2019 MLB season: Rating the NL West general managers
By Bill Felber
2019 MLB Season: The NL West’s best GM
Mike Hazen, Arizona Diamondbacks
Hazen earned his GM stripes under Dave Dombrowski in Boston, leaving prior to the 2017 season when the chance to operate the Diamondbacks opened up. His season was a succession of controversial moves, beginning with the December trade of Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis for a pair of youngsters, and including the deadline deal that sent star pitcher Zack Greinke to the Astros for four prospects.
If that sounds like a tear-down strategy, it wasn’t. The D-Backs made a serious run at the NL wild card, eventually falling four games short of the Milwaukee Brewers. That marked a three-game improvement over 2018.
The curious question is what, if anything, Hazen had to do with that improvement, or whether he merely happened to inherit it. Given that Goldschmidt and Greinke combined to provide just +1.5 games of value for their new teams, it would be a stretch to argue that the D-Backs might have done significantly better if Hazen had not traded away his big stars.
At the same time, the sum total of Hazen’s short-term impact on his 2019 team was actually negative, albeit by less than half a game.
Obviously it’s not fair to assess the Goldschmidt or Greinke deals in isolation. Overall, Hazen brought 29 new players into the Diamondbacks system, counting re-signings. Those new faces included pitchers Luke Weaver and Zach Gallen plus catcher Carson Kelly, none of whom would have gotten the chance to contribute to the D-Backs if Goldschmidt and Greinke had not been moved.
For the record, the short-term value of those three players was +2.9.
Still, the sum total of all of Hazen’s decisions was essentially neutral.
Short-term acquisitions: +0.8
Short-term trade losses: -1.5
Short-term free agent signings: -0.2
Short-term free agent losses: +1.7
Short-term rookie production: -1.2
Short-term total: -0.4