D-backs extend general manager Mike Hazen through at least 2028

The Arizona Diamondbacks have extended Mike Hazen’s contract on Wednesday, the general manager told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke.

AZCentral’s Nick Piecoro was the first to report the news.

The team also reportedly extended both assistant GMs Amiel Sawdaye and Mike Fitzgerald.

“I am very happy to stay here,” Hazen said.

“My family loves it here. … This is kind of our team and the team we are trying to build. When we came here from Boston a few years ago, we are committed to bringing a World Series here and that is not done yet.”

The move guarantees Hazen through the 2028 season with a club option for 2029. The GM was originally under contract through 2024 with a club option for 2025.

Arizona is coming off a Game 1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card Series and its first playoff appearance since 2017 built behind a nucleus of young talent.

Hazen was reportedly one of the leading candidates to take over the Boston Red Sox’s general manager position after Chaim Bloom was let go this offseason.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal in a Q&A said Hazen was “the leading candidate” in his eyes, noting he expected the Red Sox to speak with Hazen.

But despite the warranted interest from Boston, D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall said on Sept. 21 that there was no worry Hazen was going to leave the Valley.

“On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being I am very worried, I am at a zero,” Hall told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta.

“Mike and I have had several conversations. We talk multiple times every day, all year. He is very happy where he is at and very happy with the job he has done, proud of the team he has built and proud of the team he is building on the field. … This event in Boston did not trigger us to sit down and say, ‘Why don’t we talk about what your future is.’ Three months ago I went to him and said, ‘Hey, you have one guaranteed year left, why don’t we start talking about extension?’ We start those talks very early on.”

Hazen worked with the Red Sox in 2006 as the director of player development, earning various other titles along the way like vice president and eventually senior vice president and assistant GM before coming to Arizona in 2016.

Although, this is not the first time Hazen has been linked to the Red Sox job as he was another hot candidate when Dave Dombrowski was fired in 2019.

Hazen has had some swings and misses in terms of big-name trades and free agent acquisitions (Madison Bumgarner, Paul Goldschmidt, Zach Greinke), but his more recent moves of adding Zac Gallen, Gabriel Moreno, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Paul Sewald, Tommy Pham and others have been huge successes and are a major reason this team made the playoffs this season.

He has drafted well, adding players like Corbin Carroll, Jordan Lawlar, Daulton Varsho, Tommy Henry and Jake McCarthy. He also etched Carroll to an eight-year, $111 million deal, an unprecedented amount of money for the franchise as well what is looking like a very team-friendly deal just one year into the contract.