PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Mackenzie Gore TRADED To Rangers, D-backs MISS OUT On Trading For Another Frontline Arm

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

The Diamondbacks addressed their rotation this offseason by reuniting with Merrill Kelly and taking a calculated gamble on Michael Soroka. But would a bold move for MacKenzie Gore completely reshape the outlook for the 2026 starting staff? Even though he was traded MOMENTS after we ended this podcast, we break down what Gore would bring as a true frontline starter and what a realistic trade package with the Nationals could look like. Plus, we check in on where Ketel Marte lands on MLB Network’s Top 100 Players list, react to Corbin Carroll cracking the Top 10, and dive into the Mets’ blockbuster trade for Freddy Peralta. We also discuss Bob Nightengale’s ominous warning about the 2027 season.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/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — 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/Branded 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=allcityShowNotesbet365: 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!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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Look, I know the Diamondbacks already have five starting pitchers, but would adding McKenzie Gore from the Nationals change everything for this team in 2026? And is the cost potentially being Jordan Lawler too high? We're talking about it right now. Don't you go anywhere? And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback podcast. La! From Studio K!

Presented by our friends at Circle K. It is a high. Your mayor of PHNX occasionally known is Derek Montia. I am here to talk about the Mets probably being a problem in 2026. We're also here to talk about the Diamondbacks potentially adding McKenzie Gore via trade, what the cost would be, and if you'd be a good trip. Of course, I'm not here alone. I got my guy Damon Dogg, aka Damien Farrell on the ones and choose literally the leche to my cafe today.

Damon, how are you doing this wonderful Thursday morning? I'm doing all right, Derek. You know, we got some information that was put into our work. world late last night in regards to the Kyle Tucker deal. Yeah, that's not too happy about that situation. Outside of that, um, doing all right. But, you know, in the context of D-Bax land, uh, I'm, I'm actually, I'm excited for, you know, things to start ramping up a bit more.

I am too. I don't know if they're going to ramp up more, but we do have a trade that we both kind of like and we're going to talk about again, what the cost for McKenzie Gore could be. Uh, the thing that Damon's referencing is, uh, us learning yesterday that Kyle Tucker will be paid $1 million as his salary in $26 with a $64 million siding bonus. So that's right. Kyle Tucker and Shohei Otani together on the Dodgers

are collectively making $3 million in 2026. But baseball's fire and it's fine and it's not broken. Also, things might have gotten more broken. We know that the New York Mets were trying to do everything they could to get anybody they could. The Mets had a lot of money to spend as they always do, and they were not afraid to be out there in the market, trying to get free agents, but they might have landed maybe their best player this offseason

through a trade. The Mets have landed Freddie Peralta from the Brewers. Surprised. I'm actually surprised that the Brewers did make the trade, considering what Peralta was being paid for 2026. And the fact that Milwaukee's not necessarily a team that's not in the race, not only for a division title, but, you know, they were very good last year.

In fact, at one of the best records in baseball. So now they do lose Freddie Peralta. They also lose Tobias Myers, who goes to the Mets in exchange, for top pitching prospect from the Mets, Brandon Sprote, and top hitting prospect from the Mets,

Jet Williams. Jet Williams is the one that's making Mets fans kind of lose their minds a little bit. He was the guy that no Mets fan really wanted to see, get traded. So the Brewers do get, a bit of a hall here as far as top prospects are concerned. And they're also, again, in a similar position as the Diamondbacks, right?

Where they need to build their organization from young talent, young prospects, and getting two of the best prospects from the Mets organization seemed to be enticing enough for them to pull off this deal. Marks a major rotation upgrade here for New York, which they've been obviously targeting all season. And the Mets struggled with starting pitching in 2025, missing the playoffs. year with an 83 and 79 record. This gives them a bona fide front of the rotation arm that helps justify everything they've been doing this offseason

where they have been very, very aggressive. And it complements their other moves, right? They just got Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox for Louis Anhele Acuna and another player. And again, that was a deal that looked very one-sided as far as, you know, the Mets getting Luis Robert Jr. However, he has been somebody that the White's, White Sox have been, like, had on the trade market for what feels like five years.

Meanwhile, Peralta went 17 and 6 last year with a 2.70 ERA. He led the National League in wins. He struck out 204 batters, and he finished fifth in NL.S.I. Young voting. So he is one of the only Major League Baseball pitchers with 200-plus strikeouts in each of the past three seasons. He is an elite arm, and he joins a Mets team that, you know, again, was not bad last year, but they absolutely collapsed. and allowed the Reds to come in and the Diamondbacks and take over their spot, and eventually the Reds get their playoff spot, and the Mets missed the postseason. But the Brewers, it's interesting because instead of holding on to Peralta for one more year,

Milwaukee chooses to trade them. They get a right-handed pitching prospect and Brandon Sprote with intriguing stuff. He made his debut last year. Jet Williams, an absolute stud. But, again, when you look at some of his numbers, it's more of the, I guess, the ceiling for Jet Williams versus his numbers. He had 261 when 17 home runs and 34 steals between AA and AAA last year.

Both were the top 100 prospects on baseball America's ranking. And again, this just moves, this is par for the course for the Milwaukee Brewers, right? As much as we are frustrated being Diamondbacks fans at all, this one seems very much like this is a frustrating move because this move mirrors what the brewers have done with other pitchers like, Corbyn Burns and Devin Williams to try to restock their farm system.

Meanwhile, like I said, the Mets are going to be a problem, aren't they, Damon? The Mets are going to be a damn problem. The Mets are so confident that they tweeted this out. And I have to give them all the respect in the world because they just went extra hard with an Avengers quote here, I believe, Damon. Yeah, we'll have it here in a second. The Mets are, I mean, as far as competition for the Diamondbacks, they're some of the most, you know, highest up competition that we got in terms of wildcard opponents. So, but yeah, this is the post.

This came right from Mets account. I thought this was just from Mets Twitter. No, this was from the team account. It's Tony Stark or Dr. Doom, depending on what way you want to look at it, wearing a Mets hat and said, what if I told you we were putting together a team together? And boy, are they. This offseason, the Mets now have added Freddie Peralta, 17 and 6, with a, the 2.70 ERA for basically nothing.

You want to talk about the spending? No, I mean, they gave up a lot in their pitching prospects. I don't want to say they gave up nothing. But as far as how he's going to impact the payroll, again, $8 million, it doesn't even impact payroll. It's like it's like just basically having Freddie Peralta playing for free as far as the Mets organization is concerned. They also add Bo Bichette, who agreed to a three-year $126 million deal.

He's apparently going to be their new third base. and a big bat at the top of the lineup for them. You have Louis Robert Jr. who was acquired in a trade with the White Sox. It gives them a dynamic everyday center fielder with power, speed, and defensive value. And he could have, again, maybe he finally lives up to his potential there with New York.

