PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease Signing SHAKES UP Pitching Market, Making Things Harder for the D-backs

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

The Blue Jays didn’t seem to get a good Black Friday deal on Dylan Cease, instead paying the ace $210 million over 7 years. We have more on how the deal impacts the free agent pitching market for the Diamondbacks and why things just got far more expensive. We also are joined by the D-backs minor league pitcher of the year Daniel Eagen to discuss his journey, minor league bus rides, and overcoming a brain tumor at a very young age. Plus, we also discuss the Snakes still having a very big need for a first baseman.JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website www.access-insurance.com.Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.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!Monarch: Use Monarch to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, Dylan Cease has broke the free agent pitching market, and we have more on how this is going to impact the Arizona Diamondback search for starting pitching. We also are joined by the one, the only minor league pitcher of the year for the DBAX organization, Daniel Egan, to discuss his journey to this point in his career and how a brain tumor that he had when he was young kind of shaped his career. All of that in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. And welcome in. Happy Black Friday to you all. This is the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as a man who does not get up at 6 a.m. To go out and go shopping, but a man who goes out at 6 a.m. on Black Friday to go drinking with his friends.

Glad to have you guys here. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Go create an account over there. Download that GameTime app first. Create an account and use our code of P. to get yourself $20 off your first already low last minute ticket purchase over there. And of course, like I said, it's Black Friday. So we would be remiss to not have our own Black Friday sale going on right now.

Go get up to 30% forget 30% off. Get up to 90% off of merch over there at our website. You can go to go PHNX.com. Hit that merch tab. I also think the actual website is like allcity.com, something like that. I'm very bad at website. So you'll have to forgive me. But it is running from today.

through Monday. So make sure to go save on some of that wonderful merchandise from our PHNX Locker. Get yourself stocked up for the year, especially with how good this Phoenix Suns team is doing in and the Diamondbacks. Go get yourself a Jesse Jr. shirt. Get yourself ready for the 2026 season. Diamondbacks are doing their best to get ready for the 2026 season, but I am not sure if they are going to find any Black Friday deals. And of course, the Toronto Blue Jays definitely did not acquire Dylan cease on a Black Friday deal. That is definitely not the case. The Toronto Blue Jays did everything that you thought that they would do here in the

2025 off season to go out there and make this team better, make this team that came so close to winning a World Series that much better for the 2026 season. And arguably, they took a big swing. Not sure if one hand, if they definitely got the best available starting pitcher on the market, but you could argue that this particular Toronto Blue Jays franchise is not going away. And it reminds me of what the Diamondbacks did when they went out there and added, you know, obviously Jordan Montgomery to this team after coming so close to winning their own World Series, right? Teams that get this close cannot just go away.

They cannot just say, hey, that's how good we did. We gave it a shot. We gave it our best. We did our best against a very powerful Dodgers team, but, you know, we come up short. No, this team, much like any team that makes it to the World Series and does not get the job done, is coming out. They're rearming and they're trying to make themselves even better than they were last year. They add Dylan cease to their starting pitching rotation on a seven-year deal worth 200. $110 million.

Now, Dylan Seas is definitely one of the best starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball. I don't think that there's any doubt about that. But Dylan Sees also had himself a very down season. In fact, you know, he had one of the worst seasons of his career. 2025 Dylan Sees posted a 4.55 ERA. He posted a, in 168 innings here, he posted an 8 and 12 record with the the San Diego Padres.

And he was a move that the Padres were making in an effort to get better for the, you know, to push themselves over the top over the 2024 and 2025 season. He did not do that. He did not get the Padres over the top. And once again, the Padres overall, you know, fall short. He did have himself an incredible strikeout per nine ratio, 11.9 strikeouts or 11.5, excuse me, strikeouts per nine innings pitched. And, I mean, you could say what you want about the 4.55 ERA.

He did post a 3.56 whip and a 1.327 whip. The FIP, the 3.56 FIP, that is pretty good, actually, overall here. And it does show that some of the factors behind him were not his fault. However, the Toronto Blue Jays just paid $210 million for seven years for a guy who's ERA plus was 94 last year and 97 in 2023. Cease has put up incredible numbers, including being very durable, which is something that a lot of teams are looking for this particular offseason with all the injuries that have occurred around baseball.

You got to argue that. But what Dylan Sees just did, what the Blue Jays just did, might have just broken the free agent pitching market, right? This is the largest free agent deal in France. franchise history for the Toronto Blue Jays. And he does bring elite strikeout stuff and a track record of durability. He's also been one of MLB's most consistent 30 plus start pitchers over the last five seasons. But he's also volatile and like inconsistent with that ERA from last year, he's had command

issues. And there's stretches during the season where he looks more like a middle of the rotation starter than an ace, right? Toronto paid for strikeout upside and reliability, but they paid a lot. And, I mean, again, this is a lot, especially if ceases year to year production varies. But the one thing that this sends to the league, the clear message that this sends to every baseball team out there, is that starting pitching, top tier starting pitching is going to be very expensive. Even if the pitcher comes with flaws, even if the pitcher comes with flaws, even if the pitchers, as we have said in the past, had a down year in 2025.

