Dbacks Far From a Perfect Team on Paper

The Arizona Diamondbacks surprised many people around baseball last season when they ended up finishing 6 games ahead of the rival, Colorado Rockies, with the 1st Wild Card spot in the National League. Many industry experts believed that the Diamondbacks would find themselves in a rebuild situation by the trade deadline as they expected the team's rotation to struggle, the offense not to click at the level that it needed to in order to stay relevant within the NL West, and figured that Arizona's bullpen was in a less than desirable situation. Looking back on those predictions now, you can see why they were off-base and completely inaccurate.

Arizona ended up finishing with the second best pitching staff in the National League, behind only the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, with a 3.66 ERA over the span of 1441.0 IP. Compare that to 2016 when the Dbacks finished dead least in the league with a cumulative ERA of 5.09 in 1451.1 IP and you can see the vast improvement. Furthermore, Arizona's achilles heal during the 2016 season was it's bullpen, which finished 27th in the league with a 4.94 ERA in 567.0 IP, and was something that Mike Hazen and his entire staff set out to fix from day one of Arizona's front office overhaul. Last year, the Dbacks bullpen did much better finishing 5th in the league with an overall ERA of 3.78 in 499.2 IP and that was without them making a significant splash in the free agent or trade market to add household relievers. Rather, Mike Hazen and Company signed the likes of TJ McFarland, JJ Hoover, Jorge De La Rosa, and Fernando Rodney along with a host of other smaller names.

Heading into this coming season, Arizona is far from a perfect team, especially when you look at the hole they have behind the plate as well as in right field now that former rightfielder, JD Martinez, is a free agent. So far this winter, Mike Hazen and Company have focused on adding depth to their pitching staff, while continuing to monitor the trade and free agent markets for potential upgrades. Arizona has discussed JT Realmuto with the Marlins and were in on Christian Yelich before he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, looked into potentially landing soon-to-be free agent third baseman, Manny Machado, from the Orioles for a year, and continue to keep their eye on trying to resign prized free agent outfielder, JD Martinez, who absolutely tore up the league last year after the Dbacks acquired him from the Tigers at the Trade Deadline.

While JD Martinez is not entirely out of the picture for Arizona given the slow pace of this year's free agent market, it sure doesn't seem likely that they will be able to meet the demands that Martinez and his agent, Scott Boras, given their current payroll situation. Going into this season, Arizona will have a franchise record payroll at $120 million dollars meaning that they are basically strapped for cash and looking for smaller upgrades to their current roster similar to what they did last winter. However, Diamondbacks owner, Ken Kendrick, has extended the payroll amount before when he feels as though the team has a shot to win, but it has yet to be seen if that is the case this winter, given that the projected amount would be a franchise record.

Prior to Opening Day, there are a few moves Arizona could look to make to decrease the amount of payroll on the books and have a shot at landing JD Martinez which they have discussed with various teams all winter long. One possibility is trading Zack Greinke, who was rumored to be available around the time of the Winter Meetings, but that would be difficult due to the amount of money still owed to Greinke ($138.5 million dollars) and the fact that he is aging. Furthermore, if Arizona trades Greinke, they are basically losing a significant weapon at the front of their rotation and hampering their shot of being relevant again come October. Another possibility is trading pending free agents, Patrick Corbin and A.J. Pollock. Corbin and Pollock are owed around $16 million combined this season which would free up space for the Dbacks to sign JD Martinez or look to make a smaller signing in the outfield along with a free agent signing behind the plate.

Now you might be wondering, if Arizona is unable to lock up JD Martinez and beat out the Red Sox or another team that ultimately ends up signing him, can they find an upgrade somewhere else? The answer to that question is yes. Arizona could look to sign former Rockies outfielder, Carlos Gonzalez, who is familiar with playing in the NL West and would provide them a solid option in the outfield both this season and the next few seasons in the event that Arizona end's up losing, A.J. Pollock, after this winter. In addition, Arizona could go after free agents Carlos Gomez, Chris Young, Seth Smith, or Cameron Maybin as well. All of those options aren't as attractive as JD Martinez or Carlos Gonzalez, but would give Arizona another option for their outfield and some more offense in addition to what they currently have. Of course, Arizona could always look to go down the trade route as well for someone like, Avisail Garcia of the White Sox, but there is no indication to this point that the White Sox would be willing to trade Garcia and it would cost Arizona prospects which is a problem since their farm system ranks in the bottom third.

On the other side of the coin, Arizona also needs to make an upgrade of some sort to their catching
staff. Last year, Arizona relied heavily on Chris Iannetta, who became a free agent and signed with the rival Colorado Rockies, along with Jeff Mathis and Chris Herrmann, a valuable utility player that every team could afford to have. Both Iannetta and Mathis were signed because Mike Hazen and his staff liked their pitch framing skills and were focused on more defense instead of offense behind the plate. That philosophy will likely ring true once again this coming season meaning that Arizona will want someone that can defend home plate at a higher level than someone who can hit on a regular basis. One potential fit on the free agent market is Jonathan Lucroy, however, his defensive metrics have been on the decline over the past couple of seasons and he is getting older. However, Lucroy has been credited as being a leader in the past and a nice clubhouse addition.

In the trade market, Arizona could continue to try to land the aforementioned, J.T. Realmuto, from the Miami Marlins who is highly regarded around the game. Realmuto would cost quite a bit in terms of what the Dbacks would need to ship to Miami, but is under control for the next four seasons giving Arizona a long-term answer behind the plate. In addition, Arizona could try to pry, Yasmani Grandal, from the rival Los Angeles Dodgers who could provide an upgrade behind the plate and has always been credited as being one of the top pitch framers in the game. If neither of those options work out and Arizona doesn't want to turn to the free agent market, then they will need to rely on an internal option in John Ryan Murphy, who they picked up from the Twins, last summer. Murphy ranks among the top ranks of catcher defense, but has a limited sample size at the major league level, meaning that the jury is still out about whether or not he could be a valuable option behind the plate.

Regardless, while the focus for Arizona is on this coming season and building up sustainability throughout the various ranks of the farm system, that doesn't mean that there aren't holes on the Diamondbacks current roster or areas that need to be addressed prior to Opening Day. After all, the NL West is no longer a division made up of two horses in the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Rather, it is now a very competitive division and could ultimately end up being baseball's best division this season making it all the more important for Arizona to make these upgrades this winter and continue to go for it while the window is still open.