They sent, like I said, Luis Anhele Acuna and pitching prospect Truman, Polly to Chicago in the deal. They also added Devin Williams as their closer after they lost Edwin Diaz. So the Mets add two-time All-Star Devin Williams. And then they also add a couple of arms to their bullpen in Luke Weaver, who switches New York teams, and Luis Garcia, who they signed to a one-year deal to just shore up their bullpen. Garcia, 38 years old. He's a ground ball pitcher that just has a certain level of security there in their pen.

So hopefully the Mets met. That's all you can hope. I mean, that's what other fan bases are hoping for here. and looking at the National League East at one point, it felt like the Braves were the team that were going to be making moves. And, I mean, obviously their moves have not only not worked out, but they kind of came to a screeching halt early on in the offseason in the free agent market.

The Mets did the thing. I mean, the Mets went out and tried to do everything they could to make this team better. Money doesn't seem to be an object for this team, at least at this point, as it really shouldn't be for any of these big spenders at this time. This entire MLB world is going to be flipped on its head by Kyle Tucker. Owners are mad. Kyle Tucker is getting paid $1 million.

It's like the Dodgers are like, well, you know, if you're mad, we're going to make you really mad because now watch what we do with the payroll. It's not to say that the Dodgers are going to only have the $1 million hit against their cap or their payroll for 2026. It's just the way they're structuring the deal, right? But we have Cody Bellinger now going to the New York Yankees and his deal was structured in such a way. that was a little bit more conservative, no deferrals. I guess you could say it was just a normal contract. But when Bob Nightingale tweeted about it, he added one caveat, a doomsday caveat.

Speaking of Dr. Doom, I don't think you get any more doomsday than this tweet from Bob Nightingale, and it reads this. Cody Bellinger will get an opt-out after year two and year three. This is something we knew. We discussed this yesterday when we discussed Cody Bellinger signing with the Yankees. but then Bob goes on to say if there's a lockout that wipes out 2027 the opt-outs move back a year excuse me excuse me see the first half of this they had me in the first half because in the first half of

this tweet I was like oh sweet so basically what you're telling me is that Cody bellinger to the Diamondbacks rumors can pick up after year two and year three but then Bob had to add this part of the of the situation about if there's a lockout that wipes out 2027. If there's a lockout that wipes out 2027, excuse me? I don't like the direction this is heading. And if it feels to you like things are getting bad, then there's a good chance you probably have the right feeling. Right?

It does feel like this labor situation, this collective bargaining agreement when it expires in December 2026 could potentially be one of the most contentious in baseball history. And part of that contention is how far apart the two sides are right now as far as coming to an agreement on a salary cap. And as many people have discussed, including us on this show, a salary floor. There's also the idea here that no matter how much a team wants to defer the payments in real life, that the annual value of that contract should count against the pay. rule regardless of how they structure it. Right now what you are seeing is teams circumventing the rules, especially the Dodgers. But they're doing it within the confines of it being legal, right? They're

not doing anything dirty. They're not doing anything that's actually wrong. They just found loopholes in the rules and ways for them to get around the full amount of these contracts counting against you know, their cap or their payroll, right? But then on top of that, you have the fact that they don't give a damn. They don't give a damn. They are just going to pay whatever luxury tax, whatever, whatever, you know, whatever you want to call it, you know, whatever penalty it is, they're just going to play it. Right. So, again, I think that there is something that needs to be done about baseball and it's going to happen when this collective bargaining agreement, you know, comes to an end.

However, I just don't know how big the battle is going to be and how long it's going to last. But what I will say about this is Bob Nightingale's reporting on this tells me that teams are writing in the lockout, wiping out the 2027 season into contracts. That is that is verbiage that's being added to deals that players are making right now. And that signals to me that this is an inevitable. Now, don't get me wrong, you want to be smart. You want to factor in things that could potentially happen. So this makes all the sense in the world for teams to do this. But again, it just, I feel like this is the warning sign that this is going to happen, right?

It's just how bad is it going to be? How many games are we going to lose? And are we, in fact, going to see the entire 2027 season lost? Just let me know. I need to update my LinkedIn. and figure out, like, what is this show going to be with the 2027 season lost, Damon? Can we just do like a talk show? I don't have to have baseball players as guests the whole time, right?

Can I just bring in, like, anybody, famous people? You know, Derek, when you showed me this tweet for the first time, my first thought was, oh, Derek's grabbing this so that we could talk about when Cody Bellinger is getting rumors to return home to Arizona are going to start up again in 2027. Nope. It's because it says in there if there's a lockout. And yeah, I think it's pretty indicative of where the state of baseball is right now. You see the details of that Kyle Tucker deal, you know, 60 million up front with a signing bonus,

$1 million salary, you know, for the season, essentially. I, you know, I think that teams are fed up, teams are ready to try to make changes as far as this sport goes. And it's all the Dodgers fall. You don't have clauses and contracts being added about like a meteor hitting Earth, right? Or lizard people ascending from the deep. If the aliens invade. Right. Right.

Then I get out earlier. Then it's a mutual opt-out after 2028, right? Like, no, you don't. But when they're writing in things that are, you know, that they're putting this stuff in clauses, then it's something they feel as. a real possibility. So yeah, no, I mean, overall, like I said, this doesn't feel great for the state of baseball after this season. There's a lot of teams that feel like they're all in. Obviously, the Mets are and the Diamondbacks need to be. The Diamondbacks have too much on the line and they

could lose too much after this year, including even playing baseball games in 2027, right? But Corbyn Burns could opt out. You got a lot of guys that, of course, I mean, you only got Nolan in Aeronado from one more season. There's a lot of things that need to kind of happen this year. I think that the adversity should galvanize this DeBak's clubhouse. But the uncertainty of the future is going to hang over everyone's heads in baseball for next year, including this guy right here. This guy's very worried about money in the future.

But anyway, we're going to talk about the Diamondbacks getting better, though, and one of the ways they can do so is by adding another starting pitcher. I know, I know they have five. Why in the world would we need to add another one? There's no way anything could happen to any of the five starting pictures we currently have, right? Right? We're going to talk about it on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere?

You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. You know, I cannot wait for spring and not just for spring training, but for all of the wonderful sports events happening here in the Valley during March. One of the most historic ones that is happening is happening out at Phoenix Raceway, and you know you do not want to miss this. for the first time ever, NASCAR and NTT IndyCar series are racing during the same weekend at Phoenix Raceway, and you can get a front row seat to all of the action. Of course, you know there's nothing like race weekend out at Phoenix Raceway, the smell of the rubber, the engines firing,

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Apparently, our guy, J. Army Strong, in the chat says this show will exist. Hell, my son watches a show about two guys hitting wiffle balls and a warehouse. And that's actually what this show will become when the lockout happens. It'll be us playing baseball in the main area out here and getting yelled at by Leah for breaking stuff. But also, Katie says what I'm hearing is it will become Derek and Damon playing wiffleball. Yes. So that's exactly what this show will become. Deborah says we were lucky to have so many great sports events coming up.

You're absolutely right about that. Arizona is about to, we're about to thrive here shortly, especially with spring training started. But she says beginning with waste management golf. And yes, I will be out for some reason out at waste management open being a mayor, apparently. I'm excited for them. They didn't even allow me to, Derek. They thought better against it.