That is the market, that is the situation, that is the reality that the Diamondbacks live in. In order for the Diamondbacks to go out there and fit all of their needs, especially when it comes to starting pitching, when it comes to starting pitching, they're going to need to go after a guy that had kind of a down year. They're going to have to, they're going to need to go after a guy that for some reason is willing to sign a smaller contract on a shorter, term deal than other options on the free agent market. And that is going to mean that they were

probably bad last year or they're getting older. And, you know, again, you're going to have some questions about whether or not maybe signing a guy in their late 30s to a multi-year deal is the right move for the Diamondbacks when that time comes. Should they even be able to get starting pitching from the free agent market? Let's be honest here. This is a deal that we kind of expected to see in a way for someone like Dylan Cease, but however, the production from 2025 does not warrant this level of contract. So it just sets a price floor for high-end starters. And again, other pitchers and other agents are going to point to this as contract comparables. Guys that had a better year than last year of Dylan Sees, more importantly, guys that had

a better, like last three seasons than Dylan Cease are going to try to command far more than he's receiving. And again, there's also one less front line starter now available. It's good for the Toronto Blue Jays. And I mean, as far as we're concerned, the Toronto Blue Jays were going to be a competitor for free agent pitchers out there that the Diamondbacks were interested, quite frankly. So as far as this is concerned, it does mean that there's one less team seeking, starting, pitching, most likely that's going to be what the Toronto Blue Jays were trying to do with starters.

And now they'll kind of move to some of their position player needs. perhaps bringing back Bobauchette. Stay away from Cattle Marte, by the way. I just want to throw that out there. But the supply of impact arms now shrinks, and it forces other teams to either spend more aggressively to outbid each other or pivot to trade and mid-tier options, which is what the diamondbacks might be forced to do now.

They might be forced when it comes to their starting pitching issues and shortcomings. They might have no choice but to switch either to those mid-tier options, which we've already discussed some of those as well as trading, right? But they need starters, they need relievers, and this move overall accelerates the pitching market across Major League Baseball. But again, Diamondbacks are in a tricky spot here. If the D-Backs want a top starter that is, you know, once again,

in line with what they've done the past two off seasons, Cases number now becomes the ballpark, ballpark, excuse me, for every front-line starter costs. It raises the market for every single one of these pitchers out there and things just got far more expensive. I know this is the standard, right? But this is why, especially in baseball, I feel like it takes a while for the market to move. We get bored with this. We're like, it's free agent season.

Let's get going, right? It takes somebody as brave as Dylan ceased to accept a $210 million contract over seven years to kind of unclogged the drain and get things moving. considering he was one of the biggest pieces available on the free agent market, it does get the market moving. So again, there is that. There's also less competition now for guys like Zach Gowan. Teams who missed out may pivot aggressively towards the next best names. And again, if Arizona has any interest in bringing Zach Gowan back

or someone that you would consider in Zach Gowen's tier, they're now navigating a stronger, more desperate, more expensive free agent pitching market. And Leah's not wrong. Dylan Sees does have a great mustache. I would like to also point out that my mustache is really coming into its own as well, Leah. So not to toot my own horn here, but I am a mustache affixionado. And quite frankly, I would give Dylan Sees an extra season just for that. He also is very in line with the mustaches there in Toronto.

I think their mustache game for the Blue Jays is going to be very strong going forward, as well as the starting pitching rotation. Like I do think that Dylan Cis is going to be better here because once again, it's not like San Diego. I don't feel like the expectations are going to be nearly as high. And quite frankly, Dylan Cis could be a number three, number four starter. And I don't know if the Toronto Blue Jays really care about that, especially if you're talking about during the regular season. It's long, it's arduous. It is what it is.

To have Dylan Cis, though, as a part of your starting rotation when the playoffs come back around, that's going to be very powerful. It's going to be very important. and I think he's going to be very valuable for that team. However, you could easily argue that they overpaid. And now that the top free agent pitching market has become ultra costly, other teams might pivot to a trade. So that's part of it as well, not to say that the Diamondbacks weren't already considering that,

but the trade market on top of the free agent market getting more expensive, the trade market might have gotten more expensive. The trade market now might have more active teams in the trade market trying to make trades that weren't perhaps going to be as aggressive making trades before. That once again is something that could potentially, you know, just hinder the Diamondbacks from being able to get what they need to get done this offseason and add these teams. More buyers competing for the same small group of tradable starters. Once again, means that it's going to cost higher in prospects or trades or whatever the Diamondbacks

are going to have to throw in. And the debacks just have to really decide. The front office has to decide. how much they want to go all in on this season and how much they want to risk, I guess you could say, how much they want to trade away what potential assets, whether it's major league assets or it's, or it's, you know, potential, you know, prospects that could be the future of this team. It's a lot, especially if you're considering trading away for a guy that has a limited

amount of time left on his contract, like we were talking about earlier this week with Terrick Scoople. So devax here, they're at a crossroad, right? It's crossroad for the front office. They have to decide between two paths. Are they going to try to compete in this ultra-competitive free agent market? Do they have the money for that? Which we've already kind of feared that they don't.

