The Diamondbacks are swapping out a pair of relievers before today’s game. The team announced that right-hander Dennis Santana has been selected from Triple-A Reno. Left-hander Philip Abner has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Santana joined Arizona on a minor league deal on August 6th. He had spent most of 2026 with the Pirates before they designated him for assignment in July and ultimately released him. In 41 2/3 innings for the Bucs, Santana had a 6.05 ERA and a 4.61 SIERA that hinted at some bad luck, but not enough to make him an effective pitcher under the surface. He excelled at generating ground balls from 2021-22, but he ran just a 29.6% ground ball rate this year, well below the 41.6% league average rate. Santana has also given up eight home runs after allowing only five in nearly 30 more innings in 2025.

It should be noted that Santana was an effective relief option for the Pirates from 2024-25. After struggling with the Yankees early in 2024, he came to Pittsburgh as a waiver claim that June and dominated the rest of the way. Over 44 1/3 innings in black and gold, Santana posted a stellar 2.44 ERA, along with a 22.7% K-BB rate that checked in well above league average. He followed that with a 2.18 ERA in 70 1/3 innings in 2025, maintaining an excellent 6.3% walk rate and generally keeping the ball in the park.

Santana’s 3.50 expected ERA and .218 opponents’ average on balls in play hinted at some regression in his future. Still, he’s had quite the shift from effective pitching to being downright unplayable in 2026. The Diamondbacks, who are 66-58 and currently hold an NL Wild Card spot, won’t be counting on him to return to his previous performance in the middle of a postseason race. More than likely, Santana will only be up for a short stint. Fellow righties Gerardo Carrillo, Taylor Clarke, and Juan Morillo all have ERAs under 1.00 since the All-Star break, so there’s no long-term need for Santana if they keep pitching well.

In the meantime, Abner loses his 40-man roster spot and heads to DFA limbo for the first time in his career. He had been shuffled back and forth from the minors several times this season, making eight appearances out of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen along the way. The results simply were not there. Abner posted a 6.28 ERA in 14 1/3 innings and walked more batters than he struck out. While most of that damage came in a five-run blowup against the Nationals on June 5th, the lefty still had a 6.91 xERA in 10 2/3 innings from that point forward. His 5.01 ERA with Reno this year isn’t much better.

Abner was Arizona’s sixth-round draft pick in 2023 and is still just 24 years old. He had a 3.07 ERA with strong strikeout and walk rates in the minors last year, so perhaps another team will take a chance on him as a waiver claim. If Abner clears waivers, he would need to accept an outright assignment to Reno, then have his contract selected again before he pitches in the big leagues.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images