Yeah, it's kind of weird. I offered it. I was like, yeah, I'll go out there with Derek and, you know, we'll, you know, we'll drink a little bit, maybe a lot of bit. We'll have a good time. And I'm pretty sure Leo was like, I'm putting my foot down. Yeah, I'm not allowing that. Not because, again, this is like Mexico City, Damon. There's a non-zero percent chance that we won't return from these events.

There's a non-zero chance that Damon and Derek don't make it back to the office after the waste management open. That's Grammy week for me, by the way, where I'm going to be in Los Angeles. Wow, what a week for Derek? It's also Super Bowl Week. Super Bowl Week. It's a lot of things going on. Oh, my God. We're going to be having a lot of time.

I'm going to be very, very drunk is well. Very drunk, very tired. Yeah, very drunk and very tired. If you don't like hook yourself up to, you know, alcohol, you know, like an IV, I don't know if you'll even be able to get up in the morning. Like the alcohol is going to be your energy source. I'll also say this. I did tell you this yesterday, Damon, and in confidentiality. but I mean, as much as I'm looking forward to going to the Grammys,

I'm really just looking forward to going to Universal Studios and getting a picture with Mario and Luigi with this mustache. I can't wait for that. That's really the highlight of the trip. But we have to talk about baseball. You should dress like Mario. Oh, I have a capy going on. I have a capy I'm going to wear for sure.

Don't get me wrong. I'm going to be looking identical to my cousin Mario. Dario is what they call me in that world. Anyway, according to several, I guess, trade proposals. trade packages that have been thrown out there, including one by fan-sided Zachary Rotman, they have proposed that the Diamondbacks still add another starting pitcher, and I know many people in the chat have proposed that as well. One other reasons why, obviously, is the unknown of Michael Soroka,

and the unknown of not having another starting pitcher, really, that you feel comfortable with backing these guys up as depth pieces. Right now it would look like, you know, of course you got guys like Christiane Manor and Yilbert Diaz in the minor leagues. You also have Cole Drake, Mitch Bratt, these are guys that absolutely could be depth for this team. However, I will still never forget the ill-fated words of Corbyn's who looked at us all in the press room over at Chase Field and said, you never get through a season with just five starting pitchers. And no truer words have been spoken, especially in today's day and age of baseball, right? I mean, MLB is actively looking into the problem with

pitchers blowing out their UCLs and their arms and needing Tommy John surgery. It's something that there has been discussions that it could be blamed on the pitch clock and the expedited speed of the game. There's also the idea now that guys are throwing harder than they've ever thrown. So there's many reasons why, you know, we're seeing this influx of UCL injuries and injuries in the arms of pitchers in baseball. But again, big part of this whole situation, for the deba-de-backs is a lot of unknowns, as we've talked about, a lot of wild cards, where you are hoping to see the performance of the starting rotation, peek back to where each guy was at the top of their career at one point.

Brandon fought, Eduardo Rodriguez, including Michael Soroka, who was incredibly successful early on in his MLB career. But it just feels like too much of that is hanging on what-ifs and finger-crossing and hoping that these guys somehow find a way to get back to being better than they were last year. Now, a lot of what happened with the Diamondbacks pitching staff did have to do with bad defense early on in the year. And you could also say that, you know, this team would have been in a completely different position if they didn't have, what was it, Damon? 47 blown leads in 20.

40-something, yeah. Oh, my God, right? So there's that, right? But, again, a big reason why this team was in the position that they were was the loss of Corbyn Burns. and you just don't really feel like as much as we love Merrill Kelly that he is really a front-line starter, a true ace for this team. So, of course, the trade package being proposed is that the Diamondbacks go out and get Washington National starter McKenzie Gore.

Now, in one of the trade packages we saw here, Damon, the idea here was to add McKenzie Gore to the debacks. Meanwhile, the nationals would get this trade package. package of essentially Jordan Lawler, Slade Caldwell, and Cole Drake. That's the suggested trade package here for McKenzie Gore. And again, this is what the speculation is. This seems like a lot. And overall, it feels like no matter what you kind of look at here, what the nationals would want to move Gore, feels like it would be a massive prospect return, or even in this case, adding Jordan Lawler who has major league experience, right?

Fan graphs and steamer project Gore to have a 3.76 ERA in 2026. But let's take a look here at his stats from last year in 2025. He did have a 4.17 ERA. His 3.74 fit, though, indicates, obviously, that he is much better than that ERA indicates. He had 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings at a 3.6 per nine inning walk rate, and he was good enough for a 3.0 baseball war. He was part of the package that the Nationals got in exchange for Juan Soto, along with a pretty massive return overall that the Nationals got. They also got C.J. Abrams and was it James Wood? Yeah, they got their shortstop, their best hitter, and their best pitcher out of it.

of the one soda deal, which, you know, I know that you trade away, you know, a superstar who's under the age of 25. And so you expect a massive haul. But that's about as good of a package as you could possibly hope for for any player. Especially considering that McKenzie Gore has become the face of Washington's rebuild. He was a former number three overall pick. He's still just 26 years old. He's under team control through 2028. On paper, he's the exact type of arm. Rebuilding teams don't typically move. So that's the reason why, you know, you know, you wouldn't maybe see the nationals trade them. However, they are trying to improve this team,

and they are trying to get better, and it doesn't seem like they are in a rush to do so. So it feels like the timeline would maybe match a little bit with what the Diamondbacks would be able to offer versus what they get back in McKenzie Gore. Of course, Washington's still three years probably away from being a serious contender, and by that time, McKenzie Gore would be entering his free.

agency and he would probably be far too expensive if he continued down this path for them to bring back. And again, the nationals are stockpiling young controllable assets and pitching is something that they can always buy at a later time. But if the Nats do move or like I said, it would be a game changer for the Diamondbacks. It feels like it would require a lot to do so. Like we said, we showed you that package. That was one proposed package from fan cited. But we also got a tweet sent to us that kind of blew up that also had a similar type package. I think that one involved Jordan Lawler as well, right? I'll stop you for a second here, Derek.

Apparently, we got people in the chat saying that this, you know, the cherry blossom Nationals uniform is garbage. Katie and Jarmy are saying it. What are your thoughts on that? I can't get on board with that. I disagree. I like the cherry blossom. I do.

I do. I like it. I think it was one of the first ones that actually like looked. better than the normal jersey and was something that I as a fan of baseball would rock regardless of the fact that I'm not a fan of that team but hey that's only because I like stuff being different I also thought the cherry blossoms in DC when I visited a few years ago were outstanding incredible yeah they're sick I mean I think that it's everything that a city connect jersey is supposed to be now which is that it it connects to the city in a in a very real wet yeah and I don't I mean I just I

I think the gray with the pink, like, it's kind of a cool mashup. I don't know. I mean, I think you guys are wrong here. I really do. Yeah, no. I think this is one of the better city connects in the league, actually. Right. I agree with this thing.

