PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING NEWS: 3B Evan Longoria signs with the Arizona Diamondbacks

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

After the San Francisco Giants declined his option, the Arizona Diamondbacks have signed veteran third baseman Evan Longoria to a contract for 1-year $4 million with $1 million in incentive bonuses. 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.

Stay frosty on Fridays, my friend. The D-backs are making moves happen. Welcome in to an emergency podcast right here on PHNXDBACs podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a guy that was at the bar when he got interrupted by yet another move by the Arizona Diamondbacks. And this is my friend Jesse, who doesn't drink nearly as much as me. Of course, he is the brains of this operation.

Jesse, Evan Lung. Goria is officially a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. What is your immediate thoughts? Well, my, my first immediate reaction was that Mike Hazen loves Fridays. Friday was the U.S. signed Miguel Castro earlier this month on a Friday. The Dalton Varsho trade last Friday, this Friday.

We get Evan Longoria. Scott McGuff happened on a Thursday. Why? What did that happen on a Friday? Is he not worth enough? A rare change of tradition there. But yeah, this is a great, a great move for the debacks. And I can confidently say that because on one hand, you kind of feel like there's no such

thing as a bad one-year deal, right? That's kind of a saying that goes around. There's just not much to lose for the debacks in this. And there's also the fact that this is a $4 million contract for the debacks. There's also a million dollars of performance incentives, according to Nick Picoro. That's a really low number, frankly. relative to at least what I expected Evan Longoria to get. Here's the thing is that obviously the one thing the Diamondbacks lack right now is a veteran presence.

Yes, you could say Madison Bumgardner is that, but let's be honest, he's, you know, if anything, he's that to the pitching staff and the pitching staff at the most. I have a feeling he's always kind of come across as me as not really that kind of guy. Same thing with Zach Granky when he was here. And I've heard the contrary to that. I've heard a lot of guys actually got a lot of great information from Granky being a teammate of his. And that went for both, you know, infielders as well as, you know, pitchers. But this deal is exactly what you want to see out of a deal like this.

It's low risk. There is an incentive base for him to make a million extra dollars, but that's not, you know, a tremendous amount either. Even if he does perform, if he does perform, then he's worth every. dime of that extra amount of money. We're talking about a guy that last season hit 244, 315, 451 with a 767 OPS. I know we've talked about him kind of being at the tail end of his career, which he obviously is. He's had a tremendous career.

Anybody in baseball, I think, would consider themselves lucky to have a career as long and as productive as Evan Longoria's has been. But I also feel like he still brings something to this offense. when you compare him to what some of these guys on this team were doing last season. Like he's not, it's not like he's that far off from, from the top hitters currently on the D-BACs roster from 2022. Yeah, absolutely.

I think what this does for the D-Backs from a lineup standpoint is it just gives them depth, frankly. Correct. Like it's not, we're not here to say that Evan Longoria is going to start 150 games for the Diamondbacks. Frankly, he hasn't played more than 90 games in three years. He has been injury prone.

That kind of comes as part of the territory when you sign a guy who's 37 years old. So I wouldn't think of this as, you know, Evan Longoria is necessarily the Diamondbacks third basement throughout the entire season. There's a chance he gets hurt. There's a chance that, you know, maybe he winds up being significantly better against lefties than righties to the point where the debacks would rather a platoon sort of situation there. That might even be the most likely outcome, right? you also have to get at bats for Josh Rojas, and third base appears to be the most likely spot for him to get those at bats as well. So, yeah, I think there's a good chance here that Evan Longoria is just kind of like a good

depth piece for the Diamondbacks. And as we've seen in recent years, you can never have too much of that. You can never have too many majorly caliber players ready to contribute. And he is absolutely going to be that for them next year. He's also the fourth right-handed bat that the Diamondbacks have acquired this offseason. Gabrielle Moreno right-handed, Lordus Guriel Jr. right-handed. Kyle Lewis right-handed and now Evan Longoria. So like you said, it's that depth to the lineup, you know,

and that's something that the Diamondbacks absolutely have not had. I think that there is something there to be said about Evan Longoria bringing his veteran kind of leadership to a team like this. This is a guy that has been on a lot of winning ball clubs. He's also a guy that, you know, especially a guy like Josh Rojas, could really use to be around, you know, some more. Maybe, maybe Josh Rojas can solidify himself there a bit at third base after spending some time with Evan Longoria. I mean, you know, we still don't have that as a decisive part of their future yet.

