D-Backs' Stewart blasts critics of Ziegler deal
Dave Stewart used to stare down opposing hitters from the pitcher's mound. Now he's turning that trademark glare towards some angry rival executives.
Scathing criticism was lobbied towards the Arizona Diamondbacks general manager from some of his peers after he traded reliever Brad Ziegler to the Boston Red Sox for two lower-level minor-leaguers earlier this month. The rivals, also interested in Ziegler, claimed Stewart had far better offers on the table than what he ended up taking.
One anonymous executive even told baseball insider Peter Gammons that D-Backs president Tony La Russa may have engineered the deal to help Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox president who worked with his Arizona counterpart in the 1980s with the White Sox.
"I don't mess around," Stewart told Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports about his rationale behind taking Boston's offer. "If it makes sense, I’m going to do the deal."
Stewart also took the opportunity to defend La Russa and his role in the team's transactions, noting the final say on all trades belongs to the GM, not the club president.
"Tony would not compromise the organization by settling for a player who doesn't make sense," Stewart continued. "You're talking about the integrity of the man. And I'm the GM, so you're talking about the integrity of two men."
La Russa shed some light on how the deal, consummated in the early hours of the morning on the east coast, took shape quickly, and fired a shot at the angry executives by saying Boston's two prospects stood out from the other offers.
"Dave Stewart and our group were doing our due diligence, you know, we thought there was a chance that we could do something for Ziegler," the Hall of Fame manager told the "Doug and Wolf Show" on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Wednesday. "The clubs that are complaining, we looked at their prospects and there weren't anything there that we liked for Ziegler.
"And all of a sudden Dave comes up with two guys that we think have potential to play in the big leagues and it was an urgency because they just lost (Craig) Kimbrel."
The Diamondbacks received pitcher Jose Almonte and infielder Luis Alejandro Basabe, both playing at Single-A, in exchange for Ziegler.