PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Could Randal Grichuk Make His Return to Arizona? Diamondbacks Continue Search for DH Power?

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

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Why do we need to go out for Randall Gritchick when we have Randall Gritchick at home? Today's show we're talking about why Randall Gritchick is the best fit for the Arizona Diamondbacks to fill their right-handed bat D-H spot that they're looking for, so much more, including some tragic news on what is happening to the San Diego Padres. All this on today's show. We're starting in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. Another edition of the PHNXDVACs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHMX. and it's really weird when people call me that in meetings with government officials present.

I am joined by my number two over here, large intimate Kevin Thomas on the ones and twos. What oh? Great to be back. Great to be here with you. You guys had an exciting thing happen with that Wildcats show or thing you do, right? Yeah, my one true point guard love. Well, I guess guard, he's a shooting guard. Caleb Love did his half-court thing.

He did his half-court thing. That was pretty awesome. Great to see all of you guys in here. Ski to you all. I got to give a big happy birthday shout out to the Den Mom of PHNX, the one and only Chris Melton. Happy birthday to you. Thank you so much for inviting us on another trip around the sun with you.

And we appreciate all of the love that you give, not just the show, but everybody in the chat. Everybody appreciates you great. And I look forward to our Alfredo dinner that we're going to have there on Friday. So looking forward to that. Great to see you guys here. Of course, wonderful. time of the year to be here in Arizona, even though it's a little drizzly outside. It's a little rainy. It's beautiful out. And of course, we have spring training coming up right around the corner. I think people are more excited for spring training this year than like I ever remember. I don't know why it is. Everybody's talking to me about going to spring training. Everybody is very hyped for spring training. Kevin, are you going to be out there taking in any games? And is there any particular place that you are going to go watch games at? You know, Derek, I definitely got to go get some spring training in this year.

I'm excited to be out there. You know, it's how many days away, Damon, or not Damon? Derek. Oh, God. See what happens? That was less than two hours ago. Yeah, he does the other show with him. Less than two hours ago.

Now it's Derek and a Damon confusion. They start the same, same letter. I think the same number of letters in the name. Damon would have never made this mistake. David would never made this mistake in a million years. He doesn't have the chance to with Kevin and Derek. It doesn't really sound the same. Yeah, I guess that's a good point.

seven hours, 57 minutes. We look a lot like that. And so there's that. There's the visual confusion between you and I. But yeah, no, I mean, I can't wait for that. Spring training is an amazing time of the year. We got pitchers and catches reporting here very soon. It feels like it's going to be here before we know it.

But the Diamondbacks still have a lot of work to do. Today we're talking about, obviously, Randall Gritchick and the impact he could have in returning to this team as well as we got my rankings on the available options the diamondbacks have at this point for closer. and that includes in-house options. So we're going to talk about that. Of course, we also have some more on the Padres kind of falling apart. Things are falling apart for them internally, at least. And again, it might be a good thing for the Diamondbacks as far as competition, but it isn't a great thing for baseball as a whole what's going on over there in San Diego.

But first, we do have more on Randall Gritchick with reports coming out that the Diamondbacks are interested in pursuing Randall Gritchick. It sounds like Gritchick might be coming back. It sounds like he might be also interested as well. This deal might be done here fairly soon. And it's a very good thing. Obviously, last year, it worked very well. His splits with Jock Peterson. The whole situation the Diamondbacks had at D.H.

was incredible, right? Dynamic duo with him and Jock. But when you take a look at his stats from last year, he was a pretty damn good baseball player. Let's take a look at his stats for 2024. Gritchick slash 291, 348 with a 528 slug. That was good for an 875 OPS. He hit 12 home runs, 46 RBI.

He was an extra base machine. He had a 2.2B war, and this was in 279 plate appearances. So it's a small sample size. In fact, it's so small. If we go to the baseball savant page, if we have that, the baseball savant page was not, he's not eligible. He did not have enough qualified. at bats. But still, very sneaky there. You can see a lot of red, even though it's not actually red.

You can see a lot of pink, I guess you could say there. And it just goes to show how good he was batting last season. He was really, really good against left-handed pitching. We have those stats as well. He hit 319, 386, 528 against left-handers with a 914 OPS, six home runs, 32 RBI. He also had six home runs against right-handed pitching as well. So, I mean, Gritchick, even though his stats definitely, you know, lean towards the split and lean towards him, you know, getting those at bats against left-handed pitching. I think overall he could fill that gap very nicely for what the Arizona Diamondbacks need for DH. He has that versatility where he can play the outfield and still play the outfield fairly well when compared to potentially

some of the other options they could bring in. And I mean, he's, you know, a guy that's already here. He's a guy that's already part of the team. I think he has fit in well. He's a veteran presence of the Diamondbacks don't really have a lot of outside of maybe, you know, Gino. Cattel, I guess, is weird to say, but Cattel's starting to become a veteran presence in the clubhouse. But,

you know, we need them in Longoria. We need a few guys like that that can, you know, continue to help shape these young players as they continue in their careers. And I think Richick is a great candidate for that. But the one thing that is driving me nuts here is, is like, it seems

like there's interest in on both sides. The dimebacks are interested in bringing him back. It sounds like Gritchick obviously is exploring free agency, but there's interest on his part and coming back to Arizona. And the Spot Track projection is two years $6.6 million.

