Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen on trade deadline: ‘I didn’t get it done’

Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen did not mince words on Wednesday following Arizona’s lack of movement around the MLB trade deadline, taking full personal accountability for not doing more to fortify his roster over the final stretch of the season.

The lone move the Diamondbacks made around the deadline was acquiring outfielder Lars Nootbaar from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Arizona was in need of starting pitching, a designated hitter and someone to man first base, but the ballclub will have to make due with what it has as the final months of the regular season play out.

Appearing on Arizona Sports‘ Wolf & Luke, Hazen admitted the post-deadline reflection has been far from comfortable.

“The day was a little bit frustrating for me. I feel like I’m pretty demanding of the coaching staff, the managers and the players in terms of getting your job done, doing it and delivering when we needed to,” Hazen said. “It’s frustrating for me because on some level I felt like I didn’t do as much as I needed to do or could have done, and obviously reflecting on that, I don’t really like to be in that position because I feel like in a position where you’re asking a lot from your team and manager, you need to back that up.”

The Diamondbacks pursued external options, according to Hazen. The general manager said he looked into players who would have stayed beyond just a rental period but ultimately stood pat on major roster-shaking moves while watching other contenders load up.

Hazen explicitly praised Nootbaar as a strong fit for what the organization looks for. At the same time, deals for other targets ultimately stalled.

“Love Lars Nootbaar, feel like he’s a great fit for us. He does a lot of what we want to do,” Hazen said. “I was in other areas, other markets, other positions that I felt like fortifying. We are going to get a lot of really good players back. But fortifying these next few weeks was still something we were looking to do, and I just didn’t get it done and that frustrates me because we have a really good baseball team. And that’s only I believe gonna get better as we move to the next two months.”

Hazen rejected the notion that ownership restrictions or financial hesitation held the front office back. He noted the team exposed nearly the entirety of its farm system, drawing a hard line only at trading top-tier foundational prospects for two-month rentals, while also avoiding deals that would have cannibalized the current major league club.

“Nothing kept us back. We were in all these markets,” Hazen said. “We exposed the entire farm system, minus a couple people that I’m just not exposing for somebody that’s gonna come in here for two months.

“And again for rentals. We were in markets for some of those players for guys that would be here for a while. And so those guys just didn’t get traded. That wasn’t possible necessarily unless I wildly overpaid and things didn’t work out for us.”

While pointing out that overpaying or making lateral moves didn’t make sense, Hazen firmly rejected any excuses for the stagnant deadline, putting the onus entirely on his own execution.

“We tried to push the envelope. We pushed three and four-player deals. We pushed a lot of our top prospects. Teams chose to take some other players in some cases, certainly, but those are excuses,” Hazen said. “In the end, I could have kept adding. I could have kept putting more in to get the deals done and it just didn’t happen. That frustrates me and I’ve been reflecting on it for the last 48 hours, and I probably will be for a period of time.

“My failure was not a feet dragging thing. My failure was a failure in executing and delivering. It wasn’t that I alligator-armed it.”

Diamondbacks have group inching closer to returning from injuries

Despite his self-critique, Hazen stressed that the current clubhouse remains fully equipped to navigate the NL Wild Card race. The D-backs entered the deadline playing much better baseball and have many pieces steadily working their way back from the injured list.

Jordan Lawlar and Michael Soroka are already in the middle of ramping back up.

Hazen said Lawlar is focused on getting his timing and legs underneath him, while Soroka is expected back for his next turn through the rotation. Justin Martiez is dominating down in A-ball after missing the entirety of spring training, needing only to fine-tune his triple-digit command before getting the call, Hazen added, while Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Tommy Troy, Zac Gallen, Ryne Nelson and Corbin Burnes are tracking toward returns ranging from mid-to-late August into early September.

Hazen believes that once the roster is fully healed, the team that fans see in September will resemble its true, complete self just as a grueling stretch against postseason-caliber opponents arrives in the coming weeks for Arizona.

“This team put itself and is in a great position… as being in the thick of the Wild Card chase is exactly where we want to be. And we still are that really good team,” Hazen said. “We need to continue to grind through. I think that team that we’re talking about probably shows itself in its entirety at the beginning of September, and we’re going to have to keep playing good baseball for the next 25 days. We have a really tough schedule coming up. We have all the playoff teams coming in front of us.

“At some point we all have to turn the page from the trade deadline because we were one of the better teams in the National League before it and we’re gonna be one of the better teams after it too.”

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