PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Diamondbacks reportedly sign free agent DH Joc Pederson

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

The Arizona Diamondbacks have reportedly signed free agent designated hitter Joc Pederson. While we still do not know the terms of the deal, we discuss why D-backs fans should like the move and what Pederson can do to improve the lineup vs right handed pitching.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/200Michelob ULTRA: It’s only worth it if you enjoy it. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. https://www.michelobultra.com/Schedule 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. 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.

Hello and welcome in to a special emergency podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX, and I haven't gotten up from this chair yet from doing the other show that we just did at 1 o'clock. This man joining me, of course, is the brains of the operation, the one and only vice mayor himself, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. And we are very excited to tell you all of the reasons why you should like the news we are about to bring you. And that news is that Jock Peterson has reportedly signed a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. We do not know the terms of the deal yet.

According to John Gambadoro, the deal is a done deal. He says he doesn't know the terms yet. He speculated that it sounds like it might be a one-year deal with perhaps an option, but we do not know that yet. But Jesse, we just talked about Jock. We just talked about how hilarious it would be if he actually replaced Tommy Pham. and this signing for the Arizona Diamondbacks, even though a lot of people don't seem to like it very much,

is a good one for this team, especially if you could consider the alternative, which is them doing nothing. Absolutely. Yeah, Jock Peterson, as we just talked about, what, like 10 minutes ago? I mean, this is the same show, essentially. Pretty much. Yeah, Jock is a valuable addition to the Diamondbacks.

There's no question about that. He is a platoon bat. I want to make that clear. The more that you can avoid a Jock Peterson facing left-handed pitching, the better. You do not want Jock Peterson facing lefties. He had an OPS right around 600 against lefties this past season. That is not in his skill set now, nor has it really ever been in his skill set to hit lefties. But Peterson has a long track record of hitting right-handed pitching really well.

And last I checked, most pitchers in this game are right-handed. So in the majority of situations, the diamond backs are getting themselves a pretty big improvement to the lineup. This is something I tweeted about a little while ago. There is a, and we talked about it on the show earlier, I think there's a misconception

that the diamondbacks needed a right-handed bat that they're set to go against right-handed pitching and they just needed help against lefties. I never have really believed that that was the case. Mike Hazen about a month ago talked about how it doesn't necessarily have to be a left-handed bat or a right-handed bat that the diamondbacks are looking at

that they could consider a left-e as well. And it makes sense. You look at their projected lineup right now against righties and against lefties prior to this move being made. And you can argue that they actually had more thump in their lineup against lefties, you know, with Gabby Moreno being as good as he was, with Catelle doing what he does with Lordus and Christian Walker and Ehio Hennio Suarez, all projected to do well against lefties as well. So I think it makes sense. I think it does solve a need. Jock Peterson is not J.D. Martinez. He is not Jorge Soler. I still think both of those guys on paper would have been more valuable additions to the team, but they also would have likely

cost considerably more. And we don't have the terms about this, as you said earlier, but I suspect that when all is said and done, Jock Peterson is coming to the Diamondbacks considerably more cheaply than either of those guys would have. Let me first start off by saying that I have been a staunch supporter of J.D. Martinez. Now, I will also say, and I've backed that up with saying that it's emotional. It's not based in logic. It's not based in numbers. It's not based in projections.

It's based in my heart is what it's based in Jesse. And now, really, when it comes down to this move, Jock Peterson seems like a guy, especially someone we haven't talked about nearly as much as the other four, including Justin Turner, right? We had Reese Hoskins in there. We had J.D. Martinez and we had Jorge Salare. Jock Peterson is someone that we did touch on a bit as a potential fit, potentially as a platoon player. But Jock is actually younger, maybe just by a few months or so from Solaire. But still, of those three guys at least, J.D. Martinez, Jorge Salar, he's the youngest of those guys,

which is something that doesn't seem like to be the case, but, you know, it is the truth. And Jock has had some very good seasons in the past, including. in 2022 when I believe he was an All-Star. He had an 842 OPS. I should be better about this and have my numbers up. In 874 OPS in 2022. And again, the one thing here is that he's going to be asked primarily DH. There's not going to be much else asked of Jack Peterson.

So I do feel like he is. Damon, you have left that comment up on the chat for a long time. And I am not opposed to it. If it wasn't me for the fact that it's so blatantly on brand for at least me. Okay, when it comes to Jock, though, I mean, asking him to hit here against right-handers, you know, we talked about his numbers. We talked about his stats, 241, 351, 4355. He has some really good numbers.