Let's do that this afternoon. Let's sign that. Let's make that happen. I know that's just a projection. And from what we've seen so far, other players are going for much higher than their projected value. But at the same time, it's very much that's a very appealing deal. I mean,

when you take a look at what contracts are, who else is available out there, there's a pretty wide gap when you look at other right-handed bats that the Diamondbacks could pursue. And when I say that, I mean, there's the guys that they're not going to pursue as just like a DH backup,

like Alex Bregman or Pete Alonzo. And then it's, you know, you kind of have down the way a little, maybe like a Harrison Bader or Paul DeJong, again, another couple of guys that could give you, some, you know, versatility, play in the outfield or play, you know, other positions as well.

But Gritchick kind of fits the mold for what the Diamondbacks have. As far as free agent options, things are dwindling. Things are dwindling. AZ Devil Dogg said wasn't his option at $9 million. I think it was for the Diamondbacks. This is what the Spot Track was projecting his contract to be. So again, you can give or take that because that's probably very, very low. But still, I mean, it's the fact that there.

There's, you know, the dwindling options available for both sides, right? For both, you know, for Gritchick, who also has other teams interested. The Royals are rumored to be interested in them as well. Other teams that are kind of looking for a fairly low-cost option. But, yeah, AZ double dogs that he should have picked his option up. Yeah, sometimes it doesn't work out for both sides. I do think that if I'm not mistaken, he had a, he still got paid something from the contract from opting out. But still, man, I mean, he is, last year he was great for this team.

I think he was very, very good. I think he could be even better with more at bats. You know, maybe, maybe I'm looking at it from a glass half full kind of perspective. You could say maybe more at bats would expose him to not have some of these numbers that he had. And that could be very well be the case, especially considering that the majority of his played appearances were against left-handed pitching. But again, there's not a lot of options out there for the Diamondbacks. And I think that's what it's coming down to. I just talked about how excited we are for spring training.

February will be here in just a few days. And once Saturday it's here, what are we got? 12 days until pitchers and catchers report. Obviously, there is more time beyond that and even beyond the start of spring training for the Diamondback skid deal sign and bring someone in. However, you would want to get that deal done, especially, you know, for a guide that you might be bringing in, you know, from a different team sooner than later, right? And especially if you're talking about the fact that the diamondbacks are still

looking for relief pitching, uh, those, those guys, you would like them in here, you know, on the 12th. You would like them in here when pitchers and catchers report. So, uh, it's, it's just a really interesting, uh, idea here that, that the diamond back, I mean, when you look at his numbers, when you look at what the diamond backs have available to them, it really does feel like Gritchick is the best option. So, I don't know. I mean, I, I'd feel like when compared to, to what some of these other guys are going to cost or projected to cost. It does feel like it just makes sense for Gritchick to come back.

However, the Diamondbacks do have other options as well. And of course, things could go in that direction. I think that based on the kind of vague comments we've heard from Mike Hazen, they are still going to get some deals done. And when I say the options are limited, those are merely free agent options. There are a lot of options that are out there available via trade. and just maybe too many to even project at this point. A Groundhog Mama AZ says we really need to move Montgomery.

And see, that's exactly what I'm talking about. You know that the Diamondbacks have a surplus of starting pitching. We also know that before we talked about the surplus of starting pitching, we wanted to see if anybody would be interested in one pre-owned Jordan Montgomery. Now, you know, there was that talk also of them having a surplus of outfielder. So I feel like when we talk about what the Diamondbacks have as options, we're going to talk about their options for relief pitching as well. It's based on free agent options.

There are a couple of options when we talk about closers that or at least one. That's via trade that we don't really think is going to happen, but we're still going to bring up anyway. But the Diamondbacks really, you know, again, time is not on their side at this point. They have some holes to fill that they very much have discussed wanting to fill. And it would feel like a little bit of a, you know, I guess a letdown at this point if they weren't able to go out there and add to this team. However, you know, the Connor says I feel a Monty trade is in the works and it's kind of holding everything else up. It's a great point.

That very well could be the case. It's the Jordan Montgomery trade situation is going to play out in a way that's going to most likely see the Diamondbacks not get the, the, positive side of things. We are going to see the Diamondbacks most likely do this just to shed the Montgomery contract and make that money available to them in free agency. Again, the trade probably isn't going to be the thing that brings the players that they're looking for to the team. And I think that's kind of what Conner's talking about there and versus it just more freeing up the cap space or not cap space, but freeing up the money. There is no cap. Cap space. That's hilarious. Frying up the money for the diamondbacks to go out there and possibly offer maybe you know uh maybe gritchick

that contract maybe someone else maybe you know the closer that they're going after as well but uh i also agree with groundhog mama and hit the like aspect uh and if i get enough likes i will sing happy birthday to chris before the end of this program um and that it's going to be terrible you're going to regret that very much so but what's the what's the like goal derrick for that what's the like goal give the people a goal give me 50 likes um on this episode. I'll keep it. I'll keep it limited.

