PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Torey Lovullo Returning as D-backs Manager for 2026 Season, Players React

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4On the final day of Arizona Diamondbacks player media availability, we got official confirmation that Torey Lovullo will return as manager in 2026 — the final year of his contract. Hear reactions from Ryan Thompson, Corbin Burnes, and Brandon Pfaadt. Free-agent-to-be Zac Gallen also discusses his own future with this team and his desire to return to Arizona. Plus, we dive into your Mailbag Monday questions and break down the D-backs’ dreadful showing against the Padres to close out the season.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Zen Leaf: Visit our friends at Zen Leaf (http://zen-leaf.store/phnx) for 50% off using promo code ZENPHNXSpencer’s Appliances: Visit Spencerstv.com and use code PHNX5 for 5% off appliances OR use code PHNX10 for 10% off TVs, audio and mattressesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website.Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we have breaking news, according to the Arizona Diamondbacks themselves and first reported by Steve Gilbert, Tori Lavello will return for the final year of his contract in 2026. We have our reactions and the reactions from the clubhouse on the final day of media availability in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. Really, Damon? The sad music? Well, welcome in to Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. This is the PHNXDbacks podcast.

My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And according to that music, something bad has happened. And I'm guessing I'm going to go ahead and say that's more for the series sweep at the hands of the Padres to end the 2025 season. And not about our breaking news that Tori Lavello will be back for the 2026 season as the debacks manager. Welcome in to you all. Great to have you guys here. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 and GameTime. Make sure to go use that code of PHNX 365.

When you sign up over at Bet365, you'll get yourself some bonus bets for following a few easy steps. Over at game time, use our code of PHNX. You'll get $20 off. You're already low ticket prices there. Damon, of course, is on the ones and twos today. And we do have breaking news. And I am so glad Killer Rex is here for it. Welcome in, guys.

Welcome in. So get in, Rex. welcome in. Well, it's over. The season is officially over, and the Diamondbacks went out with a whimper for sure, as they have, honestly, for the last two seasons. Nothing, they have not closed out either of the last two seasons strong,

and they also did not do that in this season. Diamondbacks end the season at 80 and 82. You know what that means? You'll never see Little Perdomo go up the mountain ever again. He's gone. He's gone forever, and we'll never have him go up the mountain again, because the diamondbacks, they finished at 81 and 81. We could have sent him up the mountain all postseason long.

And even under the off season, we could have just every time we mentioned it, there he goes, right at Mount 500. But no, no, unless we make one where he's going down Mount 500, little Jerry P. going up the mountain is done after the Diamondbacks get swept by the Padres and they end the season with five straight losses. This is a classic end of the season. I mean, overall, right? Like, we talked about it, we joked about it,

we suggested that if the Diamondbacks shouldn't make the playoffs, that this was so apropos for how their season has gone, right? How the games individually have gone this season. Making you think at times, and oh so many occasions, that this team was going to win a baseball game only for them to find a new, thrilling way

to lose it late in the game. And again, this is what, happened with this season, despite how much we thought we were down and out of it. The Diamondbacks pulled off a rally. They were the answerbacks. They played extraordinary baseball since the trade deadline, and they found a way to get themselves right back in the wild card race, which, again, was, I have to add in this, a big reason why is because the Mets collapsed, right? And that's something to remember here.

it was fun and the diamondbacks did play excellent baseball after the trade deadline and that is very important to remember both of these things are true however they would not have been even close to being in it no matter how good they played had the Mets not had an epic collapse that resulted in them not making the playoffs here we sit the Mets they did it the Mets blew their opportunity and I'm so thankful that at least somebody capitalized on it congrats to the Cincinnati Reds uh even though I hate you for making the postseason and making the Mets fan base miserable. Shout out to my friend Tim, who used to work at ESPN, who I know is just lost today. And I couldn't be happier about how sad he is right now.

The only people that have it worse than us possibly. No, you're absolutely right. Because again, that is a team that did not, does not have the excuses that the Diamondbacks have. Right. And that is something that is absolutely true here. And I hate to say it. I hate to call it excuses. But there are a lot of factors in this Diamondback season.

And I think at the end of the day, nobody expected this team to actually be a few games out from the wildcard spot, a few games out from the postseason as they were when the season ended. But again, the big news here is that Toy Lavallo will be back for the 2026 season. This isn't a contract extension. This is just merely the rumors based on actions based on, you know, articles, rumors that were flying around toi LaVolo based on the way this season has gone. It's found himself on the warm seat, not in the hot seat. Though with many fans, especially many of you here in the chat, he's been on the hot seat all season long, and I know this is very disappointing to some of you.

I will say this is that, and hopefully this makes it make a little bit of sense. We all know that 2026 is going to be a disaster for this team, at least to start the year. also we all know that there might not even be baseball in 2027 i might just be up here doing like a late night talk show bit or an hour every single day when there's no baseball in 2027 who knows what's going to be going on i hope uh for both personal reasons and for the good of society and baseball fans everywhere that we figure out a way to avoid that horrible horrible situation but you know here we sit dodgers fault Yeah, 2027 would essentially be the end of the Tori Lubello's time with this team and the Diamondbacks would need to find a new manager, right? So it just feels like it would be a little bit of a struggle for a new manager to start the season with the situation the Diamondbacks might find them in personnel-wise to start 2026.

I also think that, and I'll be brave enough to say it with so many of you getting ready to be mad at me and scream at me in the chat. but I think Tori did a fine job. Was he perfect? Absolutely not. And I feel like Damon and I aptly criticized him when he was wrong, when he did things to not manage this team well, right? However, there's also some very interesting things that have come out in the last few days, including from our guy, Jack Summers, who did some excellent reporting over there in San Diego,

talking to Tori after the game won loss to the Padres on Friday night. Tori had some interesting comments. about, you know, managing this team. And it just led to some speculation about how much control does Tori Lavello truly have over these decisions being made. And in some cases, who and who isn't available to him to use out of maybe the bullpen or even in the starting lineup. Tori's quote was this. He says, when it comes to personnel things, when it comes to the finer working dynamics inside of rotations and lineups, yes, I have a seat at the table, but they're open discussions. Is that shocking to anybody? I don't think it is like, that is like, you know, locked in on this baseball team

because I think that only the people that are truly like their whole life's goal is hating Tori Lovolo would tell you that Tori is making these decisions single-handedly without any influence from Mike Hazen and, you know, Adiazores and all those guys in the front office. I also think that the bullpen thing is very interesting because the bullpen is always one of those situations where we wonder, why wasn't someone available? Why wasn't Jalen Beeks available for like this two-week stretch or whatever? Why wasn't so-and-so? We're wondering if there are injuries.

We're wondering if there's other things going on. At times when Tori just in general says guys were down there, guys weren't available. It didn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense considering that they weren't cashed. They weren't spent. But again, there's analytics and things going into it, especially, I think, with the injuries that happened. And see, there is where I felt like Tori Lovolo feel received an unfair amount of criticism. There were a lot of injuries on this team. I mean, hell, fans were blaming Max Esposito. And trust me, I love to blame a guy named Esposito when things go wrong. It's one of

my favorite things. Or Max. Or Max. Yeah, those are my two favorite people to play here in the office when things go all right, right? But again, it felt a little unfair to blame the training staff and to blame Brian Kaplan, who was a pitching coach that was very in tune with biomechanics. That was the first thing we knew about him. Or maybe it is their fault. But I think it's insane for, you know, someone to act like they're speaking from a place of knowledge. Oh, Brian Kaplan's getting all these guys hurt. It's like you don't know the medical side of things at all. And then, and we're going to hear from Ryan Thompson later in the show, Derek.

But he says at one point, like, these were unavoidable injuries. And that's how the Diamondbacks and the players in that locker room feel. But it's a bunch of people on social media that will tell you that they know better. And that's the point is, is that like Tori was to blame for a lot of things overall, I feel like. I mean, at times, managerial decisions in the moment, things that he did. He's not perfect. He's not perfect, right? But like I also said, if you do not, if you do not just for fun, go into a opposing fan-based Twitter, it's a blast, by the way, because you will get to see, oh, Dodgers, Dodgers, we got BC in here saying, go Dodgers.

