Derrick Hall will remain the Diamondbacks’ CEO for the foreseeable future, but that won’t necessarily preclude a major overhaul to the franchise’s baseball operations department. Hall stated this week that the club will make decisions on the two heads of that department, chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and general manager Dave Stewart, after the season.
“There’s a lot to think about here,” said Hall, who doesn’t seem eager to make radical changes to Arizona’s front office.
La Russa and Stewart only took the helm in Arizona during the 2014 campaign, but the team has regressed enough under their leadership to make a regime change a legitimate possibility. After going 79-83 and posting a plus-7 run differential in 2015, the Diamondbacks’ first full season with La Russa and Stewart at the controls, the club has plummeted to 53-75 this year. Only two teams have lesser records than the D-backs, and just one has a worse run differential than Arizona’s minus-132. Injuries, primarily the fractured elbow that has kept star center fielder A.J. Pollock out all season, haven’t helped Arizona’s cause. However, even with a healthy roster, it’s fair to say the Diamondbacks would not have pushed for a playoff spot this year. Their front office had other plans, however, as evidenced by its aggressive offseason maneuverings.
The Diamondbacks’ most notable winter transactions included signing 32-year-old right-hander Zack Greinke to a $206.5MM contract and swinging a trade with the Braves for righty Shelby Miller. While still a quality option, Greinke has gone backward in his first year as a Diamondback (and spent time on the DL himself), which wasn’t the scenario they envisioned when awarding a franchise-record payday to him.
Like Greinke, Miller has also disappointed this season, though his decline has been far worse. Miller had been at least a solid mid-rotation starter as a Cardinal and Brave, but the Diamondbacks’ move to acquire him was still met with widespread derision because they paid such an expensive price for his services. Not only did the D-backs surrender shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson, the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft, but they also included outfielder Ender Inciarte and well-regarded pitching prospect Aaron Blair in the package. The only bit of good news for the Diamondbacks is that Blair has fared poorly with the Braves. Unfortunately, though, Miller has careened off a cliff. The 25-year-old logged a 7.14 ERA, 6.49 K/9 and 4.41 BB/9 across 69 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks through mid-July, at which point they demoted him to Triple-A Reno. Miller still hasn’t returned to the Majors, and the Diamondbacks nearly bailed on the experiment and traded him to the Marlins earlier this summer. However, D-backs ownership reportedly prevented it from happening.
While the Miller trade is the one that defines the La Russa and Stewart era, it clearly isn’t their only questionable choice. In another swap with the Braves, the Diamondbacks shipped off righty Touki Toussaint – their first-round pick in 2014 – with veteran righty Bronson Arroyo in exchange for infielder Phil Gosselin last June. By involving Toussaint, the Diamondbacks were able to rid themselves of the $10.1MM left on Arroyo’s contract. Toussaint isn’t a lock to pan out, but the 20-year-old has been one of Baseball America’s 100 best prospects since 2014. Teams generally don’t give that type of upside away to erase $10.1MM from their books.
Along with the Miller and Toussaint trades, the Diamondbacks have also drawn plenty of ire for inking Cuban righty Yoan Lopez to a then-record $8.27MM bonus during the 2014 international signing period. According to Keith Law of ESPN, the Diamondbacks were unaware of how international signing rules work when they added Lopez. That’s damning if true, of course, especially considering the Lopez pickup has prevented the D-backs from landing any international free agent for more than $300K over the past two signing periods. Plus, the 23-year-old Lopez hasn’t lived up to the bonus, having scuffled in the minors and contemplated giving up baseball as a result.
In fairness to La Russa and Stewart, not all have their prominent transactions have produced wholly unappealing outcomes. Second baseman Jean Segura, acquired from the Brewers for righty Chase Anderson, infielder Aaron Hill and infield prospect Isan Diaz in the offseason, is in the midst of a career year. Additionally, left-hander Robbie Ray and righty Rubby De La Rosa have shown promise, while outfielder Yasmany Tomas has shown considerable improvement at the plate. The Diamondbacks had to give up shortstop Didi Gregorius for Ray, though, and a forearm injury has kept De La Rosa out since May. Tomas, whom the Diamondbacks signed to a six-year, $68.5MM deal in 2014, has been much better this season than last. However, despite his respectable offensive output (.265/.309/.515 with 26 home runs in 434 plate appearances), the Cuba native hasn’t provided much overall value because of his below-average work in the outfield and on the base paths.
In the aggregate, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives when it comes to the Diamondbacks’ current regime. Unsurprisingly, they’d like another chance to right the ship in Arizona.
“We had one good year, and if you look at what’s happened on the field this year, then one bad year. I think we deserve a tiebreaker,” Stewart told Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
For his part, La Russa believes that he and his cohorts “have earned the benefit of the doubt.”
