The Diamondbacks and GM Mike Hazen have agreed to a new contract extension, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Hazen is now under contract through the 2028 season, and the D’Backs hold a club option on his services for 2029. In addition to extending Hazen, Piecoro reports (via X) that assistant GMs Amiel Sawdaye and Mike Fitzgerald also got new contracts.
Club president/CEO Derrick Hall said a couple of weeks ago that the D’Backs had spoken with Hazen about a new deal, so today’s news isn’t particularly surprising. Hazen’s previous contract ran through 2024 with a club option for 2025, so technically, there wasn’t any overt urgency for Arizona to work out an extension this quickly. However, given that the Red Sox also reportedly had some interest in speaking with Hazen (who formerly worked with Boston and hails from Massachusetts) about their own front office vacancy, that might’ve also spurred Arizona to act sooner than later in locking Hazen up for the rest of the decade.
Hazen took over Arizona’s front office following the 2016 season, and immediately ended a string of three losing seasons by taking the Diamondbacks to a wild card berth in 2017. Two more winning (though non-playoff) seasons followed, as Hazen attempted the tricky task of retooling the D’Backs roster and reducing payroll while also keeping the team competitive. The trade of Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals in December 2018 was the best example of how Hazen tried to better position the Diamondbacks for future, even if it meant making the call to part ways with a homegrown superstar.
The difficulties of Hazen’s strategy manifested themselves with three straight losing seasons from 2020-22, with the nadir of a 110-loss campaign in 2021. Still, Hazen resisted the urge to tear the roster down entirely, and to some extent doubled down by signing such notables as Ketel Marte and Merrill Kelly to extensions rather than trading either player for younger talent. As it happened, Arizona was still able to add quite a bit of younger talent anyway in other transactions and through the draft, to the point that the Diamondbacks now have one of the higher-ranked minor league systems in baseball.
This three-year period also brought infinitely more pain to Hazen off the field, as his wife Nicole was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2020 and passed away in August 2022. The Washington Post’s Zach Buchanan recently wrote about the Hazen family’s strength and struggles during this time, and the GM took a temporarily physical leave of absence from the Diamondbacks in 2021. Upon Nicole’s passing, Hazen considered leaving his job altogether, but his four sons unanimously encouraged their father to continue as general manager.
The D’Backs went 84-78 this season, getting back to both winning baseball and the postseason, earning the final NL wild card slot after a hotly-contested pennant race that came down to the regular season’s final days. Virtually the entirety of the Snakes’ roster was acquired under Hazen’s watch, ranging from homegrown draft picks (i.e. Corbin Carroll), shrewd trade pickups (Zac Gallen, Gabriel Moreno, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) and under-the-radar acquisitions (i.e. Kelly, Christian Walker) that have paid big dividends. With Carroll the NL Rookie of the Year favorite, Jordan Lawlar just beginning his MLB career, and top prospect Druw Jones in the pipeline, the Diamondbacks look in good shape to contend for years to come.
The extensions for Sawdaye and Fitzgerald are also noteworthy, as the two assistant GMs are well-regarded in their own right. Sawdaye has a long history with Hazen dating back to their time working in the Red Sox front office, and Sawdaye has been a candidate for the Giants’ and Angels’ most recent openings for president of baseball operations and general manager, respectively. Fitzgerald has been with Arizona since 2016 and was promoted to the AGM role after previously working as the team’s director of analytics.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Good on him to walk into that office right after a playoff win.
No, we will not let you go to the Red Sox.
It’s our fault for not promoting him when we should have
Not surprising considering how he has turned that team’s success into a young core that can compete for a while.
What Hazen has been through with his wife is enough to break any man. I admire that he prioritized her health and the raising of their four sons through the tragedy they faced. With a man of his character, and his baseball acumen, anything is possible. I am not a Diamondbacks fan, but I am an unabashed admirer of their GM, and I hope they go far for Nicole’s memory.
Game – The good guys like Hazen are put on this earth to offset the bad ones like Lackey.
It’s going to be hard for the Red Sox to get a POBO to sign on. The reality is, this team has a front office and coaching staff cemented in place that has proven to be average at best. The incumbent POBO signs on to be the face of it/fall guy. We had 3 assistant GMs and a GM that had been in the organization long before Bloom with zero ties to him and his way of conducting business. Our ownership and President are very hands on and they are still going to be influencing all decisions made. Bringing in Hazen was a pipe dream. I wouldn’t be surprised if our POBO search ends up going similar to the Mets search last offseason; lots of no thank you’s.
I believe that’s why Theo Epstein left the Red Sox for the Cubs. Ownership is too hands on so you’re right, it’s going to be hard for anyone to join the front office. John Henry and the rest of ownership might have to rethink how they micromanage their executives.
Theo left because Henry in not the type of person to take his share of the blame if anything goes wrong. And Henry cannot abide any bad publicity whatsoever.
Overall, I think Henry has been good for the team. But cutting ties with Theo because of one bad month in 9 years, was insane.
I thought it was Theo’s decision?
Epstein had already contemplated leaving the team and Henry getting rid of Tito Francona was the final straw for him to resign. Henry had to have known that Epstein would leave for his actions.
I always thought Theo left because once he won the first one, once he broke the curse and lifted 100 years of frustration off the city, there is just one way to go and that’s down. And he was so young when he took the job…..I don’t think that position was ever destined to be a long term Cashman thing
acoss – Theo left because of a power struggle. He wanted an ownership stake and autonomy from Lucky. Not surprising he got a swelled head, considering all the “credit” he received for the two championships and at such a young age. He was quite immature back then, remember the gorilla suit?
