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Just one day after Carroll underwent surgery to repair a broken hamate bone suffered during batting practice, he was right back at Salt River Fields, working out with a cast wrapped snugly around his right hand. 

“I’m not surprised. That’s how he’s wired and what makes him so special,� Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of Carroll’s quick return to the team’s spring training facilities. “He had surgery (Feb. 11), and 24 hours later he’s out there working. It’s just who he is and why we all love him so much.�

While Carroll doesn’t have a definitive timeline for his return, he told Cameron Cox of 12 News ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV on Tuesday that his hand is “in good shape.â€�

“I get stitches out pretty soon and roll from there,� Carroll said. “There’s a lot of higher-intent things I can’t do right now, and so I’m trying to do as many low-intent things, and just make sure I’m checking those boxes off right now. So that when I am able to go, that I’m not shocking my body and asking it to do something pretty aggressive.�

Coaches and players refer to Carroll as a gamer, someone whose tenacious spirit and high effort never wavers whether battling injuries or a slump at the plate. He’s a player who needs to be on the field at all times. 

“I know he’s frustrated. I know he wants to play every inning of every game. When I take him out of games, when I give him days off, he doesn’t like it,� Lovullo said of Carroll’s competitive nature. 

Carroll’s fellow Diamondbacks were just as quick to praise their injured teammate, expressing optimism that if someone on the team had to be burdened with recovering from a surgery in spring training, they’re glad it’s him.

“He’s as hard a worker as anybody that I’ve ever met, so if anyone can come back from that or deal with pain tolerance, it’s him,� said utility man Tim Tawa, a past victim of the same hamate bone injury. 

Pitcher Ryne Nelson, who debuted just a few days apart from Carroll in 2022, said, “If there’s anybody you can count on to take his rehab really seriously and take all the steps to come back fully healthy, it’s that guy. I expect him to get back out here as soon as possible.�

The root of Carroll’s frustration over his injury was not the delay in putting on the Diamondbacks’ Cactus League jersey. It was the uniform he now won’t get the opportunity to don at all this March: Team USA’s. 

Carroll was gearing up to play in his first World Baseball Classic this spring, an opportunity that typically only comes around every four years for the sport’s premier players. The WBC runs from March 5 to March 17, featuring 20 teams playing in Houston, Miami, Tokyo and San Juan.

“Very disappointed. It was something I was really looking forward to,� Carroll said. “Spending time around such quality players, and getting to represent the country obviously would have been one of the biggest honors of my career.�

Representing the U.S. has long been an element of the sport in which Carroll has excelled and taken pride. Kellen Sundin, his high school coach at Lakeside School in Seattle, said the realization that Carroll was going to be special fully set in when he played for the U.S. national team at 18. 

“He made the national team the fall of his senior year, went and played with (Kansas City Royals shortstop) Bobby Witt (Jr.) and those guys, and he played really well,� Sundin said. “I think that was the main point of this guy is going to play for a while. We knew he was going to be a good player after Lakeside, but that took it to another level. It was the highest stage with the best guys.�

Although Carroll won’t be returning to that highest stage for this year’s edition of the WBC, he will get to reallocate that time to the Diamondbacks’ spring training. A chance to play will turn into a chance to teach and lead, the other aspects of baseball in which Carroll shines. 

“He was the most impactful leader from a standpoint of leading by example. He wasn’t then, and he’s not now, a rah-rah sort of leader, that’s not his M.O.,� Sundin said of Carroll’s leadership. “His style is to work harder than everybody else, and care more than everybody else … it adds pressure to yourself to make sure you’re living up to the standards he’s setting.�

Sundin also made sure to add that Carroll never missed a single game in his high school career, and expects his “once in a coaching career� former player to be healthy and return to the field in no time. 

While it remains unclear whether “no time� means in time for Opening Day — Arizona begins the regular season March 26 on the road against the back-to-back defending World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers — it is clear that Carroll is doing everything in his power to heal up and deliver winning baseball to the Diamondbacks once again.