The Diamondbacks have followed up an 85-win season in 2019 with a trio of noteworthy signings this winter. So far, they’ve added left-hander Madison Bumgarner for five years and $85MM, right fielder Kole Calhoun for two years and $16MM, and catcher Stephen Vogt on a one-year, $3MM pact.
The Bumgarner, Calhoun and Vogt moves have left the Diamondbacks with an estimated $115MM Opening-Day payroll for 2020, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, after they began each of the previous two years from $123MM to $131MM. With that in mind, there appears to be wiggle room remaining. As Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes, the Diamondbacks have indicated they plan to start next season in the $125MM range. As for how much money the club still has available, general manager Mike Hazen revealed it’s less than $12MM to $14MM.
“I’m not going to confirm one way or another what it is, but you’re off there high,” Hazen told Piecoro. “We still have flexibility to operate both within the free-agent market and the trade market to add pieces to our team.”
It seems adding a center fielder is still a priority for the Diamondbacks, with Hazen once again noting he’d “prefer” for Ketel Marte to handle second base instead. Marte – one of the most valuable players in baseball a season ago – spent the majority of 2019 in center, but he’s a middle infielder by trade.
At this point, one major problem for the Diamondbacks is that center field possibilities in free agency continue to decrease. They showed interest in Japanese import Shogo Akiyama, but he agreed to join the Reds on Monday. With Akiyama and the Yankees’ Brett Gardner off the board, it may be tough to find an everyday-caliber center fielder on a free-agent market that wasn’t overrun with them in the first place. Kevin Pillar’s unsigned after the NL West rival Giants non-tendered him Dec. 2, but there hasn’t been reported interested in him since from the Diamondbacks or anyone else.
All things considered, it could be trade or bust for Arizona, which has been connected to the top CFer on that market – the Pirates’ Starling Marte – this winter. Speculatively, the Red Sox’s Jackie Bradley Jr. could also be a target. Hazen’s familiar with Bradley from Boston, as he was part of the team’s front office when it drafted Bradley 40th overall in 2011 and remained part of its brain trust through 2016.
Marte and Bradley figure to each earn in the vicinity of $12MM next year, which means they should fit (barely) in Arizona’s payroll. But it remains to be seen whether the D-backs are willing to surrender the necessary assets to acquire either.
I would much rather keep Marte at CF and find another 2nd base option than try and trade for JBJ.
Yeah keeping Marte in CF makes sense for the time being. There are loads of capable 2B who are available at reasonable price tags whereas CF is slim pickins
RicoD and this why your a fan n not running a team it is going to cost far more capitol to trade for marte then jbj, marte has also had bigger injury concerns as of late making his stay in CF limited, jbj is all defensive with decent pop and a much smaller expected return. Tell me what makes more sense for a team wanting to win, not kill the farm, and land a true CF??
lol there’s more then 1 Marte, he didn’t say anything about trading for Sterling Marte it looks like he’s saying have Ketel Marte play CF and pickup a 2nd baseman.
bingo
(face palm)
Thought he was talking about getting Jefry Marte from the Angels.
Marte is Arizona’s best player. They need to keep him healthy. CF has been messing with his back. Yes he has more value in CF but he has zero value when he isn’t playing.
Pillar would be a good cheaper option than the trade targets. He can handle CF, and hits for power and leaves them some money to play with to add at the trade deadline. I mean, why not add 3 of the Giant’s most productive players from last year? Not like they need them this year.
Pillar fits Arizona’s needs pretty well at this point. He won’t be expensive and won’t require more than a 1 or 2 year commitment. He’s also right handed, which is a must after signing Calhoun. If Arizona is going to trade for a CFer, I’d rather see them target someone like Michael Taylor. Marisnick would have fit too, but he’s in NY now
I’m all for Kevin Pillar too though his fielding stats were down last year. Can’t tell if it was because of declining skills or if was because of the new ballpark (SF).
Starlin Castro @ 2B & Ketel Marte in CF > Marte @ 2B & Kevin Pillar in CF
They have enough money to sign Will Harris and then they have both a starter and reliever to sell in July.
Exciting times in Phoenix.
They are better than you think.
So they win 85 games and improve their roster in the offseason. So what are you saying? Do you even watch baseball?
Yeah, I watched Zack Greinke be awesome for the D-Backs for two thirds of the 2019 season.
Greinke is an Astro now.
The Snakes are going to bring in a CF. As valuable as Marte is for them, there is no way he will be their full time CF going forward (particularly after his back injury & turf comments). IMO, they should go w/ defense in CF and I would target Michael Taylor.
Good call. Or Inciarte could be had on the cheap
A trade with St. Louis still seems viable. But the Cards would want Peralta in the deal. Lots of young right-handed outfielders the Cards have to exchange. May still happen.
