D-backs extend GM Hazen through 2028

LOS ANGELES -- In retrospect, Mike Hazen took away all his leverage right from the start, but in the end it didn't matter. The general manager and the D-backs both got what they wanted.

Hazen got a contract extension through 2028 with a club option for 2029, and the D-backs locked up the man who built a playoff-caliber team for the long haul.

“For us, it was really a no-brainer,” D-backs team president/CEO Derrick Hall said. “We've loved the direction that Mike has taken us. He and his team have put us in obviously a good spot. And it's something we've been building. When we first hired Mike in '17, one of the top priorities then was, ‘Let's fix the farm system.’ And we went from a bottom five to a top five in quick fashion. And at the same time, he was also building what we were hoping would be a very sustainable model.”

The talks between Hazen, whose contract was set to expire after next season, and Hall began a couple of months ago. They started out as informal, casual conversations that eventually built to a conclusion.

Right from the start, Hazen told Hall that he had no plans to leave, which didn’t change even when the Red Sox GM job opened up. Hazen was Boston’s GM under Dave Dombrowski in 2016 and has family in that area, so there was natural speculation that he would be a sought-after candidate there.

Hazen, though, told Hall he wasn’t interested in any other job.

“I told him I'm not going anywhere,” Hazen said. “I want to be here. We need to get something done. We want to get something done.”

“He's our shrewd chief negotiator, and he took away all of his leverage,” Hall said with a laugh.

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Hazen’s wife, Nicole, passed away last summer after a long battle with brain cancer, and Hazen wanted to make sure that his four boys were on board with him staying both in the GM job and in Arizona.

“Look, yes, I have a lot of family back in Boston,” Hazen said. “I have a lot of my best friends that I worked with back there. We committed when we came out here to building something that involved winning, not just doing this job to do this job or some perception of what could be deemed doing this job well -- building a farm system or finishing .500, I don't know -- going deep into the playoffs and winning a World Series. That's not done. We're not even close to that yet.”

Since Hazen was hired after the 2016 season, the D-backs have been to the playoffs twice. They were a Wild Card team in 2017 and advanced to the NL Division Series. This year, they once again captured a Wild Card spot.

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The D-backs were in postseason contention in both 2018 and 2019, finishing with an above-.500 record both years.

Things, though, bottomed out in 2021 when they lost 110 games. It would have been easy at that point for D-backs ownership to let Hazen go, but they did not. Hazen has not forgotten their support through the hard times.

“It makes it so much more rewarding today when you know you made that decision,” Hall said of keeping Hazen. “And we could have made changes. We of course had conversations about making changes. But we thought at the end of the day we had the right people in place. And I think it's proven to be true.”

Just as important as his own deal, Hazen also got contract extensions for his two chief lieutenants, assistant GMs Amiel Sawdaye and Mike Fitzgerald.

“I'm even more appreciative that Fitz and Amiel got taken care of the way they did,” Hazen said. “And the trust they showed in those two guys who are the backbone of what we do, who are literally the reason we have been successful to this point -- those two guys and the people underneath in our front office. And I think that's going to pay long-term dividends for the organization.”