11:17pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the D-Backs’ interest in Chapman stems from the fact that they would like to acquire him and extend him beyond the 2016 season, when he’s currently slated to hit free agency. The Diamondbacks, as Rosenthal points out, signed a new TV deal worth more than $1.5 billion in February, and the extra revenue once that deal takes effect next season would be highly beneficial in their efforts to sign Chapman.
JULY 30, 8:25pm: The Diamondbacks have made an offer to the Reds for Chapman and are awaiting word on their proposal, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
JULY 28, 6:26pm: General manager Dave Stewart candidly acknowledged that he has indeed contacted the Reds regarding Chapman, according to MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert (All Twitter links). Said Stewart: “I’m going to go down that path and see where it takes us.” The GM didn’t characterize a deal as likely or unlikely, saying he didn’t know how things would play out, but he was clear that he didn’t want to do anything to hurt his team in the future, Gilbert adds.
2:32pm: The Diamondbacks have engaged in discussions with the Reds regarding ace closer Aroldis Chapman, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports on Twitter. Cincinnati has a “huge” asking price and the chats could just be “due diligence,” per the report.
Regardless of how serious the interest is between the two sides, it’s notable that Arizona is looking into a deal. We heard yesterday that the team inquired on Cole Hamels of the Phillies, another notably available trade piece who comes with future control.
Arizona has control over current closer Brad Ziegler through a 2016 club option, but it would not be the only team that would love to add Chapman regardless of the team’s present 9th-inning situation. He’s arguably established himself as the best closer in baseball, and with another year of arbitration to go he’s a valuable commodity.
Considering Arizona’s interest in both Hamels and Chapman, it seems that the club is at least entertaining the idea of putting some impact pieces in place that would give it an outside shot at contention this year while also providing future value. We’ve heard of similar approaches being weighed by other clubs, and the D’Backs certainly do appear to have some future salary capacity to make that kind of move work.
That being said, investing in a relief piece is always a risky proposition, and Chapman will certainly not come cheap. Spending big on a closer (in both prospects and dollars) has already arguably cost the D’backs once in recent memory. Addison Reed, who was a major trade acquisition of the prior front office, has been playing at Triple-A as he tries to work out his struggles.
yes, a high priced closer 1 year from free agency would make total sense for that team.
Exactly my thinking as well. Have the D-Backs ever made a good move in the past three years?
Firing Gibson.
Oh, you mean trades or FA signings??? Hmmmmm
Trumbo for Castillo has worked out well but I think they gave up too much for Trumbo to begin with.. Plus, if they hadn’t given Montero to the Cubs on the cheap they might have not needed Castillo who they should have gotten back in the Montero trade anyway.. Ugh, explaining one trade that has gone well for them is harder than explaining why the Yankees are not flexing any financial muscle..
They got Schilling and Randy Johnson twice.
Maybe the plan on transitioning him back to a starting role? That’s the only circumstance I could see this making any sense for them. Otherwise, yeah, seriously, what are they thinking?
That’ll put them in the World Series now! D-Back franchise is run horribly.
This is a team that was supposed to be the worst team in the league and is hovering around .500. Where is the flaw in that?
It’s the fact that they believe they are truly contenders is the flaw. A blind person would be able to see that a .500 team in that division has no chance and shouldn’t make pointless decisions.
Of course they would. I don’t understand Arizona’s weird obsession with stockpiling bullpen arms versus addressing their more pressing needs. Then again I don’t understand anything they do these days.
It’s as if they’re trying to copy what the Jays are doing (ie dominating in one facet of the game) and continuing to fail miserably at it.
What relievers do you see the Dbacks stock piling? Ollie and Ziegler are the only veterans that have been developed out of their system. Even if you include Reed, that’s 3 guys
None of those guys came from their system
Our bullpen is terrible, JS.
What facet of the game are the Jays dominating at? Am I missing something here?
Offense.. No one else is close..
Before you judge the Jays, you should put the blame where it belongs and that is on the head of John Gibbons who should have been fired long before now for incompetence on the bench. I have now seen 26 games lost through his mismanagement of the players, failing to exercise small ball tactics, and putting in Loup like he is having an affair with the guy. Loup is 2 – 5 for a reason and he lost five games, but he has also cost the team at least fifteen further victories when he enters and gives up the hit that ties the game or gives the lead to the other team. Fans will point to his strand rate and say it is good, but there is a huge difference between being up ten runs or down ten runs when he strands the runners. When he enters in a crucial part of the game, he blows the lead, yet Gibbons keeps using him repeatedly. Obtaining Price and Tulo will mean nothing if the manager continues to grab defeat from certain victory. That should have been the first move is a new manager and then watch the team skyrocket in the standings.
What’s there problem yeah get a closer and waist prospects, he’ll be out of there in one year there not even contenders
I think the dbacks just want to be part of the rumors. They don’t like feeling left out.
Have the Diamondbacks checked the standings lately? The Hamels rumors, and now Chapman speculations, make no sense for a team which fangraphs pegs as having a 1.0% chance of making the wild card.
