Tony La Russa Comments on Chip Hale's Future, State of Diamondbacks

Arizona Diamondbacks chief baseball officer Tony La Russa disputed a report that manager Chip Hale's job may be in jeopardy.

On Tuesday, Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic suggested that if the Diamondbacks suffer a poor month of May, then Hale could be looking for new employment.

La Russa rejected Bickley's story Thursday, which made the claim without citing any sources, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:

"

There's no sense to that — none. I have a lot of respect for Dan. I don't know how he figured that. Maybe it's because of the expectations. 

But if you backed up five days, we're at .500, a (half-game) out of first place. We had a difficult three against Colorado. We've lost two in Miami. You take a snapshot when you take it. But no, the issue is not Chip Hale.

"

Arizona, which underwent a 15-win improvement in 2015, Hale's first season, has lost six straight games and sits at 12-18 after back-to-back sweeps to the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins. The team is 3.5 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

While the team is struggling, it is too early to contemplate firing Hale. His two biggest stars, offseason acquisition Zack Greinke and Paul Goldschmidt, are off to slow starts.

Greinke is 2-2 with a bloated 5.50 ERA, and Mark Simon of ESPN Stats & Info noted the all-world starter is also getting hit as hard anyone in baseball:

Goldschmidt is hitting .232, well below his .297 career average, with 31 strikeouts. His home run (six) and RBI (16) numbers are still decent, which suggests that he just needs to break out of his contact slump. There is little reason to believe he will not, which should bode well for Arizona's offense moving forward.

La Russa is a smart baseball mind, so expect him to ignore outside criticism and recognize that his team is fine at the moment and that Hale should not be going anywhere.