How Tim Tawa earned a 40-man roster spot

Breaking down his batted ball data from Tawa's end of season stint with Triple-A Reno.

Tim Tawa was one of two players that the Diamondbacks added to their 40-man roster this week. Tawa was an 11th round pick in 2021 draft out of Stanford and signed for $125K. A versatile defender, spending time at second, third, and all three outfield positions, he profiles as a solid end-of-the-bench bat.

In his first full season, Tawa made it to Double-A Amarillo but stalled for a couple of years. He broke through in 2024, hitting .279 with 21 home runs and a 131 wRC+ in 105 games. That earned him a promotion to Triple-A Reno for the final two months of the season.

At the surface, Tawa put up an impressive .304/.376/.616 slash line with 10 home runs in 37 games. It’s important to take surface level stats with a grain of salt when dealing with the extreme hitting environments of Reno and the Pacific Coast League in general. Factoring in the park factors and the league’s run environment, Tawa’s wRC+ was an impressive 139. For comparison, Adrian Del Castillo, the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year, was 144.

Statcast incorporated a search for minor leagues, which covers all of Triple-A. So we can take a deeper dive into Tawa’s batted ball performance with Reno and get a better idea of what’s coming off his bat instead of trying to guess based on the results.