The National League championship series between Washington and St. Louis has a distinct Arizona flavor, a condition that can be traced to money.

Both the Nationals and Cardinals have rosters stocked with difference-makers who either began their careers and/or had their greatest early successes with the Diamondbacks before departing.

Nothing personal. Just business.

The Diamondbacks are situated in the sixth largest metropolitan area in the U.S., but in the most recent data published in 2018 they ranked 20th in revenue in major league baseball, an industry that does believe that extensive revenue redistribution leads to the greater good of the product. Only about 48 percent of local revenues are subject to revenue sharing, which while a step in the right direction does not close the gap between haves and have-lesses.

Because of the disparity of local media/sponsorship contracts and merchandise sales, a half-dozen teams located in less-populous areas than Phoenix had greater revenue in 2018, including Seattle, Colorado, Cleveland and San Diego. Arizona's population is three times larger than Milwaukee's, but the Brewers still had more money to work with.

A revenue distribution model that revolutionized the National Football League and now also works to drive the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League is considered anathema in the major league offices on Park Ave., so teams learn to fend for themselves.

For some, fending = trading.

For some, attempting to keep up requires letting go.

Enter the Diamondbacks, who have made multiple player flips over the course of the last 15 years in an attempt to manage the bottom line. Moves that have placed six key players, one general manager, one bench coach and a number of other front office executives and scouts in either Washington or St. Louis.

Baseball can be a small world, but this loop is even tighter than most.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, bench coach Chip Hale, rotation standouts Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin, starting right fielder Adam Eaton, closer du jour Daniel Hudson and reserve outfielder/first baseman Gerardo Parra were all either traded or sent away by an Arizona team that was trying to balance financial constraints and baseball decisions.

St. Louis special assistant Bob Gebhart, a former Colorado general manager, landed with the Cardinals after serving as the Diamondbacks' interim general manager in 2005. (A footnote: both Rizzo and Gebhart were passed over when Arizona hired Josh Byrnes as general manager to replace Joe Garagiola in 2006.)

Corbin and St. Louis first baseman Paul Goldschmidt were the most recent to feel the pinch in Arizona.

Goldschmidt was traded last winter when the Diamondbacks, understanding the term and money implications of his free agency after the 2020 season, chose to add younger players instead. Then-free agent Corbin certainly would have tested the market no matter what after a career-year in 2018, but the Diamondbacks again were in no position to make a competitive offer.

Scherzer's departure is the one most on Arizona minds as this postseason unfolds. The Diamondbacks sent Scherzer to Detroit in the winter of 2009 after a 70-92 season, Scherzer's first full season, in a three-team trade that also involved the New York Yankees.

Arizona received young starter Ian Kennedy from the Yankees and Edwin Jackson from the Tigers, and a year later flipped Jackson for another young starter, Daniel Hudson, who along with Kennedy formed the backbone of a rotation that propelled Arizona to a 29-game improvement and the 2011 NL West pennant in manager Kirk Gibson's first season. Early results tipped the scales toward Arizona.

At the heart of it, the Scherzer deal was made based on a miscalculation on Arizona's part. Scherzer had a violent delivery, which some in baseball operations believed was unsustainable. The Dodgers made a similar calculation when they traded Pedro Martinez to Boston before he was to hit free agency in 1997, failing to take into consideration that Martinez's large hands and his ability to manipulate the baseball would make up for his slight frame.

Scherzer has won 161 games, three Cy Young awards and three (soon to be four) top five finishes, and thrown 2,165 2/3 innings in five years in Detroit and five more after signing as a free agent with Washington before the 2015 season.

The Detroit trade did not work out well, but given the Diamondbacks' circumstances, they would have had to make some deal a few years later, before Scherzer hit free agency. The curse of playing in a smaller market does not go away.

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