D-backs, Hazen felt team ‘didn’t have to’ trade Paul Goldschmidt

The Arizona Diamondbacks and general manager Mike Hazen did not feel it was absolutely necessary for the team to trade star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

With the likelihood of Goldschmidt going elsewhere in 2019 free agency, trading Goldschmidt for a long-term return was logical, but wasn’t a move Hazen told 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Burns & Gambo the D-backs had to make.

“We sort of made the decision that we had to at least talk about it with other teams, and if we were going to do that, we were going to hold a very high threshold to do it,” he said on Wednesday.

Goldschmidt was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for three prospects and a draft pick.

“If we were going to go to (owner) Ken (Kendrick) and (team president) Derrick (Hall), we were going to make it be something we wanted to do. We never, obviously, felt like it was something we ever had to do.”

Hazen said he met with Goldschmidt after the season and told him there was a possibility of a deal being made. Because of his respect for the player, Hazen said they would not allow discussions to go on through the entire offseason.

In the end, though, Wednesday’s talks with the Cardinals brought enough return to where the D-backs felt they were in a good enough spot to trade Goldschmidt.

“We weren’t going to do the trade unless like we felt like we were getting back players that — in the package in its entirety — that made sense for us to do this,” he said.

“It probably came into view in the last 72 hours where I felt like this has a chance of happening.”

The D-backs received catcher Carson Kelly, starting pitcher Luke Weaver and infielder Andrew Young.

While Young is only three years removed from being drafted and played in Double-A this past season, Kelly and Weaver were highly-regarded prospects in the past before playing in the big leagues.

Hazen had to look far in the future, playing out situations where Goldschmidt wouldn’t re-sign and the team ended up with only a compensatory pick instead of the prospects he received from the Cardinals.

“We just didn’t feel like it was the right thing for us to do in this case,” Hazen said of potentially keeping Goldschmidt.

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