Okay that makes Fever Pitch. I didn’t know the entire story at the time. Yes I do remember the gorilla suit, he really did get his ego get to him.
Fever—Theo deserved some credit for’04, but not all of it. I mean, Dan Duquette built that team. Theo came along and finished it when he acquired Schilling and Foulke, and having the guts to trade Nomar at the trade deadline to get Cabrera, Dave Roberts and Mientkiewicz was the icing on the cake. Hiring Francona was a great move, but at the time, nobody thought that he was a good hire.
All that said, my realistic best case scenario is getting Josh Byrnes from the Dodgers. He’s a retread with lots of experience and success (outside of when actually running the show in SD and ARI). He helped build the 2004 champions here in Boston. I think the Sox can give him a last chance and he can bring experience and a Dodger model that can be replicated here, unlike the Rays model. Young up and comers will not want to risk getting thrown into this fire for their first job, Byrnes can. Who are you guys hoping takes this job?
NY Sox – Click is my top choice, followed by Ng.
I’d really like to have Naehring, but I doubt he would leave the Yankees.
NYSox – You are being too kind when you say the coaching staff is average at best. Not just because of their inability to help the pitchers reach their potential, and not just because of the many errors that ranked Boston as 2nd-most in MLB. The baserunning was also a disaster and directly cost them several games.
I can accept poor pitching and poor hitting because of a lack of talent, but there is zero excuse for so many players lacking focus, drive, and basic fundamentals. That falls squarely on Napoleon Cora and his coaching staff.
Beat the Brewers you get rewarded, thank you Mike.
Hazen doesnt receive much national publicity but he’s done a terrific job rebuilding that roster. Fun team to watch, hope they catch a few breaks and have a great run.
That Moreno/Purple hair deal looks pretty pretty good. Carrol K, nice. Chapman would look nice at 3rd (j/k Ken Kendrick FTW). Now might be the time to sell high on Thomas’ questionable bat to get a frontline starter b/c it isn’t happening via FA. Only two more seasons until Gallen gets his bag. The time to spend the little resources Kendrick is willing to part with is now. Making the jump from wild card contender to NL contender/favorite will be much more difficult with the snakes financial constraints in that division. Hat tip to Hazen. Nice job.
Slithering? Grimy? Oozing? Creepy? Have you ever been around a snake? The only descriptor used there that’s objectively factual is slithering, and that’s impossible for a human being to do.
Creepy is a subjective word, and the other two descriptors are not true. You can’t just say something is a fact and it’s suddenly so. Words have meanings, but I guess that’s too much knowledge to expect from a southern Californian.
That’s like me saying, “It’s a fact that SD baseball enthusiasts are only Padres fans because it’s the closest thing they’ll have to a father in their lives”. Funny? Yes; fact? No.
Get outside and touch some grass player, you might actually learn something.
Bold move by Hazen to keep Torey after the 110 loss season. Not many GMs would have done that. Congrats to both and good luck vs LA.
Hazen is worth his weight in gold, and this extension is a solid move by the front office. He took a chance and traded the then # 1 prospect in Jazz Chisholm to Miami for a then unknown Zach Gallen, then a couple years later drafted in the 1st round slot 16 Corbin Carroll. Made a trade this off season with Toronto to get one of the best young (23) catcher in Gabby Moreno. Working in a low dollar market, they will build through the draft, good trades, and acquiring solid club house veterans.
I think ‘finally’ after decades KK et al have realized that continuity at the top is probably a good thing.
Hazen has made great moves, and also not great moves. However the methodology has been sound, and like anything else, the reasons for the moves were correct (some believe that Goldy should have been traded before the 2017 season, for example, and the eventual return in the trade may have not panned out, but the logic was correct). Madbum was a bad signing, but who actually would have thought that a 30-34 year old LHP would implode as bad as he did.
Now that payroll has been trimmed down (Madbum is only owed $14 million) next year, I want to see what Hazen does this off season. Other than arbitration and pre-arbitration players, only Carroll and Marte are signed for beyond 2025.
The team needs pitching, and more power from the middle of the order. I think the MLB pitching free agents will be overpriced. I am hoping that he can sign Imanaga, and though Yamamoto will get paid a lot, he is 25.so I hope they make a run at him as well.
I also think they need more power and production from the left side of the plate. I think they should make a run at Bellinger. He is 28, a local, and can play CF/OF till 1B is open in a year or 2. It will cost a draft pick but a core of Carroll, Marte, Bellinger for 5+ years will keep the Dbacks in contension for a long time.
Memo to Red Sox Fans & Media:
No, Mike Hazen was never a candidate for the Red Sox job.
Ditto for Theo, Dave Dombrowski, Ben Cherrington and more.
An experienced, successful Pres of Baseball Ops or GM who has built his own success with another team(s) will not put up with the micro managing and constant interference of RS Owner John Henry and his “eyes and ears” around the Fenway Park Front Office Sam Kennedy.
Both those guys are not “baseball guys”.
Henry the Owner who has put his money on the line, but should not be micromanaging baseball decisions (like Arte Moreno).
Ditto with Sam Kennedy who is more of a guy on the Operations Management, business side of things and not really a baseball guy who assembles and builds winning teams.
And there lies the Red Sox problems.
Guys making final decisions who don’t understand how to build a winning team and roster and over ruling the experienced baseball guys.
Nice way for Arizona to shut down the off season rumors before they even start, and to lock up their guys for awhile