Mike Hazen Reacts to Paul Sewald Trade

The GM discussed how the trade came about and why, and what's next

As reported earlier this afternoon the Diamondbacks announced a trade, acquiring closer Paul Sewald from the Mariners in exchange for Dominic Canzone, Ryan Bliss and Josh Rojas. Mike Hazen spoke with the media just now to discuss the trade. Here is a summary of that call.

Trade Purpose

It was no secret what the team's goals were this deadline to acquire pitching, and the bullpen was a big area he wanted to improve. The bullpen pitched well earlier, but he said failures at the back end are a big difference in where they are in the standings today and where they were a month ago. Addressing that for this year and next year as well were thus a priority.  Speaking of Sewald Hazen said simply "He throws lots of strikes and he gets swing and miss."

Reducing the amount of contact allowed late in games is important, as they've been bit by poor results on balls in play, fielding miscues etc. 

Control Years and Price Paid

It was the extra year of control that enabled them to pay a higher price. Hazen didn't want to be dealing with the issue of the lack of a true closer in the off season.  They considered and were in on the rental market, but ultimately he wanted to solve a problem for this year and next. "Two playoff runs at it instead of one" Hazen said. 

The cost was a little bit prohibitive and it's difficult to deal off the major league club. It was difficult for him to give up Josh Rojas and all he's meant to the club, despite being sent down this year. Canzone has provided a spark, and done great. Bliss included, they were all popular names in trade discussions. 

"There weren't a lot of great choices for us to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. In the end I was focused more on what we were getting in terms of helping the rest of our club but it was extremely difficult, it's always difficult to take players off that you really like, that you respect that give so much to the organization.....it's not what I wanted to do initially but what we ended up doing"

Roles

Sewald will be the primary closer and the other relievers in the pen will move back to earlier innings. Ultimately that decision is up to Torey Lovullo but that's how he anticipates Sewald being used. 

Why a deal wasn't made earlier

They've been calling for weeks, but to make a deal weeks ago would have resulted in an insanely higher cost.  Other teams were only just recently making their prices known over the last few days. 

This deal just came together in the last 12-20 hours. Conversations started at the beginning of the Mariners series but the two teams playing each other had little to do with the timing. 

Dealing from strength

"The second worst kept secret in the Diamondbacks organization is that we have a plethora of left hand hitting players and outfielders........we've done a good job of drafting and developing that type of player. When you don't draft for specific purpose and you just draft for best player you end up getting a certain type of player sometimes at the upper levels and the whole point of that is you're going to trade some of those guys to get what you didn't draft or develop very well"

Other Deals

They have a lot of irons in the fire and hopefully there is more coming but he declined to say if anything was close.  They are still looking for ways to bolster the rotation, but he still wants to see internal options too.  They are also still discussing ways to bolster the lineup.