Examining the state of D-backs' roster with offseason underway

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The GM Meetings will get underway in San Antonio on Tuesday, and we'll get some of Mike Hazen's thoughts about that in this edition of the newsletter. But let's first start out with where things stand with Arizona's free agents and players with contract options.

Players with options: LHP Jordan Montgomery
Montgomery, as expected, exercised the $22.5 million player option that he had.

Players that Arizona held options on: 3B Eugenio Suárez and RHP Merrill Kelly
Again, no surprise that the D-backs exercised the $15 million option for Suárez in 2025 and the $7 million option for Kelly.

During the first half of last season, not only did it seem unlikely the D-backs would pick up Suárez's option, but there was talk that he could be designated for assignment given how much he struggled at the plate.

Credit to Suárez, though, he turned his season around in the second half and made the decision to retain him an easy one.

Despite missing a large chunk of the season with a shoulder injury, Kelly is a bargain for the D-backs at $7 million.

Mutual options: DH Joc Pederson, DH/OF Randal Grichuk and RHP Scott McGough
After having an outstanding year at the plate with a .908 OPS and 151 OPS+ while serving as the DH against right-handers, Pederson opted out of his $14 million deal for next year and took a $3 million buyout.

Grichuk, who had an .875 OPS and 140 OPS+ as the DH against lefties, opted out of a $6 million deal for next year and got a $500,000 buyout.

Losing both of those players certainly is a blow to Arizona's offense and will leave the team searching this offseason for a way to replace that production (more on that later).

It was a real struggle for McGough in 2024, and the team declined its end of his $4 million option and instead gave him a $750,000 buyout.

Free agents: 1B Christian Walker, 1B Josh Bell, RHP Paul Sewald and SS Kevin Newman
All four of the players automatically became free agents after the World Series ended.

The D-backs have to make a decision Monday on whether or not to give Walker a qualifying offer, which is valued at $21.05 million for 2025.

A couple of things here. Hazen did not comment on what the D-backs will do, but I would expect they'll offer Walker the QO. And given how he's produced for them, Walker will likely turn it down in favor of a bigger payday on the free-agent market. We'll see how it plays out, but it could end up being that Walker is simply going to warrant a bigger contract than Arizona can afford.

"No surprises," Hazen said about the contract options. "It's what we expected."

Don't expect the Diamondbacks to make any deals this week at the GM Meetings, though it's always possible. These meetings are more about checking in face to face with as many clubs as possible to get a feel for which players may be available via trade and how other GMs value your players.

For example, the 2018 trade of Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals began with a conversation at the GM Meetings but wasn't finished until just before the Winter Meetings the following month.

"Nothing really comes out of this except for information, for the most part," Hazen said. "It's very unlikely that deals get done, but the seeds for deals can get sown."

The Diamondbacks will be looking this offseason to add both to the offense, which likely will lose Walker, Pederson and Grichuk, as well as the pitching staff, which vastly underperformed in 2024.

"We need to figure out some more run prevention," Hazen said. "And obviously, we need to figure out a way to bring back the offense, or figure out another way to create the amount of offense that we had. It was obviously the best offensive team we've had since I've been here."

The D-backs, in fact, led Major League Baseball in runs scored in 2024.