The Diamondbacks prefer to look within the organization to solve their starting pitching problems, but if a quality external option was available, D'Backs GM Kevin Towers told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that he would move one of the club's "logjam" of bench players in return.
"Are there clubs that have some depths at Triple-A?" Towers said. "Maybe back-of-the-rotation-type starters that are a fit for us and maybe one of our bench guys is a fit for them. Those are the things we're looking at externally, but nothing's hot right now."
Barry Enright, Armando Galarraga and Joe Saunders have all struggled this season, with Josh Collmenter slated to take Enright's spot in the rotation this weekend and Zach Duke still a few weeks away from joining the team after fracturing his throwing hand during Spring Training. On the bench player front, Willie Bloomquist and Geoff Blum will soon be eliglble to come off the DL, leaving the D'Backs with those two plus Melvin Mora and Josh Wilson as reserve infield options. There's also Tony Abreu, hitting .303/.331/.417 at Triple-A Reno this season, who Arizona put on the market in March.
Towers mentioned that the team doesn't want to rush minor leaguers Jarrod Parker or Tyler Skaggs, so neither hurler is an option to join the rotation. It doesn't make sense for Arizona to call up either pitcher anyway — Parker has a 6.11 ERA in Double-A this season and 19-year-old Skaggs is only pitching in high Class-A ball right now. Odds are that the D'Backs won't make a move, but if they do add another arm, expect them to target expendable, inning-eating veterans that could be had at a cheap price.
Don’t think I agree with the last sentence here. Seems like, if anything, KT will target fringey Triple-A starter prospects with the chance to eat innings in the big-leagues for a year or two until the league catches up to them.
uhh AZ you have nobody good to trade. you fail.
very intellectual. thank you for your insight on the matter
Dan Haren has given up 13 fewer earned runs than Joe Saunders in one more start. If Haren were still a D-Back it’s likely they would have a positive run differential. The D-Backs have no one to blame but themselves for this predicament.
The Angels lead my Mariners by 4.5 games, so yeah, I’m a little bitter right now. This was one of the stupidest trades I’ve ever seen. The only reason the Angels aren’t awesome is that they missed out on every FA this winter and made another of the stupidest trades I’ve ever seen.
still want buchholz for upton? =)
Pretty good post…