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With his team in the middle of the National League Wild Card race, D-backs GM Mike Hazen was determined to improve his team before Tuesday's 3 p.m. MST Trade Deadline, which he did Thursday night when he acquired left-handed reliever A.J. Puk from the Marlins.

Puk gives the D-backs a second left-hander in the bullpen to complement Joe Mantiply, and he adds to an already talented back end of the bullpen in Paul Sewald, Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Justin Martinez.

And Hazen is likely not done adding.

“This hopefully isn’t the only thing we do,” Hazen said. “You never know what else is going to come around the corner, but we're still going to work pretty hard for the next four days to figure out if there's other ways to make the team better.”

Bullpen help was at the top of Hazen’s shopping list, and if he can add another reliever, he probably will, but it isn’t the only spot he’s looking at.

Hazen is in a challenging spot when it comes to deciding whether to add a starting pitcher. The D-backs’ current rotation consists of Zac Gallen, Brandon Pfaadt, Jordan Montgomery (who just returned from right knee inflammation), Ryne Nelson and Yilber Diaz.

If that were it, starting pitching would probably have been a priority for Hazen, but that doesn’t paint a full picture.

Right-hander Merrill Kelly and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez are working their way back from injury and could return in August. Add those two to the rotation, and suddenly, not only does the starting staff improve, it also gets deeper, allowing for some injury protection and/or the option of moving a starter to the bullpen.

The dilemma is twofold. First, there’s no guarantee one of the pitchers won’t suffer a setback. Second, some pitchers have fared better than others when missing as much time as Kelly and Rodriguez. Kelly has been out since April; Rodriguez hasn’t thrown a pitch in the regular season.

“I'm probably going to have to roll the dice and not acquire a starting pitcher, and just trust that based on how they're doing,” Hazen said.

With that in mind, Hazen has been to the team’s Spring Training complex a few times to watch the pair throw bullpens and check in.

“Part of me is going to trust that they're coming back in a reasonable window of time,” Hazen said. “And frankly, Montgomery, E-Rod and Merrill pitching at their best, there's not that many guys on the market right now that are truly available, in my mind, that are better than those guys.”

Hazen will monitor the pitching market, but if he does pursue a starter, it will be one with multiple years of control, like Puk, who is under team control through 2026.