Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick and team president/CEO Derrick Hall spoke with MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters earlier this week, discussing several topics about the club’s offseason and future plans. In regards to the biggest-picture topic of the Diamondbacks’ quest for a new ballpark, Hall said that “nothing has really changed yet….We’re still looking at what other options there might be in Maricopa County, not outside of Maricopa County,” and that “we’ll start accelerating that process again” now that the MLB lockout and the pandemic delayed the process. The club’s lease at Chase Field is up after the 2027 season, and while the D’Backs have been in talks with Phoenix officials, there were some reports in 2019 that the Diamondbacks had possibly considered Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada as alternate sites. Hall said that the team would likely prefer to remain in the downtown Phoenix area, and Kendrick added that “whether it be the downtown setting or perhaps a ballpark somewhere in the Valley that would be a brand new one,” the D’Backs are “prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars” to help fund the construction of a new home.
Speaking of finances, the Diamondbacks have had an active offseason as the team looks to improve on its 74-88 record from 2022. The Snakes’ current payroll sits at around $118.9MM, which Kendrick noted was almost a 30 percent increase from last year’s figure. While this spending still puts the D’Backs in the bottom half of all MLB payrolls, Kendrick said that ownership was prepared to reinvest at the deadline if necessary: “If the team is competitive and has the chance to play in October is there, we’re going to spend more money to get there.”
More from Arizona…
- Corbin Martin has worked mostly as a starter over his pro career, but Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes that the D’Backs are transitioning Martin into a full-time relief role. The hope is that the new bullpen role will help Martin achieve some consistency (after posting a 6.71 ERA over his first 57 2/3 innings in the majors) and also help keep him healthy — the righty missed most of 2019 and the entire 2020 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and a follow-up oblique strain, and Martin also had IL trips in each of the last two seasons. As Piecoro noted in another piece, those injuries meant that the D’Backs were awarded a fourth option year on Martin, giving the team additional control over their ability to move Martin between the majors and minors. “So far, I feel like health-wise, it might be the best decision. Not overtaxing, being able to go out there and focus on the three outs to get every inning…Being able to build off that is going to be able to help me in the long run,” Martin said. Martin has averaged 94.5 mph on his fastball at the big league level, but D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo said that Martin hit the 97mph mark during a live batting practice session on Thursday.
- After undergoing shoulder surgery last year, Druw Jones should be ready for action around the start of the minor league season, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen told Piecoro and other reporters. Jones’ first minor league game will be his official pro debut, as he suffered a torn left posterior labrum during a workout just three days after signing his post-draft deal. Arizona selected Jones with the second overall pick in last summer’s draft, and injury notwithstanding, Jones is still a consensus top-35 prospect in baseball even before he has taken the field.
I have never been to Phoenix and don’t know much about their ballpark. Is there a reason they need a new one?
I’ve been to games there multiple times and have no issue with the stadium. The biggest downside I’ve had is downtown parking
Bigger swimming pool?
From what I have heard the roof is broken, and stadium is too big as far a ambiance. They want something more close, and smaller seating wise. Kinda silly to me.
The foundation is cracked and the building is falling apart. The opening and closing of the roof has taken its toll. A few summers ago the AC went out and it was unbearable inside. A number of things are pretty unsafe there. The main problem is Maricopa County didn’t properly spend the lease money the team was paying for upkeep. It was basically like a slumlord situation where someone rents a house but the owner just pockets all the money and doesn’t pay for common maintenance as things naturally wear out. The team offered to pay for the renovations in exchange for rent reduction and booking rights for off-season events. The county said no.
BS, the county has stood up for their end of the bargain. DBacks scumbag ownership wanted the County to pay for upgrades, remodeling that was the DBacks responsibility. It was their play for an out because they can’t fill 1/2 the 48K seats.
@Horsepucki you don’t know what you are talking about. Why would the team be responsible for repairs on a building they do not own? They County owns the building and they refused to pay when the team stepped forward and said they would pay, the county said no because they felt they deserved the money for doing nothing. Maricopa County = SLUMLORDS. Period.
I’ve been to all 30 and I have to say that Chase field was super clean and one of the nicer ones in all of baseball. Not sure why they would want a new one.
The owners need to pay for their own damn ballpark. No one is increasing hotel and car rental taxes to help me pay for a new home or anything else for that matter.
That’s because your new house doesn’t generate millions of dollars in revenue for the county/city.