You know where they stand. Let’s see where you stand (link to poll for Trade Rumors mobile app users)…
Do Tony La Russa And Dave Stewart Deserve Another Chance?
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No. They've made too many mistakes. 77% (2,780)
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Yes. They haven't had enough time. 23% (827)
Total votes: 3,607
Might be nitpicky, but I think Greinke is 32. That contract was ill-advised, but would’ve been even more so for a guy a year older.
Continue to scratch my head at the D-Backs moves. . . .
I think you have to give the front office another year. Wait and see what they do this offseason. Continuity says alot, and Arizona has never really tried that. Just an example: their managers for the most part have been hired without any major league experience, and in some cases not even minor league manager experience. Showalter, Brenly, Melvin, Pedrique, Hinch, Gibson, Hale. Not one of these guys were there for more than 5 years. Takes time and patience.
I’d agree–if they hadn’t gutted the farm system in pursuit of the Win Now strategy. There doesn’t seem to be much to wait for, once you jettison the minor leaguers.
Continuity as you say does not say alot when you have the wrong team in place. Admit your mistake and hire people who know what they are doing!
Continuity just for the sake of not making a change that is needed just says moron
Fixed, thanks.
Well, I agree in principle about long-term contracts for pitchers, but nobody was surprised that Greinke signed for what he signed for. It was that it was ARI that signed him that was the surprise.
Cub fan we face the same Nee with Arritta in 3 years when you hit 30 plus to a pitcher any thing more than 4 year s is stupid We love Arritta but he can’t let Boris Ruin the team future Hello so why did they give Grinke that long contract front load 2 years then pray the last 2 .More than that is stupid
As a Dodgers fan I say cut them some slack! They need some more time to continue on this course.
The Miller trade was ridiculous, and the Greinke deal was too much for a guy possibly entering into decline. They should be much better than what they are, even though i wasn’t a fan of those moves
I tried desperately to convince people that Greinke’s deal was bad because he, LIKE ALL OTHER HUMANS, gets older.
Miller trade is worst thanLou Brock trade in the late 60’s
It still amazes me, especially in this day and age of advanced analytics and computer programming, that $500 million dollar business make horrendous, horrendous decisions when it comes to their Execuive personnel. The Touissant trade, which was one of Stewart’s first moves, was what raised a red flag to me. In modern baseball you don’t trade 1st round picks to clear salary. That’s totally absurd and I think demonstrated how behind the times Stewart and La Russa are. The Greinke deal was also highly questionable, as there is almost no way AZ could “win” that deal; Greinke must be top 5-10 pitcher every year or else they lose. As for the Miller trade, it was obviously very, very risky from the beginning, as Swanson alone could exceed value of Miller. Given Miller’s precipitous decline, this is the type of trade that is talked about decades from now. Awful. From a Red Sox fan who also follows the Astros and rest of league obsessively, Stewart and La Russa must go. They could get into managing or coaching (again) but front office stuff is way over their heads.
Agree.
Does Grienke have a no trade clause? I’m wondering if the DBacks signed him thinking that they could trade him at some point early in the contract and if he’s still good, wouldn’t have to eat too much of his salary and get prospects back?
Surprises me that any pitcher would want to throw in a hitters ball park like that.
That seems weird to me, since the D-Backs made a massive overpay in years and AAV for Greinke, and they didn’t seem to value their farm pieces, so how are they gonna trade him without eating money and getting MiLB players they don’t seem to value in the first place?
It’s a bit like the Padres and Shields. Big payday, predicted decline, they eat money for a small return–except the D-Backs, should they find a trade partner, would have to take an even bigger financial bath to get quality back.
Maybe that was in their minds. Just doesn’t scan for me.
Grenke ok it’s a bad park the need to remodel that place make it a custom fit for you team the way Cardnals did for speed now it’s more a hitter park .Change the stadium not the front office
Greinke hasn’t been that bad, he’s had a 2.5 fWAR season so far, that’s pretty decent. Not ace-like like he should be, but he hasn’t been totally awful like you’re saying, a lot of his ERA really is just moving from a pitchers park to a hitters one. I think a lot of it is just noise and him taking his time adjusting to his new home park. It would not surprise me at all if he was back to being a Cy contender next season.
Change the stadium and not the front office? Dumbest comment I have heard!!!
Derrick Hall is part of the problem. If LaRussa and Stewart go which they probably should, then Hall needs a pink slip as well.
Overall since new ownership took over that was the start of the downfall. Sure LaRussa and Stewart have made poor decisions, uniformed in the international rules but Hall hired them.