Of course, they could still go out and acquire that, but it would be great if Josh Rojas could make himself into, you know, more regular third baseman. More importantly, though, like you said, the question marks really stood. at some of the, you know, hitting right-handed bats being in the lineup, as well as what are we going to do at third base. I feel like this answers a bit of that. And even if it's not as big of a move as most people would like to see them make, it's still a move that's that makes this team better. I feel like it's a team.

It's a move that moves this team in the right direction for, for 2023. It's all about how they can, you know, just get better at every. position third base right now was still a weakness for them before adding long-go. I think Ryan makes a great point in the comments. The team seems to have one to two pretty good backup options at each position now. I think that that's just so true. And it's something that the debacks haven't really had in the past these past few years. It's felt like, you know, if your, if your number one option is like a serviceable major

leaguer, then you feel really good about it. But now the debacks have not only a pretty good number one option everywhere across the diamond. But they also have like some pretty good depth at every position, right? They just got Diego Castillo, who's a utility infielder in a trade with the pirates. You've still got Geraldo Perdomo. You still have Emmanuel Rivera. Maybe Emmanuel Rivera becomes a little bit more of an up and down sort of a guy for the debacks given this move. But there's just so much depth here at every position. And I think the debacks have kind of learned their lesson when it comes to depth over these past few years. Like you can never have too many guys at each position who is ready to go.

And given the fact that Longoria, you know, has the injury history that he has, you kind of feel like, you know, that things are going to work their way out so that every guy that you want to get playing time is going to find some playing time. I don't think, I don't think Josh Rojas is, you know, going to get 200 played appearances or something at this point just because Evan Longoria is here. 2021 casts a looming shadow on this organization, Jesse. And to be honest, the wild part about it, I never considered myself to be. a very good analyst when it came to this team. I'm not, I don't, I don't think I'm seeing things that the team isn't seeing.

However, when the 20, 21 season started and they essentially had the same guy backing up three positions at one point on their depth chart, you had to, you couldn't help but wonder, what happens if more than one of these guys goes down at the same time, right? Like, you know, and so depth chart-wise, they have not been very deep for the last few seasons dating back to probably 2019. It's one of the things that they didn't really seem to consider. And I feel personally like the, there was a lot of, you know, outside things impacting this team. I think that the pandemic and COVID and such impacted, you know, when they would get fans back in the stands and when this team, you know, would be making money from, from more than. one, you know, for more than just their TV deal, especially considering that the ballpark at Chase Field doesn't get very full. But this is like a low cost answer for this team that really still needed to continue to make moves if they wanted to compete in the National League West,

to be honest. It's it's just one of those things that they still needed some answers in the bullpen that they still need maybe some answers in the bullpen. But they have made efforts to get better there and they've also made efforts to get better at the infield which they really find themselves still having you know some weaknesses on i i like this move it's a move we've been talking about for a long time ever since evan longoria's you know evan longoria came up yeah this has been several months in the making yeah he said there were two teams us in the Tampa bay raise and to be honest he didn't really fit with what the Tampa bay rays are doing there yeah there could be an argument made that he doesn't really fit with what the diamondbacks are doing.

But the diamondbacks have kind of, you know, I don't know, the few pieces of this team that left this offseason were kind of the veteran, you know, presence on the team to a certain degree. Jordan Buclo, obviously, you know, Ian Kennedy, there were some guys on this team that were mentors that were willing to share, you know, their information with these young prospects that are coming up and making their debut in the majors like we saw last season. So it's good to have a guy like this on the roster, especially considering that they're a bit depleted in that, in that aspect. So I'm just thinking about like kind of where the depth chart stands at this point.

