A very surprising name emerged today as a suggested way for Arizona to address their third-base situation. Would you believe, three-time All-Star, Alex Bregman? According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale,
“The Arizona Diamondbacks have become a surprise entrant in the Alex Bregman sweepstakes and are ‘kicking the tires’ on the possibility.” Nick Piecoro subsequently confirmed the interest: “A source indicated that the way such an agreement could come together would be if Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, the club’s managing general partner, opted to increase the team’s spending power.”
That would seem to go against what ownership have publicly been saying this offseason. Both owner Ken Kendrick and team president Derrick Hall have said the team will look to rein in payroll, on the back of consecutive seasons with record salary, but coming up short of the playoffs. The team has already spent what was expected to be most of the available resources, on adding free-agent pitchers Michael Soroka and Merrill Kelly. Another alternative would be to trade away salary. The obvious name there is Ketel Marte, around whom rumors have already been swirling. He is due to earn $15 million next year. But that would only defray the expected price for Bregman. MLB Trade Rumors projects the free-agent to get a contract of six years, and $160 million, an AAV of almost $27 million.
The scenario might start off with trading Marte – maybe to the Red Sox, who are one of the main suitors for Bergman, since he has played for them last year – for pitching. Move Jordan Lawlar to play second-base, and sign Bregman as a long-term solution at the hot corner. However, one of the things which weighs against this, is simply the fact we are hearing about it. GM Mike Hazen has habitually kept a very tight ship in regard to his moves. Did we hear anything about the signing of Corbin Burnes, for example? In fact, I’m hard pushed to think of a major move in his era, which was solidly rumored in advance of becoming a fact [and I’m not counting the re-signing of Merrill Kelly]. The finances are also a problem. So, for now, I’m still skeptical. But, hey, it certainly makes for more interesting times than waiting for Hazen to do something!
