PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Offseason “Not Done” Yet BUT Are Reported Free Agent Options Even Worth It?

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks have had a fairly quiet offseason in comparison to the last couple, with large investments into Corbin Burnes, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jordan Montgomery and more. With pitchers and catcher reporting around the corner, Mike Hazen's team still has quite a few holes to fill. What's the most dire of these needs? Starting pitching help? Back end bullpen arms? A first baseman not named Pavin Smith? It's almost too much to count. PLUS, the guys explore the rumors of Ty France and Carlos Santana as potential first base platoon options and if NOT trading Ketel Marte was the single best move of the offseason. Oh, and don't think we forgot about Mailbag Monday! 0:00 - Damon's hosting?! 2:50 - Diamondbacks NOT done yet? 9:40 - Eugenio Suarez 19:30 - Diamondbacks off-season grades 45:00 - Mailbag Monday!JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Been a bit of a disappointing offseason for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but according to CEO Derek Hall, we're not done yet. Welcome on into the PHNXD Backs podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends over at Circle K. I am your host for today, at least, Damon Dogg, aka Damon Farrell. I got my main man, Kevin Thomas, with me, as always, just tied at the hip, me and Kevin. And we're going to be just parlaying this into an Azy Wildcats pot a little bit later. in the day. But first, we got to talk about some Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, what we got going on,

what happened over the weekend, and some really interesting comments from one CEO, Derek Hall, at the team's golf charity event that they just had just a few days ago. But I got my guy, Dalton Feeley as well on from John Boy Media to come talk with me, discuss some D-backs baseball and make his return to the podcast. So we'll get Dalton here in a second. But I hope everybody had a great weekend. I hope everybody is ready for a little bit of mailbag Monday time on a Monday. And I hope my guy, Derek Montia, is enjoying that sunny SoCal weather, living it up a little bit. Can't wait to hear about his whole experience out there at the Grammys. What a great time he had and how much I'm doing his job for him just to make it all happen. Right. But appreciate everybody for being here in the chat.

Please drop a like on this video as we get in here early. We got all the staples in here. We got all my people. Debra, Katie, got my guy, CWP, what up, Chuck. Even some people that, I honestly, I don't even recognize. Great to see you guys as well. So much fun here on a PHNX D-BACs Monday edition episode. But why don't we go ahead and grab Dalton and bring him on in here? Dalton, been a bit of long off season. We had you on a lot during the season.

We missed you. How you been? How you doing, my guy? I'm ready for some D-Backs baseball, man. How you doing? I'm excited to be back. It's been a long time. coming. excited to talk some Diamondbacks baseball again.

The offseason, it's not done yet, according to Derek Hall. So I'm excited to see how that continues, but I'm excited to be back talking some ball with you guys. Yeah, absolutely. Why don't we just go ahead and grab that comment from one CEO, Derek Hall, Kevin, right off the jump here. We got a quote graphic here. And he says, I think we still have a few moves to make.

I know we're still trying to find another complimentary first baseman. And I think we can still look to improve our pitching, both starters and relievers, but we will still have some moves to make, we're not done. That was CEO, Derek Hall. Obviously, I had the picture of Mike Hazen because he's working the phones right there. But Derek Hall is telling people, slow your role. Diamondback's offseason is not quite over yet. We're going to get into me and Dalton are going to give some offseason grades of

different position groups, how we felt they've done thus far. But when you hear something like that, Dalton, what springs to mind? Well, I do think the debacks have a couple more moves. they have to do in order to be somewhat competitive into 2026 season. So I am excited to hear that the debacks are willing to spend some more money or make some more moves. I do think it's been somewhat of a downish offseason in terms of what's happened over the last couple of off seasons where they've made some splashes with like the Corbent Burns, the Erod, Montes. And sure, some of those have worked out. Others, not so much. But I do think the devax had their expectations