Both pitchers would be available to them in 2016. They still have a decent chance at the Wild Card and even the division title in 2016 or at the very least they are not out of contention yet. If it didn’t work out, then they could always deal them next July. I don’t like Arizona at all, but I at least respect that they might be trying to win unlike my Rockies that are building toward a future that may never come.
i think the rockies are being smart for once. just stockpile arms, theyve never once had a good rotation. just get a ton of top tier arms and see who can stick and build around that.
And what happens when all of these prospects fail as well? The Rox got three really good prospects for Ubaldo and all of them failed miserably. Build your team to your stadium strengths. Speedy outfielders, sinker ball pitchers, great infield defense, excellent catcher. The Rockies had done all of that except the last one. The Cardinals are not the Cardinals because of their pitching coach. They are great because of Yadier Molina. I don’t care if the catcher hits .150 just as long as he play superlative defense.
no… 2 prospects for ubaldo, none who were ranked as highly as hoffman. strikeout pitchers are the best bet there… its a team game, yadi’s defense doesnt win and lose them all those games.
Rockies don’t need to build to stadium strengths given how extreme their environment is. The offense will always play up. They need young controllable starting pitching and as much as possible.
Strong catching? No kidding….every team in baseball needs that.
Exactly. They should be going after line drive-hitting speedsters with strong defense and low strikeout rates. Pretty much exactly what the 2014 Royals did.
Drew Pomeranz was traded less than a year after he was the 5th overall pick in the draft. Alex White was the previous year’s first round pick. How were they not rated as highly as Hoffman, who is coming off an injury?
they also rushed both of those pitchers, pomeranz is an effective pitcher, while not panning as a starter he still has value at the back of the bullpen. hoffman has horse written all over him. as long as they dont rush him which they seem to do with pitchers it will work well. his 70 grade curve will play down a bit though. hoffman should start next year in AA and finish in AAA rushing him would be dumb.
But they are terrible at pitcher development. They should be acquiring Major League arms, not raw guys they’ll ruin anyway.
Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton beg to differ.
The Dodgers have that division nailed down for the foreseeable future..
Probably just trying to drive the price up for the Dodgers and Giants. 7.5 back in the WC and 8 games back in the division. I don’t think their GM is that dumb.
Dodgers already have a closer, Jansen, I don’t think Chapman would take a set up role, but $ talks and BS walks as they say. I think the Dodgers would deal Chapman as soon as they got him. He’s not as bad as Puig off the field, but has had issues, ie speeding.
Speeding? Lol . didn’t know that was an “issue”.
I hear that he also changes lanes with out using his turn signal.
You obviously haven’t been following them the last few seasons. They’ve been doing stuff like this for years. Most recently they gave up one of their top prospects as part of a small salary dump. And they’ve had an obsession with bringing in bullpen arms to already decent relief corps for as long as I can remember. Bell, Reed, Shaw, etc, all were not worth their acquisition costs. Granted, many of said moves were made while Towers was GM, but the new guy in town has given no indications he’s going to be any better. In fact, he basically blasted analytic types who criticized the team’s decision making process, as if they had no right to judge them even though they have been proven right time and time again.
Please tell me the Reds leaked this rumor and the DBacks are not actually thinking about that…
I hope so . as a Reds fan drive that price up a little lol
Aaron Blair and Ender Inciarte would be a good starting point.
I really want to like the Diamondbacks because of Paul Goldschmidt, but their front office is making it really hard.
The Diamondbacks are weird.
Not sure what the Diamondbacks front office is thinking. Seems like a pointless move
Look at it this way, the diamond backs will get a kings ransom next year if they dont make the playoffs. Good GMs think ahead.
If the D-Backs would be able to get a king’s ransom next year when the receiving team won’t be able to get a compensation pick means Arizona will be giving up at least two king’s ransoms now to get Chapman.
Closer, get your closer here, only THREE TOP PROSPECTS. Some teams were suggesting that the Reds are asking for too much, but surely the DBacks can pay…
Becoming a worse team, step 1, in a bad season exchange your prospects for shorter term assets…
Considering that Ziegler has the same team control, and has been better this year, and they were shopping him about 3 days ago, this obviously makes a tonnnnn of sense.
I swear the D-Backs are almost as bad as the Phillies.
The only reason the Phillies aren’t in on him is because he is too young for them.
The team was not shopping him. It was reported here that they had received lots of calls but would need to be overwhelmed to move him. I wouldn’t call that shopping. The people that think the D-Backs would be making this move for 2015 purposes are misled. This is all about 2016.
Yep. That 47-51 record is totally the Phillies……
Why? First Hamels? Now Chapman? What is the D-Backs front office doing? What is their goal? They have no clear vision!
That’s their goal
stevie wonder, helen keller, you can succeed without vision!
Both Hamels and Chapman are controllable for next year with Hamels controlled for the next 3. The Dbacks have crazy financial flexibility right now, so they can easily afford to take on the salaries. The Diamondbacks are probably gearing up for a 2016 playoff run. Tony La Russa is not a guy that likes to wait, he is a winner, and a quick turn around appears to be his strategy. Getting both Hamels and Chapman, (Plus hopefully a few more “win now” moves in the off season) could easily make the Diamondbacks relevant again as soon as 2016.
