If DiPoto has a Prime Directive in his GMing philosophy (at least in Seattle) it is that you don’t overpay, in cash, for anybody. If he has a #2, it likely is that you don’t get too married to any young asset.
But I am not sure he sees a player’s value differently than other GM’s, other than he is very “value oriented.”
Segura came in a swap of youngish assets, with Haniger sort of being the key. From an Arizona perspective you could see that trade as one SS dealing with personal tragedy and a slump for another, younger SS + a second swap of an established young arm for a projectable young bat. Or you could look at it as on offense for defense switch. In that regard, DiPoto was Weaver-esque.
in fact, grabbing Gamel was sort of like that, as was trading for a Vogelbach and grabbing Ford. Maybe Healy, too.
So maybe the DiPoto Rule 3 is grab young bats who might explode. It seems he sees young arms for their risk of (injury) imploding, but young bats for the opposite. Grabbing Leake was out of necessity, so that doesn’t count against that trend, although trading Tank for Gonzo does seem to go against his personal tide.
Gordon was sort of a bargain, in that he was always going to bring a 2B glovey value, even if it was a year delayed. He also brings a disruptive ability on the bases and .300-ability, albeit light hitting. The reach was being willing to grab him now, even though you had no natural spot for him, as it might not be available tomorrow, when you do have that spot for him. He was sort of seeing the offensive potential and poo-pooing the potential defensive risk.
Grabbing Valencia was an up-side bat move, with short term risk.
The Dyson trade goes against the “grab a bat” offensive current, however. I didn’t like it then, still don’t.
I remain surprised that he didn’t pull off a Randall Grichuk trade, as his bat has that upside DiPoto seems to love.
In 9 of the 10 years from ‘66-‘75, Earl had between 1-3 bench guys who combined for 400-800 PA’s with OPS+ of 120, or more. That sort of was a secret weapon, along with Jim Palmer or two.
Of course, modern free agency sort of changes a manager’s ability to do that.