PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs After Dark: Casino Royale

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

News broke on Friday that Ketel Marte was spotted in a local casino and it turns out it wasn’t actual news. Derek and Rok give their thoughts on MarteGate continuing to be a distraction, even though he wasn’t doing anything wrong, and discuss the importance of having a support group that will absolutely roast you when you screw up in life. JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX 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/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes 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 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are now listening to PHNXDbacks after dark. Rock, if there was one place in the entire Phoenix metro area that you could go on a Friday night and you know you'll be seen by the most amount of people that you could be seen by, where would you go? I'm going to the casino, brother. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to the casino. I'm going to go.

You know. Yeah. and obviously everybody knows where I'm going with this this isn't any fucking secret where I'm going with this but no at the same time I have to say that I feel like Coutel Marte could have been out for ice cream and it would have been a fucking story you know I say that I say that in I will say that part of the reason why I feel like this thing became a story was because of the fact that we still don't know what was going to on with Cattel in in Boston. I think we have a clear picture after some of the things that Tori said. I don't feel better about the reasons necessarily. No. Right?

It feels like a player was protesting not getting a day off is what it feels like by not showing up to the ballpark, essentially. That's my takeaway. I know that's a simplified dumb down version of it. It's also me speculating simply based on what Tori has said but i do know that there was a lot of concern when the talk was about kattel being up late in the hotel bar and seen drinking i know there was talk about you know obviously the drinking and the partying being aspect i know the gambling got brought up in regards to kettel and things like that just and and these were rumors and speculations and accusations but nothing obviously

confirmed or what the actual situation was about but i just feel like considering everything, everything that Marte has been through and everything that the team has been through due to this whole situation. I just I just can't wrap my mind around going out and being seen in one of the places where you know that you'll be seen the most. Like even if you were downtown Phoenix walking around, I feel like there's... Doesn't look as bad, but. Right.

But I feel like there's more of a chance that people won't be able to pinpoint that it's you. That's true, too. You know what I mean? Like they might be like, was that could tell? But by the time they turned around, you're one block that way. And they kept walking and you might have turned a corner and they might not get a chance to follow you like there's some sort of goddamn TMZ photographer, taking pictures of

you sitting down at tables and taking videos of you walking around, you know, the casino. And I will say those people are creep. I'm going to throw that out there as well. Oh, yeah. You know who you are. Bothering and harassing someone like that. That's creep behavior, period. You know who you are.

We're not going to say your name. We know who you are. I will say this, though, you know, this past week, and I love Cotele, Marte. And what I'm going to say, I'm going to start off with me throwing him a little bit of bail before I kind of say what it is. The one thing with Catelle, I don't know what it's like to be a superstar baseball player. I don't know what it's like to be a superstar baseball player with a family.

I don't know what it's like being a superstar baseball with a family here. And God knows how many people you're taking care of back in Dominican Republic. So I don't know about any of that, all that pressure. I don't know about that stuff. I think the way that he handled whatever situation is, piss poor. If that was me or you, we're getting fired. Obviously, you can't fire Cite. It's not going to happen.

The man has terrible situational awareness because he should have been anywhere but a casino Friday night. And granted, he didn't break any rules. He wasn't doing anything illegal. The optics are terrible. It's just baffling to me that he thought it was a good idea to go there. Like you weren't going to be seen with the spot like that's on this team right now for all the wrong reasons. You can tell everybody is just tired of this shit. I'm glad they didn't ask Corby

and hyper hypersensitive to it too right it's it's one of those situations where just due to the nature of it any kind of thing that Morte is seeing doing or you know not seeing doing is going to be viewed

as you know once again part of this whole abandonment of the team that people view it as which yeah and I'm not saying it's not because it's hard to say he wasn't he hasn't abandoned this team with the way that he didn't show up for game one. The problem is we don't know and quite frankly, we're probably never going to know,

at least in the immediate future where it's like fresh on our minds, we're probably never going to know what really, really happened if there really was a personal matter like they're saying, I don't play around with mental health stuff. I know he's dealt with some. He's had some issues with heckling and whatever, whatever. So I'm not going to act like if there's a mental issue going on with him that it should be glossed over. It shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be for anybody. It's just, I don't know if you saw there was a, there was a pregame where somebody asked Tori if he thought Catell has a good support system around him. Oh, yeah. And Toro Losello's been Cotel Marte's manager for almost 10 years. And Tori said, I don't know. Yeah. That to me says every. I have a support system. You have a support system. How does Cetel Marte not have a support system?

