Arizona's Cautionary Tale

In 2014, Arizona hired a baseball legend in Tony La Russa to oversee their baseball ops department as chief officer. Creating this position, rather than simply hiring a new general manager, is the same route that Minnesota reportedly plans to take.

Later that year, La Russa hired Dave Stewart to become the new D-backs GM. Stewart was an against-the-grain hiring with no meaningful previous connections to the franchise. As a former All-Star hurler who went on to work as a pitching coach (among other things) following his retirement, Stewart looked like a fine choice to overhaul the roster and rebuild the pitching staff.

The Diamondbacks went 79-83 in 2015, their first year under the Stewart/La Russa regime. Their high-powered offense ranked second in the NL in scoring but was held back by a sub-par rotation, so Arizona decided to go all-in on pitching during the offseason.

And I mean all-in.

In December, the D-backs stunned the baseball world by signing free agent Zack Greinke to a massive contract approaching $200 million in total value. The very next day, they pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade, acquiring 25-year-old Shelby Miller in exchange for a gaudy prospect package headlined by last June's No. 1 overall draft pick Dansby Swanson.

In theory, Arizona had just picked up two starting pitchers to slot at the very top of their rotation, expending massive resources in order to do so. And the results?

Well, you're probably aware. Greinke owns a 4.54 ERA, which would be his worst since 2005 if it sticks, and Miller has gone 2-10 with a 6.81 ERA in 15 starts sandwiching a two-month demotion to Triple-A.

Despite enlisting a brand new front office structure, despite drafting arms heavily for years (seven of Arizona's last eight first-round selections prior to Swanson were pitchers), and despite making perhaps the most aggressive series of moves to acquire high-end pitching ever... the Diamondbacks find themselves in fourth place. They've somehow allowed as many runs as the Twins.

Local fans can surely see some staggered parallels between the two franchises. Obviously the Twins aren't going to enter the offseason with a mindset that they're a couple arms away from being a World Series contender, but their need to upgrade the rotation is equally urgent if not more so.

Arizona's postseason drought does not extend as far Minnesota's, nor does their record of consistently terrible pitching results. While the Twins' new head of baseball ops will not come in facing the kind of win-now directive that La Russa evidently felt, there will be pressure to orchestrate a big move or two and give fans some reason to believe that a vastly better product is in store for 2017.

But as the D-backs and their new front office have illustrated, big moves aren't always a good thing. What's important is making the right moves. The Twins, under Terry Ryan, didn't do that often enough to dig out of their lengthy era of horrendous play.

Here's hoping the new crew can do it, and that they can look ahead to better outcomes than the embattled bunch down in the desert.