And you mentioned that, you know, maybe they still have a move to make in the bullpen. You could make a case. Maybe they still have a move to make in the starting rotation. I think it's possible that they look to add an arm there as well. But in terms of position players, Derek, I think I'm pretty much ready to say that this offseason is complete if you're just thinking from a position player standpoint. You think about catchers. You got Carson Kelly. You got Gabby Moreno. You think about infielders. You've got Christian Walker at first base. Coutel Marte at second. Nick Ahmed at shortstop. You've got

Evan Longoria now at third. You also have Geraldo Perdomo probably being a backup as well as as Emmanuel Rivera potentially being a backup there or Diego Castillo. I think one of those guys makes it. And then in terms of the outfield, you've got Corbyn Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Alec Thomas, and Lordus Gurriel Jr. And then also Kyle Lewis, potentially being a guy kind of on the fringes who has a chance to make the team. I think from a depth chart standpoint for the depth chart, as far as the position players are concerned, I think the devacts might be done at this point in the offseason.

And I think that people feel pretty okay about it. Like you hear those names and it's like, yeah, like you could put together a pretty decent lineup with those guys. I also want to mention that Longoria has absolutely knocked the cover off the ball at Chase Field. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he has. He is a career 359, 417, 631 hitter at Chase Field. What about that OPS?

He has a higher OPS at Chase Field than any other ballpark in baseball 10.0.49. Yeah. That's crazy. It's crazy. That's crazy. And again, this is the reason why I was kind of interested in Justin Turner. like, come on, let's bring a guy over here that's had success, particularly at this field. I know.

Giants players in general have had success there. I don't want to hear it. But I think it's great that they finally kind of sealed this up. I don't know if they needed to go out and make this move in order for me to feel confident about the direction of this team in 2020. But I feel much better now that they did this. It's also, it also builds a bit of confidence that it seems like the players, that are connected to the Diamondbacks, it ends up happening.

This is not throwing any shade on the Carlos Correa situation by any means. But like, you know, the Diamondbacks, yeah, they were quote, unquote, attached to Xander Bogarts. But for the most part, we've heard about them kind of being in the market for Evan Lengoria for a while. We've heard it's a good fit for he wanted to come here as well. It's kind of the same thing with the trade with Toronto. It just kind of made sense, even though there was no confirmation. from anybody reporting on it that there was talks between Toronto and the debacks. It was just the debacks were in the market for a catcher.

Toronto was in the market for an outfielder. And obviously it made sense considering the youth of both franchises and kind of what they were building towards. Dalton Varsho definitely a more, you know, major league ready, you know, guy versus Gabriel Moreno that's just making his kind of debut in baseball. And it just so happened that both franchises roster kind of worked out. in this way. The one thing I will say about Evan Lengoria coming to the valley is that, like you said, I like the one-year deal aspect of it. I really think that, you know,

they've done a good job at bringing some guys on that can help them win next year, help them be successful. But then also it's not really going to be blocking the future of this team beyond 2023, where they still have some great players, you know, in the minor leagues ready to come up, as well as some guys on the team right now, like Perdomo, that are still kind of maturing at a major league level. I'm looking at Evan Longoria's splits from last year, which of course is a big factor here. Against lefties, Evan Longoria hit 282, 333, 479, which is really like the big source of the upgrade here.

Like the debacks don't have, don't have many hitters, frankly, who put up an 812 OPS against lefties. In fact, I think Longoria is basically the only one. So there's a now against lefties. Against lefties, he very well may be their best hitter at this point. So, so that's a big upgrade here. And then you think about his numbers against Ritees, 215, 302, 430. That's not great, but it's probably good enough to the point where if the D-BACs had to start Evan Longuroy against Ritey's, which I'm sure they will, you don't feel like you're

losing too, too much there. Whereas if you start, you know, in a manual or Rivera against a righty. The numbers, they are just not very good. And frankly, Emmanuel Rivera is a very unproven commodity, right? If you just look at the numbers comparing Longoria to Rivera from last season, the differences are there. They're not huge, but they are there. But I think the debacks are coming in from the perspective of,

hey, we want a veteran leader. Evan Longoria can be that guy. He's had a legendary major league career. Not many players are able to stick around as long as he's able to. he lives in Scottsdale that i'm sure was a big part of his desire to come here um and i think it also says something about the fact that he he wanted to come to the diamondbacks he is also uh apparently said that he wanted to play for a contender and obviously the scottesdale connection i'm sure plays into this but i think there is an element where it's like yeah evan longoria if this is his

last season in the big leagues in 2023 he's okay playing that season with the diamond backs a team that presumably he really believes in moving forward. And it seems like a lot of people believe in this team. I know we believe in this team, but I think we also are misguided. I think we are too close. You're misguided. You're misguided.

