SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. − The Arizona Diamondbacks stunned the baseball world with their greatest season in 22 years, reaching the World Series, but their longest-tenured player in franchise history couldn’t bear to watch.
Shortstop Nick Ahmed, who had been with the organization since 2011, didn’t watch a single pitch of their postseason run.
The anger was too much to even turn on the TV set and see his former teammates play on the biggest stage.
“It hurt, it was really hard,” Ahmed said Friday, putting on a San Francisco Giants uniform for his first game with another organization. “You give 10 years of your life to an organization. I was there longer than anyone besides the clubhouse guys and training staff. You build relationships with guys, you helped build something, you helped build the culture, you helped move the direction in the right direction.
“And then for it to end the way it did was really tough.
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“It just ends in the blink of an eye.”
Ahmed, the Diamondbacks’ quiet and respected clubhouse leader, helped his teammates endure the anguish of their embarrassing 110-loss season two years ago. He hit 19 homers and drove in 82 RBI in 2019. He won two Gold Gloves.
And on the afternoon of Sept. 6, after the Diamondbacks’ 12-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies, Ahmed was summoned into manager Torey Lovullo’s office where GM Mike Hazen awaited.
They were on a flight, halfway to Chicago, to meet Ahmed and spend the weekend for the D-backs’ series against the Chicago Cubs. It wasn’t until they landed that Ahmed was able to get ahold of his wife, Amanda, who tearfully had to break the news to their two sons and daughter.
Dad wasn’t coming.
He was fired.
They stayed at the airport and took the next flight back to Phoenix.
Ahmed drove back home to North Scottsdale.
The drive took 30 minutes, but felt like 30 years.
“I mean, I knew I wasn’t playing well,” he said. “I’ll take ownership of that. But there was no prior communication. Nothing.
“I was blindsided.”
Ahmed, who turns 34 in two weeks, was still recovering from his 2022 shoulder surgery. He was struggling at the plate, hitting .212 with two homers and a .560 OPS in a backup role. He started in just 56 games.
Still, to be released just three weeks before the end of the season, no matter how close he was to his teammates, the pain was too fresh to watch the rest of the season.
He didn’t see their glorious September run where they became the last team to make the playoffs. Not during their upset wild-card, NLDS and NLCS triumphs. Or their World Series battle with the Texas Rangers.
“I couldn’t watch, I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “I was just trying to distance myself with it. You build a bond and a relationship with a lot of people, but there’s hard feelings obviously towards the organization how things ended.
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