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Diamondbacks To Add Wellington Cepeda To Coaching Staff

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The Diamondbacks are going to add Wellington Cepeda to their coaching staff, reports Isaac Azout of Fish on First (X link). He will serve as bullpen coach and assistant pitching coach for the Snakes.

It’s a homecoming for Cepeda, as he has spent many years in the Diamondbacks’ system. As a player, he pitched for them in the minors from 1997 to 2000, though he didn’t reach higher than the High-A level. After his playing days were done, he moved into the coaching ranks, spending many years working for minor league clubs in Arizona’s system.

Going into the 2020 season, he got his first big league opportunity, but it was with the Marlins. He spent the past five years as the bullpen coach in Miami, though that organization has been undergoing a massive overhaul recently. Last month, it was reported that the Marlins were getting rid of their entire coaching staff as well as the clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.

The Diamondbacks are doing a bit of a coaching shuffle as well, though not to the same degree as the Marlins. The Snakes parted ways with pitching coach Brent Strom, bullpen coach Mike Fetters and assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson last month. Brian Kaplan was later hired to replace Strom as pitching coach and now Cepeda will come back to the Diamondbacks as part of Kaplan’s staff.

Arizona pitchers struggled in 2024, as the staff had a collective 4.63 earned run average. That number was 27th out of the 30 clubs in the majors, ahead of only the White Sox, Marlins and Rockies. They clearly feel that a shakeup is needed, so they’re making a number of changes to their coaching staff on the pitching side.

Diamondbacks Re-Sign Jose Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The D-Backs are bringing back lefty reliever José Castillo on a minor league deal, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (X link). Castillo, a client of OL Baseball Group, will get a non-roster invite to MLB camp.

Castillo sticks in the organization for a second season. He spent last year with the Snakes’ top affiliate in Reno. He missed the first half of the year to injury and was limited to 21 appearances. He tossed 20 2/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball in a very tough park for pitchers. Castillo fanned a decent 24.4% of opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. His fastball averaged 94.3 MPH, a tick below the level he showed with the Padres in 2023.

That generally solid performance wasn’t enough to get a big league look with the Snakes a year ago. Still, Castillo sufficiently impressed the front office to get another non-roster invite. While he didn’t reach the majors last year, he pitched in parts of four seasons with San Diego. The Venezuelan-born southpaw has a 4.24 ERA in 40 1/3 big league innings.

A.J. Puk, Joe Mantiply and Kyle Nelson are the three lefty relievers on Arizona’s 40-man roster. Tommy Henry and Blake Walston could work in long relief or as rotation depth. Puk will pitch in high leverage spots, while the soft-tossing Mantiply has been a steady contributor in the middle innings. Nelson missed almost all of last season after undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, so he could find himself on the roster bubble in Spring Training. Andrew Saalfrank will be an option midway through the season. He’ll remain on the restricted list into June after being issued a one-year suspension for betting on MLB games while he was in the low minors.

National League Non-Tenders: 11/22/24

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The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Here’s a rundown of the players on National League teams that have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month. All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency, where they’re eligible to sign with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Onto the transactions…

