National Outlet Says D-backs Wish They Could Trade for This Position

The Arizona Diamondbacks, despite selling so heavily at the deadline, have continued to make noise and push for a playoff spot.

While those playoff hopes are thin and only getting thinner, it's been remarkable to see just how well a team of young, inexperienced hitters and pitchers have been able to put together a hot stretch of baseball.

But one position in particular might be the thinnest on Arizona's roster — at least, from a hitting perspective.

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller took a look at one trade every MLB team wishes they could make at their current point. Though the Deadline is long passed, the D-backs' necessity was quite clear: a first baseman.

Outlet Says Arizona Diamondbacks Should Make Trade for First Baseman

Here's what Miller had to say about Arizona's first base position:

"Despite unloading all of Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Merrill Kelly, Shelby Miller and Randal Grichuk ahead of the trade deadline, the Arizona Diamondbacks have gone 26-16 in their last 42 games, gaining 9.5 games on the New York Mets for what is now just a 1.5-game deficit.

"How very "2024 Detroit Tigers" of the Snakes, but they do still have some peccadillos, the biggest of which is their first base situation since shipping Naylor to Seattle.

"They've gone from Tristin English to Tyler Locklear to Pavin Smith to what is now a timeshare between Tim Tawa and Ildemaro Vargas. None of it has stuck to the wall, and they surely would've held onto Naylor if they had any inkling that this revival was forthcoming," Miller wrote.

Certainly, Naylor has been quite productive with his new club, and Locklear was anything but consistent before he went down with season-ending injuries. Smith is also down with an injury and battled some underperformance this season.

Arizona's current iteration of the first base position ranks 28th out of 30 MLB clubs in FanGraphs WAR (0.0), hitting a collective .244/.300/.373 — not much for a position that's generally power-focused.

The issue is Locklear has not had much major league run. He hit to a mere .532 OPS in 165 plate appearances with Arizona this season, but still has yet to put forward a full MLB season.

It seems unlikely that GM Mike Hazen is looking to give up on Locklear — who is still only 24 years old. Platooning him alongside a veteran left-handed hitter seems the most likely, but whether or not that lefty is Smith or not becomes the question.

Arizona will find itself in a similar position to the 2024 offseason in terms of their first base production. Whether they choose to add or put full faith in their in-house options remains to be seen.

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