I don't even know how many people are watching right now. That might be too high. But yeah. She says baseball cap's face. Ha, Caps face. Yeah. No,

it was definitely slipped there. Yeah, I don't know ball for sure. But I do know teal. So I got this rocking teal outfit that everybody, people basically proclaimed me to be a madman to be wearing this. You can't really see it in the shot, but I do have matching pants on as well.

So that's something I needed to show everybody. Like I said, We do have more in regards to the Diamondbacks to talk about here when it comes to their options here in free agency. And that is in regards to their relief pitching options. So we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Of course, don't you guys go anywhere? You are watching the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Well, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary with me as your host.

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Well, I think we're ready to rank my fantasy rankings of the Arizona Diamondbacks back-end relief options because as you know, they have been talking about that. It very much seems like internal candidates are not good enough, Kevin. And I don't like that. I'm not a fan of the idea that internal candidates are not good enough. But what we are going to do is we're going to be. But he is a back-end reliever. He does have closing experience.

He had a 2.45 ERA last year. And as far as I'm concerned, he is S-tier for me. he is S tier keb can you go to the comments yeah people in the chat were saying they couldn't hear you when this scene was was set up today you were you were muted that was a that was a true thing am i am i good now all good now all right people can hear the great gospel from dare that's a true thing well again they might have missed me perhaps saying that i was ranking these people based on vibes yeah they did miss the vibes they did miss the vibes they did based on hard emojis based on love and i went right to carlos Estevez, which again is I think the guy that the Diamondbacks are probably trying to hone in on.

It feels like he is the one that keeps coming up in reports. And again, he is a back end reliever, not exactly a closer, a guy with closing experience and a guy who I think could develop into a great closer for the next team that he's a part of. So as far as I'm concerned for the options, it is, he's a Nesteer. He's an S-tier option for the Diamondbacks for me at this point. Derek, RA brings up a good point in the chat. Can we get a lip reading analysis for the first part of that? Is that something that we should do?

Oh, yeah. We'll break that down. We'll do voices over the top of it. I'll let maybe, you know, Espo get involved. He's good at that. He can do the Nooky Monster voice over me while we're doing it. See, that's content. That's content.

This is why you want me hear more. Let's talk about next. We've got Kenley Jansen. I'm going to be nice here. he had a pretty decent season and again he's a veteran i think he's a guy that still has a lot left in the tank i just don't think he's as appealing uh as some of the other options uh he had a 3.290 r a last year though still pretty good i'm putting him in the b tier that fair what are your thoughts on that kev i mean it sounds fair to me derrick i trust your judgment on you trust yeah you're trusted yeah

i trust the vibes are the vibes are about b tier yeah that's that's that's the vibe i mean he's former Dodger, so maybe C-tier. Yeah, that does doc him some vibes. Yeah, I mean, he cleansed himself by going through Boston. Is that really a cleanse, no, not really, not really. Dave Robertson, David Robertson, excuse me, David Robertson. Again, older guy, unfortunately, I mean, we'll be in the knock older guys, but still had himself a good year, three, ERA.

I would put him right there with Kenley Jansen and in the B tier. I think that's reasonable. again both of those guys are solid options and if the diamondbacks go that route I don't think anybody would be necessarily disappointed again both of those guys have lots of closing experience so there's the difference there between those guys and Carlos Estevez but let's go Craig Kimbril let's get him out of here let's put him in the D tier there's no need to even I don't think anybody real simple real simple it's easy it's that easy 5.33 a 2024 I don't need to discuss him as option. We got Justin Martinez and we got AJ Puck down there and I have them down there for a reason.

Now, I would probably have both of these guys one tier higher if it wasn't for the fact that I feel like Mike Kazin has made it very well known that he doesn't really want an internal candidate. I don't know why he doesn't want an internal candidate. I don't know why he doesn't feel like those guys are ready yet. They have their reasons. They are, you know, again, still developing Justin Martinez and I think AJ Puck is a left-handed weapon that you want to have available at all times instead of just in the ninth inning, right? So I guess it makes sense.

However, I'm throwing that, I'm throwing logic and that sense out the window because again, this is based on vibes. We're going purely on vibes. And I will, I am deducting a tier on Mike Hazen's behalf. I feel like that's the right move to go. So since Mike Hazen is, this is against his wishes, is it's against his his wants i'm going to mark i'm going to move them both down a tier but i'm putting

justin martinez in the b tier in that case uh and i'm putting a j puck in the a tier and i think you know what that really means about how i feel about those guys but uh will do that is that fair i think you're right on the mike hayes and thing just all the information he's told us publicly uh indicates that you're going to have to dock one tier for each of these players because he doesn't view them as the s tier option right he doesn't want that right but again if if it comes down to Craig Kimberl being the option. Do you really want him over one of those guys? Do you really feel like he's more talented and has a better shot at closing games for you just based on his past experience than someone like Justin Martinez who was on a list of like the fastest pitches thrown this season twice, twice?