  • The Braves non-tendered outfielder Ramón Laureano, left-hander Ray Kerr, as well as right-handers Griffin Canning, Huascar Ynoa and Royber Salinas, which you can read more about here.
  • The Brewers parted ways with lefty reliever Hoby Milner, who’d been projected at $2.7MM for his final arbitration season. The typically reliable southpaw was tagged for a 4.73 ERA in 64 2/3 innings this year.
  • The Cardinals have non-tendered right-hander Adam Kloffenstein, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Bluesky link). The righty only just made his major league debut in 2024 and was not yet arb-eligible. He immediately becomes a free agent without being exposed to waivers.
  • The Cubs have non-tendered infielder Nick Madrigal, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). Madrigal has hit .251/.304/.312 for a 76 wRC+ over the last three seasons with the Cubs and was projected for a $1.9MM salary next year. Chicago also announced they non-tendered outfielder Mike Tauchman, which comes as a bit of a surprise after he reached base at a .357 clip this year. Patrick Wisdom, Adbert Alzolay, Brennen Davis and Trey Wingenter — all of whom were designated for assignment earlier this week — were also dropped.
  • The Diamondbacks non-tendered lefty reliever Brandon Hughes, per a club announcement. The 28-year-old southpaw allowed 16 runs over 17 2/3 big league innings this year. He wasn’t eligible for arbitration but would’ve occupied a 40-man roster spot if offered a contract.
  • The Dodgers are non-tendering right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. and left-hander Zach Logue, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (X link). Both pitchers are still in their pre-arbitration years, so this was more about the Dodgers sending them to free agency without exposing them to waivers, as opposed to cost cutting. Perhaps the club will look to re-sign them on minor league deals.
  • The Giants only made two non-tenders, parting with lefty Ethan Small and righty Kai-Wei Teng. Teng had been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Small, who was in his pre-arbitration years, spent the season in the minors or on the injured list.
  • The Marlins had zero non-tenders. They offered contracts to everyone on the 40-man roster.
  • The Mets dropped a trio of players from the 40-man roster: relievers Grant Hartwig and Alex Young and outfield prospect Alex Ramirez. Young was the only member of that group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The southpaw pitched well in a depth role, but the Mets didn’t want to keep him around at a $1.4MM projection. Hartwig made four appearances this year, while the 21-year-old Ramirez (a former top prospect) had a .210/.291/.299 showing in Double-A.
  • The Nationals announced that they have non-tendered right-hander Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey, which you can read more about here.
  • The Padres dropped four players from the roster: righties Luis Patino and Logan Gillaspie, outfielder Bryce Johnson and infielder Mason McCoy. Patino, who underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, was the only member of the group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The other three cuts are simply about roster maintenance. The Padres could try to bring anyone from that group back on minor league deals.
  • The Phillies will not be tendering a contract to outfielder Austin Hays, which MLBTR covered earlier today.
  • The Pirates are expected to non-tender first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, per Alex Stumpf of MLB.com (Bluesky link). They are also non-tendering right-hander Hunter Stratton, per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (X link). Joe was projected for a salary of $3.2MM next year and De La Cruz $4MM. Stratton had not yet qualified for arbitration. Joe has been around league average at the plate in his career but doing more damage against lefties. De La Cruz has hit .253/.297/.407 in his career for a wRC+ of 90. Startton had a 3.58 ERA this year but his season was ended by knee surgery, giving him an uncertain path forward.
  • The Reds have non-tendered right-hander Ian Gibaut, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Bluesky link). The righty was projected for a salary of $800K. He spent the vast majority of 2024 on the injured list due to arm trouble and only made two appearances on the season.
  • The Rockies moved on from starter Cal Quantrill and second baseman Brendan Rodgers, which MLBTR covered here.

Diamondbacks’ Outfielders Drawing Trade Interest

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The Diamondbacks are no stranger to dealing from their perennial outfield depth, and GM Mike Hazen tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that his stock of center fielders is again drawing interest. Hazen wouldn’t rule out a trade eventually coming together. It doesn’t sound as though Arizona is actively shopping any of its outfield options but rather listening to fairly robust interest, given the lack of center field options in free agency and elsewhere on the trade market. Diamondbacks fans, in particular, will want to check out Piecoro’s piece for a full slate of quotes and insight from Hazen.

The Snakes have Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas and Jake McCarthy lined up as their likely outfield heading into the 2025 season, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. mixing into left field as well. There’ll likely be some rotation of that bunch through the outfield and DH spots throughout the season. (Gurriel, it should be noted, is not a center fielder and is not seemingly among the players most heavily inquired about at this time.)

Of the D-backs’ trio of center field-capable outfielders, only Thomas and McCarthy stand as feasible trade candidates. Carroll, the 2023 NL Rookie of the Year, had a slow start in 2024 but bounced back to form as the season went on, slashing .256/.348/.522 (136 wRC+) over his final 425 plate appearances. He signed an eight-year, $111MM extension after a brief but excellent 32-game cup of coffee late in the 2022 season. He’s a cornerstone player in Arizona. Other clubs have probably inquired all the same, but Carroll is staying put.

