The Diamondbacks’ front office arrive at the winter meetings in Florida with a lot of work to do between now and Opening Day. So far, the only significant arrival on the roster has been the return of backup catcher James McCann. The team still needs to look at finding replacements for two starting pitchers; repair a bullpen which was (again!) among the worst in baseball; and perhaps look at adding some offense on the corner infield and/our outfield positions. Of course, we can’t expect all of those to take place over a few days in Orlando. But Arizona fans can be forgiven for wanting to see more significant moves.

Of course, it’s true to say that the winter meetings are no longer quite as important as they were. Back in the day, they used to almost the only time trades could be negotiated directly, with the GMs in close proximity to each other. With the proliferation of communication options, from mobile phones to Zoom calls, that’s no longer the case. But there’s still something about bargaining in a smoke-filled room, even if the smoke is now going to be strawberry vape, if it’s present at all. I’d not be surprised to see significant trades announced over the weekend: whether by the Diamondbacks or not, remains to be seen.

Since the meetings are all about GMs connecting with GMs, rather than players, a free-agent signing is perhaps less likely to get announced in the coming days. But if the reports about the team talking to Pete Fairbanks are legit, and serious, then such a signing would certainly eat significantly into the financial resources generally considered to be available to Hazen this winter. That, in turn, would seem likely to increase the odds of the dreaded Ketel Marte trade, It would become the obvious way to plug holes – likely, multiple ones – on the roster, without taking on significant additional salary, assuming it’s for pre-arbitration players. We shall see.

There will be other things going on at the Winter Meetings as well. Sunday sees the announcement of results in the Hall of Fame Contemporary Baseball Committee voting. Like the regular Hall of Fame, players need to get 75% approval to get in, though with the committee only having 16 members, it’s a much smaller electorate. They are a mix of Hall of Famers, executives and media members. There are eight players on the ballot: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. I’d have sworn a couple of those were in the hall already, but apparently not!

The 2026 draft lottery will take place on Tuesday, to decide who gets the first six overall picks come June, a valuable commodity. Playoff teams are ruled out. This year, so are the Rockies, who got a lottery pick in both the 2024 and 2025 drafts. The same goes for the Nationals and Angels: they are revenue sharing contributors, who got a pick last year. The remaining fifteen clubs are allocated a starting percentage based on their W/L record. For the D-backs, they start with a 1.51% chance of the first pick: that will increase for picks #2-6, as teams get eliminated. After the first six, traditional ordering by W/L record applies. But it’d sure be nice for that 1.51% chance to hit!

Finally, Wednesday is the date for the Rule 5 draft. We already talked about what this involves. But basically, prospects with a certain amount of service time need to be added to the 40-man roster or can be chosen by another team. The catch is, they have to stay on that team’s 26-man roster (or the IL) for the full year. In most cases, teams aren’t willing to commit. But there have been exceptions: Roberto Clemente and Johan Santana were both Rule 5 picks, taken off the Dodgers (hahaha!) and Astros respectively. Though given Arizona lost Dan Uggla, who became an All-Star in his rookie season with the Marlins, we probably shouldn’t be laughing.

We’ll be here to keep you updated of any significant developments, as and when. Or perhaps just to post the “Do something” meme again. We shall see…