And not like, oh, for solid. No, we're talking about average. It was his fastball and as sinker, right? I think that was also the one of the fastest pitches thrown in Major League Baseball this season. So I think Justin Martinez is the future. I think Chris says it. J-Mart is the closer of 2026. But, no, I mean, that's where I'm at with that.

Apparently, Groundhog Mama, I don't know who she's disagreeing with, but she often disagrees with me, so I'm not, wouldn't be surprised. Probably disagreeing with Connor, who said, for some respect on the 2023 NLCS MVP, Craig. No, in that case, yes, I agree with Groundhog Mama 100%. hell no we won't we won't be doing that we won't be doing that uh but last we got ryan hellsley a guy who you know very well right oh yeah definitely and this is a guy that i feel like the cardinals have made known that he is not available do you believe them yes i do believe them

i feel like he's the caliber of player that you if you've if you've got him in house you want to keep him in house and i think this is a position that you just need to have a guy like him there uh yeah i think the cardinals are putting him on the no the no fly list where are they at though as far as a team i mean not to accuse you of being a fan of that organization but ouch i'm asking this from a speculative perspective no you're right no i mean where are they at as a team because if you're if you're if you're selling as the cardinals which the cardinals probably should be selling you're losing a lot of talent this off season uh they're not exactly a buy-in team all the way either so i could i could see the point of of of uh ryan hellsley to get assets back that could

help you in three years when you're looking to contend or whatnot. So I think that's fair. I think I am probably just being my native St. Louis and no I get it. I want to let talent go. But I think you're right. They should be selling in order to buy later. Well and I like Cardinals as an organization, they're a very good team at not having to rebuild, right? But it feels like with the loss of Paul Goldschmidt and kind of the direction that they're in right now that they are kind of in that position. I don't know how they get back to a level of prominence. And it feels like in their division the teams around them are just getting better right but uh ryan hellsley again he is very he's he's one of the best players in baseball he's one of the best relievers in baseball he's an s tier guy

there's no way he's not uh the only reason why he wouldn't be an s tier would be his availability right that's the only reason why i would say as far as the option for the diamondbacks as a closer it's it's about what would it cost how much would it cost what would it require in a trade with the Cardinals in order to get him. Where does it come to a point where it's too much, right? Like what names start being included in there? Once a Drew Jones or, you know, some of these other guys, a Jordan Lawler perhaps, maybe starts getting mentioned

or brought up in regards to Ryan Housley. Maybe you guys have pause. I don't know. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the chat, what you would think about Ryan Hesley. And if it's worth it. Chris says, can I offer you Zach Gow? Well, give them Zach Gowlin back.

Remember? They're the ones that drafted him, right? We'll give them, we'll give them one Zach Allen back. Actually, that's interesting. That is interesting. Is that too much? Like, I don't think a trade for Zach Gallen is that out of the question, considering, you know, what we know about the likelihood of him resigning here. However, look who the diamond backs just brought over. And I can't help but wonder what the impact of, you know, Corbyn Burns being here on this team could have. on the chances of bringing Zach Gallen back. I mean, he's not going to resign. It's going to be like a free agency and then you bring him back with the new contract. However, I feel like, you know, what happened here with Corbyn Burns at least makes it more enticing for Gallin to want to come back.

And they're both, you know, obviously Scott Boris guys so that, you know, does make a lot of sense. However, you know, Chris, the birthday girl says, I think Gallin is movable. And if she says that, then that that's pretty much, uh, that's pretty much any. anybody that means we should all be on board i think it he is movable when you think about again the likelihood of him resigning it feels like that's a very low percentage chance but what do we know i mean i would have given the diamond backs less than a zero percent chance of signing corbin burns this offseason honest to god i mean i think even when we discussed it jesse brought it up at one point when we when we discussed it it was not something that we you know we said it in jest but it wasn't

something we actually thought it was like a pipe dream it was like it was like the what's the craziest thing the diamond bags could do kind of situation that might have been the exact context that i think you has jesse like all right what's the rabbit out of a hat move like the just complete magical move that you could make and i think he said corbin burns yeah and it's because corvin burns was the best available starting pitcher on the market and that's that's a fact when you look at ryan hellsley he's one of the best if not the best closer available in baseball right now not available but in baseball, right? So the idea of bringing him to this team is very enticing. And even though the price might be too high, you might find yourself in a position where, you know, you've solidified

every part of your pitching staff. And that's what wins ball games. I mean, I'm sorry, like, especially with the way that offense is in baseball these days, if you can have a rock solid pitching staff, you're going to win a lot of baseball games. And with the direction of some of the other teams, In our division, that might be a little bit easier to do as well here soon. So I'm going to kick dirt on the Padres and their whole situation here coming up because things are getting very nasty, very litigious. And it's kind of sad for a team that was this close to beating the Dodgers in the playoffs last year. So we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere you're watching the PHNX Diamondback show.