If they’re looking for a defensive specialist who scorched them with his bat in his last game against them in 2019, they may want to give a non-roster invite, if not a major league contract, to Juan Lagares. I was at that game at Citi Field in Verizon Superticket seats. It was a beautiful sight that I doubt Juan could repeat, but he’d come cheaper than most others after his injury struggles.
There isn’t much doubt that this is one of the best, if not THE best, run organizations in MLB. Not to be left unsaid is the GREAT draft they had last year; they had a slew of picks and if you believe people who know about such things, they used them all well.
Another plus to Bum, Calhoun and Vogt, is that all three are outliers, throw back butt-kickers in an age when most players spend their time on the bench texting their agents about how bad they’re being treated.
I don’t know if they have enough to beat out the mighty (and very rich) Dodgers, but they’re fun to watch.
Can’t speak to their 2019 draft, but they had a LOT of random stuff go right last year (I mean, Adam Jones? Seriously?) and still finished 20 games back and not all that close to a wild card. Greinke is better than MadBum. Escobar and Walker aren’t nearly that good, or at least never have been before. Doubt Marte is either, although he’s a fine player. The bullpen had one of those bullpeny random “up” seasons last year but isn’t likely to repeat. I see them right there with the Padres and maybe the Rockies if the Rox starting pitchers return to 2018 form. They aren’t better than last year.
they are making quality moves, yes. let’s not say they’re the best run team until they’re a perennial playoff contender. it’s a bit premature when the goal is to win and stay relevant long term. I agree they have the POTENTIAL to be one of the best run teams.
bob;
The DBacks operation has been fabulous the past 2-3 years. The kids here can’t see it because they just look at the ML roster and the coming season.
They had to dump the salaries of Goldschmidt and Greinke. They made both moves at the right time in the season to maximize the return.
Quality teams are built from the catcher out. They got a terrific young one that will be there for years. They restocked their farm system, and yes, had a great draft (actually the 2 before that were decent). They’re building a real organization – not just a 25 man roster for the coming season, but depth at all levels of their farm system. Their payroll is reasonable. The near, intermediate, and long-term future looks great. Add in a terrific manager and coaching staff, and I put this smart organization up there with the Rays, Indians, and Brewers as small market franchises that will keep contending each year while fans underestimate them and run to the Phillies, Reds, and Padres of the day that make moves, get pub, spend money, and under-perform.
Agreed, tho the Indians have had the advantage of playing in a two-horse race division for a while. And we should add in the Cards, who despite just about #15 in revenue streams, have consistently been in the hunt. Fortunately, they have the forever-confused Cubs as their “big market” competition.
Trading Goldy had to be hard, real hard (not so much Grenkie). But it’s the kind of move smart teams make.
And definitely agree about Lovello; top of the heap.
Small and mid-size and large market teams have to be evaluated differently; it’s the only fair way to do it. And again, it’s less that the big boys have 200M payrolls and more that they can double those payrolls and still keep the doors open. Double the payrolls of the Brewers or Rays, and it’s call the bankruptcy judge.
draft huh? if they would have drafted Bregman instead of Swanson, we would have been in the playoffs and maybe could have held on to Goldy. We have nothing to show for that number 1 overall pick.
This is a different front office that drafted and traded Swanson. Yeah, it was trash trade that just about every fan saw coming to be horrible but you can’t blame the front office now.
It’s difficult to see a way for K.Marte to go to 2B. CF is a difficult position to fill right now and Marte wasnt bad there. His 6 DRS and 5.6 UZR isnt Andruw Jones status but it’s also not scrub production either.
They mean because of injuries
The default—leaving Ketel in CF is a great negotiation position, as opposed to being desperate by not having a good player there. However, they have more depth at 2B than CF/OF. That’s obvious. Along these lines, CF gives them more play with their 26th spot. Hazen and Torey like using several lineups effectively—not the stupid way Chip Hale used to do it, but with switch hitting, versatile athletic players. Jackie Bradley is the best option because Boston needs to trade him, and he plays all OF positions at an elite level. Boston would probably even pay down a little salary if they want a better prospect. Starling is going to cost way more, and he’s really not that much better.
Hazen has a track record of being creative with trades and free agent signings. I think he’s working behind the scenes to creatively fill the Dback’s CF void. Make no mistake, Hazen has no intention of forcing Ketel Marte to play CF again in 2020, because the Dbacks had no better options in 2019. Hazen did that last year and risked the health of his MVP candidate. He won’t repeat the same mistake this year.
This country has serious issues if it’s 8PM on Christmas Eve and Ghostbusters 2 is not on ONE channel.