We fear that they don't have not only the money, but we also know that they, I don't know. I mean, they have made it well known that they have no problem making some trades here. So the trade market and especially the potential for a Cotel-Marte trade might have just increase substantially. I know how much all of us hate that. I do want to address that, by the way, because Jesse was here the other day. I wanted to behave myself, so I didn't really want to get into bashing journalists. Jesse tends to not approve of such things. But what I will say is this, and I got my little SpongeBob bottle, by the way, what I will say is this, is that I saw the rumors about Cotel Marte change literally over the course of a day. It was almost like the telephone game. Things

went from the Diamondbacks for some websites. It went from the Diamondbacks are actively listening and they are listening to offers on Cotel Marte to headlines sensationalizing the trade rumors and saying something more along the lines

of the Diamondbacks are shopping around Cotel Marte. I still don't believe that's the case. I really don't and I think that that is just like a telephone game where once again, my my you know my I guess curiosity about big names like Ken Rosenthal and Bob Nightingale and John Marosi all saying something about Cotel Marte without really having much information to go on right that

that makes me a little nervous right like it makes me a little nervous overall because it feels like even though they're not crediting that they have a source or that they're getting this information from somewhere I just don't believe it's coming from nowhere and I can't believe it's all as circumstantial as Catell's contract and that he would be the biggest return for this team. A lot of stars would be the biggest return for their teams should those teams return them or trade them away, right? Like that's not new information. And again, the 10 and 5 rights in regards to Cotel Marte definitely just seems like more of a circumstantial thing rather than something that the organization would want to get rid of him for prior to those 10 and 5 rights being

active or being granted to Cotel Marte. But I still still. get nervous and when we see stuff like this when we still see the dillan c signing when we see what's going on right now it's hard not to imagine that the diamondbacks need to further explore trade opportunities due to how expensive this free agent market is going to be and when you talk about trading guys you are not exclusively talking about trading in alec thomas or jake mccarthy you are actively talking about trading way future pieces guys that we've talked to on this show like Ryan Walschmidt, guys that we recently acquired in the Merrill Kelly trade like Cole Drake or Mitch Bratt or David Hagamann, or you're even talking about the potential

of trading away, Marte, mostly because, as many have alluded to, that really would be the only player that the Diamondbacks could trade that wouldn't make fans riot. Jason, excuse me, for getting rioty today. I'm not the one getting rioting in this thing. I think if you talk about trading Pardombo or Corby and Carroll, you're going to have to have to deal with other people that are far more angry and powerful than I am. But Cotel Marte overall just feels like a guy who, even though it would upset the fan base, even though it would disrupt things, the return could be enough to satisfy, perhaps maybe

de-escalate the rage that fans have if this could be one of those returns that brings in major league ready pitching or major league level pitching that can immediately impact this team in 2026. That's what they need at this point, right? long-term outlook for Zach Gallin coming back, not good. The long-term outlook for perhaps Merrill Kelly coming back, maybe that's a little bit more reasonable, but still doesn't seem very good. And overall, my Kazin's comments have been in regards to getting younger

and more controllable. And I don't know how you do that based on the direction that this market is going, unless you do it via trade. So this is it, man. I mean, CIS's deal has really triggered a domino effect here. And now I think we'll start to see some more deals happen. And the more that those deals happen, the more it impacts this market and what the Diamondbacks can do.

I would not be surprised to see the Diamondbacks once again, sit and wait and see what players fall to them, rather than them being active here anytime soon, any time over the next few weeks. I would not be surprised to see the Diamondbacks wait until close to, you know, when pitchers and catchers report potentially to fill both of those roster positions that they need for their start.

rotation. More importantly, though, more importantly, this particular move for Dylan sees, I think finally, at least for me, hopefully fingers crossed, removes the Toronto Blue Jays from the Tatsuya Amai sweepstakes. And as you may know, that is the only thing that matters to Damon and I right now. Bringing Tatsuya Amai to the Arizona Diamondbacks means more to me than air, water, beer, or the territorial cup, quite frankly. So I would be willing to give up all of those things. I'm not sure how long I would last, but just the brief satisfaction of seeing the Diamondbacks got the job done before passing away would probably be enough for me to die

happily. So again, very excited for that proposition. And, you know, again, we know which teams are out and those teams are the Dodgers and now probably the Blue Jays. So down to what, 25 more teams? He's not signing with the Colorado Rockies. He's not signing with the White Sox. We know which teams we can eliminate.

Supposedly, Derek, the Mets are out as well. The Mets are in on Framber Valdez and are cooling their interest on EMI. So we could cross the Mets off potentially as well. Wait, the Mets are in on Framber Valdez? How close is this? Is this like imminent? Yeah, that's what the reporting is seemingly. Oh, my God.

Frammer Valdez. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about that on Monday and how much that makes things even more expensive. Or the Diamondbacks. But hey, at least the Mets are once again out of the free agent pitching market. Well, and Ranger Swores. Did you see that? Ranger Suarez as well to the Cubs potentially.

Oh, man. Yep. The big names are starting to fall. Like I said, once Dylan cease, it doesn't even need to be official, Damon. Once Dillen C signed, it's like, all right, we know what the market is. now, right? Like, it's, it's, I, I did home equity and real estate for a decent portion of my

career as a grown adult. And that's actually how things go in real estate. Like, all it takes is one house to sell for far too much to increase the value of all of our houses in this neighborhood. And, uh, as far as starting pitching goes, that just happened. Dylan Cease increased the value of everyone's house in the free agent pitching market for major league baseball. But, uh, They can't wait to look that stuff up. Can't wait to look that stuff up. But between now and then, I have a lot of drinking to do. And I don't know.

I don't know if I'm going to make it, you guys. I won't lie. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to introduce you to one, Daniel Egan. And we are going to have our interview with him in regards to his journey to this point in his career. And we are also going to talk about a very scary medical situation he had where he had a brain tumor removed as a child. All of that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere?

