Change is afoot in Arizona, as the Diamondbacks have already parted ways with GM Dave Stewart, VP DeJon Watson, and manager Chip Hale. Chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, who oversaw all of the baseball operations department, will no longer carry that mantle moving forward.
Assistant GM Bryan Minniti will seemingly take the reins on an interim basis, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports, though he has not been given any official nod — even temporarily — as of yet. Though his own role remains unsettled, La Russa may also be involved in handling the early offseason decisionmaking while the front office search ramps up.
Minniti, who joined the Arizona front office after a stint with the Nationals, is also likely to receive consideration for the full-time job, per the report. (He has long been considered a potential GM, as former MLBTR scribe Ben Nicholson-Smith explored way back in 2011.) Likewise, farm director Mike Bell may be viewed as a candidate as the D-Backs’ upper management group assesses its options.
In terms of external possibilities, we haven’t heard any names as of yet, and the organization has suggested it intends to remain quiet on the matter. But many around the game are wondering whether the Diamondbacks will struggle to attract some candidates owing to their frequent front office turnover and recent turmoil, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports.
While various executives with rival teams gave Piecoro different indications about how big a concern they’d have with joining the Arizona organization, some were clear that its reputation is not strong. One unnamed exec who has been considered as a GM target told Piecoro that, while running the D-Backs’ baseball ops would hold “surface” appeal, “from everything I hear about some of the dysfunction up there, to be quite candid, I would have zero interest.” Another wondered whether the club would need to give out a lengthy guarantee to entice a quality candidate to “mov[e] your family for that level of insecurity, juxtaposed to the security that some of us have” in current positions with rival teams.
The Cardinals will trade John Mozelack as GM, Mike Mathaney Manager, John Mabry hitting coach, Derrick Lilliquest Pitching coach and Matt Adams for Paul Goldschmidt.
/JustJoking?
He’s being snarky. Or he’s drunk
I like it
Nah, but I do think the dbacks have to trade goldy and Pollack to aquire talent and then trade jake lamb so you can make a team take Tomas with him. Frees up 30 mil, puts them as a top 5 system, try and move greinke at the deadline and start over,
What are you… In dope???
The DBacks finished 18 games out of a wild card spot, despite Drury, Lamb, Segura, and Tomas having career years.
Teams don’t just magically get good. They don’t have much flexibility with free agency because of Greinke’s contract (plus Pollock and Goldschmidt are due for huge raises once they both hit the market in three years).
So how do you manage 18 additional wins – at minimum – with the current roster? A healthy Pollock for the full season is worth a WAR around 7.0. Greinke giving an entire season of his top stuff probably won’t top 4.0 WAR (excluding last season, he’s averaged 3.45 WAR/season since 2010, and he’s turning 33 next year). Even if Shelby Miller returns to his Atlanta form, he’s worth 2.0 WAR.
So even if all that happens – and if Drury, Lamb, Segura and Tomas are all able to continue producing at their level – they’re still quite a few games out from potentially contending. What, are you going to count on Robbie Ray and Archie Bradley becoming Cy Young candidates and Nick Ahmed becoming an MVP?
I don’t see any chance of this Diamondback team contending. And if they can’t, they need to rebuild.
If the Cubs had kept Cashner, Soriano, Zambrano, Marmol, Marshall, Dempster, Feldman, Garza, Samardzija, and Godley, maybe they would have finished 15 games out instead of 30+ games out in 2012 and 2013.
But if they kept them, they would still be finishing 15 games out because they wouldn’t have Anthony Rizzo, Travis Wood, Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta, Pedro Strop, Justin Grimm, Neil Ramirez, Miguel Montero, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, or Kyle Schwarber.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Well done Connor Reed
Goldschmidt,
franchise player , affordable, prime of career and leader of the club, wake up!
leader of a very bad club doesn’t mean to much
Would you rather have a “franchise player’ leading a .450 club for three more years before he runs for another team, or a massive haul of prospects that could actually help the team contend in a few years?
I’d rather have the guy who’s actually proven he’s good. s
Say you get a package of 5 prospects for him, odds are only one of those will ever do anything, and possibly none of them ever turn into a Goldy.
Of course – everybody would.
But I would much rather have a team that can actually contend than a team that’s finishing ten games out every year but has a really good first baseman.
Paul Goldschmidt is a free agent in three years. Will the Diamondbacks seriously contend during that time? Highly unlikely. They have little room for free agents, their farm is pretty barren, and they finished eighteen games out of a Wild Card spot despite many of their players having career years.
Will keeping Paul Goldschmidt put them in a better chance to contend? Yeah, but trading him (along with Pollock and others) will give them a much better chance.
Your argument is that a team should never trade a proven MLB player for just prospects.
With that logic, there would be no Jake Arrieta for Scott Feldman, Addison Russell for Jeff Samardzija, or Anthony Rizzo for Andrew Cashner trades.
There would be no Adam Jones and Chris Tillman for Erik Bedard’s, or Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud’s for R.A. Dickey’s.
And there’d be no Carlos Carrasco for Cliff Lee, Corey Kluber for Jake Westbrook, or Trevor Bauer for Shin-Soo Choo trades, either.
Stewart would have swung that deal!
Jeff,
Quit throwing crap out there and seeing what sticks, those 2 have no chance and Bell, should not even be considered. The possible names are out there, dig a little harder