It wasn't a very fun year at all last for the Arizona Diamondbacks organization or their fans. A miserable 64-98 record landed the D-backs in the bottom of the barrel in not just the National League West, but the entire Major Leagues. The Kevin Towers constructed team had a $108,000,000 team salary, the twelfth highest in the league and abnormally high for the Diamondbacks. Expectations were high for a D-backs team that was decimated with injuries to key players such as young ace Patrick Corbin, slugger Mark Trumbo, and even All-star first basemen Paul Goldschmidt later on in the season. Injuries weren't the only issue as the teams highest paid players (Miguel Montero, Trevor Cahill, Aaron Hill, Cody Ross) didn't perform anywhere close to what they are being paid.
Who's Coming Back? The Diamondbacks only have a handful of players with guaranteed contracts for the upcoming season. Those players are: Miguel Montero, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill, Trevor Cahill, Cody Ross, Oliver Perez, Brad Ziegler and Bronson Arroyo. Now that may sound alarming, only nine players are guaranteed to come back on a roster of 25? Well, the D-backs have an extremely young team in which they have control over their young prospects due to their lack of Major League experience. A few of these players are Chris Owings, Didi Gregorious, Wade Miley, Patrick Corbin, David Peralta, and the list goes on.
Who's Eligible For Arbitration? The Diamondbacks will most likely fill their roster a bit with the lot of arbitration eligible players they have. These players are: Cliff Pennington, David Hernandez, Mark Trumbo, Jordan Pacheco, Addison Reed, and Wade Miley. Josh Collmenter was also arbitration eligible but that was avoided with a two year contract worth $2,245,000.
Player/ Team Options? So far the Diamondbacks have exercised options for both Daniel Hudson and Matt Reynolds. Hudson's option was worth $800,000 and Reynolds' option was worth $600,000.
Who's On The Market? The Arizona Diamondbacks don't have many players on the costless agent market. At the moment Will Harris, Nolan Reimold, Andy Marte, Bobby Wilson and Ronny Cedeno are among the 120 plus players in the costless agency lot.
How Does Arizona Goes From The Bottom To The Top? It's not to often that a team can transform from a last place team to a first place team. But. the Diamondbacks aren't from being a playoff bound team. Starting pitching is something that Arizona needs to improve and has needed to for quite a while now. Josh Collmenter, who is typically a bullpen pitcher but filled the starting pitching void for Arizona last season, led the team in wins (11) and ERA (3.46). 11 wins as a team high just isn't going to cut, the Diamondbacks desperately need to pick up one or two established and quality starting pitchers to even have a shot next season. Arizona also needs a solid third basemen, as they really don't have a natural third basemen on the team at the moment. There have been talks about playing Aaron Hill at third but the Diamondbacks need to simply part ways with Hill, as he consumed over $10 million of the team salary. Arizona also needs to look to part ways with other cap hogs like Miguel Montero and Cody Ross. Who also consume about $10 million a piece. This salary needs to be dumped so Arizona can bring in the best possible costless agents to make a legit playoff push!
What Direction Are The Arizona Diamondbacks Heading? With a newly revamped front office and coaching staff, consisting of Chip Hale as the new manager, Tony La Russa as Chief of Baseball Operations, Dave Stewart as general manager and vice president, and finally De Jon Watson as Senior vive president of baseball operations, the D-backs are certainly in a rebuilding stage. With so many new guys in charge, it's nearly impossible for them not to restructure the team as they see fit. But with that being said, the Arizona Diamondbacks are only a few pieces away from once again being a contender.