New Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart has done one hell of a job remaking his club this offseason, adding Cuban star Yasmany Tomas and this morning, Cuban pitching phenom Yoan Lopez. But Stewart has his eye on one of the other top prizes left out there this winter – former Royals starter James Shields.
Sources: #DBacks in mix for Shields, a strong indication that his market is not at $100M; AZ is not willing to spend for him at that level.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 13, 2015
Shields did not want to go to team that made $110M offer, source tells me and @jonmorosi. An NL GM had speculated that, per @nickcafardo.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 13, 2015
Shields and Max Scherzer are the two major free agent dominoes that still haven’t fallen, and Arizona would be an interesting fir for Shields. Stewart has managed to pare Arizona’s payroll down to $67 million (excluding arb raises for Jeremy Hellickson, Addison Reed, and Mark Trumbo) from $112 million last season, and given the improvements made by the Padres this winter, the club will need to do more in order to rise higher than fourth place in the NL West.
The Diamondbacks could also use starting pitching, which is why Shields makes so much sense for them. As constructed right now, Arizona’s rotation would consist of only two holdovers from a year ago (Josh Collmenter, Trevor Cahill) and three new faces (Hellickson, Rubby de la Rosa, Allen Webster). Needless to say, a second-tier starter like Shields would help them out a lot, even if his price would be pretty high.
