He stuck longer than you might have wanted, but didn’t prevent the team from making better moves.
The Paul Sewald trade.
Hadn’t the Diamondbacks included Josh Rojas in the Paul Sewald trade, then there would have been a good chance that the Diamondbacks would have never traded for Jace Peterson.
After above average contributions in 2021 and 2022, Josh Rojas suffered a severe slump at the beginning of the 2023 season. At the time he was included in the Paul Sewald trade (together with Dominic Canzone), Rojas was hitting .228/.292/.296. Rojas started the season well, but encountered difficulties at the end of April and couldn’t get out of some bad hitting. Rojas was optioned to Reno during the month of June and appeared again at the end of July in what were probably a couple of exhibition games for him against Seattle.
The Diamondbacks didn’t waste much time. Obviously, Josh Rojas had been part of that trade talk with the Seattle Mariners because on that very same day the Paul Sewald trade was announced, Jace Peterson hit the trade rumours that he would join the Diamondbacks.
Lefty-platoon option.
It was actually a bit more logical to have a player like Jace Peterson joining the Diamondbacks than having someone like Josh Rojas on the 40-man roster. Rojas had probably surprised one too many in maintaining himself with credible numbers on the active team, but didn’t mash lefties nor righties, until he hardly hit anything at all in 2023. Rojas was on a $2,575,000 arbitration contract with the Diamondbacks and probably up for a raise in 2024, if not non-tendered.
Peterson joined the Diamondbacks after enjoying months of being an everyday player in the lineup, for the first time since his rookie season in 2015. Never much of a batter, but with a good eye and had enjoyed one of his best seasons the year before in Milwaukee, especially defensively:
In just 615 innings at third base, Defensive Runs Saved credited him with +11 runs (tied for fourth most among third basemen), and Statcast’s Outs Above Average also viewed his work as excellent, with a +7 figure. Statcast’s new arm strength tracker grades him as slightly above average as well, with his average throw speed of 86.5 mph edging out the league average for third basemen by a tick (and 5 mph above the average for second basemen). DRS and OAA view Peterson as roughly an average defender at every other position he’s played throughout his career, but they agree that his work at third base was excellent in 2022. – FanGraphs on the A’s singing of Jace Peterson
Surely that was something Mike Hazen had paid attention to when he had been on the lookout for a replacement of Josh Rojas. It was a plus as well that he was considered a good baserunner: a good addition to the aggressive base-path tactic the Diamondbacks employed:
Another underrated component to Peterson’s game is his speed. With an average Statcast sprint speed of 28.5 feet per second in 2022, he placed in the 81st percentile of all baserunners, but that figure also placed him third-fastest among all 32-year olds […] elite by advanced baserunning metrics; his +9.5 BaseRuns over the past two seasons rank him 15th in baseball during that timeframe, despite nearly everyone else on the leaderboard having far more playing time. – FanGraphs on the A’s singing of Jace Peterson
It might have been a plus as well that Peterson was pretty versatile, being able to play second base too, and thus allowing Ketel Marte to get a day off every now and then and DH. But his primary position was going to be 3B, which might have seemed a bit weird, because the Diamondbacks also were supposed to employ Evan Longoria there, once he would get back healthy from his IL-stint. However it might be, Peterson was to complement the righty Emmanuel Rivera, who had problems against left-handed pitching, although Rivera was considered the better defender at 3B.
Financially, there wasn’t much of a difference with Josh Rojas. Considering a possible arbitration increase, Peterson’s 2024 salary of $3MM ($2MM to be paid by the A’s) was going to be similar to Rojas’, while the Diamondbacks did tag on some extra money in 2023 by assuming the remainder of Peterson’s $4.5MM contract.
A very disappointing trade.
Mike Hazen clearly betted on a change of scenery and a better performance as a bench and platoon piece than the everyday option Peterson was in Oakland. By the time he joined the Diamondbacks, Peterson was hitting .221/.313/.324. Not good, but not even that very far from his numbers before his career 2022 season.
