Most years, Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen would watch the Rule 5 draft unfold from the back of a crowded hotel ballroom. On Thursday morning, with the draft and the rest of the winter meetings turned virtual, Hazen listened to a live stream of the event while trying to keep the back patio of his Valley home from flooding.
The baseball world was supposed to have gathered this week at a hotel in Dallas as it does every year for the winter meetings. But, like the general managers’ meetings that normally take place a month earlier, it became yet another victim of the pandemic.