Diamondbacks’ Mailbag: Thanksgiving Week Edition
By Thomas Lynch
Wade Miley will help lead the 2015 D’backs’ rotation. Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It’s time to reach into the venomstrikes mailbag to answer some of our readers’ questions regarding the Arizona Diamondbacks. This morning, we find out that two National League West rivals lost a pair of their star players. Hanley Ramirez of the Dodgers and Pablo Sandoval of the Giants both signed free agent deals with the Red Sox. How does this affect the D’backs? That’s a question for another day.
#1-Who will be in starting rotation on opening day, 2015?
The starting rotation come Opening Day will be Wade Miley, Josh Collmenter, Jeremy Hellickson, Trevor Cahill and Chase Anderson. The D’backs have 12 million reasons why they need Cahill to get his act together and pitch like he did in 2012. I can’t see anyone taking on that contract or the team just outright waiving him. Hellickson has already been penciled in at no worse than the #3 starter. Keeping Anderson in the rotation allows the team to keep youngsters Aaron Blair, Archie Bradley and Braden Shipley to remain for more work at Triple A. Make no mistake: one of those three will be in Arizona by the time June hits. I don’t see them adding a free agent as the options in their price range are not very appetizing.
#2-What position/player is going to be the focus of free agency for the D’backs?
I am not sure there is anything on the free agent market really interests the team. They are all set at every position in the field, including backups. I don’t think they want to overpay for an average starting pitcher. The only place that maybe they will look is a middle reliever. Brad Ziegler is coming off microfracture surgery and while he is optimistic about returning, who knows if he will be 100%. Evan Marshall, Oliver Perez and Addison Reed are all locks. Perhaps someone like ex-Padre Luke Gregerson will interest them.
#3-Are the Dbacks looking to trade for starting pitching? If so which players in particular are we targeting?
They have already traded for Hellickson but also claim they are not done looking. It’s hard to tell what other starting pitchers the D’backs are looking to trade for. The Mets would seem to be a perfect partner. They need a shortstop; the Snakes have a few of them. New York has a surplus of arms. It is hard to imagine them giving up super prospect Noah Syndergaard but someone like Rafael Montero, who started eight games for them last year, could be a target. There is also left-hander Steven Matz who sped through the Mets’ system much like Blair did in the D’backs’ organization.
4-Yasmany Tomas worked out for the D’backs. What are the chances that they actually sign him?
The word is that Tomas will be looking for a deal in the neighborhood of the 7-year, $72 million dollar deal Rusney Castillo got from the Red Sox. That would seem to be out of the team’s price range. However, keep in mind the D’backs offered Masahiro Tanaka somewhere between $120 million and $140 million before he signed with the Yankees for $155 million. As long as the Snakes believe they can clear additional salaries after 2015 (Cody Ross comes off the books, buyout for Trevor Cahill), then they could be a sleeper team for the services of Tomas.
All of us at venomstrikes and the rest of the FanSided network wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving.