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Year | 2014 | 2016 |
Payroll | $112.7 million | $90-95 million |
Catcher | Miguel Montero | Welington Castillo |
First base | Paul Goldschmidt | Paul Goldschmidt |
Second base | Aaron Hill | Chris Owings |
Shortstop | Chris Owings | Nick Ahmed |
Third Base | Martin Prado | Jake Lamb |
Left field | Mark Trumbo | David Peralta |
Center field | A.J. Pollock | A.J. Pollock |
Right Field | Gerardo Parra | Yasmany Tomas |
Rotation #1 | Wade Miley | Zack Greinke |
Rotation #2 | Trevor Cahill | Patrick Corbin |
Rotation #3 | Brandon McCarthy | Shelby Miller |
Rotation #4 | Bronson Arroyo | Robbie Ray |
Rotation #5 | Randall Delgado | Archie Bradley |
Backup C | Tuffy Gosewisch | Chris Herrmann |
Backup OF | Tony Campana | Socrates Brito |
Backup Util | Cliff Pennington | Phil Gosselin |
Pinch-hitter | Eric Chavez | Aaron Hill |
Closer | Addison Reed | Brad Ziegler |
Set-up #1 | J.J. Putz | Daniel Hudson |
Set-up #2 | Brad Ziegler | Silvino Bracho |
LOOGY | Oliver Perez | Matt Reynolds |
Reliever #5 | Joe Thatcher | Rubby De La Rosa |
Long-relief | Josh Collmenter | Josh Collmenter |
Mid-relief | Will Harris | Randall Delgado |
25th man | Ryan Rowland-Smith | Brandon Drury |
People in green are occupying the same role then and now. People in yellow are still on the roster, but in a different role. People in red are new to, or no longer on, the roster. This is based on the "regular season" Opening Day roster for 2014, so discounts the Australia games. There is, obviously, a lot of guesswork as far as the 2016 version goes, and it's entirely likely further moves will be made - the bullpen and back-up catcher spots are the most likely areas of change. That said... We're paying a $15-20 million less this season, and if you compare the two squads, spot for spot, can anyone argue next year's model does not look massively superior, virtually across the board?
Of course, they will need to be a vast improvement, because the 2014 version ended up posting the worst record in baseball, as well as getting Kevin Towers and Kirk Gibson fired. But there's no denying the near-total revamping that has taken place under Dave Stewart and Tony La Russa, with just seven survivors our of the 25 players who starterd the campaign 20 months ago. Man, look at that 2014 rotation. Now, look at this dumpster fire. Can you tell them apart? Can you believe there was really a point where we looked at that, and expected anything other than disaster? Hindsight is truly 20/20, isn't it?