Oh, Jesse, fuck you and your goddamn article that you posted. Don't even get started on your pessimism and how much I hate it. But no, I think that it's not misguided. I think that this is a fun team. I think that they did a lot of exciting things last year. And they lost in a very unexpected way. Let's be honest, like few teams lose as many games as the Diamondbacks did late due to the bullpen. And, you know, of course, this still doesn't address that.

But what it addresses is those stretches that the Diamondbacks offense went on when they couldn't buy a hit. And it's no surprise, right? Because when your lineup is almost entirely consisting of left-hand. handed hitters, it's kind of easy to figure you guys out. And it's also the same reason why the team would go ice cold as a team and not have anybody able to break out. And you had those rare instances where Jordan Looplo was the only guy that was able to hit left-handed pitching. So I will say that it's a very welcome addition to this team to see them, you know, adding. Because the right-handed bats, they lost just as about, they lost as many right-hand

bats as they gained. So it's not like it's this gigantic. Yeah, the Los Loplo was a switch hitter, I guess. But yeah. Stone Garrett, Jordan Looplo, Jake Hager and Cooper Hummel, but the upgrade is noticeable, right? And we've talked at length at this week about how excited we are about the future with Gabriel Moreno and even Lordus Gouriel being a part of this team. But Evan Longoria, like Goreal, he brings something immediate that's going to impact the offense, whereas Moreno is more about the future and the way he lines up with the youth of this team. It's exciting for not just this year, but it's exciting for a number of years. The veterans, though, I guess you could call at this

point Gurriel a veteran. You know, these are the guys that are going to help these young guys like understand the, you know, what it takes to win and kind of overcome that thought process, I think, of, you know, hey, we're against these juggernauts in the NL West. Well, none of that shit matters. Longoria is the kind of guy that has been on teams. that have beat the juggernauts in his division. They have taken down the Goliaths, right? So it's like he is one guy that if you want a veteran on your team, leading your young players and making them believe that you can beat any goddamn team

in baseball, he's the guy to do it. I think that's a great point. And it's something that Mike Hazen talked about on the final day of media availability. He talked about the need for a veteran presence on this team and the fact that some of those games that the Diamondbacks lost late, yes, the bullpen played a big role in a lot of those. But there were also just a lot of silly mistakes, whether it be, I guess, mostly on defense,

that some of the younger players on this team made. And Evan Longoria is a guy where in those big situations, he's able to calm guys down. He's able to kind of make sure everyone is where they need to be. He's just the kind of guy that you want in those moments. And I know from the beginning of this offseason, That's been something the debacks have wanted. And it's not something, it's not a box that they checked yet, right?

Gurriel is a veteran to some degree, but he's not, he's not Evan Longoria, right? He hasn't played in the league for 15 years like Evan Longoria has. So this is just another level of experience and leadership that the debacks are getting here. And they're also getting their actual leader, Nick Ahmed, back on the field. And that's another thing I think that is going to calm that exact thing you're talking about down, that lack of experience. it's infectious. It's one of the things that the young guys need to see and be a part of so that in the future, they have that experience and they can lead by example based on being around veterans like

Evan Longoria. If Corby and Carroll doesn't get a chance to be around veteran guys in this league, who is he going to really learn from? I mean, he already has an incredible head on his shoulders. He already seems very mature and he seems very ready to be a leader himself. It's just weird when you're the young guy on the team to try. try to step up, right? Like, you kind of have to be around a while before you assume that role. That's the reason why Nick Ahmed not only does that kind of on the field, but he literally does that from a player representative role on the team. So I think him and Longoria being on the field

and the infielder both are going to help this defense and are both going to help have that kind of settling effect on the young guys when they kind of, you know, when when when they get kind of a skew, you know, but I'm excited for it, man. I think it's a great move. It's, like I said, like we talked about, it's a move that they have been poised to make for a while, but the deal finally gets done. Yeah, it's felt, it's kind of felt like, yeah, this might happen at some point. We're just kind of waiting around for it and here, sure enough, it finally does. I wonder if Mike Hazen has any bullets left in his gun, as he would say at this point. He said he only had a couple left after, you know, the, the, he was talking about like bullpen in particular.

