Melvin: Byrnes to start year on bench

LAS VEGAS - Two years after becoming the 11th player in major league history to hit 20 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season, Eric Byrnes has become the Diamondbacks’ 10th man.

Conor Jackson will be the D-Backs’ regular left fielder this season, manager Bob Melvin said Monday, and Chad Tracy will start at first, leaving Byrnes to fend for playing time at all three outfield spots.

The majority of Byrnes’ starts could come when Jackson takes a turn at first base to give Tracy time off against the occasional left-hander, Melvin said.

Byrnes sees it as a challenge, Melvin said, and does not expect anything to be given to him after hamstring injuries plagued him all last season and caused him to miss the final three months.

“He kind of comes into a situation where he was a couple of years ago when he came to the Diamondbacks — he is not afraid of competition,” Melvin said of Byrnes.

“I think he looks at it as an opportunity to go out and win a job.”

It is not quite the same. Byrnes came to the D-Backs in 2006 expecting to be the starting center fielder, although he was coming off a down season that included three teams and two stops.

With their excess of quality outfielders/first basemen, the D-Backs are in a position to deal Byrnes, a move that would free up $22 million, $11 million in each of the next two years, but that appears unlikely, even if Byrnes were to waive his complete no-trade clause.

While the market has not been defined, there does not seem to be much interest in Byrnes, although Miguel Montero and Tracy, to a lesser extent, have their suitors.

Jackson moved to left field regularly when Byrnes went down last July, and appeared to grow more comfortable there as time went on, to the point where both he and the D-Backs began to believe it was his best position.

“Conor played really well in the outfield, and he’s been an important offensive guy for us. His skill set is a nice contrast,” general manager Josh Byrnes said.

Jackson hit .300 with 31 doubles, 12 homers, 75 RBIs and a .376 on-base percentage, highest among the regulars.

Making Jackson primarily an outfielder injects some competition into a group that had little last year, at least in spring training, when Byrnes, Chris Young and Justin Upton were the starters with little experienced depth.

In other developments:

• The Diamondbacks targeted second baseman Mark Loretta in the first day of the meetings but lost him to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.

Loretta agreed to a one-year contract worth about $1.3 million with the Dodgers after receiving a comparable but slightly smaller offer from the D-Backs.

• Although the D-Backs saved about $4 million when Brandon Lyon did not accept their offer of salary arbitration and saved another $2 million they would have spent on draft picks had they offered Adam Dunn arbitration, they still do not have the money required to sign Randy Johnson, Josh Byrnes said.

“The absence of the picks allows us to redirect some money, but not a lot has really changed,” Byrnes said.

• The D-Backs have had several conversations with free agent Tony Clark and his agent and appear to want him back next year in the role he played in 2007, as a prime late-inning pinch-hitter and platoon first baseman.

“We weren’t as good in the last third of the game as we needed to be,” Josh Byrnes said. “Obviously, Tony has a history of helping teams in the later innings.”

• The market for Montero appears vast. Eight or nine teams have inquired about him, and Boston — which did not offer salary arbitration to Jason Varitek — could be a serious player. The D-Backs know the Red Sox system well and could want a young starting pitcher in return.

• Fox Sports reported that the D-Backs were attempting to trade Chris Snyder, who has two years of arbitration remaining, but D-Backs sources shot that down.