from 2023 on. Would love to see them continuing to add. and try to build to this court to where they can compete now in the National League West, but across Major League Baseball. Yeah, no doubt about it. It feels like the last couple offseason, the debacks have been at like the forefront, right, of some of the biggest signings in the sport, whether it's Jordan Montgomery in that, you know, disaster contract that ended up happening so late in the off season or whether it's Corbyn Burns,

which was, you know, the number one pitcher on the market last season. And, you know, he might have taken a slight discount to be where he wanted in Arizona. We all know about the injury and how that happened. but I think it's, you know, it's fair to say that that isn't necessarily on the Arizona Diamondbacks similar to how the Jordan Montgomery or the Eduardo Rodriguez signings might have been, but a little bit quieter from the debacks this off season, especially when you factor in and this is what Derek and I have been talking about Dalton, Merrill Kelly was already on this team. So when your biggest signing is a guy that has been a staple of this organization for over half a decade for,

you know, almost a decade at this point, like, it, it does. I don't think it strikes the fan base as progress. Whereas it's a great signing, Merrill Kelly makes a big difference. You know, two years, a little over $40 million, right? And he's one of the more underrated starting pitchers in all of baseball. But do you think this aspect of like having Merrill already, you know, basically as a part of this organization, we just didn't get to see him for eight starts or 10 starts or whatever it was in Texas and now he's back?

Do you think that factors into part of the reason that this off season feels as quiet as it does? I think a little bit because not to say we assume Merrill Kelly would come back or anything, but when you have somebody on the roster from the previous season and that season didn't go nearly as well as I think most people expected or hoped, and then the guy comes back, it's not like you're really making an addition to the team that struggled the year prior. Now granted, if it was a different player that hadn't been on the organization that you signed, it's like a new toy if you ask like on Christmas Day, right? You open up a present, you're excited to see, oh, it's this. Merrill Kelly is a guy that we've had Merrill Kelly.

Not to say people aren't excited, I love Merrill Kelly. He's the mainstay for a reason and he's back in Arizona. But I do think it does attribute to the debacks, I guess, downish offseason. I'm going to keep saying it because he had been on the theme. The 2024-25 rosters have underachieved to their expectations after the 2023 World Series run. So Merrill Kelly, as great of a picture as he is, I do think if they made another addition outside of him in Soroka to the rotation that really had his struggles last year, it would be more eye-popping than just Merrill Kelly and Sorocco alone. Now, what if that starting pitcher was one, Zach Gallen?

Because there has been some slight reports that the Diamondbacks are still sniffing around Zach Allen. Maybe I could see a situation where Zach Allen gets brought back on a very short-term deal to be in a situation in a place that he knows and that he's comfortable with. If it was Zach Gallen, they would almost blow the off-season purse that they had going into the off-season out of the water. but again it would be on another guy who this organization is so used to having and it doesn't really feel like it's progress per se correct yes but i do think if you were pulling uh the arizen

i'm back fan fan base this off season i think most if not all would say it's very unlikely that jack allen would return after the 2025 season his comments after the season made it seem as if he felt like he was likely to depart and if gallon comes back I'm surprised he's still a free agent first and foremost, but the starting pitching market has been pretty much robust recently. You still have guys like Framber Valdez, Chris Bass, at Justin Verland or Max Scherzer, Nick Martinez, Zach Litelle. You have a lot of guys, and obviously Zach Gallant to that group,

you have a lot of guys who are talented pitchers that could help any rotation in major league baseball. But Zach Allen is probably the second guy on that list outside of Framber Valdez in terms of upside and what he can bring to a rotation. Mind you, in 22 and 23, he was in top five in Saillard. voting both of those years last year was I would I would consider an outlier year for Zach Gallen. I'm curious to see if he comes back because it's it's interesting right when you look at free agency when a player has a down year and he hits free agency does he want to prove it like a go back to a prove it deal which could have been like that qualifying offer that he turned

down or is he willing to take a chance elsewhere and try and help his pitching development if you will. So I'm very curious to see what Zach Allen gets, regardless of it's with the dimebacks or any other team and free agency this off season because I think he's an intriguing case because he's a very, very good pitcher when he's right. He had a struggle in 2025, but I don't think that's really the pitcher he is. Yeah, I mean, his second half stats bared a completely different picture of, of, you know, that player in specifically not second half, but post-deadline. It felt like once he was settled of knowing that he was going to be, for lack of a better word, stuck in Arizona for the back end of the year, it felt like he kind of locked in. And we started seeing flashes of the Zach Gowan that, you know, was the ace of this team and this organization for as long as he was.