That's what I don't. And I guess we don't know that he doesn't, but it appears that he doesn't because he keeps doing things that shouldn't happen. You shouldn't no show work and not tell anybody. And then to not communicate, come on, man. Like, I love you. I love it. you dog you are when you're on you're one of the best players in the game i love you to death yeah yeah i support you through and through but man looking at this team this week looking at tory on monday doing that post game and then just seeing these guys being asked over and over and over about cartel marty he's got a lot of he's got a lot of mending to do yeah and i heard When he goes back, I hope that he gets on it.

And I hope that it's going to take some time. I can't see these guys just welcoming him. I'm not walking him back, but it can't be, yeah, buddy, like hug you, love you, like, Amy. Because these guys, some of these guys feel betrayed, I'm sure. You can tell Kevin Ginkl feels a kind of way. Yeah, for sure. I think Ginkled pretty much.

I think Ginkgo is the only one that gave the response that you would thought more guys would have had. But most guys were a little bit more level about it. Ginko was like, no, fuck that. Well, you said, you said what I said. I said this on the show on Friday. Like my impression of Kevin Ginkle's statement wasn't that he was saying anything new or, or, you know, scintillating. It felt like Kevin Ginkle was just saying something that he was pretty certain other guys had already said and just echoing a similar statement. Yeah.

And that wasn't necessarily the case, mostly because we hadn't had a chance. chance to talk to very many guys. And up to that point, we spoke to Gabby, who was very supportive of Cattel, and Ryan Walshmidt, who's a rookie and probably shouldn't have been asked about Cotell at all. It was an unfair position to put Waldi in, you know what I mean? Walby gave a response where I was like, oh. It was a great answer. It was the kind of answer you want for a question like that.

You just hate that we're having to have this question being asked of a rookie in the middle of a fucking pennant race. Right. Like today's game, every time second base or Marte came up, it was always about all the off the field. And I'm just like, I wish motherfuckers would stop talking about this. Like, I don't want to talk about this anymore after today. I'm so tired of talking about this part of the baseball game.

That's why it would be talk about the Diamondbacks winning series, doing what they got to do. And whatever happens happens. That's why it becomes a distraction. literally. That is that is why it becomes a distraction because people won't stop talking about it and when they won't stop talking about it, then it gets back to the team. You can ignore it all you want as a player. You can ignore the internet. You can ignore shows like ours. But what you can't ignore is text messages from people that you know in your life. You can't ignore phone calls. You can't ignore conversations with your teammates in the clubhouse and out on the field. And it's just going to happen. And it's going to become a distraction. And it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, the worst possible time for that, right? And the shit part is, like, okay, so he's not playing for the next week and a half or whatever. The problem is, though, if he comes off the 10-day I-L and comes right back to the team, everything's going to get brought right back up because you know he's going to get asked these questions

through his interpreter. He's going to get asked these questions. So this is all going to come back in like another eight or nine days. It's just like, God damn it, man. This is the last thing. I mean, we did the show last Sunday. talking about how like how hype we were going into the boston series how things were looking great and then monday was just like a new kid it was just like boom yeah like what it's because this is

unprecedented in sports this is unprecedented in baseball and really the reason why is all based on how it was handled this is nothing new this is literally nothing new especially in the game of baseball no but it's how it's handled and typically when it's handled better, this can actually be resolved without the public ever knowing about it and it ever becoming a story. But the problem was the way Cotel handled it, just like the idea to go to a casino while all this is going on, is all bad ideas. And even when asked about that, Tori gave an amazing answer and he continues to do what Tori always does as a manager. He backs up his players and has their back. And if Cotry,

Cattel handled this properly, Tori would have done the same thing in this situation. Oh, yeah. Instead, Cotel felt like the communication had broken down with Tori and that he was no longer in a position where he could like ask for a day off or whatever the case may be. Which I would love to know why. I would love to know why he felt that way. Because if there was, if there was anybody who was his biggest cheerleader in that dugout, I would have assumed it was Toro Lavello.

Well, the MRI revealed actual. damage that they needed to give him an injection for. And again, it's not like there was nothing there. For the most part, what we could have had instead of this embarrassment and this restricted list thing and all of this talk about where is Catell, why didn't he show up to the ballpark in Boston, all of this could have been avoided by Catell being simply put on the IL. And they could have activated Jose Fernandez and they would have never had to put him on the restricted list. It felt like Tori, if I'm not mistaken, said at one point that part of Cattel's,

anger was being put on the restricted list. But that was a move. But that was a move that was needed to be made. However, that was a move that because of there being no communication between Marte and the team was made in order to have Jose Fernandez activated without putting Nolan Aronado on the 10-day IL. And if they put them on the 10-day aisle, then they lose them for 10 days. And that's something that the Diamondbacks couldn't afford to do.

do right now if aranado didn't need to be gone for 10 full days right so the restricted list move and everything they did allowed jose fernandez to come up and play third in that series and it was a maneuver done by the front office in order to properly staff this team to try to win a baseball game in boston and that apparently was part of this whole confusion which is just like on that side of things it's it's incredibly frustrating it's like because i can't imagine if I can't imagine Catell didn't feel comfortable asking Tori for a day off. And even

if Tori said I really can't afford to not give it the day off, let me do this for you. I think that's what happened. Let me put you in the DH spot. All you got to do is hit. That's what happened. And he wasn't cool with that, which to me is like, really? Like, okay, I'm like, I don't know.

