Mike Hazen Speaks About Adding a Closer and Bullpen Management

The Diamondbacks' GM made wide-ranging comments regarding the bullpen during the MLB Winter Meetings.

Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen (left) speaks to the media with Diamondbacks head coach Torey Lovullo after the team was eliminated from playoff contention at Chase Field in Phoenix on Oct. 1, 2024. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen struggled through much of the 2024 season. Starting the year without closer Paul Sewald due to injury pushed Kevin Ginkel into the closer's role, and thinned out the bullpen overall. There was only mixed success at that point.

When Sewald returned in mid-may, the bullpen stabilized, for a while. Sewald converted his first 11 save chances, and things seemed to be on track to replicate the success the team had in August and September of 2023 and in their Postseason run to the World Series.

Unfortunately Sewald collapsed, eventually losing the closer's role. Forced to mix and match the rest of the season, Torey Lovullo had to stretch relievers out of their comfort zones and typical roles, and it was a very uneven, and ultimately tired bullpen that finished out the season.

That's not to say there aren't talented pitchers in the bullpen that could close games, such as Justin Martinez, or A.J. Puk. But when asked directly how important it was to find someone with closing experience, Hazen answered succinctly.

"I would like that," he said.

Last season Lovullo often said that their best bullpen was one in which Paul Sewald was the closer. When pressed upon the importance of adding a pitcher capable of closing games to stabilize the pen, Hazen was more expansive in his follow-up response.

"Clearly, Puk and J-Mart can do it. They have the talent to do it. They will get save opportunities. I think adding somebody into that mix that can pitch behind them at times is something we're shooting for."

There are some names that have been introduced as potential solutions, such as Devin Williams of the Brewers or Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals. Both are top-of-the-line closers with just one year remaining in arbitration before free agency. That makes them trade targets, but both teams have attempted to pour cold water on the idea they'll be traded.

While Hazen would like to make that kind of a deal (he did not specifically mention any pitchers), the difficulty in making such a deal is quite high. No team is eager to overpay for just one year of control over a reliever, even a very good or great one.

"We may end up going in a different direction depending on what we can actually do. I'm going to try not to force-feed that too much."

There is always the free agent market as well of course. There are a number of top end relievers with closing experience that have not signed yet. That includes players such as Kirby Yates, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Scott, David Robertson, Kenley Jansen, and Carlos Estevez, among others.

The average annual salary for those pitchers is estimated to be anywhere between $9-12 million per Roster Resource at Fangraphs.

Asked if he would be comfortable or in a position to pay market prices, Hazen was very non-committal, answering "I don't know what that's going to look like for us just yet."

Speaking of some of the struggles of last year's pen, Hazen also addressed the issues with middle relief. "I think we need to do a better job of honestly, and Torey [Lovullo] and I talked about this, I think we need to find ways to have the 10 through 12, 13 in the bullpen pitching in more meaningful situations for us."

The poor performance of those middle and low leverage relievers often forced Lovullo into a situation where he had to overwork his better, high-leverage relievers. Hazen took some responsibility for that.

"I need to do a better job of giving him guys that are capable of going out there when we have a lead and holding that lead through the middle innings so that he doesn't have to go and get Puk to bail us out of the eighth inning or the seventh inning in games when we're up by four runs, and we're able to just shut down that four-run game without using J-Mart and Puk. That's part of the issue we've had."

A lot of times Lovullo was just not able to stay away from his high-leverage relievers in situations where a team like the Dodgers might have been able to.

"So we do that too. Those guys are down. But again, when you're on pace to win 100 games, it's easier to take your foot off the gas pedal in a game in August than it is for us, scratching and clawing to stay in a playoff hunt. And that's just the way it goes."

Hazen went on to praise Lovullo's bullpen management.

"Now, we need to be good at that, at managing that. And Torey does a good job of managing the bullpen. He's very cognizant of their health, which I very much appreciate. But, I mean, I come in after some days and it's like, what else were we going to do? We needed to win the baseball game, and I agree with him. We need to win the baseball game, and we'll deal with tomorrow tomorrow."