Overview:
James McCann has batted .444 with three home runs and nine RBIs since returning from the disabled list on July 7
The counter-culture crowd of the 1960s warned the world to distrust anyone over 30.
But that’s when the Arizona Diamondbacks were just a twinkle in Phoenix’s eyes, still three decades away from conception.
That Major League Baseball team trusts no one more with its pitchers than James McCann, a Dos Pueblos High School graduate who turned 36 last month.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo has described McCann’s mentorship of the team’s young mound staff as being “on a Ph.D. level.”
“You could probably target the day he got here and take a look at our ERA and do some of the reverse math on your own,” Lovullo said. “I know it’s been very good since he’s gotten here.
“I think he’s had a strong input as to the success that we’ve had overall as a pitching staff.”
McCann recently made tremendous impact with his bat, as well.
He launched a baseball 431 feet for his 100th career home run this week to beat the former Oakland Athletics.
He also slugged two homers in a victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium a week earlier, surpassing another milestone with his 400th RBI.
McCann has enjoyed plenty of big moments during his 13 seasons in the big leagues.
He made the American League’s 2019 All-Star Team while a member of the Chicago White Sox.
He’s also played in the postseason in three of the last six seasons — in 2020 with the White Sox, in 2022 with the New York Mets, and in 2024 with the Baltimore Orioles.
But he’s made a point to live in the present instead of looking to the past or future.
When asked what advice he’d give a younger James McCann, he replied that it “would be to enjoy the moment.”
“Not that I haven’t enjoyed my career, but you’re constantly looking to that next step,” he added. “When you’re in high school, you’re looking forward to either getting drafted or going to college.
“In college, you’re always thinking about the draft and moving forward.
“My advice to my younger self would be to take time to enjoy every single day because you never get it back.”
Many Happy Returns
Mr. Trusty didn’t look rusty when he returned July 7 after spending seven weeks on the disabled list with a badly strained quad muscle.
Since then, he’s batted .444 (8-for-18), improving his season average to .260, and driven in nine runs in the games he’s given starting catcher Gabriel Moreno a breather.
It was McCann’s influence as a “pitcher whisperer,” however, that convinced Arizona to sign him as a free agent when Moreno suffered a hand injury midway through last season.
D-backs pitcher Corbin Burnes, McCann’s teammate with the Orioles in 2024, dropped his name to the team’s brass when it met to identify a replacement.
“Corbin Burnes started to sing his praise,” Lovullo said. “Mike (Hazen, D-backs general manager) was in there, and (assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye) was in there, and (Burnes) made a suggestion about James McCann when we were having some catching issues when Gabi went down.
“So that’s how that got plugged in.”
McCann batted a solid .260 last season, but his handling of the D-backs pitching staff drew the most praise.
He’s been an honor student of the game ever since his days as an All-CIF Southern Section catcher for Dos Pueblos High’s Class of 2008.
“The conversations are A-plus inside of the dugout between he and the coaches, between he and I, between he and the player,” Lovullo said. “That experience is what he’s drawn from.
“You can’t fast-forward experience. You have to put in the at-bats and the innings behind the plate to say some of the things that he’s saying.
“So when he says it, it’s like an anchor … It’s like an anchor hit in the middle of the room. You listen. You pay attention to it.”
Lob Story
They’ve even had McCann pitch in several of the games that have gotten away from the D-backs this year. His four stints tied the MLB record for most pitching appearances by a position player in the first month of a season.
He lobbed high-arching “eephus” pitches that rarely reached 40 mph.
He threw twice as hard during his senior year at Dos Pueblos when he pitched 10⅓ innings in relief, allowing just two earned runs with 12 strikeouts.
Baltimore also used McCann as an innings-eating reliever in both 2023 and 2024.
Resorting to that in a lopsided defeat, the D-backs’ Lovullo said, is “probably one of my least favorite things in baseball.”
“But when you ask a position player to go out there and give you that extra inning so you’re all gassed up for the next city … it was great,” he added. “It was a fantastic job.
“He never bats an eye. I can cold-call him and have him go in a game without stretching … never blinks.
“I can ask him to pitch. I can ask him to do anything. He’s just a great teammate.”
McCann chose to return to Arizona this season despite receiving interest from several other teams.
“I loved my time here,” he said. “My family loved our time here.
“I really enjoyed the clubhouse, my teammates, the coaching staff.
“Organization-wise, from top to bottom, it was something that I really enjoyed for the time that I was here.”
He also sensed the club’s determination to get back to the World Series.
The D-backs were a wild-card team when they advanced to the Fall Classic in 2023, and they are in hot pursuit of another wild-card berth this year with a 55-50 record.
“I feel like I’m right where I need to be,” McCann said.
The present has become his real happy place.