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Disregard the player. I don't, I don't disagree. Like, Katie says on boring gray. And yes, that might be part of it. But the end of boring gray, there's floral designs. Yeah, the floral is really cool when you get, when you get close up on it.

But I don't know. I mean, overall, I think it's a good design. I would still put it up there as a top 10 city connect jersey. However, it still does not touch the Serpientes jersey. No, it doesn't. And I'm not a huge fan of like the W on the logo of the hat. Like that could be better for sure. But I think the vibe of the uniform overall kind of kind of does it for me.

I don't know. I think that they should have put like DC on this is what they should have put in the WSH. Yeah. The WS.H. D.C. instead of the WS.H probably would have. would have gone hard. Yeah.

It would have gone pretty hard. But again, going back to McKenzie Gore, doesn't get to wear that jersey anymore. That's one reason why he would want to move to the Diamondbacks. And this is the exact type of swing Mike Hazen has made before bringing in guys of Gore's caliber. Overall, he's a power left-hander. So you add that to a starting rotation that only has E-Rod right now currently as their other left-handed pitcher. He has front of the rotation upside.

He's under control for three more seasons. and again, still developing, not fully maxed out yet. But again, it's going to cost an elite bat from the farm system. It's going to cost an MLB ready arm. And again, one high upside infield prospect, most likely. So it's a lot. But if the debacks pull this off, they could have a rotation that has McKenzie Gore at the top, followed by Merrill Kelly, followed by Ryan Nelson,

and you just feel so great about those three guys leading the way. And then you have Brandon Fott, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Michael Soroka all competing for the final two. rotation spots and again it definitely could create a sense of competition between those guys to fight for those spots. Mike Soroka could be a good arm out of the bullpen. Chances are it's not going to be Erodd based on

what the Diamondbacks are paying him. However, they haven't shied away from making starting pitchers the most high paid reliever in baseball before. So why would they stop now? But again, Gore can become the post-gallon ace on this team and

again, just gives the Diamondbacks balance as far lefty and righties in their starting rotation. That's the big thing. I think of that that bears way more noting than just like, you know, saying it as like kind of like the, you know, a bullet point of why it would be good to trade for McKenzie Gore. This team needs a lefty. It's good.

I know Eduardo Rodriguez is a lefty. Yeah. He has not been good. He's been, in fact, one of the worst pitchers in the entire sport since he's gone to Arizona. Right. So we need a good lefty. McKenzie Gore is 26. He's projectable.

You like the underline. stuff. You think he's probably better than what his statistics have shown in the last couple of years because he plays for a not very good baseball team in Washington, D.C. I think that this guy makes a lot of sense for the Diamondbacks and for what Mike Hazen typically likes to target, which is guys that are ascending, right, rather than, you know, descending players so the Diamondbacks have a little bit more long-term future with them. But I think him being a lefty, him being 26, like all of these check a lot of boxes. But that package that we put up on screen, that's a lot. That's a lot to give up. Like I'm looking at that package. Yeah. Throw back up. And, you know, I'm saying, you know, I'm obviously, you know, I've made it pretty clear.

Like if we can get rid of Jordan Lawler and get ourselves a major league ready arm, I'm that's, you know, maybe has some potential as well like a guy like a McKenzie Gore, I'm fine getting rid of Jordan Lawler. Slade Caldwell. He's, you know, seems like he's kind of had a rough start to his minor league career. He's, you know, not really high. that highly thought of for based off of his draft position. I'd be willing to kind of selling low on him if a team was,

was interested in maybe a reclamation project there. Now, Cole Drake is kind of where I draw the line. That's upsetting to me. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know, man. That seems like I'm giving you a lot.

Yeah, that's a lot. And that's where I feel like we're giving too much. I feel like on one hand, we barely knew you, Cole Drake, as much as I really like him and believe in him as a future starting pitcher for this team,

he really was a guy that we got as part of a package for Merrill Kelly who we end up getting back. It was the perfect crime, as we talked about. It was the perfect heist. We sent Merrill Kelly in. He was like, you son of a bitch, I'm in. He goes in, we get three of their top prospects,

and then he just, like Kaiser Soze walks right out of the office without anybody ever knowing the wiser, right? So again, adding one of the prospects from that trade, but if it was more maybe of a David Hagamem than Cole Drake, then I might feel a lot better about that package. Col Drake seems like he could be pretty solid. Oh, and it's an amazing name.

And like not just that, but like, he, he, it's, this is how you feel, right? Where you're trying to, like, you're trying to predict the future. And like, he is the guy that just in my mind, I see being the player that we're like, man, we had him for a minute and we just traded him away. We never even got to see what he could do before we traded him away. It's almost like Scherzer asked you. You know, although he did play for the organization. But I do think that like you, you know, obviously it says at the top, who says no?

And I feel like Nationals fans probably are looking at this being like, no. Yeah. You know, and this is classic, you know, you think your trade package is giving up too much. You want to give up less because I'm sitting here going, oh, no, I don't want to give up Cole Drake. But this is probably what it would about cost to make a trade like this happen, honestly. For sure. And you know what? Sometimes you have to give up players that you like.

like to get players that are very good like a McKenzie Gore. So, you know, I think if there was conviction in the front office that McKenzie Gore is, you know, going to be a future front line starting pitcher and that he's been a little bit unlucky to start his career, then, you know what, I'm, I would be fine with pulling the trigger on this. Yeah, I mean, if you look at that FIP, it's hard not to not to say that he has had some bad luck and some poor defense behind him. Do we grab his baseball savant page? No, I can get it for us.

Okay, let's maybe take a good at the other thing. I just, Cole Drake is just the part that is difficult for me, Derek, because I really like Cole Drake and I want to keep on to as many of these arms that we got as possible because we didn't have any before the trade deadline. And then now we have some and it's like, well, I don't want to just unload the clip on the next trade target we got. And all of a sudden, we got nothing left in the organization to develop. Well, I want to take a moment to defend Jordan Lawler because I know you and I feel completely differently about him as a player. But I, I still like Lawler a lot. And I do also think that he might necessary. Free country, Derek. Well, what my point is is I feel like he's just an easy throw in for a lot of these trades because a lot of people are, have given up on him, right? And again, there were glimpses last year, small, you know, small sample size, but there were glimpses that looked like he had really figured his offense out and things

started clicking for him. Whether that translates over to him finding success in 2026 remains to be seen. remains to be seen if, of course, he even gets playing time in 2026. And the addition of Nolan Aeronado definitely makes that more difficult, right? And much like Katie, who I completely agree with here, I want Jordan Lawler to succeed. And again, he's just... Well, I'm not rooting against the kid. You are 100% rooting against it.