Those guys want to run Dave Roberts out of town. So it's like even if you're a successful team, people absolutely want the manager. Everyone hates their manager almost. It does feel that way. Jonathan might be on to something. Jonathan said Larkin costs them a lot of games too. And I think that that's very accurate. I think that that's somebody to blame,

especially when you, if you want to really break it down to some very key games being lost in those games, two, three, four games right now being the difference maker between the Diamondbacks making it or not into the playoffs. That's big. Yeah. And I think Tori needs to wear that one. Like he brought in Sean Larkin and entrusted him and made him the third base coach.

And so that can, that's absolutely something that we can say, hey, that's Tori Lobolo's fault and he needs to wear that. And I think he'd tell you that. Very true. But the injuries thing in the bullpen decisions, like, that's all above Tori's head, man. It is. And I mean, again, it might be who to use in certain circumstances or whatever.

But Tori and I will say this, Tori Loblo believes in his guys. And he has a process that sometimes he sticks to where he wants to show belief in guys. And that's the one difference, I think, between him and other managers, I would personally change. I think these guys are all big boys. I think that if your confidence is shaken by your manager removing you from a game, because you weren't pitching well, well, then that's on you. You might not be mentally tough enough to play baseball at this level, right? There has to be an understanding that sometimes you don't have your best stuff

and a manager needs to do whatever he can. I don't think any reliever is going to get upset because you get another reliever up in the bullpen if he lets a base runner get on and start warming up just in case you let things go sideways, right? So like there are decisions like that that feels like it might be, you know, it might be a little too much of a support system for the players, but the players love Tori. That's the one thing that we cannot get twisted here about this situation with Toylovo. I know that a lot of people suggest otherwise.

I have never seen anything contrary to that. I've only heard positive things from the players. I did make a comment the other day about how, you know, you don't really hear from the players about Tori, you know, giving them that big inspiring message that they felt changed the season, in the same way they received the one from Mike Kazin. However, having a GM come into your clubhouse and talk to you is a lot more impactful than the manager who you hear from every single day

who comes out and chats with you in the outfield and knows your family members and talks to you about, you know, other stuff outside of baseball. So, you know, it's surprising. I think it's surprising because we did see this tweet from John Gambodoro, and this led us to believe that we might have some changes on the horizon. Gambo tweeted the Diamondbacks have not finalized a date yet for their end of season review meeting. What I can say is that owner Ken Kendrick is extremely disappointed in the results,

saying I've never been more disappointed in the season than this one because our expectations were so high. I mean, I like the energy. I like the idea that, you know, we're not satisfied with, you know, another lacklust or mediocre season, you know? And I think Ken Kendrick has, as much as people have criticized him over the years and very much rightfully, so in my opinion. Sure. He seems to have turned a new leaf in terms of being serious about this organization.

The World Series run changed Ken Kendrick. And that that is one man who is not to blame, right? That is somebody who in this entire situation, this entire season, I have not heard fans go after Ken Kendrick one time. And I give them kudos for that because I completely agree with that sentiment. This is a team that has continuously come up short as far as spending the kind of money that they needed to spend in order to compete. with the best teams in baseball.

And it is to no fault. It is to no fault of Ken Kendrick that he went out and acquired in the 2024 off season. He acquired the best available starting pitcher on the market and then the 2025 off season, or I guess I'm switching these around, 223 off season, 24 off season,

went out once again and acquired one of the best starting pitchers available on the market, the best available. And not only that, but a guy who they got based on the fact that he just wanted to come to Arizona, not a guy that they had to literally like

you know change their entire financial structure for in order to afford so I give Kendrick and the front office a lot of credit I give Mike Hazen a lot of credit for making the moves they did and I honestly I give Kendrick I give

Hazen credit despite the fact that a lot of fans have been mad at him for the game he had to play in order to find guys to bring in here to patch all of these holes that they had with their relief pitch and starting pitching staff. And again, the only move I've been truly angry about, if I'm being honest, is them designating Neville Chrismat for assignment.

I think that is crap. I think that guy pitched his ass off for this team. And I think he, I don't know in what ways he did not hold value any longer, but I understand they needed to make some moves to bring in some fresh arms for this Padres series, a Padres series where they got swept and decimated by the Padres to end the year. So overall, I just think that this has been a season with some pretty bad luck and some bad injuries to key guys that allowed this team not to proceed. Killer X says that's the only move. Yeah, that's the only move, Killer X.

But we got some sound from the clubhouse here. We got some of the guys discussing Tori Lavolo. Let's let a rip, I think, first. Who we got here first, Damon? The world is your oyster, Derek, except for Brandon Faw. We will have Brandon Fott here in a half second. All right. Well, let's hear from first from our guy, T-time, Ryan Thompson.

This is before we got confirmation. Tori was sticking around. So this was Thompson discussing the idea of Tori Lavello, possibly not being the manager of this team any longer. I love Tori personally. I can't speak for anybody else. I think Tori's an amazing manager. I think he's an amazing leader.

I would go to war for. that man. I think he's an awesome manager. And, you know, I think that when you have a season where it didn't go the way that it planned, there's always stuff that happens. You know, most of the time it's with players. And I'm assuming that that will happen. There'll be a lot of players that are here now that won't be here in spring training. All that's over my head. All I know is I think that we were kind of drew the short-stress. draw with some adversity this year. And we had a lot of injuries that couldn't have been avoided.

It's just how it goes. I think that we, last fall, we really threw all our chips in trying to make playoffs last year and it didn't work out. And sometimes when you do stuff like that, I mean, in 23, we went all the way to the World Series short off season. And then last year we were this close to making playoffs and we were putting it all out there. And so you got guys like Puck and Martinez who are probably just gas from

the season before and it happens with every team all the time. It just is, it's a bummer that we had both of our top dogs go down and what was it, a two-week stretch in between each other. So those guys stay healthy. I think that we're playing postseason baseball. Well, and again, I think when you obviously look at the numbers, some of those injuries had a huge impact and would have had a huge impact on games. And it's hard not to, you know, suggest that the injuries are what they are.

They were devastating to this team, especially considering who they happen to, how often they happen to, and how key pitching is to you winning baseball games, right? And that's really what it comes down to is the injuries to the starting lineup and position players. It was all standard stuff. There was nothing there. I think that that was out of the ordinary for any baseball team. And the Diamondbacks did a good job. Again, a good reason why this team deserves credit, why Tori Lovelos deserves credit,

because this team finished in top five in OPS. and they are still a team that lost a lot of components and found a way to still score a lot of runs, even though, like I said, they got embarrassed here in the final, you know, series of the year against the Padres. But Corbyn Burns was there. He was available getting for the final player media availability,

and he talked about Tori Lobolo, even though he has not had a chance to know him for a very long time. This is what Burns' assessment of Tori as a manager was. Yeah, I mean, this is my first. year with Tori and he was great. Obviously he's signing here in late December or January. I got to know him a little bit before the season started but you know a lot of guys in here have played for them for him either their entire career or a majority of the career so he's a guy that you know a lot of guys respected here as far as you know what

he's done as far as bringing a organization that wasn't really good to you know a World Series contender and a team that should have been a lot better this year than in the record was put out. But, yeah, I mean, sellers of the trend deadline, and he's sought a chance to make the postseason and obviously said something about what he can do with this group. Oh, I'm sorry, where our interviews getting in the way of your box taping, by the way.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Got to give the clubbies a hard time. But again, yeah, I agree with what... I agree with Burns' assessment there. I think it's hard not to be... You know, again, at the very least, the idea here is that Toro Lovolo was not extended. So those of you that might be upset about this, it's not just more of not firing him, considering he has one year left on his contract.

