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Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen Discusses Trade Deadline Outlook

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Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen addressed the team’s general plans for the July 30 trade deadline this morning with 98.7 FM Arizona Sports (h/t to Zach Buchanan of the Athletic). Unsurprisingly, he confirmed the 20-48 club has been fielding offers from contenders with the trade deadline coming up.

The Diamondbacks will almost certainly move some veteran players for younger talent in the coming weeks, but Hazen didn’t sound as if he felt the club needed to embark on a full rebuild. He pushed back against characterizing the organization’s approach to the deadline as akin to “open season” and reiterated his belief in the long-term potential of the club’s young, controllable position players. Hazen acknowledged that, given their standing at the bottom of the league, the D-Backs aren’t “in a position to say ’never’ to anything” but quickly added the front office is hoping to “anchor” around a group of core players moving forward.

Asdrúbal Cabrera and Eduardo Escobar look extremely likely to wind up elsewhere before the July 30 trade deadline. The same could be true of fellow impending free agents Stephen Vogt and Joakim Soria, although neither has been especially productive this season. Arizona has also reportedly taken offers on corner outfielder David Peralta, who is under contract through 2022.

Kole Calhoun, controllable via $9MM club option next season, is a plausible trade candidate if he continues to produce once he returns from the injured list. Starter Merrill Kelly is having a bit of a down year but he’s affordable enough (due the balance of a $4.25MM salary this season, with a $5.25MM club option for 2022) to draw some interest. The same is true of swingman Caleb Smith, controllable via arbitration through 2023.

Given Hazen’s comments, it seems more likely the Diamondbacks move those complimentary types rather than part with highly-performing, controllable players like Ketel Marte, Carson Kelly and Josh Rojas. Hazen wouldn’t definitively rule out a deal involving any of that trio (baseball operations leaders don’t tend to think in such absolutes) but his desire to “anchor” around a group of young, productive big leaguers suggests the D-Backs aren’t looking to tear the roster to the studs.

With the deadline approaching, Hazen told 98.7 FM the D-Backs expect to add veteran executive Allard Baird to their baseball operations department in the coming days. Baird spent the early portion of his career in Kansas City, where he ascended to general manager in 2000. He was let go after six seasons as Royals GM but quickly found a role in the Red Sox front office. Baird spent more than a decade in Boston, where he overlapped with Hazen and D-Backs assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye. Most recently, Baird spent the past two seasons with the Mets, but he departed amidst the New York organization’s ownership and front office shakeup last winter.

Hazen took a physical leave of absence from the team last week to spend more time with his family while his wife Nicole battles brain cancer. He remains in consultation with the rest of the front office, with Sawdaye taking control over day-to-day baseball operations. Baird will help shoulder the workload as the club tries to bring back the best possible returns for some of their veteran players.

Brodie Van Wagenen Leaving Mets

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Mets executive vice president and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is leaving the organization, the club announced (via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). Also departing are special assistant Omar Minaya, assistant general managers Allard Baird and Adam Guttridge, and executive director of player development Jared Banner.

New owner Steve Cohen had already confirmed he’d bring in Sandy Alderson to lead baseball and business operations once his purchase of the franchise became official. That made it seem likely Van Wagenen, the outgoing Wilpon family’s choice to lead baseball operations, might find himself on the outs. His departure mere hours after Cohen officially assumed control of the organization isn’t a huge surprise.

Nevertheless, it comes as quite the shock that four other high-ranking Mets’ officials will follow him out the door immediately. It’s not uncommon for incoming ownership groups to bring in a new baseball operations leader who gradually reshapes the composition of the front office. Wholesale changes of this magnitude at the top of a baseball operations department, though, are unheard of.

Alderson will now go to work on constructing the front office in his own vision. He’ll seemingly have full support from Cohen in hand-picking a staff. As Marc Carig of the Athletic points out (via Twitter), longtime Mets executive John Ricco survived the initial round of departures. Ricco and Alderson built a strong relationship during Alderson’s previous tenure leading the Mets’ baseball ops department, Craig notes, perhaps portending that he’ll again take on a significant role with Alderson running the show.

There’s also no indication as of now that the job of manager Luis Rojas is in any jeopardy. Rojas was a Van Wagenen hire for that position, getting the managerial chair last offseason. But the 39-year-old has been a coach in the Mets’ minor-league system for the better part of two decades, completely overlapping with Alderson’s 2010-18 stint as GM. It’s possible that past relationship gives him a better opportunity at coming back for a second year as New York’s skipper.

As for Van Wagenen, this officially brings to an end his two-year tenure atop the front office. He orchestrated the infamous Edwin Díaz and Robinson Canó trade, parting with top prospect Jarred Kelenic and acquiring a sizable portion of Canó’s rather hefty contract. To Van Wagenen’s credit, both Díaz and Canó performed at a high level this past season after disappointing in 2019. Nevertheless, that looks like an obvious miscue that might haunt the organization for a while. His acquisition of Marcus Stroman midseason in 2019 also didn’t work out the way the club hoped, although that move was always made with a 2020 playoff push in mind. No one could’ve foreseen last summer that the 2020 season would play out the way it did.

