Sunday Snakes: Baseball's Wildest Off-Season

For the Arizona Diamondbacks, it's been business as usual for their off-season additions. With their moves this season, it's clear that the floor of the team has been raised with the addition of veterans to the lineup and bullpen. However the concern is what the ceiling of this team can be. D-backs general manager Mike Hazen believes that their young core of players, and their improvement over their first full big league season will be the key towards raising that ceiling.

The D-backs still have some work to do, trying to improve from 74 wins and hopefully be in the mix for a postseason spot at the end of the season.

Going Longoria

Most of the D-backs moves in free agency have been about adding veterans to the roster to augment a young core. This week, Arizona signed free agent third baseman Evan Longoria to a one-year deal. Longoria, who lives just seven minutes away from Salt River Fields, listed Arizona as one of his three preferred destinations when he hit free agency for the first time in his career. The 37-year-old is expected to provide veteran leadership for a young club, platoon at third base with Josh Rojas, and give the team an impact bat in the lineup against left-handed pitchers.

Coming up as a young player himself in Tampa Bay, Longoria credits Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd for helping him learn how to play the right way. In his first year in the big leagues, the Rays would win an AL Pennant. 15 years later, he's hoping to provide that type of leadership and lay the foundation for a successful D-backs squad. In his career, Longoria's teams have made the postseason five different times. Arizona breaking a five-year postseason slump may be the perfect way to end his storied career.

More Relief Needed

The D-backs have done a lot of roster churning with the bullpen this off-season. Their additions to the pen include a pair of free agent signings, with Scott McGough and Miguel Castro signing two and one-year deals respectively, a waiver claim with Arizona getting Cole Sulser from the Marlins, and a trade with the Cleveland Guardians for hard-throwing right-hander Carlos Vargas. Perhaps the more interesting list is the bullpen departures with Taylor Widener, Edwin Uceta, Tyler Gilbert, Humberto Castellanos, Ian Kennedy, Reyes Moronta, Sean Poppen, and Keynan Middleton being either released, non-tendered, claimed off waivers, or outrighted to the minors.

When asked if he was done making moves concerning the bullpen before Opening Day, Hazen did not rule out making one more addition. Arizona was previously linked to Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami as a potential suitor in December, but there has been no news on him. The deadline for teams to work out a deal with Fujinami is January 15th, 45 days after being posted December 1st. We'll have an idea in the next week as to where the Boras client will sign.

One out of the box idea for the bullpen is to take one or two of their top starting pitching prospects and move them to long relief. Part of constructing the bullpen also includes taking fringe starting pitchers and seeing if they can handle a bullpen role. While it's unlikely Arizona will have the same starting five pitchers, it's important for players such as Drey Jameson, Ryne Nelson, and Tommy Henry to face big league hitters instead of biding their time in Reno.

Alternatively, Arizona could target other free agents on the market such as Andrew Chafin, Matt Moore, Corey Knebel, or Michael Fulmer. At this point, none of these players will be too cost prohibitive and adds more experience and stability to the bullpen. It will be critical for Arizona's bullpen to be more successful at preventing opposing teams from scoring late in order for them to compete for a Wild Card spot in 2023.

Darkhorse Candidate for Rookie of the Year

Corbin Carroll is one of the favorites to win the 2023 National League Rookie of the Year. In his first 32 games, spanning 115 plate appearances, the 22-year-old outfielder hit .260/.330/.500 with four home runs and played strong defense in left field. In total, he was roughly worth an average of 1.3 WAR. There are some concerns with his ability to sustain this level of production going into his first full big league season, but considering the tools and his overall makeup I think Carroll will be one of the top contenders for the award when the season ends if he can play in at least 140 games.

Looking at rest of the organization the next best candidate to win the award would be right-handed pitcher Brandon Pfaadt. Pfaadt is a pretty impressive story, as a player who wasn't heavily recruited out of high school before ending up at a Division-II program at Bellarmine. A strong summer in the Cape Cod League followed by an impressive five-start run as a junior got him drafted in the fifth round by Arizona. Less than three years later, Pfaadt stands to be one of the top pitching prospects in the game after tearing through the two roughest environments in the D-backs system with video game like numbers.

It will be interesting to see where Pfaadt ranks on prospect lists entering 2023. While he doesn't throw 98+, the 24-year-old righty commands three pitches that flash plus potential between his fastball, slider, and changeup extremely well. He has all the ideal traits for a workhorse starter in the middle of a playoff contender's rotation, with a sturdy 6'4" 230-pound frame and has already shown to be capable of handling the typical MLB starter workload with 172 innings over 30 starts between the minor league regular season and the Pacific Coast League Championship Game.

He will only need to place in the Top 100 twice between Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and ESPN in order to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive program in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Considering he was on Pipeline's Top 100 list by the end of the 2022 season, Pfaadt has a good chance of being eligible. That could play a role in how the D-backs shape the rotation, as it would give them a second legitimate candidate to win Rookie of the Year. We know the potential reward for a Top 100 prospect who makes the Opening Day roster and wins Rookie of the Year, as the Seattle Mariners got a first round pick when Julio Rodriguez was named American League Rookie of the Year for the 2022 season.

Carlos Correa's Bizarre Free Agency Continues

Trending outside of the D-backs and the moves they've made this off-season, the most interesting free agency situation is Carlos Correa. Initially he agreed to a 13-year, $350 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, another NL West team. That deal ultimately fell through the day Correa was to be introduced to the Giants media and the free agent shortstop agreed to a 12-year, $315 million deal with the New York Mets. That deal is also in jeopardy of falling through, as the Mets red-flagged an issue with his right leg and have been reportedly very frustrated with the negotiation process.

The issue at hand with the physical for both the Giants and Mets has to do with an injury from the 2014 season, in which Correa broke his fibula sliding into a base. It hasn't been a recurring issue in the subsequent eight seasons, although it would be an area of potential concern when talking about a long term deal. Mets owner Steve Cohen may have also opened his team up to a potential grievance over the whole ordeal by commenting on Correa signing before the deal was finalized.

Ultimately which team Correa signs with is anyone's guess. The Minnesota Twins have re-engaged in negotiations with their 2022 shortstop and reportedly had a 10-year, $285 million offer earlier this off-season. My guess is that either Correa and the Mets come to agreement over a revised deal, or the Twins ultimately sign him for a deal close to what they offered previously.