The Diamondbacks went into 2025 with an Opening Day payroll of just under $187MM, representing yet another new high for a club that had already bumped its payroll from roughly $116.1MM in 2023 to $163.3MM in 2024. Arizona’s attempt to try and capitalize on its surprise NL pennant in 2023 hasn’t worked out, however, as the D’Backs fell short of the playoffs in 2024 and are fighting just to try and salvage a winning record this year.
These struggles led to some selling at the deadline, with such impending free agents as Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, Merrill Kelly, Randal Grichuk, Shelby Miller, and Jordan Montgomery all sent elsewhere. The money saved by getting those players off the books for the final two months of 2025 will impact the 2026 payroll, as team president/CEO Derrick Hall said the D’Backs will “reinvest into the product for next year. We’re going to have to because we’re still going to have so many guys on the IL. We’re going to have to do some work on the roster.”
In terms of overall spending, however, Hall told the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters that next year’s payroll is expected to be reduced to some degree. “Do I think we need to have the payroll number where it was this year? Probably not. But I think we can have just as good a team as we constructed by reinvesting the money that we have (saved) and then some,” Hall said.
Hall’s statement isn’t surprising since 2025 was viewed as something of an all-in season for the Diamondbacks, with ownership okaying the payroll boost since the entire roster core was in place. With several notable players slated for free agency this coming winter, a spending cut was pretty much inevitable just because of all the high salaries coming off the team’s books. In the aftermath of the trade deadline, the Diamondbacks have just under $107MM in guaranteed salaries set for 2026 (hat tip to RosterResource), though that number doesn’t factor in arbitration raises.
It doesn’t help matters that Corbin Burnes (Arizona’s highest-paid player) will miss most or all of the 2026 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Between Burnes’ absence and Zac Gallen slated for free agency, the D’Backs will have holes to fill in the rotation, plus they’ll be looking to fix a bullpen that has been a weak link for the better part of two years. The Diamondbacks’ offense has again been strong in 2025, but the absence of Suarez and Naylor means that next year’s lineup needs a lot more power.
Hall said he expects the D’Backs to still be able to make moves in free agency, and the CEO unsurprisingly didn’t give any specifics about how much GM Mike Hazen may or may not have to spend this offseason. It is possible the team doesn’t yet know the answer to this question, as Hall noted that attendance over the remainder of the season will impact next year’s payroll.
Hypothetically speaking, even if the Diamondbacks were to reduce payroll to 2024 levels, that still leaves Hazen with quite a bit of spending capacity to address the roster’s many needs. Trading a player like Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (who drew interest prior to the deadline) who is only under guaranteed contract through 2026 is another avenue the front office could pursue to free up more money, if necessary.
With so much invested in long-term contracts, there is no sense that the Diamondbacks are planning a larger selloff or considering a rebuild in any respect. As disappointing as the last two seasons have been for the Snakes and their fans, there is still enough core talent in place that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the D’Backs return to contention by next year, though Hazen will again need to be creative.
“We can have just as good a team as we constructed by reinvesting the money that we have (saved) and then some.”
Here’s to another year pushing .500.
That quote, particularly “and then some,” implies a higher payroll rather than a lower one. But you are right that the implication is mediocrity rather than excellence.
Spending doesn’t equal excellence. See this year’s payroll compared to 2023. This year no playoffs, 2023 WS. Spending in many cases as in the past with the dbacks actually prevented them from winning more.
T IT
“Spending doesn’t equal excellence”
No. But it helps. String correlation between spending and winning.
Juan – And there’s a significant line between spending and wasting.
But unless he was misquoted, he specifically said he doesn’t think the payroll needs to be where it was at this year.
Ah yes. Because losing half a season of your ace, closer, back up closer, and an additional rotation worth of players is totally the same output as the opening day expectations….
They also got MVP production from a 34-year-old 3B who had almost hit his way into retirement with Seattle. It balances out.
It very much does not lol. One great half season doesn’t replace an entire pitching staff
Corbin Burnes and two relievers are not an entire pitching staff. No one told Gallen and Pfaadt to be awful.
It doesn’t balance out at all. That’s lazy and nonsensical. Just bc the DBacks didn’t get killed as bad as a team like the orioles doesn’t mean they had any chance given their injuries. The team was very well constructed and even though fans don’t want to hear it sometimes you just lose a season to injury. There’s usually no remedy. Is what it is
It does. I’m not seeing all these injuries anyway. They lost their best pitcher and two relief pitchers. The rest of their roster has been mostly healthy, including a good return for Merrill Kelly. They’ve had it pretty good as far as injuries go. They’re under 500 because they suck, not because of injuries.
