Asked how he is thinking about the top spots in his lineup, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo again made a point of noting that just because his batting order might look one way early in the season doesn’t mean he’ll stick with it long-term.

“I want to work my very hardest,” he said Saturday, “to be as flexible at creating the best lineup every night.”

Lovullo has always had some willingness to tinker with his lineup, but the way he has talked about it this spring suggests he intends to juggle it far more dramatically than in the past.

His thinking on this is straightforward: He thinks it could help them win more games.

There could be any number of reasons why he may want the lineup to look different from the previous day’s.

A hitter who normally hits down in the lineup is swinging a hot bat. Someone up top is slumping. A matchup against the starting pitcher looks particularly enticing. He sees the potential to capitalize on — or avoid — a late-inning bullpen matchup.

“If there is some lineup flexibility it’s going to help us, in my opinion, win the game,” Lovullo said. “I might get it right or I might get it wrong. But there’s going to be a reason for it, and I’ll be sure to outline it with those guys before I do something like that.”

Lovullo has tended to stick with certain hitters in certain spots in the lineup for long stretches, regardless of the matchup or how they have been swinging the bat lately. To be clear, he has been willing to juggle certain spots — like flip-flopping Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll in the 1-2 spots based on the handedness of the opposing starter — but he seems willing to make more wholesale changes this year.

Lovullo said he plans to talk to his hitters before the season begins to give them a heads-up about a possibly ever-shifting lineup. What he wants to avoid is the perception that he is dropping someone in the lineup because he no longer has faith in them.

“Sometimes I feel like when a player is struggling I need to believe in them more than they believe in themselves and really stick with them,” Lovullo said.

He added: “There’s a very fine line there. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do inside of my day-to-day conversations and inside of my job. I’ve got to figure out where that line is. And the line is blurry sometimes. It’s a moving line. I’ve got to be smart not to do it at the wrong time.”

Lovullo still pondering Opening Day decision

Right-hander Corbin Burnes fired four innings of one-run ball in his latest impressive spring training outing. It served as another data point for what remains a tricky decision for Lovullo.

Lovullo has yet to settle on an Opening Day starter between Burnes, his new $210 million pitcher, and right-hander Zac Gallen, the club’s longtime No. 1 starter.

“I’ve got some thinking to do,” he said. “Like I told you, I've been agonizing over this. It's going to be a very difficult decision because we know the two candidates and they're both very, very deserving of it.”

Lovullo said Saturday that Major League Baseball has been asking him for his starter; the league plans to again announce all 30 teams’ Opening Day starters in one fell swoop.

Lovullo said he asked each of his coaches during a meeting on Saturday to text him whom they would start and why.

“I want to be as thorough as possible,” he said.

Short hops

Lovullo said reliever Kendall Graveman, who has battled occasional back tightness the past two weeks, will throw a bullpen session on Monday. He has yet to appear in a Cactus League game and seems likely to open the year on the injured list. Graveman missed all of last season following shoulder surgery.

*Left-hander Jordan Montgomery will start on Wednesday vs. the Colorado Rockies , Lovullo said, adding lefty Eduardo Rodriguez will pitch that day in a backfields game.