{"id":28741,"date":"2020-02-07T02:21:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T07:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=28741"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:27:23","slug":"diamondbacks-dodgers-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/02\/07\/diamondbacks-dodgers-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Diamondbacks Possible Threat to Los Angeles Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Arizona Diamondbacks Possible Threat to Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/arizona-diamondbacks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> appear to have been having quite the MLB offseason, following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/barrymbloom\/2019\/12\/16\/madison-bumgarner-signs-with-arizona-diamondbacks-shifting-balance-in-nl-west\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signing of<\/a> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bumgama01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Madison Bumgarner<\/a><\/strong> as a free agent. That signing was reportedly for a five-year period at $85 million. Not only that, but the Diamondbacks went even further by bringing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rondohe01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hector Rondon<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/calhoko01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kole Calhoun<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vogtst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Vogt<\/a><\/strong> to their rankings, amongst a selection of others.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t end there either, because the Diamondbacks then reportedly traded <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/martest01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Starling Marte<\/a><\/strong> in a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, sending them two prospects and $250,000 in international signing bonus pool money. Prior to that trade, Marte had spent the entire eight years of his career with the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>With such offseason moves, MLB pundits have found themselves becoming quite enamoured with the Diamondbacks. In fact, it has led to some singling out the team as being a highly legitimate threat to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-dodgers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, who have long been the favoured team in NL West. Pundit Richard Justice even went as far as to say that the acquisition of Marte was the \u201cfinal touch on another tremendous offseason by D-backs baseball boss Mike Hazen\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, baseball is one of those games that has plenty of focus put on it by online sports betting sites. 22bet, for example, is one such sportsbooks that finds itself taking many wagers on the outcomes of games in the MLB. That could be due to the favourable odds that it provides, or the range of games available to bet on.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>More Pundits Hype the Diamondbacks<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t only been Justice that has been praising the offseason moves of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Even Buster Olney said that since Mike Hazen took over the baseball operations for the team, he has made significant changes and gained the respect of front offices within the industry. Unlike a lot of other teams, he said, \u201cthe Diamondbacks didn\u2019t tank. They\u2019ve addressed payroll issues, moving beyond <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goldspa01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Goldschmidt<\/a><\/strong> and moving past <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greinza01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Greinke<\/a><\/strong>, but they have stayed competitive\u201d. He went on to say that he believes the Diamondbacks are the biggest threat in the National League West when compared to the Dodgers.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Bernstein called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/diamondbacks-acquire-starling-marte-from-pirates-in-three-player-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traded Starling Marte<\/a> an \u201cimportant ingredient in a potential 90-win campaign and wild card berth\u201d. Meanwhile, pundit Jayson Stark said that he just likes Arizona\u2019s offseason. \u201cIt feels like they\u2019ve been dropping pieces into a puzzle\u201d, he commented to <em>MLB Now<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The likelihood is that once the offseason is over, the Arizona Diamondbacks will be quite the focus for many who take notice of the NL West division. With the teams\u2019 acquisitions and trades, it will be the game plan of many to see just how impressive they can be, and also, whether they\u2019re actually able to defeat the Dodgers, too.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"L6ferbGYSjpxhl7eMgET0w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1140107484\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'L6ferbGYSjpxhl7eMgET0w',sig:'1fQCbg9wHEbk3uniFfwqe6ryKh3glw4zCvBn3THVAps=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1140107484',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona Diamondbacks Possible Threat to Los Angeles Dodgers The Arizona Diamondbacks appear to have been having quite the MLB offseason, following the signing of Madison Bumgarner as a free agent. That signing was reportedly for a five-year period at $85 million. Not only that, but the Diamondbacks went even further by bringing Hector Rondon, Kole [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1675,"featured_media":28742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,33,1071],"tags":[326,1462,533,92,78,489,612,907],"class_list":["post-28741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diamondbacks","category-dodgers","category-mlb","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-hector-rondon","tag-kole-calhoun","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-madison-bumgarner","tag-mike-hazen","tag-starling-marte","tag-stephen-vogt"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116451,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28741\/revisions\/116451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}