D-backs GM Mike Hazen Bluntly Addresses Keeping Torey Lovullo

On Monday, reports surfaced that the Arizona Diamondbacks were electing to retain manager Torey Lovullo for the 2026 season.

After a brutally disappointing 2025 season, many fans were less than ecstatic about such a decision. Arizona's 80-82 record undeniably warrants frustration.

But the evaluation of a baseball manager is not as simple as wins and losses, and executives and owners alike do not view managers in the same way fans do on social media.

More: D-backs Owner Ken Kendrick Explains Keeping Torey Lovullo

In his end-of-season press conference, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen explained his evaluation of the job done by Lovullo, and why the decision was made to retain him for 2026.

Arizona Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen Explains Keeping Torey Lovullo

Hazen was sure to acknowledge and emphasize that wins and losses are an important measuring stick, but took responsibility for the shortcomings of Arizona's roster and praised the job Lovullo was able to do with limited resources.

"I'm aware that a lot of what happens during the course of a season falls on the manager producing wins. We're in charge of winning baseball games, period. It's black and white, both of us," Hazen said.

"I can't give him a bad roster and then tell him to go out there and win 90 games. I felt like from the engagement to the coaching to the pushing of the players to where they needed to go, I thought he did a good job. I do."

When it comes to managerial evaluations, it goes deeper than in-game pitching decisions, especially in a bizarre and injury-riddled season like 2025. Hazen cited some of the less tangible factors at play.

"I think he's a really good manager. The relationships he has with our players, the emergence of a star shortstop... those are the building blocks of things in my mind that aren't just seen out on the field," Hazen said.

"There's a lot here that Torey does so well that puts our players in a position to have success and be confident and feel good about what they're doing on a daily basis. It's also on me to provide him with the resources to go out there and win baseball games, and I did not do that this year."

Hazen said that if the D-backs' roster had stayed "together and healthy," the evaluation of Lovullo's performance might have been more concrete — focused more on wins and losses or playoff success.

He also said he has to take into account the success of 2023 and 2024 as well when looking at Lovullo's overall body of work. The GM noted that making changes simply for the sake of change is not conducive to objective evaluation.

"If I just start flipping coins as to who's here in front of our players and what they're going to bring to the table, then I don't know what I'm evaluating because I don't know what I'm going to have on a daily basis to when we come down and we actually have to make adjustments to things.

"I'm not sitting here saying either one of us did a good job this year from the wins and losses perspective, but I think at the Trade Deadline when I sold off half of his roster... I never got one complaint about the team that was going out there to play today.

"It was always about 'we're going to go out and win a baseball game,' and we did a lot of that. So I am proud of those things, and those are the things that I respect and appreciate in the job that I know he has to do that is very difficult on a daily basis," Hazen said.

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