The Diamondbacks have extended GM Mike Hazen, the team announced and MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert tweeted. Terms of the multi-year pact remain unknown at this time.
It’s tempting to raise an eyebrow here at the timing. Hazen was originally hired away from the Red Sox and has deep roots there. The powerhouse Boston organization has just launched a hiring search for a new head of baseball ops. But that wasn’t a factor, the team has made clear, with new contract talks having started before the BoSox seat came open.
Regardless, it’s plenty understandable that the Arizona organization was interested in settling Hazen’s long-term status — and ensuring he’d be around for years to come. His original deal ran through the 2020 season, meaning he’d have entered the ensuing offseason as a lame duck of sorts.
While the Snakes haven’t enjoyed runaway success since Hazen took the reins, it’s hard to argue with the work he has done. The long-time Boston exec originally came aboard on the heels of a brutally disappointing 2016 season. At the time, the organization faced an array of challenges: an MLB roster that had talent but wasn’t quite good enough, a few challenging payroll commitments, and a questionable farm system.
It seems fair to say that there have been improvements on all fronts to this point, with Hazen navigating some especially tricky transactional matters. Since taking over, Hazen has traded away superstars Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke. He has allowed long-time stars A.J. Pollock and Patrick Corbin to depart as free agents. And yet the club is closing in on a third-straight winning campaign, even as it now oversees a manageable slate of future salary obligations and features a much-improved prospect pool.
Remarkably, Hazen has yet to ink a single free agent to a contract of $10MM or more. He has added quite a few low-cost veterans, not all of which have worked out, but has done most of his most notable work via trades and extensions.
Hazen’s first deal remains fascinating. He brought in the since-extended Ketel Marte, who has now morphed into a star, along with the talented but oft-injured Taijuan Walker in a swap that cost Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura. When the Snakes made a surprise charge in his first year at the helm, Hazen landed J.D. Martinez for a relative pittance. He couldn’t get a deal done with JDM, but did extend fellow deadline acquisition Eduardo Escobar at an appealing rate. The Goldy swap netted Luke Weaver and Carson Kelly (along with prospect Andy Young) for one last season of the former MVP.
Most recently, the Greinke deal shed most of the obligations to the veteran starter while adding four promising prospects. Hazen cashed in well-regarded prospect Jazz Chisholm for intriguing young rotation piece Zac Gallen and also brought in steady back-end starter Mike Leake for cheap. Despite the loss of Greinke, the Snakes have threatened a surprise Wild Card run — though that’s a long-shot at this point.
All things considered, it has been an impressive performance to this point for Hazen, who’ll have more interesting decisions to make this winter. While the D-Backs have a lot of ground to make up if they’re to challenge the Dodgers, they have a fair bit of payroll space and young talent to work with. Odds are we’ll continue to see a strategy that largely defies simple categorization, with Hazen focusing not on “contending” or “rebuilding” so much as cost-efficient decisionmaking that enhances the organization’s overall talent base.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
prestigeworldwide
Tell those red sox to pack az sand 🙂
sidewinder11
Well deserved. He’s done a great job of keeping the team competitive despite the mess that was left behind after the Stewart/La Russa experiment
User 4245925809
Jeter just doesn’t make good deals and the Gallan giveaway was another in a line he has made. Giving a young, 6y left controllable starter go for a wild hacker was flat out….
Show Me Your Tatis
Literally none of Jeter’s deals except Yelich and Gallen look bad. And if either Gallen or Chisholm goes back to what they were doing before 2019 the Gallen deal won’t look bad either.
rocky7
Every GM makes deals that sometimes look bad depending on when and where you look……just ignore this guy as he’s a Red Sox fan through and through and hates anything Jeter has ever done.
JoeBrady
Jeter just doesn’t make good deals
—————————————-
He won the Caleb Smith trade
Gordon a win on salary
Stanton a win on salary/health
Ozuna a win
Yelich a loss
Probably ahead on the Realmuto trade
Strike Four
Realmuto is the best C in MLB, how on earth is he ahead?
Cult of Jeter people are the most delusional people on the planet.
Also didnt the Caleb Smith trade help fund the Mesa bros signs?
Show Me Your Tatis
Realmuto was coming off a career year, was closing in on free agency and said he wouldn’t extend with the Marlins. They had to trade him when they did. Although it is possible that the prospects some other team was offering might end up having better careers than the ones Miami ended up getting.
Vandals Took The Handles
Jeter is not the GM and does not make the deals.
Realmuto is the best C in MLB, but he didn’t want to be there. In turn the Marlins got a very good young, cheap, improving, controllable C back. Fact is that Realmuto doesn’t playing in Philadelphia, and wants to head back down south – preferably to one of the 2 Texas teams. So the Phillies will get 2 years out of him.
Show Me Your Tatis
Yup. The Phillies need to either make a deep playoff run this year or next year or have Sanchez, Alfaro and Stewart all bust for that trade to have been worth it.
bjupton100
the best catcher at 27-28 does a just started the rebuild team absolutely no good unless traded.
amk3510
Hazen is very solid. Quite the opposite of Dave Stewart.
Michael A Arvizu
Nice move diamonbacks on keeping gm Hazen!!
JoeBrady
Bad move keeping Hazen.
Sincerely,
A RS fan looking for a GM
Eightball611
Backs got scared when DD fired and he was rumored . interview the man and they payer his wished to stay.
Be epic to see sox hire dd or Ben back however they will keep it within…trust me
paulslc
Yeth thir uf yu sha sho
Strike Four
Absolutely love all Hazen’s moves, in a way, he’s the opposite of DiPoto. AZ are going to be certified contenders next year. Maybe still not in the lane of the Dodgers, but they’re getting there.
30 Parks
Didn’t the Red Sox basically ignore Hazen, to the point he left due to restructuring, after the Sox hired Dombrowski? I doubt Hazen was keen on a return to Boston.