With the Arizona Diamondbacks’ campaign now in the books, it’s time to look back at all the moves made by GM Mike Hazen over the course of the year, and see which ones worked out for Arizona, and which ones don’t. I’m going off the list of transactions here, which basically begins after the end of the last World Series. Oddly, it doesn’t include the re-signing of Zac Gallen, but I’d like to forget all about that as well…
The best
#1. Traded RHP Jack Martinez to the Cardinals, for Nolan Arenado and cash.
Arenado’s time with St. Louis had been a mixed bag. He had finished 3rd in MVP
voting in 2022, but 2023-25 he had averaged barely two bWAR, while earning St. Louis between $20-27 million. They wanted out from under the remaining two years, so heavily discounted them for Arizona. We paid $5 million, and got a player worth 3.4 bWAR – his best season since 2022. Nolan hit 30 homers, had a 122 OPS+, and might be a nominee for his 11th Gold Glove. Meanwhile, his replacement in St. Louis, Nolan Gorman, was below replacement level. Arizona has Arenado for 2027 at a very reasonable $6 million, but even if he spontaneously combusted today, we’ve got our money’s worth.
#2. Signed Jonathan Loaisiga as a free agent.
The day before, the team inked relief pitcher Loaisiga to a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training, after the Yankees declined to exercise his $5 million option. The decision was described at the time as an “easy decision… New York simply can’t hold any sort of confidence in his durability moving forward.” But you wonder if they might think otherwise now. For Loaisiga made the roster out of spring, and was a key component in the renaissance of the Diamondbacks bullpen. He proved perfectly durable, pitching 67 times, posting a 2.42 ERA and 2.88 FIP across 67 innings, worth 1.7 bWAR. He’ll get guaranteed money this winter, and won’t be cheap.
#3. Signed Michael Soroka as a free agent.
As we headed towards Opening Day, it seemed that Soroka’s role would be a minor way. After the late signing of Zac Gallen, he was expected to start in the bullpen, and the anticipated return of Corbin Burnes looked set to push Michael further down the depth chart. But he ended up starting 21 games for the D-backs, and pitched very well in those. He has an ERA of 3.41 (a 121 ERA+), a FIP that was lower still (3.18), and trailed only Eduardo Rodriguez among Arizona pitchers by bWAR, at 2.2. Even with incentives which added an extra $1.35 million onto his base salary of $7.5 million, he still proved a very worthwhile investment by Hazen.
#4. Signed Taylor Clarke as a free agent.
Another essential Clarke in the Arizona bullpen was Clarke, whose 70.2 relief innings led all pitchers for Arizona. And that doesn’t include his two games as an opener. It was a return home for Taylor, who had been drafted by the D-backs back in 2015, and debuted with the team in 2019. He came back after four years in the Royals organization, and had a strong campaign, working to a 2.96 ERA, even if his final outing, against the Padres was probably not the one he’ll want remembered. He didn’t strike out many, but he walked even fewer. A sub-one WHIP for any reliever with that many innings is always a good thing.
#5. Traded Daniel Eagen, Brian Curley and Sandro Santana to the Cardinals for Lars Nootbaar.
There was a lot of disappointment at the trade deadline when this was the only significant move made by Hazen. But say what you like, Nootbaar did the job for which he was asked, with an OPS+ of 113 across 42 games. That job was to hit right-handed pitching, and at an OPS of .800, he had the highest numbers there among any of the dozen left-handed batters tried by Arizona – and mostly found wanting, the group collectively having an OPS of .664. In particular, the Noot was better than the D-backs Big 3: vs. RHP, Geraldo Perdomo was at .762, Corbin Carroll .727, and Ketel Marte only .688. Not bad for Nootbaar, though the prospect cost was higher than I’d like.
The bad
#5. Signed Max Kepler as a free agent.
This entry is a personal one. I mean, Kepler only played 41 games for Arizona: how bad could he be? Well, pretty damn bad, with a .565 OPS (58 OPS+), and so was swiftly cut. However, he should never have been signed to begin with, performance entirely aside. For the team inked Kepler while he was still serving an 80-game suspension, for a positive test in January for Epitrenbolone. He had shown no remorse and offered no explanation (not even the “ringworm” defense). But Arizona still opted to throw years of a laudable position. consciously avoiding unrepentant PED cheats out the window, for… -0.6 bWAR.
#4. Traded Jake McCarthy to the Rockies for Josh Grosz.
Was torn between including this, or the Blaze Alexander trade. But our utility infielders were good enough I didn’t really miss Blaze much. Obviously, Jake’s numbers were severely inflated by Coors: his OPS outside of Colorado was 159 points lower. But even that .727 road OPS would have been welcome on the D-backs, especially with him being a left-handed hitter (though McCarthy actually had reverse splits this season). If we still had Jake, we probably would not have needed either to sign Kepler, or trade for Nootbaar, and McCarthy’s outfield defense was likely superior to both. Add his 1.9 bWAR, take off Kepler, and it’s more than the gap by which we missed the playoffs.
#3. Signed Carlos Santana as a free agent.
A deal worth only $2 million probably doesn’t deserve as prominent a place. But it was symptomatic of the black hole which was first-base for the Diamondbacks. I’m not clear exactly what Hazen’s plan was for the position, but if it featured Santana – a 40-year-old coming off a 78 OPS+ season – it seemed poorly considered and doomed from the start. And lo, it was a complete disaster, particularly in the early going. In mid-June, 74 games into the season. Arizona’s first-basemen had a .561 OPS – no team had posted a figure that low since 1920. Things improved a little thereafter, but our 1B still finished at .636, dead-last in the majors, with Ildemaro Vargas getting most playing-time. Santana? 2-for-24 in eight games.
#2. Signed Merrill Kelly as a free agent.
Kelly wasn’t the worst starting pitcher on our books: you’ve probably already figured out who #1 here is. But unlike Gallen, he is also on the team’s books for 2027. We should perhaps have paid attention to the sharp fall-off late last year, after Merrill’s trade to Texas. His ERA for the Rangers was over a run higher than with the D-backs, and that trend continued into 2026. Merrill had an ERA of 4.94, a FIP of 5.32 and an overall value of just 0.3 bWAR. He cost Arizona $19 million this season, including the signing bonus, and will receive $21 million next year, CBA permitting. We can only hope for better. No, really. That’s all we can do: hope.
#1. Signed Zac Gallen as a free agent.
You are perhaps detecting a theme here. This feels like the infamous case where the D-backs beat catcher Jorge Fabregas in arbitration, and paid him what he wanted anyway. The team made Gallen a qualifying offer, he rejected it and entered free-agency. Then when none of the other 29 teams offered anything as good, we still gave it to him. We should have listened to the free-market, because Gallen was epically bad. His -1.7 bWAR was the lowest value posted by a starter for Arizona in over twenty years, since Russ Ortiz touched -1.8 in 2005. This will sting for a bit. Due to the deferrals in the deal – the only positive – he’ll get a check from the team for $4.675 million on July 1 of 2032, 2033, and 2034.