You're watching the PHA next time and back show. Well, our collegiate boys were out at Rally House picking out their wares and getting ready for the territorial cup. And you should too. If you're heading out to Tempe to get yourself either on the maroon and gold side or the blue and red side, make sure you stop and get yourself some gear at Rally House. They have shop locations in Tempe as well as Mesa and Glendale, depending on what part of town you're in. And if you haven't checked out Rally House for your game day needs, they have you. You covered hats, jerseys, especially with it being chilly out, some long-sleeved gear,

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my friend Tim. I'm talking about three amigos around here. We cheer hard. We celebrate harder and we always keep it local. That's why three amigos tequila is a staple for Arizona fans. Their family owned right here in the valley. They were founded in 1939 and crafted in Mexico with 100% blue Weber Agave. It's award winning for a reason, smooth, bold and made for moments that matter, including winning the territorial cup. What makes three amigos different? It's easy. It's the agave.

They farm themselves. No outsourcing needing. They create a true farm-to-glass tequila experience for you. So this season, tailgate, toast, and celebrate the Valley's favorite tequila, three amigos. I'm going to have to find three friends to share it with out there. I definitely do. I have to probably my friend C-boy is going to be out there. My friend Tim, we're going to be drinking some three amigos for sure.

But I did get the chance to make a new amigo. And that was with our friend Daniel Egan. Daniel Egan is a name you may have heard of. He is a top pitching prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. In fact, I believe prior to that Merrill Kelly trade that brought in some new names to this minor league organization, he was the top pitching prospect. In fact, Daniel Egan was the minor league pitcher of the year for the Arizona Diamondbacks and for an incredible reason. He put up some outstanding numbers there in Hillsborough, had himself an amazing season, amazing career. for the hops and has already moved on to Amarillo and we discussed not only his time in Hillsborough

but we discussed that change in elevation between Hillsborough and Amarillo. We discussed his time here what his arsenal has been, what, you know, adaptations he's made and so much more. Here is our interview with Daniel Ligin. I appreciate you joining us, man. And I know that you had yourself a great 20-25 season. How do you personally assess the way things went for you in your first professional career? Or professional year? Yeah, I was super happy. Obviously, the results were on par with what any pitcher would want in their season.

But I think I made a lot of development and growth in my career. And so I was like super happy with how I adjusted the new things, the longer season, throwing more innings. It's just like there's a lot of stuff that can get thrown your way. I think it did a good job of just like handling whatever it was thrown at me was it does it go beyond the results on the field is it just because of how different the experiences for you no longer playing could collegiately and just kind of playing a yeah minor league yeah so parts of it was like the the new competition level like there's a lot more better baseball players and so adjusting

around that and facing better linos but also like just understanding my body and like understanding that being healthy and longevity is like a huge part of like being a professional athlete. And so I tried to do my best to keep myself on the field all season. That's definitely something we know all too well as Diamondbacks fans for sure with the injuries that we experienced this year with this team. But we were thrilled to see your progression, your year, how great everything kind of came together for you there in Hillsborough. What were some of those adjustments that you made kind of throughout the season? because you you progressed, I mean, somewhat quickly compared to other minor league pitchers to move from Hillsborough to Amarillo before the end of the season. Yeah, I think I went into the year just like trusting all my stuff and seeing how my strengths played against other hitters.

And I really just used and honed in on those strengths until there came a time where they didn't, you know, do me well. And then I would reflect on those outings and be like, okay, the curveball was off today. to get in the zone more with the curveball or everything plays off my fastball so I got to get in the zone with the fastball more and so I think it was just like little learning lessons in between all these starts in Hillsboro that allowed me to like put together like a really good season because I felt like every time that I didn't do as good as I wanted to do during a start in Hillsboro I always spent that next week trying to you know build on it and do better and learn from it oh absolutely I mean I guess that's that that is the

key to becoming a better person in life and a better professional athlete. Right. For sure, right? But it's, it is something that I think takes time to learn as, as, you know, a professional athlete. But, again, your, your curveball plays really well. We've heard very good things about your curveball. What is your arsenal like and what would fans expect to see kind of from you?

Yeah. So the curve ball is like a little hard 126 action. It's a spike grip. Fastball has got a lot of ride, a lot of carry. get like 20 plus inches of vertical brake so I try to use that to you know leverage the depth of the curveball the curveball gets a lot of negative vertical break and so I really like to have those two playing off each other vertically and then I have a gyro slider that mixes in well like right in between the two and then I'm working on a splitter.

Hey that's one of Damon's dogs I'm assuming back there we're very dog friendly on this program as you could tell for my hat so we're good with that but uh i can see he's as excited as we are about about your arsenal there uh it's it like it's it seems like you know younger pitchers tend to rely heavily on the fastball and then that secondary stuff kind of comes along i mean we're we talk about guys even in the major leagues that still don't really have established uh breaking pitches and things like that was that important to you is that something that you kind of wanted to be more than your typical fastball pitcher or how does that come around where that develops into one of your better pitches early on yeah so i've always been like a breaking stuff guy like my breaking stuff no matter

like the shape of it was has always been like pretty good and so ever since i want to say like college level i've just been trying to get the fastball better and better to play with the breaking stuff because supinating and like throwing sweepers curb balls sliders like that's all like like very easy with my arm slot and so I really try to hone in what the force team can do with that arsenal and so part of it was keeping it on a more vertical plane rather than you know dropping slot and getting you know some some run ride to it so just trying to be as natural with it as possible that makes a lot of sense at least for someone that doesn't pitch that it sounds probably easier said than done but yeah no you you definitely early on

early on you you you want to like gain Velo and throw as hard as some of these guys but then you slowly realize that you know you have to like put into work in the off season in order to do that so during the season chasing the VLO is probably not the best idea so for me it was just like letting all my other stuff play off of what my fastball already was how do you increase your VLO as a pitcher this is just more curiosity for me because I know it's not like going into the gym and making your arm stronger right like i was a buck 70 when i came out of high school and so when i started playing you know collegiate level i would do summer leagues and all my roommates would like dude you got to eat like

three times the amount that you're eating throughout a day and so that's how i started gaining weight and gaining some masks just like stuffing my face full of food and so from my experience like that's probably the best way to to gain some velo because i remember i was creeping up at the college level and then my junior year in college i was like 200 to a five and that's the heaviest I'd been up until that point. And so I think the mass along with, you know, what strength I already had just like added to my athletic ability. That's wild.

