The Diamondbacks learned this season that you cannot play hurt and expect ringing success. Injuries to top pieces Patrick Corbin, Paul Goldschmidt, Mark Trumbo, A.J. Pollock and Bronson Arroyo were too much to overcome in a 98-loss season that cost general manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson their positions.
Tony La Russa, brought in in May as the chief baseball officer, hired general manager Dave Stewart and director of baseball operations De Jon Watson as his front office team — with an accent on team — in the final week of the season, and the crew immediately went to work on identifying Gibson’s replacement. The D-backs won the NL West with 94 victories in Gibson’s first year in 2011 but regressed thereafter.
Ace and 2013 All-Star Corbin suffered a season-ending elbow injury that necessitated Tommy John surgery in the middle of spring training, veteran Arroyo underwent Tommy John surgery in July, and late-inning reliever David Hernandez also missed the season after Tommy John surgery in March. It left the D-backs with a thin rotation, and they suffered. The D-backs (64-98) had the worst record in the league and the fifth-worst ERA (4.26).
“Let’s be honest,” interim manager Alan Trammell said on the final day of the regular season. “One hundred years ago, today, one hundred years from now, pitching is the No. 1 component in baseball. Always has and always will be. Never change. Without it, you can’t win. End of story. You need others parts, but that has to be it.”
Dave Stewart, an ace of La Russa’s Bash Brothers teams of the last 1980s in Oakland, wants to add a frontline starter this winter, although the top-tier free agents such as Jon Lester, Max Scherzer and James Shields likely will price themselves out of the D-backs’ range, even though their payroll is expected to remain in the nine-figure range after topping out a franchise record $112 million at the start of 2014. The team has an excess of middle infielders, but Stewart said a trade is unlikely.
“I’m not going to be going into the market looking to actively trade one of our middle infielders,” Stewart said. “If it makes sense for our ball club, I’m going to do what’s best for the ball club. We need frontline starting pitching. If it allows us an opportunity to get that, we’ll have to examine that. We’re going to try to maintain what we have. We are going to try to maintain our minor league system.
“Maybe you add a piece this year and you add a piece next year and you get where you want to be.”
The D-backs lost more player-games to injury than any team other than Texas this season, and Stewart said he believes that with health will come a return to normalcy. All-Star Paul Goldschmidt missed two months, slugger Mark Trumbo missed 11 weeks and center fielder A.J. Pollock missed three months. The offense scored 615 runs, 25th in the league, and should be better next season. But pitching is the key. NL Central winner St. Louis (90-72) scored only 619 runs.
The loss of playing time for some meant instant immersion for others, and outfielders David Peralta and Ender Inciarte thrived when given the chance. The two finished 1-2 in batting average among NL rookies with at least 325 at-bats, Peralta hitting .286 and Inciarte .278. Peralta, a converted pitcher, had nine triples. Inciarte had 19 stolen bases and 10 assists.
La Russa expects the payroll to be in the $80 million-$110 million range, and that suits him fine.
“If you have a hundred million dollar payroll, you don’t have a complaint,” La Russa said. “I never had one in St. Louis. That’s plenty of money to compete with and win with. The key is, can you be smart with it. If you have young guys they are not as expensive. The thing you try to avoid is winning the PR offseason battle for the fans. We’re going to try to assess value. We’re fortunate with the performance of guys like Ender and David, there is less urgency to go out and get a big bat of a leadoff hitter that cost a lot of money.”
