The D-backs announced Thursday that theyve placed closer on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Lefty s contract was selected from Triple-A Reno to take his spot on the active roster. Fellow southpaw moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to create 40-man roster space for Castillo. Martinez was set for an MRI this morning after experiencing an alarming velocity drop over the past week. Hes gone from averaging triple digits on his power sinker to sitting just 93.5 mph in his most recent appearance. Though the right- Kira Lewis Jr. Jersey hander claimed he felt 100% healthy, hell head to the injured list with a still-vague injury designation. The D-backs will surely provide more information on his status and potential timeline later today. This slate of injury-related moves is a brutal blow for a D-backs team that spent much of the offseason looking for established bullpen arms but wound up making generally smaller-scale moves. Martinez and Puk are the teams two best relievers and entered the year as the favorites to work in save and high-leverage hold situations. Theyre both on the shelf, and while , todays move to the 60-day IL only further underlines the fact that Arizona is going to be without him for quite some time. Martinez, 23, averaged 100.2 mph on his sinker in 2024 and averaged better than 100 mph on the pitch in each of his first eight appearances this year. A dip into the 97-99 mph range over his next three outings was concerning but not nece sarily cause for full-fledged alarm. Last nights drop all the way to 93.5 mph, in an outing where he faced three hitters and allowed two walks and a home run, is another story entirely. Its become an ominous situation for D-backs fans to monitor, and one thats compounded by Puks absence. Martinez broke out with a 2.48 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate, 11.7% walk rate, 58.9% ground-ball rate, eight saves and seven holds acro s 72 2/3 innings for the Snakes last year. He clearly has some command i sues, but the elite velocity coupled with plus strikeout and ground-ball rates helped to mitigate that bloated walk rate. The D-backs, clearly bullish on Martinezs future, signed him to a five-year, $18MM extension during spring training. The contract contains a pair of club options for the 2030-31 seasons, which wouldve been Martinezs first two free agent years. At the time, there was little reason to fear an injury (beyond the general attrition rate of pitchers in todays game). Now, the outlook is far hazier. Were Puk healthy, the Diamondbacks would surely have just plugged him into the closers role and moved forward with setting up. But Puk hit the injured list with elbow inflammation after a strong eight-inning start to his 2025 season, and a subsequent MRI revealed a flexor strain thatll require a notable shutdown period. With Martinez and Puk both shelved, the D-backs will likely turn closing duties over to a combination of Ginkel and , who returned to Arizona on a minor league deal this offseason and has been outstanding after earning a job this spring. Ginkel only just returned from his own bout of shoulder inflammation, which sidelined him for the first month of the season. From 2022-24, he pitched a combined 164 2/3 innings with a 2.95 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Miller has pitched 12 2/3 scorele s innings in his return to Phoenix, punching out a gaudy 31.9% of opponents against an 8.5% walk rate. The 29-year-old Castillo isnt likely to replicate the type of results that couldve been expected from either Martinez or Puk, but hes a reasonably experienced southpaw whos had some prior succe s in the majors. Back in 2018-19, the southpaw looked to be breaking out as a viable bullpen arm for the division-rival Padres, pitching to a combined 3.23 ERA with a 35% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate in his first 39 big league innings. Injuries have blown up Castillos career since. He suffered a torn ligament in his hand that cut his 2019 season short. A torn lat wiped out his 2020 season. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and mi sed most of the 2022 season as a result. Its a staggering run of unfortunate maladies for the southpaw, but hes shown some encouraging signs since joining the D-backs on a minor league deal last year. In 24 innings between Arizonas Rookie-ball and Triple-A affiliates last year, Castillo notched a 3.75 ERA. He whiffed 24.1% of his opponents and i sued walks at an 8.1% clip with Triple-A Reno. This year, hes started out by holding opponents to a run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames. Castillo has had an arduous grind to get back to the majors after pitching just two MLB frames from 2019-23. Hes now poised for his first real look in a bullpen since 2018, despite accumulating four years of MLB service time through his various stints on the 60-day injured list. Because he only has four years of service, Castillo could be a multi-year option for Arizona if he can get back to his early career form. Enough time has already elapsed that he wont be able to reach five years of service before the conclusion of the 2025 season. That means even if hes back in the majors for good and thats far, far from certain he can be controlled through the 2027 campaign via arbitration. George Hill Jersey