It's just wild to me because again, like we talk about that a bit. We talk about that with like outfielders when they're, you know, when, you know, when everybody, it's so weird. Yeah. And obviously muscle is important for sure. But and I will, I will say this also eating eating a lot. That's not the worst case, right? Like when that's what you're required to do in order to get a little bit better, that's not the worst scenario.

But yeah, I'm a foodie too. So it helps out. Oh, are you? Let low. Oh, we could talk about that forever. Are you like a big time restaurants foodie guy or what's what is your particular interest? Yeah. I like restaurants.

I also like hole in the wall spots. It's just like a little low key places like some good burger joints or wing spots, stuff like that. Yeah. Those places can tend to have the best food ever. but you have to be brave enough to go into them. So there's that caveat. I guess when you got, you know, here to Hillsborough, what, was there something that was a strength of yours prior to that, that like you said, was no longer a strength, potentially? That suddenly the level of competition changing made it not something you could go to or how does that kind of evolve for you throughout the season?

Yeah. I guess some of that was tied in with the curveball because I guess more of just how I use my whole. arsenal because in college, the conference I played in, I relied a lot on throwing spin in the dirt and getting chase. And so a lot of my stuff came from throwing pitches out of the zone. But when you get to the professional level and minor league level, at least, the zone shrinks and hitters are a lot better and they can kind of pick and choose what pitches they want to hit. And so obviously the more pitches you throw out of the zone, the more likely they're going to take those as the game goes on or even throughout the season in Hillsborough, there's only five other teams

that we're playing again. So I'd see some of those lineups like four or five times through. And so I had to really just shrink the strike zone, like pound the zone with every single one of my pitches and then expand off of that when the opportunity presented itself. Well, and that makes it more even more impressive that there in Hillsborough, you had the results that you had that essentially, you know, you became one of the organization's best pitchers, quite frankly, based on the results and everything. And I feel like typically seeing or batter seeing a pitcher more is maybe more of an advantage for a batter over a pitcher. But how is that kind of an advantage for you seeing those guys so much?

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I think it's just like as a pitcher, you can be, I'm so like blank minded. And when I pitch on the mound, like, I just try to be in a flow state and like just go right out of him and attack. But then there are times where, you know, I face the hitter for the six time that year. And it's like, okay, I kind of remember what pitches he's hit off me and what counts. Like the whole situation just in general.

I'm like, okay, this guy might like be looking for a breaking ball with two strikes. Like let's mix it up here. See me and my catcher on the same page. Just like kind of reliving those moments throughout the games in the past that I had already, you know, experienced. And so just like recalling and acting on those during the game. It makes a lot of sense. I know Hillsborough is a special place. And I know it's special specifically for you, right?

amazing organization a great great name great logo everything about hillsborough is great but uh you know i i saw a video that you made when when you were promoted to double a amarillo and i was just curious as to you know your connection there in hillsborough and and uh you know is is it special to you just because it was your first stop or or uh is that place just a little special overall to to the players that go there. I think so. I think it was just like really good chemistry. Like once I had gotten out of my comfort zone with pro ball in general too,

like that was my first time being, I hadn't gotten sent up after I got drafted. And so I stayed back in the complex. It was my first time getting like sent out. And after kind of getting in my comfort zone there, just made a lot of good friendships and relationships with the players and staff that I had there, got comfortable in the city. It was, you know, my kind of vibe.

low-key, very green in the mountains. And so there was a lot to do outside of the baseball field. And that's what that stuff's important to me to just being able to, you know, differentiate baseball life and home life. And so I think it was all just like a perfect blend of, you know, putting me in the best headspace to go out there and compete on the mound. I just had a really good time getting to know my coaches, my staff and my teammates and going on road trips with them. So yeah, road trips, by the way. What were the road trips? road trips like i know road trips in minor leagues can be an adventure i know that they can also be a lot of fun like is that is that where a lot of the the team bonding still occurs and you guys kind

come closer those bus rides in the in the northwest league are on average like four five hours long maybe six and so you spend a lot of time you know people keep themselves on the bus sometimes but if if people choose to hang out it's a good time we you know play cards play mafia do a bunch of stuff on the road and then whenever we get to where we're going, we always try to, you know, go out to eat at different places after games or see if there's a cool spot a couple minutes down the road that we can walk to from our hotel. So we spent a lot of time together and like bonding and doing stuff like that. Yeah. Well, that's important. We are a connected team here. So because apparently makes us a dangerous team according to the phrase. But was there was there,

has ever been a teammate or coach already that's had a big impact on you? I mean, I'm sure throughout your development and your entire career, um, you've had that, but has there already been somebody in the minor leagues that's kind of helped you make that, that next step or reach that next level?

Yeah, my pitching coach in Hillsborough, uh, Tyler Mark, he was really fun to work with. He just like, seems like he understood what I was trying to work towards all year. And me and him were on the same page for,

you know, 99% of that season. And we were just really locked in at what we wanted to work on. And if something wasn't, you know, where it was supposed to be at that time, he didn't seem to act like it was a worry. And so it was just very reassuring that like the stuff I was doing and continuing to better myself for was like it was working and just stating the course and not trying to change up too much.

