PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - A way-too-early look at the Diamondbacks’ 2024 Opening Day roster

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen said that the D-backs could target a left-handed DH-type bat instead of a righty, but which makes more sense? Meanwhile, constructing the ideal D-backs bench is harder than you’d think. We break it down. We also take a closer look at the various DH options available in free agency and pick our favorites.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to the PHNX D-Backs podcast. My name is Jesse Friedman. I am your host throughout the week because Derek Montia has ditched us, as we said yesterday. But today it's not just me. Today we have special guest, Jack Summers, from Inside the Diamondbacks joining us. Jack, I know you were with us, what was it about a week ago. And now I'm here making you do this again. So we appreciate it.

Well, you caught me on a week where I had nothing going on. There we go. We all have a little more time on our hands this time. of year without baseball in our lives. But yeah, thank you all for being here with us. Apologies for the delay for joining us here live. We had some renovations happening in our other studio. That wound up getting pushed back further than we liked.

We had to wait for this one to open up. So to all of you who stuck with us and waited around, we really appreciate it. I do want to start with one quick note before we get into the meet of today's show. Yesterday, we talked about one Paven Smith and this amazing video of him interacting with his parents and writing this beautiful letter to his parents and revealing that he had paid off their mortgage. It was an incredible sentiment. We got a Mailbag Monday question about it. I guess Mailback Tuesday question about it. It turns out that actually happened a number of years ago and that video had just resurfaced within the last couple of days. We, yes, we did, I feel utterly

embarrassed and incompetent to say this, but yes, we did a show yesterday talking about that video as if it had happened like three days ago. So apologies, apologies for that in retrospect. We had a few people reach out and let us know what was going on there. But, you know, moments like that, Jack, they live on. You can relive those things year after year. They never get old. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, you know, that was after he was signed. He used a signing bonus for that. That was December 26th of 2017. That was first posted. But I've actually talked to him about that. Yeah. And as recently as this past summer, you know, and just kind of let him know, like, hey, that was something that always made me root for you. And he's a good guy.

He's a really good person. And so in the Christmas spirit, it fit. It worked. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we're still, still want to give Pavin Smith's flowers. Just note that that happened six years ago, not two days ago. But with that, we want to spend a lot of time on today's show looking ahead as far as the Diamondbacks' DH search, whether it makes more.

whether it makes more sense for them to target a lefty or righty. We're going to look at what their bench could look like in 2024, a lot to get into. And it is, tis the season, I should say, for looking ahead, presented by our friends at Arizona Lottery. That's exactly what we're going to do. And on that note, I sort of just alluded to it. We talked with Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen just a few days ago

about the Lordus Gurriel Jr. resigning. And there's been this assumption that's been made now for, a number of weeks. I think there's been some reporting behind it as well if the Diamondbacks were targeting an additional right-handed bat, likely a DH type in order to, you know, to plug into this lineup and give the team a more regular look at DH rather than kind of using it as a revolving door. But Mike Hazen on Friday told us that it wasn't necessarily just a righty. It could also be a left-handed option that the Diamondbacks look at to add there. Here is a an audio clip of what Mike had to say on that note on Friday.

Yeah, we're still looking to add a distant player to the lineup. Now that we have Morris and Correale, I'm not so sure that it has to just be right-handed. I think we have more flexibility into how this would come together. If we had done,

you know, another back in a different way, maybe it would have been more right-handed, but I think now we have flexibility to be if we're going to add more to the office to do it either ready or left. Jack, your initial thoughts when you heard this. I'm curious. Yeah, I was a little surprised.

You know, he'd been talking about right-handed bats all along. So that was a bit of a curveball for sure. And especially, you know, as we're going to get into, when you really start to break it down, it's kind of tough to see how they make it work. One point that is important to note, though, that Mike has always talked about utilizing the DH spot to get guys off their feet and give them rest. that they're not necessarily wedded to the idea that they have to have a full-time TH. Sure. So maybe that's where that comes into play as well as far as giving him some extra flexibility. Yeah, I mean, I guess if you were to get a lefty who's a guy who would sit against left-handed pitching,

that would open up some opportunities for someone else to occupy that spot against righties or against lefties. That would certainly make some sense. I thought it'd be interesting to look back at how the Diamondbacks fared against lefties and righties this past season. I was at least a little surprised digging into some of the numbers. This past season, the Diamondbacks had a 99 WRC plus. League average is 100. WRC plus is just a hitting metric that we're all very fond of around here. So basically right around league average against Ritees, that ranked 17th in baseball.

Against lefties, the Diamondbacks had a 92 WRC plus in 2023. So they were definitely better against Ritees than they were against lefties. Yeah, for sure. It was interesting. I mean, you know, obviously there's a lot of left-handed bats that were forced to maybe play a little bit more than they should have and put up some pretty big zeros. And then, you know, there were some guys that they just simply expected to do a little better against lefties that didn't come through. Yeah. Yeah, digging into some of those names, yeah, the debacks gave Nick Ahmed a 122 played appearances against lefties and he had a seven WRC plus, which is very, very poor. Um, yeah, very, very poor. Uh, Alec Thomas, not much better than that. And 81 played appearances against lefties, a 12 WRC plus also just kind of off the charts.

Like, you can't really start a guy like that against lefties in general. Uh, Pave and Smith, a 32 WRC plus in 42 PA against lefties. Heraldo perdomo, although he's a switch hitter. He is fared significantly better against Ritey's in his career. He had a 62 WRC plus in 71 played appearances. Also interesting Tommy fan. after coming over in the trade, actually did a lot better against righties

than he did against lefties. Only a 77 WRC plus there. So you add all these numbers together and you've got something like, you know, 350 to 400 plate appearances of just really poor production, you know, between all these different guys against left-handed pitching.

