The Diamondbacks’ starting staff has been a respectable unit this season, though the club hasn’t been able to find a capable fifth option to plug into a rotation that includes Zack Greinke, Luke Weaver, Robbie Ray and Merrill Kelly. Zack Godley has received ample rope this year, having racked up eight of the nine starts that haven’t gone to Greinke, Weaver, Ray or Kelly, but hasn’t come close to replicating his useful production from either 2017 or ’18. Godley turned in his latest unappealing performance of the year Saturday in a loss to the Giants, whose normally impotent offense chased him after totaling four earned runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Earlier this week, before Godley’s outing against San Francisco, Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen told reporters (including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that it would be “ideal” for the 29-year-old to regain form and lock down a rotation spot going forward. However, with Godley battling a velocity drop and ranking last in ERA (7.90), fifth worst in K/BB ratio (1.52) and 15th from the bottom in FIP (5.45) among 109 major leaguers who have thrown at least 40 innings this season, it doesn’t look as if the Diamondbacks can continue holding out for a resurgence.
Hazen, cognizant of Godley’s struggles, revealed in the wake of Taijuan Walker’s newest arm injury that Arizona will likely “look to add” starting pitching leading up to the July trade deadline. Hazen didn’t even close the door on a pursuit of free-agent left-hander Dallas Keuchel, per Piecoro, saying: “We’re going to look at starting pitching now, I would imagine, as we move forward. We’ll see how we get through this next brief period of time. And then I’m sure we’ll be looking at all options of starting pitching.”
Keuchel may finally end his holdout and sign somewhere once the first few days of June pass, given that a team would no longer have to surrender draft pick compensation for inking the qualifying offer recipient. But the longtime Astro might not be able to help a club for at least a few weeks after signing, considering he’d probably have to ramp up before returning to a major league mound, and could still score a payday outside the Diamondbacks’ comfort zone.
Whether or not the Diamondbacks land Keuchel or swing a summer trade for rotation help, it appears they’ll have to continue trying to make do with in-house possibilities for the time being. That could mean demoting Godley from the rotation – something the Diamondbacks already did earlier this season before reinstating him – in favor of one of their younger choices.
Promising prospect Taylor Clarke, the only other D-back to get a start this year, has impressed over a limited sample of work and is eligible for a recall after the team optioned him May 9. The 26-year-old Clarke has turned in ugly results with Triple-A Reno this season, though, which could give the big league club pause. On the other hand, fellow prospect Jon Duplantier has been Reno’s top starter and has held his own in Arizona across 12 innings as a reliever. Duplantier, 24, may be the team’s best hope right now to stabilize the back of its rotation. Either way, the 25-21 Diamondbacks are going to have to figure something out quickly in order to maximize their chances of earning a wild-card spot.
What they could really use is a slugger.
Goldschmidt and pitching help
You’re talking about the dbacks or one of the 28 other teams that wish they had him.
They don’t need a slugger. Their offense is ranked top 10 in all if not most categories and 6th in home runs. That 5th rotation spot and the bullpen has been their biggest issues so far this season
Aaron Sanchez and Justin Smoak makes sense
Justin Smoak makes zero sense for a team that has Christian Walker (currently), Jake Lamb (returning from injury), and Kevin Cron (legitimately demolishing AAA). Cron would get a shot before they would trade for Smoak, and a hard pass on Sanchez.
They got a slugger in Kevin Cron smashing it in the minors. He already has 18 homers so far. They need to call him up.
Marlins Caleb Smith to Arizona for Jazz Chisholm/Daulton Varsho?
that would be a terrible trade for the dbacks
Caleb Smith is one of the breakout SPs of the year who isn’t even arb eligible until 2021 (FA: 2024). I would be surprised if Jeter trades him for less than a ransom considering it’s still the only trade he might have actually won in his tenure, arguably.
Are you advocating for a trade of Chisholm and Varsho for Smith? Or one or the other, because either way, trading the #55 overall prospect (#1 in org and #8 SS) and/or the #6 C prospect (and #4 in org) that has done nothing but march up prospect lists on the back of strong plate discipline, contact, and speed with at least average power and defense (with positional versatility at that) would be a horrible deal for an older breakout with limited track record of success. When midseason rankings come out, I can say with almost certainty that Varsho is a Top 100 prospect (I see no scenario in which it makes sense to trade two Top 100 prospects for Caleb Smith, but nobody said that you can’t dream, just try to be a little more realistic.)
Boyd from the tigers?
Jazz and an arm? Sure
The Diamondbacks need to pick a strategy and stick to it. So tired of this fence straddling. Either go for it or not. Sign Greinke for way too much, let JD go despite value late in the offseason. Trade Goldy for a bag of balls, now talk about adding another aging pitcher for tens of millions of dollars? In a year where they will not contend due to their own penny pinching? Just skip the extra pitcher and commit to the rebuild. It’s honestly so frustrating rooting for this team and I’m tired of giving them my money
Bag of balls? I hate not having Goldy in Arizona but Weaver has been great so far and Kelly has shown some potential if he gets the playing time.
Yeah, cmon. At least look at what the guys they acquired are doing before trashing them.
BABIP against. 51 innings of good baseball doesn’t change what Weaver is.
