SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- When he took over as general manager prior to the 2017 season, Mike Hazen talked about the importance of building a strong farm system.
That's of course what every organization tries to do, but Hazen made sure the front office was laser focused on building up a steady pipeline of talent.
In 2020, the D-backs began to get a glimpse of some of the prospects drafted or signed by the club in infielder/outfielder Pavin Smith and catcher/center fielder Daulton Varsho.
"It's something that we have to be really, really good at," Hazen said of drafting and development. "Having good young players is going to be a key to our long-term success. Our scouting guys both internationally and domestically have done a really good job and you know we're starting to see those picks that we started with in 2017 start to matriculate onto the Major League club and that's hopefully just the starting point."
The D-backs’ system now ranks 9th in the Majors according to MLB Pipeline and while Hazen will take the opportunity to compliment his scouting and development staffs, the organization has a bigger prize in mind.
"I've said before, I don't see the farm system ranking in itself as a goal," Hazen said. "Our goal is to have good players coming up through our system and on our Major League club and we're starting to see that. So that has to continue. It can never stop. You can never be mediocre at it."
One of the biggest things the D-backs have valued at the big league level is positional versatility.
As a small-to-mid market team, Arizona loves the flexibility players who can play multiple positions bring. In order to have that with the Major League team, it has to start with drafting and development.
So, the D-backs target athletic players who man up-the-middle positions believing that if a player can play shortstop or center field, they can easily play others.
While Smith wasn't a middle of the diamond player, the scouts recognized there was potential that he could play other positions and the development staff helped bring that out of him. Now he's a first baseman who can also play both corners and probably even center field in a pinch.
Varsho was an athletic catcher, who has learned to play all three outfield positions as well.
"We've always known they could hit," Hazen said of Smith and Varsho. "They've taken their defensive versatility and translated into success at the Minor League level and ultimately will at the Major League level."
The D-backs have spent some of their top picks on pitching in the past couple of drafts, nabbing guys like left-hander Blake Walston and right-handers Slade Cecconi and Bryce Jarvis, all three of whom are in the team's Top 10.
Glancing through the Top 30, you'll find it loaded with power arms that the D-backs will give chances to develop as starters, but knowing that their stuff also makes them potentially valuable bullpen pieces.
"We know that pitching is something we need a lot of to build the farm system that we want," Hazen said. "We want to have those young pitchers coming up onto the Major League team as well, mostly impacting us as much as possible in the starting rotation. And that's where we spent a lot of our last couple Drafts hoping to build up our pitching infrastructure the best we can."