Diamondbacks 2022 Season Player Reviews: Joe Mantiply

Status: Pre Arbitration 2, Salary $717,000

Season Review

Joe Mantiply's story is one of perseverance and hard work. Drafted out of high school by the New York Mets in 2009, the left hander opted instead to attend Virginia Tech. Drafted again in 2012 by the Phillies, he once again chose to stay in school. Finally after his senior season in 2013 he was drafted once more, this time in the 27th round by the Detroit Tigers. 

As he wound his way through the Tigers system, he would be converted to reliever despite a solid  first season in low A. From there he began a journey that included his major league debut in 2016, being placed on waivers by the Tigers, claimed by the Yankees then released by the Yankees, before signing a minor league contract with the Reds. He had Tommy John Surgery in March of 2018, and  was eventually traded back to the Yankees in August,  2019.  He pitched in one game and the Yankees DFA'd him once again immediately after.

He was signed as a minor league free agent by the Diamondbacks before the 2020 season, and got into some limited action before being DFA'd once again at the end of the season. He pitched his way back on to the roster in 2021 and by the second half of the season had become a trusted option for Torey Lovullo in the sea of misery that was the D-backs 2021 season. 

Now 31 years old, Mantiply entered the 2022 season as the primary left hand option for the D-backs. Over the first 11 weeks of the season he was nearly perfect. Appearing in 29 of the team's first 70 games between April 7th and June 21st, he allowed just one run in 26.2 innings, while walking just one batter, and striking out 26 and not allowing a home run. Many of those  outings were in high leverage situations  as he picked up six holds, two saves and win during that span. 

With the rest of the bullpen posting a 4.69 ERA during that same time period and blowing games left and right, Mantiply was an oasis of of competency and excellence for Luvollo. It was on the strength of this near perfect run that Mantiply's All Star case was made. However perhaps as a result of a heavy workload, the cracks finally started to appear. On June 24th he gave up a three run homer in the 6th inning against the Tigers that broke a 3-3 tie, taking the loss. Overall in his final 10 game run up to the All Star break he gave up eight runs in 10 innings, that included three homers among the 12 hits allowed. Still he reached the break with a 2.21 ERA and the well deserved honor of becoming the team's lone All Star representative. Mantiply was encouraged to soak in all of the festivities, which he did together with his family. 

He made his family and organization proud in the game too, pitching a perfect one-two-three scoreless inning, punctuated by striking Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

The rest of his season could not match up to his first half. He pitched in 30 games and posted a decent but unspectacular 3.86 ERA. He had three of his five losses over the second half and several high profile meltdowns.  Unfortunately his inherited runners scored numbers began to climb as well, and he ended up allowing 16 of 35 inherited runners to cross the plate. His 46% rate was considerably worse than the league average 32%

Overall it was still a good season for the thoughtful and well spoken reliever. His 22 holds were twice as many as the next highest total on the team and ranked 14th in MLB. His sinker, curveball, changeup repertoire induced ground balls at a 54% clip, and most importantly his microscopic walk per nine rate of 0.9 was the best among all major league pitchers with at least 60 innings pitched. That resulted in his FIP matching his ERA, and his xFIP was even lower at 2.52. 

2023 Outlook

Mantiply will be entering his final pre arbitration year in 2023. There were some that speculated Mantiply would be dealt at the trade deadline in August of 2022, and teams did come calling. But the D-backs held on to him and he is positioned to enter the 2023 as the team's primary left handed option. Not only a left handed specialist however, Mantiply allowed just a .679 OPS against right handed pitchers in 2022. The average left handed reliever allowed a .692 OPS against right handers. 

Another good first half in the year prior to entering arbitration could result in an offer the team can't refuse this time around, but that will depend on where the Diamondbacks are in the standings. If they are in position to compete for a wild card playoff spot, then Mike Hazen would surely hold on to the lanky lefty. But if the team is out of the playoff hunt early and Mantiply is healthy and pitching well then he will be a prime deadline trade candidate. 

No matter what happens in his future, he will always be known as an All Star pitcher, which given his journey to the major leagues was a remarkable accomplishment.