By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024 & Jeff Kleiner (Org Depth + Payroll Expert – find his website here) Follow @prosportsroster

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The Diamondbacks brass hit a proverbial HR, when they extended Paul Goldschmidt to a 5 YRs/$32 MIL deal prior to the 2013 campaign.

The Then 25 Year Old finished runner up to the NL MVP Voting, and likely would have won it based on his .302/.401/.551 year with an NL leading 36 HRs, 125 RBI, (he also led in Slugging, OPS and Scored 103 Runs.)

Having a franchise player for the next 4 years at such a feasible rate in terms of payroll enables them to do so many things with their salary structure.

The club added Bronson Arroyo (2 YRs, min $23.5 MIL – or 3 YRs/$30 MIL), were able to deal for Mark Trumbo (who entered 1st Year of Arbitration at $4.8 MIL in 2014) and recently signed Reliever Oliver Perez to a modest 2 YRs/$4.25 MIL deal.

Goldschmidt led the NL in both HRs (tied with Alvarez) – and also had 16 more RBI (125) than the next guy (Jay Bruce at 109). The 26 Year Old from Wilmington. Delaware also was narrowly eeked out of winning the NL MVP Voting, The big 1B still took home a Silver Slugger Award, and a Gold Glove to add to his amazing season. The Dbacks brass were wise enough to extend him after his nice 2012 year. The deal was for 5 YRs/$32 MIL, but better yet, he earns just $1.1 MIL for his 2014 Salary. An outstanding contract that has enabled the franchise flexibility to sign other players.

But really, this club will also be competitive for the next five years because of their young Starting Pitching that have barely started their Arbitration clocks.

The franchise also has many of its key players locked for multi-year contracts.

This list includes Miguel Montero and Trevor Cahill  (signed til 2017), Martin Prado, Aaron Hill, Cody Ross and Brad Ziegler potentially all being inked through the 2016 season.

With the exception of Ziegler, most of these guys range from $9 MIL – $12 MIL per annum.

When you add in the Arroyo and Trumbo factors, (both being under Team Control til 2016), added with most of the young pitchers like Wade Miley, Patrick Corbin and Addison Reed, and they will be all nearing Free Agency, or becoming quite expensive by the 2016 year.

As far as Free Agents after this year are concerned, Brandon McCarthy and J.J. Putz are on the list with Reliever Joe Thatcher.  Losing these three guys may sting the staff a little, but could be replaced internally cheaper afterwards.

The Trumbo factor will be one that will require diligence in the next few years, as he will hit the open market by 2017.

The brass has to decide whether it would be worth extending him long-term, or potentially trading him down the road.  The upcoming year will be crucial to the new DBacks OF.

There is also good news in the squad owning Team Options for Ross, Ziegler, Arroyo and Cahill in the 2016 seasons, meaning they could manage their payroll accordingly should one of them drop their production.

Gerardo Parra is also eligible for one more year for Arbitration – before he will be a Free Agent in 2016.  This year, he is 2nd Year Eligble, and will make $4.9 MIL.

I am thinking by 2016, the franchise may work on signing him long-term, and maybe decline the near $10 MIL option for Ross.

The team has 8 players right now that make $7 MIL or more this year, however none of them top over $11 MIL Prado and Hill will make this season.

Goldschmidt only makes $1.1 MIL for the 2014 year, although his AAV is nearly $6.4 MIL from 2014 – 2018.  Based on this fact, the club has more liquid cash for transactions.

The Desert Snakes are sitting on a Team Payroll of nearly $110 MIL.  It less than half of the Dodgers Payroll, and trails the Giants by a $40 MIL clip, however they are spending way more than the Padres and Rockies are to compete.

Kevin Towers should be commended on a great job of orchestrating the terms of these deals, to be spread out over time, be team friendly for right now, and the players have rewarded him with a Division Title in 20111, followed by a couple of .500 season following that.

But the team has reset and flipped over a lot of the core players that were part of that team, have become younger, with the right amount of Veteran Leadership – and have a fighters chance in a tough NL West featuring both payroll powerhouses of the Dodgers and Giants.

The team has transitioned from Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, Dan Haren, Stephen Drew, Chris Young and Ian Kennedy to new players like Goldschmidt, Trumbo, Miley. Corbin, Prado, Thatcher, Didi Gregorius and potentially Chris Owings, while holdovers Parra, Montero and HIll remain as part of both clubs.

Hopefully the management can see the team get off to a fast start, and ultimately add a few more pieces to the postseason push in 2014.

One thing that is noteworthy, is that the Chase Field faithful (despite finishing 14th in NL attendance during the 2013 year), still surpassed the 2 MIllion fans plateau for the 16th straight season to start a franchise.

Arizona GM Kevin Towers has done a nice job in transitioning his team to a younger core of players, and has them all making about the same amount of money, with the majority of his roster intact for the next 3 years. This team should be able to compete in the NL West, despite having big market clubs such as the Dodgers and Giants spending vast more amounts of cash on their teams.  The D’Backs have had back to back .500 years after their 2011 Division win.

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Other Authors for this post:

Jeff Kleiner:  “I have been a sports fan since the first Baseball game I went to at Comisky Park in Chicago in 1959, when baseball for me turned from black and white to color.

I have attended or watched thousands of games, always paying attention to statistics, rosters and salaries of all professional sports.

Luckily I had the advantage of watching WGN TV and seeing hundreds of games in the 60’s. Collecting Baseball Cards and then later dealing them gave me an extra sense of the sport, both good and bad.”

For all of your Salaries, Roster and Depth Charts for all 4 Major Sports (entire organization – Minors and Majors) click here or Follow Me on twitter  Follow @prosportsroster

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