Taking stock of San Diego Padres NL West competition: Arizona Diamondbacks

Halfway through the offseason we stop to take a look at how the San Diego Padres’ competition in the NL West is stacking up. Here we look at the Arizona Diamondbacks.

We know the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers will be fighting to make the postseason in 2020. But another team seems to be making a push of their own this offseason.

Going into the offseason it seemed like the Arizona Diamondbacks were going to start a rebuild, but recent moves seem to point to the opposite.

After trading away their two best players this past year in Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke, I thought for sure they were going to tear it down.

But then they went out and signed Madison Bumgarner to a five-year deal. Earlier in the offseason they also signed catcher Stephen Vogt.

And it’s been reported that they’ve signed Kole Calhoun to a two-year deal.

Those moves tell me they feel like they can reach the postseason in 2020 and possibly in the years following.

They still need a center fielder or second baseman, and they could probably use another starting pitcher and bullpen help before we start talking postseason contention.

Some of their key players like David Peralta and Robbie Ray will be free agents after the season, so maybe they are going to go for it to start 2020 and then if they don’t feel like they have a real shot they’ll try to flip those assets for prospects to rebuild.

I do like their top four-to-five in the lineup with Ketel Marte being an MVP-type player.

My biggest question is in the rotation. After Bumgarner and Ray there are some quality arms, but they all are very big question marks.

Maybe if Luke Weaver, Zac Gallen, or Jon Duplantier take a step forward they could possibly compete for the division.

They did win 85 games last year and finished just four games back of the second NL Wild Card spot.

Arizona will definitely be a tough team play in 2020, but I still don’t think they’re close to competing with the Dodgers for the division and their offseason moves seem short-sighted.

The Padres will be in direct competition with the Diamondbacks for a Wild Card spot in 2020.