The Pool Shot: Understanding the Zack Greinke Signing, and Where the D-backs Go From Here

The six year, $206 million terms agreed on between the D-backs and Zack Greinke is a shock. The fact that Zack Greinke signed with the D-backs at all is a shock. But the signing is not hard to understand. Due to the talent levels of players up and down the roster, it was going to be very hard to upgrade this team in any way other than with very good pitching — in the rotation most of all. It was also critical that the D-backs actually upgrade this team — they’ve already committed to this 2016-2017 hand of poker. From a practical standpoint, they were already all-in.

It’s just that they still had money to spend. On this episode of The Pool Shot, we started off talking about the uniforms, including whether or not they actually create a competitive advantage. From there on, we get into reaction to the Greinke signing and all of the many things that means, including where the D-backs go from here.

We bounced around a lot, with the help of some great questions. Among the topics we worked through:

• Whether the D-backs are still in need of upgrades, and where those could be
• Whether a Sonny Gray trade could still make sense, including a great @coldblueAZ comment on whether a Gray / A.J. Pollock swap could make sense
• The possibility of upgrades by trade, given the assets the team can move (thanks, @MythicalBen)
• Whether Kenta Maeda could still be a target, and whether he should be (thanks, @Nopich)
• In light of the Offseason Plan conclusion that Scott Kazmir was a great fit in part because of expected contract length, whether he still makes sense given the changing starting pitcher market
• The D-backs’ starting pitching surplus, and what to do with it
• Revisiting the Touki Toussaint sale (thanks, @JHGrimm)
• Payroll considerations for 2016 and for the end of the Contention Window, and whether the team has to be overly vigilant in limiting spending with complementary players
• An A.J. Pollock extension strategy
• Whether Yasmany Tomas must or should be traded, and whether Paul Goldschmidt will be a lifetime D-back (thanks, @MSteill)
• How the post-Contention Window period affects the team now (thanks, @SThompson20)

And, yes, @dbacks4life13 — although we did question reality throughout this episode, it does in fact look like this is real life.

Thanks for all the Twitter questions, everyone. Anything we missed, we’ll get next time. Tons of great thoughts, and that’s what makes baseball so, so amazing. Remember: if you have something that would be interesting to work through, you don’t need to wait for us to solicit questions — just shoot a tweet @thepoolshot, and we’ll have it handy for the next episode.

Baseball! #lovetheteal