D-backs’ Derrick Hall looks around the league for inspiration on future
Sep 23, 2021, 10:38 AM | Updated: 11:50 am
President & Chief Executive Officer Derrick Hall and Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick celebrate on the field after defeating the Miami Marlins in the MLB game at Chase Field on September 24, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Marlins 3-2. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The Arizona Diamondbacks (48-104) lost their eighth game in nine attempts on Wednesday, begging the question: what direction is the team heading in?
“I think we can be competitive as early as next year. We’re not competitive right now,” D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Thursday.
“We have really good talent, especially at the lower levels in Single-A, Double-A and we are showing the results are there and we do have that talent.”
Hall mentioned the San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays as potential success models for the D-backs moving forward, but both as separate pathways.
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“The Giants didn’t reinvent themselves, they didn’t just scrap everything, they did a really nice job of getting supplemental talent that fit that roster and they stuck to it,” Hall added.
“They did not go crazy at the trade deadline, they said ‘we built this team to win,’ when a lot of people said they weren’t going to win, and they have.”
The Giants finished 29-31 in a COVID-19 shortened season in 2020, but currently sit 99-53 with the best record in MLB just one year later.
Although San Francisco is not a direct comparison for Arizona as it sit in the top 10 in payroll for the 2021 season, spending roughly $70 million more in 2021.
Hall said in a market such as Arizona there is no room for mistakes and that the Rays are a glowing example of how to succeed after clinching their third straight AL East, a division that could send three teams to this playoffs this year.
Tampa Bay has boasted a bottom-five payroll every year since 2013, finishing above .500 five of those nine years and appearing in one World Series.
“I agree with you on Tampa, that’s who we need to be, that’s who other teams want to be,” Hall told Bickley & Marotta. “You have to be disciplined, you can’t get off the track and say, ‘we’re so close, let’s go get one or two more players.’
“You have to be disciplined, you have to be committed to it, and I do not think we have been as much as we could be.”
