The Diamondbacks are heading into the Hot Stove with a clear idea of where they want to get better, and it starts on the left side of the plate.
Arizona general manager Mike Hazen said the club has only begun preliminary talks with teams that are already out of the postseason picture, noting that the real trade market still hasn’t taken shape while the playoff field remains active.
"We're just starting to have some conversations with teams that didn't make the playoffs or got eliminated in the first round," Arizona GM Mike Hazen said. "Teams that are still in it aren't talking to anybody. So, it's probably going to be a few weeks before we have any sort of understanding of what the trade market's going to look like."
That could change quickly once the GM Meetings open Nov. 9-12 in Las Vegas.
"We'll have a lot more information by then," Hazen said.
One of the clearest offseason goals is improving against right-handed pitching, and Hazen made it plain that DH and first base are areas the club wants to address. Ildemaro Vargas gave the team a big early lift with his NL Player of the Month April, and Tim Tawa made a strong impression later, but Hazen said Arizona wants more production there.
"The offseason priorities, from an addition standpoint, are certainly going to be being a little more left-handed," Hazen said. "We struggled versus right-handed pitching this year.
So that's a clear and obvious one. I think DH/first base is a clear area [of need].
Timmy did an unbelievable job down the stretch after going down to Triple-A, making some adjustments. Pavin [Smith] was good when he came back for the last week to two weeks.
Vargy did a lot of really good things for us this year. I think that's a clear area, no matter what, that we need to improve upon."
There was also one notable change on the coaching staff: the Diamondbacks did not retain pitching coach Brian Kaplan, whose contract expired after the season. Hazen said the rest of the staff is expected back, though not everything has been finalized.
The year was also a frustrating one for Corbin Burnes, who had hoped to get back to the majors around the All-Star break after last year’s Tommy John surgery. A right teres major strain during rehab pushed that return to September, and even once he was back, things didn’t go smoothly.
Burnes made three starts, but the velocity wasn’t there. An MRI later showed inflammation in his shoulder, and Arizona shut him down. Burnes said the encouraging part is that there’s no structural damage and the teres injury has healed, which should allow him to begin a normal offseason throwing program once the inflammation settles.
“No new injury, no new tear, just kind of some overuse, inflammation-type stuff that just needs time to calm down,” said Burnes. “It's been essentially almost two years of kind of nonstop arm care, throwing, whatever it may be, coming out of the surgery, so my shoulder was just basically telling me, ‘Hey, we're running on empty here.’"