Arizona Diamondbacks: Grading Mike Hazen’s Deadline Day

Arizona Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen was one of the more active GM’s during trade deadline day. Here we look at his deadline day performance.

Mike Hazen, the Arizona Diamondbacks general manager, was very active in a huge trade deadline day.  There were multiple trades throughout the final two days before the deadline and Hazen was one of the more active GM’s.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, let’s take a look at how Hazen did as far as acquiring players.  I’ll grade each trade individually and then give an overall grade for the day.

Trade No. 1 was with the Miami Marlins.  The Diamondbacks sent Jazz Chisholm to the Marlins in exchange for Zac Gallen.  This was an interesting trade as Chisholm is the No. 1 prospect in Arizona’s farm system.  In four seasons in the minors, the shortstop is slashing .253/.323/.459 with 53 home runs, 163 RBI’s and 46 stolen bases.

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Gallen made his major league debut this season and in seven starts is very promising.  He is 1-3 with a 2.72 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings pitched.  These aren’t surprising stats as he was 27-18 with a 2.87 ERA and 384 strikeouts.

If Gallen can continue to produce as he has, this is a great trade, but I can’t give it an A with the Diamondbacks sending their No. 1 prospect.  I think it is a B- trade at this point but can definitely change.

The second trade of the day was sending catcher John Ryan Murphy to the Atlanta Braves for cash considerations.  Murphy was playing on the Diamondbacks Triple-A affiliate and it didn’t look like he would make it up to the big league club, slashing only .177/.250/.419 with 4 home runs and 7 RBI’s.  I would grade this trade as an A.

The third trade was sending the second baseman Jose Caballero to the Seattle Mariners for Mike Leake and cash considerations.  Leake is signed through 2020 and the 31-year-old is having a decent season at 9-8 with a 4.27 ERA, 100 strikeouts and 2 complete games.  The complete games lead all of baseball and show he is a durable pitcher.

Caballero slashed .292/.381/.447 with 14 home runs and 67 RBI’s in three seasons in the minor leagues.  He is a very young prospect and wasn’t in the top 30 in the Diamondbacks farm system.  I grade this trade as a solid B+.

Finally, we get to the Zack Greinke trade.  I broke the trade down here, so if you haven’t taken a look, read that first.  This trade has to be an A- simply because they traded away their best pitcher, which is why it’s not an A, but the haul they got for him was completely worth it.

I’m grading Hazen’s day as a solid B+.  He did a fantastic job and for someone who was channeling his inner Jerry Dipoto, he did a dang good job and I’m excited to see how these players turn out for the Arizona Diamondbacks.