That was like the context of that question. He said, I believe he said at the time we have like one or two more bullets to fire. And I don't think Scott McGuff had happened yet at that point. So now they probably have one bullet left to fire in the bullpen. This move, it's probably worth noting, puts the debacks payroll at around 110, 111 million based on my calculations. I think that's sort of what roster resource would have. If you throw Longoria's $4 million in there, which is higher than it was last year, right? We talked about at the beginning of the off season, like it's probably going to cost about $100 million the equivalent of last year's payroll just to keep the team together without

adding anything. And the debacks have modestly, right? I mean, they haven't spent a ton of money, but they have shown the willingness to spend a little bit above that, which I think is, these are big additions that they're making in the grand scheme of things. Kyle Danan in the comment says, I feel like Alec Thomas is the one gearing up to be the locker room leader. His personality is clearly infectious and he clearly means a lot to the people he plays with. I would agree strongly with that. I also think that he has grown up in a locker room as we've talked about in the past. So I feel like it's different for a guy like him that it comes

so naturally to be a part of a clubhouse and be a part of a team. He is our king, Alec. He is our young king. He won't always be our young king, but we appreciate him. It's very exciting, though. And honestly, I'm excited to see if the Diamondbacks do have any bullets left in their gun. Next Friday. Next Friday.

We'll be back here, 4 p.m. next Friday. Put it in your calendar. I'll be on a plane and I'll get some sort of text message. I'll get off a plane. I'll immediately have to do an emergency podcast. No more audio shows, by the way. This is our, we're done with those. Those are in

the past now. We've just had enough. We've had enough of days like this to record audio show. And inevitably, like a couple of hours later, something like this happened. So we're live on Fridays, we're going to do a live show and we're just going to stick around until something happened. It might be two hours. It might be three hours. It might be the longest podcast

we've ever done. But we're going to figure it out one way or another because of course, things keep happening. And I'm sure that's when the last bullet will be fired. sure, Jesse, while I'm on a plane coming back from Seattle. That sounds about right. It sounds about right. It's exciting, though.

The Diamondbacks are doing the things that they need to do. And if you are paying attention, they are doing it in a pretty cost effective way. They're still making their team better. And they're doing it in a way that isn't what the Mets are doing. Also, in related news, they've almost had their payroll is almost to what the Mets are going to spend in luxury tax. In luxury tax. I think they're almost exactly the same. They're like 11.

Right. Well, I think it's 111 million. 11 right around there. Something like that. I just need them to spend a little bit more money than the Mets are going to get taxed for all the money they spent. That will make me happy. But of course, we thank you guys so much for joining us on this emergency podcast. We thank Evan Longoria so much for agreeing to be part of this team. Welcome to the Valley, sir.

We are excited to watch you play baseball. Is there a celebration happening at his Scottsdale home that we should we should know about? Maybe we have to hand out some invitations. I don't know. Do we get an invitation? I don't know. Jesse will come whoop your ass and ping pong and I will stand by and laugh while he does it. I'm sure Evan LaGoria has a ping pong table. That might just be putting it out there, but of course we've got to figure that out.

This is the important journalism I need you to do, Jesse. Find out if Longo has a pool table or a ping pong table. But of course, in the meantime, make sure to follow us. We will be bringing you more on this next week. You guys can send us our mailbag Monday questions, and we will be happy to answer them come Monday. We are on Twitter. I am at Cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for stopping by checking out the show. On behalf of Jesse and myself, we appreciate you joining this emergency podcast. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you sign a veteran third baseman for a very little amount of money.