And I also had a really good relationship with one of the other starters, John West in Osborough, because me and him would throw back to back days. And I think we just enjoyed watching each other go out there and compete. And like so close together, we just, like, we were, we were pretty invested in each other's like development throughout that year. And we spent up until I got called up together, living together. And so that was a lot of fun. Do you, do you find yourselves like critiquing each other or giving each other advice?

How does, how does that work? Because, I mean, I feel like, you know, it's, yeah, you're, you have a closeness where you can share that information, but you're also both like developing pictures. That was just part of our conversation with Daniel Egan. By the way, I never addressed on this interview how strong his mustache game is. And now that I've been sitting here watching it, I've realized what a huge missed opportunity that was. But we will have his answer to that question about his teammate and him and how they helped each other develop and so much more on the other side of this break. And we're going to just take a quick moment.

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But we have more here. And this was his response to how he and his teammate helped improve each other there in Hillsborough. Both very different arsenal-wise. And so I think I learned. lot from how he does like routines and stuff I paid attention to that a lot and okay I think I shared with him just a lot of like my mental game side like how I attack hitters in general and I think like us understanding how different

we were from each other but also we were working for like the same goals at the end of the day which is like crack the big league rotation and so I think just understanding what each of us like wanted during the whole year and we lived together we talked about every single outing together and it was just like it wasn't as like we're not like critiquing each other after each outing we were just like sharing our thoughts and we both respected each other's opinion enough to like act on them and try things out well i mean like you know again that's that's the only way sometimes you can get better and i think again as an athlete you already have to accept a lot of coaching so i think when you start

having that relationship with teammates that you value their opinion and and you know can can learn from them as well i feel like that uh impacts your development in a very positive way definitely now you move to double a amarillo and I know that it's a great organization as well just like hillsborough however we know that hodgetown also isn't as friendly to pitchers as as maybe hillsborough is what what are your thoughts when you kind of change environments like that as a pitcher and now your home stadium is a place with a different elevation and and your pitches kind of play differently yeah well I like to tell you that I just was super confident myself and didn't think and didn't want to think anything of it but it's real like when you get there like the ball flies and so I just I took

my time in Aramoreal for what it was I knew that it was going to be a competition adjustment like the level of competition and I was excited to face better hitters and a higher level but I also understood that with the elevation like results probably weren't going to be in my favor some of the time and so I think just like keeping an even head like understanding that I was probably going to start there next year so it was good to get my feet wet and like experience it now I can be prepared for when I go back in there in April and just have a better mindset about it all like having pitched there before just understanding what the elevation does well and I don't mean to to scare you too much but it doesn't get much better in Reno so I guess I ask as a pitcher

like is that where you kind of have to differentiate from what you are working on and trying to get better and the results even though i'd see that eRA go up or something of the sort that park factors are big part of that i think it's just like separating the wins within your game versus like the stats sheet so i i i tried to do that a lot in hillsborough there would be times where i would have um you know a rough stat line but i was like really happy with how i threw and there'd be times where I had a really good stat line, but I had, in my opinion, a good bit of things from the game to work on. So it's kind of similar in that sense where there's going to be some bad stuff that could happen, like with the stats and inflation and whatever. But I think just keeping your head down, taking the little wins and just reflecting on each and every outing. Like if I can find one positive thing from every time that I throw, I think that's a win for me and just keeps me on the right track. Well, I know that you went through a terrifying situation essentially as a child. I say terrifying because I am a parent, so it's terrifying it for me to have a child going through what you went

through and terrifying for me as a person to think of going through that as such a young child. You had a brain tumor essentially removed when you were, was it four years old? Is that? Yes. Yeah, correct. I mean, I know you probably don't remember that portion of it. But I imagine that that entire thing has been an has had a huge impact on your life and had a huge impact on your your family's life and your relationship with your family. Yeah, definitely. I the older I got, the more I reflected on it. I realized how, um, scary it was for my parents to go through something like that. I didn't, some of my first memories were me in the hospital bed during that time, like, learning, warning how to walk again after I, I had my

surgery or, you know, being in an hospital bed just sick for hours. But it was a shorter process than what it might seem like to people. And so I had a lot of memories growing up doing those yearly checkups back at the Duke Children's Hospital. And I would always get an MRI just to make sure things were okay. And then I'd go to the Duke Children's Hospital and, like, be back in there with all these other sick kids that were close to my age, some older, some younger. And I think like those experiences like of seeing all these other kids who weren't as healthy as I was. I had a very positive outlook. Like I already knew.

Like I used to be 12, 13 years old like begging my parents not to go to the hospital just because I hated being there. And I hated like remembering what that felt like. And then as I got older and graduated from going to those appointments, I just kind of like I didn't want to take it for granted what I had seen. in there. And so I think that's a part of my drive as to why I play baseball because there's a lot of kids out there who have dreams. Like I had dreams to play professional baseball since I was a little kid. And so I'm sure they have dreams of theirs that they'd like to make come true. And I think I owe it to myself and I owe it to them with the opportunity that I have to just go after it. Like it's my last day. I love that. I love that, man. And honestly, I got to ask, like,

do you remember what got you into baseball? Or was it just? like a sport you play. I know most of us kind of just played baseball so early that we don't even remember when we started. No, yeah. Like what kind of got you down this path? Besides that, obviously. Yeah, my dad and my grandpa were always kind of into it.

