Wade Miley’s professional career began in the desert as a late First Round Pick in 2008.  Miley made his D-Back debut three years later, and in his first full season, the Louisiana native had one of his best seasons in Major League Baseball.  Winning 16 Games, Miley was an All-Star and boasted a respectable 3.33 ERA.  He also finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Bryce Harper.

Miley was unable to duplicate that successover the next two seasons, and he was traded to the Boston Red Sox.  Overall, Miley won 38 Games and fanned 499 batters in Arizona.

Archie Bradley spent the first five-and-a-half seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks where he has been both a starter and a reliever.   Bradley is known mostly in baseball for his ample beard, which he had since he became relegated to the bullpen but overall (the beard and his role) has been a better fit for the Pitcher.  Bradley stayed with Arizona until he was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds during the 2020 Season.  Bradley had 28 Saves as a Diamondback.

What a pickup this became!

The Diamondbacks traded for Ketel Marte before the 2017 offseason, and few people in Phoenix knew the star they were acquiring.  They do now.

Still a Diamondback at this writing, Marte became a cornerstone of the organization and will enter his tenth season in Arizona.  The versatile infielder had some early franchise moments, becoming the first player in postseason history to have two triples in a game hit from both sides of the plate, which he accomplished in the 2017 National League Wildcard Game.  In 2018, he would lead the NL in Triples.  This was good, but he would break out in 2019, which was the necessary step needed to make him the face of the franchise.

In 2019, Marte was an All-Star, and he would finish fourth in MVP voting.  Marte was also second in bWAR (7.2), Hits (187), and Batting Average (.329).  Marte continued to be a solid producer for Arizona, but in 2023, he reemerged as an upper-tier player, having his best year since 2019.  That season, he had 157 Hits, batted .276, and helped the Diamondbacks win the National League Pennant.  

Over the last two seasons, Marte has remained one of Arizona's top weapons, making both the 2024 and 2025 All-Star Games, winning the Silver Sluggers and All-MLB 1 Team spots, with solid stats (64 Home Runs, .288 BA, 150 OPS+), including a third-place MVP finish in 2024 (36 HR & .932 OPS).   Marte is entrenched in the top three all-time in many Diamondbacks batting statistics, and he is not done yet. 

Chad Tracy played six seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks and arguably he lands on this list based on the strength of his second and third season (2005 & 2006) where he was a 20 Home Run hitter.  Tracy’s best season was in 2005 where he had 27 Home Runs with a .308 Batting Average, which was good enough for seventh in the National League that year.  Unfortunately for Tracy he never came close to replicating his two good seasons with Arizona and would be relatively mediocre for the three years after.

Tracy had 654 Hits while batting .280 as a Diamondback.

Omar Daal was an expansion pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and based on the seasons that he already had in the Majors, there were limited expectations for the Venezuelan southpaw.  For the first time, Daal became a regular starter, and while he won only eight games in the Diamondbacks’ inaugural season, he posted a sweet ERA of 2.88, which ranked fifth in the NL.  He won 16 Games the following season, while eating 214.2 innings with a 3.65 ERA.

Daal faltered the following year and was traded during the season to the Philadelphia Phillies, leaving a record of 26-31 with 325 Strikeouts.

 

Josh Collmenter bounced back and forth from being a starting pitcher to a relief pitcher.  Collmenter would win 36 Games for the D-Backs, and while he was never considered one of the top pitchers for Arizona during his stint there, he was certainly one of the more recognizable ones with his signature over-the-top delivery.  Notably, he was fifth in voting for the National League Rookie of the Year in 2011.

Collmeneter had a record of 36-33 with 460 Strikeouts with Arizona.

Aaron Hill had an up-and-down career with the Toronto Blue Jays, and when he was traded to the Diamondbacks during the 2011 Season, it was a similar story for the Second Baseman.

In his first full year in Arizona, Hill had a great season, winning a Silver Slugger with 26 Home Run/.882 OPS year, where he also batted .302.  It was also a historic year for Hill, who hit two cycles in a season, becoming the first player since Babe Herman in 1931.  Hill broke his hand the following year and was never the same hitter, but he continued to provide depth and contact hitting to the club until he was traded to Milwaukee in 2016.

With the Diamondbacks, Hill had 512 Hits while batting .273.

 

Mark Reynolds was certainly adept at hitting Home Runs, and as a Diamondback, he hit 121 of them, including a 44 Home Run campaign in 2009.  His power puts him on this list, but his game was not multifaceted and was marred by many deficiencies.  Reynolds struck out in more than one-third of his plate appearances, and he exceeded 200 three times with Arizona, all of which were National League leading.  His 223 whiffs in 2009 remain a single-season record.  

Reynolds also made a lot of errors, as he was a league leader in that twice as a D-Back.  Despite that, his power game is strong enough to keep him on this list for a while.

A very good control Pitcher who would lead the National League in BB/9 in 1998, Brian Anderson was the second pick in the 1997 Expansion Draft and an original Arizona Diamondback.  Anderson would go 41-42 for Arizona predominantly as a Starting Pitcher and later was a member of the 2001 World Series Championship Team.

In 2001, Byung hyun Kim made history as the first Korean born player to win a World Series and though his performance in the Fall Classic was poor (0-1 with a 13.50 ERA), he was not a bystander in getting the team there.  Kim took over as the Diamondbacks closer that year and in 2002 he had his best regular season with 36 Saves (eight overall in the NL), a 2.04 ERA and his first and only trip to the All Star Game.  Kim would record 70 Saves for Arizona and will always be remembered in the desert for that submarine delivery.

