2025 Diamondbacks Player Reviews: #38 Drey Jameson

• Rating: 4.20

• Date of Birth: August 17th, 1997

• 2025 Stats: 3 games, 3 IP 1 ER 3.00 ERA

• 2025 Salary: Minimum

• 2026 Status: Pre-Arb Eligible, 2030 Free Agent

(Drey Jameson’s injury and transaction page are very long for a guy who’s only played for one organization throughout his career. Any details that may have been skipped was purely intentional. I am doing my best to cover a guy who has pitched only three innings in the last two and half years and that’s after he’d already missed a massive chunk of time from the pandemic)

Six years in reality but millennia ago in terms of how long it feels, the D’Backs selected Drey Jameson with the 34th overall pick of the 2019 draft, out of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. During his two years at BSU, Jameson pitched 163.2 innings with a 3.52 ERA and extremely impressive 13.4 strikeouts and miniscule 0.6 homeruns allowed per nine innings. Jameson signed relatively quickly with the Diamondbacks, allowing him to make his professional debut before the end of the 2019 minor league season. Assigned to the Hillsboro Hops, (yes, which were a low A affiliate at the time) Jameson appeared eight games with 11 2/3 innings pitched before he was shutdown to end his season. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with not just Drey Jameson’s or the Diamondback’s plans, but everyone’s plans for 2020. For Drey Jameson, along with the rest of the minor leagues, the pandemic ended the 2020 Minor League Baseball season before it even began.

Once baseball finally got back underway in 2021, Drey Jameson earned a promotion from the Low A level Hillsboro Hops to the newly minted High A level Hillsboro Hops, as a result of Visalia and Hillsboro swapping levels due the reorganization of the minor leagues. There he pitched 64 ⅓ innings across 13 games with a 3.92 ERA. That would earn him a midseason promotion to the AA Amarillo SodPoodles, where he’d start eight more games and toss an additional 46 ⅓ innings with a 4.01 ERA. The beginning of the 2022 season saw Jameson return to AA for the first four games of his season. It wouldn’t be that much of exaggeration to say he dominated: 23 strikeouts and just four walks in 18.1 innings pitched, a 2.41 ERA and 0.911 WHIP, thus earning him a promotion to AAA Reno.

He’d pitch 119 innings across 22 games (starting all but one) with a very ugly 6.95 ERA, but we all know that isn’t an accurate reflection of talent due to the hitter friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. Obviously Dbacks GM Mike Hazen didn’t hold it against Jameson, as he’d get called up to the big leagues on (find date). In his four games he’d pitch 24 ⅓ innings with a sparkling 1.48 ERA. Going into the 2023 season, there were questions of if he’d be staying in the rotation or if he’d start the year in the bullpen. That’s actually reflected in the fact Jameson both started three games and closed three games, in addition to making nine middle relief appearance. Jameson pitched 40 ⅔ innings with a 3.32 ERA and a 75 ERA- before his season was ultimately cut short in early July of 2023 with elbow inflammation. (He also had 28IP with a 5.79 ERA in Reno) Although initially there was an attempt to just rehab his elbow and avoid surgery, Jameson made the decision to have the hybrid UCL replacement and bracing procedure done on his elbow.

That would be his 2023 season cut short, but he’d also have to miss all of his 2024 season as well. Drey would finally make what must have felt like his triumphant return in 2025, pitching in three games early in the year out of the bullpen. The results weren’t exactly impressive so he’d get sent down to AAA Reno on April 28, but less than a month later would hit the IL once again 0n May 20th. He returned to make rehab appearances in the Arizona Complex League on June 24 and June 27, but the Diamondbacks shut him down after the second of those outings. Fortunately this time he was able to avoid surgery. Considering how much time he has missed due to injuries Diamondbacks made the relatively unusual decision to send a non-prospect to the Arizona Fall League to get some much needed reps in. The result there weren’t particularly impressive (5 ⅔ IP, 4H, 4ER, 4BB, 4SO) nor do they matter all that much, but what does matter is that Jameson looked sharp and like he’s making progress in his return to pitching next season. It seems unlikely to me that GM Mike Hazen would trade Jameson over the offseason, especially while his value couldn’t get much lower.

It should be very obvious then that 2026 is a make or break season for Drey Jameson, and if he can’t hit the ground running basically out of the gate from spring training onwards and immediately settle into a spot somewhere in the bullpen, then it’s almost a foregone conclusion that he’ll be gone by the trade deadline.