Brad Ziegler’s fourth pitch of the night was blasted into the right-field seats. As he watched it sail out, a look of defeat flashed across his face. This was in early June, the last time Ziegler stepped foot on the Chase Field mound, then as a member of the Miami Marlins.
He had been getting hit hard in the season’s first two-plus months. His back was hurting him. At 38 years old, he worried about his future in baseball.
“It definitely crossed my mind,” he said, “about the possibility of being (designated for assignment) or released.”
So much has changed over the past two months – changed for the better – and on his first day back with the Diamondbacks, who acquired him as a bullpen reinforcement prior to Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline, Ziegler said that trip to Arizona was the beginning of his turnaround.