I think that he has a lot to prove in 2026 and doesn't have necessarily the components, you know, to do it with, at least the best components. But we did get good word here from Corbyn Burns. He did provide us with an update on when he will be back and how he's feeling. fact, I don't think we have it in this clip, but Corbyn Burns said they're going to have a hard time keeping him from trying to throw because of how good he feels. So that's a positive about the surgery. Here's what he had to say. Yeah, everything's been good. Kind of just in the workout because everything, pretty much I've lived everything in the weight room again. The other thing I'm not

doing is playing catch. So just got to another, gosh, I guess two months now of strength. And then should start throwing basically the end of November early December Should put me on track for all-star break for sometime next year so Everything's been good feeling strong so just do my kid Hey killer X, I'm gonna let you stay in the chat but you can comment down with spamming the chat You might say a lot you you you might joke about the lot to prove but Does he not? I mean again if there if if next season goes any way like this season, which is already kind of destined to with the way that they have the injury

shortcomings to start the year, then, I mean, there's no reason for Tori Lavello to be extended or be a manager past next season. I think if Tori takes those pieces that they're given and somehow finds a way to win like they did after the trade deadline here, then, you know, that's a whole different story. But who knows regardless of how next season goes, if Tori Lavello, will be a part of this franchise beyond 2026. But I do want Killer X to stay here, though, because I need him here being just insanely unhinged for the whole episode. We also heard from Brandon Fott.

First, Brandon Fott did get asked how it felt out there today. You know, just for fun. Here's what Fott had to say in regards to that question. How did you feel out there today? It's all great this one. It was weird this morning, not having to do anything. So that's new. Something left to get, but I felt good.

Felt good waking up. Arm felt good, so that's good. Arm felt good. On a day like this, it was good to laugh a little bit, even though, again, when we talked to Fott, we didn't know about the future of Tory Lavello. And Brandon Fott gave his thoughts on his manager and the possibility of Tory Lavello.

not being here any longer. This is what Fott had to say. I think he's a, he's a players coach. He's always, like, for instance, he's always out there in VP, chit-chat and trying to make small talk and make that connection with his players. And ever since I debuted in 23, he's done that, and he's gone above and beyond for us. It starts to get gross.

You don't get gross. But, again, Brandon Fott, you know, again, there's a lot of love for Tori Lovelo, and I think the one thing that you heard time and time again from players is how much the players are fans of Tori Lobello, right? They like him as a manager. I don't know if any player is going to openly, you know, bag on their manager either in this particular scenario. I just don't think we've ever really heard that in general. I felt like at times this season, there were players voicing their opinion about Sean Larkin and other things going on, but I don't don't necessarily feel like it was directed towards Tori LaBolo.

We do have Zach Allen, who was clearing out his locker, potentially, for the last time, as an Arizona Diamondback. Here's what he had to say about Tori LaBolo. This was us breaking the news to him that Tori was coming back for 2026. I just heard about that. So you guys broke the news to me. But, yeah, that's great for Tori. I love playing for Tori for the last seven years.

I think he does a really good job. But I think a lot of people outside of this space and this world of baseball don't understand is what it is to be a manager. And it's not always the ex and those. There's a lot of managing personalities. There's a lot of managing the things that people don't necessarily see are taken to behind the scenes. And I think Tori does a really good job of that.

Obviously, the last two years haven't gone the way that we've intended. But for me, Tori is the person that had my vote of confidence to be back and manage the team next year. So I'm happy for him. I think it's going to be great. You know, hopefully he gets a team next year that's somewhat healthy. and, you know, it's able to be able to show the naysayers and baseball wrong and his capabilities of, you know, being a manager. I don't love that.

Like, hope he has a team next year. Yeah, they didn't love that. They're going to be really good with Tori. They. Well, Zach was asked about coming back to Arizona, and he gave his answer about his roots being here. This is what Zach had to say. I've said this before. I mean, I love playing here.

Kind of laid down roofs here. So for me, you know, if I had the opportunity to come back, yeah, of course, I would love to, you know, be a part of this organization. But I have to see what the future holds. And, you know, sometimes that's not always in the cards. So we'll see. It's going to be a really interesting thing to see what happens with Zach Gallen. I know that overall Gallen has, you know, had a pretty terrible season, you know, And he was asked there a lot about how he performed after the trade deadline and basically raising his stock before he became a free agent. And Gallen seemed fairly honest about saying that that's not at all what he was playing for. It had nothing to do with a new contract and that he was simply playing to try to play relevant baseball games here late in the season.

And he got the Diamondbacks to that point because he was excellent. He was not excellent in his final start of the year. and that whole situation got messy with the team pushing Gowan back to Friday's game in game one against the Padres, where he gave up four and a third in five earned runs and four and a third innings pitched. He was not the gallon that we have typically seen in big games this year, nor was he the gallon that Diamondbacks needed to help them stay in the playoffs. Instead, they were eliminated after that game. And honestly, they would have been eliminated regardless because of how those final series

played out, but they did not have a good showing here in the final series of the year. Let's take a look at the count. The final count of 2025 presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks got out scored in this one 24 to 9. Damon, what's going on with the Padres with the Friars feet there? Are they, did you? No free feet picks, Derek. Oh, my God.

All right. Well, all right. The fryer made it very clear to me that he will come after us with legal action. He's a creep. He's an absolute creep. He's got to do what he has to do to make ends meet, Derek. San Diego is not a cheap place to live. And if he has to start a little subscription service,

maybe that's what he has to do. I'm not going to subscribe to the friar's only fans just so we can put the full logo on here. We'll just remove him all together. He did tell he said $5 a month. Oh, God. He's so gross. He's such a creep. Diamondbacks got beat up in this series.

They get swept outscored 24 to 9. Padres had five home runs. It felt like a million to the Diamondbacks four. This was the ridiculously telling stat. This made me want to scream into a pillow. Derek, I couldn't believe it when I put it together this point. Oh, for 22 with runners in scoring position. What a slap in the face.

Oh, for 22 with runners in scoring position. Oh, for six in game one. Oh, for five. in game two and then 0.411 on Sunday. Uh, starting pitching ERA atrocious. 10.68 for the Diamondbacks, 2.70 here for the Padres. Bullpen ERA, also very bad. Uh, not good here.

Uh, the Diamondbacks 4.65 bullpen ERA. Padres 3.29. And yeah, that's it. The lay down in diamond backs. The lay down and. diamondbacks there at the end. I thought we weren't even going to get what we got. We got a Cotel Marte home run there to give him 28.

But more importantly, we got Geraldo Perdomo to 100 RBI's, 20 home runs, 25 stolen bases. First time in team history that's been accomplished. And also, he becomes, I believe, once again,

the seventh or eighth shortstop in MLB history to put up those numbers. So congrats to Heraldo Perdomo. Someone put in the chat here, Derek, that he's the first shortstop, I believe, since Barry Larkin's MVP winning season to have an OPS plus of over 135 and have more walks than strikeouts. That's crazy. Isn't that an unbelievable stat? Well, he's an unbelievable player.

The maturation of Geraldo Prado Prado has been incredible to watch. And he is truly the one guy I'm disappointed that we didn't get a chance to speak to today, quite frankly, if I'm being honest. Yeah, Jacob Bert here, the last shortstop to hit with an OPS plus. of 135 while also having more walks and strikeouts is Barry Larkin in 1996. That's crazy. Was that the MVP season? I'm not sure.

I don't know baseball like that. He won the 1995 that L MVP award. Well, overall, again, this team, a lot of positives about this team, a lot of negatives as well. More importantly, a lot of pieces that were lost at the trade deadline and more pieces

that will be lost, presumably, a free agency after this season. So a lot for the Diamondbacks to do. But one Ryan Nelson is, or excuse me, not Ryan Nelson, one Ryan Thompson, T-Time. He's very interested in not only watching pro wrestling with me during the off season, but he's interested in running it back. This is what Ryan Thompson had to say about that. You know, I personally would love a chance to run this back with everybody.