And that kind of seems to be the cause of this. The debacks had a number of hitters who are actually very good against lefties. Christian Walker, a 141 WRC plus. Gabby Moreno, 139, Cate 138, Lordus Coriel 121, that's a pretty formidable group of four to have in your lineup every day against lefties. It's just all of those negative producers kind of counterbalance that and actually made the debacks well below average against lefties when all was said and done. Yeah, and it was pretty crushing.

I mean, like Nick Ahmed, the only buddy he had ever hit was left-handed pitching. I mean, up until, you know, last year, he was pretty good against lefties. Yeah, and this year he had a 111. against righties and then it really struggled against lefties. It was weird. They always knew that Pridomo wasn't probably going to hit well against lefties. So that really messed up the plans pretty good. You know, so it was worth a shot when they brought up Lola. Unfortunately, Lawler didn't hit towards the end of last year either. But, you know, it was really understandable why. It wasn't just that Ahmed wasn't hitting. It was that he didn't hit lefties at all. Yeah. Just inexplicable.

And then you have Alec Thomas. I mean, you know, it's still. not there against left-handed pitching. And, you know, over the last two years combined, that WRC plus is 22. Yeah. So, you know, they really need to help him figure that out. He's going to lose a lot of playing time again if he starts off the year, you know, just failing against lefties to that degree. And I know you were looking at some numbers from the postseason against lefties for Alec Thomas. And maybe there were some people had it in their head that Alec Thomas was better against lefties in the playoffs. It doesn't seem like that was actually the game.

He was two for 12. Okay. He was two for 12. He didn't know. I mean, like, it's not, that's according to a quick search I did on baseball savant. But, you know, right now, Alec Thomas has a swing flaw that he has to overcome. You know, it's whale and bail, right? I mean, he just steps out of the box and opens up his stance too much and kind of throws the bat out there.

And still he, until he closes that up, consistently, he's just not going to be able to hit a left-handed pitcher. So it seems like the debacks have, they have several hitters who against lefties, you'd really like to not have to play, frankly. Obviously, Nick Ahmed and as of now, Tommy Pham are not factors for the 2024 season. But Alec Thomas, really poor numbers there against lefties, Pavin Smith, probably a guy you only want to start against. Righties at this point.

Geraldo Prudomo, if there's a way to avoid starting him against lefties, that would probably be good as well. as far as right-hand hitting is concerned, the debacks actually didn't have as many good hitters at the top. Corbyn Carroll had a 146 WRC Plus against Rides was by far the team's best hitter there. After that, Cotel Marte at 122, Christian Walker, 114. And then they just had kind of a bunch of guys right in the middle. Geraldo Pardombo was 105 against Ritees. Lordus Gareal right at 100.

Tommy Fam right at 100. Gabby Moreno and Alec Thomas, both at 86. a little below average. So it seems like against lefties, things are just more polarized. You've got some guys who are really, really good, some guys who are really, really poor, who kind of wound up balancing that

and actually making the debacks relatively poor overall against lefties. Whereas as far as righties go, the debacks were better overall, but there was just sort of a bunch of guys kind of right in the middle and Corby and Carroll sort of standing out at the top. Yeah.

I mean, I think that things will normalize a little bit. I would expect a little bit better performance against Ritey's from Lourdes. I think that that's going to, that should come up a little bit more. Sure. You know, and hopefully Gabby, I mean, over the last part of the year, you know, he improved so much. So I would think that we get a full season of the latter day Gabby Marino. Yeah. Is going to help that situation.

So if we look at we put together, and I know the moment I put this on the screen, people are going to get angry at how I formed this lineup, but we're going to do it anyway. This is a projected lineup, just a way too early look at what the Diamondbacks lineup against Ritey's would look like if the season started today. If we put that up on the screen, this is sort of going off of what the team did in the postseason. That's why I have Gabby Moreno hitting third. I don't know if that would continue into 2024, especially against Rite's. But we have Corby and Carroll in the leadoff spot. There's a 146 there.

Kutel Marte in the two hole. Gabby Moreno in that three hole, again, only an 86. WRC Plus against Ritey's. I don't know if you want to keep him in that spot. Then it's Christian Walker, Lordus Gueriel. Eh, Eugenio Suarez steps in. I have him in the sixth hole. He was a 99 WRC plus, basically right at league average against Ritees in 2023.

And then we have Alex Thomas, Pavin Smith, and Heraldo Prado kind of rounding things out. This is sort of where the Dback stand right now against Ritees. Again, the order of the lineup is certainly up for debate, but this is about as good of a lineup as I could put together against Ritees right now. And so, I don't know, when you look at this, Jack, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you see? What are your, what are your thoughts about, you know, what areas they might want to improve here? Well, I mean, first of all, it's going to be really important that Eugenie O'Swarez has a bounce back year, right? Yeah. You know, last year was a down year for him. Um, and, uh, you know, as Mike Hazen said, if, if it's coming off a good year,

you're not going to get him for what they did. So, yeah, um, you know, his bounce back is, is really important. And then further development from the young guys, right? I mean, the whole theory is young players improve. Young players get better. They need to get better. All right. Now let's look at it against lefties.

I imagine a slightly different lineup. We saw the debacks for whatever it's worth now. Ketel Marte in the playoffs would hit lead off against lefties. And then Corbyn-Carrel would step in in the two-hole. Gavin Moreno in that three-spot that actually could make some sense going into 2024 since he hit 352, I think it was against lefties in 2020. Christian Walker cleanup Lordus Gurriel in the five-hole still of Aeohenio Suarez hitting six. He was at 114 against lefties last year.