But yeah, it is. It's interesting to see his market be as kind of cold as it is. I wonder if, you know, that kind of leads to any more conversations with the debacks saying, hey, you know, if things don't work out, you still have a. a home here. We can make it work on a very short-term deal and think about it next off-season. But another guy that we are very familiar with that just recently signed elsewhere, Dalton, is one Gino Suarez, who is going back to Cincinnati. It seems like Suarez likes to just play musical chairs with the teams that he's already been a part of in his career. If you know, if you think about the tigers were sniffing around him at the beginning of the trade deadline,

wanting him back, the Reds wanted him back. The Mariners obviously got him. him back. Like, it feels like Gino is tied to these organizations. What did you make of that signing for the Cincinnati Reds? I will say for Gino very happy for him because, by golly, he is such a good player, but also a really good guy. I feel like by all accounts that have been reported from the dimeback's beat or locker room that everyone beloved Gino.

We know it's Gino. I wish he got a larger deal. I was surprised to see it was a one for 15 with a mutual option. The mutual option usually doesn't get exercised. So it's going to probably be a one for 15. A guy hit 49 home runs last year. I thought he was going to get a multi-year deal. I know the defense has struggled.

I understand he's going to be primarily in DH, but my fun fact I had for talking baseball, John Boe Media's overall baseball podcast was there's three players to have multiple seasons, three active players, excuse me, to have multiple seasons of 49 home runs or more. Aaron Judge, Shohei Otani, Gianni Oswarz. So you know what he's going to provide with the power. You know he's going to provide with the locker room and clubhouse vibes.

I'm very happy for him. Really wish there was a way to DVax could have brought him back, whether it was third base prior to Nolan Aeronado trade, or if it was you saw him at first base or primarily the D.H spot, because that is a significant power bat for any lineup. So the Red's got a good one in Gino. Yeah, that was something that I had floated to Derek on this podcast of like, at what point do we start talking about our D.H option,

bringing back Gino. Like I, and I, you could do a lot worse than a guy who, you know, maybe is a little bit boom or bust, a little bit swing and miss, but he puts the ball over the fence. And that kind of production can't just be, you know, scoffed at when you're talking about no offense, but the unknown of what an Adrian Del Castillo is probably at the exact moment of at the DH position. So I was all in on potentially trying to get Gino back here and, and seeing if maybe

that was a situation he'd be interested in. because it seems like he didn't really want to go at the trade deadline. And I wonder if, you know, that was, you know, something that this organization could have worked out. But I just don't know that the Diamondbacks have that kind of money to spend on a position like that, $15 million in one signing, although it's, you know, pretty low risk being that it's a one-year deal. It just seems like kind of a lot of upfront money for this organization. So, yeah, that was interesting to see as well. There have been a lot of holes filled.

but there's also a lot of holes that have been unfilled because this team had so many needs going into this offseason and that was kind of the struggle right of like there's a lot of needs to fill and they don't really have the money necessarily to fill all of them they're going to need to find ways to supplement that here and there and so you know when we do this exercise here in a second just kind of grading this this diamondbacks off season thus far we're going to take a peek at each position group and kind of go through and say you know what did they do at that position that, you know, what are we happy with? What grade do we give them? So, yeah, we'll get into that here in a second here on the PHNXDVACs podcast. But first, we're going to hit our first break.