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You haven't missed much. Well, you missed a lot of drama, but you haven't missed a lot of moves. In fact, the Padres just signed their first free agent of the off season. bringing back their all-star catcher elias diaz which is a move a lot of teams thought the team was going to make but outside of that the organization has been fairly quiet on moves and very loud on one comes to their internal conflict between the former owner peter sidler who passed away his widow and his brothers and uh there there are reports now that the padraries are shopping around starting pitchers dylan cease and michael king uh with very little activity aside from resigning dyes and and and and

being one of the losing teams in the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, right? So, but it's, it's sad and it's bad for baseball. What's happening with the Padres. You don't know what the effects are going to be because this team was still very good last year and still could be very good in 2025. Their division rival, and as much as, you know, you want to kind of kick a little dirt on their name, like I said earlier, do a little tap dancing on the situation. It's unfortunate.

Like I said, it's bad for baseball. This was a team that rivaled the Dodgers. last year was one of the teams that had the best chance at beating them in the playoffs and was very close to doing so. But, you know, again, like I said, after the passing of their owner, Peter Sidler, the ongoing battle for the team has kind of left things, you know, in shandle or in shambles. Shambles. Thank you.

I installed a chandelier at my house the other day, and that's all I could think of. This is, again, 43-year-old man. But, yeah, yeah. A little flex there, though. That was a little flex. It's not a nice shandle. I mean, I say chandelier. It's just a hanging thing with lights.

It's not. I don't have any hanging things with lights in my own. It's not something you would see in a fancy ballroom scene that Spider-Man would destroy. It's just lights. Calm down. Lights hanging from a chain. But this legal battle is nasty. It's between Siedler's Wittles, Sheel and his brother's Bob and Matt Siedler.

And the allegations are kind of severe. The allegations from. Sheal's side is that the brothers have conspired to sell trust assets to themselves at a lower cost, far below market value, quote, unquote, as they, quote, scheme to solidify their control of the Padres. And it does feel like there is a very much HBO severance-like battle going on here between these two, you know, these two parties. the lawsuit also alleges that there's been multiple racist, profane and hateful communications directed at Sheel in communications by Bob Seidler's wife. And just overall, it's become a situation where, you know, the widow of the former owner and her children are the trustee of this trust and seemingly the rightful, I guess, owners of the team. but they weren't allowed last year in the owner's box, and there's been just a lot of aggressive, you know,

I guess infighting going on right now. And again, this is, Groundhog Mama's right. Sider loved this team, and he'd be rolling in his grave over this. This is a awful situation. It's awful for it to go down like this. And again, like, I feel like this is, when you read it, there's a lot of legal language. There's a lot of talk about who's in control of the trust, who are the trustees, who are the designated trustees.

According to Matt Seidler, he made a statement shared by a spokesperson that said, Peter had a clear estate plan. The plan specifically named three of his nine siblings with whom he had worked with closely for many decades as successor trustees of his trust. And Peter himself prohibited Sheel from ever serving as trustee. So there, again, it's, I'm not here to try to justify or say who's in the right or who's in the wrong, unless when it comes to the racist and profane allegations, I think that kind of speaks for itself as to who's in the wrong there, if that's the case. But I think what just is awful here is that sentiment about how much Peter Sider loved this team and how important all of this was to him. it seems to me as an outsider that they had this all kind of figured out when you talk about trusts and trustees and you know language contracts you know obviously goes beyond wills right so

but plans specifically naming siblings and who is in control of the trust or who are successor trustees of the trust like all of this seems like it would be black and white like it would a very easy decision on who is in control of this team, who is the rightful owner of this team. I don't have that answer, but what I do know is even speaking as a person that does a podcast covering a rival team in the same division, it's unfortunate to see this go in the direction that it's going when they seem to be so close to building something great for the city of San Diego that they've never had, right? That team's never won a World Series, and that team is everything.

That team means everything to the city of San Diego right now as far as a sports franchise goes. That team sells out every single night. And I mean it, right? That team was the biggest threat to the Dodgers in the NL West last season, and they were very close to eliminating them from the playoffs. So again, this whole situation seems to be, you know, bad for baseball as a whole, bad for the Padres and I don't know what's going on. I don't know how much of this conflict is impacting their ability to go out there and sign free agents,

their ability to go out there and make moves to improve this team. But so far, they've been receiving nothing but criticism and F grades across baseball for the moves that they've made so far. And, you know, again, I don't, I really, I have no way to decide who's right or wrong. But again, I think that going back to what I was saying, it's like it's sad that this isn't more clear. Right. And I'm sure that this will be cleared up soon. Other organizations have gone through some, you know, pretty unfortunate situations like this as well. But so the Padres aren't, you know, the Padres aren't the only team that has gone through this.