And in fact, as you cover on the show earlier, his WRC Plus was better against Rite's than Jorge Soler. the Diamondbacks really, I mean, 26.9%, Jesse, 26.9% is the number of left-handed pitchers last counted in Major League Baseball. So even though the platoon splits don't look great, there's not a lot of left-handed pitchers out there. I think somebody said it in the chat, perhaps, but like there's one left-hander in like the NL West or maybe a couple. I don't know. I saw a comment about that. I don't have a chance to like that. it's not like ultimately at the end of the day they're going to have to face a lot of left-handed pitching versus right-handers. And that means jock is going to be considerably valuable to this team and to this lineup. Yeah, that's something that Buster only also tweeted about earlier as far as this move kind of making sense for the Diamondbacks.

If you look at the rotations of other teams in the NOS, you really don't see a whole lot of lefties. He laid it out in a tweet. James Paxton, whom the Dodgers just recently acquired, he as a, of right now is the only lefty that's projected to be in the Dodgers starting rotation. You'll go to the Giants. Kyle Harrison, I think, has a chance to make the team, top left-handed pitching prospect for the Giants outside of that. You know, Logan Webb, Ross Stripling, Alex Cobb, all the other guys in San Francisco

are right-handed. And then you go over to San Diego. And it's a similar story where, you know, you talk about Joe Musgrove and U. Darvish, the guys at the top of that Padres rotation are all right-handed. as well. So from that standpoint, it does make sense. And again, the real, the big difference between Peterson and Saler and Martinez is just what you're getting against lefties. And that's where we have to ask questions about what the Diamondbacks plans are against lefties. It's not going to be Jack Peterson. You know, could you, could you slide Catel Marte into the DH slots and, you know,

maybe Kevin Newman gets in the lineup? Maybe he's playing second base. Him and Katel are kind of going back and forth on who's playing second base, something like that. Newman's bad I could see getting into the lineup in that scenario. Or I think it's very possible that the guy who gets the lion's share of reps against lefties at the DH spot is not in this organization yet. We've talked in the past about how the diamondbacks have a little bit more depth than they can really use right now. There's a lot of players that are probably useful major leaguers that the diamondbacks

just don't really have room for. and I could see that manifesting potentially in a trade where maybe the diamondbacks find a way to get a fourth outfielder who's right-handed to kind of bring some balance to all of this. You know, Jake McCarthy, Dominic Fletcher, as promising as those guys are, it's a little hard right now to see how they fit on this roster. I am, I'm Ladris, I think is the name of this person in our chat with the absolute hilarious super chat.

We appreciate you so much for that. They said, I'm not realistic in the slightest, but having Tommy Fam platoon with Peterson at that DH spot would be the most objectively funny thing to ever happen to our franchise. And they're also depressed, no JD. So, yeah, I mean, that's the funny thing is, is that even though we talked about Jorge Saler kind of being the bigger, better fit here of all the DH candidates, it feels like people are more upset about this not being J.D. Martinez, rather than. and not being Jorge Salare. And nobody's talking about it not being Justin Turner. And we know why. But Jesse, I have to ask the question again.

And I know we discussed this just a little bit on the show earlier. Is there any possibility that the Diamondbacks make another move? And that move could be the person that potentially DHS against lefties, but maybe has some other value somewhere else, like perhaps behind the dish or somewhere. I think another move is inevitable. I think it pretty much has to happen. As I said, you just don't, like, you don't really have a whole lot of use right now for Jake McCarthy and Dominic Fletcher.

Jock Peterson is effectively replacing Pavin Smith in my mind. Pavin Smith was kind of your left-hand. Don't even get these people started on that, Jesse. Don't get that started. So, I mean, I wouldn't expect Pavan to have much trade value necessarily, but he's a piece that the Diamondbacks on Paysley. don't have a whole lot of room for. There's Jace Peterson. I don't know if he really has a clear spot on the roster.

Amano Rivera is out of minor league options. I don't know if he really has a clear spot on this roster. So yeah, there's clearly a move to be made here on the margins where the diamondbacks, you know, maybe unload some of that extra depth that they can't really use, give it to a team who can. And in return, maybe you're able to find, like I said earlier, I think a right-handed hitting outfielder would make a lot of sense. I don't think Tommy Pham would make a lot of sense as much as you theoretically could fit that profile.

