ESPN’s Olney: Rivals say D-backs ‘highly motivated’ to make trades

There’s no sugarcoating things in the National League West.

The Los Angeles Dodgers lead the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks by 0.5 games coming out of the All-Star break and sit only 4.0 games up on the fourth-place San Francisco Giants.

The buffer between the Dodgers and their competition will probably grow after Los Angeles acquired All-Star shortstop Manny Machado on Wednesday, leaving the D-backs, third-place Rockies and Giants to begin hunting down a Wild Card spot.

Arizona is 0.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the second Wild Card slot and 1.5 behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the first. Colorado is in chase 1.5 games back of Arizona.

For the D-backs, whose roster could take hits next offseason should outfielder A.J. Pollock and starting pitcher Patrick Corbin leave in free agency, it’s no surprise that ESPN’s Buster Olney is hearing from rival MLB front office members that the Diamondbacks are quite active as the July 31 trade deadline nears.

The time and place to go for it are now.

There’s no getting around this possibility — Machado could be the difference-maker for the Dodgers in their effort to win a sixth straight NL West title, and no matter who San Francisco, Arizona and/or Colorado lands before the trade deadline, no individual player acquired will likely offset the production Machado will generate for L.A.

But the Diamondbacks, Rockies and Giants have been engaged with other teams, looking to plug holes. Rival evaluators say the Diamondbacks are highly motivated to follow up on their fast start, in what may be a narrowing window of opportunity …

D-backs general manager Mike Hazen said even before Machado was off the board — Arizona had reportedly shown interest in acquiring him — that the team felt comfortable enough its healthy lineup that could finally round into productive, consistent form.

Pitching, however, was needed with starter Shelby Miller back on the disabled list with an elbow issue.

Olney’s ESPN colleague, Sam Miller, points out Arizona has 87 projected wins, according to Baseball Prospectus simulations, but because of the parity in the NL West has just a 43 percent chance of reaching the NLDS.

Ranking MLB squads by ESPN’s SUCCESS metric, the D-backs stand up well as the 12th-best team.

But the grim outlook while playing in a deep division shows when comparing the D-backs to the two teams sandwiching them in the rankings.

The 11th-ranked Chicago Cubs out of the NL Central are projected to win seven more games than Arizona and have 89.5 percent odds of making the division series. The Cleveland Indians, leaders of the AL Central, rank 13th but have 91 projected wins and a 98.9 percent chance of making the ALDS.

Hazen probably didn’t need any analytics to come to an obvious conclusion.

The Diamondbacks have a lot of reasons to explore all trade avenues in attempting to bolster the roster for the second half of 2018.

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