Who is the Diamondbacks manager? Inside Torey Lovullo's record, playing career & more

Not all managers get to ride through the rebuilding phases of teams. Torey Lovullo has not only gone through a rebuild, but he's now four wins away from guiding his team to its second World Series title.

The Diamondbacks manager guided the team to an 84-78 regular season in 2023 that earned Arizona the final wild card in the National League field. He's led the team to a wild-card series sweep against the Brewers, an NLDS sweep of the NL West-winning Dodgers and a stunning seven-game NLCS victory over reigning NL champion Phillies.

There have been some big-name managers reach the World Series in recent years. Dusty Baker. Bruce Bochy. Dave Roberts. Terry Francona.

But for a manager with seven years and now an NL pennant under his belt, Lovullo might fly more under the radar than many of the other managers in the sport. 

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Here's everything you need to know about the Arizona skipper.

Torey Lovullo playing career

Before Lovullo was the Diamondbacks' longest-tenured manager, he was viewed as a game-changing prospect by one of the best managers of all time.

Lovullo was a fifth-round pick by the Tigers in 1987 out of UCLA, and quickly rose up through the minors, debuting in the majors on Sept. 10, 1988. He impressed during that small sample size, slashing .381/.409/.667 with a home run in 12 games. Detroit's Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson named him the Opening Day first baseman entering 1989, and gave him lofty praise.

"This guy is as good a natural hitter as I've ever seen," Anderson said, according to ESPN. "If he could run, he'd be a million-dollar player. I'll die before he comes out of the lineup." 

Per the Los Angeles Times, Lovullo recalls Anderson also comparing him to someone along the lines of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

"Here was Sparky Anderson -- this great manager, the Big Red Machine and all that -- making these predictions about me," Lovullo said, per the Times. "I didn't want to let him down. I put so much pressure on myself to prove him right.

"I was 23 years old, and I was taking the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was too immature. I couldn't handle it. I fell apart."

Lovullo's 1989 campaign was disappointing. He slashed just .115/.233/.172 in 29 games and spent the rest of the season in the minors, where he hit just .230 in Triple-A. He did not appear in the majors in 1990 as he continued to work his way back up to the levels he was at in 1987.

Before the 1991 season, the Tigers traded Lovullo to the Yankees in exchange for Mark Leiter. He had a solid Triple-A season, posting a .271/.361/.433 slash with 10 home runs, and was promoted to New York, though he struggled again to the tune of a .176/.250/.216 line.

He had his best Triple-A season in 1992, slashing .295/.379/.509 and leading International League with 33 doubles. He also launched 19 home runs. Still, that was not enough for him to earn a promotion to the big-league squad.

"I felt so slighted," Lovullo said, per the LA Times. "The Yankees had so many minor league prospects, plus they had Mike Gallego, Pat Kelly and Charlie Hayes, at the time.

"I had no chance at all of making the big league squad. There was no room for me there."

Following the 1992 campaign, Lovullo became a free agent and signed with the Angels. He spent the entire 1993 season in the majors and turned in his best season, hitting a modest .251/.318/.354 with six home runs in 116 games.

The remainder of Lovullo's big-league career was mixed between the majors and minors. He spent 36 games wit the Mariners in 1994, 65 with the Athletics in 1996, six with the Indians in 1998, and 17 games with the Phillies in 1999 before he went to Japan to spend part of a season with the Yakult Swallows in 2000. He appeared in 29 games before he officially ended his playing career.

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Torey Lovullo coaching career

Lovullo did not take much time between his final days playing baseball and coaching it. In 2001, he returned to Cleveland's organization to be an infield coach, and by 2002, he was the organization's Class A manager.

ESPN reported he expressed a desire to the organization to make his way up the ladder in the system, which he did, going from manager in Class A in 2002 to High Class-A for 2003-04 to Double-A in 2005 to Triple-A in 2006. Along the way, Lovullo met John Farrell, who was director of player development in Cleveland from November 2001 to 2006, and Mike Hazen, who was a Cleveland scout before rising up as assistant director of professional scouting in 2003 and assistant director of player development in 2004.

Lovullo had interviewed for several managerial vacancies, including the Dodgers, Pirates and Indians jobs, but was never the pick. ESPN reported he was believed to be a strong contender for the Indians' managerial role, particularly because he had coached many of the players on the MLB roster on their way up.

