Pavin Smith, Luis Frias and Emmanuel Rivera Called Up

The Diamondbacks have made several roster moves in accordance with expansion from 26 to 28 players for the month of September. 

Pavin Smith began the year in Triple-A and was called up on April 9th. He hit well his first several weeks, ending the month with a .279/.404/.488  slash line good for an .892 OPS.  in 52 plate appearances. His numbers sagged from there however, as over his next 45 games, 163 PA he hit just .163 with a .564 OPS.  By the time he was sent back down to Reno on June 29th, his season average was down to .190 and OPS was at .642. 

Things didn't go well right away for Smith down in Reno as he hit just .228 with two homers in 114 plate appearances. But he's been red hot over his last 21 games, 101 PA, batting .374/.475/.602, 1.078 OPS. That performance earned him a trip back to the majors. 

For Smith the biggest adjustment was just relaxing and enjoying the game again and not trying to think too much. 

"I've just found some confidence down there, I think less thinking is better. Before I felt like I was changing things in between at bats. I just couldn't find something that really worked for me. Having some consistency with being the same person every day is what's worked."

Hopefully for Smith and the D-backs the new found confidence, coupled with the familiarity of his teammates will allow him to produce and help the team. 

"It's good to be back with the guys, definitely some good friends I have here that I've missed" he said. "I've been keeping track of them, watching the games, they've been doing pretty good lately."

Luis Frias has been called up for the fourth time this season. While he's continued to perform in the difficult environment of the PCL, he has not yet been able to translate that to the major leagues. He has a 3.13 ERA and 36 to 9 strikeout to walk ratio in 32 innings for Reno. But in 17 innings in MLB he has a 5.71 ERA and 16 strikeouts to 13 walks. Jake Oliver wrote about improvements Frias had made back on August 10th, but in a subsequent outing he was hit hard and was sent back out.  Frias can throw over 98 MPH and if he can throw strikes he'll get more opportunity. 

Emmanuel Rivera also began the year in Triple-A and hit well prior to being called up on April 25th.  On June 9th he was hitting .367 with an .894 OPS in 104 PA. He had nine doubles but just one homer. The hits stopped falling after that as he slumped badly, hitting .187 with three homers  in his next 134 PA. That shaved 100 points off his season batting average down to .267 with an OPS of .686. He was optioned out after the game of August 11th. 

Recently Buddy Kennedy had been with the team but was playing sparingly, going 4-for-24, .167 in 10 games. Rivera meanwhile has hit .304 with three homers in 55 PA since being sent down, so the team decided to cycle him back up.