And personnel is not the issue, in my opinion. but again, I'm just a player on this team. But, yeah, that's part of it that's so disappointing is that we were capable. It's not like we had a hand-tied on our back, but we were capable, and that's what's a bummer. You know, we lose certain assets and players. We lost so many X-Runing games.

We lost so many close games, stuff that could have just one little thing to change some of those games early on in the season. So I think sometimes just not overreacting, taking the deep breath, and trying to evaluate where we're at is possibly not as bad as it seems. It just sucks because we wanted the one-on-world series this year and we didn't make playoffs. That's why it sucks so bad. You know, it seems like, oh, my gosh, there's something hugely wrong. And maybe there is, but I don't feel that way.

I feel like we run this thing back. We're going to be really happy. next year when we play after we play 162 so that's another guy that honestly has been a great representative of the diamondbacks process at least the positives right he was a castaway from a Tampa Bay raised team where he honestly was not that awful at all he had two bad games that ballooned his IRA and they they cut ties with him he ends up on the diamond backs he was incredible in that twenty twenty three season he's had his ups and down since he's been here but it's amazing how quickly he transformed into being like a veteran leader in that bullpen that quickly changed

throughout the season. And again, I saw him, much like I saw with Geraldo Perdomo leading, you know, like just being a leader out there, not really trying to be, I don't know, the, the upper classmen, if you will, but just trying to, in general, you know, go out there and keep this bullpen together as a group, right? he compared them to kickers he's like no one talks to the bullpen until they blow the game and then everybody wants to talk about him right so he always appreciated again like he said with tory the you know the fact that he comes out he chats with them he knows those guys and it's a big

reason why tori lovolo is staying is in favor or a lot of these guys are in favor of tori lobello's saying right but alice i kind of agree here with alice lees lees says please no run it back with an outfield to Jake, Alec, and Brose are getting regular bats in outside of Corbin. After the Luritus injury, outfield production was a black hole. She's 100% right. She's 100% right. Alec and Jake did themselves zero favors throughout the course of this 2025 season. They were, I think, the two most disappointing players.

Like injuries aside, obviously the injuries, you can't help that. Like, Gabby getting hurt. I mean, it seems like that's just something the Diamondbacks are going to have to deal with consistently. Yeah. Alec and Jake are just opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, after opportunity. and just black holes, like Elise says on offense. I agree. Well, we are going to have so much more about this topic.

We will have final media availability with Tori Lavello and Mike Hazen this week. It will happen either Tuesday or Wednesday. So we will bring you more. We are going to have a post-game show tomorrow after round one of the wild card, or at least the first games of the wild card. So make sure to join us tomorrow night for that. Jesse Friedman will be joining us as well so we can discuss the first slate of games and overall our thoughts on this postseason.

We're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to hear a little bit more from Corbyn Burns, and we're also going to start answering your guys' mailbag Monday questions. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time on Back Show. Well, see, today is a day where Pure Edibles variety is perfect for the reaction from our audience. Some of you are happy. Some of you are upset, and Pure Edibles probably has a candy for you.

They have a wide variety of candies, not just gummies. They have hard candies, choose, soft candies. They also have their kicks, which are like Starburst. They also offer a wide variety of effects, including an uplifting effect that our guide killer X might be right now. Or, you know, maybe something to chill you out. That also could help as well. Those effects are clearly listed on each tin. They also have a collaboration with our friends at Mother Road Brewery, which is the finest brewery and all the land.

And they make the finest beer, Tower Station IPA, which is now available in an all-in-one form for Hoppy Hour. This new offering captures the crisp citrus and piney hops. of Arizona's favorite IPA, and it offers not just, uh, not just, uh, any kind of, uh, high. It offers a good tasting high whenever you want it. If you're in Arizona, there are select dispensaries where you can grab your tower station all in one from Noble Road. Cheers to Hoppy hour all day, every day. Go find yourself some pure edible products from one of over 130 dispensaries across Arizona.

Uh, and Damon, I know it's, uh, 107 p.m. But also, what time is it, Damon? Always game time. It's always game time. especially when you forgot that there's an event going on and you want to save on last minute ticket deals. I am pretty much a pro at that. I forget that things are going on. Or more importantly, I tell myself, I lie to myself.

I'm like, I don't want to go to the Cardinals game on Sunday. All of that traffic and the tailgating mess and all of that. And then Sunday comes along and I've never had more FOMO than I ever have in my entire life than watching the 10 a.m. games and realizing I'm missing out on football this afternoon. So I quickly change my mind. I go to game time. I get myself a cheap ticket. And I go immediately call my friends that are already tailgating and go crash their party.

And you can do all of that too with game time. Of course, you can save on last minute ticket deals. They make buying them easier than ever with their game time picks, which will highlight some of the best tickets on the best deals that you can find in the arena in the stadium. They also have your purchase covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game. Time download the game time app today create an account and use code P HNX for $20 off your first order again terms to apply create an account and redeem code P HNX for

$20 off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guarantee Damon what time is it game time let's go baby well it's also Monday as you guys know and we do that thing that we do every Monday but before we get to the mailbag I did want to play a little bit from our guy Corbyn Burns who it was just great to see Corbyn Burns in the clubhouse. I mean, as we've talked about before, he's been a very big supporter of the team. He's been valuable even in his injury, obviously linking the Diamondbacks up with James McCann and the huge impact that McCann has had on the pitching staff in this team is immeasurable,

right? So he gave his assessment of the pitching staff, and this is what Burns had to say. Yeah, I mean, they feel them all well. Obviously, we had some guys scoffing early. and Nellie, I think, coming in there, salvaged a lot of the season that we were kind of struggling to get good innings out of the rotation. Nellie getting an opportunity to really take it and run

and knew that he was going to be in there every five days. I think it was awesome for him, awesome for us in future years, just to get him to get that experience of being a big league starter every five days for, I don't know, making 20 plus starts, whatever it was. But it was awesome for him. Good to see Yeron come back.

and have a good second half. I know Gallons struggled early. He threw great after the second half. So it's one of those things that the timing of it wasn't great for the injuries. But some guys got some opportunities. Some guys had a good second halfs. And I think the starting rotation of throwing better helped to give us a chance to make it a little bit interesting here. How do you have an injury and you can't do a whole lot?

How do you keep from going crazy? Any new hobbies? I got three kids. When I go into rehab, that's my time off. Then when I go home, it's full on, worn out by end of the day because the kids are not necessarily rehab. So, you know, right now, they're slowing down to rehab a little bit at the complex, so I get to do a lot of my stuff at home now.

So now I'll be really exhausted having to take other three kids while I'm well in rehab at home. Just in case you were wondering what Corbyn Mertz has been doing with his time, he's been being a dad. So apparently I guess that that like takes a lot of time or something Derek it's incredible it's incredible honestly I will say this as a dad it's a blessing in disguise right like it sucks that it happened to him but I will tell you that the best piece of advice I ever received was from my friend Jason who told me enjoy every moment enjoy every awful diaper change enjoy every time they refuse to eat food in a high chair because that those moments are fleeting and they pass by in the blink of an eye, especially when you have a child. So, I mean, like I said, to silver-line it, which you guys know I love to do, at least this man got a chance to spend time with his, you know, with his young

children and during a time where he would have been very busy and probably not able to do so. So, but that's been keeping him very busy, obviously. What we do have, though, is what we do here on every Monday. And of course, you know, even when we don't make the playoffs every year is still our year. Every year is the year of the snake. And what a wasted opportunity. Do you know how crazy we would have gone with the year of the snake in the playoff run. That would have been our whole mantra, our whole rally cry. But here we sit, wondering when will the actual year of the snake be once again? Of course, every month on this show is Hispanic Heritage Month.