Wait…what?
You all realize a front office isn’t doing their job if they don’t call and check on a player they think will help, right? What if there is an off chance that Philly or the Reds like some of their fringe guys like Owings or mid-tier prospects a ton? If they followed your advice and sat on their hands because they can’t win the division this year, they’d miss out on impact players. There is a reason they are linked to Hamels and Chapman and not pure rentals.
A majority of the rumors on here are loosely based on a phone call that probably goes no further than “Hey, what would this guy cost us?… Yeesh” Click.
not weird. Hamels will cost less than the free agents next year. Chapman is dominate and should be on all teams wish list no matter what place they are in.
I would challenge your assumption on the cost of FA pitchers this offseason. There is an absolute glut of pitchers hitting FA. It could easily turn into a buyers market.
I really wish people would stop repeating the whole Hamels will be cheaper than next years starters nonsense.. The guy is over 30 and pushing 2000 innings.. It is not like he is pitching on a Chris Sale type of contract.. Now Sale would command the kind of money Hamels fanboys claim he would get this offseason.. If you think Hamels would get a $180m contract as a free agent compare his career stats to James Shields and then try to remember what Shields got as a free agent with 2000 innings on his arm..
I am not a DBack fan and I have to say if I was a DBack I would be worry of what David Stewart is trying to do. Sure trading for the best closer is baseball is great if you are a world Series contender that is one things. But when you are over 7 games out of a playoff spot you have to ask yourself is this the right move to make. A move like that could basically could empty your farm system.
I am not a DBack fan either, but I can sort of understand the thinking. Trading for Hamels and/or Chapman gives them an asset for 2016 as well. They can always be dealt next July if the 2016 doesn’t go as planned. I just get tired of people thinking that there is only one way to do things. They aren’t in the best tier right now, but I’d rather have a team that tried EVERY season and not just certain years. It might work in the long run, but fans spend money now too.
See how that strategy is working for the Pads. I’m fairly certain they won’t come close to landing what they gave up when it comes to dealing a guy like Upton. With Shields they will have to eat a substantial amount of the contract. This notion that mediocre teams should push their chips all in and have a sell-off as a fall back plan is very flawed IMO. You need to be a good team THAT then pushes all in order to maximize the probability of success.
Do the D’Backs even have enough talent to acquire them both while still being competitive?
sure, but then the farm will be completely empty.
They have a draft and international signing period every year. The farm is NEVER empty. People said the Angels had the worst farm system last year, but they are still acquiring talent. I could care less about my team’s class A affiliate’s record. I worry about the big league club now because I might not even be living in 2017. It’s somebody else’s job to worry about the future.
To add to that …
Look at who is contributing to the big league club right now. Kole Calhoun, Garrett Richards, Shoemaker, basically their entire bullpen … all are major keys to their success and were never highly touted prospects. While the odds are better for success with a higher ranked prospect, those rankings by themselves aren’t all that important. You can add impact players through your minor league organization even if they don’t show up on BA’s top 100 prospect list.
I will say though that those guys came through while the Angels still had a.solid system in general. It was ravaged during those Pujols-Wilson-Hamilton signings. So much so that they lost their 20+ year relationship with their low A affiliate. Angels weren’t drafting until the 3rd round basically.
I don’t just want to hop on the ‘hate the front office’ bandwagon, but what is there strategy? They traded away a good prospect for salary relief, attempted to pursue Hamels, and now are trying to get a closer with not much controllability, doing all of this with a team that is still years from actually contention in a tough division and wild card spots.
Why TLR?
only reason this remotely makes sense is if they think they can make him a starter and i doubt thats why they want him
The D-backs are proving to be a clueless organization.
Kimbrel in a deal for Ahmed or owings and other prospects.
I doubt the offer is accepted; just D-Backs being…D-Backs.
d-backs being d-bags* fixed it for you.
Maybe they intend to convert him to a starter or flip him….
You’re joking, right? Convert him to a starter?? mmmmmkay
Wait, I forgot we were talking about Chapman and not Kimbrel, still…it’s a moot point. D-Backs aren’t getting either.
I think Dave Stewart just puts on a blindfold and throws darts at a board entitled “what to do next” with a bunch of goofy scenarios on it.
As a reds fan, the prospects better be good. No pitchers please! Every trade he’s made have been mainly pitchers. Reds need hitting prospects. Alot of them.
Chapman is a rare find. Averages 100mph with good control. I will miss him. I look for the diamondbacks to trade him next year, but i have a feeling they’ll be busy in the off season loading up.
all the dbacks have in the minors is pitching.
Why?
This front office has no idea what they’re doing. After the Braves fleecedthem in the touissant deal maybe they’ll hand over Swanson for Chapman…..
Dave Stewart is still trying to deal Ron Hassey.
Comparing Addison to Aroldis just might be stupid.
I’m not remotely comparing them as players. I’m referencing the team’s recent trade experiences at the position. Shouldn’t dictate what they do at all.
He aint gonna go to a team that is 5 years from doing anything.