The Arizona Diamondbacks wasted no time signing Zack Littell.
Just two days after being released by the Washington Nationals, the Arizona Diamondbacks have signed right-handed pitcher Zack Littell.
Littell, 30, signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Nationals prior to the 2026 season. For what it's worth, there is a $12 million mutual option for 2027 to go along with a $4 million buyout.
The North Carolina native is officially heading to his seventh team, according to AZ Central's Nick Piecoro.
Piecoro confirmed the news on Sunday, Aug. 9, during the team's series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Pitching depth has been a big-time issue with this D-backs rotation, and bringing in a veteran like this will desperately take some of the workload off of these rookies.
Remember, Arizona was in the market for Clay Holmes at the trade deadline, but the New York Mets pulled out at the last minute due to something they noticed in one of the Diamondbacks' prospects' medicals. No further details were revealed, but Arizona has since moved on, clearly, now that they've signed Littell.
Littell has a 4.97 ERA this season
Arizona has opted to add another righty to their starting rotation, but he's one that comes with numbers that aren't exactly ideal. Again, it's not like the D-backs are forced to pay him much, and this is a move that can quietly lessen some of the damage of not acquiring a big-time pitcher at the deadline.
Littell is 7-8 here in 2026 with a 4.97 ERA to go along with a 1.34 WHIP. Both of those numbers are up from a year ago. In fact, this is his highest ERA since 2022, when it was 5.08 with the San Francisco Giants.
While he technically had a 9.00 ERA in 2023, that came in a two-game sample size, so it's not even worth being in the same conversation as '22, when he appeared in 39 games, a similar number to his 23 this season.
The D-backs don't have to exclusively use Littell as a starter. This is a guy who's only started 93 of the 257 big league games he's pitched in, but he's primarily been a starter since his time with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023.
Littell has six games of postseason experience, but he's allowed eight earned runs in 8.1 innings. Those numbers aren't ideal, so it's clear this could be a work in progress, but it's a low-risk, high-reward situation for the team to put themselves in at this point in the season.
