D-backs Still Looking to Add More Pitching and a Bat

The Diamondbacks have already made a major move to bolster their rotation with the addition of veteran left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, who was introduced to the media alongside Mike Hazen at a press conference yesterday.  The D-backs now have a formidable top three in a rotation that already had Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly.  During the course of the question and answer portion of the conference, Hazen was asked directly if he's still looking for more rotation help. He certainly gave the impression that he is. 

"There's always work left to do in your rotation",  Hazen said. "There just is. That's just the nature of the game. That's why having somebody like Eduardo in our rotation adds such a major piece to what we're trying to do."

The Diamondbacks were overly reliant on young rookie and second year starters in 2023.  69 of the team's 162 starts made were by first and second year pitchers. In addition they also had to rely on going with a handful of "bullpen" games using a reliever as an opener. This was necessitated by the fact that Madison Bumgarner and Zach Davies only combined to give the team 22 starts in total. Four of those came from Bumgarner before he was DFA'd, and 18 from Davies spread out between two injured list stints. Most of those starts from the two of them were terrible as they combined for a 7.55 ERA.  

As the regular season drew to a close the team went with a resurgent Brandon Pfaadt as the number three starter in the postseason. Pfaadt pitch well, but there are still questions about his ability to face a lineup three times in a game. After that Torey Lovullo was forced to go with two bullpen games, one in the NLCS and one in the World Series. The first time it worked, the second time it did not.  Hazen has expressed regret on multiple occasions, including yesterday, that he was not able to bolster the starting rotation. It was no surprise then that he made getting more stability in the rotation his number one priority this off season. "We want to log those innings. We want to get more quality starts in our rotation." he said.

 The question now becomes are they willing to go into the season with what they currently have, depending on Pfaadt to continue his progress and filling the fifth spot with another young pitcher? It sounded from Hazen's comments yesterday that while he's seeking to add another starter, he's also happy with his depth.  "We have a lot of young kids that are very talented that have started to cut their teeth and have started to cross the divide between Triple-A and the major leagues. We're going to continue to see that....... But we needed to add in more stability and I feel like this is a major play in that."

Right now, as of today, Hazen indicated that Tommy Henry, if healthy, has a leg up in the fifth starter's competition.  "There's probably some people that are a little ahead of others given what they've done at the major league level......incumbency does matter a little bit. I definitely want to see Tommy Henry coming back healthy. He's been one of our more consistent starters when he's been healthy."

The next pitcher he mentioned was Ryne Nelson. That stands to reason. While he was inconsistent during the regular season and ultimately demoted to the bullpen, he showed flashes of improvement working out of the bullpen in long relief in September and in the post season.

"I think what we saw of Ryne Nelson at the end of the year, especially in that last game of the World Series  was very intriguing.  He's already here working out over at Salt River, and I know how committed he is to wanting to nail down that spot too."

In addition to these two, they still have Slade Cecconi and Bryce Jarvis who both got major league experience in 2023, including the postseason. Blake Walston was added to the 40-man roster and could be a factor at some point too.  This depth creates an atmosphere of competition. That,  coupled with added experience, makes it seems likely that at least one of these pitchers will take a step forward.  "That's going to be a very healthy dynamic for this organization." Hazen Said.  "I think we're starting to put together a rotation that has both upside stability, star power, along with some depth of guys that are going to be good coming along here shortly."

Yesterday owner Ken Kendrick confirmed our earlier reporting that the team is heading towards a franchise record payroll. Already nearing $130 million by Inside the Diamondbacks calculations, and based on both Kendricks and Hazen's comments it's estimated that the team will surpass the $140 million threshold and perhaps even approach $150 million.  Hazen still has a fairly large shopping list, and it's reasonable to assume he'll follow through on  at least part of it, thus driving the payroll up further. Some of that may come via free agency, some by trade. Even if he adds via trade however, he'll likely be taking on some salary that would be in excess of a pre arbitration level salary. 

"We're still all over the market for pitching and position players. I don't know what's next yet. We're still out there exploring ways to continue to improve the team. I think adding a bat of some sort is still something that we'd like to do, I still think that adding pitching is something that we're going to continue to pursue, I'm sure we're going to have bullpen at some point as well. The trade market still hasn't really gone down much at all. I'm sure we're going to see some of that activity heat up. I think we're fairly well positioned for that as well."