Diamondbacks looking for starting pitching via trade

Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart has stated that the club will likely not be players for any of the upper-echelon free agent starting pitchers. Rather than go the free agency route, Arizona is focused on the trade market for their potential starting pitching upgrade:

"If we can clearly improve our team, then I’m not hesitant to make a trade. I don’t know that we will or that we won’t. What I know is that there’s some clubs out there that we’ve had some conversations with that includes pitching, pretty good pitching. It’s a matter of if we can make it happen or not."

Stewart said that the discussions he’s had in the past about acquiring starting pitching did not revolve around Arizona’s shortstop surplus.

In addition to Didi Gregorius, the Diamondbacks have both Chris Owings and Nick Ahmed as big league shortstop options.

Thoughts:

It’s interesting that Stewart’s discussions with other clubs about starting pitching have not revolved around their excess of shortstops.

If a deal is to be worked out with the Mets, it would almost certainly have to be with a shortstop coming to Queens.

While Nick Ahmed’s name has come up as a potential fit, the Mets should really only be asking about Didi Gregorius (plus glove, plus pop) and Chris Owings (Arizona’s best overall shortstop).

Regardless of what the Diamondbacks say in public, the common sense move is for them to deal either Gregorius or Owings between now and the start of the season.

Would the Mets deal a pitcher such as Jon Niese for an unproven commodity like Gregorius or Owings? Perhaps not, making Dillon Gee or Rafael Montero a better piece for the Mets to attempt to revolve a deal around.

The big question, is whether Arizona is prepared to be rational during potential negotiations.