Thomas and McCarthy, however, are at least a bit more plausible as trade candidates. The former ranked as one of the game’s top prospects for years but has yet to solidify himself as a viable everyday player in the majors. He’s a plus defender and runner when healthy but has mustered only a .226/.271/.359 batting line in 916 trips to the plate in the majors.

Thomas, 24, doesn’t strike out at an alarming clip (19.3%) but also ranks third among 251 big league hitters (min. 900 plate appearances) with a 57.2% ground-ball rate dating back to 2022. That penchant for grounders has undercut what scouting reports tabbed as above-average raw power. Thomas did pop 18 homers between Double-A and Triple-A a couple seasons back, but he has only 20 homers in his 916 big league plate appearances. Without elevating the ball more regularly, he’s unlikely to hit for much power in the majors. That said, he did make plenty of hard contact this past season (91.6 mph average exit velocity, 48.6% hard-hit rate). Even if much of that happens on the ground, a player with Thomas’ speed should see a far better average on balls in play than both the .200 he posted in 2024 and the .260 he’s notched in his career. There’s plenty to like about Thomas, and there are surely teams in need of a center fielder who are hoping they can buy low.

McCarthy, 27, is another solid defender — perhaps not quite to the extent of a healthy Thomas — who turned in a sharp .285/.349/.400 batting line in 2024. He smacked eight homers, swiped 25 bags (in 31 tries) and showed very strong contact skills (15.8% strikeout rate). He doesn’t have much power but also doesn’t possess glaring platoon splits. McCarthy doesn’t walk as much as one would prefer from a prototypical leadoff hitter (6.3% in 2024, 7.1% career), but he makes enough contact and runs well enough to profile as a table-setter who can handle all three outfield spots.

Both Thomas and McCarthy have one minor league option remaining and are controllable for another four seasons, which only adds to their appeal for win-now and rebuilding clubs alike. The Royals, Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Mets and Yankees are just some of the teams that could be in the market for outfield help this winter (though some of those obviously depend on the outcome of more pressing free agent pursuits).

As notably, Hazen indicated that any trades from his big league roster would be made with an eye toward improving another area of the MLB squad. The D-backs could lose Christian Walker to free agency, for instance, leaving a potential void at first base. Hazen has already publicly indicated that he hopes to add another high-leverage reliever/closer, though Piecoro specifically calls out the fact that the D-backs aren’t likely to move multiple years of a controllable outfielder in a straight-up swap for a reliever.

Fans may speculate on the potential to effectively purchase someone like Thomas or McCarthy by taking on some or even all of the remaining $22.5MM on Jordan Montgomery’s contract. That seems overwhelmingly unlikely. Four years of either Thomas or McCarthy would surely be valued at more than the remaining $22.5MM on that contract, and even Montgomery himself would probably still command several million dollars on a bounceback deal in free agency. Taking on his contract probably amounts to somewhere in the vicinity of $15MM in underwater money, and that sum isn’t nearly enough to persuade a team to part with a controllable big league outfielder.

Shohei Ohtani Wins NL MVP

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Shohei Ohtani has his third MVP. The Baseball Writers Association of America announced that Ohtani won the National League MVP in his first season as a Dodger. Francisco Lindor landed in second place, while Ketel Marte rounds out the top three. Ohtani received all 30 first-place votes.

Ohtani becomes the first full-time designated hitter to win MVP, as he was unable to pitch for the entire season after undergoing elbow surgery late last year. He joins Frank Robinson as the only players to win an MVP in both leagues and he’s only the 12th player in big league history to win the award three times in his career. Barry Bonds is the only player with more than three MVPs — he won the award seven times — so Ohtani has a chance to move into second place on the leaderboard as he goes into his age-30 season.

While Ohtani’s first two MVPs reflected his two-way ability, this year’s honors are solely about his offensive dominance. He had arguably his best hitting season ever. Ohtani hit a career-high 54 homers and drove in 130 runs. He posted a .310/.390/.646 slash line, leading the National League in both on-base percentage and slugging. Ohtani also paced the Senior Circuit in homers and RBI while ranking second among qualified hitters in batting average. Luis Arraez hit .314 to narrowly prevent Ohtani from winning the Triple Crown.

