FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: September 20, 2025
I promise, I didn’t plan to write about the 2019 Diamondbacks in back-to-back editions of this column. That year was Ketel Marte’s breakout season, and also the year they traded Zack Greinke to the Astros at the trade deadline, but otherwise, they were a mostly forgettable team. Not bad by any means — Arizona finished 85-77, second in the NL West — but nowhere near notable enough to be remembered in consecutive weeks of the same column six years later.
And yet, isn’t that the beauty of this mailbag? This is the space for you to ask any and all baseball questions that pop into your head, no matter how silly or irrelevant they may be. And as far as we’re concerned here, the 2019 Diamondbacks might just be one of baseball’s more relevant irrelevant teams. I mentioned them last week because they were the team that Gerardo Parra was pitching against on August 3 when he became the third player ever to allow five or more runs without recording an out in his only career pitching appearance.
But before we get to the 2019 Diamondbacks in this week’s installment of the mailbag, I’d like to remind all of you that while anyone can submit a question, this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
Some team should try to reunite Josh and Nathaniel Lowe this offseason so they can set a new record for “most strikeouts by brothers in a single game”, among other brothers-related records.
This got me thinking how a team consisting entirely of brothers would do. There’s no way you could do this with just contemporary players though. These are the only current duos I can think of:
Hitters:
Acuna
Lowe
Naylor
Contreras (lots of first basemen / catchers here)
Jung
Pitchers:
Rogers
Peralta
Diaz
Mixed:
Nola
Maybe we could do 21st century only? That would at least give you enough time to fill out a credible rotation, as well as giving you the Seager brothers.
The Boone bros and the Seager bros all in their primes would be one of the best infields ever.
Don’t forget the Ripkens. Only one could hit, but they both could field.
Maybe something like: you have to pick the same season for both brothers, 21st century only. If you wanted to pick the Acunas, your only real option is this year when Ronald was hurt at the beginning. (It still might be worth it)
The Giles brothers and Seagers would probably be on it. The Drews might be on it although JD and Stephen never had their best years at the same time. Livian and Orlando Hernandez.
The bullpen would be nuts with Diaz, Rogers, Megill,
We would also have to consider if it worth be worth taking Ramon Martinez in his terrible 21st century version in order to get Pedro Martinez (I am pretty sure the answer is yes). The same with Vlad Sr and Wilton Guerrero. And Austin Nola’s functional years didn’t overlap with Aaron’s best years.
Maybe that team would be too good. A team with a rotation of peak Pedro, the Hernandez brothers and the Ross brothers would likely be the best rotation in the league. And then a lineup with the Giles brothers, Seagers, Vlad Sr, and JD Drew could put almost anyone at first base, CF, and catcher and would be terrifying to pitch to. You could have William Contreras at catcher and Wilson at first, or the early 2010s Molinas behind the plate.
I think the only way this would make any sense is if both brothers were something that approximated full-time contributors. Doesn’t make sense even in this contrived world where a team would have Wilton Guerrero on the roster by choice, or to link it to having Vlad Sr. on board.
This would start to resemble a more traditional elite team, with some serious strengths like the lineup (featuring the 2016 Seagers, 2005 Giles brothers, 2008 JD Drew with Stephen Drew as a utility infielder) and bullpen (with the 2022 Diaz and 2021 Rogers brothers), and a somewhat normal rotation (with 2004 Livian Hernandez and 2015 Tyson Ross, and Joe Ross and Orlando Hernandez either combining to give you another full season’s worth of starts or pitching every day, depending on your assumptions). Without having a league-breaking Pedro Martinez winning every fifth game for the team by himself.
That leaves a 1-2 rotation spots, four more spots for relievers, first base, two catchers, DH, center field, a fourth outfielder, and one more backup position player (preferably one that can sub in for either infielders or outfielders). I’m pretty sure this team would be best with the 2011 Upton brothers for CF and no set DH to let the three elite corner outfielders get a break from playing the field. But you’d have to be careful filling in the remaining spots so you don’t wind up running out there with only 10 pitchers on the roster.
I am seriously fixated on this if you couldn’t tell, but I’m sure you can.
The 2003 Boones combined for 9.5 fWAR. I’d probably have Aaron play mostly 1B/sometimes 3B/emergency LF(?). Marcus Giles slides over to the superutility role with Stephen Drew.
If we want to go back even further in baseball history the Niekro brothers would make a lot of sense on the pitching side.
The Uptons might be in here somewhere but that limits some versatility.
And squeak in some Giambi’s at DH there as long as their career just needs to finish in this century.
I’m super late to this, but it would be cool if a game started by Albert Suarez was closed by his brother Robert Suarez.