Ian Kennedy had an interesting up-and-down career in Major League Baseball, but by far the best season he ever had was in 2011.  That year, Kennedy went 21 and 4 with a 2.88 Earned Run Average while finishing fourth in Cy Young voting, and driving the Diamondbacks to a division title.  He would secure 15 Wins the next year, but was traded to San Diego during the following season.

Kennedy returned in 2022, though had an awful year with a negative bWAR and an ERA over five.  He left again, this time for Texas.

His record with Arizona was 48-34 with 661 Strikeouts.

In terms of baseball history, Jay Bell is probably better known for his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he was an All-Star in 1993, but it was in Arizona (where he was an All-Star in 1999) that he would win the World Series.

Bell was one of the first players signed by the expansion team, and though he wasn’t the same defensive presence he had been in previous years, he still had decent offensive skills.  Bell’s power numbers skyrocketed in Arizona; in his All-Star year, he belted 38 Home Runs, a far higher number than the 21 he had two years earlier.  In the 2001 World Series, Bell scored the Series-winning run, giving him a distinct place in Diamondbacks history.

Bell had 91 Home Runs and 573 Hits as a Diamondback, which certainly helped Arizona during his tenure.

Damian Miller had a solid career in the Majors, where his best run occurred as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Miller was a workmanlike Catcher who was defensively sound and he would twice lead all National League Catchers in Range Factor per Game.  He was also named an All-Star in 2002.

Brad Ziegler never started a game for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Actually, he never started a game anywhere in the Majors. 

The bullpen has been a place that has served Ziegler well, and during his time with the D-Backs, he excelled in long relief, short relief, or closing.  Ziegler would lead the National League in Games Pitched in 2013, and as the team’s closer in 2015, he had 30 Saves.  The submarine pitcher would secure 62 Saves for Arizona.

Ziegler was brought back for a second run midway through the 2018 season, and he would retire after the season ended.  Overall with the D-Backs, Ziegler finished 140 Games and had 62 Saves.

 

 

In the first four seasons of Jose Valverde’s Major League career, he seemingly was fighting for the closers role with the Diamondbacks.  When he would win it, injuries would take it away or a slump might have cost him the role.  In that time frame the Dominican reliever who would become known as “Papa Grande” would accumulate 56 Saves.  That wasn’t bad, but it was in 2007 where he was the undisputed closer of the team where he did more than enough to land him on this list.

Spending only the first two years of his career in Arizona (2014 & 2015), Ender Inciarte undeniably saw his offensive numbers climb after joining the Braves. However, his time in the desert was anything but a footnote. He anchored the Diamondbacks' outfield defense with exemplary efficiency, finishing in the top five for Defensive bWAR in both seasons. While high-end defense often flies under the radar, it was more than enough to earn him a spot in the franchise record books.

Jake Lamb played his first six-and-a-half seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he played mostly at Third Base.  Lamb became a starter in 2016, and in 2017, he was an All-Star, hammering 30 Home Runs with 105 Runs Batted In, both of which were career-highs.   His high-water mark was his 2017 Wild Card performance (4 for 5, three runs), but afterward, he was beset with multiple injuries and was never the same player again.

He was released during the 2020 Season, but continued to play in the Majors for another four years.  With the D-Backs, he had 84 Home Runs and 471 Hits.

 

Beginning his career in Detroit, Robbie Ray was traded to Arizona, and while it was clear he had the goods to strike out Major League batters, he was still allowing baserunners.  The talent was there, but he just needed to put it together, and in 2017 (his third year in Arizona), that is what Ray accomplished.

Ray was an All-Star for the first time, had 218 Strikeouts (which matched the year before), and was the NL leader in SO/9 with an ERA of 2.89.  He was seventh in Cy Young voting, but in the years that followed, he could not replicate the success.  While still being a serviceable starting pitcher, Arizona traded him to Toronto, where he won the Cy Young in 2021. 

With Arizona, Ray went 47-46 with 998 Strikeouts.

An established veteran when he signed with the Diamondbacks in 2000, Craig Counsell was never going to be a player who challenged for an All-Star, but the infielder

Shortstop did show decent Batting Average on occasion (he batted .275 and .282 in the two seasons where he had over 100 Hits for Arizona), and he had good defensive prowess.  Essentially, Counsell was best served as a utility infielder throughout his career, but D-Back fans will always remember his performance in the 2001 NLCS, where he was named the MVP of the series (.381 BA/4 RBI).  He would later help Arizona win its first World Series, notably hitting a solo shot in Game 1.

Counsell was traded to the Dodgers after 2003 but returned as a Free Agent in 2005 for another two years as a D-Back, where in '05 he had his best defensive season (3.5 Defensive bWAR) of his career, while also posting a career-best 148 Hits.  Overall, Counsell had 611 Hits for the team.

 

 

Luis Gonzalez was a good baseball player before he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it was in the desert where he became an All-Star and the team’s premier offensive threat.

Gonzalez’s 1999 debut season with the D-Backs saw him post career highs in Hits (206), and Batting Average (.336), and it would be his first of three .300/.400/.500 Slash Lines.  It also marked the first of five consecutive RBI seasons. 

2001 was, without a doubt, the best season of his career.  “Gonzo” would blast 57 Home Runs with a Slash Line of .325/.429/.688 and finished third in MVP voting.  More importantly, he would help the Diamondbacks win the World Series in 2001 and would have the Series-winning hit with the most famous bloop single of all time.  That secured Gonzalez as a forever legend in the state of Arizona.

Luis Gonzalez would represent Arizona five times in the All-Star Game and accrued 224 Home Runs over his career with the team.  Arizona would also make Gonzalez the first former Diamondback to have his number retired, which occurred when his number 20 was put out of circulation in 2010.

Gonzo may not be #1 on this list, but for many, he will always be the most beloved Diamondback that ever existed.