Not true. You want all of the bad things in the world. I saw him in the airport. Nobody but him. I saw him in the airport mid-season last year. And I told, I walked straight up to him and I said, yo, what up? Jordan Lawler, right? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, he had hoodie on. Like I, it was a pretty sick

pole because he's a very like normal size dude. Yeah. Like he is, he just looks like a regular ass dude at the airport. And I was like, I was like, yeah, man, I'm, I was like, we need you up on this roster. I'm trying to get you some A-Bs. Like let's, I'm banging the drum for it. And then he gets up here and he just never hits. And it's like, at what point do I like, is the leash not what it used to be? And, and Derek, here's what I'll say about about, about, Lawler before I move on from this side of the topic is when the Nolan Aeronado trade was made, right? Gambo went on his Twitter and Gambo probably has the best sources within the debacks organization of anybody because he talks straight up to, you know, the people that are, you know, I'm up there.

Yeah, sure. Derek sauces are up there. But Gambo's like, you know, he's got the best information that, you know, the debacks are essentially directly giving to him, you would assume. Sure. he goes out and tweets immediately. This Nualan Aeron Aeronado situation does not affect Blaze Alexander, who will still get a numerous amount of A-Bs playing as the utility man and playing both infield and outfield. That was his first thing he tweeted after the Aeronado deal was like kind of done and dusted and it was like, how does this affect the rest of the roster?

What's interesting about that? No, Jordan Lawler not competing for that exact same? role for those exact same A.Bs with Blaze Alexander. And if his name is not even being talked about with Blaze Alexander, because the first reply I saw was people being like, what about Jordan Lawler? What does this mean for Jordan Lawler? Like, I just don't, I don't know if there's enough of a role for him. And if you could still get value for the guy, I'm considering it. That's all, that's all I'm saying. And I think Robert Berman said that in the chat as well, right? And that's something I agree with him on very much. I feel like

there is a chance at Jordan Lawler because you still have faith in him having potential and you still feel like he could reach. Like if he could headline a McKenzie Gore package, like I'm trying to make that happen. Yeah, no, I get it, but I think someone else also said it. Like they actually have infielders that are young,

talented infielders right now. So again, it might be about where does Jordan Lawler factor into that national team, right? In that case, it still could be young players from the farm system. Maybe it's, maybe they decided it's time to part ways with Alec Thomas. I don't really know, right? There are some things there. But again, when you talk about those two players, Thomas and Lawler, you feel like you still see a lot of potential in Lawler, whereas some people might feel like we have seen

the max of what Alec Thomas's ceiling is, right? But when it comes to a McKenzie Gore trade, it is a classic situation of win now for the Diamondbacks and build for later for the nationals. And that seems to be where those two teams are, right? The nationals are building for later, and the Diamondbacks are trying to extend their competitive window here. They are serious about trying to contend in the NL West, but not really serious, right? I mean, you're playing in a different league with your division rival when it comes to that conversation specifically. When you're looking at the other three teams in the NL West, you feel confident that the Diamondbacks at least have done more to improve their roster than those teams have done. Yeah.

Right. So again, it just, and the bigger thing is, is it just replaces Gallin's, you know, presence here as like a frontline starter. And again, Gallin was not very good last year. Now, you could say neither was McKenzie Gore, right? He's not a finished product at all. And do you really trust this organization to develop him? Right. His career ERA still sits in the mid-fors. His walk rate can spike. And he has had minor health issues with his arms. So again, it's about, Do you feel like he is going to continue getting better? Or have you seen everything out of McKenzie Gore at this point that you feel like you're going to see? Right.

So I think that dictates if you're going to want to make a trade of this kind of size. I don't know. I mean, again, I don't let Brian Kaplan get his hands on McKenzie Gore because it's over for the league. Do you want to look at these baseball savant numbers there? Let's do it. Let's take a look at those before we get out of here. Oh, man. again like he is a pitcher that you feel like it is going to have a lot of success at chase field

he does have a good strikeout percentage he has a good whiff rate he has a good chase rate his breaking run value is in the 79th percentile there's just a lot of things to like here about him but what you don't love is that even though we talk about his fit being what it is his expected era is still at 4.33 so his expected era lines up almost identically with his actual era and i know if that means anything, Damon. It feels like it's not good. It's in the 32nd percentile in baseball. He feels like a guy, maybe like a Brandon fought in a way, that you just feel like he's better than the results saying, yet you haven't seen those numbers. You know, we saw Brandon be big game Brandon during the playoffs. And that's that second half of 2023 after he made those adjustments,

you know, on the mound. So you feel like there's a good chance that Brandon Fogg could get back there. However, there isn't really proof of that up to this point in his career that he can or will. So when you talk about McKenzie Gore, you know, it might be a very similar situation here where even though his stuff looks really good and his strikeout numbers look good, the end results are what they are. And his expected stats really back up that it's not a tremendous amount of bad luck. His fit might suggest that it's a bit more of, you know, again, like his defense. behind him. Yeah, but wouldn't expect the ERA somewhat factor in the defense behind you as well. I mean, yeah. Whereas FIP is slightly different in that regard. I mean, that's what Jesse Friedman is for.

The RA does take into account. Like that that's what it should be based on the results of the, the hits, right? So that's what it is. So basically what it's saying is that he didn't necessarily have bad defense behind him. It's suggesting his stuff is better than the 4.33 would suggest. but it's not suggesting necessarily that, you know, again, the bad defense played into, you know, his pitching, right? So. Yeah, XERA is just a little bit more advanced. It incorporates stat-cast data such as exit velocity, launch angle. Right.

Better assesses the quality of contact and gives pitchers credit for soft contact or punishes for hard contact. So ERA, for instance, right? If a hits a hit, it's a hit. Right. So you get a hit. It goes through the infield. it's a hit, a run scores, right? Expected ERA would say that that ball sucked.

There's no reason why it should have gotten out of the infield. And again, there's probably a good chance that every other infielder would have turned that into an out instead of letting that run score or whatever, right? So there is that that kind of plays into it, like you said, Statcast 8 and all of that. But again, there is a story being told there when your actual ERA and your expected ERA are different. in this case not so i mean again i'm not saying that that makes him a bad pitcher i'm just saying as much as you might just think oh he had a bad national's team behind him he didn't that's not necessarily i will say Derek also his baseball savant look that

baseball savant looks better than any baseball savant brandon fott's ever had in any year his career so and i'm not trying to compare yeah no like he definitely is there are some similarities there's some similarities in that you know you see you it feels like like he's much better than what he's given you. You know what I mean? Where you're like, he looks the part. He feels like an ace. And then his ERA's over four. And I'm sitting here scratching my head. But when you look at this baseball savant, I mean, there's a lot to work with here. Like, you know, I think that K rate is like maybe the number one thing people look at when projecting pictures. Well, yeah, because that's what you want. That's the, that's the stuff. That's the swing and

miss stuff that's out of a guy that you want on the mound in postseason. He's got that full stop. It seems like maybe he's allowing a little bit too hard of contact at times. You look at the average exit velo. You look at the barrel percentage, the hard hit percentage. I think he's getting hit too hard. But I think that he's forcing a lot of swings and misses here. And that's a very projectable pitcher. Like even in a somewhat down year,

this is not a bad baseball savant. It's not necessarily a great one. No. But it's pretty average to maybe a little bit above average. So I'm, you know, I think that he, he seems like he could be a pretty damn good pitcher. I would be for it if it costs Jordan Lawler and, you know, some, some peripheral pieces. The package that we showed you right here, like, I hate to give up Cole Drake. I'd be sitting there being like, I'd be like, hey, what about, what about somebody who's not named Cole Drake?

