Pick 24 – Arizona Diamondbacks
Selection: RP Kelvim Escobar
There are a few certainties in this league: death, taxes, and the Arizona Diamondbacks spending a first-round pick on a reliever. Some teams zig, others zag—Arizona just keeps stacking bullpen arms like it’s a competitive hobby. And to their credit… it works.
Last year’s first-round relief pick, Danny Patterson, was mocked by some as a reach. Patterson responded by detonating those takes, putting up a lights-out season that has him cruising toward a Reliever of the Year trophy. When you build a bullpen that can basically shorten games to six innings, you get to hoist trophies. Arizona proved that.
So with Pick 24, why change who you are?
Arizona doubles down and selects RP Kelvim Escobar, and honestly, it fits them like a glove.
Escobar isn’t Patterson—that’s okay. Few relievers are. But he brings exactly what this franchise values:
- Major-league ready stuff
- Strong movement that plays late in games
- Immediate utility as a 7th or 8th inning weapon
- Youth and projectability, with room to grow his control into something steadier
If Patterson was the prototype, Escobar is the refinement.
The Diamondbacks already fielded the #1 bullpen in 1996, and they know it was the backbone of their championship run. Their rotation performs above its weight class, their lineup is patchwork but timely, and the relief corps slams the door shut before teams can even think about mounting a comeback.
This pick is about maintaining identity—and maintaining wins.
Escobar steps in on Day 1, slots right into their late-inning hierarchy, and ensures Arizona’s biggest strength remains exactly that in 1997.
It’s another classic Diamondbacks move:
unsexy, unconventional… and probably correct.
Kelvim Escobar isn’t here to change who Arizona is.
He’s here to keep the machine running.