So I always remember just picking up a bat when I was a little kid. But also with the tumor came like a lot of restrictically, especially at such a young age. And so I didn't play a lot of, I didn't play any tackle football. Yeah, no football. No trampolines or ride bikes without a helmet. and stuff like that. And so I kind of just resorted to baseball

and just swinging a bat and throwing the ball. I felt safe and comfortable out in a baseball field. And that was what was easiest for me at the time. So I picked it up, never stopped loving it. That's amazing. Well, and I imagine that the support structure you've had your entire life has kind of carried over as well to baseball, like you said, your parents, your father.

I mean, how big have they been as a part of not only your entire journey here, but kind of getting it. you here to this level where you're, you know, one of the best pitchers in the Diamondbacks organization. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I love my home. I love my family. We've been so strong ever since, you know, I was a kid. It's just been us four. And taking me to travel games two hours away over the weekends, you know, we're playing four games on that Sunday because we made the bronze bracket and we lost two games on Saturday. It's just a lot of hours invested into, you know, just the makeup of who I've become as a ball player today.

And so there's just a lot of behind the scenes things that I owe to them. And they create a lot of opportunity for me to just go out there and do what I love doing without having to worry too much. God bless baseball parents. God bless baseball parents. I know that all kid sports, all those athletes, they all have a lot. But I know it's a lot of traveling and such. But before we get you out of here, I know you said you were a foodie. I got to ask you first, what has been your favorite restaurant that you've experienced so far?

Is there a place that's near and dear to your heart since becoming a professional baseball player here? So I've spent some time in Old Town, Scoutsdale, and I really like DeFalcos. Let's go! Let's go! One of the best places in the valley, my guy, let's go. I love it. It's my family's Italian. They're from upstairs.

in New York originally. And so I kind of grew up eating meals like that. My grandma always cooks me pastas and desserts like that. And so it just feels right at home. Love their food. Well, one more question for you. And I was just curious what your like game day ritual is like.

I imagine on days you pitch you have certain things you have to do. Is there any specific things you have to hit before you can start? Is there any snacks you eat on your day? Is there what your game day like? Yeah, I love doing the tubs. I feel like that's just like a good reset. that like just wash, you can either think of it as like washing something off or putting your body through something tough right before you're about to go out there. And so I just pick and

change how I think about the tubs every time I do them. Sometimes I'll jump in the cold for a little bit. Sometimes I'll stay in the high if I'm, you know, just feeling that for the day. Headphones in music on is must always for majority of my warm up until I like enforced to take them off, basically. So do you, uh, do you not talk to people? Are you, How I was talking? I actually do. It depends. Like sometimes if I like, maybe it's like a team I did bad against last time I face him.

And I want to like just walk in a little extra more just for myself. I'll, I'll shy away from the social interaction. But I don't mind talking to my teammates while I'm warming up. I think it just helps me stay calm. Helps me, you know, not build up the moment too much. Just stay even keel the whole time. I love it. I love it.

Well, man, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you. you. We look forward to watching you there in Amarillo for the sod poodles and very soon here in the future for the Reno Aces and Diamondbacks too. So best of best of luck on your journey. And like I said, we thank you for your time. Thank you. I appreciate it. Man, Damon said it in the chat, but talk about ball knower. I was blown away. When you say to Falcos like you, you know ball. You are a certified ball nowhere when it comes to food. Well, I'll tell you this much. If you are not already. a certified ball knower go get yourself set up over at our shop at store. all city.com I actually got the right website figured out this time. You can save yourself up to 90% off Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Don't wait because sizes are dwindling. I waited too long for the pH and X taco truck and now I'm debating if I get it in 2x even though I was

really wanting an X. But regardless, do not wait. Shirts are going quickly. And of course, save yourself up to 30 up to 90% off you can get yourself 30% off on everything over there so go get yourself something nice and more importantly go shop for your loved ones as well even if they root for one of our sister cities you could go get them some stuff I'm not recommending that for yourself don't don't don't don't go over there to the dark side when it comes to pHLI and the Eagles or anything like that but maybe get yourself something for your your friends that live out of state speaking of friends that live out of state.

We had one more thing we wanted to address before getting out of here. And it's something in regards to the Arizona Diamondbacks starting lineup that we thought, quite frankly, there's that word again, Damon, Glock and Spielme, that we thought we would maybe see them fill

or maybe not see them, Phil. but MLB.com released an article detailing the biggest needs for each position across Major League Baseball. Now, just to understand, and how important this is for the Diamondbacks, this was not an article about what each team's biggest need is. That is not what this article was about.

This team was about going around the diamond, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, outfield catcher, right? This was which team has the biggest need for this particular position? And I was kind of shocked, but not shocked. I guess, surprised and not surprised to see the Arizona. diamondbacks listed as the team, the team in baseball that needs a first baseman. And we know that. That is nothing new to us.

We know that the Diamondbacks themselves even said coming down the stretch during a very important attempt to make the playoffs that things were unconventional for them because they didn't even have a first baseman. And speaking, honestly, they don't have a first baseman still as we speak right now. The article discussed Christian Walker departing and the Diamondbacks replacing him with Josh Naylor, who turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, at least when it came to slugging percentage. And then they shipped him out to the Mariners where he became a baseball god and a beloved legend. Meanwhile, we were left with the platoon of Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear.