With the Diamondbacks, it took a very sour turn and Jace Peterson hit just .183/.276/.258 over the rest of the regular season. In the play-offs he was a late addition to the Wild Card roster when Jake McCarthy had to be replaced because of an injury. He was also part of the NLDS roster, but missed the NLCS when the Diamondbacks preferred Slade Cecconi over the versatile infielder. For the World Series it was the other way around. While he did not get a hit in his 5 post-season plate appearances, he did walk 3 times and crossed home plate in the second game of the World Series, a 9-1 win, after reaching base on a fielder’s choice in the 9th inning.
This season his performance was even worse, getting just 1 hit and knocking in a runner on a sac fly. BABIP promises better times are ahead, but you’d wonder how much prettier it might make the .045/.154/.045.
What were the implications for the roster?
Chad Patrick
Staring pitcher for Amarillo in 2023 Chad Patrick wasn’t expected to do that much in the future in the major leagues and probably won’t do that much. General expectation is that he will reach the major leagues, but is not much more of a depth starting piece or maybe a long relief arm. He was doing OK in AA for the Diamondbacks, but was terrible in the Oakland minors in Las Vegas and Midland, pitching to a 7.89 ERA in the PCL and 8.44 ERA in AA. He was flipped to the Brewers in the off-season where Abraham Toro went the other way. In 3 starts he has done fine so far for Nashville (AAA), although hit hard by the long ball. He might see his first major league action next year or late this year. Chad Patrick won’t make the Peterson trade hurt us.
Emmanuel Rivera
There is no denying in that Rivera was let go in favour of Jace Peterson, because Peterson was on a much bigger contract than the league minimum Rivera is playing for. A good defender, but one who hardly hits for some power, Emmanuel Rivera was an expendable piece, although his numbers in Sedona Red were much better than Peterson’s. Rivera is off to a very bad start in Miami as well, the team that picked him up in a trade-for-cash-considerations after the Diamondbacks designated him for assignment. It looks like sooner or later Rivera would have gotten the hook anyhow.
Jordan Lawlar and Gerald Perdomo
Had Jordan Lawlar performed up to his status as top prospect in 2023, it is likely that the team would have squeezed out Peterson eventually on the active roster this 2024. True, both Perdomo and Lawlar do not compete directly with Peterson for the position of shortstop, but Lawlar is supposed to become the shortstop for the future and thus make Perdomo shift to become either a superutility guy and/or to get regular reps at the hot corner. But Lawlar didn’t hit and then got hurt, just like Perdomo got hurt. It all led to Peterson getting more time on the active roster.
Blaze Alexander
Blaze too is more of a shortstop than anything else, although we have already seen this 2024 that he is more of an emergency stopgap at that position in the majors than a serious option. The addition of Blaze Alexander to the active roster meant the designation of Emmanuel Rivera, so there is no denying in that Jace Peterson, amongst others, might have been blocking Blaze Alexander’s way to the majors. But Blaze wasn’t tearing the PCL up last year and his .865 OPS was rather pedestrian (Buddy Kennedy, for example, had an .924 OPS). Blaze was also injured from April to June 2023 and also hit the IL by the end of September. It makes sense to assume that in the end Jace Peterson probably didn’t block Blaze.
Nick Ahmed
I will always wonder how much bad blood there was between the front office and Nick Ahmed for the club to designate him for assignment right when the team was making its final spurt to a play-off berth. Torey Lovullo admitted there were tough conversations with Nick during the season, as the player was experiencing a terrible slump, especially against left-handed pitching. Ahmed’s slash line of .212/.257/.303 was brutal, but not worse than Jace Peterson’s .190/.277/.276 by the time Nick Ahmed was designated for assignment and Jordan Lawlar was called up. Since Peterson’s contribution during the play-offs was so limited, you’d wonder if the team hadn’t benefitted more from the veteran presence and defensive qualities of Ahmed. Dumping Ahmed also made sure there was no possibility the Diamondbacks would sign him in the past off-season on a deal like the Giants eventually achieved. And see Nick now putting up strong defensive numbers in the Bay area, and probably helping the Giants in general, while the Diamondbacks are struggling mightily defensively themselves.