Something had to be done.
The Arizona Diamondbacks had two of the three necessary pieces to the playoff puzzle. They had the offense. They had the fielding.
But that third and possibly most important piece -- starting pitching -- was sorely lacking. Arizona's starting pitching had a combined 4.37 ERA last season, the eighth-worst mark among all 30 teams.
D-backs President and CEO Derrick Hall knew this was a situation that needed to be addressed, and he acted accordingly. In December, he signed arguably the best pitcher in baseball in Zack Greinke, and adding another outstanding starter in Shelby Miller via a trade with the Atlanta Braves.
"We knew that with our offense from last year and a top-three, top-two defense, our big hole to fill was really starting pitching," Hall told ABC15.
The D-backs won the 2001 World Series behind not one, but two aces in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Hall is trying to follow that same model in 2016.
Greinke and Miller give the D-backs one of the top one-two pitching punches in baseball -- and with the return of left-hander Patrick Corbin following an injury that required Tommy John surgery, Hall believes Arizona's starting rotation will be significantly improved.
"We went out and we get Zack, and we didn't want to just do one (starting pitcher signing); we wanted to do two," he said.
"So we of course made the acquisition and made the moves to bring in Shelby Miller, and along with a healthy Patrick Corbin, it just makes our rotation that much better."