I don't think you're looking at someone who's costing you much money at this point. This player is not really an everyday regular. You're talking about the short side of a platoon. So, you know, I guess free agency could be an option there as well. There are some guys out there. There's, you know, there's Kevin Pilar. I was just looking at some options. There's Aaron Hicks.

I don't necessarily. I'm not super enthralled with anyone in particular available in free agency. But I do think the Diamondbacks need to make it great, honestly, to just kind of clean up some of the depth that they have that they can't really use and try to flip that into a depth that they could use and potentially filling that DH spot against lefties as well. Jesse, there is talk in the chat, including from our very own Michaela Perkins,

who says he better make a public apology. for peeing in our pool at his press conference. And she says, I swear to God. Yeah, there's some history there. I mean, Jock has played in the NL West against the Diamondbacks quite a bit. And there's a lot of people that are not happy with the signing for multiple reasons. Our very own friend and collector rock knowledge is furious right now. He won't even talk to me.

He yelled at me in our group chat. And now he just refuses to speak to me as if I was the one that made the movie. about Jack Peterson. I was just trying to say, ultimately, at the end of the day, we needed to make a move. And the Diamondbacks, of course, do have some more moves to make. Like you said, they have the capital to do so. They have the ability to kind of part ways with certain guys at this point, even if it doesn't end up, even if it ends up costing them. They have shown already that they aren't afraid to move on from guys that cost them a lot of money if those guys are potentially holding them back from being a better team. So I do think that you're right. I think that you're right.

some more moves are inevitable at this point. But I think that you just got to get to a point where this team is better with Jock Peterson as a part of it. Like you don't want to maybe out there defending anymore, even though, like I said, he had more receiving yards on his high school football team than Devonte Adams. But that's a whole other thing. That's a whole other thing that still doesn't make sense to me. But there is a lot of value here in him at the plate. And I mean, again, we talked about his peripherals earlier. His peripherals and his, you know, baseball, Vosvant page, very sexy, very hot. A lot to get excited about when you look at all of the red that they have on that,

on that baseball savant page. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, we, we showed it earlier in our previous show. Jock Peterson's ex-Woba in 2023 was almost identical to J.D. Martinez and Jorge Salares. So in terms of just the quality of contact, he was right up there with both of those guys.

Granted, he's being protected from lefties very heavily, whereas Soler and J.D. Martinez, of course, are, you know, facing pretty much everyone, anyone and everyone. So he's not as valuable of a hitter as either Solera Martinez. I don't want to make it sound like I'm saying that. But there is a lot of evidence, as we discussed earlier, that Jock Peterson didn't have the down year, at least to the extent of down year that it might look like he had in 2023. The numbers on the surface aren't going to blow you away. but he's hitting in San Francisco. It's obviously a very, very difficult play state home runs.

There's a savant page that we showed earlier. I mean, these are legit numbers, right, a 52.2% hard hit rate. That was in the 96thile. His expected batting average was 264. His expected slugging was 481. You know, you compare those with his actual numbers. And there are some pretty big differences there.

So even from, you know, from a walk standpoint, he was in the 91st percentile on walk rate. he doesn't strike out a lot. His strikeout rate was below the league average. So there really is a lot to like here. It's just against righties, right? It just everything with Jock Peterson comes with that stipulation, and that's not a game that you have to play with Martinez and Solair.

Yeah. Fearless Vampire Killer in the chat says we also don't need to worry about J.D. or J.T. having a life alert moment on the base paths now. That's a, that's an old person joke. And that's a love love. I'm going to, as a 42 year old, I'm going to defend those two men. But no, I mean, again, that's something else. Jack Peterson actually does really, you know, kind of bring here is the fact that he is younger

than those guys. And there's, there's the potential for him to have the season, especially when you look at that baseball savant page, to have the season like he had in 2022 more likely than he had in 2023. He hasn't been consistent his career. When you look back, he's had his ups and downs. I think, though, that the opportunity for him to come here, play with this team and just absolutely rake with these young guys on base, it's going to be fun to watch. The lineup with Jock Peterson against Ritey's looks very good, Jesse.

It looks very, very good. Did Jesse freeze? I don't know. Nope, he is freezing. I was frozen. You were frozen. I have no idea what you just said. Oh, that's fine.

