Bold offseason puts pressure on Hazen
GM has D-Backs on flexible path
The reaction from John Hazen’s elementary school classmate was one of disbelief.
“It was just like, ‘Your dad traded Paul Goldschmidt?’ ” Mike Hazen recounted.
Hazen did not enjoy the telling of the story, just as he does not relish his newfound reputation as the general manager who dealt away one of the best and most popular players in Diamondbacks history.
For a segment of the fan base, Hazen has made a villainous heel turn. Just two seasons ago, his remade roster reached the postseason in his first year on the job. Now, his actions have led to viral videos of crying young Diamondbacks fans learning their favorite player has been shipped to St. Louis.
Hazen admits the perception weighs on him. But he says the burden is more personal than professional. He views the Goldschmidt trade as a sort of necessary evil, a protection against a possible worstcase scenario.
“To not have him anymore is hard,” Hazen said. “But I don’t think I’m doing my job if I’m not stripping the emotion out of the decisionmaking process in some cases.”
The trade changed so much about the Diamondbacks organization: the composition of the 2019 roster, the club’s long-term outlook, the franchise’s perception in the community. It also shifted much of the focus of the upcoming season onto the general manager’s booth.
Hazen is entering his third year on the job. He has made his share of significant trades. But nearly all have been complementary in nature, moves intended to augment the core he inherited. The Goldschmidt trade feels like the first of perhaps many that will reshape the franchise.
But the fact that everyone is still waiting for that next domino to tip is another reason all eyes are Hazen. Despite dealing Goldschmidt – despite losing two additional big-name players and a half-dozen other contributors – Hazen has chosen not to rebuild.
In an era when teams are quick to tear down, he has the Diamondbacks straddling the line between competing and retooling. But by July, their path could become clearer. If it does, the spotlight on Hazen will only grow brighter.
Logical, flexible approach
His two years with the Diamondbacks represent a blip in the lifespan of most GMs, too little time to properly evaluate job performance. If anything, it is just enough to get a sense for style and predisposition, and Hazen does not seem too dissimilar to many of his newschool counterparts throughout baseball.
He is logical in his approach, flexible in his strategies and cost-conscious with his budget. He surrounds himself with people he trusts and has no qualms about delegating. He values information in all forms.
And there’s the trait that perhaps best defines his time with the Diamondbacks: He does not believe the chance to contend is something with which to trifle.
It is why when Hazen got the job in the fall of 2016 he did not disassemble a 93-loss team. He added to what he thought had been an underperforming roster, and the club rewarded him with a trip to October. And it is why he has thus far resisted an all-out rebuild this winter.
After moving Goldschmidt, trading away the rest of his veterans would have been the “easy” thing to do this winter, Hazen said. Not that he’s looking to do things the hard way, but he sees enough talent to justify going into the season with the intention of winning. The easy decision, he believes, isn’t always the right one.
“(The front office could be thinking,) ‘We came in here to rebuild (anyway), we gave it a good college try – oh, well, didn’t work, Ken,’ ” he said, referring to the team’s primary owner, Ken Kendrick. “‘We’re going to strip it all away.’
“I think we have a lot of really good players. I don’t think taking a shot at making the playoffs is a foolhardy endeavor.”
Hazen is 43. He was educated at Princeton and groomed in the front offices of the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, two of the game’s model organizations over the past three decades. He is highly regarded in the industry.
When the San Francisco Giants were looking for a new GM this winter, they asked the Diamondbacks about Hazen. The Giants were turned away.
“It was a nonstarter,” Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said. “I have no intention of letting him go anywhere.”
Hazen, who has three years remaining on his initial five-year contract, said he wouldn’t have left, anyway. He said he wouldn’t have wanted to abandon the fellow executives who left their previous jobs to move to Arizona, not with so much left unfinished – even if it might have meant a bigger paycheck and a far bigger budget in San Francisco.
“I look at all 30 teams having equal opportunity to do their best work and be very successful,” Hazen said. “I don’t look at big market/small market. Yes, there are advantages, huge advantages. But how are the Rays winning 90 games? How are the A’s winning 97 games?
“I get everybody wants to do it year over year over year and that may be a little harder to do in those markets, but look at the Indians. That’s not sustainable? I mean, they’re ripping off three or four years in a row of being a legit World Series contender. You can do that. You can do that. You just have to be good about it. I don’t look at that as a different opportunity. It was more personal than anything else. And the fact that – what have I done?”
Along with being limited, Hazen’s track record as GM is mixed. He built a playoff team in 2017, improving the defense and pitching staff and pulling off the hugely successful J.D. Martinez trade. He has constructed effective bullpens on the cheap. He even has begun to resurrect a farm system that was in rough shape when he took over, an impressive feat given that he has needed to trade away prospects to add veterans each of the past two seasons.
However, his two biggest trades – pre-Goldschmidt, that is – have had varying results, with outfielder Mitch Haniger turning into a star in Seattle and outfielder Steven Souza Jr. struggling in his first year with the Diamondbacks. (Time will tell on the Goldschmidt deal – which netted catcher Carson Kelly, pitcher Luke Weaver, prospect Andy Young and a draft pick – but it was well received within the industry.)
The club’s selection of first baseman Pavin Smith with the seventh pick in the 2017 draft looks questionable, and the Diamondbacks didn’t even sign last year’s first rounder, infielder Matt McLain, though they’ll get a comp pick for that.
Fine line between competing, rebuilding
Hazen will argue the clubs that tear down have no guarantee of coming out of a rebuild the way the Astros or Cubs did. He’ll also argue that those two clubs weren’t entirely the product of picking high in the draft the way they’re commonly depicted. Just as important, he believes, were the mid-to-late round picks, the international signings, the shrewd trades.
Because the Diamondbacks’ path isn’t as clear-cut as that of a tanking team it has led many to wonder if the club has a direction at all. Hazen understands the confusion and thinks it’s partly borne of their attempt to “thread the needle” between competing and rebuilding. He’s not big on broadcasting his plans for fear of losing a competitive advantage, and he doesn’t want to lock himself into a position where he feels he has to make a particular trade because he said he would.
As for his team’s chances this year, Hazen sounds more realistic than some, including his manager, Torey Lovullo, who has all but waved Sedona red pompoms this winter in trying to shoot down the idea of a rebuild.
Hazen intimated that his threshold for deeming the Diamondbacks a contender at the trade deadline likely will be higher this year than it’s been the past two seasons, in large part because of the dwindling years of control for several core players.
In reality, the Diamondbacks probably are taking only a small risk by keeping the team together. A number of players – lefty Robbie Ray, right-hander Zack Godley, infielder Jake Lamb, Souza – are coming off down years, meaning their trade value could climb in the coming months. Outfielder David Peralta and shortstop Nick Ahmed, both coming off career years, might be the only players whose values have a reasonable risk of declining.
Though they do open themselves up to a worst-case scenario: They’re contenders into July, they push in and they crash and burn. But that outcome does not seem likely.