What do you think? You see Mitch Brad? He played on team. Isn't you, Min Lin? He's 19 years old. And he throws like 12 pitches. It's awesome. And you have an entire, you'll have a entire.

Taiwan behind you. Have you seen the Taiwanese support for human lin? I mean, you guys need that as a part of the nationals organization. Yeah. I think that, you know, I'd be trying to cut corners there. But like, yeah, any, any, I'm going to keep saying it. Any sort of front line starting pitching option or projected front line starting pitching option that will, you know, we could get for a package that is headlined by Jordan Lawler, just looking at our roster and what we need and what, you know, necessarily it doesn't feel like the best operational. for him to carve out that role that, you know, he wants to and that apparently he needs a ton of A-Bs to, you know, prove to people that he deserves. Like, I just don't see that really happening. And I think that there's a better use of resources. So if he could be the headliner of a big deal, I'm trading him.

But who knows what the even temperature around Jordan Lawler and baseball is right now? Because he's been so bad that I could see teams being like, what? Throw him in as a side piece of this. He's not the headliner for our, you know, opening day starter. What are you crazy? Yeah. And I wouldn't be shocked by that. No, you're not wrong.

You're not wrong. And again, it's just too high, but I agree. I think Dan here in the chat said McKenzie Gore, are you kidding me? He's a great pitcher. And yeah, like that's, it's not to say that you don't feel that, right? But when you look at the results, it's a matter of deciding if you want to gamble and give this much away in order to get him. I am kind of on board with this, but like I said, I do feel like the particular trade package we were discussing might just be too high just because I really believe in Cole Drake. I still believe in Jordan Lawler. However, McKenzie Gore, when you look at those numbers, these are the kind of numbers you do have to look at to decide if you want to give him that huge contract that he's probably going to get after 2028 considering, you know, how good he is. But he is in a similar position as Zach Gallen, right? Like, no matter how good he is up to this point of his career, He could have a bad season, and then that could completely derail any hopes of him getting that big, long-term deal that a starting pitcher of his caliber is, like, seemingly guaranteed to get, right?

There is no guarantees, and one bad season is enough for you to wipe all that good away. Now, when it comes to Galen, a little bit more than just one season overall, but I still think, again, Gallen was really set up and 2025 really sunk his chances. It's the reason why we're seeing him still available right now in the free agent market and labeled by one unnamed anonymous coward exec as the least attractive free agent on the market. I think that, you know, when you're comparing those guys, if I was making a little bit of differentiators, I'd say, you said that McKenzie Gore's contract is up in 28. That's, yeah. So he'll be.

So he'll be 28 years old, whereas Zach Gallen is 30 right now, which is slightly different. you get a couple more years of prime when you re-sign that guy when you extend that guy. And I think that, you know, also, Zach Allen had the highs of being one of the best pitchers in baseball for years. And so he has that name status of like, I deserve this contract because of my body of work. Whereas McKenzie Gore is to this point more of a projectable, like, is he going to become that pitcher down the road? So maybe that kind of caps his ceiling on a contract a little bit more. than a Zach Gowan. But I do think that, you know, like, you're, there's similarities in that you're,

you're almost paying for production that you're not seeing at the current moment and that you're, you know, trying to down the road, you know, maybe get better production out of. But, you know, I think that maybe you can invest a little bit better in a guy, as I've said, that's, I think Mike Hazen likes dudes that are on the ascension and that are rising as players, rather than guys who are showing that maybe they're not playing their best baseball at their latter stages of their career, which really shouldn't be the case for a 30-year-old like Zach Gowan, because that seems like that would be like your prime years.

But that is what we have seen. The last two years have been kind of a disaster for Zach Gowan by his standard. And how do you feel comfortable extending that guy for massive amounts of money when all you've seen lately is him not be the guy. that, you know, you've become accustomed to seeing pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Consistently. I will say that he's still had brilliant performances in 2020. No doubt.

That let you know that he is still in there, right? Yeah. Like there are times where you're like, oh, my God. Strikeout 13 and look like an absolute stud against the Yankees, right? So where would you, Mark has a good question. Where would, where would McKenzie Gore go into the rotation for you if he, if this trade went through? That's a hard, that's, because he's, he's my ace at this point, right? but you have Merrill Kelly here who you just know what you're going to get out of Merrill.

I think he's opening day starter. Merrill is. Lock it up. Lock it up. McKenzie Gore? No, Merrill. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Yes, I agree. And then I would just slot Gore in at number two. You didn't gore over Ryan Nelson at number two? 100%. Okay. And then you get the little righty, lefty, righty, maybe a little bit more so. That's what I'm going for.

And then E. Rod four, fought five. Yeah. or honestly or fought then erod because it's still yeah interchangeable and it can be based on performance it can be based on how they look out of spring training what's interesting is erod's going to be performing for team venezuela in the wbc so you're going to have to not only assess his spring training performances but you can actually get a good idea of how he's pitching against true competition in the wbc right what if erod just comes out and shoves for team venezuela just like the best pitcher in wbc how infuriating would it be and then he comes back here and posts the 5.15. That's what would happen. That's what would have. Or you know what? Like I don't mean to put this out here, but with how Erod has been in Arizona, he would go out there. He would shove. Then he would, you know, in his first run through the rotation, you'd be like, holy hell, is Erod? Like, is he back? Is this

his season with Arizona? Like he, you know, he's going to go out there, give you seven strong on the first start of the season. And then all of a sudden it's going to, you know, report comes out. Oh, he's getting some imaging done on his element. And you're like, what happened with we what? No, let's not do that. That's how I envision that situation going down. But I, you know what? I want, you know, as much as I like, you know, I'm, I'm joking about Lawler a little bit.

And, you know, I'm obviously fairly low on him overall. But mostly I just kind of see the writing on the wall with the amount of at bats available and what he's proven that he needs that those at bats to, you know, show that he's a better player than what he's. shown thus far. I really like I do want to root for these guys like I'm not rooting against Erod. I want Erod to go out there and make me look like a freaking idiot. I want Loller to go out there and be like that about the bullpen. That's why I'm a top 10 prospect in the sport. Absolutely. Is because I am that dude and I'm undeniably good. Like make me look like an idiot and I will celebrate it. I will celebrate it on this post on these post game shows. Jordan Lawler, you know,

just earning A.Bs, left and right, he's hitting 300. I'm sitting up here. We'll put Damon doggy you early in the season and we'll just use it every time you do something good. I'll play the curb your enthusiasm clown music in the background. Do, literally me talking about and then I'll fade out my voice underneath of being like, you got to get rid of this guy. You got to trade him while you can. But Jordan Lawler, please prove me wrong.

