D-Backs GM not looking to ‘wait around’
Hazen seeks to fill needs as trade market heats up
Though the Diamondbacks have more competent young outfielders than positions for them to play, there is nothing, technically speaking, forcing them to make a deal, a point General Manager Mike Hazen has raised at multiple points this offseason.
But speaking in recent days in advance of baseball’s winter meetings, which begin on Monday in San Diego,
Hazen sounded less and less like he were content to stand pat. Instead, he sounded like a GM who was not just looking, but expecting, to make a deal — suggesting it might be the best way forward for his club.
“I’m not sure we can just wait around for everyone to kind of coalesce … and get to where we want to go without trying to figure out creative ways to fill other areas on our team,” Hazen said. “We have a couple of areas that we need to shore up.”
Hazen said the trade market, at least as it pertains to his club, has “definitely heated up” this week. Given that his roster includes four outfielders — Daulton Varsho, Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll — capable of playing center field, this should probably be little surprise.
The Diamondbacks seem to have come upon this center field logjam at a perfect time.
Other than Brandon Nimmo, who recently hit the open market after spending parts of seven seasons with the New York Mets, the free-agent options in center
field are limited, populated mostly by players either coming off injury (Kevin Kiermaier) or one or more down years (Cody Bellinger).
The Diamondbacks are almost certainly not willing to move Carroll, their highly touted rookie who ranks among the best prospects in baseball. The others are a different story.
Varsho probably would be the nexttoughest for them to deal, given that he is an established option who brings value both offensively and defensively as a Gold Glove finalist who slammed 27 home runs. If the club is indeed looking to elbow its way into the wild-card hunt, having a more proven option in the fold would only figure to help. Varsho, however, will begin to get expensive as he is about to enter the first of four seasons of arbitration eligibility.
Between the other two, McCarthy is coming off the better offensive season while Thomas is the superior defender. Both are under club control for the next six seasons.
The club's recent acquisition of right-handed hitting slugger Kyle Lewis would seem to give the Diamondbacks even more room to trade from their outfield depth, not to mention the fact that they have other well-regarded outfielders, including Dominic Fletcher and Jorge Barrosa, in the upper minors.
As for what the Diamondbacks would want back in a deal, Hazen had been fairly up front about what he was targeting in a potential return — for most of the offseason, he has talked about finding right-handed balance on the roster and upgrading the bullpen — but he seemed to introduce a possible wild card to the equation.
“We’ll be interested to see if there are other creative ways to make our team better even if it’s not what we have traditionally talked about,” Hazen said. “We’re exploring a bunch of different ideas that might change the complexion of our team a little bit, but that’s OK. We need to be open to these things to move the ball forward.”
What that might mean — like, say, adding a starting pitcher or finding an upgrade at a position that seemed otherwise settled — remains to be seen.
Hazen called finding relief help on the free-agent market the “the most linear of a realistic, short-term area that we have chances in,” saying that he was searching for “back-end” help, which could come in the form of either a closer or a setup type.
The potential for activity seems to have Hazen energized, particularly with the market giving him signs that his trade chips are being valued at a level he deems appropriate.
“I think we have an opportunity in front of us to improve our baseball team and that makes me excited,” he said. “… I get the sense there is a lot of potential activity and we could be involved in some of that activity.”