D-Backs Have Moved Trade Talks "Past the 50 Yard Line"
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Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen met with beat reporters one last time at these Winter Meeting immediately following the Rule 5 Draft, which is the traditional end of the meetings. We previously reported his comments from Day 1 and Day 2.
Asked how he felt things went this week, he acknowledged the fact that they've very seldom cut any free agent deals during the winter meetings and that pattern held true this year as well. He also pointed out that there haven't been any trades made this week at all, by any team.
The Diamondbacks are more likely to engage in the trade market than the free agent market, although that's not written in stone. It's difficult to finalize trades prior to the free agent market shaking out further than it has so far. Hazen said he felt they had moved the ball past the 50 yard line and talks had become more specific.
"We've exchanged more specific names on players. The back and forth of what players other teams might be might be willing to move and what players we have to make a decision on.....we have enough specificity on some of these trades that we have some decisions to make whether to say yes or no"
When reviewing different offers and trying to make those decisions Hazen gave some insight as to his thought process:
"As you go through the process of identifying what the ultimate best fit for you in a trade return is, you certainly have some preferences on some things. That's what drives it sometimes to go to the other team and say, hey you gotta beat that deal, or we're gonna do that deal."
Hazen emphasized that he doesn't have to necessarily move players out. They are choosing to explore how to fortify the team via trade, but they don't NEED to do anything. There are other avenues to make the team better, i.e. via free agency.
This seemed like somewhat of a pivot perhaps. Coming into the meetings the consensus seemed to be that the team is almost certainly going to make an outfielder trade. But it's possible that they are not liking the potential trades they've been offered all that much.
If that's the case the question then becomes just how much they can do in free agency with the budget they have. Hazen said they have more to work with than last year but would not indicate how much more and would not engage in speculation on whether the team might get a boost from the recent sale of the remaining shares of BAMTech to Disney for $900 million, of which the D-backs will get an equal share, split among all 30 MLB teams. Does that allow them to be a player in the Xander Bogaerts market, despite recent indications they are not really in the hunt there?
Beyond that, other than the outfielders not named Corbin Carroll, Hazen has not been willing to engage in discussion on some of the top players in other areas of the roster.
We've shut some of that down. We're not in the position to be peeling off some of the best players on our roster. So through the GM meetings to this point we've said "Hey, if you want to come blow us away, sure, but nobody is going to do that". I mean if somebody wants to come talk to us about Zac Gallen for example, in the context of something like the Herschel Walker trade, sure. But we've told them it's not in their interest to spend a lot of time on that. If they think that's in their interest they'll call me back, and nobody has called me back.
Emphasizing again they are not in the market for prospects, he said that most teams are not looking for prospects either. Those types of deals are going to be harder to pull off because other teams are trying to compete too and are not willing to take good major league players off their rosters to get those prospects.
While nothing concrete happened for the Diamondbacks at these meetings, it at least seems like they have a clearer picture of their options.