I think that's what happened. I think literally they were like we can't afford to not having a whole fucking day off. And in that case, he's a thousand percent in the wrong. I love you, Cotell, but fuck, man. Yeah. And then it's the same thing with the casino thing.

He was in the right. He is in the right, like Tori said, to do whatever he wants with his time. Yeah. He can fucking do whatever. But, I mean, there's a lot of other things he could be doing, you know,

like there's even things that I would say that if I saw him doing, and people misconstrued this. they think it's about the gambling. And for me, it's not. It's the high visibility of what he was doing. Yeah. Right? But if you want to talk about things he could have been doing that might have been wholesome,

that would have made me angrier. Show me video of Cotel bowling that night. Show me video of Cotell at Top golf. Top golf with his family. Yeah. Show me video of that. Show me video of him having a knee injury, supposedly, and missing time with his team that's in a fight doing something.

physical. At the very least, he was just sitting down at a at a at a relet table. Like I saw some people were mad that is like me wasn't in a brace and stuff. We're just moving the goalposts on things to be mad about. Not everybody with a knee problem

needs to be in a brace. So stop under exaggerating. I mean my knee hurts every day. Do I have a brace? No. Do I have injections? Oh, no. Let's not even talk about it. Let's not even talk about that. I was put on the 15 day I all with back soreness and tightness and all sorts of stuff. But, you know, the support structure thing you brought up earlier,

that's that that one's a bit more important, I think, when it comes to Catell. It's something you and I have experience with a little bit. When you see Catell, I mean, I've said this to other people, Marte is one of the only guys I see that has like a posse. Yeah. Is that is that the best way to put it? Like, he has he has a group of regular guys, term you know he has guys that show up at every game and they're there at every you know every home game just about supporting him and then they're also got they're the same guys that like go on the road i imagine these were the guys that they were describing was in the hotel bar when i would imagine it on sunday night right don't know that for sure i'm just speculating but i imagine so and like again

what's funny is is even with the high visibility of those particular individuals being around kutel as much as they are more so than any other player I've ever seen in my time covering this team. There's never been a time where I've seen another player have like some people's wives and children come and yeah, I don't even give two thoughts about that. Right, right, but it's different when it's the entourage, right? And so I don't really recall another player. Like at times I remember players being very clicky where they stuck together and that was kind of the group and they would always leave, come and go together and stuff like that.

I mean, Justin Upton and Chris Young immediately come to mind in my first years of doing this. They were very close, right? But it was never like this. And it was never a group like that. So what I find fascinating, getting back to my point here, is that even with that, Tori couldn't say yes to the question if Kattel has a support system. Which says, like I said earlier, it says a whole lot to me. Right, right.

Because you know, because, I mean, like I said, he knows Kattel. He knows Kattel. on a professional and a personal level. So for him to not be able to answer that question with a yes, it's kind of sad and it's kind of disappointing because it makes you wonder who these people are there. And I'm not trying to say they're bad people. I'm not trying to say that.

No. But you have to, you have to wonder like, I know if I'm going through some shit, I can, I have people I can lean on if I need to. And I would like to think that someone in his position has that same thing, but who knows? I mean, maybe the idea there is that they're not so much of support structure as like people that are there just, you know, whatever, for personal gain, right? I mean, there's that side of it, too, which I bring, I bring that up in regards to you and me because you and I know something very, a lot about this. First of all, we know about support structures because we have the unsafe, safe space.

We do have our, we have our group chat of a ragtag. group of misfits that all somehow found their way together based on a love of professional wrestling and hip hop and a few other things basically rocks Instagram posts that bond us as a group and make us feel like we have people that we can turn to in good times and in bad right free therapy yeah and of course the person that brought all of these strays together is one Rahim Jarbo aka known as mega-ran to many rap fans around the world.

