Diamondbacks make decision on GM Mike Hazen's future

The Diamondbacks and GM Mike Hazen have agreed to a new contract extension, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.  Hazen is now under contract through the 2028 season, and the D’Backs hold a club option on his services for 2029.  In addition to extending Hazen, Piecoro reports (via X) that assistant GMs Amiel Sawdaye and Mike Fitzgerald also got new contracts.

Club president/CEO Derrick Hall said a couple of weeks ago that the D’Backs had spoken with Hazen about a new deal, so today’s news isn’t particularly surprising.  Hazen’s previous contract ran through 2024 with a club option for 2025, so technically, there wasn’t any overt urgency for Arizona to work out an extension this quickly.  However, given that the Red Sox also reportedly had some interest in speaking with Hazen (who formerly worked with Boston and hails from Massachusetts) about their own front office vacancy, that might’ve also spurred Arizona to act sooner than later in locking Hazen up for the rest of the decade.

Hazen took over Arizona’s front office following the 2016 season, and immediately ended a string of three losing seasons by taking the Diamondbacks to a wild-card berth in 2017.  Two more winning (though non-playoff) seasons followed, as Hazen attempted the tricky task of retooling the D’Backs roster and reducing payroll while also keeping the team competitive.  The trade of Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals in December 2018 was the best example of how Hazen tried to better position the Diamondbacks for the future, even if it meant making the call to part ways with a homegrown superstar.

The difficulties of Hazen’s strategy manifested themselves with three straight losing seasons from 2020-22, with the nadir of a 110-loss campaign in 2021. Still, Hazen resisted the urge to tear the roster down entirely, and to some extent doubled down by signing such notables as Ketel Marte and Merrill Kelly to extensions rather than trading either player for younger talent. As it happened, Arizona was still able to add quite a bit of younger talent anyway in other transactions and through the draft, to the point that the Diamondbacks now have one of the higher-ranked minor league systems in baseball.

This three-year period also brought infinitely more pain to Hazen off the field, as his wife Nicole was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2020 and passed away in August 2022.  The Washington Post’s Zach Buchanan recently wrote about the Hazen family’s strengths and struggles during this time, and the GM took a temporary physical leave of absence from the Diamondbacks in 2021. Upon Nicole’s passing, Hazen considered leaving his job altogether, but his four sons unanimously encouraged their father to continue as general manager.

The D’Backs went 84-78 this season, getting back to both winning baseball and the postseason, earning the final NL wild card slot after a hotly-contested pennant race that came down to the regular season’s final days.  Virtually the entirety of the Snakes’ roster was acquired under Hazen’s watch, ranging from homegrown draft picks (i.e. Corbin Carroll), shrewd trade pickups (Zac Gallen, Gabriel Moreno, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) and under-the-radar acquisitions (i.e. Kelly, Christian Walker) that have paid big dividends.  With Carroll, the NL Rookie of the Year favorite, Jordan Lawlar just beginning his MLB career, and top prospect Druw Jones in the pipeline, the Diamondbacks look in good shape to contend for years to come.

The extensions for Sawdaye and Fitzgerald are also noteworthy, as the two assistant GMs are well-regarded in their own right.  Sawdaye has a long history with Hazen dating back to their time working in the Red Sox front office, and Sawdaye has been a candidate for the Giants’ and Angels’ most recent openings for president of baseball operations and general manager, respectively.  Fitzgerald has been with Arizona since 2016 and was promoted to the AGM role after previously working as the team’s director of analytics.