Spence-Ummm..have you looked around the division? The Dodgers staff was decimated by injuries..as was the Padres..and those two are leading the division.
Dodgers are designed for that. They have unlimited funds. Irrelevant comparison. Padres have 2 players on the IL currently. Two. For reference, Arizona has 9 pitchers and 3 bats on the IL. All pulled from the MLB 40 man roster public pages today. Not quite the same.
And just in case you don’t know the names on the AZ IL, they all were expected to play major enough roles in the 2025 season. Not necessarily all starters, but possible for first up injury replacement pending schedule and need.
@Second. Agree on Gallen and Pfaadt. Perfectly fine to judge their performances. But AZ has 12 IL players currently. 9 of those are pitchers. Perhaps 1-2 of them could be called non-MLB caliber players but they were all expected to play a role in March. And that doesn’t count the Minor League IL which has other players who were expected to play major roles for the roster.
Darvish, Musgrove, and King have all either missed months, or are out for the season.
At one point this season, the Padres rotation was a combination of Cease, Pivetta, Bergert, Kolek, Hart, and Vasquez.
You can cry all you want, but it ain’t just the D Backs.
For the first time since the first month, the Padres are just finally getting healthy…
That’s fair on the recent health they’ve gotten. But it’s still not the same. Arizona lost nearly 10 arms for 2025 and 2026. I’d love nothing more than to see SD topple LAD this year since AZ isn’t going to. But in baseball this year, only the Braves really compare to the Diamondbacks in sheer amount of the expected roster to get hurt. And even then, they look a lot better for Opening Day 2026 than AZ does.
SD had just enough depth this year. Arizona lost their top tier talent and their depth.
The big difference is the padres pen has been healthy all year long. At least their main guys.
Suarez, morejon, Adam, Estrada none of them went have gone on the IL once.
Padres have had to patch together a rotation basically all year long. Padres have been pretty healthy on the position side as well. With only Merrill missing any lengthy time.
Dbacks may have been hit with some injuries but they just didn’t have the depth to survive it. That’s the difference between dbacks and dodgers. Dodgers basically had two starting rotations to start the year. Turns out if you spend 400m you have depth to survive injuries.
Don’t forget the backup backup closer.
Awww, Doug is a troll. Awwww, Doug got lots of responses. Cute.
I’m sure that’s not what he’s suggesting SecondDoug. He thinks this roster was good enough to win this year.
Dbacks were always an outlier, an “up and coming” team in 2023 that had a fluky run in the playoffs that year after being one of the worst teams in history a couple years prior, but which nonetheless wasn’t that young. Many of their key guys were already in their 30’s or on the path to free agency. So where they are now isn’t surprising. It’s not good though. They’ve got a couple young studs like Carroll but their farm is poor and their local TV money is low. Welcome back to the regular folks, AZ.
My heart doesn’t bleed for any baseball ownership, but I do feel a bit bad AZ got burned on three straight pitching contracts. Just the cost of doing business. I really like the job Hazen has done overall.
That’s why any mid market team at best has no business ever signing the top of the market SP. too big of risk. Fans don’t understand that because it’s not their money. If you’re reading this and disagree I have an interesting crypto for you to invest in it’s gotta be 50% of your savings though and or $1000 whichever is higher probably a 1000 bucks.
Large MLB contracts are often insured in the event of injury, so how exactly is it a risk? If you want to make the argument they’d be better off spreading the money around, I’d disagree, but okay. Claiming it’s too big of a risk due to injury is factually inaccurate, though.
And please, keep your crypto.
Please provide proof that these big free agent pitching contracts are insured. Passan, buster and Heyman have said the last couple years most teams do not pay insurance on them anymore because it’s too costly. So no it’s not factually incorrect don’t correct people who know more than you about subjects.
It typically costs about 10% of the value of a contract to insure it. There is no way teams aren’t insuring those larger deals. Correa’s initial deal with San Francisco fell apart because it was deemed to be too big of an insurance risk for the insurer.
I’m sure if Passan, Heyman or Olney said anything to the contrary, they were fed that information by someone in baseball with a vested interest in creating that narrative.
