefly elected free agency after being outrighted on Monday but will return to Triple-A Reno.
Dubin joined the Snakes on a non-roster invite over the offseason. He made five spring appearances and pitched twice for Reno within the first few days of the regular season. Dubin surrendered four runs on five hits and a walk over two innings and was quickly transferred to the development list. That’s generally to afford non-injured minor league players time to make mechanical adjustments outside of game action.
The righty didn’t wind up returning to Reno’s active roster. He’ll now seek an opportunity elsewhere, likely on another minor league contract. Dubin has spent a good chunk of the past two seasons in the big leagues. He pitched a career-high 45 1/3 innings for the Astros in 2024. The former 13th-rounder split last year between Houston and Baltimore, allowing a 5.08 earned run average through 33 2/3 frames. He has a 4.81 ERA with a nearly league average 22.3% strikeout percentage over 88 MLB innings.
Baker is back in the Reno lineup tonight. The righty batter played in nine games for the Aces early in the season, batting .242 with a homer. He was called up when Carlos Santana went down with an injury and held a bench spot for a couple weeks. Arizona designated him for assignment last weekend once Lourdes Gurriel Jr. returned from the injured list.
The Diamondbacks have gotten surprisingly strong production out of Ildemaro Vargas and rookie Jose Fernandez between first base and designated hitter. Arizona first basemen have hit .305/.317/.492 in 60 plate appearances since the Santana injury. Vargas is a light-hitting utilityman, while Fernandez is a mid-tier prospect who’d played one Triple-A game before being pressed into action. They’re probably not going to continue hitting at this rate, but it has been a nice boost from lineup spots that could’ve been zeros after injuries to Santana, Pavin Smith, and Tyler Locklear.
