Sometimes you just get a feeling.
After Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale revealed on the eve of the season that outfielder Easton Breyfogle likely would miss the opening weekend because of a shoulder injury — a day after it was announced that star closer Tony Pluta would miss the entire campaign because of elbow surgery — I sent the following message to my colleagues in our UA baseball group chat:
Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.
This has “season from hell” vibes.
Sometimes you hate being right.
The Wildcats, who began the season with a No. 24 national ranking, have played eight baseball games. They have won only one.
No team in the storied history of the program has started so poorly.
A year after going to Omaha for the College World Series, Arizona couldn’t even beat Omaha in the home opener. Then the Wildcats dropped three of four against UConn, a regular NCAA Tournament participant — but also a team that barely had practiced outdoors before traveling to the desert for its first eight games.
Arizona center fielder Easton Breyfogle, left, and right fielder Caleb Danzeisen collide chasing down a shot into the gap by UConn batter Nater Wachter that ended up an RBI triple in the second inning of their game, Feb. 19, at Hi Corbett Field. Breyfogle left the game under his own power.
Breyfogle’s situation has gone from bad to worse — the latest injury in what’s become a stockpile.
In just his second inning in the outfield Thursday, Breyfogle collided with teammate Caleb Danzeisen and dislocated his left (non-throwing) shoulder. He’s out indefinitely.
So Arizona is missing its best position player (one of three injured outfielders) and its best reliever (one of three injured pitchers). Pluta also happened to be the best reliever in the country last season. Add those absences to what the Wildcats lost to the MLB Draft from last year’s CWS team — nine total picks — and, well, it’s a lot. And that’s not including the turnover at the critical pitching-coach position.
The latter was in no way, shape or form Hale’s fault. Kevin Vance badly wanted to become a college head coach. Successor John DeRouin wanted to return to MLB. Assistant Owen Cuffe also got an MLB offer that no one in his position would decline.
Hale moved quickly — he had to; DeRouin left in mid-December — and lured Sean Kenny away from Iowa. Kenny has a long track record as a college pitching coach at multiple D1 programs. But it was unrealistic to think all those changes wouldn’t have a negative impact.
The pitching staff hasn’t performed as well as last season. But as shaky as the group looked in Sunday’s 11-2 loss — walking nine batters and hitting five — it hasn’t been Arizona’s biggest problem.
Broken bats
The Wildcats have really struggled at the plate. They’re at or near the bottom of the Big 12 in just about every category you can think of. That’s highly uncharacteristic of Arizona baseball.
The weekend’s games, following a shutout Friday night, suggested improvement. The Wildcats struck out only 12 times across two contests. They battled harder with two strikes. They had a season-high 12 hits Sunday.
Arizona batter Carson McEntire (4) gets focused, waiting his turn at the plate, in the seventh inning against UConn, Feb. 19.
The offense still isn’t where Hale wants it to be.
“The at-bats aren’t what we expect,” said Hale, whose team faces — gulp — Oregon, Vanderbilt and UC Irvine in the Live Like Lou Las Vegas Classic Friday-Sunday. “It's better than it was. But that wasn't good enough either.”
Arizona had only one extra-base hit — Tony Lira’s first career home run, which was also the Wildcats’ first homer since the season opener. They’re averaging just 1.5 doubles per game despite playing every game in large desert ballparks. Last year they averaged 2.1 doubles per game.
Something isn’t clicking at the plate, particularly for veterans such as Andrew Cain (.212 batting average), Tyler Bickers (.167) and Maddox Mihalakis (.086), who were supposed to carry the offense while younger players adjusted to college baseball.
(Three players who’ve batted 10-plus times have averages over .300, and they’re all true or redshirt freshmen: Lira, Danzeisen and Cash Brennan.)
Hale has tried multiple different batting orders. He has swapped places with hitting instructor Toby DeMello while Arizona is hitting, moving from the third-base coach’s box back to the dugout. It’s a work in progress at best.
Arizona batter Cash Brennan (13) celebrates his two-out double in the fifth against UConn, Feb. 19.
“What is performance? It's potential minus interference,” Hale said. “So obviously, there's a lot of interference in here right now. ... We have to find a way to get rid of that interference, and that's on us.”
Not up to speed
Hale takes full responsibility for every aspect of the program, from hitting to fielding to roster construction.
Defense is his baby, and that hasn’t been up to par either. Arizona has nine errors, which isn’t an egregious total. But the corner outfield spots are being manned by ex-infielders (Cain and Danzeisen) because of injuries, and too many infield plays have been handled nonchalantly.
“We’re not playing at a speed that this program is used to seeing,” Hale said. “If you notice every defensive play, it’s almost a bang-bang play. Everybody wants to review every play when we’re on defense.
“We just have to pick it up. Guys have to play a little freer and believe in their skills. It’s partly on us as coaches, and it’s partly on them. They need to understand that this is big-time baseball. ...
UConn runner Evan Menzel (4) dives back to the bag as the pickoff throw goes off him and past Arizona shortstop Mathis Meurant (5) into center field in the 12th inning of their game, Feb. 19, at Hi Corbett Field. The error let runners advance to third and second and eventually score the insurance runs in a 6-4 Husky win.
“We haven't been able to turn many double plays. Just too slow. Is it personnel? We'll have to figure it out. That's my job, and the coaches’ job. If we're not playing at that speed, then we probably have to find other guys to play.”
That’s easier said than done. There are only so many options.
“We have to understand there's no minor leagues to go down and get players,” Hale said. “This is our group that we put together, and that's on us as a coaching staff, so we gotta make it the best we can.
“That's all my job has ever been since I started coaching: Whatever group of guys I had, we're going to be the best we can. That's not happening right now, and that's on me. So I've gotta try to find an approach that lets these guys play to their potential.”
Lira, Danzeisen and Brennan have shown flashes, and it’s possible at some point that Hale will fully commit to a youth movement. That could be construed as a concession. But the reality just might be that this is a rebuilding year.
It wouldn’t be the first, despite what you might see on social media, comment sections and message boards.
I don’t know where this idea came from that Arizona baseball has never had a down year. It’s simply not true.
The Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament entirely four times between the national championships they won in 1980 and '86. They missed it 11 times in a 15-year span from 1988-2002. They missed it three years in a row after winning it all in 2012. They missed it as recently as 2018 and '19.
Over the past 60 years, only one coach has led Arizona to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. That would be Chip Hale.
Five in a row might be a stretch — although, as Hale noted, “this stuff can flip quick.”
Arizona has worked itself out of slumps and into postseason play multiple times during Hale’s tenure. But the Wildcats haven’t had to dig out of a hole this deep.