And then at the bottom, you've got Emmanuel Rivera, Jake McCarthy, getting into the lineup, playing right field, forcing Corbyn Carroll to center. I have Alec Thomas out of the lineup against lefties, which as of right now, I think, is kind of how you'd have to plan it out. And then Geraldo Pardomo, who, as we said earlier, not an ideal guy to have in your lineup against lefties, but someone that debacks don't really have any other. options there. They kind of tried the Jordan Lawler thing against lefties down the stretch. It didn't look so good. They pulled the plug on that. Perdomo was, you know, playing against pretty much

every, every pitcher when all was said and done. So, yeah, this is what things look like against lefties. And what are your, what are your thoughts here, Jack? What kind of stands out to you as far as the challenges that they're facing here? Well, I mean, the first thing that stands out is that they were really good against lefties. You look at the top part of that order. That's, the top one through six is not bad, right? Right. If you go back again to 2022, Swara has killed lefties. Right. So if he can get back to doing that, that really gives him a good bump.

The other thing is, look, you have to have a backup shortstop. Right. And right now, the way the 40-man roster stands, it's going to be either Lawler or Blaze Alexander, right? So one of those two guys is going to be on the roster as the backup shortstop. A lot of people will argue and debate about whether Lawler should go back to Reno, and spend a little bit more time there or just put him on a roster

and let him try to fight for his playing time now. But one way or the other, whoever that guy is, excuse me, is probably going to end up spelling Pidomo a fair amount. Right. I would guess. Yeah.

The other thing is, Jake McCarthy is just, it's a square peg in a round hole, isn't it? Yeah. It doesn't make sense. We're starting him against lefties and we're not starting him against Rides.

It's pretty weird. I mean, I know he had that, you know, the good split in 2022, where he was just as good against lefties as he was righties and then that didn't hold it was the same this past year right it was equally bad yeah i mean neither of them were great but he didn't have a split difference between lefties and righties but it just doesn't make sense that like you got this left-handed guy on the bench and oh here comes a left-handed starter i'm going to run the left-handed guy on the bench out to play outfield

yeah it makes no sense so i i want to bring up uh my fourth outfielder fetish which might come into play in this point. I'm kind of known for latching on to these fourth outfielder guys that I think that if they just get a little play in time, they're going to be a little bit better. And this year's guy is Jorge Barrosa. Sometimes I've been right on that. Sometimes I've been wrong. Stu Fairchild was one of my guys. That didn't quite work out. But they never gave him a chance. Clearly you've let that one go. I was all in on Jake McCarthy and I was right one year and not so right the next. So, but anyway, Jorge Barrosa is a switch hitting center fielder. He just completed his age 22 season last year, playing for Reno. A lot of you probably already know who he is.

But I think that, you know, he posted high sevens, like 780, 790 OPS against left-handed pitching. Right. Each of the last two years in double and AAA. Obviously, you know, the hitting environments there. In total, his WRC plus was about like 110, 111. He's 5 foot 5 listed at 165. So he's an inch shorter than Jose L. Tuvee's listed. But he's hit 26 homers the last two years. He's got some pop in there, and that power seemed to develop. So we always talk about opening day rosters, but keep your eye on him because if Alec Thomas is not hitting left-handers,

then they may go to Barrosa and bring him up and say, all right, we're just going to try him out there and send him. and let him platoon with Alec Thomas. That could work. And the one last thing I want to say about him is he had a 14% walk rate and a 16% strikeout rate the last two years combined. Last year, 80 walks, 82 strikeouts. Yeah. So that's really good. I mean, like you got to talk about 22-year-old with a pretty darn good plate discipline approach there.

He's got some pop. He can run. He plays really good defense. And he's a switch hitter. Don't sleep on Jorge Barrosa. It's 23, right? He's 23 now. Oh, actually, you're right.

I think he's 22. He may, he turns, next year will be his age 23 season. Sure. Yeah, that is, that is interesting. And I guess we go back to our left-handed lineup real quick. Do we still have that, Jacob? Is that something we can do? Against lefties?

Yeah, against lefties. Yeah, there it is. Okay. Something works at PHNXHQ. Not everything is broken. Yeah, so I guess in a sense he would be replacing Jake McCarthy in this. Correct. Correct.

Which would, yeah, I mean, it would just be more logical. The idea of starting McCarthy against lefties and not righties, as we said earlier, just doesn't really make sense. But the debacks bench situation is kind of peculiar right now. We're going to get into that a little bit later in the show. Where all of this is going, Jack, is should the diamond backs, is they're looking for this DH, presumably, this extra bat that they want to add to the lineup, Does it make more sense for that bat to be right-handed or left-handed?

If we can just real quick go back to the lineup against righties. And then, so this is what they have right now, the best lineup we can build against righties. And then if we can flip it to against lefties, this is the best lineup we can make against lefties. At first glance, the lineup against lefties has actually more intriguing numbers. It seems like with Marte, with Walker, with Gureo,

with Suarez, with Gabby Moreno, being what he is against lefties. I actually am inclined to think the D-BAC's best lineup against lefties is a little bit better right now than their best lineup against Rites. Yes, but if you go back to that lefties lineup, the question is

Emmanuel Rivera will be on the roster. Yeah. You know, these conversations all overlap because when you get to the bench, it's like, you have to have a backup catcher, you've got to have a backup shortstop. Now you've only got two other spots, an infielder and an outfielder.

Right. You've got four bench spots. You know, so is Emmanuel Rivera going to be there or not a tough, tough, tough get there? Yeah. So I guess I can at least see how the Diamondbacks could view adding a lefty as an option. It does seem like against a right-handed pitcher, the team is kind of lacking and thump in the middle. It's sort of Corbyn Carroll and then, you know, Christian Walker, you expect him to be a little above average. You expect to tell Marte to be a little above average.

