Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a mess.

Once again.

Diamondbacks ownership is strongly considering making sweeping front-office changes, firing some of the most respected men in the game.

Once again.

If owner Ken Kendrick and president Derrick Hall fire chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and his staff, including general manager Dave Stewart and assistant GM De Jon Watson, the D’backs will be changing GMs for the seventh time in just 11 years. Kendrick is responsible for hiring Josh Byrnes, Kevin Towers and La Russa to run baseball operations.

Stewart and Watson will have been given all of 23 months to turn around the franchise.

Please, it’s time for Kendrick and the rest of the ownership group to look in the mirror.

It’s insane to fire them after just one crummy season, and the dismal early returns of a trade gone wrong.

Two years, really?

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If other clubs took this approach, Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore would have been fired after 2008 - seven years before winning the World Series.

Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels would have been fired in 2006 after trading first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and starter Chris Young to the San Diego Padres for pitchers Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka - three years before winning the first of consecutive American League pennants.

Dave Dombrowski would have been fired in 2003 after the Detroit Tigers lost 119 games - three years before they reached the World Series.

Now, with an Aug. 31 deadline looming to exercise the options on Stewart and Watson, with La Russa’s contract expiring after the season, the Diamondbacks are considering firing the trio, according to a high-ranking executive with direct knowledge of their plans.

The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

The Diamondbacks, who spend more energy worrying about their image than perhaps any team, are now on the verge of becoming the game’s laughingstock.

Let’s see if we got this straight:

You hire La Russa and Stewart to run your baseball club, and when they debate whether it’s time to fire manager Chip Hale and promote Phil Nevin from Triple-A Reno as their interim manager, they are stopped.

Sorry, they are told, it wouldn’t look good.

La Russa and Stewart make beleaguered starter Shelby Miller available at the trade deadline, seven months after acquiring him, and work out a trade with the Miami Marlins.

The Marlins, according to a Marlins executive with direct knowledge of the trade, would have sent three starting pitchers back in return. Sorry, stopped again.

Yep, it just wouldn’t look good, not after surrendering what they gave up to get Miller from the Atlanta Braves in the first place.

Now, just eight months after deciding it was cool to spend $206.5 million on Zack Greinke, outbidding the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, believing the team was on the verge of greatness, the Diamondbacks want to fire their management team.

Yes, and start all over again.

“We haven’t decided yet on the contracts,’’ Hall said. “We will evaluate everything. We are all obviously disappointed.’’

The Diamondbacks actually have no plans to exercise anyone’s contract option by Aug. 31, delaying their official decisions until after the season, as most of their scouts and staff nervously await their fate.

“We had one good year, and if you look at what’s happened on the field this year, then one bad year,’’ Stewart said. “I think we deserve a tiebreaker.’’

They improved by 15 games last season, to 79-83, and had postseason aspirations after signing Greinke, trading for Miller, and acquiring shortstop Jean Segura.

Instead, they have been baseball’s most disappointing team, 51-73, sitting in last place in the NL West with the third-worst record in baseball.

Their major-league best 24-8 spring-training record turned out to be only a mirage, with center fielder A.J. Pollock fracturing his right elbow on the eve of the season-opener, Miller crumbling under expectations, and the D-backs never recovering.

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Now, with tensions already high, embarrassment has turned to anger, with ownership threatening to clean house.

Yet again.

“I think our group has earned the benefit of the doubt,’’ La Russa told USA TODAY Sports, “but it’s their decision. The way I look at it, if you get an opportunity, you don’t complain about the length of the opportunity. So I don’t complain about that.

“This is a game based on results. There was good improvement in ’15, and in ’16, was the opposite of that. It’s disappointing. We’re all upset about it.

“If somebody in charge is upset enough, they’ll make a change.’’

Oh, sure, La Russa and Stewart acknowledge, there have been mistakes, just like any other front office. But if you want to rip them apart for the Miller trade, you better praise them for acquiring Segura from the Milwaukee Brewers. Segura not only is hitting .318 and leading the league with 156 hits, but the D-backs were able to unload $6.5 million in infielder Aaron Hill’s contract.

And credit them for reeling in an effective left-handed starter - Robbie Ray, who's become an asset coveted by other clubs - in a three-way deal that sent shortstop Didi Gregorius to the New York Yankees.

The Diamondbacks’ front office, with specific orders to shed payroll upon their arrival, sliced $103 million in present and future guaranteed salaries, with 28 of Stewart’s 39 trades involving a reduction in salary. Have they all worked out? Nope. Have they all been busts? Not a chance, with the average age of their incoming players just 23 years old.

“When you’re trying to trade some money, and come back with real prospects,’’ La Russa said, “that’s hard to do.’’

As for this season, Arizona has the worst pitching staff in baseball, and on pace to finish with its fourth season of 90 or more losses since 2009.

Really, there’s nothing that can be done to change Kendrick’s views about his front office. If he has already made up his mind to fire everyone, a few September victories won’t change it.

Yet, if he exhales, he’ll understand that no GM and his staff these days is given only a two-year window to turn it around, and expect instant gratification.

There’s no harm in giving La Russa, Stewart and Watson one more year.

If they’re out of the playoff hunt at next year’s trade deadline, let them trade away Greinke, too, realizing it’s silly for one man to take up one-third of the payroll.

These decisions can wait, until next year, not next month.

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