Thought exercise for you beisbolista, the formula for BABIP is (H-HR)/(AB-HR-K+SF), so we can pretty confidently say that that is equivalent to (H-HR)/(BIP) Where BIP=GB+FB+LD+BU-HR
Say a player has given up 45 H,of which 5 are homeruns, and there have been 59 GB, 51 FB, 29 LD, and 2 BU ending an AB against said pitcher (BIP=59+51+29+2-5=136), so his BABIP would be (45-5)/136=.294
Now say hypothetically that he surrendered more HR in the same number of hits with the same outcome of ABs, just say even 1, so the BIP becomes 59+51+29+2-6=135, so the BABIP becomes (45-6)/135=.289
Now say that the inverse is true and that he allowed one less HR, BIP becomes 59+51+29+2-4=137, so the BABIP becomes 45-4/141=.299, so limiting HR has a tendency to raise one’s BABIP.
BTW, the hypothetical pitcher is Weaver, the elevated BABIP is by no means a knock against him, it just means there’s more balls in play (and obviously less power).
The Greinke signing was a different FO, it is an overpay, but he’s a lot closer to being paid market value than an albatross. Letting Martinez go was Hazen, but can they also conceivably pay him what he’s getting now (while also losing some value on defense due to being in the NL) while paying Greinke? I personally don’t believe that they should’ve. Also, a bag of balls for Goldschmidt? They received Luke Weaver (51.1 IP, ~5.2 IP/S, 3.16 ERA, 3.11 FIP, 9.64 K/9, 2.10 BB/9, 42.4 GB%, 1.3 WAR), Carson Kelly (.250/.321/.513, 115 wRC+, 2 DRS, 1.1 FRM, 0.5 WAR), Andy Young (currently the DBacks #11 prospect with a projection as an offensive minded utility player or low end regular, carrying a 124 wRC+ at AA as a 25 yo), and a Comp Balance B pick (one of the 8 picks within the first 100 that Hazen managed to accrue), all of that for one season of Goldschmidt (.258/.353/.449, 118 wRC+, 0 DRS, 0.9 WAR) who turned around and signed a 5/$130MM extension. With all of his moves, the DBacks are currently contending (essentially winning at the same rate as last year’s team, but without Goldschmidt, Corbin, Pollock, and Lamb) and simultaneously restocking the farm system that is now rated among the top 10 orgs by some circles. All of that knowledge present now, do you still think that Hazen doesn’t have a big picture plan in mind?
Correct, I don’t see any potential path to first place on the current “plan.”
When you’re comparing anyone to the Dodgers it’s an uphill climb, but numerous teams have shown that if you can hang on for a WC spot, crazy things can happen; and you can’t ignore the fact that Hazen inherited a team that was essentially devoid of MiLB talent, with escalating arbitration salaries from a lack of said talent making it’s way to the Majors, in addition to some large, ill-advised contracts. Last season’s team wasn’t bad during the early parts of the season, and this team is almost matching that teams pace and costing almost $20MM less. The farm system is growing in strength as well, the current wave of talent (among which are Christian Walker, Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver, Jon Duplantier, Taylor Clarke, Yoan Lopez, Jimmie Sherfy, and technically Ildemaro Vargas and Tim Locastro, and the later season possibilities being Kevin Cron, Andy Young, Domingo Leyba, and Kevin Ginkel for the most part) will have a number of busts, such is the nature of prospects, but I can see pretty exciting pieces exceeding rookie eligibility and making debuts this year (those guys all play at league minimum, mind you). And there’s an even more exciting crop the year after that, with draft picks to restock the farm system. Oh, and never forget the holiday that will be the last day of the Yasmany Tomas contract. Things are looking up, I think you might just be a Hazen hater. If you’re not going to watch the team this year, cool; but I definitely suggest you watch next year’s team.
They could use Goldschmidt, Pollock and Corbin.
hard pass on pollock
If they’re looking for a veteran (maybe Keuchel??) that can keep them in the game, fine, but now is not the time to be looking to add someone like Matt Boyd. If anything, the D-Backs should be looking at blocked AAA prospects. I mean, they’re rebuilding right???
Rebuilding? Get used to being a second tier marketplace. I think Hazen has done a good job building a competitive team.. Goldy will do great in ST Louis where he’s not the biggest name on the team,
LA can afford Pollack a great player but a gamble health wise.
Corbin is still young another big gamble that might have been worth it but still a big gamble on this budget.
Walker is making a name for himself playing well so far. Adam Jones is looking like a good signing too. Escobar, and Flores are solid pro’s. This is a good team right now.
I doubt that Hazen would have made the Grieke deal. I’d love to see a deal for Keuchel but
rebuilding the pitching staff is going to take money that this marketplace doesn’t have.
Keep fielding a competitive contender and we’ll have a shot. I’ll keep watching.
Whoever doesn’t see the value in Hazel is just not paying attention. He has made some hard choices but he has a plan and is still trying to win in the process. Compare this GM to any in their division I will take Hazen. Friedman is good if you like 4 players for every position no set lineup to get in a groove and choking at playoff time because nobody knows when they will play. Plus he still has Dave “ My Cy young candidate just gave up one hit in the 3rd inning of the World Series time to pull him” Roberts.
I am a Pirates fan and I notice a good GM when I see one. The Pirates GM is working with what he has but has no intel to gain prospects in trades like what I have seen Diamondbacks do. I think D-Backs have a pretty good GM so far. Only time will tell if these prospect live up to their potential and make the GM look like a genius. There aren’t many GM’s out there who can evaluate talent. The GM’s that do, fans always get bent out of shape over losing a fan favorite like Goldy. Billy Bean is another GM I like and love the way he evaluated players throughout his work with the A’s. Like I said, not many GM’s evaluate talent like D-Backs GM or Bean.