Those guys are probably going to do most of their damage against lefties. So yeah, I understand where the diamondbacks are coming from, I think. At first, I didn't even really realize that. Like, I was fully, this has to be a right-handed guy. I can at least see where the diamondbacks are coming from and getting a lefty. But frankly, if you do get a lefty, which will get into some of the specifics a little bit later on in the show, a lot of those guys are going to be, I mean, all of those guys are probably going to be platoon-only type guys. Right.

Like, if you sign Brandon Belt, you're not having him start against lefty. If you sign Jock Peterson, you're not having him start against lefties, most likely. Whereas if you get a righty, if you get a Reese Hoskins or J.D. Martinez, one of those type guys, there's clearly opportunity there for them to start against both. Right, exactly. You know, one guy I was thinking of was, you know, Carlos Santana. Yeah? You know, the guy is a switch hitter.

The last couple of years, he's actually been pretty good against lefties, you know, and not as good against righties. So, like, he's got a 101 WRC plus combined each verse left and right the last two years. But he's actually been much better against left-handed pitching the last couple years. So interesting guy. It might not cost a lot. Might only be about $7 million, according to roster resource on Fangraphs. Yeah. You know, so you talk about guys, look, everybody wants J.D. Martinez,

but unless the D.VACs are going to 160 million, they ain't getting them. Right. Yeah. We'll touch on some of those guys later in the show, pick out who each of us would maybe select in all of the various budget tiers that the Diamondbacks could fall. But real quick, I want to tell you about our friends over at Arizona Lottery. As I said yesterday, if there's some gift that you gave someone that just didn't quite hit right, you feel like you need to add something else to the mix. Arizona Lottery can be that for you.

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Find a retailer like our friends over at Circle K, near you at Arizona Lottery.com. You must be 21 or older to play. Also want to tell you about Desert Finders. Financial Credit Union, one Derek Montia, who's not with us today when he first bought his home, when he originally became a homeowner. He used Desert Financial Credit Union. They're the ones who got him started on his home ownership journey. They could do the same for you. The Desert Financial team are financial experts who are committed to their members and the community,

offering financial solutions tailored to helping real people achieve their financial goals and dreams. Look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options and more. They have it all over there. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 as well in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Well, Jack, I think opening day is what about 90 days away at this point.

Something like that. Probably, I guess maybe a little bit more than that, right around the 100-ish day mark. Yeah, it's a little ways away, but we're going to do something sort of outrageous and kind of look around at what the complexion of this roster could look like, even as we're several months out. Obviously, the Diamondbacks still have some decisions to make.

That DH being certainly near the top of the list is something we do expect them to add between now and then. But we'll start elsewhere. We'll start with the starting rotation. This one seems mostly obvious. Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Fott. In that fifth spot, I guess there would be some sort of a competition there. Mike Hazen, when asked about this, I think you asked him about this a few weeks ago during the Erod Press Conference. And he said incumbency matters. He seemed to kind of point to Tommy Henry as maybe being at the top of the list there, although other guys would receive consideration as well.

Ryan Nelson, Slate Cicconi, Bryce Jarvis, Blake Walston, some of the other guys who could be in the mix there for that fifth rotation spot. That's exactly the order I have them in my playing time projection sheet. And again, like Mike said, you know, when he went out there, he just said Tommy Henry first. He followed quickly with Ryan Nelson and then the others. Yeah. So, you know, clearly Tommy Henry is atop the chart there, and they felt pretty good about the practice game that he threw at Chase Field, just to let him finish the season and prove that he was healthy.

They wanted, you know, even though they weren't going to use him in the postseason, they wanted to make sure that he knew that he was healthy going into the postseason. Yeah, he's got a leg up there. Nelson would be next, but let's face it, you know, the, the track record there from him last year was so spotty. So any one of these other guys could step right in. Yeah, so we'll have to see what happens there. That feels like just sort of a spring training competition, although Tommy Henry, if he looks like he did last year, probably winds up landing that spot. We'll see what happens. Not a ton of questions in the starting rotation, adding in Paro Rodriguez, obviously added a lot of stability there. switching gears to the bullpen. Won't spend a ton of time on this.

This is also pretty well settled at this point. You've got it closer. What a concept that is for a Diamondback team that has had tons of uncertainty in that regard for a number of years. Paul Sewell is there. Kevin Ginkle as a setup guy, Ryan Thompson, another important late inning reliever for them down the stretch. It seems like there is a bit of a crunch there, actually, as odd as that is, where it seems like you have maybe two, two, too many guys right now to put on the major league roster. Scott McGuff was hurt down the stretch.

I imagine that he would return and make the opening day roster as long as he's healthy and, you know, sort of looks like he did last year. So after Ryan Thompson, you have Joe Mantiply, Miguel Castro, Scott McGuff, as I mentioned, Andrew Saul-Frank, certainly be in the mix there, probably nothing guaranteed. But he was an important arm for the debacks down the stretch. Luis Frius also showed some things. And I guess I pushed out Kyle Nelson. That was eight names before I got to Kyle Nelson.

And I don't really feel great about that either. Maybe Kyle Nelson would make the roster over Andrew Saul Frank. There are a number of different ways that could turn out. Yeah, that could go anyway. Keep in mind, Luis Frios is out of options. So, you know, you look at all the right-handed guys she just named, right? You know, after Seawald. You got Ginkle, Thompson, Castro, MacGuff, and Frioss.

