Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen: Team still searching for middle-of-lineup bat
When the offseason began, Arizona Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen sounded content to roll into next year without a full-time designated hitter, instead using that spot in the lineup as a way to give his manager flexibility and his regular position players partial days off.
Hazen said this week he still likes viewing the DH that way, but he admitted his thinking has changed.
“I think what’s shifted is I’m more open-minded” to employing a full-time DH, Hazen said. “I don’t necessarily know which way I like better, if you’re asking me my opinion. I see value in both. I think getting somebody that can just mash the baseball has a certain value, for sure.”
As such, much of Hazen’s attention in recent weeks has been focused on finding a masher — and it remains that way, he said, as spring training draws closer.
Hazen said the club is “very active” in its search for a bat. The team remains in touch with free-agent options, and Hazen said the trade market has heated over the past week.
“Just a number of conversations, some creative stuff, that is kind of happening,” Hazen said. “Not sure anything is going to really happen, but I think the conversations have been more frequent.”
Hazen said that if he were to sign or acquire a slugger for the DH spot, it would be the type of hitter who would slot into the middle of the lineup.
Several free agents fit that mold, including J.D. Martinez, Jorge Soler, Justin Turner and Brandon Belt. The trade market is less defined but is thought to include the likes of Chicago White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez and the Baltimore Orioles’ Anthony Santander.
As it stands, the Diamondbacks’ lineup figures to be deeper than it was for most of last season. In addition to retaining free-agent outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the club also acquired slugging third baseman Eugenio Suarez in a trade with Seattle.
When does spring training start? 2024 Cactus League schedule information
Awards time
Outfielder Corbin Carroll, last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, won’t be the only member of the Diamondbacks to be presented with an award on Saturday night at the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s annual awards dinner in New York.
Hazen will be the recipient of the Arthur and Milton Richmond “You Gotta Have Heart” Award, which is presented to a member of the baseball community “who has overcome difficult circumstances.”
Hazen lost his wife, Nicole, to a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Diagnosed with the disease in 2020, she died in August 2022.
“I appreciate that,” Hazen said. “I am very flattered, obviously, that I was chosen for this. The way I look at it from an award standpoint is, I think anybody in my shoes would have done exactly what I did. So looking at it in this context is a little tough for me. I certainly appreciate the recognition. I’m flattered and very grateful.”
He said the award will give him an opportunity to talk more about Nicole and the foundation that was started in her honor, which he said has raised close to $2 million since its inception, most of it going toward clinical trial research.
“It’s an amazing amount of money,” Hazen said. “We’re very appreciative of all the people who have contributed to it. I know from the standpoint of her legacy, she would be very proud. Centering around the conversations that she and I had, which was not wanting other families to have to go through what she and our family went through, that’s sort of the guiding light of how I look at it and what we’re trying to accomplish.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks still searching for designated hitter, says GM Mike Hazen