Let's take a look at the projected lineup with Jack Peterson in it because it looks very good, like I said, against right-handed pitching. Yeah, yeah, this is, this is my best guess. And so please nobody, nobody be too hard on me for like, oh, you should have this person here or whatever. But yeah, we have Corp Carroll, Citele Christian Walker, Jock Peterson in the cleanup spot. Then it's Lordus and Suarez in the fifth and six spots. And then Gabby Moreno, Alec Thomas, Geraldo Perdomo rounding out the lineup. There are no clear, no clear downsides in this lineup, really, right? Gabby Moreno showed an ability to hit right-handed pitching toward the end of the season.

Alec Thomas is certainly young and still developing and could improve. Eugenio Suarez had a bit of a down year in 2023 offensively. Guriel didn't hit righties especially well in 20203. I think there's a chance that those numbers could tick up. And yeah, at the top of the lineup, I mean, Corbyn-Carrant-Marté, Christian Walker, Jock Peterson, that's a pretty formidable top four hitters in the lineup. And I guess the bigger thing is like I said earlier, it's just, just that there aren't any holes in the lineup, right?

There's no hitter in here. It's like, oh, that guy is an easy out or whatever. At this point with Jock Peterson, one through nine, the Diamondbacks have a formidable lineup all the way, all the way through. I like this, Jesse, and I'm not against this. I think that it's just a matter of sometimes with these free agent situations, you get really amped up about a couple of guys. And the big difference here with Jock Peterson, and this is pure sports,

speculation on my part is that he most likely is going to cost the diamondbacks less than what the other two, three options were going to cost them potentially. Now that does allow the diamondbacks potentially to make those other moves that they might have still needed to make, but wouldn't have been able to had they signed someone like Jorge Salar, right? So it remains to be seen until we know the terms of this deal. And then we see what Solair and J.D. Martinez get. Because then that gives fans potentially an opportunity to get very mad if either of those guys signed for anywhere in the neighborhood of what we signed jock peterson for but i think i don't i don't think that's going to happen i think no i think you're going to see horace saler's deal and you might be like oh gosh i understand

why the diamond backs did you give more a saler you know three years and 50 million or whatever it is and it very well could be the same case with jd martinez you know even though he's he's a little bit older um you know Do you want to give J.D. Martinez two years and $40 million? It wouldn't surprise me if that was the price tag at the end of the day. We don't know what Jock Peterson's costing yet, but I think the difference here could be pretty substantial when all is said and done. Riley Dunn says his OPS, when you use his expected slugging, it's 829. That's very comparable to the other players, other big players this offseason. And yeah, like we said, his expected stats, his baseball savant page, all of that gives a lot of

reasons to like, you know, the idea here of Jock Peterson coming and playing at Chase Field and not playing in San Francisco any longer, which it's not exactly a very hitter-friendly environment. And honestly, being able to just focus primarily now on a D.H. role for a competitive young team that's going to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the other stuff. All Jock Peterson's job is is to rake and get those RBI. I think that, you know, obviously Mike Hazen has a lot of he has a lot of knowledge here and I feel like that there might be not only financial decisions going into this as far as the deal that they might have been able to get Peterson for but also you know he's kind he's kind of a he's a baseball savant himself jessy he knows

what he's doing and I think when he looks at the n l west pitching the diamondbacks are going to be facing jock peterson's familiarity with these other teams and some other factors I think that there might just be some forecasting here that makes peterson look like he's He could potentially have a better season than someone like J.D. Martinez and also ultimately be cheaper for the franchise to acquire. Yeah, I mean, we talked about Jack Summers compiled some projections over at fan graphs, a few like combined steamer and zips together. Jock Peterson was right there at the top of the list.

I think his projected OPS for 2024 was 795. Reese Hoskins, I think, was identical. Jorge Saler was just a tick above that in like the low-e-e-eater. 800s. And as we discussed the other day, J.D. Martinez was actually at the bottom of that list. Projection systems just utterly hate J.D. Martinez going into 2024. And it very well may be the case that, you know, those projection systems are way off and J.D. is going to come back and have a, you know, have a really good season. But if you're the diamondbacks, you know, and you don't necessarily have a ton of money left over to spend and you're the kind of team that

is hurt quite a bit, you know, when you make an investment that doesn't pay off, did it make sense for the Diamondbacks to be the team that was going to give J.D. Martinez that money, you know, even if their computers might not have been saying he was, he was really going to be all that great in 2024, right? I think that's a risk that it probably makes more sense for other teams to take than the Diamondbacks. And, and Solair, you know, I mean, his projected numbers were quite strong. But even he is, as we talked about, like, his 2022 season was not good. Right. I mean, he had signed a three-year deal with the Marlins. He had a, an opt out after 2022, but he wasn't going anywhere close to that opt out, right? Because he did not

