Shelby Miller gives Diamondbacks an imposing rotation

NASHVILLE – The new uniforms were not going to be nearly enough to energize the Arizona Diamondbacks’ fan base.

Attendance at Chase Field has stagnated in the 2.1 million range – ranking in the bottom third in the majors – for the last seven years, and last season the capacity rate of 52.8% was the second-lowest in the National League. The ballpark atmosphere was just slightly livelier than at the public library.

So, with a new $1.5 billion TV contract and a year-old management team eager to transform the club into an instant contender, the Diamondbacks have become the offseason’s biggest surprise. Their signing of Zack Greinke to a six-year, $206 million contract announced Tuesday has been the splashiest move, but they didn’t stop there.

Arizona further bolstered its rotation – the Achilles’ heel of last season’s 79-83 team – by acquiring right-hander Shelby Miller from the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Ender Inciarte and two high-level prospects in shortstop Dansby Swanson and Class AAA pitcher Aaron Blair.

Suddenly, a starting corps that produced the fifth-worst ERA in the National League last season (4.37) is looking pretty decent and could become downright imposing if lefty Patrick Corbin, in his second year back from Tommy John surgery, returns to his All-Star form of 2013.

In Miller, the Diamondbacks are getting a solid No. 2 starter to slot behind Greinke, the staff ace the team desperately needed. Saddled with by-far the worst run support among major league qualifying pitchers last year (2.64 runs per start), Miller had just a 6-17 record and at one point lost 16 decisions in a row. But stats such as Miller’s 3.02 ERA, his 205 1/3 innings pitched and a batting-average-against of .238 provide a better measure of his value. And he’s just 25 and under team control for three more years.

General manager Dave Stewart, brought in last year to run the team under chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, pointed to the club’s patience as a key attribute in the quick last-minute strike that resulted in landing Greinke, an addition he compared to Christmas arriving early.

But the Diamondbacks’ sense of urgency was evident in their decision to include two of their top prospects in the Miller swap. Swanson was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft, earning a $6.5 million bonus. Blair, who combines a mid-90s fastball with an effective changeup, went 13-5 with a 2.92 ERA in 26 games split evenly between Class AA and AAA last season. And Inciarte himself is no slouch. The slick-fielding outfielder, 25, batted .303 in his second season in the majors.

But La Russa, who joined the Diamondbacks in May 2014 after concluding his Hall of Fame managing career by winning the 2011 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals, didn’t come on board to wait around for prospects to develop.

Arizona has a strong offensive core that produced the second-largest output in the NL last season at 4.44 runs per game. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt and center fielder A.J. Pollock are two of the top players at their positions in the league, and Gold Glovers to boot, the leaders of a club that finished second in the league in defensive runs saved.

What the Diamondbacks needed was pitching. First they swooped in to outbid the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants for Greinke, then they pulled off the bold – if costly – trade for Miller.

The NL West, mostly the domain of the Dodgers and Giants the last three years, just got a lot more interesting.

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