Monstrous as his power numbers were, Ohtani was also perhaps the league’s best baserunner. He stole 59 bases, trailing only Elly De La Cruz in that category. While De La Cruz was caught stealing 16 times in addition to his 67 successful attempts, Ohtani was cut down on just four occasions. No player in history had ever posted a 50-homer, 50-steal season. Ohtani broke both marks easily, getting there with one of the best single-game performances in history. He went 6-6 with three homers, two steals and 10 RBI in a 20-4 drubbing of the Marlins to establish the 50-50 club.

Ohtani helped the Dodgers to yet another NL West title — their 11th division crown in 12 years. Los Angeles went 98-64 to secure the top seed in the National League. Playoff performance is irrelevant to awards voting, which occurs at the end of the regular season. Ohtani was relatively quiet in his first October action, hitting .230/.373/.393 in 16 games. That didn’t hold L.A. back from knocking out the Padres, Mets and Yankees en route to their second World Series in five years.

For a while, it seemed as if Lindor would pose a real threat to Ohtani winning the award. He hit 33 homers and stole 29 bases with a .273/.344/.500 showing over 689 trips to the plate. As a plus defensive shortstop, Lindor obviously provided significant defensive value. Ohtani’s historic offensive achievements proved decisive in the end, though this is Lindor’s first top three MVP finish. Marte raked at a .292/.372/.560 clip with 36 homers to earn the highest MVP placement of his career.

Lindor received 23 of 30 second-place votes. Marte finished second on five ballots. Braves DH Marcell Ozuna and Cy Young winner Chris Sale each got one second-place nod themselves. Ozuna and Milwaukee catcher William Contreras rounded out the top five in overall balloting. Giants third baseman Matt Chapman received one third place vote, though he placed 11th in balloting overall. Bryce Harper, De La Cruz, Jackson Merrill, Willy Adames, Zack Wheeler, Mookie Betts, Jurickson Profar, Kyle Schwarber, Manny Machado, Freddie Freeman, Arraez, Paul Skenes, Teoscar Hernández, Ezequiel Tovar, Jackson Chourio and Dylan Cease all received votes.

Image courtesy of Imagn. Full voter breakdown from BBWAA.

D-Backs Select Tim Tawa, Joe Elbis

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The Diamondbacks added infielder Tim Tawa and right-hander Joe Elbis to their 40-man roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Arizona’s roster count sits at 37.

Tawa, a 25-year-old utility player, was Arizona’s 11th-round pick in 2021. The Stanford product is primarily a second baseman but can bounce around to the corner infield or any outfield spot. The right-handed hitter split the ’24 season between Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno. He hit 31 homers with a .279/.349/.519 batting line across 613 plate appearances. The power output is surely inflated by his favorable home parks, but Tawa’s versatility and minor league production could make him a solid bench piece.

Elbis, 22, is a starting pitcher who reached Double-A. The Venezuela native combined for 135 1/3 innings of 3.39 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A this year. While his 20% strikeout rate isn’t overpowering, he showed solid control with an 8.3% walk percentage. He’ll begin the ’25 season as minor league rotation depth.

12 Players Decline Qualifying Offers

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Twelve of the 13 qualified free agents have declined the QO, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The exception was Nick Martinez, who accepted the $21.05MM offer from the Reds over the weekend.

The players who rejected the offer:

There wasn’t much intrigue by the time this afternoon’s deadline officially rolled around. Martinez, Pivetta and perhaps Severino were the only players who seemed like they’d consider the QO. All three made their decisions fairly early in the 15-day window that they had to weigh the offer.

All 12 players who declined the QO have a case for at least a three-year contract. Soto is looking at the biggest deal (in terms of net present value) in MLB history. Burnes, Fried, Adames, Bregman, Alonso and potentially Santander could land nine figures. Severino, Manaea, Hernández and Pivetta look like they’ll land three- or four-year deals. Walker could get to three years as well, though it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if his age limits him to a two-year pact at a high average annual value.

