Nick Piecoro

azcentral sports

As Mike Hazen raced through his reasons for leaving his hometown Boston Red Sox to take on a new challenge as the Diamondbacks’ new general manager, he talked about his passions in scouting and player development, about building a sustainable winner, about a vision that connects an organization from bottom to top. And he realized what he’d rather be doing besides sitting in an interview room at Chase Field.

“Those are the things that drive me to be here today and really wanting to get out of here so we can go start working – not that I don’t want to answer your questions,” Hazen said on Monday morning at his introductory press conference.

“Those are the things that drive a lot of people in baseball operations. Trying to scout the next Paul Goldschmidt. Trying to find the next great manager, the next Tony La Russa. Those are the things we’re involved with on a day-to-day basis, and that’s what drives us.”

Hazen was the eighth and final candidate the Diamondbacks interviewed, and it appears he was high on their list from the beginning. The club waited for the Red Sox postseason run to end before interviewing him, and Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick said the club probably still wouldn’t have a GM if the Red Sox were still alive.

Hazen spoke to Hall over the phone on Wednesday, formally interviewed on Friday morning and was offered the position on Friday night.

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Compared to others who interviewed before him, Hall and Kendrick said Hazen immediately stood out, not just for his intellect but his presence and apparent ability to lead. They also were impressed with his capacity to map out a path to sustainability, as Hall put it.

“He’s looking at age, he’s looking at pipeline, he’s looking at contracts, he’s looking at arbitration,” Hall said. “He’s just very well-balanced. He’s already got a vision. Now, that will be tweaked. This is a couple of days that he’s had to look at it. But for him … studying us in a brief period of time to say, ‘If I had to say it now, this is how we’d get there.’ ”

On that front, Hazen was less forthcoming with reporters, saying he wanted to wait before charting a course for the offseason. He praised the talent on the roster but then sort of sidestepped questions about whether the Diamondbacks, fresh off a 93-loss season, might attempt to contend next year or will require a rebuild.

“I don’t have a defined view just yet,” Hazen said. “It would be irresponsible for me at this point to sort of say exactly how we’re going to attack the roster. …

“We want to bring a championship to this city and state, but we also know that there’s going to be decisions that need to be made. We’ll have more concrete answers on that as we move through the offseason. We’ll see what the landscape is in the marketplace.”

MORE: D-Backs name Mike Hazen new GM

With the Diamondbacks, Hazen assumes final authority on all matters related to baseball operations, the sort of responsibility he did not wield as Dave Dombrowski’s second-in-command in Boston.

How his responsibilities coincide with La Russa, who was stripped of his power atop baseball operations earlier this month, is sort of undefined.

Hall said both Hazen and La Russa will report to him but added “there’s still a lot to determine” in terms of how the two will work together. La Russa’s title will change from Chief Baseball Officer to Chief Baseball Analyst/Advisor, Hall said.

Hazen said his first order of business is to find a manager, and speculation continued to center on his longtime friend and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo. Dombrowski told reporters on a conference call Monday morning that he would be surprised if Hazen didn’t ask permission to interview Lovullo.

“We’re looking for a leader,” Hazen said, “and we’re going to find that person.”

As for the rest of his baseball operations department, Hazen wouldn’t say much. He said he had spent time with some of those already in the organization but wasn’t ready to say whom he expected to return. He also didn’t want to address the possibility of bringing executives with him from Boston, something Dombrowski said Hazen was “limited” though not prohibited from doing.

RELATED: Dave Stewart, Chip Hale out for Diamondbacks

Hazen praised Dombrowski for the way he handled his transition to the Red Sox last year, identifying the strengths already in place in the front office and making changes over time.

“To really embrace what’s done well – I want to do that,” Hazen said. “That’s a goal for me personally to ensure that I see those things. I look forward to working with that group.”

He sounded focused on his roots in the game – scouting and player development – saying solidifying those areas are a key for any organization, particularly a club in a market the size of the Diamondbacks’.

“You have to keep an open eye (on the) long-term all the time,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anything that you can ever turn your back on if you’re going to make good, strong, sound decisions. We’re committing to winning. We want to bring a championship here. We don’t have the exact blueprint for that yet, but we’re excited to get started.”

Hazen did not seem to harbor any concerns about working in an organization that has cycled through regimes in the past decade, praising Kendrick and Hall and saying every front office is judged by its results.

“Clearly, in the case of Mike, everybody agrees he’s the right guy,” Hall said. “So you have to let him do his job. That’s the goal.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.