Every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day because Damon and I recycle. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. By the way, shout out to our guy Megarin. He has been officially, he has officially entered his second children's album for Grammy

consideration. And let me tell you, nobody is better at what he does when it comes to making children's music than Megarand. So fingers crossed for him. And of course, make sure if you get a chance to check out his wonderful children's music, especially if you're a parent, like I was just talking about. It'll help make, I guess, your experience as a parent better because you don't have to listen to some of this terrible, terrible children's music that already exists. But we are ready to go.

Let's take a look in the mailbag, Damon. What do we got? First question comes from the leadoff hitter, Travis Moore, who says, what's a good hot take for the off season? I'll start. Both McCarthy and Thomas are dealt before the season starts. Feedback, supplement, and free agency, and bank on the farm producing towards the end of the year. I feel like it's a little strong to say both Jake McCarthy and Alec Thomas will be dealt, but I don't know, man.

I mean, I wouldn't see both of them still being here next year. Yeah. I could definitely see one of them being dealt. I'm almost certain of it. The only problem is is value. Overall, Alec Thomas's numbers aren't terrible, believe it or not. In fact, for a lot of us that have watched Alec Thomas this year, his numbers are a little bit surprising possibly for you. So I don't know if now is a terrible time to trade Alec Thomas.

I just also still very much like Alec Thomas as a player. I think he's a great player. I think he's still developing. But I know a lot of people. It's hard to give up on a guy like Alec Thomas because like I don't let's be honest. He looks so cool. You're like, man, this guy looks like a freaking baller. Okay, you're right.

I won't lie. He had the big home run for us like that. I think that that's a factor. I saw 2 BMC say it in the chat. like you'll always remember forever the the alec thomas massive home run that it was part of the second best season in diamond backs history probably the most integral play of that entire run yeah and so he gets to wear that forever yeah but it's also like flag in the bank let's never forget that let's never forget him planting the flag i'm getting like emotional thinking about alice not being on this team right it's

like dude but of the two he's the one that definitely has more value as of right now meanwhile jake McCarthy like you guys were talking about in the chat. He ditched the Kurt Engel song and I, like from the first day I heard him use that as walkup music. I was like, baby, what is you doing? What do you even know? Like, are you begging for us? Like, does he know?

I asked him. I asked him and he made a comment to me that was basically like, you know, oh, it was WrestleMania week. I thought it would be fun to use it. And I'm like, but of all songs? You know what that song is. Of all songs is the one that has programmed us. is pro wrestling fans to chant you suck back at you.

And it was, again, apropos, it was very fitting because Jake McCarthy did suck at times this year. It's unfortunate. I think, again, Jake is part of this young group of guys that we all wanted to see, have success and be the future core of this team. I just think that in order for this team to be competitive and in order for this team to truly go out there and try to, you know, make 2026 into something, they're going to have to make some changes.

And those changes go far beyond the pitching, even though I do. you feel like pitching is their main focus and should be their main focus this off season. Should an opportunity present themselves to get value back for Alec Thomas or Jake McCarthy in a way that is truly improves this team? I can't see them passing up on that offer. Plus, again, I've also seen this team go into a different mode. Mike Hazen going to a different mode where it feels like they are very much okay with moving on from players, you know, like I feel like guys get a chance up to a certain point.

point, but there comes a time where the Diamondbacks feel like they need to move on. And that could be the case with either one of these guys. Again, though, it feels like AT has the better value. And I think he's the one that most people would rather see stay as a part of this team. And that's, and none of this is to disrespect either one of these guys, because again, love both of these guys and what they've done for this team. And as people, they're great people. I'm always going to have that conflict. Because again, being in the clubhouse today and getting R. K.K.O. by Ryan Thompson, makes me feel differently about guys. And I think that that is something that is different between, you know,

is different for us as fans. I feel the way that many of you feel at times about a lot of this stuff, but then also knowing them as people always kind of makes it a little bit more difficult, right? And we've seen these guys be a part of this team for a while. I just think that, you know, the team can't take that same look that I do, right? The team can't be nostalgic or, you know, can't have that. connection to these players. They have to make these tough decisions. And they've made those tough decisions this year in every effort to get better and improve this team to make the playoffs.

Until Elis's point, that's like one in this discussion here. But I think Alec provides at least good defense. Great defense. And like he's, Alex's not the fastest actually for a center fielder, but he's not a bad base runner. Whereas I think Jake is a consistently bad fielder, a consistently bad base runner and makes far too many. mental mistakes that crush this team. He's talented. He's fast and he's talented and he tries to overcome some of that with that and it doesn't work out, right?

He's just such a streaky player. It feels like when things are going right for Jake McCarthy, everything's going right. And when things are going wrong, everything is going wrong. And to 2 BMC's point, like he has shown in the past that he can give you good seasons and good output. But the problem is is trusting and putting so much resources into a guy, so many at bats into a guy that out of every other season is just a black hole. And you're just like, man, like,

he's killing you for a whole year. But it's an interesting discussion. We're going to be talking about Alec and Jake, I'm sure, all offseason long. But she's, she's right, man. I mean, you had a chance to strike. And I think we had the same discussion last year about who that they were going to maybe trade and try to get some value for and they didn't end up moving either guys. So now they're in a position where Jake's value probably, I mean, I'm not going to say there's times where it has been lower, but this isn't a great time. to trade Jake. I don't feel like. We'll see, though. We'll see what happens this off season. I do think changes are looming, and I do think that those changes are going to involve making some big trades. What else we got?

Was it this one? Yes. We talked about that one for a minute, so I wasn't quite sure. But going into this next question, we got Geraldo Perdom's biggest fan, which debatable, says, do you think there will be any surprising or shocking trades in the off season? Or what do you think will be moves that are made? I know I've heard whispers of people thinking, Marte will be traded. Thoughts? I think Marte is going to be an offseason topic for sure. We riot. We absolutely right. It would be, I'll say, we might burn Chasefield to the ground. Depending on what the return is for him, the return is not going to be big enough for Cotel Marte. And the one thing about Marte is that his contract is still so team friendly compared to what you're getting for Marte. I don't agree with a lot of the criticism that's been thrown his way, but I always, also think that, again, there were, there's been a lot of things about Marte and the, the things

written about him, the accusations from apparent teammates, feels like it tracks sometimes with some of the ways that we feel about Catele. Overall, though, he's an incredible baseball player. And to trade him away just for him to go do what he's doing for this team elsewhere would be a travesty. I think that they did, Mike Azen once did a great job of locking him in. Catelle has expressed wanting to be a diamond back for the rest of his career. And quite frankly, I think that that's something that we should make happen.

I feel like the criticisms of Cotel Marte were stupid. I really do. I understand. I understand the criticisms. I understand how people feel about him. And I'm not saying anybody that feels a certain way about it is stupid for feeling that way. I just think that, again, Cotel Marte has reached a superstar level with this team that unfortunately lends to, certain, you know, certain, I guess, privileges, right?

Overall here, though, I do feel like this situation was a big wake-up call for Cotel, and I personally love the way he responded, maybe not putting up the best numbers after all of that went down, because that's certainly not the case. I'll just say that I love the way he responded in his actions and the way that he has interacted with his teammates and fans and his apology. I think everything that Cattel has done since then, aside for him, from playing really good baseball has been very satisfactory for me as far as responding to those criticisms that he received.

I don't think that this is going to result in him being traded. And I think that, again, a lot of this is just rumors and, you know, people connecting the dots. I don't know how much weight there is to this speculation overall. I could be completely wrong and I know it's going to continue to be a topic this off season. We will explore it on the show. we will explore what those, you know, trades could potentially look like. But I, my, my feeling on it is it's stupid. Cotel Marte is an elite baseball player who is on an extremely friendly team contract

compared to what other baseball teams are playing for a performance level, similar to Cotel Marte, who was, you know, a potential MVP candidate before, you know, Garrett Stubbs purposefully took him out in a baseball game last season. So let's not forget about that. And I'm glad Damon wasn't listening to me during that part because that would have been bad. All right, Damon, we go well else we got. Next question here comes from Brian Woody, who asks, after all the drama a couple months ago, do you think Ketel will get moved?