New Years, too.
Hazen isn’t fazed by a difficult/thin CF market. He won’t let the market dictate his moves. He’ll be creative. The other thing he won’t do is sign 1/2 a player, i.e. a purely defensive CF. If he wanted that, he would have resigned Zoombyah, Jarred Dyson, to a cheap contract. JBJ is an expensive version of Dyson, so I seriously doubt Hazen will go in that direction. Same for Taylor. Starling Marte, Buxton, Laureano, or Mookie are the type he’s going after. Hazen also needs a 2 or at most 3 year contract CF. After that, the Dbacks prospects will mature into CF options.
I agree but out of those three targets you listed, Marte is probably the only one available. It would be a smart move if Hazen decides to keep Ray and go after Marte. I wonder if Hazen would use the teams competitive balance pick w/ a combination of prospects, instead of dealing Thomas or Robinson? Maybe Varsho, Levi Kelly & their #34 CBP for Marte & Hazen should be able to get Kyle Crick included.
Diamondbacks always seem to want to sign the cheap contract instead of signing good young players. They seem to trade a lot of young players. Look at all the good players they traded to other teams.
The Greinke contract dictated much of that “cheap contract” signing the past few years. But the MadBum signing shows things have now changed. And next year, when $50M more comes off the books, look for more/bigger spending. Then, the following year, the prospects start arriving to fill other holes so that the Dbacks will no longer need to dump larger contract, veterans they need to successfully compete for the post-season.
Connor Byrnes’ closing question is whether or not the Dbacks are willing to spend prospect capital to obtain a CF? Hazen has already answered that question…Yes they are planning to trade prospects to fill positions of need. Unlike some, who love having a highly ranked prospect system and think they need to hold on to that high ranking by never trading prospects (see also Atlanta Braves), Hazen thinks it’s more important to have a highly competitive major league team than a highly regarded farm system. That doesn’t mean he’s going to gut the system, and it doesn’t mean he doesn’t value prospect capital. But it does mean that he’s going to strike a healthy balance between developing home grown talent and using prospect assets to strengthen the major league club in both the short and long terms. So, I expect when the trade market kicks into gear in January, that the Dbacks will announce a key trade for a quality CF.
I would like to see them sign Pillar and move Marte to 2B to keep him healthy. Then have Rojas move around the outfield to keep Peralta, Pillar, and Calhoun fresh. During Marte’s days off they could then put Rojas or Escobar at 2nd. They have good depth and signing Pillar would leave them with enough to sign a solid reliever like McHugh, Hudson, or Harris. This isn’t time to trade for a decaying Bradley Jr or give tons of prospects for Starling.
I would not mind seeing the DBacks making a run at bringing back either or both Harris and Hudson. Both have established themselves as quality bullpen guys since they left, and both were recently in the WS. Given the competitiveness of the DBacks today, they would make a huge impact more so than other veteran pitchers brought in such as Boxburger, Holland, etc. Also, it allows Duplantier to develop as a SP.
While everyone is engaging in speculative mental self abuse as if beans need to be counted to stay under the salary cap that every NFL team maxes out every year, remember the Diamondbacks have no salary limitation except what the team itself decides it is willing to spend. The team has never come close to luxury tax considerations. It can afford to pay for any of the remaining centerfielders available in free agency or by trade if it wants the benefits of an experienced natural centerfielder and to reduce risks of additional injuries to its best player who has been playing out of position. Cost is not a consideration for this team, which had a payroll over $140,000,000 recently. If the team doesn’t want to pay a few more million dollars to land Starling Marte or Jackie Bradley Jr. it’s not because it can’t pay, it’s because it doesn’t want to.pay.
There are several possible reasons Mike Hazen is saying he doesn’t have much more money to spend. Here are some. There are doubtless others.
1. It would be stupid for Hazen to negotiate against himself in the media by admitting there is more money available to deal with.
2. It would be bad business to cross the line from optimism to encouraging unrealistic fan expectations, especially for a team trying to improve on a year to year basis.
3. It could impact ongoing stadium negotiations to suggest the team is prosperous enough to add significantly to payroll.
4. The team is cheap, doesn’t care about winning, and will only spend enough to prevent a massive fan exodus.
I sincerely hope the cynicism of no. 4 is wrong. But it will still take a while to erase the doubts I have had since the Paul Goldschmidt trade.
If a centerfielder is acquired, expect the customary effusive praise and gratitude toward ownership’s generosity in exceeding ownership’s self-imposed budget that Hall and Hazen spout every time they make an acquisition that exceeds the team’s stated maximum limit.
I would love to see either Marte or Bradley in center field. With Ketel at second, the team will have perhaps the best infield in its history.