But, you know, it's also a sports organization that's worth over two billion. billion dollars, right? And that's something that if any single one of us had a right to, we would fight until the end for our stake in something that was worth $2 billion. I don't care if you're his brothers or his spouse or, you know, or his children. Like, it's a lot of money. And it's one of those things that a lot of people in that family care about and, you know, again, want to be, you know, in control of. They want to continue his legacy and it's it's unfortunate that it's kind of getting tarnished right now with all of this fighting you know i was i was just going to interrupt me real quick and say is that even how

you carry on the legacy derrick like that's not how you do that i i know that's not the point you're making but like i i it's it's unfortunate when these things happen and everyone involved is clearly going through some sort of grief related to the situation but also understanding the opportunity that sits in front of them there's a lot of there's a lot of emotion emotion and emotional variables involved and it's unfortunate when um you know material things kind of get in the way of immaterial uh experiences and especially in uh the appreciation of a loved one it's unfortunate well i think when you're talking about his children his widow like it's not only a birthright thing but it's you know it's it's taking on the tradition of their father and you know wanting to

continue that tradition but it's also about like generational wealth you know like we're not just talking about a job we're not just talking about like a lawsuit worth you know a couple hundred thousand dollars we're talking about the control of a sports franchise that's worth over two billion dollars and that that's a game changer for any for any frant or any family like that's that's something you know again that you're right it's it's it sucks when it comes down to it being fighting over money and it does make everything feel very cold and very you know a very very very just greedy, you know, but it's it's a fight worth fighting for when you're talking about not just, not just money, not just being comfortable. We're not just talking about a player

getting an extra $3 million on a contract. We're talking about control of a $2 billion sports franchise. Like you're never having to work again. Your kids likely not having to work. That's like that's exactly the kind of wealth you're talking about. Not just that, but I mean, look at how important sports are becoming. Look at how important sports are in all of our lives. right so it's like it doesn't feel like sports are a stock that could suddenly drop you feel like two billion dollars is a drop in the hat compared to what it's going to be worth you know for their children you know for his children's children and his his grandchildren and his great grandchildren right so but again if if trusts were put in place lawyers were involved documents

were signed notary publics were there stamping stuff and things right like whatever was signed whatever plan was put in place that's legally in place is the plan that's in place. So that's what everybody's going to end up having to follow. And I don't know in what direction this lawsuit against these brothers are going to have. But I mean, I think the most criminal part seems to be the allegations, again, not just the racism and things like that, but the accusation that the brothers are selling themselves trust assets at a far below market value in order for them to seize complete control of the team. So I don't know, man. I mean, it doesn't seem right.

And hopefully they can get it figured out. And hopefully when I say they can get it figured out, they can get figured out, you know, for the correct party and make sure that this team ends up with the people who should be in control of it. Ina Jackson says hopefully they settle it or the ownership or the ownership and no partnership trust that represents his wishes for the best of the team. And I mean, again, that team was was really cruising.

And again, it felt like, you know, what that, what they did, the money they spent to assemble the roster that they did was in an effort for Peter to see this team succeed. You know, and unfortunately, he isn't around, but that's something that they can continue his legacy on and keep this team competitive. And I think that's the part where I'm talking about it being unfortunate. It's only speculation on my part, but it feels like this is obviously impacting the team's ability to go out there and improve their roster and continue competing with the teams in the MLS. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks, the Giants, the Dodgers have all gotten better. The Dodgers significantly better. It's criminal. It's disgusting.

It's gross. It makes me sick. But they've gotten better. The Giants, they've gotten better. In fact, they signed former Arizona Diamondback Jake Lamb to a minor league deal, which we'll talk about. about on the other side of this break. But again, it's a competitive division. It's one of the most competitive divisions in baseball.

Oh, the Rockies, they're also there. They exist. But like, again, the Padres are a team that have really just done nothing but kind of lose some of their most important pieces, including jerks in Profar. And, you know, you kind of left wondering if we're going to see them do anything. For the benefit of the Diamondbacks, let's be honest. it's this is good like this helps considering that the Padres were right there step by step with the Diamondbacks at one point even when the D-backs were having one of their you know best

stretches of the season every time we looked over there was the Padres also winning there were they were there they were again so you know again this is this is kind of like a benefit of baseball thing but for the benefit of the Diamondbacks continue to have your internal strife and continue to let this conflict impact the team it would be nice to not have so many great teams to compete with in the division. I doubt that's the case. I'm sure that this team will use it as motivation in 2025 and they'll just fuel themselves on pure, you know, spite and be even better than they were last year. It wouldn't surprise me one bit, but based on the, you know, pieces that they're shopping around, it remains to be seen what they're going to get in return.

and if the return is going to be more about future assets or future, you know, prospects versus, you know, adding to the team immediately. Michael King was excellent for this team. Dylan Seas is one of the best starters in baseball. So if they're shopping those guys around, it's interesting to see if it's more of a white flag for 2025 than it is an upgrade for that team. So we'll see. We'll see if they make that move. We'll see if those trades happen and what the return is. Like I alluded to earlier, we're going to talk about our old friend, Jake.

Lamb signing a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks on the other side of this break. Again, don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching us right here at the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, it is a cloudy day outside, and you might, this is one of five days in Arizona where you don't need sunglasses, but you know, it's already clearing up and you need yourself a solid pair of sunglasses. So make sure check out our friends at Shady Ray's. Get ready for spring training with quality shades built to last and some amazing polarized lenses as well. Shady raises independent sunglasses company offering a world-class product rated five stars by over 300,000 people. And if you have a favorite style, they probably already have one that matches it.

