Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen spoke with The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (multiple links), The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters on Tuesday about several topics related to the team’s rough season, though Hazen demurred about the broad decision facing the team when asked if the D’Backs were planning to rebuild or if they would try to contend in 2022.
“I am going to punt that question for 13 more days,” Hazen said, referring to the very end of the regular season. In general, Hazen and other team officials are still in discussions and meetings about the state of the franchise in the wake of Arizona’s disastrous 48-104 record. The D’Backs are currently tied with the Orioles for the worst record in baseball, and “we need to understand exactly what’s happened and how it’s happened.”
Naturally, multiple factors combined to turn 2021 into a nightmare year for the Diamondbacks, so there is no shortage of analysis that needs to take place within the Arizona front office. Since Hazen’s interview on Tuesday, however, one notable decision has already been made, as Hazen announced this afternoon that manager Torey Lovullo has been signed to a contract extension that will run through the 2022 season, with a club option for 2023.
Hazen said Tuesday that the fault for the Diamondbacks’ issues didn’t lie with Lovullo or any one person, and took his own share of responsibility: “The job I’ve done should be scrutinized fairly heavily. As much as we’ve talked about others, we should be talking about me.” Hazen’s own contractual status isn’t publicly known, as the terms of his multi-year extension in September 2019 weren’t announced. Hazen’s original deal ran until the end of the 2020 season, and it is fair to guess that at least two or three additional years were added in this new contract.
Off-the-field concerns also certainly play a role in Hazen’s future. He took a physical leave of absence from the team in June in order to spend time with his family and care for his wife, Nicole, as she battles brain cancer. Hazen praised his front office colleagues (assistant GMs Amiel Sawdaye and Mike Fitzgerald, and special assistant Allard Baird) for their work, and he noted that “I feel like I’ve done my job to the best of my ability and locked into the same things I’ve locked into before.”
One organizational aspect that seems likely to change is how the Diamondbacks approached their need for defensive versatility, as Hazen said “I do think that we probably have” had players playing out of their ideal position too often. “If we’re playing guys out of position, if we’re asking guys to do too much, if the level of preparation for three different guys is not possible for four or five guys, all those things are things we’re going to have to work through,” the GM said.
While every team strives to have a flexible roster complete with multi-position options, injuries and a lack of performance forced several D’Backs players into unfamiliar roles in 2021. The results have been mediocre at best, as the Diamondbacks are 18th of 30 teams in UZR/150 (-1.1), 21st in Outs Above Average (-10), and tied for 28th in Defensive Runs Saved (-48).
That said, “it is the easiest thing in my mind that we have a chance to go into this offseason and — fix is the wrong word, I don’t know exactly what’s broken — lock down on being a good defensive team,” Hazen said. “We have that within our capability….I think we’ve pushed that [moving players around the diamond] to the limit and I think you’ve seen the dam break a little bit this year. I do think we have to start honing in on who is going to thrive in that setting and who would be better off locking down one spot. Those are going to be part of the conversations we’ll be having.”
This could extend to the Diamondbacks’ best player, Ketel Marte. Hazen implied that Marte would mostly stick at one position in 2022, which would appear to be second base based on Marte’s recent comments to Lovullo. Marte has played mostly at the keystone in both 2018 and 2020, but the D’Backs have used him primarily as a center fielder this year, and also as a shortstop in the past. From a defensive standpoint, Marte has looked far more solid as a second baseman than at other positions, so Arizona might simplify matters by just using Marte every day at second base next year.
Whether Marte will be on the Diamondbacks’ roster at all might be a matter of some debate. If the D’Backs did look to embark on a rebuild, Marte (who is controlled through 2024 on a pair of club options) would be a prime trade chip, though he wasn’t moved at this past trade deadline, as Hazen said in June that the team was looking to keep its core group of talent together. That perspective might well change as the offseason begins, should the D’Backs indeed decide that an overhaul is needed, or perhaps if another team simply makes an offer for Marte that Hazen feels is too good to pass up.
Dbacks are the anti-Giants this year. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. But that said, I have no idea what the prognosticators who were bullish on this team in Spring Training were seeing. Forget last year’s weird season. Just looking down their Opening Day roster, I didn’t see a whole lot of quality, especially on the pitching staff. They were pretty clearly the worst team in that division, by a fair bit. Now finishing with 110 losses or whatever, that was a lot of bad luck on top of it. But it looked like a 95 loss team to me.
One of the dumbest moves the D-Backs front office did was signing MadBum to that ridiculous contract. He was already having some arm injury issues. His velocity was already dropping at a borderline alarming rate. His numbers were always bad outside of the pitchers haven that is San Francisco. I think his career ERA in Arizona was already above 5.00 before they even signed him. I’m not sure why they assumed all that was going to change as soon as they cut him an $85 million check. Now his pitching shoulder is falling off and things have gotten even worse. I know he has the occasional game where he looks brilliant but those are far out weighed by all the games he looks absolutely terrible. They still have him locked up at an expensive rate for the next several years. MadBum should be no better than a 4th or 5th starter at this point. They are tying up too much of their payroll in him for that kind of mediocre production. It’s only going to get worse as he ages and accumulates more wear and tear. Arizona should probably start rebuilding now so they can hopefully contend by the time MadBum’s contract is over and they don’t have to keep wasting all that money on him. One of the worst parts is his contract is heavily back loaded. They paid him almost nothing last season so the next few years he’s going to be far more expensive than most people realize.