Right? So, you know, with Frioss out of options, and Castro and McGuff taking in a combined $8,9 million, you know, you're not going to get rid of any of those guys unless you make a trade. Right. Now, if Castro struggles again in April or May, maybe they df a.m. But if they were going to get rid of them, they would have done it before his option year vested. So I think you're down to, you know, choosing between the three lefties, saw Frank Matth, apply, and Nelson. and, you know, just depending on how things look in spring training and who's healthy and who's not, two of those three guys. Right now, it shakes up like two left-handed relievers on the opening day roster.

There's some other guys in the mix there as well for sure, and I'm certain that the Diamondbacks are going to add more to this mix. Mike has talked about wanting to add depth to the bullpen, not necessarily back-end guys might be more minor league contracts. We expect to see more names here entering spring training. Justin Martinez, imagine will be in this mix. at least given a shot. He got some major league time this past season.

Didn't have some trouble throwing strikes for as nasty as this stuff is. Colin Snyder, a guy they just picked up off waivers a few days ago from the Royals. We talked about him a little bit. Peter Struzzlucky, a guy they got from the Milwaukee Brewers and the Andrew Chafin trade. That going back to the trade deadline, of course. Corbin Martin, another name that's pretty interesting. DeBacks were really intrigued by him in spring training. he went down with the lat injury that ended his season right there in spring training.

If he looks good, I imagine he would be an intriguing option as well. Boy, that was tough. I mean, they were so happy about him and the way things were looking for him in spring. He was throwing the ball so well. He's been through so many injuries. That one was a real gut punch. A lot of people were internally in the organization were really upset for him. So, you know, I would think that Corbyn Barton, if he's healthy, he's going to get every chance too.

Yeah, yeah, Corbin Martin. I mean, I mean, that's the headliner of your Zach Granke trade from, from 2019, right? I guess one guy who's still in the organization that he is the only guy still in the organization, right? J.B. Bukowskis is now moved on. Josh Rojas traded. Seth Beer, were taken in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft just a few weeks ago. Corbin Martin is all that's left. And yeah, there is still, I think some reason to be intrigued there.

Michael McDermott in the chat also pointed out that Ryan Nelson, Bryce Jarvis, one of those starting pitcher candidates that we discussed earlier, certainly could make the roster as a long man. That's another thing to factor in is like out of the eight names I gave off the top. There's not really a long man option there. Imagine that's something that the D-backs would want. The D-backs have a traffic jam in the bullpen, Jack? Is that a little bit?

I mean, you can't have too many decent pitchers. Michael also points out that Kyle Nelsan has two options left, and he was going to start 2023 in Reno before Manta Playa got hurt. Right. So, you know, by the time you get through a month and a half of spring training, who knows who's standing and who's healthy and all of that. You know, something else that Michael and I were talking about the other day. Sorry, Michael's my writing partner and website partner inside the Diamondbacks.

So I reference, he's the real brains of the operation. When we have Jack on the show, we're really having Michael on the show, basically. But, you know, it may not be opening day roster, but there's some names. I was asking him, all right, let's talk about names of guys that could show up during the year that might not be on the opening day roster that aren't necessarily even on the 40 men. So, you've and Lynn. Yeah? You know, could get some time.

Austin Pope. So these are guys who could get time in the majors in 2020. Right. Could get time in the majors in the 2024, but not necessarily opening day, but by midseason or second half. Christian Montez-Diarcha, Jake Rice. and Kyle Backus. So just some names to throw out there. You can look those guys up.

And, you know, you'll probably find some of the few left-handers in there. Yeah. Some guys that just don't be surprised if any of those names show up during the season. Yeah, I mean, you know going in that bullpins are going to evolve extensively over the course of the season. This is something that Mike Hazen talks about time and time again, how you can have your bullpen set on opening day. And then by May 1st, it looks completely different. So, yeah. The names you reeled off, we're 22, guys.

including the starters and relievers. You named 22 pitchers initially, you know, and I just threw out like five more names. That's 27. They used 30 guys last year. Yeah. They used 30 pitchers. So every year it's, you know, at least 25 to 30 pitchers

are gonna pitch in majors. It's pretty crazy. Let's switch over to position player, the position player situation. This is where things get pretty interesting. I know you've been playing around with like trying to figure out what the Diamondbacks bench would look like. in 24 and we touched on this a little bit earlier.

It's a little bit unclear right now. We'll just sort of go through the names that we know are going to be on the opening of the roster. Gabby Moreno behind the plate, Christian Walker, Cotell Marte, Geraldo Pradoe, Eugenio Suarez. There's your starting infield.

That's five guys. And then in the outfield, you know Corbyn Carroll's going to make the team. Alec Thomas, Lordus Guerriel. Those guys seem like locks. As a ninth, as a ninth player,

I guess Jake McCarthy, we expect would make the roster as of now, I guess it could be Dominic Fletcher, maybe Jorge Barrosa in that spot as well. But one of those speedy outfield types seems like a lock to make the team as well. That puts you at nine guys. You still don't have a backup catcher. You're going to need that. Maybe Jose Herrera.