Funny enough, this coincided exactly. Yeah. And again, no, no, I don't. I don't think Ketel will get moved. No. I really don't think that that's going to be what the result is here. I think that they'll listen to offers, obviously, like Mike has said out loud. that he will listen to offers on anybody.

You have to. Yeah. If the pirates call up, you're like, what? And they're like, oh, we're schemes? Oh, no, not schemes. Okay. All right. Well, have a good one.

Click. Thanks. I'll save me a parogi or something. I don't know. I'm trying to be regional. All right. What else we got? Next question here comes from our guy, Mark, who asks,

rank these positions based on how urgently they need to be addressed by the front office this off season. This is a great question. All right. So let's take a look. at what we got here. I'm going to go ahead and put starting pitching number one priority by far. I don't want to act like the bullpen has fixed itself, but I think, though, actually. Like I'm out. Yes. I, but here's where I'll disagree with you, Derek. I think they have

four pitchers locked into the rotation already. Who? Well, I guess maybe not four, three. It's, it's Erod. It's Ryan Nelson. It's Brandon five for sure. And then I think after that you, you either, you know, offer Zach the qualifying offer. I've heard personally from my sauces that Merrill Kelly is someone that they are very much trying to pursue in bringing back this off season. So I'm expecting one of Zach or Merrill to be back. I'm expecting the other three guys that I named to be in the rotation. And then that leaves one spot, which I think is kind of makes it not that drastic of a

difference. No, I completely disagree. Because you're just assuming Merrill Kelly is returning. And that's the problem is that there are two rotation spots. Like, to be honest, they could go out there with the bullpen they have right now and be fine. I'm not going to like it. I'm not going to like it. I'm not even going to love it.

I'm not going to love it. I'm not going to like it. I'm not even going to be really thrilled about it. But I'm saying, I'm saying, they literally have the arms. They have the arms. They have a lot of young arms. And a lot of those arms are going to be valuable pieces moving forward. I love Brandon Garcia.

I think he's a guy that's a dude. That's a guy and a dude, right? And so there are some guys there. I don't feel like that's as big of a need as figuring. out who you're going to do what you're going to do with your two final starting rotation spots. It needs to be addressed, whereas the bullpen, I feel like they could put together with the pieces that they have. Again, not a good bullpen.

And I'm not suggesting that they don't need to upgrade it. That's why I still would put relief pitching up there. But I have a hard time not putting even first base above the bullpen because are they really going to run Tyler Locklear out there with no depth. No depth behind him. I mean, like, that's again... First face is a disaster. Right.

Gabriel, I wasn't saying that both are coming back. I was saying that I think one of them will be back on the rotation next year and that one will likely be gone. That's, I'm thinking that I think there's four spots that are on the rotation essentially filled up. I don't think they can afford both of them, but I think they can afford one of them. You're right. But again, that's still assuming because they actually don't, right? Like, they actually don't for right now. But I...

Here's a... And this is just all, like, for argument's sake. this is not, I'm not like mad at you or anything, Derek. But the, but the, uh, I, you look at the bullpen and it's like, what are we looking at there? I mean, I know you say Brandon Garcia, but a bullpen is made up of what, eight guys? Like, John Curtis is a top three arm in this bullpen as currently constituted. I am not saying it's a good situation, right? It's like, the starting rotation is at least more than halfway full, three out of five spots, 60% any way you look at it.

The bullpen is absolutely not at 60% full, in my opinion. That's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, they have a lot of empty spots on this roster that need to be addressed. Like you look at this. It's hard to even compare because they, you really have to fix every one of these positions. Okay. So if I could be honest, like I would almost put relief pitching in first base both at second, like tied for second.

I still think starting pitching in my opinion is the biggest priority. Same thing with the outfield. I put left field and center field both as kind of a tie like it sucks. But I do think they have options there. And I also think that they have a pretty good couple of options at third base. It's still young guys. It's still Blaise Alexander. It's still Jordan Lawler.

And I know people don't love that. But if you want Jordan Lawler to work out, Jordan Lawler needs to have regular everyday reps at third base. And he needs to be allowed. You need to leave him alone. And he needs to be allowed to figure things out. Right. So that's kind of part of it.

And then if he doesn't figure things out, then maybe it would be great to have a veteran third baseman over there that could be not only share time, but back up and also be a veteran presence. And I think bringing James McCann back is all. also really big, really big. So if I'm ranking them and mine's pretty close to RA's here, I think I'd go relief pitching, starting pitching, left field, first base, third base center field.

Left field over first base. Yeah. Because I, and honestly, as much as I am a Phaven hater and that is very clear, everyone knows that. You have an agenda. I think Paveen and Locklear is at least like, I don't know. Maybe that's not fair to Jake. and just because he's been inconsistent.

But I'd almost rather that be the first base platoon and you get like an actually like above average hitting outfielder than then vice versa. Yeah. And you still have Jake starting in left field. But maybe that's maybe that's wrong. Well, speaking of Jake, big Jake's going to hate us because we still have so much more to talk about. Not a lot of time.

So I'm going to go to a quick break and we'll be right back to discuss more of your mailbag Monday questions. Don't you go anywhere? Nobody does it better than Heal of River Resorts and casinos. me and Damon are big experts on that. We have had some great nights out there, including at the roulette table, which, again, is a great time for you to go out,

spend a fun night out on the town with their over 4,500 slots and live table games. You can also book yourself a staycation and let relaxation take charge at one of their two AAA Diamond Resorts. Don't miss out on a chance to go out to do a staycation here in town. Traveling is overrated,

but staying in a hotel is very much not. You can go hang out by the pool, get yourself a frosty, beverage. Have yourself a great evening. Check out their sports book that they have and so much more. You do you at Heela Resorts and Casinos. Visit play atheela.com for more details. And of course, big shout out to Desert Financial Credit Union for always keeping our numbers straight. Also, I have to give them a shout out as I always do for getting me started on my home ownership journey. I don't know what I would be doing without my home, but I'll tell you, I would

not be happy. And I appreciate them. They can get you started on your journey as well, depending on whatever you're trying to do financially. So do not miss out on all of the services they offer over there. Also, if you're an Arizona sports fan, there's no better place to do your banking than Desert Financial Credit Union. It's the only place you can show your team's spirit every time you make a purchase with exclusive debit cards branded with your favorite teams, including the Cardinals, the Sun Devils, and those lumberjacks up there in NAU. So join a credit union that is committed to giving back to the community and sharing success with their members. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started

by visiting Desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. Also, a big shout out to to our supporters club members. Bees, good to see you, throwing up the neon cactus, even though nobody won anything today. Maybe Bees is in, maybe Baby Bees is in favor of Toy Loevalo sticking around for 2026. But again, if you want to get cool emojis like that, make sure to join our supporters club right now. Jump in our YouTube page. You can join right there from the page. Helps us out tremendously. You guys get badges and then also you get some cool custom emojis. But we are going to throw it to overtime, or as I like to call it, extra innings right now. but of course if you are watching on your favorite television app or wherever you're watching us

make sure to join us over here for extra innings because of course we got some more questions to ask answer before we get out of here Damon what else do we have there in the mailbag give me one second here Derek I apologize no you're all good I just got to get these questions into our overtime scene I'm asking Damon to do entirely too much that's on me all at one time Damon do this, Damon do that. Damon, wipe the counter. Derek, let's say the snakes part ways with Tori this offseason. Who are your top three replacement candidates?

Oh, I don't love this question at all because we know the answer to this. But I will say that... Hypothetically, who would you have chosen? Well, I think Jeff Bannister was a fine candidate, to be honest. I wouldn't mind not changing things too drastically, and I think Banny could do that. I really like Banny overall. I think he's a great baseball mind, and I feel like Tory confers with Bannister quite a bit because of the amount of knowledge that he's had.

