D-Backs enter offseason with path still unclear
At their end-of-season postmortem press conference on Monday, the Diamondbacks addressed the departure of hitting coach Dave Magadan but little else in terms of the direction of their offseason, leaving open possibilities for another gasp at contention, a rebuild or something in between.
One day after completing a disappointing 82-80 season, General Manager Mike Hazen said the team’s course for this offseason has yet to be charted, something that wouldn’t happen until the club’s baseball operations group meets to determine a possible plan that will then be taken to ownership. He sounded like he was trying to reconcile the club’s poor play in September against the fact that the Diamondbacks spent
125 days in first place, noting that they led the division at the beginning of every month of the season.
“The one thing I would just say is we’re not where we need to be right now, clearly,” Hazen said. “There were certainly some good things that happened this year, but I think it wasn’t what we envisioned in terms of what our goals were. Our goal was to go out and compete for a World Series championship and we didn’t do that. That falls as much on me as anybody in regard to what we did this year.”
The Diamondbacks could be embarking on a tricky offseason.
They likely will be losing center fielder A.J. Pollock and left-hander Patrick Corbin to free agency, departures that would create difficult holes to fill, and beyond that they will need to find other ways to improve their roster to compete in a fast-improving National League.
As hard as that would seem to be to accomplish, with slugger Paul Goldschmidt under contract for one more year – Hazen wouldn’t comment on the possibility of an extension – the Diamondbacks have incentive to want to try to push forward one last time.
Hazen seemed to leave open all possibilities, including trying to add and subtract simultaneously to reshape the roster while also augmenting the farm system.
“I just think we need to objectively take a look at what our circumstances are, what the landscape is going to be, where we feel like the talent is going to be on our roster, what we can do conceivably to improve our roster because clearly we need to improve our roster, not starting with just the free-agent holes that could be created,” Hazen said. “We’re going to put all that together in the next couple of weeks and have a more defined outlook on the offseason and beyond.”
He also acknowledged the club might have to get into the offseason to see what avenues are available before fully deciding on a direction. He said it could take until November for the freeagent and trade markets to gain clarity.
“I wouldn’t imagine it’s too much deeper than that,” Hazen said. “We should have some feel at that point.”
Only minutes before Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo met with the media, the club announced that Magadan would not return next season, a move Lovullo described as a “mutually agreed upon decision,” citing both the club’s disappointing offensive season and Magadan’s desire to spend more time with his family in Florida. The Diamondbacks averaged 4.3 runs per game, 10th in the NL, and were tied for the third-worst average (.235) and owned the fourth-lowest on-base (.310).
“We talked about linked at-bats, having a personality from an offensive standpoint, (and) I think that got away from us this year,” Lovullo said. “Where as last year, the line got moving and we could put up five or six runs in a hurry, I just think we lost that confidence that we could put crooked numbers up there against any type of pitching at any point in time.”