Maybe it's someone else. We don't know. But that gets you to 10. And then as you talked about earlier, you need a backup shortstop. That's also a non-negotiable, whether that's Jordan Lawler, Blaze Alexander, someone else from outside the organization. That's another spot you're going to have to have to. to have. I think the key there is, is outside the organization. There's nobody else besides those two

that are even close to being capable of play a major league shortstop in the system right now. Yeah, I mean, I guess with the debacks moving on from Diego Castillo a few days ago, with the Lordus Guerriel move, that, yeah, that certainly cut down their options there. So that puts us at 11 position players. We expect the devax to open with 13, 13 position players, 13 pitchers on opening day. So you've got two spots then, Jack. You have two. two spots for theoretically this external DH type acquisition, which we expect the team to make, most likely. And then you also have Jace Peterson. You have a manor Rivera. You have Phaven Smith. How do we make this work? I mean, this is, you know, you basically have two spots for

theoretically four guys out of that group. The way you make it work is you make a trade. Yeah. You're going to have to trade off the MLB roster or the 40 man roster. You're going to have to move two or three guys. Maybe you can improve. Maybe you get another starter. Maybe you get a top end, you know, relief pitcher, somebody that actually can make some impact. But I, you know, so it wouldn't surprise me to see a Jake McCarthy or Dominic Fletcher, somebody like that moved out. Or, you know, maybe they trade Rivera. If they don't think that he's a third basement of the future and they have the third baseman in the present, you know, maybe some of their team will find some value in Rivera.

But I think they have to make a trade. They got to do a two or three for one type of move. Yeah. And then from there, you bring in your free agent, and it kind of cleans things up a little bit for them. Or they just leave them all out there as depth. And whoever's got options, they put them down in Reno. Yeah.

I mean, it is. Again, it's kind of like this surprising traffic jam situation where there's just not enough room for all these guys. You know, even after the team traded for Jace Peterson at the trade deadline, traded a decent pitching prospect to the Oakland A's. I don't necessarily think Jace Peterson's role is set in stone in 2024 looking at this list. You imagine he would probably, the team is going to have more patience with him than maybe some of the other guys. But it doesn't seem like that's necessarily a lock either.

Michael reminds us Rivera's out of options. So that really, he's either on the roster, he's going to be traded. That's a good point. So Rivera is out of options. Jason, you're not sending down. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. And then Paven Smith, I guess he does have options remaining, right? It's a mess, Jesse.

Would you clean this up? Yeah, come on. I wish I could. That was your job, Jack, to come in here and show us how to clean up this mess. Above my pay grade. So, yeah, I guess all this to say, there are, this feels like a more crowded roster situation sort of across the board than we're used to seeing in years past. which is a credit to the Diamondbacks.

There's more talent here than there's been in the past. There's more major league caliber players than there has been in the past, in all facets of the game, in the rotation, in the bullpen, as far as this position player group is concerned. Not to say it's necessarily the best team in the league or anything, but there's a clear difference between the depth that we've seen in years past and the depth that seems to be on this roster heading into 2024. Mike Hazen talked about that a little bit at the,

at the GM meetings. Yeah. He talked about, you know, as your team gets better, you got a lot tougher 40-man roster decisions to make, and it gets a little crowded. He went out of his way to praise the Atlanta Braves and how well they've managed their 40-man roster over the years. But that's the key, is like, you know,

moving the right guys and the right pieces around because you're going to be giving up some guys of value if you keep exposing the waivers. Yeah. So this is just sort of the new reality that the Diamondbacks live in, I guess. And yeah, it is very messy. And it feels like some sort of trade is going to happen between now and an opening day.

Maybe it's not, you know, maybe it's not a huge move. Maybe it's not something significant that really has a big imprint on the opening day roster. But there is just sort of, as you said earlier, just some kind of housekeeping that needs to be done as far as this roster is concerned in sorting through all the various pieces that this team has. I hope all of you took advantage of, I guess I haven't checked. I don't know for sure if you bet Damon's parley that he gave on the show yesterday if it was successful. I really hope it was based on Damon's track record.

I'm a little skeptical, so apologies if that was the outcome for you. The team's track record on bets is pretty then good. Is it? Okay. Yeah, he's a consistent two-for-three guy. He'll get three-for-three. Very rarely does he ever go O-for-3. But he's pretty consistent.

two for three guy. Well, there's a reason he's our resident Betts expert. Damon is out. He's on vacation going to some bowl game or something. Everyone left me, Jack. You're the, you're the only one. He's still here. And Jacob just came back from vacations and now he's here as well.

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And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Jersey, New Jersey, New York. 8778. Hope and Y.

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I mean, I know what it is. I just didn't feel like to do it. I was going to try to catch up, and I just couldn't like it there. Jack was anticipating it. He knows about it. I also want to tell you guys about our friends over. at Healer River Resorts and Casinos. You're looking for some time away after this busy holiday season.

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That doesn't feel right. That doesn't feel right. I mean land the plane? Land the plane? Land the plane? Land the plane? Yeah, something like that. Whatever that is, we're going to try to do that.

Yeah, we'll, yeah, I'm just, we'll just move on. Tether the Hindenburg, the way things are going today. Yeah, there we go. There we go. So as far as this DH question that we started the show with, as far as lefties versus righties, it seems like we're both. sort of an agreement that a right-handed hitter would still bring more value overall to the team. Not that there wouldn't be some value also in bringing a lefty in. Both would have a positive

impact on the lineup, no doubt. We have a graphic here that shows, I think pretty much all of the different DH targets, potential DH targets that we've talked about on the show. Horace Salar, J.D. Martinez, Reese Hoskins, Justin Turner, Jock Peterson, Brandon Bell, got some lefties in there. Tommy fam, Adam Duval, Carlos Santana. This graphic, what you're looking at, the first number is their WRC plus in 2023 against Ritey's, and then the second number is against lefties. This is interesting. I hadn't seen this breakdown for all of these different guys. I think it's good to know that like J.D. Martinez was a very good hitter against both righties and lefties, a 132 against Ritees, 143 against lefties. Whereas Hore Soler, also a very

very good hitter, but he was a 109 against righties, closer to average, and 181 against lefties. So some of these guys are just doing like, especially the right-handed hitters. I guess left-handed hitters, it works the same way, just sort of in the other direction. But some of these guys have just like enormous splits where they're really doing a lot of their damage against opposite-handed pitchers. When you look at this, Jack, what kind of stands out to you? I just keep thinking back to the dollars. I'm sorry, by the way, about jumping the gun on talking about the DH options earlier.