He's a former manager himself, so I don't hate that. I also have been talking a bit about Skip Schumacher, former manager of the Miami Marlins. I felt like he was kind of a good baseball manager that didn't really give, given a great opportunity or fair chance there with what he did. And Bob Melvin was let go today by the San Francisco Giants. So honestly, I don't hate the idea of bringing Bowmel back,

but if people don't want to go in that direction, I also still very much love David Ross as a manager, former manager of the Chicago Cubs. Did you see that play in the Giants game the other night where Jung Hu Lee threw the baseball with a runner on base into the stands? The comments I saw from Giants fans were Bob Melvin really has this team locked in to end this season. But yeah, I don't really honestly even know.

I think a baseball manager is such a, it's such a difficult thing to even know. know what they're truly influencing on a game by game basis. And especially hearing this stuff that we heard from Tori recently, it makes me wonder how much control the manager of the Diamondbacks is going to have versus maybe other franchises and how much a manager wants to put up with that kind of being told what his lineups are going to be and what everything. Maybe that's common in baseball. I think, I think that is the,

maybe we're acting like this is, you know, uncommon. I think that's, I think there's very few managers that don't operate in that regard these days, in my opinion. But I guess we wouldn't truly know that unless we like, quizzed baseball GMs and presidents. And like I've heard Tori make these comments before in passing, but this one was very much about, you know,

his lineup and, you know, construction and such for a game-by-game basis. And I think that even, even I found it to be just a bit surprising to hear him say, you know, that this was kind of decided at a different level. But all right, what else we got? Next question here comes from, oh, that was the one we just answered. We got Tron, who asks, what is the future of the outfield should McCarthy and Thomas get traded for pitching his off season? What and should we expect Waldschmidt to make his debut? Oh, I love myself some waldi, Ryan Walschmidt. I would not be

surprised to see Ryan Walshmit make his debut in 2026, if I'm being honest. I think that there is a couple of guys, including Tommy Troy, that have kind of cruised through the system. I just don't know where Tommy Troy would play. Ryan Walshman, it's a little bit different. I mean, he's a guy that could solve a lot of the Diamondbacks problems. We already addressed the stuff with Alec and Jake. But yeah, I do think that there's a chance that they could get moved. I think that a bullpen arm in return would be a pretty fair return, you know, especially considering the years of control that those guys have left under them. So I would not be surprised to see that.

But I would be less surprised to see Ryan Walshmidt in a Diamondbacked uniform in 2026. He has been incredible. There's a couple of guys that have just been really good. But yet Michael Dixon brings up Drew Jones. Drew Jones has kind of turned things around as well. I think he got things back on track at least. I just don't, I'm a little bit doubtful of seeing Drew Jones in 2026. Oh, he's still such a long ways away.

He's still in high A, is not? Yeah, I believe so. So Walt Schmidt, meanwhile, has been just cruising through the system. And I think, again, he's going to be a guy that has a big impact on Reno Aces games in 2026 and then perhaps even, you know, the main roster. And again, that could be the answer that we're looking for, perhaps, in left field or center field for this team. I will say that, you know, as far as Drew Jones, he is still 21.

There is still a lot of time for him to figure some things out. And seemingly he starts off every minor league season as slow as to be and then picks it up at the end of the year. Hopefully he can fix that next year. But yeah, in doing my discussion about what is needed on this team, I did like forget to think about Tommy Troy playing outfield, Ryan Walsh Schmidt and how good he's been. I think that that left field spot could potentially be figured out by your farm system. I mean, we always, that's the hope, at least. We always joke about them, you know, drafting five foot tall, you know, speedy, left-headed outfielders.

And they do that. Yeah. Again, there's a chance that that outfield, as Gabriel says there, could be, you know, incredible. Could be incredible. So, all right. What else we got? Next question here comes from basketball and football guy who asks, what are your top five? What if games from this year?

And is this the hardest question that's ever existed? Oh, my God. I don't even know if I could put five together. Let me check the schedule. All right. I got I figured this out, I think. I'm going to start with the most recent one. Then we're going to go to the oldest one and then work our way forward or should we go the

Yeah, let's go most recent. We'll go over the most recent. The loss to the Dodgers and extra ratings in game two. That seemed to be the true end of their season. Yeah, it was. You know, because of the way that they responded to that, the bullpen game the next day. I feel like that loss dictated that that bull game, that bullpen game was played the next day, which was basically just as many people thought a white flag

being waived. I don't truly think that's what it was. I do think that they were trying to give themselves the best chance to win three games in San Diego, and that obviously did not have. This should impossible. Going backwards from there, August 6th, 2025, the Diamondback staged an incredible six-run comeback against the Milwaukee Brewers in the eighth inning, only for the Brewers to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth. And that, honestly, for me, was another game that felt like a true low point when the Diamondbacks were in the middle of coming back, right? This was like that mid, you know, mid, mid, mid point between the end of the trade deadline and the end of the season. And it kind of felt like a lot of the steam was let out. But the Diamondback

back still responded well to that loss. And I don't even know if that one would particularly rank well. It's just one that I think, think of. Um, the rain game against the Cincinnati Reds, Damon, June 6, 2025. Gabby. Uh, the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Gabby gets lost. Uh, they lose four to three because the game, if you remember, the Diamondbacks were up.

And then a torrential downpour started. And then they just let the players play baseball until the Reds tied it so that they could continue playing baseball the next day and the Diamondbacks lose that game to four, uh, four to three. Then they play a double header. and they suffered their worst loss of the entire season. Their biggest deficit loss was a 13 to 1 loss in the second game of the double header against the Reds.

Not only did that really have a huge impact during that stretch, it also had a huge impact here at the end of the season in regards to who held the tiebreaker for that series with the Reds for the Diamondbacks. They did lose a game 14 to 12 to the Colorado Rockies. Yeah. At Colorado? Yep.

No! It wasn't at Colorado. It was at home, and it was on May 17th. They lost the game at Chase Field to the Rockies 14 to 12 after leading that game, 11 to 6. And that is the moment where I was ready to call on May 17th, the time of death after losing that game. That's like when I talked about the magic that's created throughout a season, there is magic that's created throughout a season. That would be the opposite of magic. That would let me know that this team is done.

And all the bad things in the world are going to happen to them and nobody but them. And then last but not least, of course, as many of you have brought up, I believe, in the chat, the Cubs game that they lost, where I was Damon in Las Vegas for WrestleMania, having a great time ready to broadcast live from Circa. And instead, I had to watch the Diamondbacks lose in extra innings to the Cubs 13 to 11, a game that I thought was going to encapsulate the season and just spark a magical run. I had all of this stuff in my notes about that. Oh, it was great. And then, yeah.

To my knowledge, Derek, from my quick research right now, there were three first half games Diamondbacks scored double digit runs in and lost, which is horrifying. It was Cubs, Rockies, Dodgers, lost three games with double digit runs. I don't think you mentioned the fought shutout. Oh, you mean the yes hitter? No, the shutout. The shutout.

Yeah, where they lost the shutout. And the back's losing extras in the final two weeks. And also one that you didn't mention, the Diamondbacks down six to four to the Minnesota twins in the ninth inning. Oh, no. They score four runs to go up eight six and then they lose nine, eight to the twins to lose out on the sweep of the twins in a moment where you needed to sweep the twins. So we could play this game all day. I don't want to play this game. I hate this game.

We can make a top 20 list of the worst devax games in this season. All right. Let's move on. Beez is going to lose it. What else we got? We got our next question from. Haraldo Perdom was biggest fan who asks the second question, again, debatable. Do you all think about the front office changes their mind about cutting payroll after seeing the run we went on in the second half despite injuries and trades?