have a good season at all. He wasn't going to make that kind of money elsewhere. Yeah. And I mean, obviously it made sense for him to come back and he had a great season in 2023, but he hasn't really been the model of consistency either. Jock Peterson, you know, not necessarily the model of consistency in his own right, but you're paying less here and you're fixing what I view is a big need in adding some thump against right-handed, right-handed pitching. And you've still got some things to figure out against lefties, but like you said earlier, like there's still, there's still time for the diamond backs to figure that out the rest of the off season. Mike says, Derek, you're cool and awesome.

Oh, thanks, Mike. For trying to be positive. I get it, bro, but this signing sucks, L. well, yeah, I get it, Mike. Well, and again, it's not, it's not the signing I wanted, if I'm being honest about it, but it's the signing that we have, right? And I guess the positive spin here is my true fear was that they wouldn't do anything at all, that they would assess their positional needs, maybe bring in a relief pitcher, figure out who they were going to have a backup catcher, and then call it a day. And honestly, that was probably going to be the biggest mistake that they could have made.

Bringing someone like Jock Peterson in does improve this lineup. And I know that people aren't excited about it, nearly as excited to some of the other options. And I get that. It still means, though, that in reality, we're not longer talking about if the Diamondbacks, going to sign a DH, we're more talking about that they have. And let's see the impact that he has. And as the season plays out, we'll get to play fun games comparing Jock Peterson to Solair and Martinez, wherever they land.

But for the time being, at least the Diamondbacks have done something to assess that need. I think it was Goldschmidt happens on Twitter. It was saying that he's, you know, and again, this is just one of those situations where the feedback is generally negative. And some of the feedback is, you know, like, oh, there goes, Ken Kendrick, again, not spending money, not doing anything to improve the team. And like, that couldn't be further from the truth in regards to what the Diamondbacks have done this offseason. They made it to the World Series and the Diamondbacks have gone out and directly assessed every single one of their weaknesses.

And they have tried to do something to, you know, improve the team in every one of those ways. Are they able to go out there and sign Shohei Otani and Yamamoto? No, you know, few teams were. In fact, there was only a handful teams in the running. And none of those teams were most likely going to be able to do what the Dodgers have done this off season. There is something that is very wrong about what the Dodgers are doing versus what the rest of Major League Baseball is doing. So with that being said, it's hard to compare us to them within the same division. You can't say, though, that the Diamondbacks haven't gone off and had a good off season, including this signing of Jock Peterson.

I think this firmly moves them as far as Jesse's survey question the other day into the A category. Maybe it's an A minus. You know, maybe it's not that A plus that we probably all would have felt. Some people are going to be some people dislike Jock Peterson into the point. So much it's going to go down to a C. They were like we were to be, but now it's a C. and how it's you're done. But Tim in the chat says, Derek Jesse, this means for signing Gary Sanchez, right?

Oh, I wish that was the case. Somebody. And we did talk about that. This is the exact. Yeah, this was the exact combo. We were literally talking about, yeah, we were literally talking about. like, well, Gary Sanchez wouldn't make a ton of sense if you were getting like J.D. Martinez, but if you get Jock Peterson, then, yeah, you know, Gary Sanchez could kind of help fill in in that

DH spot against lefties where you'd certainly still want Gabby Moreno in the lineup. You could help back up against Ritey's. Though I expect that move to happen, not really. I'm skeptical that the Diamondbacks have a whole lot of money to spend at this point. Not that Sanchez would be hugely expensive, but I'm not really expecting them to spend much of anything on a backup catcher given that, you know, they already added Tucker Barnhart on on a minor league deal. We've talked a little bit about what, what he could bring to the team. One thing I do want to point out, last season, I just looked this up. Last season, Diamondbacks

designated hitters, hitters in that D.H spot for the Diamondbacks hit 218, 26, 390. Ew. They were at minus 1.4 wins above replacement from the D.H slot in 2023. That ranked 29th in all of baseball. Jog Peterson is just, yeah, somehow, somehow. And the D-H spot in the, in the postseason continued to be not a, not a very productive spot for the D-backs. Jog Peterson is such an enormous upgrade, really, over what the Diamondbacks got from that spot last year. Yeah. And I, and I think that's, that's the assessment here at least. But I get it. People don't like Jock. It's, it's not going to be something that changes. I will say, this to at least end this conversation, uh, or, or at least compare it to last year.