Yeah, well, you're just a big Carlos Santana fan, it sounds like. It sounds like it. Well, I keep getting confused with the musician, but anyway. No, you know, it's just at this point, really where are the debacks going with their payroll? We kind of assume that they're going to inch up closer to 150, and certain options are just going to take a lot more than that to get to. I mean, you know, you've talked about it. If Mitch Garver is getting 224, then J.D. Martinez is getting 236 or 240 or something like that.

Right. You know, so how do you, even if he backloads a few million dollars, how do you put $15, $18 million on top of the 140, whatever they're at right now? Right. So that's why I keep focusing on these under $10 million options, whether it's Jack Peterson, who's an extreme, you know, left-handed platoon guy. Yeah. Santana kind of popped out to me because he's a switch hitter. At least he can hit both sides, but he's been good against lefties the last couple of years. So that's kind of where I'm leaning, is if they do sign a free agent, they're going to get one of these under $10 million options. And that, if you can pull that graphic back up real quick, I mean, that's going to, you know, Saler, Martinez, Hoskins, Turner.

You can take them all off the board because they're all going to cost well over $10 million. They're all 12, $14, $16, $18 million options. You know, Brandon Belt, I'm in Michael's camp. I don't want any part of that. 146 against Ritey's. Yeah. Anybody have like a 36% K-rate? I mean, you know, he's just teetering on that cliff's edge.

Yeah. You know, Tommy Fam, I mean, we talked about this too. Like, the D-BACs lineup actually, we had a lot of the same questions going into last year. Like, how are we going to make this bench work? How are we going to make this lineup work? What are they going to do against lefties? They still have all these left-handed hitting outfielders. and they stuck Kyle Lewis on the opening day roster and then didn't quite work out.

Didn't work out and he got sick and then they brought Pave him back and, you know, nothing really worked kind of until Tommy Fam joined the team. Right. You know, and that kind of made sense. But Tommy Fam is terrible at DH. He needs to play in the field. It's just one of those guys. So, you know, we talked about Adam Deval, I think, before, you know, he's another option.

Again, I don't think he's going to cost you more than $7, $8, $9 million. So maybe just waiting for reverse. splits for him, 124 against righties, 91 against lefties. I don't know what it's a one year. It's a one year sample. Yeah, one year reverse split on a long-term major league guy and doesn't mean anything. Yeah. Yeah. So this is, uh, this is a tricky spot that diamondbacks, uh, find themselves in presumably. If they don't have the money to get one of those top to your guys, then yeah, I mean, out of the, I guess all I think I already know your answer. But if it is down to sort of the bottom half of that list, jock Peterson, Brandon Bell,

Tommy fam, just bringing him back, Adam Duval, Carlos Santana. If you could have any of those guys, which one do you think is the best roster fit for the Diamondbacks? Oh, boy. I'm not sure. I think Deval is probably the better defensive outfielder among them. Deval is not, yeah, I feel like I'm doing Deval an injustice by putting him in a group with a bunch of really DH-only type players. Right. I mean, Deval, I wouldn't have a problem sticking him in right field.

Yeah, Duval absolutely could play outfields and do a, I mean, Duval in some ways would really help against lefties because you could stick him in right field. And then Jake McCarthy is just, you kind of emit that problem entirely where you don't need to have one of those lefty outfield types starting against lefties. All right. So let's just, let's just take money off the table for a second. I have to ask it this way as well. If you could have any of those top tier guys, which of those stands out to you is maybe being. the best overall option if money wasn't an issue here? I mean, if money's not an issue, you've got to go JD. Okay. Right. I mean, you know, his metrics, batter ball metrics were fantastic, right? So there's no slowdown in his bat speed and there's no slow down in, you know, the quality of the contact that he's making.

Yeah. So, you know, probably only going to give you 400 plus plate appearances, but I think I'd rather stick with him in a known quantity there than, say, Saler, who had a really good year. last year, but he can tank it in a heartbeat. Yeah. I did think it was interesting that Reese Hoskins, also one of those guys who, at least in 2022, we had to go back a couple years because, of course, he didn't play in 23.

He was at 108 WRC plus against Ritees and 163 against lefties. Do you think like one of those just like lefty destroyer types who doesn't necessarily give you much against Ritees but is going to like just absolutely kill the ball against lefties? just splurging for someone like that makes sense? Or if you're going to splurge, you should just go J.D. Martinez because then you're getting theoretically a little bit more of a balanced approach there. Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you're just splurging on a DH only type, then if money's no object,

then J.D. is the guy. Yeah. But, you know, Mike has talked a lot about, you know, wanting also to have, he didn't, it wasn't like he had to have it, but it's certainly a plus to have the positional flexibility. And if you're talking positional flexibility, I mean, there's a lot of different guys you can stick at first base to back up Walker. I'd rather have a guy with positional flexibility can play some outfield. Yeah.

Positional flexibility is a big part of it as well. I guess, Jock Peterson, like do you want Jock Peterson playing the outfield at this point? Maybe not if you can help it, but he can at least go out there and help you out a little bit if you need it. Justin Turner can play some first base. I think that's still reasonable for him.

Reese Hoskins can, you would expect, play some first base, even coming back from the ACL. Jorge Salere, not a great outfielder, but could give you some innings in the outfield. He played the outfit a little bit for the Marlins this past year and was all right.

