Diamondbacks Extend GM Mike Hazen
Following Tuesday’s win against the Brewers, the Diamondbacks decided to double down on the good news by announcing the extension of general manager Mike Hazen. The contract keeps him in Arizona until 2028 with the D’Backs holding a club option for the 2029 season, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic was among the first to break the news Wednesday.
Team president Derrick Hall mentioned a few weeks ago that a deal was in the works, so the timing of this decision isn’t a surprise. Hazen’s prior contract ran through the 2024 season, but with teams showing an interest in Hazen (primarily the Red Sox) the D’Backs wanted to make sure they got their guy locked up.
Hazen’s body of work as general manager is quite impressive and it’s easy to see why the D’Backs wanted to keep him long-term.
When he took over in 2016, the Diamondbacks weren’t in a great spot. They had seen three straight losing seasons with no real future in sight. The farm system wasn’t great and payroll was a mess with old and expiring contracts.
Hazen almost immediately righted the ship and took the D’Backs to a Wild Card berth in the 2017 season. The D’Backs were still far from contesting for a World Series, but it was still a big step in the right direction.
The following few years were rough, as the D’Backs attempted to shell off some cap space, most notably trading superstar Paul Goldschmidt for a litany of prospects. Many thought that as a result, the entire team would be stripped down and a rebuild would begin.
But Mike Hazen didn’t want to go through a full-blown rebuild. He knew he probably didn’t have the time or leeway to undergo a full-scale rebuild, so he shocked many by deciding to retool the team, extending Ketel Marte and Merrill Kelly.
They were decisions that certainly puzzled a lot of people. The Diamondbacks seemed prime to rebuild, but Hazen just wouldn’t accept it. Perhaps more impressive though was his ability to also rebuild the farm system while retooling the team.
It was a farm system that had almost nothing going for it when he took over, but he quickly turned it into one of the better farm systems in the MLB, which featured guys like Zac Gallen and Jordan Lawlar.
All of that has taken us to where we are today. Arizona finished 84-78 and barely earned the last wild card spot, but swept the Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the NLDS, the second time they have advanced past the Wild Card round since 2007.
Mike Hazen is far from a perfect general manager, but then again the perfect GM doesn’t really exist. Hazen has shown an ability to make the most of what he has and has proven he can build rosters that are capable of winning, something the Diamondbacks haven’t been all too familiar with in recent years.
Hopefully, the extension of Mike Hazen brings with it more of a winning culture for Arizona. Because lord knows this baseball team sure could use it.
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