And again, I still think that there is a lot of development for Tyler Locklear. I still think that he could come around and potentially be a very serviceable. good first baseman for this team. I think that there were doubts about Christian Walker replacing one Paul Goldschmidt when that happened. And before Christian Walker left, CWalk was one of the first, you know,

best defensive base, first baseman in all of baseball. So, but when it comes to this article, they do say here that Smith and Locklear will obviously get their chance again in 2026, which we all kind of know. But he, Locklear won't be ready for opening day.

And that has the club, understandably looking to add at first base, preferably right-handed bat. As of now, the Diamondback's first baseman are projected by Fangraphs to register a 391 slugging percentage in 2026. Yay, a 391 slugging percentage for one of the two positions on the diamond that should have guys that can mash the ball. And again, although that would be an improvement by definition from the 2025 season, that's still tied with the Marlins for the lowest slugging percentage

by any team at first base. And I think that, you know, again, when you take a look at what the Marlins are doing and where that organization is at, their expectations are far lower and there is far less of a sense of urgency for the Marlins to go out and add and make that team better.

They probably will, or they'll find other great players within their organization that are young guys coming up from the minor league system. It's what the Marlins do. Then those guys get good and too expensive, and then they ship them off elsewhere.

But the Diamondbacks being the team in all of Major League baseball to need a first basement was kind of surprising to me. The biggest need, the team that needs the first baseman the most is the D-backs. As far as everything that we've been discussing this offseason, we know that their priority is pitching. And it has to be. It has to be. even with how bad things are for the Diamondbacks at first base,

they still actually do have Pavin Smith that can play the position, arguably. I would say he could play the position. Damon would definitely argue otherwise and say something much different and probably much meaner. But it doesn't mean that they don't have somebody. You could argue with me that the Diamondbacks have somebody that could start for them. They have two somebody's that could start for them. They just added Mitch Bratt and Coldron.

Drake to the 40-man roster. So who's to say that either of these young men don't come up and become starters number four and five for the Diamondbacks in their pitching rotation? It's just not a great option, nor is it a great position to put those guys in who might not be ready to take on that level of workload and might not be ready to be pitching here against a major league level. The one thing I pick up there from Daniel Egan in our conversation was that, you know, as you make that next step, the level of competition just gets tougher and tougher.

and some guys unfortunately aren't ready to pitch at a major league level. It doesn't mean they won't be. They just might not be right now. That leaves the Diamondbacks in an awkward position where they can't really bet on that. They can't really put all of their, they can't invest into, excuse me, just into guys like Cole Drake and Mitch Bratt that might not be ready because if they're not ready, then the depth behind those guys becomes, is non-existent, right? On top of that, you also have the idea here that, you know, again, if anything should happen to them, if any injuries happen, the death here is non-existence.

It's not like the Diamondbacks cannot go out and address their starting pitching problem either through free agency or through trades. It's a must. But when it comes to what they need to do next after that, Damon and I've had these discussions. We've talked about the outfield. We've talked about what they're going to do at third base. We've talked about a lot of things that the Diamondbacks kind of need to fix and work on. and figure out here before opening day on 2026. But you could definitely say that first base is their biggest positional need.

And right now, their options are not great over there. They're just, it's just not great. Paul Goldschmidt could be a much, a great fit for multiple reasons, as we've discussed in the past. But even Paul Goldschmidt probably isn't going to do a ton to improve that slugging percentage over there at first base and give the Diamondbacks a, you know, a great much better situation at first. So regardless of what the fix is going to be, it most likely is going to have to once again come at a cheap cost due to the limitations

or be part of a trade package that's going to make us all miserable because it's going to contain Cotell Marte or perhaps some of these young prospects that we've just kind of gotten to know and love through some of these interviews. We've had the opportunity to do. But anyway, we love you guys. I hope you guys all got all of your Black Friday shopping done. I hope you got everything you needed. I hope you are ready as I am for the Territorial Cup today. We will be out there with the P.H.NX. Sun Devils crew. I'm going to be going shot for shot with Captain Morgan. And again, this is, this is probably isn't going to end well for me where it comes to where it comes to how long I've been drinking for already today. But it's a special occasion.

And I hope you guys all enjoy the day. I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving yesterday. And most importantly, I hope you guys have yourselves a wonderful. weekend ahead. We will be back on Monday with another 12 p.m. show. Join us for that. We'll have mailbag Monday as well as more on all of these signings that Damon just updated us on, including Framber, Framber Valdez to the Mets and now Ranger Suarez to who, Damon, where's Ranger Suarez to go? The rumor is the Cubs are closing in on Ranger Suarez. Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. Well, we have some work to do Arizona Diamondbacks, and let's hope we see them do it but shout out to azy catch g says happy to see the pre-record live derrick not so cool totally

i understand i get it a z catch g thank you for your super jet uh and for this one day we're we're enemies through and through but i'll be back on monday wearing diamond mostly diamond back stuff maybe in this color maybe not maybe i never wear these colors again uh for a very long time i don't know we'll see but of course looking forward to the day looking forward to seeing you guys out there most importantly hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon dog with a D-A-W-G and of course

we're all Damon's dogs, including Daniel Egan's dog, bark, bark, our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate it. Again, we'll be back on Monday at 12. See you guys then.

Make sure like this video before you get out of here. If you haven't subscribed to the PHNX YouTube channel, do it right now. We're trying get our producers of pizza parties. So do that. But most importantly, I just want you guys to know, we are thankful for all of you, as we said yesterday. Love you guys. Appreciate your time. We'll see you on Monday. Until then, have yourselves a wonderful weekend and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when the free agent pitching market is not this

expensive.