D-backs Eyeing Back-End Relievers; Payroll Expected To Be In Same Range As 2024

The Diamondbacks entered the offseason on the heels of a narrow postseason miss that saw their bid for a playoff spot last until the final day of regular-season play. It’s a bitter pill for any club to swallow, and general manager Mike Hazen didn’t shy away from acknowledging as much today in an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7’s Wolf and Luke Show (full audio of the 11-minute interview). Arizona’s GM sidestepped questions when asked about specific players who are currently free agents (e.g. Christian Walker) but did suggest he’ll be in the market for some upgrades to his late-inning relief corps this winter.

“I’ll beat you to the punch on this question,” Hazen joked with hosts Ron Wolfley and Luke Lapinski. “Where we get to the closer situation, in the end, I don’t know. I still feel like a back-end bullpen guy to help out with [Justin Martinez] and with [A.J. Puk] and those guys, I still see that. I thought when [Paul Sewald] was closing, we had the best version of who we were, frankly. … But, we know [Martinez and Puk] can close, too, so we’ll see.”

Sewald, as referenced by Hazen, was a key piece in Arizona’s bullpen after coming over from Seattle at the 2023 trade deadline. He opened the 2024 season on the injured list due to an oblique strain but was virtually unhittable upon activation, rattling off 16 2/3 innings of one-run ball while only yielding five hits and three walks with 15 punchouts. He hit a rough patch over the next seven weeks, however, yielding 18 runs in 23 innings before landing on the injured list to close out the season. When healthy, Sewald has been terrific over the past four years, logging 229 innings with a 3.18 ERA and 81 saves between the Mariners and Diamondbacks.

A reunion with Sewald could make sense on paper, though the D-backs will have various other options to consider both in free agency and on the trade market. Sewald will turn 35 next May and posted his lowest average fastball velocity since 2019, so while his track record makes him a clear rebound candidate, the Snakes and other clubs will hold at least some degree of concern about his ability to bounce back from this season’s injuries. He should still command a nice one-year deal at the very least, given how well he’s pitched since 2021, but he’ll also surely draw interest from other teams as well.

Alternatives on the free-agent market are plentiful, though many will be costly. Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez and Clay Holmes are among the top relievers in this year’s class, each with a chance to command at least a three-year contract. The D-backs have never committed three years to a free agent reliever at any point in the past 14 years — hat tip to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker — and haven’t committed more than the $14MM they gave Mark Melancon during Hazen’s time as GM. This winter’s market has several high-end arms who could be available for one year and an eight-figure salary (David Robertson, Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen and Blake Treinen among them), which could serve as a means of adding an impact arm without bucking that preference to avoid multi-year spending on premium relievers. The trade market is likely to include names like Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams, Ryan Pressly and Pete Fairbanks, among others.

As with all clubs, the extent to which the D-backs can pursue upgrades is tied directly to ownership’s appetite for spending. Arizona currently projects for a $149MM payroll, per RosterResource, which is about $14MM from where they opened the 2024 campaign. Hazen doesn’t expect a significant dip in payroll but also cautioned that there’s no guarantee that what was already a club-record payroll will climb even higher.

“I would expect we’re somewhere in the same area, plus or minus,” said Hazen when asked about his budget for the 2025 roster. “I don’t know exactly where that’ll all end up. We work through a lot of these decisions with [owner Ken Kendrick] and [president/CEO Derrick Hall] as players become available or as situations get presented to us via trade or via free agency. So, that number kind of fluctuates for us a little bit as we move through the offseason, but we’re going to have plenty of resources to have a winning team next year.”

The D-backs aren’t going to idle with regard to their lineup, but Hazen spoke more favorably of the position-player group, noting high expectations for Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Eugenio Suarez, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno, in particular. On the rotation side of things, Hazen downplayed rumors of a potential trade from his starting staff, noting that teams call all the time and it’s his job to listen — but that doesn’t mean a move is particularly likely.