Diamondbacks’ GM Mike Hazen takes a look back on the 2025 season
After just missing the playoffs, Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen put his assessment of the season into words.
Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen is exploring options to address the team’s pitching needs.The team is expected to have a lower payroll next season but still has room to pursue players.
Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen departed Las Vegas with a better understanding of what might be possible to address his pitching needs. Whether any of it happens, he said, remains to be seen.
“We’ll see,” Hazen said before leaving The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the site of this year’s General Managers Meetings. “We at least had an opportunity to express interest and talk about what we’d be looking to bring back. I think those things are productive.
“For the 30 things we talked about, what ends up coming to fruition? Probably one or two things, if at all. I think coming out of these meetings, the next conversations that you have give you a better sense for what part of the conversations may be real and what parts are like, ‘We thought about it more and that’s not somebody we would part with.’”
Though there were indications the Diamondbacks are going to be cash-strapped this winter, including some speculation they might have to free up payroll space in order to reallocate the money on pitching, Hazen downplayed that notion.
“I don’t really feel that way, honestly,” he said. “That’s not the impression I have. Are we going to be doing what we did last offseason? Probably not. But I don’t think I have zero wiggle room or avenues to pursue players.”
The Diamondbacks are expected to have a lower payroll than they had this past season, when they opened the year in the neighborhood of $200 million. The club’s current collection of players projects to earn around $144 million, according to projections.
The Diamondbacks enter the winter with three pitchers — right-handers Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt, and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez — locked into rotation spots. That leaves them on the hunt for two starters, not to mention upgrades in the bullpen. They could also use a right-handed bat that fits a first base/designated hitter role.
Hazen said his young position players have garnered attention on the trade market, and he and others in his front office sound cautiously optimistic they might be able to match up with another club in a prospect-for-prospect deal that would bring back a young starting pitcher.
Hazen said he “gathered a lot of information” from agents about their clients who are free agents.
“It’ll give us some idea of where we’ll be able to proceed on that market too,” Hazen said.