ASU BEATS MICHIGAN STATE
Arizona State’s Frank Darby celebrates with fans after a game against Michigan State at Spartan Stadium on Saturday in East Lansing, Michigan. Arizona State won, 10-7.
The Diamondbacks’ two-week hot streak briefly turned them into a national story, but with six consecutive losses their season is, to put it optimistically, back on life support. On the bright side, they learned Friday who will be leading them for the foreseeable future.
The contract extension the Diamondbacks gave Mike Hazen maintains stability for an organization accustomed to upheaval, and it caps what has been a very good stretch for the club’s third-year general manager.
In a 12-month span, Hazen has traded away stars Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke in deals that were widely lauded by the industry. He has restocked the club’s prospect inventory, taking it from a farm system ranked near the bottom of baseball to one some say belongs in the Top 10.
He has overseen the development of Ketel Marte – a player he acquired then extended – into a star. He re-signed Eduardo Escobar on a team-friendly deal. He landed what looks like, at worst, a mid-rotation starter in Zac Gallen in exchange for what amounts to a highly risky asset.
And he has been proven right to believe last winter that, despite losing a trio of stars and a handful of veteran role players, that the Diamondbacks could still play meaningful baseball come September.
He has, in many ways, earned fans’ trust. And yet, as even he would admit, the grand takeaways aren’t really there yet. What still remain are questions about the future – and questions, even, about whether the club’s pursuit of contention this year was the wisest path for the franchise going forward.
For anyone following this season, a number of things have been abundantly clear about the Diamondbacks. They play the game hard. They often play it cleanly and smartly. They can be fun to watch. For all of that, they deserve credit.
But they do not belong in the same class as powerhouse teams around baseball, clubs that have exhibited long stretches of dominance for much of the season’s first 5 1/2 months. Even Hazen seemed to acknowledge as much at the trade deadline when he sent Greinke to the Houston Astros, shifting his stack of resources from this season toward future seasons.
The Diamondbacks knew going into this season this was the likely outcome. They knew they were not close to their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers when it came to the amount of pure talent on their roster. As such, this pursuit of contention has been more about being interesting and competitive than about actually chasing pennants.
That is a reasonable approach. The Diamondbacks did not want to tear down. They did not want to put forth an awful product for this season and perhaps several others. There are no assurances rebuilds are fruitful in the end. Look no further than the visiting Cincinnati Reds for proof that the tankingto-titles transition is not always as easy as the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros have made it seem.
The Diamondbacks are right in their belief that a champion isn’t always built on the back of high draft picks. In fact, the Dodgers serve as an example of how frontline talent can be found without Top 10 draft picks.
They haven’t picked higher than No. 15 overall since 2006, the year they took Clayton Kershaw, but still have managed to produce Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson, not to mention elite prospects like Gavin Lux, Will Smith, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, all of whom are just reaching the majors.
Perhaps the Diamondbacks system is currently stocked with players who can develop as those Dodgers stars have, players like Alek Thomas, Daulton Varsho, Kristian Robinson, Corbin Carroll or Geraldo Perdomo.
But the answer to that question is years away. And, in the interim, another question will linger: Is the potential reward of this year’s run at contention – as well as attempted runs over the next couple of years, assuming the club remains on this path – worth not having multiple Top 5 or Top 10 picks to augment the rebuild?
Another way to put it: Is having the ninth-best record out of 15 National League teams this year worth sacrificing 10 spots (or more) in next year’s draft? Premium picks such as those might not be essential to building a winner, but they don’t hurt, either, especially for a club that can’t compete financially with the Dodgers.
For now, it is hard to doubt Hazen’s track record. In his first ever trade, he and his group identified Marte as a strong second piece of the Taijuan Walker deal. He landed slugger J.D. Martinez for middling prospects to supplement a playoff push. The Goldschmidt trade, even with Luke Weaver’s injury, is looking shrewd. And, regardless of how the prospects they acquired turn out, the Diamondbacks shed $53 million in the Greinke deal.
The Diamondbacks should feel good about being able to lock up Hazen. His ability to juggle the present with the future is both what seemed to make him such a strong candidate for the Boston Red Sox vacancy and what has made his tenure in Arizona a success so far.
Hazen might be the right man for the job. But his work in building a winner is still just getting started.