Tommy Henry to get next crack at D-Backs’ rotation spot

CLEVELAND — When he started the first game of the Cactus League season in March, Diamondbacks left-hander Tommy Henry threw strikes and recorded outs.

But what stood out most to manager Torey Lovullo was the poise with which Henry carried himself. He had a presence about him that was unique for a young pitcher, particularly one who wasn’t even in big league camp.

Shortly after announcing that Henry would make his major league debut on Wednesday at Progressive Field, Lovullo thought back to that spring afternoon, and he mused about how Henry just might be ready for the big stage.

“Just his demeanor around the rubber — it was like nothing fazed him,” Lovullo said. “These are things he learned at a very young age. He pitched at a big college (Michigan), was on a huge stage in the College World Series. I know he’s been preparing for this for a long time.”

Henry moves into the rotation in place of another young starter, right-hander Corbin Martin, who was shipped back to Triple-A Reno after a pair of shaky outings. Henry will be trying to do what Martin so far has been unable to accomplish: establish himself as a legitimate major league starter.

Under General Manager Mike Hazen, the Diamondbacks have managed to find a number of young position players, either via the draft or trades, who have emerged as capable big leaguers. They have not yet been able to do the same with starting pitching.

Granted, most of the Diamondbacks’ high draft picks in Hazen’s early years were spent on position players. It was only in recent years that they began to dedicate more resources toward pitching. Henry was near the front of that wave.

Drafted with the 74th overall pick in 2019, Henry joined the Diamondbacks after a decorated career at Michigan, where he set a single-season strikeout record and helped lead the Wolverines to the brink of a national title.

The Diamondbacks have always held him in high regard, pushing him aggressively through their system. That included stops the past two seasons in Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno, two of the more hitter-friendly environments in professional baseball. He said pitching in those ballparks taught him not to nibble.

“I think it really forced me to look at myself and evaluate my approach and forced me to trust my stuff above all else,” Henry said. “While pitching in a hitter’s park may not be exciting for a pitcher, I think I learned a lot because of it and have changed my approach because it.”

In 20 starts this season with Reno, Henry, 25, logged a 3.83 ERA with 44 walks and 100 strikeouts in 108 innings. He averaged between 91-92 mph with his fastball and also throws a slider, change-up and curveball.

The Diamondbacks’ regime in recent seasons has not had much luck with the young starters it has tried to break in at the major league level. Whether it were pitchers the club drafted (Matt Peacock), those it inherited (Taylor Clarke, Alex Young) or those acquired via trade (Taylor Widener, Martin, Humberto Mejia, among others), none has managed to stick.

How long of an opportunity Henry gets remains to be seen. Martin’s leash this time around was not long. Hazen acknowledged the difficulty in determining how to proceed with Martin, calling it a “fair question” as to whether Martin might have been better served trying to work through his issues at the major league level.

“It’s a debatable question,” Hazen said. “We just felt like the secondary stuff wasn’t landing to the degree that it needed to land. We need to work on that. We need to improve it.”

While acknowledging that Martin showed some improvement during his two starts, both outings were just four innings, and Hazen pointed to the strain it puts on the rest of the team when a starter cannot pitch deep into a game. He said Martin showed flashes of good secondary pitches but needed to maintain better consistency with them.

It all factors into what Hazen called “the hardest divide to cross over” in going from a starter in Triple-A to an effective one in the majors.

“It’s challenging,” Hazen said. “You need to have your stuff working all the time and the consistency of your stuff working all the time. We’re going to see that here with some of the younger starters that are going to come up and break in. You see it across the league. It’s a challenging endeavor. But one that we need to figure out and help get right.”

In addition to Henry and Martin, the Diamondbacks have several other potential starters who could get looks in the majors this season over the final two months of the season, though Hazen said some could “get their feet wet” in a relief role. Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, who was promoted from Amarillo to Reno on Tuesday, could be at the front of the next wave, along with right-handers Ryne Nelson and Drey Jameson.

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tommy Henry to get next crack at D-Backs’ rotation spot