Bickley: Diamondbacks making a strong push for relevance

Dan Bickley | azcentral sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Nick Piecoro on the Zack Greinke deal Diamondbacks insider Nick Piecoro talks about Zack Greinke's stunning deal with the Diamondbacks.

Generally, the Hot Stove League doesn’t play in the desert. It’s hard enough getting people interested in baseball during baseball season.

The Diamondbacks changed all of that. With one stunning luxury purchase, they’ve become a contender, a December conversation piece, more relevant than they’ve been in years.

Their signing of ace pitcher Zack Greinke even makes the new uniforms look better.

“We’ve got the best all-around player in the game (Paul Goldschmidt),” Diamondbacks hitting coach Mark Grace said. “Now we have one of the best pitchers in baseball, who is surrounded by an excellent young team. There will be no Grinch sightings in the Valley this month.”

Greinke fills a gaping hole in the pitching staff. He’s a legitimate No. 1 starter. He’s the best pitcher the team has had since Randy Johnson. He has his own kind of swagger, capable of winning a Game 7 on the road. He is edgy and intelligent, the anchor of a pitching rotation formerly made of vanilla extract.

His acquisition also weakens a hated rival, and judging by reaction in Los Angeles, Dodgers fans can’t believe their eyes. Their team spends recklessly on talent, amassing the largest payroll in the history of sports, only to get outbid for one of their most important pieces? By a mid-sized market with half the game-day attendance?

For gloating purposes alone, this is a profound moment for all Diamondbacks fans.

Greinke represents a huge triumph for the organization, which had become the industry standard for paper trophies and moral victories. Since winning the Valley’s first major professional championship in 2001, the Diamondbacks have become world champions at ballpark cuisine, customer service, fashion shows, Better Business Bureau awards and retirement gifts to former players.

This is a victory that counts between the white lines. This is the kind of free-agent acquisition the neighboring Suns badly need for their own relevance.

Greinke’s signing is also a powerful statement from managing general partner Ken Kendrick, who has gone suspiciously silent since the hiring of Chief Baseball Office Tony La Russa. But this time, Kendrick went deep in the well, committing a reported $206.5 million for a 32-year old pitcher.

“You have to give credit where credit is due, and that’s with ownership,” La Russa said. “The easy part is evaluating your club and figuring out what the priorities are to improve. It gets tough with contracts, and trying to making trades. But free agency, especially in something as substantial as this, is entirely a matter of ownership stepping up.

“Now the responsibility and the obligation falls on the guys in uniform. (Manager) Chip (Hale) and I talked last night about what a wonderful opportunity this is for the players. There’s nothing automatic about it. They have to make it work on the field. But our guys are confident that they’re going to take the opportunity and run with it.”

It’s a risky proposition, especially for a team that has endured more than its share of devastating injuries and Tommy John surgeries. The Diamondbacks will pay Greinke roughly $1 million per start for the next six years, and that’s if he stays healthy.

It also puts the onus on the team to make good with Goldschmidt, who remains one of the most underpaid players in professional sports. Still, these are good problems, and proof that things are changing for the better at Chase Field.

In darker times, Kendrick would often challenge the mythology of Valley icon Jerry Colangelo, who spent wildly to field a championship-caliber team. Kendrick thought Colangelo’s spending was irresponsible, putting the franchise in an untenable and dangerous position.

Remember when former General Manager Kevin Towers came down with financial vertigo while pursuing Masahiro Tanaka, another coveted, high-priced pitcher? When Tanaka ultimately signed with the Yankees, Towers went on local radio and actually expressed his relief at not winning the free-agent sweepstakes.

To counter, Towers quickly spread out a buffet of mid-range contracts on guys who couldn’t play, proving that nothing costs more than the high price of mediocrity.

Apparently, the Diamondbacks have learned that fear gets you nowhere, in life or in baseball.

This is a dramatically different experience for the Kendrick regime, targeting and landing a top-tier free agent. Kendrick just spent four times for Greinke what Colangelo spent for Johnson, who signed for $52 million after the 1998 season, committing the same kind of financial risk that marked his predecessor’s tenure.

Maybe it’s also a case of the current boss understanding what Colangelo figured out early in the game:

To attract free agents to Arizona, you must overspend. To build a team that can compete with the vanity of billionaires in larger markets, you have to stretch until it hurts. Otherwise, you’re just pretending.

The Diamondbacks once employed Johnson and Curt Schilling, penciling in one of the best starting-pitcher tandems in the history of the game. And to win a trophy, that team still needed a historic rally in the last inning of the last game of the season.

Championships don’t happen by accident. They require risk. They require money. They require bold initiatives and great players.

Kendrick’s Diamondbacks just delivered. They shocked their fan base and the baseball community, just as Colangelo once did with Johnson.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. With any luck, Greinke will bring a matching trophy to the man who just made it happen.

Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Follow him at twitter.com/danbickley. Listen to “Bickley and Marotta,” weekdays from 12-2 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.