"I thought I was finally in the right classroom," Lovullo said, per ESPN, "and it was like all of a sudden they switched schools. It's not that they didn't feel I was good enough. Mark [Shapiro] and I had long conversations about it. He expressed sorrow and wished me luck and said in a way he felt like he didn't finish the job with me. It was not his fault. He apologized."

Lovullo wound up leaving the Cleveland organization to re-join Hazen and Farrell in the Red Sox organization as the manager of Triple-A Pawtucket. And after 2010, when John Farrell was named the Blue Jays manager for 2011, Lovullo was brought up to be the first-base coach.

The Red Sox traded for the rights to Farrell before the 2013 season and brought him over to be the new manager. Lovullo followed Farrell to Boston to be the bench coach, and earned a World Series ring with the Red Sox in 2013. He interviewed for managerial roles after the 2014 campaign, but did not get any of the jobs for which he applied.

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On Aug. 14, 2015, Farrell had to temporarily step down as the manager, leaving Lovullo in charge of the MLB team for the remainder of the season. Under Lovullo, the Red Sox went 28-20 despite the team having begun the season with a 50-64 record.

“That experience checked a couple of unchecked boxes on my resume,” Lovullo said, per the Boston Globe. “I was ready in a lot of different ways but I didn’t have that major league dugout experience. I felt like it readied me. I had a great teacher in John. I watched him every single day and I felt like I was ready to manage and hoped somebody would give me an opportunity.”

Lovullo came back as Farrell's bench coach in 2016, signed to a two-year extension to keep him locked in, but it did not prevent him from leaving. Hazen, who had been the Red Sox general manager in 2016, left to be the executive vice president and GM of the Diamondbacks in October 2016. Among his first acts was hiring Lovullo to be Arizona's manager.

Torey Lovullo as Diamondbacks manager

Lovullo found immediate success in Phoenix. He guided the 2017 squad to a 93-69 record, leading the team to the wild-card game, where the Diamondbacks beat the Rockies, though they were swept in the NLDS by the Dodgers.

But the Diamondbacks began to have mixed results from there as the core of that team started to leave. Arizona went 82-80 in 2018, and traded Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals after the season. It improved to 85-77 in 2019, but traded ace Zack Greinke away midseason to the Astros.

The 2020 season began the first of a rebuilding stretch for the club. While current core pieces Ketel Marte, Christian Walker, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly were in place, the team struggled to a 25-35 record and full-on tanked in 2021 to a 52-110 mark. Despite the struggles, the Diamondbacks extended Lovullo, signing him to a one-year deal to keep him around through the 2022 season that included a club option for 2023.

"Through everything the season has presented, Torey did a good job of getting guys through this, even in a season where we might set a franchise-worst record," Hazen said, per the Associated Press. 

Hazen acknowledged that while the team struggled, the product on the field was more reflective of the direction of the franchise rather than an indictment on Lovullo's managerial ability.

“I am the one who charted the course we were going to go,” Hazen said. “I’m not a martyr. I need to be honest where things have gone.”

Lovullo said he was "humbled and honored" to receive the extension.

“I’m not an idiot. I know what can happen in these circumstances. I couldn’t be more grateful for the trust they have in me," Lovullo said. "I’m lying if I said I never thought out it. Of course I did. These are turbulent waters. I’m not the same manager I was four, five years ago.”

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While some teams can remain in a hole for several years, the Diamondbacks experienced a rapid turnaround. In 2022, Arizona jumped up to a 74-88 season, a 22-win improvement from the year prior, the third-largest behind only the Orioles' 31-game jump and the Mets' 24-game leap.

Midway through June 2023, with the Diamondbacks off to a 35-24 start to the season, Lovullo received another one-year extension to keep him in Phoenix through 2024.

“I hope for our players is where it makes the biggest impact,” Hazen said of Lovullo’s extension, according to The Athletic. “They know … the investments they’re making in their manager, their manager is making in them is not temporary. … We’re going to go through some ups and downs again, and to know that that stability is there I think is important."

Lovullo is already the longest-tenured manager in Diamondbacks' history. His seven seasons are two more than the five from Kirk Gibson and five from Bob Melvin. He also is the franchise's all-time managing wins leader, with 142 more wins than Gibson's 353. Only Bob Brenly, who managed the Diamondbacks to the World Series title in 2001, has more postseason victories with 11 to Lovullo's 10.

Torey Lovullo managerial record

* - entering 2023 World Series