To his credit, Van Wagenen did buy low on an everyday-caliber player when he acquired J.D. Davis from the Astros in 2018. His signing of Wilson Ramos to a two-year free agent contract also had its high points, particularly in 2019. The greatest feather in his cap, though, is probably the contract extension the Mets brokered with Jacob deGrom in May 2019, keeping arguably the best pitcher in the sport in Queens for the long-term.

A two-year span is quite a short amount of time to judge any executive’s body of work, and it stands to reason other clubs could have interest in Van Wagenen for some other front office position, assuming that’s what he desires. Van Wagenen made the atypical jump from Creative Artists Agency to the head of a team’s front office. He renounced all ties to his previous clients (deGrom among them) when he joined the Mets, but it’s possible he might now look to return to the other side of the negotiating table.

Mets To Hire Allard Baird, Adam Guttridge As Assistant GM’s

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The Mets have landed two new assistant general managers to serve under new baseball operations leader Brodie Van Wagenen. Allard Baird will become vice president and assistant GM of scouting and player development, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). And Adam Guttridge will step in as assistant GM of systematic development, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets.

Baird comes over from the Red Sox, where he had been the senior VP of player personnel. He previously interviewed for the Mets’ GM opening back in 2010. The former Royals GM (Dayton Moore’s predecessor) recently turned 57 years of age.

Needless to say, having been in Boston dating back to the Theo Epstein regime, Baird is a respected veteran front office member. He got his start in a coaching and scouting capacity but moved into an upper-level role when he became the K.C. AGM back in 1998. His opinion has been an important one with the Red Sox; as the organization puts it in its own front office directory, Baird is (was) “a key voice on all player personnel decisions for the club.”

As for Guttridge, he’ll presumably be tasked with building out a top-of-the-line analytics unit in Queens. As Anthony Rieber of Newsday writes, the 33-year-old has an extensive background in statistical evaluation. He has most recently operated NEIFI Analytics, a company that sells its analysis to MLB clubs and bills itself as offering “a logically consistent and empirically validated view of the baseball landscape from the major leagues all the way down to the NCAA.”

These moves, taken together, represent notable additions for Van Wagenen. His top lieutenants would seem to be of particular importance given his own lack of experience working in (let alone running) a baseball ops department. It’s not yet full certain what other senior voices will remain on hand. Former GM Omar Minaya is expected to stay, but the fate of long-time AGM John Ricco has yet to be decided. Previously, J.P. Ricciardi departed the Mets organization.

Latest On Red Sox’s, Diamondbacks’ Front Offices

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The Diamondbacks worked quickly in their hiring of new executive vice president and general manager Mike Hazen, details Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.

Once it decided to move on from ex-GM Dave Stewart at the end of the regular season, Arizona reached out to Boston for permission to speak with Hazen, who served under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski as the Red Sox’s GM. The BoSox didn’t allow Hazen to interview until after the Indians knocked them out of the ALDS last Monday. Hazen then met with the Diamondbacks on Friday and agreed to become the head of their baseball department Sunday morning.

In response to Hazen’s departure, Dombrowski released a congratulatory statement in which he revealed that “a search for a new general manager for the Boston Red Sox is underway.”

Reports already have senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren and pro scouting director Gus Quattlebaum as potential in-house successors to Hazen. If the Red Sox do want to promote Wren, it’s not a guarantee he’ll accept. Rob Bradford of WEEI notes that Wren – formerly the Braves’ GM – still lives in Atlanta, making it unclear if he’d be willing to move to Boston for a bigger role.

Other than Wren, Speier lists assistant GM Brian O’Halloran, VP of amateur and international scouting Amiel Sawdaye, senior VP Allard Baird and VP of international scouting Eddie Romero as other GM possibilities currently with the Red Sox. Speier also points out that Dombrowski interviewed Astros director of player development Quinton McCracken for the team’s GM job before he hired Hazen in 2015. The only member of the group with GM experience is Baird, who held that position with the Royals from 2000-06.

Of course, Hazen could lure certain front office members away from Boston to work with him and Tony La Russa in Arizona. La Russa is now an advisor, no longer the Diamondbacks’ chief baseball officer, but Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports (on Twitter) that the longtime manager still has power within the organization. La Russa seemingly had a hand in the hiring of Hazen, having sat in with owner Ken Kendrick during their interviews with GM candidates.

Hazen doesn’t intend to raid the Red Sox of their personnel, according to Speier, though Bradford writes that O’Halloran, Quattlebaum and Sawdaye are candidates to take jobs with the Diamondbacks.

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