Brandon Pfaadt's relief outing on Wednesday was a microcosm of everything that has been going wrong for him this year. Pushed out of the rotation and into an relief role, his inability to deal with left-hand batters reared its ugly head once again. A hung curveball to Max Muncy, who ripped a two-out double, and another one to Alex Freeland, who singled up the box with the bases loaded, all led to two runs against Pfaadt in the seventh inning. Those two runs bumped his ERA up to 5.94, and he's been equally ineffective as a starter and reliever. It's been a steep fall for Pfaadt, who stood out as a rookie in the 2023 Postseason, looking dominant at times in 2024 and parts of 2025. But there is no papering over a 5.19 career ERA in 492 MLB innings in which he's given up 79 home runs. Torey Lovullo Explains Brandon Pfaadt SendoutApr 16, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, left, takes the ball from pitcher Brandon Pfaadt (32) in the sixth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images | Jim Rassol-Imagn ImagesFollowing that game, Pfaadt was optioned to Triple-A Reno. That is a move that had been anticipated and he was trending towards for some time. The D-backs seemed to be struggling trying to figure out his role and how to use him. "We asked a lot of him to be able to be as flexible as possible," said manager Torey Lovullo. "Stay at the big league level, pitch out of the bullpen, try to get him stretched out, but it just became a little bit too much for us to do."The injury setback to Corbin Burnes suddenly made it imperative to get Pfaadt stretched out as a starter again to provide rotation depth however. "Given the Corbin Burnes information that we've recently gotten, to get [Pfaadt] stretched out to be our sixth starter sitting in AAA when and if that time was needed made the most sense."The D-backs' starting pitching depth is suddenly very thin. With Pfaadt's recent outings all being of the shorter variety, there is nobody on the active roster stretched-out enough to fill in as a spot-starter. There is nobody performing well enough in Triple-A to warrant a call up either, except perhaps Mitch Bratt, who has a 2.68 ERA in the super charged Pacific Coast League run environment. Unfortunately Bratt is on the minor league injured list with back and shoulder inflammation, and is likely to miss at least one or two starts. Lovullo expects that at some point the team will need to turn to Pfaadt to start again this year. "That time will come, it's proven, it's happened before, we try to guard our starters the best we possibly can but we will budget for tough days and having [Pfaadt] sit in AAA just made a lot of sense," Lovullo said. Fixing Pfaadt versus Left-Hand BattersArizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo watches pitcher Brandon Pfaadt during spring training workouts at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Feb. 14, 2025, in Scottsdale. | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesPfaadt is not only going to Triple-A to get stretched out. He has a lot of work to do in order to get back to being able to handle left-hand batters.Lovullo still views Pfaadt as a starting pitcher, but said, "You have to get both lefties and righties out. Teams are going to stack lineups against your limitations. So we don't want to have any limitations."It's an area that Pfaadt made improvement in 2025, lowering his OPS against lefties to .775 after being at .811 and .867 the previous two seasons. But this year, that number has spiked all the way to .967. For context, the league-average starting right-hand pitcher typically allows about a .740 OPS against left-hand batters.A lot of improvement in 2025 came off the cutter. Left-hand batters hit just .239 with a .656 OPS against the pitch last year. This year they're batting .333 with a 1.111 OPS off the cutter. It went from being a neutralizing weapon to a major liability. "The cut fastball is a massive pitch for him when he started to attack lefties the right way," Lovullo said. "He lost the feel for that pitch." Left unsaid by Lovullo was the issues with the changeup. It's an essential weapon for a pitcher like Pfaadt versus lefties. A standard approach for a righty is to bust left-hand batters up and in, get a cutter in on the hands, and throw the changeup down and away. Pfaadt hasn't been able to do any of that, and the changeup is a pitch he's never had a good feel for. Left-hand batters have an .820 OPS against the pitch in his career, including an eye-watering 1.257 OPS in 2026.Pfaadt will need to find a way to hone all of those pitches and locations versus lefties in order to become an effective starter again. It's not going to be an overnight fix. Signed to a five-year, $45 million contract that kicked in this year, the D-backs are hoping to salvage Pfaadt and turn him back into an asset. The question is whether or not they'll have enough time to get him right before he's called upon to start again. Stay tuned. Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow