How Arizona Diamondbacks strengthen ties on and off the field

It’s not always true what they say about familiarity. It doesn’t always breed contempt, you know.

Take the Arizona Diamondbacks, for instance. A healthy chunk of the roster heading into Opening Day on Thursday has known each other for years now and it’s helped forge some long-lasting and meaningful relationships that have helped draw this team closer together.

“Yeah, I’d say we do a really good job here,” outfielder Jake McCarthy said. “All of us having been playing with each other for a very long time, whether it’s our outfielders specifically, or you talk to the pitchers, and they obviously feel like they’re a big chunk of this team. A lot of guys were in similar draft classes, are in similar age groups, and we’ve been playing together for like five or six years at either this level or the minor leagues.

“The families all know each other really well and I think that helps with the team chemistry because I feel like we’re all really good friends on top of it.”

McCarthy was one of several Diamondbacks players to either get married or engaged this offseason and that’s seemed to help create an even stronger bond throughout the clubhouse.

“It’s fun spending time with your teammates and getting to know their families, wives, girlfriends, whatever it is,” McCarthy said. “It’s been fun. It’s all exciting.”

Teammate Pavin Smith said no one can argue with the Diamondbacks’ abundant talent in 2025, saying, “Yeah, I think it’s the best team I’ve been a part of. Just looking around from top to bottom — pitching, hitting, defense, speed — it seems like we’re definitely not missing any single category.”

When you suit up and compete with guys you truly admire, like and trust, it makes things that much easier, he said, especially going up against a team like the National League West rival Los Angeles Dodgers and their unmatched player payroll.

“There’s a lot of big games,” Smith said, referencing both the Dodgers and fellow division rival San Diego Padres. “You play those guys extra and just like guys around here push us to play better, teams in your division kind of push you to be better. You can’t take days off because those guys don’t, either.”

Outfielder Corbin Carroll said that as much as manager Torey Lovullo deserves credit for building a strong chemistry within the team, owner Ken Kendrick and general manager Mike Hazen should be applauded as well for giving the Diamondbacks a real fighting chance.

“They’ve done a lot to put us in position where we have the resources of a payroll to go out there and have a special year and you can’t ask for more than that as a player,” he said.

It helps that everyone involved seems to be completely immersed in the same message of team unity, even a newcomer such as Arizona’s new slugger, first baseman Josh Naylor, whom the Diamondbacks acquired in a December trade with the Cleveland Guardians.

“I think it’s been great,” Naylor said. “I feel like I’ve connected with a lot of the players here and I’m starting to grow some friendships and good relationships.”

Naylor has turned heads every day since he first started reporting to work in spring training as he decided to sport a different hockey jersey every time he entered the clubhouse at Salt River Fields. On Thursday, it was a Rob Niedermayer New Jersey Devils’ sweater.

A native of Mississauga, Ontario who grew up playing ice hockey as a youth, Naylor said he owns between 400-500 different jerseys, but doesn’t have a favorite. He would have kept playing but his father told him and his two brothers in their early teens that they had to pick one sport and the Naylor boys all chose baseball.

Bo Naylor was drafted in the first round of the 2018 MLB draft by the Guardians and younger brother Myles plays in the Athletics’ organization. Josh Naylor said he often enjoyed attending Arizona Coyotes’ games both in the Valley and in other cities he visited during baseball season and said he hopes an NHL team returns to Arizona before long.

He doesn’t lace up the skates anymore, however, because his baseball contract prohibits him from playing hockey.

“Yeah, not allowed,” Naylor said. “It’s in there where you pretty much can’t do anything outside of baseball.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks are a close-knit group away from the field

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