Bumgarner
Montgomery
ERod
Burnes
I count 4
Embarrassing. Another billionaire owner pretending that the team is losing money while taking in hundreds of millions in profits through income, depreciation, borrowing against team values, and soaring locked in profit as team valuations go through the roof. Yet they want a useless salary cap so they can make even more money and steal from those who make the money for them. They refuse to actually open their books to an impartial evaluation while we see the two public company owners groups rolling in cash. Sad sad sad.
He’s just whining about finances that he doesn’t begin to understand.
They made 328 million last year and you say they netted 9million? What happened to the other 319 million?
statista.com/statistics/194793/revenue-of-the-ariz…
Are you really that naive? Players, personnel, stadium upkeep, advertising, accounting/legal fees, etc. $328 million revenue versus $173 million payroll is a brutally low number for a business. They’re lucky they made a dime.
Maybe if you are running a factory. Running an MLB franchise, a large chunk of your revenue is going to payroll
Ha ha. The baseball dwarfs appear late at night and do the work to put on 81 home games and get players to 81 others. It’s weird how so many think there are no bills to pay other than player payroll.
Pretty sure last year the Braves who open their books spent about 135m on non payroll.
Perhaps there were even additional costs.
328m isn’t a ton a money when running that high of a payroll. If they did a 50/50 rev share (or something close) they would have made considerably more money. This is why the players will never want a cap. Even the big market teams like the dodgers, are they bringing in over 800m this year? That’s what it would take for them to be at 50/50.
Now the smaller market teams some don’t spend 50% so that could balance out some. I’m not sure what the total payroll is for all teams added together. Think mlb brings in about 11/12b now days. So if the cap was say 6b in player payroll it could be more overall money for the players.
Can you elaborate on how its trite and lacks substance?
Sometimes I wonder if the recent anti-billionaire trend has always lacked substance. Plus Reddit is very detached from the real world.
Never remember finances!
What’s finances? I just want to complain.
Yo-yo-ing payroll year to year doesnt show planning. Nor does it allow for consistency. It would help if they could either identify the right pitching to spend on or develop it from the farm.
Please, enlighten us with how a team can identify the right pitching to spend on. Saying this would be helpful is something that applies to every single MLB team, and none of them have figured it out.
Tell me one moderate big name pitcher that theyve choosen to invest in that worked out? Montgomery,rodriquez, grienke, bumgardner, etc. I wont include burnes as a bust yet. They have close to zero success signing pitching.
I think at this point, they should just stop. 5 strikes you’re out.
Spelling much?
Short term deals to relief pitchers who can possibly transition to the rotation seems to be a trend. If you miss, you always have a move back to the bullpen to fall back on. You sort of buy a hedge with a pitcher who has had success in the bullpen. It seems like a good strategy to employ sporadically.
Developing relief pitchers is an interesting segment in the farm systems across baseball, it always seems to be a number of late round draft picks and aging prospects. I wonder about drafting pitchers with an expectation that they are going to develop in the bullpen early in their careers with a plan to push them to the majors in a bullpen role. With an idea that with success in the bullpen, a transition to the rotation will come down the road.
I feel for D-Backs fans. Seattle usually does this during the offseason. I don’t know if they’ll decide to give either Geno or Josh new deals. The ownership, who are Nintendo executives, have as much money as anyone and are always around league average in total payroll.
The team is top five in terms of payroll as a percentage of overall revenues. The fact that ownership pushes payroll into the middle tiers is a sign of their commitment.
The owners’ net worth has nothing to do with a team’s operating budget.
Steve Cohen says otherwise.
I’m sure Burn’s contract was insured so they could take that money and keep payroll near the same. Of course in case of a lockout, payroll issues will be the least of their concerns.
Most contracts aren’t insured anymore given insurance costs. Especially with pitchers. So it’s almost a certainty his contract wasn’t insured.
Seconded. Contract insurance is a rarity, and, when used, is usually tied to one specific outcome. You think Carlos Correa’s deals would have fallen through if the teams could get insurance? And he’s a position player!
People talk like insurance companies are in business to lose money. Insurance policies on the health of a pitcher are extremely expensive.
That’s not how insurance on contracts works, at all.
The Diamondbacks did get $500 million in tax payer in the last budget for “upgrades “. Spare me the poor sad sack act.
What does stadium improvement money have to do with player salary?