It’s a good thing the Mets have never made a “ridiculous contract” like Bobby Bonilla & Jason Bay. Where do you come off criticizing anyone?
Bobby Bonilla & Jason Bay are rated as the 2 worst contracts in MLB history by TheSporster.
Lets see if they can best their record in 2022
You have the nerve to tell the Diamondback’s what they’re doing wrong.
I F-ing hate the Mets. They are at least as stupid as the Diamondbacks. Probably more so. Do you think a real Mets fan would make his screen name about a statistic as stupid as mWAR and then put the term in quotes? Just because the Mets are a terribly run idiotic organization doesn’t make the Diamondbacks signing of MadBum any better. I come off as someone criticizing Arizona for that signing because I said it was stupid before they ever did it. It was stupid then and it looks even more stupid now. Pay an aging guy on his decline $85 million to pitch half his games in a park he gets rocked to the tune of an ERA over 5.00? The Diamondbacks must have really thought declining pitchers with ERAs over 5.00 had a market value of $85 million. That’s the only assumption anyone could possibly make. That would make them stupid. The only other option is that they run a multi-billion organization but they still can’t do simple math. That would make them even more stupid.
Who cares even if he was a Mets fan?
The Bumgarner contract was terrible and that’s okay for anyone to say.
Hopefully they finally rebuild. Only a few years late.
How can they choose to contend in that division? Even if the Giants come back to earth somewhat, that’s a 100-win team right now. You have to figure the Padres will at least be around .500 and they might well put it together finally. And then, oh by the way, the Dodgers.
Moving Marte back to the infield is the best move the Dbacks could make. He can’t seem to stay healthy playing CF. I think he’ll stay healthy and on the field for many more games next year.
Plus, CF will be covered now so the Dbacks don’t need to force fit Marte there any more. McCarthy is holding his own there in his rookie campaign, Alex Thomas is coming off a monstrous AA/AAA campaign, and Corbin Carroll is probably only a 1/2 season away from really making an impact in CF.
That’s interesting, fangraphs has an ETA of 2023, but you think he’ll already be up half way through 2022 and making an impact? Has he played above A+?
Carroll is talented, but the 2023 ETA is more realistic when considering that he injured his shoulder in the follow through on a HR swing that ended his season extremely early. He absolutely obliterated the opposition in his 7 A+ games, though.
I don’t think he makes a Fall League appearance; in any scenario he likely starts next season in A+ ball, and best case probably sees him end in AAA.
Varsho seems to be more settled into the OF, there is no question that Thomas will be promoted next season, Peralta will still be around, and Rojas has shown enough ability to warrant some regular PAs (and it won’t be at 2B with Marte moving back).
There’s not enough PAs in the OF to call up Thomas and Carroll in 2022, and however the next CBA is structured will likely dictate how early in 2023 they promote Carroll.
As everyone knows, the bullpen has been a major disaster this year. Two, or at most three bullpen arms deserve another shot next year. All of the rest of the Waiver claim bullpen arms have failed or been way too inconsistent to earn another shot. The bullpen is the one area of the team that needs to be totally torn down and rebuilt.
I agree completely.Just curious:Who are those 2 or 3 bullpen arms deserving another chance?
The Dbacks’ Player Development leadership has failed to develop/cultivate bullpen arms in the Minor League pipeline. Read the Top 30 Prospects blurbs for pitchers. They constantly say the pitchers might be better off as relievers, but they are letting them continue to start in the Minors. The fact is that the Major League team needs a pipeline of quality relievers, and Player Development leadership is stroking pitcher’s egos and personal desires to be starters, when they should be developing them as relievers instead.
On paper this team had a decent rotation and opend with a solid lineup but somehow it just never clicked.
Ketel Marte is the player the White Sox should have pushed for by the trade deadline. The package of 2B Nick Madrigal and RP Codi Heuer that they pissed away to the Cubs for closer Craig Kimbrel would have been an excellent starting point in talks with the Diamondbacks. Instead the White Sox front office packaged those two young MLB players for a veteran closer who was an expensive luxury with Liam Hendriks already being paid huge dollars for the next 3+ years.
That said, hopefully the White Sox will still pursue Marte this offseason but they lack the prospect capital most any other contender would have to offer. Bad move by the front office with Kimbrel performing poorly as a setup man down the stretch and likely to have his 2022 $16M team option rejected following the postseason. Only a ChiSox World Series title will justify the Kimbrel trade and unfortunately that looks more like wishful thinking than reality.
Diamondbacks have a lot of holes in that lineup and bullpen.
Marte is awesome. Kelly is a good C. Varsho seems to be a good player. Walker is an okay 1B. Peralta is an underrated OF, but is 34 already.
That pitching staff isn’t terrible, but Bumgarner should be consider a #5 by now.
Weaver/Merril showed promise to being something, but they’re just mid rotation-average pitchers.
Gallen is good and he’s a #2 type guy.
They need a top-tier guy.