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into these offseason grades, I did want to just discuss two guys that have been mentioned in kind of in reports with the Diamondbacks Dalton in recent times here, whether it was John Gambador of Arizona Sports on the weekend saying that the Diamondbacks are interested in one Carlos Santana. I believe that there has been a lot of mentions of Thai France who played on the Twins and the Blue Jays last year as well. Any thoughts on either one of these guys as potential platoon options at first base for the Arizona Diamondbacks? I think I would lean Carlos Santana over Thai France if we're putting them up side by side and comparing who we'd rather have from the 2026 Arizona. zone of dime backs. Carlos Santana is another guy who is herald for his defense and for his locker room too. He'd be a great veteran addition to a somewhat overhauled roster. A little bit.

I wouldn't want to say overhaul. That might be a stretch. But I think for Santana's case, the offense did slip in 2025, but you're still seeing that plus eight outs above average. He was a gold glove caliber first base. And over the last couple of seasons. The age is a question Mark, obviously with him being, I believe, close to 40 years old, if not 40 already. I think it's going to be his age 40 season. But batting 219 of the 633 OPS, those were one of his lows, if not lowest of his career in a single season. I prefer Santana. I am very curious to see what his price would be. I'm assuming it would be a one-year deal. I think it would be less than maybe also say a Paul Goldschmidt, but we're going to find out later in his free agency to see where Santana,

Golchman and France may sign. Goldie is obviously the guy. I think a lot of Arizona Diamondback fans would want to bring back as the platoon guy. But if it's not Goldchman, I think Santana would be my secondary choice. I think as far as like a lefty masher, it's hard to do better than one Paul Goldschmidt. If you look at his splits against lefties, like that dude is just crushing the baseball against them. And that's what you need with Pavin Smith, right?

And if you're going to go into the season and Pave and Smith is going to be the guy versus right-handed pitching, then you need to be. bring in an option that is going to be able to hit left-handed pitching because that's just not something that Paven's ever going to really be able to do probably. So, yeah, I think Goldschmidt is obviously the ideal option. I think that's what we want. It seems like I'm hearing a little bit more rumors in Yankee land, Dalton, that maybe Goldie is a potential option to be brought back. I know you're out there in New York. What are you hearing on those streets? I know Yankee fans want them back. that's for sure to maybe supplement Ben Rice at first base.

Right now, and correct me if I'm wrong, it does really sound like it's the Arizona Dianbacks or the New York Yankees for Paul Goldschmidt's services in 2026. Two places that he's also familiar with. We're talking about Geno Suarez going to a couple of places where he's already known, Goldschmidt, the same thing. I'm hoping it's a reunion. I know the guys out here at John Boye Media

are hoping Goldfitt comes back to the Yankees, but it's not confident. at all. Yeah, I think that would be the ideal option. Why don't we take a look at Ty Francis Baseball Savant Page as well and get a peek at his underlying statistics a little bit better, I would argue, in the

hitting department side of things from last season. Also very solid fielder, similar to Carlos Santana, both guys with very high outs above average and, you know, definitely gold glove contenders over there if they're playing a full season at first base.

So it seems like maybe that's part of what's being valued here is, hey, we know that we're not going to be, you know, necessarily bringing in a Freddie Freeman at this point in the offseason, but we could bring in a guy who is going to be really solid defensively help us on that side of the baseball, bring some leadership and bring some experience to the table as well. I, you know, Carlos Santana, I think a little bit bigger name than Thai France, but Thai France a little bit younger, just played in the World Series, you know, so he has that bit of appeal as well. Should be interesting to see because it definitely feels like, especially with Derek Hall's comments that we showed previously on the show,

like a platoon first baseman is absolutely the priority right now when it comes to, you know, what the team has left in the offseason. He said maybe pitching, maybe starting pitching, maybe bullpen help, but he said definitely a complimentary first base option. And I think that is pretty telling showing their hand there. But we're going to get into some grades here, Dalton, on how we think the Diamondbacks have fared so far, this offseason position group by position group.