Evan Longoria was a guy that we weren't excited about. And to be honest, Evan Longoria was a delightful member of this team that contributed in many ways. Tommy Pham was a guy that when they signed him, we were, or when they got him, when they picked him up, it was like, uh, you, they traded for him. Uh, it was, uh, it was questionable at best. And a lot of the same things that you hear, including the same story that follows both of these guys around about each other. It was like, is he a good fit for the locker room? Is he this or is he that? Fam ended up being an absolute leader for this team down the stretch and in the clubhouse.

And he was one of our favorite people to speak to as far as, you know, as far as players to interview. I will withhold judgment until we actually start seeing results during the regular season. The only thing that we can do right now is take a look at those numbers that Jesse presented, how he's going to improve this lineup and hope that maybe what we see is him kind of have one of those bounce back years like he has had over the length of his career where he can kind of have a down year and then next year putting back up the same numbers that he was. So I think that the change of environment here could be a great fit for him. And I do think that he should apologize for peeing in the pool. That's absolutely something that he should do. But once he does that, we're cool.

Yeah, I mean, from like an emotional standpoint, I fully understand fans who were completely in love with J.D. Martinez and like not very in favor of Jock Peterson at all because Jock Peterson played for the Dodgers for a long time. Right. In the last couple of years, he spent with the Giants. Like this has been that he has been an NL West nemesis for Diamondbacks fans for a very long time. And it takes some time, right, to kind of get over that and sort of adopt someone like. that is your own. So for people feeling that way, I fully, I fully understand. I think on paper, this is a smart move for the Diamondbacks. But as we said earlier, it's something that probably should be followed by something else. Not a, not a big move. I don't think they're going to go get JD now and get, you know, both of them. I, you know, I don't think they're going to do anything big, most likely in any capacity for the rest of the off season. You're probably looking at moves around the margins, but there is a world where the debacks make a smart trade and, and this move that already makes a good amount of sense makes even more sense at that point.

As someone pointed out earlier in the chat, Jesse, the moves will inevitably happen this weekend because you're going on vacation. So correct. Yes. Any follow news will happen while I'm gone. The press conference will certainly happen while I'm gone. That's absolutely. I'm fully prepared for all of that.

That's absolutely it. Well, oh, there's a lot of discussion about the pearl necklace. The pearl necklaces are absolutely coming over here. I was at that stupid art auction I told you about that I had no business being at. And one of the first items auctioned off, Jesse, was a pearl necklace. And of course, the first person I thought of, which is Jacques Peterson. And then I couldn't get over the fact that the auctioneer was trying to tell everybody in the audience that just a single pearl in that necklace was worth $5,000. And it ended up going for $3,500.

And he was pissed. He was like, ugh, like I could tell. in his voice he wasn't happy that that necklace went for his cheap as it go as it went for but uh we got to get authentic pearl necklaces you and me matching ones for uh you know for the rest of the season all the whole team as long as you're buying derrick i'm i'm on board all right well uh big shout out to all of you in the chat for joining us today we appreciate you guys for stopping by uh we will have more information on this hopefully tomorrow we will have some terms on this deal and it will hopefully a little bit more confirmation.

And for some reason, this deal doesn't happen. It's all Gambo's fault. Every bit of this is Gambo's fault. And we take no responsibility on basically doing this podcast. But of course, you can follow us on Twitter. We are, I'm at Kapp underscore Caveman with the K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, Damon is the people's producer.

He is at Damon Dog. That's the AWG. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. We still do that on emergency podcast, Jesse. It doesn't matter. 100%. We're always.

We're always Damon's dogs. We're always Damon's dogs. Of course. Oh, and Jacob is not Damon's dogs. I want to just make that clear. He is not part of Damon's dogs. So just in case there was any questions about that. Ryan says,

Pearl Necklace equals World Series. That's it. That's it. I'm so excited. I'm smacking my microphone around. But anyway, big ski to you all. Thank you guys for being here.

Of course, you can follow our show at PHNX underscore DBAX, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you. stopping by. We will be back again tomorrow at 1 p.m. And in the meantime, you guys have a great evening. We thank you for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you sign Jorge Solair.