It doesn’t. He’s an intolerable troll.
Says a Dodger fan…..
Hey, I applaud their ownership for at least trying to go all in.
The Dbacks are well positioned to bounce back in 2026, especially if they can break Lawlar in at third by the end of the season.
A Gurriel trade looks unavoidable. They should take the savings to upgrade the rotation, then LF. Offer Gallen an incentive laden deal and a chance to re-enter free agency in the 2027 season.
At that point, they can use any residual funds on the bullpen and focus on quantity over price tag. Middle market teams can’t afford to overpay for relievers.
I think a mild rebuild takes shape with the possible 2027 lockout. Gurriel traded. ERod traded. And lastly Marte traded. Marte could bring back a package that includes players such as Painter and Crawford from the Phillies. Fills needs and adds to the depth. Pfaldt hopefully bounces back. Will be tough to compete without Burnes Puk and Martinez with revenue down.
I believe the only way the D’Backs trade Marte is if Lovello is no longer the manager which could come this off season from what I hear on AZ local sports radio. As far as Gurriel I agree he is tradeable, but as far as Lawlar the big questions are can he it ML pitching, and can he stay healthy long enough to find out about his hitting. Going to be hard finding some team willing to take on ERod’s contract without the D’Backs sending cash with the deal.
You can’t plan injuries and down seasons despite what arm chair managers think.. They didn’t plan on adding Burnes before he came to them but they did hope Gallen would do better than he has. and Puk and Martinez would stay healthy.
Like many team , not named the Dodgers, they didn’t have the depth to handle their injuries. Few do.
I look forward to seeing what they do.
I don’t expect them to compete next year but they will make some good buy low free agents that will help the team until some of their prospects arrive.
Buy low guys can hit but they can also be duds. Padres did that for LF/DH/C and they were all duds except Sheets.
I’m just curious about how many times certain posters have stated exactly the same position on MLB ream finances on these threads? I’ve read the exact same arguments countless times, and find it rather tedious. Anybody have a fresh, relevant take on the topic of this article, instead of spewing the same nonsense over and over sgain?
I learned today that every team has to send their payroll budget to mlb every year before the season starts and it’s shared among the other teams. That’s why everyone knows insert team name here is going to make a big splash in free agency this year, or this team is going to slash payroll.
“I learned today that every team has to send their payroll budget to mlb every year before the season starts and it’s shared among the other teams”
This may or may not be true. But I would assume it’s subject to change. It’s not like a team can’t decide to go higher or lower than their projected payroll budget.
It would be absurd if they were bound to the number they sent to MLB if so.
They aren’t bound to that number. It also depends on how much debt the team is carrying. The padres had to go to mlb and show how they were going to handle their payroll 2 years ago to get further debt approved. Also had to show how they were going to manage it down the road. Lucky for the Padres they have great attendance and continue to be able to raise ticket prices without a drop a in attendance.
I do see them possibly trading Gurriel during the off season, I also see Alexander being given the 3rd base job if he has a good end of the season. Now what to do with Lawlar if Alexander is given the 3rd base job to lose. I say make Lawlar an outfielder preferably LF, if he can stay healthy, and can adapt to the OF. Lawlar is a ML question mark, and then can he stay healthy enough to make the ML roster next in 2026, right now he is a big question mark nothing should be given him just on status of talent, make him earn it. But I could see a infield of Alexander at 3rd, Perdomo at SS, Marte at 2nd and Locklear at 1st. With a outfield of right now only Carroll being assured of starting in RF, Left and Center are open in my book, plus with a new manager.
desertdawg
I’m not willing to declare Alexander my choice for 3b after 75 AtBats, nor Locklear at 1b after 25 AtBats. If Dbacks are aiming to be competitive in 2026 for a Playoffs spot, I don’t see that lineup as competitive. We lost a Lot of firepower and length to the lineup without Suarez, Naylor and Grichuk. Replacing them with Alexander and Locklear does not excite me. I think the Dbacks need to go outside the organization to field a competitive team next year. So I wouldn’t designate any positions filled at this point.