and I think we should probably start off with the starting pitching side of things just because that makes the most sense. And that felt like the thing that maybe had the biggest hole as well on going into this offseason given that you had three starting pitchers, you know, kind of penciled in the rotation. You needed to bring in two more. You've since done that. What do you got for us in terms of a grade for starting pitching moves that we've made

this off season? Yeah, I'll keep it. brief because we did mention a lot about the starting pitchers in the open of this episode. I would give the debacks probably a B-minus in terms of addressing the starting rotation. They bring in Michael Soroka, who I do believe Thayer is better as

a potential relieve option, honestly. I think his metrics, his pitches would work better as a reliever. But that said, he has the history as a starting pitcher. Hopefully he can stay healthy. That has been something that has been a struggle for him basically his entire career. You bring back Merrill Kelly,

again, which isn't probably the most intriguing option, I guess, in free agency, but you know Merrill Kelly, the mainstay for a reason, as I said earlier. Very happy he comes back. He'll lead the rotation. And oddly enough, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe he's slated to make his first career opening day start pending injury for the Arizona dimebacks,

even though he's been there for seven or eight years already. So I think that's something that's going to be really fun from Merle Kelly. And you have Brandon fought, you have Eduardo Rodriguez, you have Ryan Nelson still in the rotation, would have loved if they got a high-end pitcher, but you have Corbyn Burns on the IL. I like what they did. It's not the most appealing thing in terms of what they could have done

with all the three-agent options out there, but I do like what they've done. They've at least tried to address the position, which other positions they have not, which we will get into. When you say B-minus, it made me nod in my head because that's exactly where I was going with my grade as well.

I think this one's a B-minus. I think it's like if I was divvying out a grade on the test, I'd give them like an 81. I'd be like, you know what? you did enough, you wrote your name at the top of the paper, and, you know, it was, it was, you met the requirements, but did you go above and beyond? Was it really just, was it a great essay? I wouldn't say it was a great essay, but I think that they did a solid enough job of filling holes. Soroka is at least, you know, somewhat intriguing, given that he had an all-star performance in the

past and, you know, has shown flashes at least, you know, since then, despite having injuries. And then Merrill is, as you say, the mainstay. Like, he's, he's as consistent as it gets. it's hard to not be happy with Merrill Kelly. I wish he was like our number two. I think if he was the number two, that would be ideal. But you can't be mad at bringing back a franchise legend and won Merrill Kelly. Now, this one is easy. Let's get into the bullpen here, Dalton.

What other grade could you give other than an F, right? I don't want to flunk anybody. I gave a D minus. But basically the same premise. I mean, look, this is where I've been relatively calm. I'm going to stay calm. I had a migraine earlier today, so I wasn't feeling. I'm not feeling 100%.

But if I was going to rant, it's going to be in the bullpen because the debacks last year set the record for most pitchers to record a save in a season with I believe 17 different pitchers. The bullpen, and obviously the cards have not been dealt well in terms of the Martinez and puck injuries for the debacks bullpen, excuse me, but to sign only Taylor Clark and Jonathan Lewyzica, who is, I believe, a minor league deal. It's not even a major league deal for the Weizica.

To a bullpen that is quite frankly just completely disastrous. There's no for sure answer, especially in the back end. Like you can name eight different of the bullpins like seven or eight slots. You could probably name 20 pitchers that could be on this bullpen roster come opening day. And I'll be like, yeah, sure, that makes total sense. There's not a lot of pure MLB guys in my opinion that like definitively have a role rule, like going through the positions like saw frank thompson uh kevin ginkle hopefully comes back and bounces back dray jameson's hopefully healthy and then it's a lot of guys they've either signed or the last

couple of off seasons or traded for the last couple of law seasons either these young guys or older veterans i'm very curious to see how the bullpen shakes out but what they've done currently i have to give it a d minus yeah they also made a kind of i think an under the radar savvy signing and I'm sorry, I'm blanking on his name. Can you scroll up real quick? I think Derek Law, right? Derek Law, they brought in last week. And he sat out all the 2025 season, but he was very good in 2024. So, you know, hopefully that's one that could pan out. But it feels like a lot of hoping, right? It feels like a lot of hoping that the guys that you brought in at the trade deadline last year are going to work out. And maybe that's the move that Mike Hazen made at that time in preparation for

this offseason. Maybe he was looking at the offseason and saying, you know what? I don't think we're going to be able to go toe to toe to with the Dodgers for an Edwin-Diaz or bring in even like a Kyle Finnegan or somebody like that. So our best bet is to use what we have on this roster to trade for relievers and build the bullpen organically through having young guys in minor leaguers. And, you know, that's fine. That's good.

