The Diamondbacks face plenty of questions this offseason: the rotation, the bullpen, having two of their top contributors enter free agency, solving the team’s offensive issues.
But before they answer those questions, they have to answer this one: Is this franchise all-in on winning now or is a rebuild necessary?
Mike Hazen, Torey Lovullo and the rest of the Diamondbacks management team will need to figure out before setting their offseason plans.
Hazen made it clear Monday morning the team has plenty to address and the team will have to take an objective look at the team’s present and future talent.
With key pieces like Patrick Corbin and A.J. Pollock hitting free agency and Paul Goldschmidt entering the final year of his contract, a farm system that “isn’t where it needs to be” according to Hazen and a large portion of the salary cap tied up with Zack Greinke through the 2021 season, a rebuild could be in the team’s future.
On the other hand, Mike Hazen had every chance to blow this roster up entering the 2017 offseason, his first with the club. The team was coming off a 69-93 season after going all-in signing Zack Greinke and trading for Shelby Miller. He took the patient approach, adding the likes of Taijuan Walker, Ketel Marte, Jeff Mathis and Fernando Rodney. They were additions that proved crucial to their playoff run, but they didn’t move the needle when they happened.
Entering the 2017 season, he said he didn’t shake up the roster too much because it had the makings of a good team, and it paid off with the trip to the postseason. Would Hazen take that same patient approach knowing that Diamondbacks were in first place more games than any other team in the league this year but came up short down the stretch?
That’s the 100-win question.
