ST. LOUIS -- Buy, sell or hold? That’s the dilemma still facing D-backs general manager Mike Hazen with just over two weeks until the July 31 Trade Deadline, the final chance for clubs to make deals, as there is no longer an August waiver-trade period.

“You don’t necessarily, at the start of the season, envision this being sort of your decision window, but it is what it is,” Hazen said. “You’ve got to make decisions on what you’re seeing.”

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The D-backs began Saturday just a half-game behind the Phillies for the second National League Wild Card spot, and how they play over the next 10 days will go a long way toward what moves Hazen makes.

“I think we’ve played pretty well here the last four games,” Hazen said before Saturday’s game against the Cardinals. “The starting pitching has been very good. The bullpen has been good. We’ll see where it goes. We still have our work cut out for us with the schedule we have in front of us and the competition in the National League, a couple of games could push things in a direction one way or the other.”

If the D-backs continue to play well, Hazen will look to add maybe even a rental piece as long as he doesn’t have to part with prized prospects from a farm system that is still being rebuilt.

If they go through a losing stretch, Hazen could look to trade players who are free agents at season’s end, like closer Greg Holland. Or Hazen could look to move some of the players who are going to be free agents after next season, like outfielder David Peralta and left-hander Robbie Ray.

The D-backs have a number of players in the same contractual situation as Peralta and Ray -- infielder Jake Lamb and shortstop Nick Ahmed, for instance -- and in order to set their roster up better for the future, they will have to look at either moving some of those players for players with more contractual control, or possibly exploring contract extensions.

In the meantime, while Hazen is not sure what direction he’s going to go, he continues to explore both avenues so that when he finally does decide he can move quickly.

“I think we’re going to stay engaged with every team,” he said. “We’re going to keep talking. We’re going to kick around ideas. I still think we have challenges in front of us long term that we need to address. Our roster as it’s currently situated, there’s a lot of guys that have one-plus years of control. I think we need to figure out what the roster is going to look like after that point.”