Arizona Diamondbacks pursuing Zack Greinke?

Want a bombshell for a late Friday afternoon? Have one, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal:

Sources: #DBacks pursuing Greinke.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 4, 2015

Yeah, bet you didn't see that coming, did you. Now, there are obvious caveats over that. We don't know the source, we don't know how accurate it is, and we don't know how serious the pursuit is. It could be simply a ploy by the D-backs to drive up the price of Greinke for serious suitors - not least because, the two teams most often linked with Greinke of late are our division rivals, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. The more money they have to spend on the starting pitcher, the less they will have to address other spots on the roster, so you can see the purpose of us "pursuing Greinke."

The cold, realist part of me suspects this, or something like it, is the case. But, it has to be said - and we've done so, more than once here - the team's future commitments, particularly for 2016, do not necessarily preclude them from paying Greinke over $30 million per year. The team, right now, appears to have rather more than that - about $45 million - in headroom between their current 25-man roster and the generally-perceived cap of $100 million. If they don't spend it on someone like Greinke, where is that money going to be spent?

I must confess to having conflicting feelings, because - and I know I'm not the only one - Greinke is pretty close to the top of my list of most-despised players over the past few years. Would that change, if he suddenly became an Arizona Diamondback? Let's cross that bridge when he comes to it. But I'll just leave this Tweet here...

@Ken_Rosenthal pic.twitter.com/O5r3XyHQ1T

— Ethan (@ethanhats) December 4, 2015