Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training: Five Battles To Watch For

STARTING SHORTSTOP

September 10, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop

(1) is congratulated after hitting a two run home run in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

At the beginning of 2013, the shortstop position was a major weak spot for the Diamondbacks. They wanted to turn the job over to Didi Gregorious and while he was really good at times, he was really bad more often than not. Chris Owings will get a fair shake as will Cliff Pennington, but none of them provide significant offensive output, which the Diamondbacks really need.

Gregorious will start the spring as the starter, but the Diamondbacks aren’t exactly thrilled to pencil his name in on a daily basis just yet. He hit just .252 and made 13 errors last season in 103 games. At times he showed blazing speed on the basepaths with three triples, yet stole zero bases.

Pennington is a switch-hitter so we can feel confident that he’ll be the primary platoon guy and will be used for late-inning matchups. Owings is a utility man with just 20 games of experience in the majors. This is Gregorious’ job to win, unless something better comes along.