To give them a bit of credit, they’ve made a lot of good moves too and had some terrible luck. The Miller trade was terrible from the beginning, but it was a win now move. In essence they thought Miller gave them a better chance of winning now than Inciarte, and he has been awful. They made a splash by signing Greinke, who would have rightfully gotten paid that kind of money with whoever he signed with, and he’s been bad. Corbin has also stunk. Pollock got hurt. They’ve gotten good value out of the likes of Segura and Beef. They’ve made some head scratching moves to be sure, but almost everything that could go wrong for them, has.
It appears LaRussa and Stewart are not particularly good at their job. The data show that.
I’d disagree about Greinke receiving that kind of salary somewhere else, since no one, not even the Dodgers, saw fit to match it. I think 5/160 or thereabouts was the top competing offer. Greinke is a great pitcher, but that was just a massive overpay, and it had the added effect of tying up a lot of resources for a small market team. Not a good move for a club well under the tax threshhold, IMO.
When Stewart defends a move by saying a player is worth his signing bonus and showed he clearly didn’t shop the players before executing the moves, he doesn’t belong in a front office
I’m usually an advocate for patience but in this case I think a change is necessary. Before Stewart and TLR came aboard the DBacks were a team on the rise. They had loads of young talent and two superstar players to build around in Goldy and Pollock. It was clear from the beginning that their approach to supplementing the roster was faulty and inefficient. Trading away young cost controlled players for salary relief or a single player makes no sense. We all saw fault in those moves immediately and it’s tough not to find better value deal by simply thinking for a moment.
I think the DBacks can be good in the near future but this front office has not set the team up for long term success.
Well I do agree they’ve made costly mistakes, they’ve also turned the organization around a bit. You have to admit they made an attempt to be competitive this year. They got Greinke, Miller, and already had the offense… Unfortunately, neither Miller nor Greinke panned out for this season and Pollock’s injury hurt the offense. So do they deserve another chance? They made an attempt at making the D’backs watchable and next year could be better….The question is if they want to rebuild or continue to add while they have control of some players. If no rebuild, bring back Larussa and co, if rebuild, change the course.
Yasmany Tomas should not be counted as a “win” for this regime. He can’t field at all, has terrible plate discipline, and doesn’t really seem to have redeeming qualities outside of “hit ball hard.” Admittedly he does that extremely well, but he’s probably not going to improve his fielding/speed enough to be more of a role player, and unless the NL is getting a DH soon he’s doing the Dbacks no good.
Exactly, he “improved” from a -1.3 fWAR last year to his current 0.1 fWAR right now. That’s still a bad ballplayer you don’t give $68.5 mill to.
After watching Canadian Border Patrol and seeing them deny entry to anyone who has a DWI offense (even accused but not yet convicted) how would this guy be allowed to go to Canada if TX play Toronto?
If he were to be denied entry that effectively drops the team to 24.
Wrong thread. Anyway, they let Matt Bush in so I am pretty sure they will let Jeffress in. I had a DUI years ago and they let me in after I paid the Queen’s tax which was a few hundred dollars. That was almost 15 years ago though.
LaRussa & Stewart’s old school “gut feel” / “shoot from the hip” philosophy of running a front office simply is not compatible with the modern demands required for FO success. They both lack the basic MLB procedural knowledge, attention to detail and research based analytical skills required to be even competent in the modern front office environment. They are FO dinosaurs, one more year will only dig the Dbacks hole deeper. If it is true that they were blocked from trading Miller and firing Hale, the I would guess their fate has already been determined. The Hall deal surprised me, he has personally shepherded the organization into the ditch. Towers, LaRussa and Stewart are all the same kind of “old school” FO personnel that are doomed to fail in the modern MLB. Hall needs to find the sharpest analytical mind willing to take the job.
This isn’t a knee jerk reaction to already relieve them.
Stewart’s comments show how out of his element he is. He has no business working in a major league front office
Moves can be defended, but he doesn’t even explain the rationale well. He’s clueless.
Stewart isn’t even qualified to be a GM he doesn’t even know how to operate a team. And La Russa is an idiot for hiring him. I feel the Shelby Miller deal will be one of worst in sports history. Fire them both!
Cubs never gave him a chance he is better than Joe Smith and Montgomery .they got minor league pitcher better now. But Natian was good in Iowa he was excellent also
Stewart and Blanks. Very similar. Both are not media savvy. They don’t come across as nice guys…like the clueless Hall, the schmoozer. Who nobody writes bad about.
Keep them so they can continue trading with the Braves please.
Well played sir
Every AZ 1st rd draft pick for the next 10 years for Matt Wisler comin right up!
Whoever created this years ARZ uni’s should be fired.
They’ve only ever been either gaudy or boring, better stay the course.
Its a landslide, lol
I DONT CARE WHAT THEY DO IM JUST TIRED OF LOSING. Do nothing or fire everybody I don’t care. This is ridiculous.
As a big Braves fan I love the Arizona office