He may never have pulled on a shirt for the team. but Penny was part of the Diamondbacks before there even were Diamondbacks. By which I mean, he was one of the team’s draft picks back in 1996, almost two years prior to the first game at Bank One Ballpark. Indeed. this was before even the expansion draft, which happened in 1997. Penny was picked in the fifth round of that 1996 draft, meaning there are therefore less than a handful of players who can claim to have been an Arizona Diamondback before Brad. Of those, only Nick Bierbrodt ever reached the major leagues, and he ended up below replacement level at -1.
Arizona Diamondbacks on the 2020 Hall of Fame ballot: Brad Penny
