Jay Johnson doesn’t like to draw any conclusions in January. But by his estimation, the 2020 Arizona Wildcats have 13 viable options for nine spots in the lineup.
It’s a good problem to have and an illustration of improved depth born from the recruiting efforts of Johnson and his staff.
“I love it,” said redshirt junior Matthew Dyer, who’s sure to be a staple in the lineup at any number of positions. “It just shows that you’ve got to put in the work if you want to be out there and you want to be in the starting nine — that it’s not handed to you here with this program.
“You have to show that you belong in that nine. If you don’t show it, then the next guy up is gonna take your spot and he’s gonna run with it.”
Arizona displayed its position-player depth last season when Dyer, center fielder Matt Fraizer and middle infielder Jacob Blas suffered season-ending injuries — and the Wildcats kept on hitting.
Dyer was batting .393 before missing the final 12 games of the season. Fraizer was batting .412 and led the team in RBIs when he was lost in March. Blas hit .305 as a freshman in 2018 before being limited to 17 games last season because of a personal issue and a knee injury.
Arizona still led the Pac-12 in almost every significant offensive category.
“The year we went to Omaha (2016), it was a ‘Man, I hope they don’t get hurt’ kind of deal,” Johnson said Friday before the Wildcats’ first official team practice. “There were really 10 guys that we ran in there, game in and game out. I think that’s increased each year, and I think we’re in a good spot.”
Arizona lost Fraizer and offensive dynamos Cameron Cannon and Nick Quintana to the 2019 MLB draft. But the Wildcats return the bulk of their prolific offense from a year ago and have added some pieces that should boost the team in multiple ways.
Defense is one of them. Kyson Donahue, who redshirted last season, is likely to start at shortstop when the UA opens the season against Albany on Feb. 14. He’s listed at 6-3. Along with third baseman Tony Bullard, who’s 6-4, Arizona has two big, strong-armed players on the left side of the infield.
“Both those guys are really controlling the baseball in terms of catching it,” said Johnson, who is coaching the infielders this season.
“And they both can really throw. They make the field look really small.”
Blas, who primarily played shortstop as a freshman, has moved to second base. He looked mobile fielding a chopper to his right during an intrasquad scrimmage Friday. Blas also blasted a double off the wall in left-center.
“It’s like you have three shortstops at those three positions,” Johnson said. “That’s really going to help our team defensively and really help our pitchers.”
For all the issues they had throwing strikes last season, the Wildcats also struggled to field the ball cleanly at times. Arizona ranked last in the Pac-12 with a .962 fielding percentage, committing a league-high 79 errors.
The Wildcats surrendered 66 unearned runs, the most in the conference. Each of the five teams that finished ahead of them in the standings yielded 40 or fewer.
“I know it’s going to be better, seeing it on a daily basis,” Johnson said. “All those guys are rangy, they have great hands, they have strong arms. We’re fast in the outfield. The catchers, with coach (Dave) Lawn’s help, have really improved.
“Who’s that going to impact? That’s going to impact your pitching.”
Newcomer Vainer here to ‘win and win big’
More than half of Arizona’s pitchers are newcomers. But that doesn’t mean they’re all new to Division I college baseball.
Right-hander Davis Vainer came to the UA as a graduate transfer from Alabama, where he worked out of the bullpen for the past three seasons. Johnson is hopeful that experience will make Vainer, 22, an asset in late-inning situations.
“He’s really mature,” Johnson said. “I think he looks at things a little bit differently. Obviously, he has a different set of experiences than any of our other players have. And I think that’s really valuable.
“I just want him to utilize his experience to kind of have a slow heartbeat when he’s called upon.”
Vainer posted a 3-5 record with five saves and a 4.18 ERA in 61 appearances for Alabama. As he noted Friday, Vainer has pitched in “some pretty loud and tough environments,” including Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU and Texas A&M.
“Having that experience is just going to prepare me for really any of the ballparks that we go to,” Vainer said. “I don’t think there’s gonna be any crowd too big or anything that I haven’t really seen before.”
Vainer said he transferred to Arizona because he “wanted to win and win big.” Alabama posted a 76-89-1 record over the past three seasons.
Vainer had another option this past summer: He could have signed with the Houston Astros, who selected him in the 21st round of the ’19 draft.
“I was definitely tempted,” Vainer said. “I just wanted to play meaningful baseball, and I just wanted to win in college. I thought this would be my best opportunity for that.
“That (pro baseball) was a lifelong dream of mine, and hopefully that opportunity is there next year. I’m just kind of focused on this right now.”
Although he has pitched nearly 100 innings of Division I ball, Vainer still has room for refinement. He was a position player at Riverwood International Charter School in Atlanta and redshirted his first year at Alabama.
Vainer averaged 12.33 strikeouts per nine innings for the Crimson Tide — but also 6.51 walks. He did lower his ERA and WHIP each season.
He now gets to work with pitching coach Nate Yeskie, who was hired about two months after Vainer committed to Arizona.
“That was kind of the cherry on top,” Vainer said. “I had a tremendous relationship with coach Johnson. Then when that happened, I was just like, ‘All right, I guess it was meant to be.’ ”
Inside pitch
- Vainer on the SEC vs. the Pac-12: “I think the SEC and the Pac-12 are very similar. I mean, you’ve got a lot of big arms in the SEC; you’ve got a lot of big arms in the Pac. You’ve got stud hitters there; you’ve got stud hitters here. You’ve got guys in this lineup that would absolutely tear up the SEC. So I don’t think it’s all that different.”
- Right-handers Quinn Flanagan and Vince Vannelle started Friday’s scrimmage. Others in the starting-pitcher mix include junior college left-handers Garrett Irvin and Ian Churchill; freshman right-handers Chandler Murphy and Dawson Netz; and returnees Gil Luna and Jonathan Guardado.
- Arizona will host an alumni batting practice at Hi Corbett Field on Saturday. The event begins at 10 a.m. and is free and open to the public. About 35 former Wildcats, including Trevor Hoffman and Terry Francona, are expected to be in attendance.