Hopefully, whatever happens this time won’t involve anyone getting capped.
https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/man-who-shot-former-maricopa-county-supervisor-over-ballpark-tax-speaks-during-suns-arena-debate/75-88764d01-4c16-4bb2-a662-726b13db8313
Socialism is no good for you or me but it’s wonderful for rich people and corporations. Because they won’t be selfish with the money. They’ll do things that benefit us all. Like buy back shares to line their pockets or buy twelve houses around the world or buy yachts for tens of millions of dollar. It’s obvious. We all benefit from this.
Look like Billionaire wanted a free ballpark. And phony politicians will come out with useless financial data trying to show. That by give away Billion dollar plus ballpark Is smart.
I don’t think those ESL classes are helping.
Hahaha
You understand can’t when baseball be very very good to me?
That fourth option year for Martin is huge (and so is a transition to a SIRP). One more spot in the bullpen that they can rotate through, and that makes a lot more sense as to why they weren’t inclined to drop him from the 40-man (still kind of a tight squeeze for NRIs).
Early in Spring, but at the very least Familia’s stuff looked strong; pretty much every other NRI that appeared today wasn’t exactly great though lol
The Martin role change shakes up the bullpen a little, because who’s the long relief? Hazen said that they’re not necessarily trying to move a young SP into LR this early out, but the most logical candidates would be whoever misses out on the #5 spot (maybe roll into the season without a LR and push Bumgarner there if he’s still getting poor results?)
Mantiply effectively has one of the 3 SIRP roles (that isn’t occupied by a guaranteed contract) locked down, and it seemed like Ginkel/Nelson had the inside track for the last two spots.
Maybe they only want Chafin/Mantiply as bullpen LHP now and start the year with K. Nelson in AAA, and maybe Ginkel’s control is poor enough to start him in AAA as well; that’s space enough for Martin and a NRI after a 40-man drop (and I’d guess that’d be Sulser after adding this many RP)
Regardless of how those last two spots shake out, I find that Martin news to make the “battle for the bottom of the bullpen” a good deal more interesting.
I’ve never been but I really don’t see a reason why a 25 year old building that’s used 6 months out of the year needs to be replaced, One would think any upgrades that are needed could be remedied for the fraction of the cost and hassle of a new building. There are a handful of teams in MLB in more dire straits for a new stadium then Arizona I would think
As noted above, the ballpark has not had routine maintenance, which has resulted in its useful life being significantly shorter.
Chase field is fine. It is not as enjoyable as other parks to visit, but it seems fine besides the notes maintenance issues. But, for context, with respect to being other ballparks needing more work, it is the fourth oldest on the national league. Only wrigley, dodger, and Coors are older. It is also old when you factor in AL ballparks too. For the most part, any Stadium besides the most historic has been replaced since chase was built.
probably gonna get flamed on this but, what if the a’s and d-backs share a vegas park with a 30k capacity?
1. you now have 162 “home games” instead of 81 (mo’ money).
2. the schedules are balanced now so you’d have more opportunities to see your favorite team play while on vacation/living in southern nevada.
3. phoenix pretty close enough to entice hardcore d-back fans to make trips out to vegas; along with fans from anaheim, san diego, l.a., and san francisco.
4. i’m retiring to vegas and going to 162 live games is how i want to live! 🙂
I doubt there’s enough people for two fanbases. Interesting idea and a great way to spend your retirement.
Hes probably going to have to be a hot dog vendor at the games for his retirement. 162 games is better than 81.
On the surface that’s actually an interesting idea. One of the problems would come with the teams having to agree to split the revenue. Imagine a battle like MASN with the Nats and the Orioles, only probably over more money.
Zero chance Vegas could support two teams when it’s questionable that they could support one.
Plus sharing a facility is probably a disaster waiting to happen
Been once and really enjoyed the experience. I thought it was a great park. Also the parking was simple because there’s a bunch of parking garages. The quickest I ever got out of a ball park and on the road.
Anyone else tired of the Vegas MLB Team schtick the last couple of years? The biggest pipe dream for MLB so-called ‘fans’ since robot-umpires?
While I lived in AZ went to about 6 games there.
It truly didnt feel like a baseball Stadium
Something was missing-
Something felt off
If they could upgrade their food that would really help. Nice stadium and plenty of hotels and ease of access. Fans are not passionate, but if they start winning that could change.
They actually have good food at the ballpark, it’s just nobody wanted to sit through through 3 hours of the baseball equivalent to experiencing a root canal.