Arizona Diamondbacks Rumors: Young Guns on the Move?
By Alex Boxwell
The Arizona Diamondbacks are gaining interest on their young starting pitchers. They could use it to their advantage and flip it for much needed pieces.
With the addition of young-gun Taijaun Walker, the Arizona Diamondbacks rotation is booming with young talent. Patrick Corbin, Archie Bradley, Shelby Miller, and Robbie Ray, with Branden Shipley coming off of his first experience in the big leagues.
Many were surprised when general manager Mike Hazen and the D-Backs decided to acquire Taijaun Walker from the Mariners for Jean Segura, Zach Curtis and Mitch Haniger. While Curtis and Haniger weren’t really stud pieces, Segura was arguably the best position player the Diamondbacks had. Besides Goldschmidt, Segura lead the charge offensively and defensively for the Diamondbacks. However, Segura was owed a huge payday when he hit the market.
With the trade being rather recent, it hasn’t stopped the D-Backs in looking towards the future. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports sent out this tweet on Monday morning, that could be the precursor to a musical chairs on the Diamondbacks pitching staff:
Sources: #DBacks expect increased trade interest in younger SPs, with Walker joining Bradley, Corbin, Miller, Ray. All between 24 and 27.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 28, 2016
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While sources are anonymous and most of the time incorrect, this report by Rosenthal directs us towards a large theme. Are the Diamondbacks going to complete roster-based face lift? Face lift in the sense of reorganizing assets and simply moving laterally instead of forward or backward.
Walker is relatively unproven and hasn’t had that big breakout year in his short career. With that being said he is a little more proven than almost all of the staff besides Zack Greinke, and Patrick Corbin. Also, there was the rumor last year that Shelby Miller was gaining interest towards the trade deadline. Reports came out after this initial report stating that was not the case.
By dealing one of their young starters, the Diamondbacks could add to multiple positions of need.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. The Diamondbacks bullpen is atrocious. Assuming Daniel Hudson leaves for greener pastures, this team doesn’t have a good enough bullpen to even be considered relevant. Theoretically, a young controllable starter could garner multiple bullpen arms depending on the team that is acquiring such asset. With Brett Cecil off of the market, the remains of any bullpen help are either bank breakers (Jansen, Melancon, Chapman, Storen) or older options (Grilli, Romo, Casilla).
Depending on how the team plans to use Ketel Marte, an up-the-middle infield spot is up for grabs. Nick Ahmed is a great defender, however he can barely hit and provides no impact with his bat. With Ahmed in the lineup, you are essentially wasting two hitting spots. With that being said, the middle infielder options in free agency are rather terrible. Sure you have Chase Utley and Neil Walker, but one isn’t the same as he once was and the other has been bitten by the injury bug.
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Take that into consideration and you realize just how important this off-season is for the future of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This team may not need a rebuild, but a reshuffling seems needed as this point.