I'm begging for it, man. You would love to see it. Erod, same thing. This bullpen, as you said, same thing. Like, no one wants this team to succeed more than these two guys. So as much as, you know, I have my takes. I'm very strongly opinionated. I am not rooting against any of these players.

Even Pavin Smith. That I don't believe. But make me get drunk and take off my shirt, basically is what I'm saying. Make me do that. Make me get eyebrows slits. Damon, like, let's not forget. Tomorrow, at the end of tomorrow's episode is the big reveal on my bet for 2026. What I'm going to do if the Diamondbacks do, in fact, reach the postseason.

That's the bet. That's what's on the line. Postseason 26, you get to the yoffs and you get me once again doing something outrageous. This time, a bit more permanent. We're going to talk about it on tomorrow's show. But before we do that, we've got to finish up this show. We're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about Cotel Marte and where he ranked in MLB networks. Thank God.

I thought there was another trade rumor for a second. No, no more rumors. We're just talking about where he ranked on MLB networks. top 100 players right now list heading into 2026. And more importantly, where the hell is Corbyn Carroll? We're going to talk about that here in a minute. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA and X Diamond Back Show.

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Must be 21 or open. Well, Damon, I don't know. I don't know if to get my pitchfork ready. I don't know if to get a torch ready or if I want to celebrate and put up a wonderful balloon arch here in the office. You know, one of those very hard to do. I'm not good at tying balloons. But I will do all of that in celebration of where the Diamondbacks players are landing on MLB networks. top 100 players right now list.

We discussed yesterday that our guy Jerry P was in the top 25, Geraldo Perdomo listed as the 24th best player in all of Major League Baseball. You're damn right. And that's something that Damon was thrilled about. However, maybe in the news of things that don't thrill us so much.

Yesterday, players 20 through 11 were revealed and what we found out was that they have ranked Cotel Marte 19th overall. And that does put them amongst elite players in baseball. However, Damon, he's just one spot above Will Smith. Genuinely, what? Who?

Like, it's shocking, Derek. I'm looking at the list. And, yeah, it's like, I get it. These are a lot of really good baseball players. Let me name the, you know, 10 players, you know, through 11 through 20. Lindor at 11, which debatable, Lindor is better than Catelle Marte, if we're being completely real. I mean, he's not a better.

hitter. He probably has a better defensive impact for sure, but he's not, he's not a better hitter than Cattel Marte. I'm fine with him being above Cateau. Garrett Crochet is number 12. Yoshinaamamoto is number 13, which I'm fine with. He's disgusting. Yeah, he is. Ronald Acuna is 14, which that feels like maybe we're holding on to a little bit of that MVP season from three years ago a little bit here. For sure. This is supposed to be top 100 right now. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I thought that this was this Maybe I didn't know this was body of work. Yeah. Tatis is 15.

Fine with it. Julio is 16. Yeah. Fine with it. I guess. You know, again, defensive impact. Shwerber 17. I mean, he's the best DH, not named Shohei in the league.

Is it, I mean, I was going to say, is this primarily due to the fact that he only D.Hs? Probably. It's hard to value you when you don't, because of the other players that you listed are elite on both sides of ball. And for the most part, pitchers are game changers, right? So Yamamoto, crochet, I'm fine with both of those guys being above Katel. And like you said,

these other guys are incredible defenders as well as what they offer at the dish. Mookie bets? No, no, no. I'm sorry, are we watching the- Absolutely not. Are we watching the same score? Absolutely not. Are we talking about who's a better podcast host? Because then, yeah, he ranks above Ketel. It doesn't rank above me.

I didn't even realize Mookie that he's being sandwiched by two Dodger bums who have no nowhere near Catell's level of player. That's it. I just need Catell to be in front of Mookie. His 2025 season Catell slash 283, 376, 517, with 28 home runs and 145 WRC plus. All right.

Let me give you, let me give you Mookie Betzes, Derek. 258 average 326 on base percentage, 4.06 slugging percentage for a 732 OPS, 20 home runs, and 82 RBI. I mean, it's insane. In what world is Mookiee bets in the year of our Lord 2026, a better baseball player than Catee? Ask the Dodgers. Ask the Dodgers who they'd rather have. And then you're going to tell me Will freaking Smith? Will Smith, Derek.

He ranked above Catello, though, right? He's 20th, right? Yeah, but I just, the fact that they're right next to each other just makes me sick. And makes me sick. Makes me sick. Get those Dodger bums away from my sweet boy. Yeah. I mean, this is national recognition for Cattell that he deserves.

And I'm not going to be too mad about him maybe being one or two spots higher, right? I think the bigger surprise here overall is that we haven't seen Corbyn Carroll's name yet. Right? Like, Corbyn Carroll is now going to be considered a top 10 player in Major League Baseball and for good reason. But where is he at on this list? Damon, how high does he get? How high does he get? Carroll finished 2025 as one of MLB's most impactful players, period.

31 home runs, 32 steals, a 140 OPS plus, and that was with him missing time due to injury. Got a silver slugger award. He's among the best offensive and defensive outfielders in the National League, two-time All-Star, three-time NL Triples leader, and all at the age of 25. I've said it before. Like, he's going to break the modern triples record

by the time his career is over. You go look at the players that are all-time leaders and triples in MLB history. It's all, you know, bubblegum Johnson from, you know, the 1912, you know, Chicago Black Sox and, you know, hopscotch Jones from the Philadelphia Warriors. You ran 109 miles an hour. Yeah. And it's all these guys where you're like, that's not a person that anyone remembers in baseball. Yeah.

When you, like, it takes until, like, getting to, like, the 70s, 80s until you get to, like, players that are even close. Corbyn's going to blow every single modern baseball player, like post-2000 out of the water when it comes to triples, you know, God, God willing, you know, with his long career. So fantastic. You love to see it from Corbyn Carroll. The other players in the top 10 here, Derek, that are alongside him and we'll get that order, I believe, tonight at, what, Is that 6 p.m? 6 p.m. Eastern. Yeah.

So we got Corbyn Carol, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., Aaron Judge, Shohei Otani, Cal Raleigh, Jose Ramirez, Paul Skeens, Tarek, Scoubel, Juan Soto, and Bobby Witt, Jr., and Bobby Witt, Jr., and Francisco, Indore. And I was right until they added Mookie Betts ahead of him as well, who also belongs nowhere near ahead of Geraldo Pardom. on this list because Herald O'Prodomo is twice the baseball player. Mookie Betts is in 2026. But I've noticed, Derek, out of all these people on this list, M-O-B Twitter is coming after our boy, as the polar bear in Arlington, Texas, if you will. The one that doesn't belong?

Are you kidding me? Well, I will say this, right, Damon? It was a bit of a surprise, as he could tell Marte ranked below Corbyn-Carrul, right? I mean, just a little bit. I don't know. Corby Carroll is making history, though, and there's that. Katie did say that he's the fastest player in the league. We know that's not true because we do know that Dre Jameson beat him in a foot race one time.