Well, I do know that at least with the stadium issue being settled, that there has been talked with the Diamondbacks are a little bit more open to keeping the payroll at least similar to what they have. But if this team is going to be competitive next year, they're going to have to spend close to what they spent this year. That's just a fact of the matter, right? So I don't know how they're going to fill those holes. And again, a big part of it could just be, you know, planning for the 2026 season and not maybe signing guys to long-term deals, but perhaps finding guys that are looking for a short-term rebound, similar to what Zach Allen might be seeking,

maybe a three-year deal or less, and just try to bring in some guys here to fill some of those roles without getting too expensive. Mike Hazen has been fairly good about shopping in the bargain bin. But remember, it's so much more difficult to do that during the season than it is during the off season. So let's see what this front office can do, you know, outside of, outside of that. And Elise says we have 46-blown lead losses to choose from in regards to bad games.

Yeah, no, thanks, Elise. Appreciate that. Unreal. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Aber D-Backs and Aver asks, thanks for keeping me company this year, gents. It's appreciated more than you know. And we appreciate you more than you know, brother. And then goes on to say, I've got a couple options for two city D-Backs road trips.

trips in 2026, giants than Mariners in May or Rockies than Padres in September, which would you choose? Ooh, that's really good. I personally would pick the Giants and the Mariners. I like San Francisco quite a bit. I like Seattle quite a bit. So I'm doing this based on geographical locations, you know, but you're not going to go wrong with either one of those road trips.

No. Rockies in Colorado and September is absolutely gorgeous as is San Diego. So I think you'll have a great time no matter where you go. But like I had a full tourist experience, including walking the Golden Gate Bridge when I was in San Francisco. I went to the first place where like, I believe it was Irish coffees were invented and things like that. So I had a great time. Not in Ireland? No, no, those were invented in a little bar.

You just ruined my life. Yeah, we'll have to talk about that after the show. But yeah, no, there is quite a bit of history and fun to be at in San Francisco. And then Seattle's just a really cool city. I really enjoyed Seattle, and I did all the touristy stuff there too as well, including going to the gum wall and the space needle and stuff. Denver, there's a giant horse that's at the airport. Yes. Very ominous.

Horrifying. It's terrifying. There's that to see. That whole airport sucks. And the DMVR bar. So, again, but that's one thing that, that's a knock for me against Denver is the whole airport experience. So I would recommend Trip A for sure. I think Tripe as well, just because I think it's a little bit less common.

You'll have more opportunities to go to Rockies, Padres, back-to-back series, I think. San Francisco, Seattle is a little bit more unique. And you don't get to see DeBax Mariners all the time. So I think seeing Corbyn Carell play in his hometown, that could be pretty cool. Like, I like that whole aspect of things. I say Trip A as well, but Derek, one thing you got to be careful for, San Francisco in May could be a disaster. Could be a disaster.

San Francisco in any month. Yeah. But for some reason, like I went to San Francisco and, I was a kid in June growing up. And there's like a picture with me, like the biggest puffer jacket you've ever seen your life. Oh, yeah. Because for some reason, it's freezing cold in the summer in San Francisco.

Oh, yeah. No, the lift drivers couldn't stop talking about it when we there. They were like, oh, this is like one of the most beautiful days ever. Like, it's 85 and sunny out without a cloud in the sky. It's incredible. So, all right, we got one more, Damon. And then we got to get out of here. We do a more.

Austin rounding us out here today says if DBEX could redo any player transaction from last off season or do it. during the season, which do you think it would be? The biggest in my mind is that they would start the year with a better backup to Gabby besides Herrera. Herrera gets a lot of flack there, but I think Gabby also deserves a little bit of flack based on what we've heard since James McCann joined this team. So, again, I think it really was a bad pairing in the aspect that Gabby is a young catcher and Jose Herrera doesn't bring a tremendous amount of experience to back him up. whereas the pairing with McCann makes a lot more sense, plus his name, sexy man McCann, sexy man Jimmy McCann, aka Big Body James McCann,

is just better for the history and future of the show. But what I will say is that I think that, you know, obviously the biggest regret, and this isn't last season, but it's the Jordan Montgomery signing. Totally. I think that that had a huge impact over the last two years. I think it's been a very looming thing. I think it's caused us to constantly question,

if we'll ever be able to sign a free agent starting pitcher that can actually be good for us again after brady johnson yeah errod as is thinking that corbin burns even like i'm not madison bumgarner man asian bumgarde corman burns was a tremendous addition to this team i'm not going to say that the diamondbacks should regret going and signing corbin burns i still think it was an excellent move you don't know when guys are going to get injured right so there's no way for you to know that and there's no way to forecast that it's not like corbin burns just was bad you know but i was say that I do feel like maybe the Josh Naler trade, that's one for me that I feel like is regrettable. And I say that just because of what we've seen Slade do for the Guardians and considering that the

Diamondbacks needed an arm like that, I would have loved to see his development take place here rather than in Cleveland. And if you don't remember, I believe he threw a no hitter, right? Is that right? He was very close. I don't know if he ended up getting it or not. I remember getting a notification that said Slade is in the eighth inning with a no-hitter and I just was I almost threw my phone I think out my car went out well and again that's the problem when you try to give up on these young guys and then they you know then they go do this uh yeah he did lose the no-hitter uh he he took it into the eighth like you said um but just overall he did have a good year I think that trading slade for a half a season

of josh neler knowing he was on expiring contract knowing that that was a possibility of what you were going to do with him, ended up being a really stupid move. Now, Josh Naylor was incredible for this team, even though there were a lot of weird things with the way people interpreted his attitude and his reactions at times. However, Josh Naylor has been embraced in Seattle, and it's been great to see him have the success there that he had. He's really the only guy that has really performed, I think, at a level that makes you miss him after leaving this team, right? So overall, the Diamondbacks did a good job of making trades at the deadline. I just think that when you look at the sacrifice of Slate Sikoni for those months

of, you know, of, of him, it didn't make a lot of sense. And I think, you know, at the time, we were fine with the move because the Diamondbacks needed a first baseman to replace Christian Walker. And it felt like they had, again, seven starting pictures in their starting rotation that Slade was never going to see the light of day ever again. So made so much sense. And it felt like they gave up nothing for him. Truly. And he like it was an all-star caliber bat that they gave up very little for. Um, I that it makes this question is honestly so tough for me, Derek, because I think that you look at the players that were most disappointing on this roster. And most of them were returning players that you expected to be way better. Like Lordus Guerriel, Zach Galen. That's very true. So it's like,

it's not necessarily the guys that they brought in that were disappointing. It's the guys that we expected to elevate their game and take a step off or stay the same or or any of that stuff. So it's hard to be What transaction sucks, but it's funny, your mind went to the same place mine did when you first read it. Jordan Montgomery, even though it was two years ago, still thinking about Jordan Montgomery. Maybe you could make the case that. Never stop talking about Jordan Montgomery. Didn't they, they re-signed Lourdes last offseason, right? Yeah, Lordus.

Maybe you could make that case because he had a disappointing first half. Got a bad injury in the second half. Like, maybe you're regretting that one a little bit now. Not during the off season, though. Lourdes is on year two of a three-year deal. He's on year two. Yeah, yeah. I didn't remember.

He was a free agent after the World Series. Got you. That's what I couldn't remember. Yeah. So what's sad about Lourdes is he might never ever play for this team again. Like he might not ever come back at least next season from that injury. And I hope that's not the case. But man, I would, you know, again, the Diamondbacks definitely have a big hole to fill there.

But we appreciate you guys hanging with us. Thank you so much. I'm making Damon late to go do the Wildcats podcast. We're all good, brother. It's a big show. I appreciate you guys so much for being here. We will be back tomorrow. like I said with another post game show after the first round of game one for the wild card

make sure to join Damon myself and our guy Jesse Friedman for that until then you can follow us on Twitter I'm at cap underscore kban with the K Damon as a Damon dog with a D-A-W-G at the end and of course we are all Damon's dogs bark bark our show is at pH and X underscore D-backs but as always all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook appreciate you guys hanging with us thank you guys so much for stopping by we will see you tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked in. We appreciate you guys. Have a fun evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you know the future of your manager.