I’m only saying that if the article holds water and the D’Backs are cutting payroll, it would not surprise me that these players are going to be given every chance to stake a claim to a starting job. Remember they did not give up any of the core players, just a 34-yr old 3rd baseman with no range, yes, he was a power hitter, Grichuk is not an everyday outfielder, the only one that may have a spot on this team is Naylor but again how much will this team be willing to pay Naylor. I think 2026 will be a copy of chaos baseball with some elements of the 2023 before they acquired Suarez. It will be built on athleticism; and better ball in play instead of sitting back and waiting to see if they can hit a homerun, ala Suarez. This team really needs to focus on the bullpen for 2026. especially for the eight and nineth innings. I just don’t see this team in this off season signing any high dollar free agents, if they do get any proven players, it will be by trading some of the farm system or existing roster and the only players I see right now as a tradeable would be Gurriel, and maybe Thomas. I see Mc Carthy as being non-tendered.
Trade Lawler for pitching. You’re not going to get anything for Gurriel, he doesn’t have any surplus value does he? What happened to McCarthy , I thought he figured it out last year. Then this year he is the Invisible Man.
D backs and rangers seem like flukes from the 2023 World Series. Texas lost Jung one year. I don’t know what else the reason for not being competitive the following years.
There is no fire in that Rangers team. They are a quiet group. Maybe it’s a Texas thing. I think Bochey mentally checked out by June 1. He’s thinking about fishing again. More fun than watching Texas score two runs per game if they’re lucky.
I can’t agree with Bochy checking out. He didn’t have to come back. He wants to continue managing. Isn’t this his final year of a 3-year contract?
Spending more money hasn’t helped them. They’ve wasted so much money on bad pitchers, like MadBum, Monty, and ERod. They need to develop their own like the Rays.
I think every pitcher in the Rays starting rotation has come via trade. The Mariners would be a better example where 4 of their 5 current starters are homegrown.
Agreed that the Rays traded for a lot of pitching that they then developed. I think the Mariners are a better example of complete development from the draft on up. I don’t think the Dbacks should think they are going to land another Randy Johnson via free agency. They’ve been trying that and failing ever since.
Good. Payroll should be significantly lower. We had much better ballplayers that wanted to play for the sake of playing the game back in the good ol’ days. Today, they’re getting paid so much more yet most of them are on the disabled list because they got a paper cut opening their pay check.
OY
“most of them are on the disabled list because they got a paper cut opening their pay check.”
Our fact checking staff says that this is a false statement.
@JuanUribeJazzHands
Given you provided nothing to back up your false fact check, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe get back to me when you’re old enough to drive a car.
Old York this is a tired argument you keep making. I’m not too sure how sincere you are in your beliefs here anyway. As you know, player salaries are determined by the market, so you can’t really say it was worth it or not. And of course it’s not realistic to suddenly downgrade a player’s salary 50% because of poor play. Do you want the Player’s Union on your case?
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Why is it unrealistic to downgrade pay? If the player isn’t performing to the expectations of the agreement, they should be paid less.
OY
“If the player isn’t performing to the expectations of the agreement, they should be paid less.”
Do you also think a player should be paid more if they are performing beyond the expectations of the agreement? 🤔
@JuanUribeJazzHands
Yes.
OY
Fair enough, then
Exhibit A of why teams that don’t have huge revenue will be scared to death of signing FA’s. They can’t seem to get any luck in signing these guys. They made sensical additions to an up and coming team and Erod and Monty were literally pissing away money, not to mention Burnes getting hurt after being super durable, and Bumgarner before. Maybe signing starters isn’t their thing??
Such a nice soft piece for a team that “went for it” and now has to tighten their belts…
HG
What would you rather see?
You know that they are hiring?
Zack Greinke all over again. Spent all of their money on an ace and still couldn’t compete.
I expect Burnes to be traded in a couple of seasons if he stays healthy.
Almost go to the world series then gut the team and say you are going to have less team money? what in the wild world of sports
I know they have a good reputation in the industry, but it makes me wonder if Hazen or Luvello are in trouble. His quote about being able to assemble the same type of talent implies he felt the team should have won more games.
It’s going to be a tough off season for Hazen, I believe he will be getting some pressure from the DBacks higher ups to just maybe go for a manager change this off season. Hazen being really close to Lovello will be put between a rock and a hard place on this decision, could be Hazen will step down also. Like I said it would not surprise me, fan base is getting a little tired of Lovello and his manager ways.
What does his little buddy Derek Oates think about this development?
The owner of the DBacks has more money invested/spends in HUGE baseball cards than he spends on the product(s) surrounding the DBacks. Sad for the fan base there.
A lot of cheapskate owners.