A team that signs these players will take a hit to its draft stock and potentially its bonus pool slot for international amateurs. The penalties vary depending on the team’s revenue sharing status and whether they exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2024. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk covered the forfeitures for every team last month. A team would not forfeit a pick to re-sign its own qualified free agent, though it would lose the right to collect any kind of compensation.

If these players walk, their former teams will receive an extra draft pick. The Brewers, Orioles and Diamondbacks are in line for the highest compensation as revenue sharing recipients. If their players sign elsewhere for at least $50MM (a virtual lock in the cases of Burnes, Santander and Adames), the compensation pick would fall after the first round of next year’s draft. If the player signs for less than $50MM — which could be the case if Walker is limited to two years — the compensation pick would land before the start of the third round (roughly 70th overall).

The Red Sox neither received revenue sharing nor paid the competitive balance tax. They’ll get a pick before the third round if Pivetta walks regardless of the value of his contract. The Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Braves and Astros all paid the tax in 2024. They’ll get a pick after the fourth round if any of their players depart — potentially three picks, in the Mets’ case. The prospects selected by that point — usually around 130th overall — tend not to be highly touted, but each extra selection could carry a slot value north of $500K to devote to next year’s draft bonus pool.

Diamondbacks Promote Shaun Larkin To Third Base Coach

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The Diamondbacks are promoting farm director Shaun Larkin to the major league staff as the third base coach, per Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. He will replace Tony Perezchica, who departed last month to take the third base job with the Astros.

Larkin, 45, played for Cleveland in the minors from 2002 to 2007, topping out at Triple-A without getting the call to the majors. Torey Lovullo coached and managed in the minor league system of that club during that time, later winding his way to managing the Diamondbacks. Larkin eventually pivoted to the non-playing portion of his career, spending eight years working with the Dodgers as a coach and coordinator in the minor leagues.

The Snakes plucked him away a year ago, hiring him as director of player development and reuniting him with Lovullo. It seems he and the organization have a good relationship, based on today’s news. “He’s always told us he wanted to get on the field,” Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen says, per Piecoro. “This has always been sort of the long-term plan. When T.P. left, this seemed like the right time, the right fit, to match everything up.”

Piecoro adds that Larkin was a candidate for a job in the Cardinals front office last month, prior to Perezchica’s departure, but Larkin ended up staying with the Diamondbacks and will now get to join a big league coaching staff.

Larkin’s previous job will be taken by Chris Slivka, who was his assistant this past year. “He’s got really good leadership skills and he’s got great relationships in the clubhouse,” Hazen says of Slivka. “This was always the long-term plan to have Chris be in a position to take over for Lark. It came a little quicker than we thought, but he’s ready for it. He’ll be great.” Piecoro notes that the 31-year-old Slivka started with the D’Backs as an intern nine years ago, moving to scouting and analyst roles in the years since.

Diamondbacks Sign Aramis Garcia To Minor League Deal

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The D-Backs signed catcher Aramis Garcia and shortstop Connor Kaiser to minor league contracts. Both players will get invites to big league camp. The deals were announced by Arizona’s Triple-A club in Reno.

Garcia, 32 in January, has more big league experience of that duo. The righty-hitting catcher has appeared in parts of five MLB seasons, logging 119 games between four teams. That included three games and seven hitless at-bats with the Phillies this year. Garcia isn’t much of an offensive threat. He’s a career .211/.248/.325 hitter with a 35.8% strikeout rate across 327 plate appearances. He had an even poorer showing in the minors this past season, hitting .159/.216/.279 while punching out nearly 36% of the time in 76 Triple-A games.

Teams are always on the hunt for catching depth, so the Snakes will send Garcia to Reno to begin next season. Statcast hasn’t graded him favorably for his blocking skills but credits him with a plus arm. Garcia did a nice job controlling the run game in Triple-A this year. He cut down more than 32% of attempted basestealers over 584 innings behind the plate.

Kaiser, who turns 28 next week, is a glove-first infielder. A former third-round pick of the Pirates, he got into three big league games with the Rockies in 2023. That’s the extent of his MLB work. Colorado outrighted Kaiser off their 40-man roster midway through that season. He spent this year with the Rox’s top farm team in Albuquerque. Despite playing in an extreme hitter’s park, the Vanderbilt product put up a .221/.343/.339 line through 347 plate appearances. Kaiser took his share of walks but stuck out at a near-32% clip. He’s also likely to begin next season in Reno, potentially in a utility capacity.

