Five months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee, Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was going through drills — and opening eyes — at Salt River Fields.
“I did see Lourdes a little bit,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said on Friday, Feb. 13. “I saw him run the bases. Just was pleasantly surprised by the progress he’s made.”
When Gurriel, 32, hurt his knee last season, there were fears he might be sidelined for more than half of the 2026 season. But, speaking to reporters after his morning of work — which came two days before position players’ first official workout — Gurriel said he has maintained a far more aggressive timeline for a return: Opening Day.
“I prepared very well, had a really good offseason,” Gurriel said, speaking through interpreter Alex Arpiza. “I’m just going to leave that in the hands of the medical team that makes those decisions.”
Lovullo ruled out Opening Day, which is March 26, as an option for Gurriel when speaking to reporters on Thursday, Feb. 12. A day later, he still made it sound highly unlikely, but he wasn’t quite so definitive.
“We’ve got to be really careful with Lourdes,” Lovullo said. “We don’t want him to come back too soon and have a flare-up or inflammation, and now he’s playing catch-up through the early months of his return. When that is, I don’t know.
“But, yes, I did see him run the bases and make some turns and look really, really good. It wasn’t that long ago that he had this knee redone. It’s amazing. I love it. I want this to continue. But we’ve got to figure this game plan out and be careful.”
The Diamondbacks haven’t provided even a rough timeline for a potential return for Gurriel, though general manager Mike Hazen said it is possible Gurriel returns to action initially by serving primarily as a designated hitter.
Gurriel said he began hitting in the past couple of months and started running about a month ago. He said he already is running at full speed.
Gong show on the half-field
A new drill debuted on a half-field, where mannequins were positioned at first, second and third base with gongs strapped to their chests.
It was the brainchild of infield coach Shawn Larkin, who had the pitchers split into two teams and compete during their defensive drills. One point was awarded for hitting the mannequin with a throw, three points for hitting a gong.
“We’re trying to coming up with creative ideas to create urgency, accuracy and competition while also maintaining a sense of fun in an environment where it can get stale,” said Larkin, who ordered the mannequins and gongs off Amazon.
“Anytime you can compete with two teams in a game setting, at game speed, we’re going to do it. It was fun.”
Reliever Ryan Thompson’s team beat reliever Philip Abner’s team by a score of 24-18, Larkin said.
“Anytime we can make drills that may be mundane and make them fun,” Thompson said. “That was fun to compete against each other.”
Torey Lovullo on ABS strategy
Lovullo hasn’t nailed down how he wants to approach the ABS challenge system, but his initial thinking is to have only his catchers challenge calls early in games.
“We’re going to most likely rely on catchers first,” he said. “Pitchers sometimes get a little emotional. I know hitters sometimes also can be that way. We may rely on the catchers and start there, see what they have to say.”
Teams receive two challenges per game and retain challenges that are successful.
Lovullo said he wants to be sure the club has a challenge available to do it in key situations late in games.
He said he plans to spend more time talking about challenge strategies with coaches who have experience with ABS from its testing phase in the minor leagues.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks 'pleasantly surprised' by Gurriel's progress