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with an invite to spring training. The Giants are still looking for kind of a backup infielder there. And, you know, Jake Lamb could be the guy. per John Heyman. He could make a million dollars if he makes it to the majors this season. And again, Jake Lamb was always, I feel like he's like Archie's best friend, right? So by extension, he's like my best friend too. That is how the transitive property works.

Yes. I agree. It's like step best friends. I don't know. I'm very, I feel very close with Jake Lamb. I mean, how do you not appreciate a man that actually brought, or has the name Lamb and brought a lamb into the clubhouse? Like look at that. Look at how cute he is.

That's amazing. Also, they made a bobblehead of this moment, which I own and is very good. But yeah, Jake Lamb, Connor Mormon is not wrong. 2017, Jake Lamb, you will never, ever be forgotten. This man, by the way, hit 59 home runs with an 843 OPS from 2016 to 2017. So Jake can, in fact, rake. And again, best wishes to him. He was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the sixth round of the 2012 MLB.

be draft came up had himself a great little stint and we don't want you to be too good with the giants jake i won't lie but uh we do wish you the best and hope that you can go out there and and really you know have a career back again like uh sometimes it's unfortunate what happens to these guys i think jake was uh was a product of that he he had a substantial amount of injuries and you know unfortunately it held him back it's kind of like our guy archie that you can just tell these guys have so much left in the tank They have so much more that they want to give. But, you know, once these injuries start happening,

it's hard to not only recover from them, but then also still stay in the shape that you need to stay in in order to be a professional baseball player, right? So again, Jake Lamb had a substantial number of injuries. I also asked Jake Lamb, the stupidest question I've ever asked a baseball player in my entire life. It's one of those moments, and I think you guys can all understand this, where like you meant to ask the question in a different way,

but what came out was obviously the stupidest version of the thing you were thinking. Jake Lamb was removed from a game after getting struck by a baseball. And I believe the exact wording of my question was, was there anything you felt you could have done differently to avoid the scenario? Now, that's not exactly what I meant by any stretch of the imagination. But for some reason, that combination of words is what came out of out of my mouth. And I believe Jake smiled and kind of laughed at me and said, move, like out of the way of the ball. Like, I mean, it was not exactly my finest moment.

But kudos to Jake. And again, I hope he has himself, you know, has himself a good minor league career. I hope he rakes and then doesn't come up and hurt the Diamondbacks in any way, shape, or form. don't remember you know the giants have been trying this this is not a new move don't forget they brought nick omette over there if they could have they would have brought carson kelly over they're trying to do everything they can to get as much intel on us as possible they want to know troy lobelo's mindset they want to know what he's thinking at all times uh and it's uh it's i respect the move i respect the move um so anyway uh i also wanted to once again say happy birthday did we get our 50 we didn't get our 50 likes No, no singing. We are 50 likes. Not going to sing. I want to sing.

I want to sing. But I feel like if I do, then I would be disrespecting the nature of the game, right? If they could get eight more likes and get it to 30, how do you feel about that? Not good enough? I mean, I feel, I don't feel great about it. I won't, I won't lie to you. I don't feel great about it. I don't feel like I don't feel like we could have mustered up 50 likes.

But I'm with you, Derek. I understand. It's the off season. and we don't have a lot to talk about. In fact, in planning the show, I very much assume that the Diamondbacks were going to have made a move by now. And this is the...

There is a move that was made, not by the debacks, but Jeff Passon tweeted out like, I don't know, 10 minutes ago that the Cincinnati Reds... We will, we will. The Cincinnati Reds are finalizing a trade to acquire left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers from the San Francisco Giants. Sources tell Passing and...

Who is that? Kylie McDaniel. as well. Okay. Yeah. I don't think the full terms are out, but 34-year-old Rogers owed $12 million this season, and he's going to Cincinnati. Well, that's good.

Get him out of the division. I'm okay with that. You said, I mean, that's fine. I need more Diamondbacks moves, though, is really what I need.

I'm with you. I was trying to get you as close to debacks news as possible. No, I mean, I appreciate the effort. I really do. And again, it's the baseball off season,

right? kind of moves slowly and then it moves in like you have the roki sasaki situation where you know again once you know a lot of teams were out of it in the international signy you know the pool they were able to go out there and sign you know their free agents i felt like this off season there were some teams there there still are some teams that are kind of maneuvering for some of these high high end players alex brigman you know and and pital anzo they're still available on the market there's still quite a few guys, you know, that I think are out of the Diamondbacks either budget or, I guess, need, right? Like, they don't need really an Alex Brighman.

It would, it would literally be shocking if the Diamondback signed somebody like that at this point, right? Making a trade for, you know, for a quality player, I don't think would be out of the question at this point for the Diamondbacks. But I really feel like when you take a look, you know, at some of the, you know, at some of the remaining free agents, it just doesn't feel very likely. that outside of the, you know, some of the available relievers, some of those back-end relievers that, you know,

the Diamondbacks don't really have a lot of interest or wouldn't have a lot of interest in a lot of these players. A piece of Yoshi is here and he says he wants Pete. I don't know if he means for the Mets or the D-backs, though, because he does root for both of those teams. So, and Groundhog Mama says no one wants Pete. That's a weird situation as well with Pete Alonzo. It very much feels like Pete Alonzo,

wants to go back to the Mets. And I don't know if the Mets want Pete Alonzo back. I don't know what's going on there. But yeah, I mean, again, the Diamondbacks options have kind of, you know, dwindled away here, especially when you look at their particular needs. It's the reason why Randall Gritchick at this point seems to make the most sense. And I just want to see Gritchick back. I think that in the limited, you know, in the limited capacity he was asked to play baseball for this team.