D-backs Eyeing Back-End Relievers; Payroll Expected To Be In Same Range As 2024

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The Diamondbacks entered the offseason on the heels of a narrow postseason miss that saw their bid for a playoff spot last until the final day of regular-season play. It’s a bitter pill for any club to swallow, and general manager Mike Hazen didn’t shy away from acknowledging as much today in an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7’s Wolf and Luke Show (full audio of the 11-minute interview). Arizona’s GM sidestepped questions when asked about specific players who are currently free agents (e.g. Christian Walker) but did suggest he’ll be in the market for some upgrades to his late-inning relief corps this winter.

“I’ll beat you to the punch on this question,” Hazen joked with hosts Ron Wolfley and Luke Lapinski. “Where we get to the closer situation, in the end, I don’t know. I still feel like a back-end bullpen guy to help out with [Justin Martinez] and with [A.J. Puk] and those guys, I still see that. I thought when [Paul Sewald] was closing, we had the best version of who we were, frankly. … But, we know [Martinez and Puk] can close, too, so we’ll see.”

Sewald, as referenced by Hazen, was a key piece in Arizona’s bullpen after coming over from Seattle at the 2023 trade deadline. He opened the 2024 season on the injured list due to an oblique strain but was virtually unhittable upon activation, rattling off 16 2/3 innings of one-run ball while only yielding five hits and three walks with 15 punchouts. He hit a rough patch over the next seven weeks, however, yielding 18 runs in 23 innings before landing on the injured list to close out the season. When healthy, Sewald has been terrific over the past four years, logging 229 innings with a 3.18 ERA and 81 saves between the Mariners and Diamondbacks.

A reunion with Sewald could make sense on paper, though the D-backs will have various other options to consider both in free agency and on the trade market. Sewald will turn 35 next May and posted his lowest average fastball velocity since 2019, so while his track record makes him a clear rebound candidate, the Snakes and other clubs will hold at least some degree of concern about his ability to bounce back from this season’s injuries. He should still command a nice one-year deal at the very least, given how well he’s pitched since 2021, but he’ll also surely draw interest from other teams as well.

Alternatives on the free-agent market are plentiful, though many will be costly. Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez and Clay Holmes are among the top relievers in this year’s class, each with a chance to command at least a three-year contract. The D-backs have never committed three years to a free agent reliever at any point in the past 14 years — hat tip to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker — and haven’t committed more than the $14MM they gave Mark Melancon during Hazen’s time as GM. This winter’s market has several high-end arms who could be available for one year and an eight-figure salary (David Robertson, Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen and Blake Treinen among them), which could serve as a means of adding an impact arm without bucking that preference to avoid multi-year spending on premium relievers. The trade market is likely to include names like Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams, Ryan Pressly and Pete Fairbanks, among others.

As with all clubs, the extent to which the D-backs can pursue upgrades is tied directly to ownership’s appetite for spending. Arizona currently projects for a $149MM payroll, per RosterResource, which is about $14MM from where they opened the 2024 campaign. Hazen doesn’t expect a significant dip in payroll but also cautioned that there’s no guarantee that what was already a club-record payroll will climb even higher.

“I would expect we’re somewhere in the same area, plus or minus,” said Hazen when asked about his budget for the 2025 roster. “I don’t know exactly where that’ll all end up. We work through a lot of these decisions with [owner Ken Kendrick] and [president/CEO Derrick Hall] as players become available or as situations get presented to us via trade or via free agency. So, that number kind of fluctuates for us a little bit as we move through the offseason, but we’re going to have plenty of resources to have a winning team next year.”

The D-backs aren’t going to idle with regard to their lineup, but Hazen spoke more favorably of the position-player group, noting high expectations for Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Eugenio Suarez, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno, in particular. On the rotation side of things, Hazen downplayed rumors of a potential trade from his starting staff, noting that teams call all the time and it’s his job to listen — but that doesn’t mean a move is particularly likely.

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