I think in a lot of organizations, that would be ideal. But when you're the Arizona Diamondbacks and you consistently have a bottom 10 bullpour. year in and year out every single year of this franchise's tenure, basically. It's starting to fit. Like there are times where you're like, I don't know, man, go out and get Edwin Diaz. We could use the guy who we feel like actually confident about at a certain point in this bullpen. So I'm going to go ahead and give it an F.

I think if you're just talking about the off season, right? Because trade deadline is another situation. And these trade deadline guys might work out. But I have not seen anything in way of like actual bullpen. help that it makes me feel better about this team going into next season. And so I have to be a little bit brutal here. I think I have to go give an F. But this next one is really interesting. And I kind of divvied it up like this to make it as interesting like this, Dalton, because on the one hand, you have one of the bigger moves of the offseason at third base. On the other hand, you have one of the

loudest non moves of the off season and zero signings made at the first base spot outside of, I believe Luke and Baker was signed from the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Minor league contract as well. Shouldn't expect too much out of him. What do you make of this corner infield group and what the, you know, the Aeronado edition and the lack of additions at first base? And how would you kind of cumulatively grade that? I think right now I'm going to sit at a C minus. And it's also, I think my grade's a little bit skewed because of the A,

first base is a complete question mark with, you know, Pavin Smith, the platoon option, and then Tyler Locklear is injured, and hopefully he gets ready soon after acquiring him from Seattle during the trade deadline. But third base, Nolan Aeronado, gold glove option, gold glove caliber. That's fantastic. But the offensive numbers have taken a dive over the last three seasons, the last four seasons, really, 891 OPS in 2022. That's fallen now to a 666 in 2025. over 200 point drop in the OPS from over the last four seasons. And it's been a gradual decrease. So there is some concerns on the offensive side of the ball for Nolan Aronado.

That said, when you have a shaky pitching staff that might not punch a lot of tickets out, you're going to need someone who can, players who can field some ground balls. And that left side defense between Aronado and Perdomo is absolutely electric, arguably the best defensive left side of the infield in baseball currently. So that's my bright side for Aronado. But between the question marks at first, base and between Aronado's question marks as a hitter now for the dimeback entering 2026. I give it a C minus.

And I do think my last point is like, I think my grade's a little bit skewed because we're going from Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor in 2025 to Nolan Aronado and to be determined at first base. And that is a significant drop off. I know they've tried to fill that void at first base, but they haven't done it yet. So I guess it's to be determined in the overall grade. but currently right now I would sit at a C or C minus. Yeah, a lot of belief in Pave and Smith in this organization,

you know, whether it's willing belief or whether it's, you know, that's the best option that we got. Pave and Smith is going to be tasked with having a huge role on this team next season. And frankly, the Diamondbacks just need him to be more consistent, right? Like he had, he always shows flashes. That's his thing. The second that you're out on Paving Smith, he hits a grand slam and wins you the baseball game. And you're like, oh, that was fun.

Now he's going to go into another slump for a month and, you know, be a black hole at the first base position, which is kind of unacceptable in modern baseball. Like you can't, your first baseman has to be able to hit and provide power numbers or else it's a complete disaster. I'm with you. I'm actually pretty high on the Aeronado move. I think that, you know, despite that offseason or the gradual digression of what we've seen from him, regression from what we've seen from him, digression is not a word. I would, I think that he will bounce back offensively being in a better environment. I think the Cardinals have been an absolute disaster the last couple of seasons. The Diamondbacks are a really well-oiled hitting organization.

