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Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen spent last week at the annual GM Meetings in San Antonio meeting with his colleagues and player agents as he starts to get a feel for potential trade fits and what the market might be for some players he has interest in signing.

One thing that stood out to him was the interest other teams showed in his outfielders.

"I don't know what's out there for center fielders, because we were hit pretty aggressively on our outfielders," Hazen said. "We got hit on a number of our other players, which I won't get into specifically, but nothing out of the ordinary."

The Diamondbacks have a couple of main priorities this offseason: add depth to the back end of the bullpen and fortify the offense.

The first area is obvious, given that Arizona didn't have a designated closer once now-free agent Paul Sewald was removed from the role in August.

The Diamondbacks do have some intriguing arms at the back end in fireballing right-hander Justin Martinez and lefty A.J. Puk, who was a steal for Hazen at the Trade Deadline. They also have Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Joe Mantiply, all of whom pitched in key roles in 2024.

But projecting reliever performance from year to year is difficult, so the more options Hazen can assemble, the better. Whether that means he would go after a free agent or try to get an upside arm in a trade remains to be seen.

At first glance, improving the offense seems strange for a team that led the Majors in runs scored last year with 886, 44 ahead of the World Series-winning Dodgers.

However, first baseman Christian Walker is a free agent, and unless he accepts the qualifying offer or works out a long-term deal, he and his 25 homers and 121 OPS+ will be somewhere else next year.

Walker isn't the only D-backs player that is likely to depart, as designated hitters Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk both declined their player options and became free agents. The pair was a formidable platoon at DH, with Pederson putting up a .908 OPS and 151 OPS+ while starting primarily against righties and Grichuk (.875 OPS, 140 OPS+) doing similar damage against lefties.

That's a lot of offensive production that will need to be replaced, but as Hazen showed by signing the pair of DHs as free agents last year, it can be done.

Hazen has not said what he expects the Opening Day payroll to be. Last year the club set a record in that regard, when it started the year with around $175 million in payroll.

If the payroll stays similar, it would leave Arizona with about $30-40 million to spend this winter. Whatever the figure ends up being, Hazen said it will be enough to ensure that the Diamondbacks can once again compete for the postseason next year.

In 2023, with a lower payroll than in 2024, Arizona made it all the way to the World Series. In 2024, the Diamondbacks increased their win total by five, but lost regular-season tiebreakers to the Mets and Braves to fall just shy of the postseason.

"We're looking to put our team back together to make another run at the playoffs," Hazen said. "I still feel like our team is in a position to go out and win, so we're going to behave appropriately to try and do that. I don't care about payroll. It's irrelevant to me. That doesn't change my perspective on us being able to go out and compete. I get it, the Yankees and Dodgers made the World Series this year, but that's not what happened last year, so I don't care about payroll, honestly."

In addition to having some money to spend, Hazen does have a couple of areas he can trade from in the outfield and starting rotation.

With center fielders in demand across the league, the D-backs have two in Jake McCarthy and Alek Thomas that have drawn a lot of interest. Arizona has the outfield depth to deal McCarthy or Thomas, given the presence of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Corbin Carroll and Pavin Smith.

Two years ago, they dealt Daulton Varsho from their outfield surplus to acquire catcher Gabriel Moreno. This time around, maybe they make a deal to fill a potential void left by Walker at first.

With Jordan Montgomery exercising his player option, the Diamondbacks have six starters for 2025 in Montgomery, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson. While you can never have too much rotation depth, the D-backs do have budding talents like Drey Jameson (who is returning from Tommy John surgery), Tommy Henry, No. 26 prospect Blake Walston and Slade Cecconi among their younger pitchers.

"Trading a starter may complicate the depth issue," Hazen said. "So, we'll have to weigh that in anything that we're doing, but we would think about a trade if it helped us fill other holes."

Stay tuned. The Hot Stove season is just getting warmed up.