So as far as I'm concerned, Dre Jameson currently holds that title until Corbyn can prove otherwise. I do want to thank you guys that have signed up to be diehards, by the way. I might have missed this a little earlier, but of course, you guys are wonderful. You guys have signed up for our supporters club. You guys are wonderful. We love you all. If you want to join the family and become one of our. die hard to make sure to do so right now over at go p hnx.com you get access to our discord lounge which is the

best place to be an arizona sports fan it's the exclusive place to chat with us whenever you'd like especially the the sons guys that never leave the discord you also get a free t-shirt you get 20 percent off future merchandise purchases 20 percent off our events and great exclusive content as well some surprises coming this year so again head on over to go p hnx.com prove your fanhood by becoming a pH and X die hard today um overall where do you think he lands you think he ends up 10th 10th yeah i went as high as 8th but after you listed the players that you listed i i mean who would you put ahead of potentially out of those players maybe bobby whit junior yeah but probably not yeah you know no disrespect about i would say vladdie maybe but he'd be they changed the world

series. So I think that that you get the boost of being a team that just had a really successful season. Maybe J-Ram, because he plays for the Guardians. And, you know, I think that I do think, as much as it sucks, I do think that the organization matters when you're talking about this here because I think that they're going to be like, yeah, you know, we're not going to have that many Guardians fans mad at us. The only guy that that probably like, maybe two guys that, you know, that doesn't really apply to is skeens and scoble because they're so undeniably dominant that it's like, yeah, you got to put the Pirates guy at like the third best player in the league because he's unbelievable and we've never seen anything like this.

But I expect 10th, I could see maybe 9th with Jose Ramirez being 10th. That's what I'm going to say. I agree. I don't think it's going to be much more than that, but I don't think it really matters. No, it's a great recognition. Right. Is being recognized here as a top 10 player in baseball feels. right. It feels like the Diamondbacks did an incredible job here of drafting him, having him

move up through their organization, and more importantly extending him so that he is here for the long term, right? I said this the other day when we're talking about the good and the bad of the, you know, CBA and teams that are doing enough and teams that aren't doing enough and teams that are cheating the system. The Diamondbacks seem to be the one team. And maybe it's just because we love this team and this organization, but they seem to be the one, one of the teams doing it the right way, right? They're extending their young players so that they stay here and on a part of the organization. They're extending guys they traded for that they find to be superstars who weren't at the time when they traded for him from Seattle. They're doing their best to reinvest as much money

as they make off of this team back into this team as far as percentage reinvested top five in major league baseball. So when it comes to people wanting to come after the Diamond and Ken Kendrick for not spending enough, that is not the case. And when it comes to teams wanting to label or people wanting to lump the diamondbacks in with the pirates and the Tampa Bay Rays and other teams that don't keep their young talent as part of their organization, that is also false. So again, even though things aren't always great for this organization and even though there would be nearly a 10-year drought of playoffs heading into 2026 if they wouldn't have

made that incredible run in 23, it still feels like this. organization is trying to do things the right way. In 2026, hopefully will be a surprise for all of us. It feels like the pieces are here. It feels like if this team can reduce the amount of blown saves and if this bullpen can be far more competent that it was in 25, you have to feel pretty good about, you know, this team overall still being a contender in 26. Yeah. You want to say contender, but competitive is probably a little bit more. I think wild card contender is probably the best way to say it. And And we've seen it with 2023, and that team was not as good as the 2024 team. It was not as good as the 2025 team.

And it made its way all the way of the World Series because they played their best baseball at the right time. And they got good pitching. Seawald changed everything for that team. Well, look at what this team can do when you have a competent back end of your bullpen. It's absolutely shocking. But, you know, I do think that, you know, you look at this team and you say, if they can just get a little bit more luck, they can make a wild card. and if they make a wild card, anything can happen if you get the right path to the playoffs.

So, you know, I don't think it's all cooked for the Diamondbacks. Like baseball gives you a chance once you make the postseason. You just got to find a way to get into the dance. This Mets stuff doesn't really help us in that regard, I would argue. Maybe the Mets win their division this year. Maybe. Maybe the Phillies take a step back, which I could see. They're in shambles after losing out on Boba Shet.

So maybe that. Yeah, I mean, they didn't really do it. a whole lot. They kind of stood pat this offseason. They lost Ranger Suarez, they lost Ranger Suarez, brought back Swarber and brought back somebody else as well. Real Muto. Oh yeah. Yeah. So they're kind of running it back without Ranger.

I could see them bring it in Gowan on like a pretty short term deal. Definitely. I could see that happening. But like I don't think that that makes them better necessarily losing Ranger and getting gallon. I think that's pretty like for like comparison. So you know, I maybe the Phillies take a slight step back. Maybe the Braves. are better too this season, but it's going to be a war for this wildcard spot. And, you know, hopefully the Diamondback's pitching gives them an opportunity to get one.

Well, Michael Nixon finally arrived. So that means it's time for us to wrap this show up. Sorry, Michael. Once you got, we were waiting for you to get here just so we can shut things down. Robert wanted to know real quick, Derek, what the plan was with left field with Gueriel being hurt. I think that we don't have one yet. Not yet, but maybe Gurriel. is low-key kind of ready.

Yeah, go, Robert, go check out his Instagram. His Instagram. He's like sliding and stuff. It's unbelievable. He's leaping over cars. He's dunking basketball. Derek, he's doing the whole, the, the, the, the TikToks of the dude with rubbing the banana on his face and doing sprints out by that with the car. It's amazing.

It literally is amazing how quickly he is recovering. And again, he keeps alluding to being ready by opening day. not sure if that's going to happen. I feel like Blaise. As Gambo tweeted and I brought up on this show, Blaze is the utility man. He's going to be given, I think, a lot of opportunity to cover for basically any player that gets injured in the starting lineup this year. Don't put him in a box like that. He's so much more than a utility man.

Well, I think that that could make, you could almost be like the ninth starter on the team by doing that with the Diamondbacks in particular. The way Tori likes to switch up lineups, like, let's just face it. Jerry's been hurt before. Cattel's gotten hurt a lot. It's true. Like, Blaze can play, you know, Nolan Aeronado got hurt last year for kind of the first time of his whole career. Like, Blaze can play third, short, second, left field, you name it. I think he's going to get plenty of opportunity.

That's why I worry more about Jordan Lawler is because I see the opportunity for Blaze, but I'm sitting there and I'm like, is there opportunity for Jordan Lawler then? I don't know. Which that I think is a lot more up in the year. We've heard them bring up the outfield for Lawler potentially. we know that he played a few games in the Lodom, but we'll see if that happens, if anything comes of that.

Would not be surprised to see him playing the outfield during spring training for sure. So that is right around the corner. Cannot wait for that. Cannot wait to see all of you guys out there at actual baseball games in the sunshine. Cannot wait. Until then, we hope you guys all join us tomorrow

for yet another episode of this show, believe it or not. We're going to try to do as many of these before the lockout happened. So make sure to stop by 12 p.m. noon. Until then, you can follow us on Twitter and social media. I'm at K-U-N-K-K-U-N-D-A-W-G-N-A-W-G, and as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, bark.

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