GM Mike Hazen has a chance to enhance a middling, bottom third farm system
The 2025 MLB trade deadline is a little more than a week away, and after a series sweep by the Houston Astros, the Arizona Diamondbacks are now positioned to be the biggest sellers at the deadline. I was actually calling for a small (controlled) firesale a year ago, and now I’m calling for a full on controlled burn. President and CEO Derrick Hall seems to agree.
“I think it’s time for us to be responsible enough to improve our team with what we have and with that, let’s enhance our future,” Hall said on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta. “Let’s bring in more assets for us. Let’s rebuild that farm system that has gotten better and better over the years.”
In my opinion, Dbacks GM Mike Hazen absolutely should trade Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen, Shelby Miller, Randall Grichuk, Lourdes Gurriel, and maybe even Alek Thomas if the return is right. The only players that should he considered untouchable are Corbin Caroll, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, and Gabby Moreno. By all accounts starting pitching will be prioritized, but I’d imagine Mike Hazen will also be looking for impact bats at the corner infield and outfield positions as well. The Dbacks Farm system is top heavy and shallow at best, but at the same time it’s basically a bare cabinet when it comes to impactful uninjured starting pitching. If Mike Hazen goes full firesale and trades all the players mentioned above, he can take a middle third farm system and remake it into a top 5 system, at least temporarily. Considering some of these players are going to be gone at the end of the season anyway, it makes the most sense to extract as much value now via trades.
Mike Hazen’s most valuable trade chip is third baseman Eugenio ‘Geno’ Suarez, who has been linked to at least four teams. Along with Merrill Kelly, his second most value trade chip, the two are probably the most likely of the pending free agents to actually want to come back. (The best course of action may actually be to package the two together in a trade to get a better return, then re-sign them during the offseason. If they see a team that is even better now, why wouldn’t they be amicable to returning?) Anyway, I thought I’d examine some of the possible landing spots and examine the likelihood of a deal actually getting done.
Suarez has been linked to two of his former teams, the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, as as well as the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs. I’d imagine teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers are in on Suarez too.
The Seattle Mariners being a possible destination for Suarez is so obvious, I’m not going to bother discussing it that much. Mariners GM Jerry DiPoto is one of Mike Hazen’s most frequent trade partners, the Mariners are in desperate need of any kind of offense, and Geno is a known quantity in the clubhouse. The Mariners have one of the best farm systems in the game, and the prospect capital to get a deal done. For those reasons, Seattle would be the least surprising team for him to be traded to. If I’m Geno, I’d be probably be the most okay with this one too. His other former team, the Cincinnati Reds, feels much less likely as a destination, and has been described as longshot by some sources. While the Reds do have controllable young pitching that they could theoretically give up in a trade, they’d be very foolish to give them up for a rental like Suarez. The Reds front office was idle this time last year, and I’d expect then to be idle again this year. The Dbacks reportedly have some interest in Chase Petty, but I doubt they’d be able to get back top pitching prospect Chase Burns or the injured Rhett Lowder, unless the Dbacks are packaging Suarez with Merrill Kelly or Zac Gallen.
The Yankees have a blackhole at third base and even the NY Post recognizes that he’d be a great fit. They have some young controllable pitchers like Cam Schlittler and Will Warren who fit the bill, but I’m not a fan of the Yankees farm system. As a result I’m quite wary of making a deal with them, especially since they’re unlikely to part with their top hitting prospects George Lombard Jr or Spencer Jones. The Yankees not-quite-as decimated-by-injuries starting rotation could use the services of Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen though, so maybe there’s potential here for the Dbacks to get back a better than expected return in the right deal. There’s a lot of pressure on the Yankees front office to not waste another historic season from Aaron Judge too, so I can see that kind of deal happening if they are actually willing to give up the prospects to get it done. There’s been conflicting reports of a reported deal of Suarez, Kelly, and Beeks with a sizeable return in prospects coming back from the Yankees, but that was shot down pretty quick and seems unlikely to me.
Hazen is close friends with Jed Hoyer, President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Cubs will have an advantage at actually getting a deal done. The Cubs do have a backhole at third currently with top prospect Matt Shaw struggling at the MLB level this year, so they could really use the upgrade. I doubt they’d mortgage Shaw for a few months of Geno, but I would absolutely love to see the Dbacks get a package of Brandon Birdsell, Cade Horton, and Kevin Alcantara back in exchange.
The Milwauke Brewers aren’t going to give up Jacob Misiorowski, but I could see them parting with another young arm in their system like Logan Henderson as part of a deal. This is the best Brewers team in years, and I would hope for Brewers’ fans sake that they are all in on upgrading the team before the deadline.
The Detroit Tigers, the team where Suarez started his career also makes sense as a destination. They’ve slipped in the standings to third in the AL, and could use the offensive boost from Suarez’s bat, but their rotation could use a boost just as much. Once again it really comes down to Detroit being willing to part with some of their young arms.
There’s no guarantee that any player is traded at this deadline or to any of the teams mentioned. Teams could turn to the Rockies’ Ryan McMahon as alternative at the hot corner. They could look to Mitch Keller as an alternative to Merrill Kelly. We could see a darkhorse team like the Royals push to make a splash at the deadline. It’s even possible we could see Hazen pull a “buying while selling” strategy once again, though that’s becoming more unlikely with each loss. So all that said. what teams do you think are the best fit for Eugenio Suarez, Merrill Kelly, Josh Naylor, Zac Gallen and the others mentioned in the opening? Which prospects would you most like to see acquired? Do you think Hazen is better served trading Suarez in a package with another player? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear them!