Diamondbacks' Mike Hazen Discusses Josh Naylor Trade

Hear from the D-backs' general manager about Arizona's trade for a first baseman.

Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen speaks to the media ahead of their NLCS matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Oct. 15, 2023. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Arizona Diamondbacks completed a trade on Saturday, acquiring first baseman Josh Naylor from the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for right-hand reliever Slade Cecconi and a Competitive Balance Round B Draft Pick.

The move comes in the wake of former first baseman Christian Walker signing a three-year, $60 million deal with the Houston Astros.

Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen spoke with the media on Saturday, following the trade news:

Q: What did you guys like about Naylor?

"Felt like he fits into the middle of our lineup pretty significantly, the thump. He's a good hitter. He's got really good makeup. We felt like it was a nice fit in our clubhouse with the guys that we have. We think it's going to be a good match with all the work we did."

Q: How long did this [trade] take to come together?

"We were obviously engaged in the first base market. So for a while it ramped up as you would expect with the activity on the first base market over the last couple of days, it seemed like... the entire industry was focused on this position over the last few days."

"So that's when it really ramped up. But we've been talking for a bit. We obviously had to keep options open with everything that was happening external to us. And... we had gone back and forth, and the formations of the trade were in place probably three or four days ago, but it ended up happening this morning or into early afternoon today."

Q: How do you guys evaluate Josh's defense over at first base?

"Yeah, we think he's a solid first baseman. He works really hard at it and we're going to push him pretty hard, obviously because we value that pretty heavily. And because he works hard, I think we're going
to get a very good first baseman next year."

Q: Where does this kind of turn your focus now to?

"Same places. I still think some eye on the offense for sure. We're going to still stay engaged in everywhere we were before."

"I think, yes, bullpen is something that we've definitely still been involved with. ... We have
offers going all over the place. Nothing that's overly close, but we have ideas and
offers that have been going all over the place this off-season in the various areas that we've
talked about in the past."

"So we'll see what happens there. There seems to be a decent amount of activity,
maybe with the holidays coming up, I don't know, but there seems to be a decent amount of
activity going on right now."

Q: How do you feel like this informs like what the next move is likely to be? ... is [a] trade more likely now because you had to spend a little bit here?

"I wouldn't say that. I don't think it's necessarily indicative of much. I think how we piece the rest of the team together, we still have a ton of flexibility in terms of how our roster is constructed, in my opinion.

" I think at some point, at some position on the field, we're going to need to get a little more right-handed. But I wouldn't rule out left-handed hitters either. But I think we need to at least probably focus a little bit on that.

"And the pitching stuff is pretty self-explanatory. I think as far as what we might be trading or what
trades could happen, I still think if the right deal is there, we're going to have deals and we'll see
what comes back with that.

"I think if we don't, like I've said before, we're very content holding what we have. I think we have the formation of a very good team and I want to be careful about how I strip away from that.

"I think we're pretty deep. I like that. I think we have a lot of flexibility. I think getting this move done, obviously with this position we've been involved for a while now. Getting this position settled down and identified for us is going to help us sharpen our focus on the next moves we need to make to make the team better. We still have a lot of work to do this off-season."

Q: Where does this leave Pavin Smith?

"It leaves him in a similar spot that he was in before. Maybe he's not playing as
much first base, but we still anticipate him getting his hacks in and we want to see
what that bat can do."

Q: So [Smith] could see some time either in the outfield or DH?

"Yes, yes."

Q: Why did you decide to go after Naylor rather than sign some of these other guys that might've been out there?

"He's a really good player. I think framing it as our choice is not, I don't think that's accurate in terms of us being able to choose exactly what we want to do."

"So we've had an eye on this entire market. He's a really good player. Trades are
tough to pull off. So I never know if I'm going to be able to do anything like that. And then you don't know where free agency is going to go.

"So we kept our irons in the fire. It's taken a long time to settle. The market is starting to settle. We just think he's going to be a middle-of-the-order presence for us, and really compliment a lot of really good hitters that are in our lineup that can run, that are going to get on base for him, and I think he's going to knock a lot of runs in next year."

Q: What about from a control perspective was the only having one year left, did that give you much hesitancy?

" Long-term, all those things always have to give me some hesitancy, but I felt like I made my position on this fairly clear. We believe in this team next year, and it's our responsibility to ensure that that team has the best chance to win. And yes, I have to pay attention.

"We gave up a lot of long-term value. Yes, this is hopefully a good deal for both sides, but this
was an area for our 2025 team that I wanted to make sure we prioritized and made sure that
we found somebody and added somebody the caliber of Josh [Naylor]."

Q: How tough was it to give up somebody like Cecconi who kind of came up through your system?

"Yeah, tough. He was great for us. He's going to be a really good player in this league. It's tough when you jump off right now because I've said this before... look where Ryne Nelson is today versus where he was six months ago, right?"

"[Pitchers] go through these little periods and then they come out the other side of it and you see the real talent when they figure out how to pitch at this level and he's going to figure out how to pitch at this level and he has really good weapons.

Again, I've said this a million times, if you're going to go out and get good players, you have to
give up good players. There's no sneaking around these trades. If you want to go out and get a
good player, you're going to have to give stuff up, if you're going to get trades done...

"I try to take that mindset when I'm trying to make trades, that we're going to have to give up good players, and we definitely did here."

Q: At this point in the off-season, are you guys kind of clear on what you want out of
the DH role or is that still pretty fluid at this point?

"Everything's pretty fluid at this point."

Q: Do you anticipate leaning more towards trade or free agency going forward?

"I don't have an answer to that. I have no idea. We're involved in both markets. I can't really handicap which direction our next move will come from."

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