The Diamondbacks brass deserves a lot of credit for firing both general manager Josh Byrnes and manager A.J. Hinch Thursday night.

Owner Ken Kendrick and his partners along with CEO Derrick Hall took a major financial hit by eating approximately $7 million from the remaining five years on Byrnes contract and nearly three years on Hinch’s deal. However, the financial losses they would have incurred by remaining with the status quo would have been much worse as the mass exodus of fans and sponsors from Chase Field continues.

“I appreciate the commitment and dedication that Josh and A.J. demonstrated during their tenures,” D-backs managing general partner Ken Kendrick said in a statement. “Their dismissal is a significant decision, but one that we find necessary in order to achieve a direction of winning consistently on the field again.”

The front office has had an air of trying to reinvent how an organization is run, beginning with the hiring of Byrnes who brought in a hybrid philosophy of sabremeterics and conventional baseball wisdom. Unfortunately, this lead to many head scratching moves that included gutting the bullpen, never securing a long-term solution at second base and signing many young players to long-term contracts after one quality season.

Byrnes was a disciple of former Cleveland GM John Hart, who made the same mistake of committing too much money to unproven players when he was with the Indians in the early to mid 90s, which eventually led to his firing.

Another major Byrnes flub was hiring AJ Hinch as manager when he was manager of minor league operations. Hinch had no managerial experience at any level. In fact, he was on the career track to eventually become a GM not manager.

Byrnes seemed to show defiance and smugness by signing Hinch to a four-year contract. The deal along with the now historic utterance of the term “organizational advocacy” reeked of Byrnes thinking he was the smartest guy in the room.

Hinch was a disaster since day one. He made many moves that reinforced his inexperience and managing a bad team never gave him a chance to truly learn on the job. The last straw may have been earlier in the week when he elected to let pitcher Dontrelle Willis hit with the bases loaded in a one-run game instead of pulling him for a pinch hitter. Willis got out and the Diamondbacks failed to score after loading the bases with no out. Hinch obviously had no faith in the bullpen, which is why he made the move as well as partially why he made the controversial decision to let Edwin Jackson throw 149 pitches in his no-hitter last week.

Hinch is a bit of a fall guy in the deal as he had less than a year to prove himself as the team is not very good but there were also no indications that he could handle a good team either. The team was 89-123 under his guidance and the team never won more than five in a row.

The house cleaning is expected to continue throughout the month of July until the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31. Numerous players could be on their way out as the front office is obviously determined to start over.

Finding capable replacements is vital for Kendrick and Hall. They named Jerry DiPoto as interim general manager but he is considered a rising executive and a hot GM candidate, who may end up shedding the interim title sooner than later. Logan White and Kevin Towers could also be replacements. White has ties to Hall and Towers did an excellent job in San Diego until ownership forced him to gut the team. He also knows how to put together a winner with a mid-level budget and was only fired from the Padres when Jeff Moorad took over as owner and brought in his own guy.

Kirk Gibson was named interim manager but this team needs someone with experience in this position. Gibson brings the fire the team needs but someone like Bobby Valentine would be an excellent replacement for a franchise looking for experience, a winning track record and a take-no-crap attitude to shake the funk from underachieving sulkers like Stephen Drew and Justin Upton.

Unfortunately, the franchise had capable people for both positions but elected to let Mike Rizzo go to Washington where he is rebuilding a losing franchise and Bob Melvin, who was essentially fired for being too nice for a team of young players who had a sense of entitlement.

It takes a lot of nerve for the Diamondbacks front office to admit their mistakes and make the changes that have occurred to this point. However, recognizing your mistakes is only half the battle. The key is to not repeat them.