Goldschmidt trade a real possibility
The Diamondbacks have been one of baseball’s most active teams this winter – that is, if the rumor mill is to be believed. General Manager Mike Hazen doesn’t seem surprised by the attention, not after he expressed willingness to retool his roster last month.
“As soon as you say you’re listening on guys, you open yourself up to this,” Hazen said. “I’m not going to correct any of this stuff (media reports). I still maintain we’re still in the process of doing what we set out to do before, and that it’s required by us to sort of hear what other teams have to say.”
While little about the club’s offseason direction seems set in stone, this much appears clear: The Dia-
mondbacks are open to the idea of a Paul Goldschmidt trade. They might even be leaning in that direction. They also seem more willing to move Zack Greinke than at any point over the past two winters.
There are other moves they are considering, as well, but they do not appear to be preparing for a total teardown.
To hear Hazen explain it, the “most likely scenario” might involve a significant trade or two, followed by some value hunting on the free-agent market, with the hope of fielding a team with a chance to contend in 2019 – however slim that chance might be. And if, come June or July, the Diamondbacks are out of contention, the club will reassess and likely make more trades.
Some of this, it seems, is borne out of the team’s recent history. Three times in the past 12 years the Diamondbacks have turned in unexpectedly strong seasons to advance to the playoffs. Those teams were talented, but they also had a lot go right. The Diamondbacks seem willing to go into next year hoping for similar good fortune.
Make no mistake, they would need a lot to go right. In addition to whichever players are traded, the team likely will lose left-hander Patrick Corbin and center fielder A.J. Pollock to free agency. The Diamondbacks also are coming off a three-year stretch in which their core of players finished a combined two games over .500.
Still, rebounds from the likes of third baseman Jake Lamb, right fielder Steven Souza Jr., lefty Robbie Ray and right-hander Zack Godley would go a long way toward making the club competitive.
That leads to another possible reason for the team's likely direction: value. All four of those players are depressed assets. Moving them now would yield less than ideal returns, and the Diamondbacks likely are thinking it would be wiser to see how the season plays out and, if the team falls short, move those whose value has best recovered.
There is risk in that approach when it comes to recouping value. Players could get hurt or continue to underperform and their values could slip further, just like right-hander Shelby Miller’s has during his time with the Diamondbacks.
And while it’s never hard to move good pitching, it can be more difficult in-season to find trade partners for position players, meaning holding onto, say, Nick Ahmed could limit the club’s leverage if only one contender needs a shortstop at the trade deadline.
Moving on from Goldschmidt would be painful, but the club seems to be seriously considering it. The best and most popular homegrown player in club history, Goldschmidt has just one year to go before free agency. Were the Diamondbacks to re-sign him, it would be with the knowledge they likely would be paying top-of-themarket dollars for a player on a rebuilding team, an imperfect use of resources. They also would be paying big dollars to Goldschmidt as he enters his mid-30s, a time when players typically decline.
Dealing him now likely would net the Diamondbacks their best possible return. Rival executives told ESPN’s Buster Olney the club could expect a package somewhere above the Pirates’ return for Andrew McCutchen but perhaps below what the Orioles received for Manny Machado. Should they hold onto him and let him depart as a free agent, they would receive only a draft pick in compensation.
As for Greinke, the Diamondbacks’ motivation in a deal appears to be mostly about dumping his contract. Greinke is owed $95.5 million over the final three years of his $206.5 million deal. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported last week the Diamondbacks were “confident” they would not need to offset his salary to facilitate a deal.
Hazen said the club has made contact with various free agents to let them know there would be interest if certain veterans are traded.
He said the team remains open to multiple scenarios, but pointed to next month's winter meetings – scheduled for Dec. 10-13 in Las Vegas – as a possible deadline.
“I don’t think we’re close to closing a door yet,” Hazen said. “But it's not staying open indefinitely. Obviously, the winter meetings is traditionally a culmination of a lot of the offseason work in a lot of cases.”
Short hops
–The Diamondbacks announced the hiring of Eric Hinske as assistant hitting coach. He will work alongside new hitting coach Darnell Coles. Hinske spent last season as the Angels hitting coach before being let go this offseason by new Angels manager Brad Ausmus.
–The Diamondbacks are set to lose hitting strategist Robert Van Scoyoc, who will become the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to a report by The Athletic.