He was awesome. He was a rock star for this squad. So I think if you gave him more at bats, gave him the ability to go out there and not only play the outfield a bit more, but, you know, be a regular DH. Yeah, his numbers might not be as good. But if he could produce something close to this over, you know, a longer portion of the season with more played appearances, then, I mean, what other option is going to do? Put his stats back up there, Kevin. Put his 2024 stats back up there because they're gross. They're gross and I love them.

This man almost hit 300. I mean, he slashed 299, 348, 528 with an 875 OPS. I mean, like, yeah, 12 home runs. I think the 12 home runs is honestly crazy because it shows that how much his slugging percentage was impacted by extra base hits and not by, you know, home runs. He was not necessarily a power guy, but he hit for power and he hit a lot of, you know, extra base hits. He also had 914 OPS against left-handed pitching.

Like, it's crazy when you look at Randall Gritchie. numbers from last year. And again, you know, in relation to what Spot Track is suggesting for his contract versus what he was owed, what his option was for this year, you know, who knows? I mean, I'm sure if he does sign with a team, it'll be closer. Probably something like 10 million, but even that seems like a fair ask, you know, for somebody who, you know, was able to produce this. He had an OPS plus of 140 last season.

Again, we're talking about only, you know, 279 played a appearances. But still, I think that, you know, when you look at the options out there, you look at what it's going to cost you. Free agent-wise, Gritchick just makes the most sense. And Diamondbacks don't have a lot of time. Get this deal done before, you know, everybody's reporting. But I hope they do. I hope we don't see them go through what they went through last year with Jordan Montgomery, for instance. That was, it just, it leads to entirely too much speculation on what could have been had Jordan Montgomery had a normal offseason, had a normal, you know, spring training, right? And again, that's going back to our discussion earlier about why Jordan Montgomery being traded still might

annoy the crap out of me because there's a chance, a pretty good chance in my opinion, that he's going to be much better next year than he was this year. I think a lot of people can agree on that. Maybe people don't agree he's going to be much better, but I think a lot of people agree that Jordan Montgomery is going to be a better pitcher in 2025. And the shame about that is, I feel like it's going to be for a different team. And at least if he was able to be on the Diamondbacks for one of the two years that he was here and produce and be a decent pitcher for them, it would be a little easier to forget what happened last year and focus more on, you know, how good he was in that one season for the team, right? But, you know, I think it's

very likely that we don't see Jordan Montgomery pitch in a Diamondbacks uniform again. So there's those assets and, you know, what the Diamondbacks do with those assets. So not a lot of time left. We will be, again, just a reminder, moving to three shows a week when spring training starts. So there's that. More mayor. More mayor. It's more driving for me, but it's fine.

I'll deal with it. More driving less sleepy time. I don't want to be on the 101. Less home projects. Yeah, no more chandelier hanging. But I do appreciate you guys so much for stopping by. We always appreciate your time. We will be back next Wednesday.

I think what we have two more Wednesday shows left, and then we'll be back to three shows a week. So very much looking forward to that, looking forward to pitchers and catchers reporting, looking forward to getting my feet muddied out at Salt River Field and standing in grass while taking video for you wonderful people. And I cannot wait to hear the sound of a bat hitting a baseball again, and I'm sure you guys are all with me on that.

So it'll be here before we know it. Very much looking forward to it. So again, thank you guys for stopping by. As always, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a k large intimate kevin thomas is at kev o posts of course our show is at ph and x underscore dbacks but all roads do as always lead to at phnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we thank you guys so much for stopping by i think what else we got kev do what are i was going to ask you derrick are you are you going to commit to go into a world baseball classic game in tucson with me because i kind of want to go oh i it's in tucson yes oh yes the 2025 qualifier Games 1 through 7 are in Tucson.

We're there. You got March 2nd, China versus Germany. We're there. Brazil and Colombia. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm there. Let's make that happen. Let's make that issue happen.

Let's go do more road trips. Go more places. Watch more baseball. I'll tell you. You never disappointed when you do that. And I hope you guys all do. I hope you guys take us up on that. Yes, we will be there for that.

And again, there was also some amazingly home action. It came down to game seven and a walk off home run. and I mean, or an almost home run. It wasn't a home run, right? Or it was a catch at the end, but it was almost, oh, my God, it was incredible. But again, baseball is always being played. We live in baseball Nirvana. It's a wonderful state to live in.

Make sure you do not miss it, especially when spring training gets here because it's incredible and should be a fun time. So again, we thank you guys for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week weekend. I will see you next Wednesday. Until then, behave yourselves. Enjoy this weather while we have it before it gets too hot. and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you hurry up and just sign randall gritchick already