Again, I circle back to this for two reasons. One, this hero, teacher, rapper is going to be throwing out a first pitch at a baseball game this Wednesday, which you and I are going to be present at and

fucking cannot wait to see him blow it. Cannot wait to see him make a goddamn ass out of himself when it comes to throwing out this first pitch. But we also know that this man brings in a lot of strays more than just us and sometimes the problem with all of these people that want to be close to a known celebrity like our friend it's a question sometimes of what their what their interests are like why why you know what if it's self-serving or not right like we're

very protective of our guy and magerand has an incredible support system of people he's known for years not just us but he has the writers guild which are his best friends and former you know colleagues that all uh maybe maybe used to write i don't know rock i'm not throwing any uh any shade at you at all would but i was going to know straight writers poets scholars uh but all these guys uh basically he has a lot of people to keep him grounded and i think that's a big part of it not that he needs it because he's a very grounded person. Oh, yeah, yeah. Kind person.

But again, it is about the quality of said support structure and what, you know, what the interests of those folks are. Like the one thing I do love about our group is, you know, aside from wanting some free tickets every once in a while to a rap show or a pro wrestling show, you know, I almost feel like all of our best interests are making sure all of our friends in that group are doing well and okay. and if you need anything, we're here for you, even if it's just like to complain about our spouses. And even when we do that, several members of the group will turn it around on you and tell you how wrong you are and how your spouse was right.

And like sometimes even though I hate them for doing that to me, you need that in life. That's the kind of stuff you need in life. You do. And real with you. And again, you know, helping you grow as a person, not just being there to always tell you that. you're right and tell you that you're doing the good thing and telling you that yeah yeah yeah i agree with you man yeah everything the yes man kind of aspect of but hey having an entourage that being said that being said how supportive we are of that of that man if he goes out there

on wednesday afternoon right before the 1240 official first pitch of the game and he goes up there and curtis 50 cent jackson's that first pitch he's fucking dead to us he's gonna get roasted He's dead to us. No, I mean, we won't even be friends with him anymore. Like, we won't claim ownership or any kind of connection to them. There's going to have to be a side chat. Because we're not going to be able to. That's going to be fucking awkward.

That you're right, though, there is. We are going to, we're going to have to cut some dead weight from like, I hope my man is at home. I hope he's throwing it. I hope he doesn't go out there and need Tommy John surgery afterwards. I'm supposed to be stretching him out right now as we speak instead. I'm here talking to you. Pause. Hey, it's baseball.

It is baseball. It is baseball. Yeah, I'm going to feel some sort of responsibility if he fucks this up. But let's hope he doesn't. Yeah, because I've known Rand for almost 20 years, and I'm just going to say this. And I've never seen him do anything athletic. And vice versa, he's never seen him any athletic either. So he hasn't, like, neither one of us has gone to run to go on a wall.

Like, we've never, like, thrown a ball. So I'm just saying, I've known him for a long time. And I don't know what his athletic abilities are. not and again I'm not saying that like I'm a super athlete because if I went out there I might throw out my shoulder my back my hip everything oh he's walking away with an injury he's going to go on the 15 day IL and he probably at least some sort of Tom and John certainly or something we love you ran but god damn god damn bro we love you but man just just just just do the thing on just do the thing one just don't just lob it lob it ephus

ETHIS. Figure something out beforehand. What is that seen from Rookie of the year when at the very last pitch of the game? Oh, yeah. Just like, lob it. Yeah. Lobb it.

Just do something. Just get it there. Get it there straight. Even if it has to bounce a little bit before home play. The history of rappers throwing out first pitches is not good. Oh, you're right. And we're going to be there on field. So we'll probably like start the booing.

It'll start with. us and then it'll cascade through the stadium. It's a Cubs game. You know that it's going to be packed. Even the day game, he is going to never live this down. I'm not going to say it's going to be the biggest crowd he's ever been in front of, but it's probably going to be one of the bigger crowds he's ever been in front of. His first pitch is going to be a bigger scandal than Catell being at the casino.

I think that's fair to say. I can't wait. I can't wait to stop talking about Cotel Marte stuff. So let's hope that the next thing that we're talking about is him getting ready to return to this team. And hopefully that'll be in time for that Philly series, which with the way things are going, could literally decide the goddamn season at this point. So hopefully they can take care of the business against the Cubs because this is a team

that has been playing some good baseball. I would highly appreciate the Padres stop winning some fucking baseball games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's coming from you, Mr. Oh, fucking Fernando Tatis Jr. is the best. I mean, he did hit two jacks today. Yeah, I hate you. I know, I know.

Oh, God. Anyway, you can follow him on social media at R.O. knowledge. You can follow me on social media at cap underscore caveman with a K. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We'll see you guys. guys next time and we promise we will not be talking about Cotel Marte distracting this team anymore

at that point. But we will be talking about the Diamondbacks closing in on hopefully maintaining or locking into or holding onto a playoff spot. Until then, have yourselves a good one and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun after dark. But not at the casino.