Just two weeks after firing General Manager Dave Stewart, the Arizona Diamondbacks have found their replacement: now former Red Sox GM Mike Hazen. Hazen will be Arizona’s general manager and executive vice president.
Hazen had worked for the Red Sox dating back to 2006, having a number of different roles in the system. About 13 months ago, he was promoted to Red Sox general manager, around the time Dave Dombrowski arrived as President of Baseball Operations. Both Hazen and Dombrowski shared power during that 13 month span.
Losing Hazen is a big blow on Boston’s side. He’s been around the team for ten years and played a big role, no matter where he was working at any given time. He knows the organization so well and has been through a lot. It’ll be difficult to find a fitting replacement at the GM position for the Red Sox.
As for Arizona, this is a great move. They acquired a great guy. The first thing Hazen has to do for the Diamondbacks is find a manager. One top candidate may be current Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo. Lovullo filled in as manager when John Farrell left the team in the second half of the 2015 season due to cancer. Hazen got a pretty good look at Lovullo in that time span, so who knows what might happen.
Hazen’s next task is to find pieces to make this current Diamondbacks team competitive again. They really don’t have to rebuild; they have guys like Greinke, Goldschmidt, Pollock, etc., they just need to add outside pieces to restructure the team a little bit. Though, this may not happen right away, if Hazen doesn’t want to win right away, which is totally possible.
Lastly, Arizona has a history of having a stubborn front office/ownership, and these types of relationships typically don’t last long, so again, who knows how long this will work out. Hazen is one of many Diamondbacks GM’s in the last few years, but maybe he sticks around for a while. Nonetheless, Arizona has a great guy, and it’d be dumb to let him go any time soon, unless they absolutely have to.
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