I guarantee you a comment from Michael's going to pop up there any second on that last comment. He deems him completely unplayable in the outfield. His like RDRS per 162 or whatever is like minus 25. Yeah, he only had like two, three hundred innings in the outfield and still put up like double digit negatives. Yeah. Really, all of these guys have a pretty serious risk attached to them. Like Jorge Saler, as Michael points out in the chat, never really put back-to-back good seasons

together. He's really good in 2023, not good at all in 2022, had a monstrous second half in 2021. He's kind of always been that sort of inconsistent player, consistently inconsistent, I guess. J.D. Martinez is 36 years old for as great as he was in 2023. There's some risk there. that things just sort of drop off and all of a sudden he's you know all the value comes from the bat so you know there's some there's some risk some considerable risk there rys hoskins coming off a season or he didn't play an entire year does it take him a while to get things going jason turner is 39 right this is his age 39 season that he's coming up on his batted ball metrics are a little scary yeah and he didn't really do yeah uh if you there's a lot of blue on the savant page with with justin turner at least not as much

red as you would expect for someone who put together a pretty decent offensive season. All of these guys, Jack, are, there's some flaws. There's considerable risk with any, with every single one of them. I know we talked about Mitch Garver yesterday and Damon was a, was a huge fan of his, but even with him, there were some serious durability questions. I guess this is just the nature of free agency entering the 2024 season. There's just not a lot of great options out there right now. Yeah, I think, you know, I just think back to the old moneyball quotes, you know, where you got to try to focus on what a guy can do, not on what he can't do. Right. And then just make sure that you're finding the best fit for your team. You know, in this case, I think what they need

the most, going all the way back to the beginning theme, is I think they need another right-handed bat. I really do. Unless they move on from one or two of their left. candid outfielders. Sure. I do have to say, I mean, just the, just the thought of like, you know, if you get a Jorge Saler and you plug that 181 WRC plus against lefties into this lineup, then suddenly you're talking about a lineup that can do some serious damage again. I mean, talking about Catelle Marte being well above average against lefties, Gabby Moreno,

well above average against lefties, Christian Walker, Lordus Guerriel, Ania Eugenioz Juveni as Suarez, you both expect them to be above average. That could be like almost a juggernaut lineup against against lefties in some ways. Well, I mean, but how confident on you that Salare's going to repeat a 180? Yeah, not very, not very. We're dream with me here a little bit, Jack, all right? See, you used to be in a wet blanket on Derek and now I'm the wet blanket on you.

Yeah, I guess how the roles have changed around here. Anyway, yeah, none of these guys are going to be perfect options, But those are at least some reasons to go various directions. I think Carlos Santana, as you mentioned, is certainly an interesting option. A guy who can give you some value against both righties and lefties going to be more productive against lefties. Was a Gold Glove finalist, I believe, this year. Of course, didn't wind up winning the award.

That went to Christian Walker. But had a pretty darn good season defensively at first base. Maybe you feel like you're not losing as much there on Christian Walker's days off as you were with like Pavin Smith or whomever filling in at first base. But yeah, this is going to be an interesting, interesting offseason. It feels like even though the Diamondbacks probably don't have a ton of big moves yet to make, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how this thing is going to turn out. I actually, my prior to Christmas, my spidey sense was up.

Like something's coming. Something else is coming. I think there's still maybe. Mike talks a lot about how, you know, the free agent market. needs to play out more typically before you're able to make certain trades. Yeah. Now, ironically, he made a pretty big trade last year in December before Christmas and another one this year with Suarez.

So that's not necessarily been his actual MO, but I think that the way you've seen this year's free agent market play out, I'm not going to be surprised if there's a fairly significant trade that comes down. I'm not predicting it, but I'm not going to be surprised at all. By the way, Salare, last three years, WRC plus versus lefties, 125, 121, and then the 181. So you're saying the 181 is likely to repeat itself, is what you're saying. Yeah, right, sure.

That's right. I mean, you know, the average of the three is 144. It's still pretty impressive if you just average out the three. Sure. Well, yeah, there's a lot of unanswered questions, but something that is not an unanswered question is where you should fill up your gas tank. That should happen over at Circle K. It is not only a great place to that, but it's also America's Thirst Stop.

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when he doesn't have any work to do or a care in the world? So yeah, you absolutely should get in on that as well with a variety of bold flavors. OGs G's Gummies are a slam dunk for your taste buds. Plus, you can customize your experience based on desired effect and strength. To learn more about OGs G's Gummies and where you can find them, head on over to OGsBrands.com. That is all that we have here for this very eventful edition of the PhNX Devac show. Again, we appreciate you all sticking with us through the delay and our internet issues here.

in studio. Hopefully we won't have to deal with this the rest of the week. This has been, I was anticipating being done with the show more than an hour ago, and yet this is sort of how things have turned out. But Jack, we appreciate you for putting up with, thank you. With all of the issues and sticking here with it. As always, you should be sure to give us all a follow on Twitter. You can find me at Jesse and Friedman. You can find Jack at Shoo Wizard 59, if I'm not mistaken. That is correct. And just Google inside the Diamond If you want to look for Michael McDermott and mine's analysis inside the diamondbacks, easy to find us. Yeah, they do absolutely great stuff over there, top-notch analysis on the daily.

You guys are pumping out multiple articles every day. Be sure to check that out as well. You should also follow Fajj on Twitter. He is at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. He is the fourth best Jacob Franklin, as we like to say. He's maybe moving up the list. You might get up to third, depending on. You know, we'll have to ask Santa what his assessment was of Jacobs, how naughty or nice Jacob was in 2023.

But of course, you also should follow us at PHNX underscore Dbacks. And all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again so much for being here with us and bearing with us through all of the issues. We really appreciate it. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when me and Jack Summers are making all of the front office. decisions. Got it.