Joe Mather knows what he's doing. And I just think getting around these group of hitters is really going to help elevate him and maybe not make him like the 890 OPS guy that you talked about earlier. But I think we could get back in the mid-700s and feel very comfortable with what Nolan Aronado is providing us in the 2026 season. But I'm going to stick with C minus as well. Go ahead. Yes, Dalton.

Kev, you're going to hate me. I'm going to change my grade of a C flat, just a C. And the last, the part that came to my head that I forgot about is that the Cardinals are paying a lot of that contract for Nolan Aronado. So it's not like the debacks are giving a complete major deal to Nolan Aronado. I believe it's $11 million over the next two seasons. that's i mean obviously the him at the plate will be the biggest question mark but for that price i'm a little i feel a little bit better about it yeah 11 million over two seasons is nothing to scoff

it's a fantastic price and you know having the cardinals pay a lot of that contract is definitely extremely helpful now i don't know if you want to give a grade on this next one dalton when it comes to middle infield um because i was willing to just put an n a not available because i i don't really even know what they needed to do in way of middle infield. They have the best middle infield in baseball. I'm not sure that's even a remotely close discussion. You have the best shortstop in the sport last year. Seven war, Jerry Perdomo, captain, see on his chest, do it yesterday. And then you also have Catelle Marte, who's been the best second baseman in baseball for what, five years. So I, you know, I'm, I'm of the opinion that, you know,

this one I'll give him a pass on. I didn't need to see anything. You still have Blaze. You still of Jordan Lawler, they can, you know, supplement at those positions, even Tim Tawa. So I'm fine, just going N.A. here. Ironically enough, Damon, I went A. Okay. It's, I guess, ironic or funny, because it's a cliche statement, but sometimes the best move is the one you don't make. And we had heard the entire offseason that could tell the Cte trade rumors.

and I understand, you know, trading Catel Marte could bring in some pitching and that it could have really helped there were to a rotation that's had massive struggles over the last couple of seasons. But Catel Marte is the best second basement by a landslide in the sport. So not trading him, I think is a huge non-move to keep the debacks middle infield at N. You know what? I'm changing mine. I'm going A plus, Kevin. Dalton convinced me. I agree. You know, it went. sometimes the best move is the move you don't make. And in this situation, the best move was to not trade the guy who is far and away, not even close, the best player at his position in the sport, unless you were going to get a monster type haul for him, right?

And I think that that's what Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks were trying to get from the Red Sox in particular. Like, hey, you know, if it's going to, if you're going to give us, you know, Tolly and, you know, Duran and, and Marcello Mayer, sure. but if you're not willing to pony up what it costs to get a superstar, perennial all-star, then you're not getting him on a discount. And it felt like everybody was sitting there going, oh, the debacks and Catelle, they're beefing.

They don't like each other. We can probably try to get Catell on the margins here. Not like that at all. It was never going to cost minor leaguers. It was always going to cost MLB ready guys who were ready to make an impact on next year's roster. And if that wasn't going to be paid up, then it was just not going to be a deal that was going to be made. So I'm with you, A plus.

I love it. Might be the best move of the offseason, not trading one could tell Marte. We'll find out in short term here. But moving on, we're getting into the outfield. And this one is interesting because they have a pretty big hole at outfield in the left field spot in particular. They traded away Jake McCarthy. So they actually lost an outfielder here in the process. And it seems like that they're going to be going in the direction of trying to,

internally develop, trying to believe in Blaze Alexander to take some starts in left field, believe in Ryan Walschmidt maybe to have a hot spring and make a big impact and influence on Toro Lavello and his staff. So what do you make of this outfield group and what they, I guess, didn't really do this offseason? I think this is more of a C-minus or a not-available grade because they haven't really made an addition. It was just a subtraction of Jake McCarthy. And if you want to talk about it's not an off-season move but lordis garyl junior tears his ACL which is why that left field spot is open i think my concern for outfield is just going to be the inexperience in that left field spot because i it sounds like the three options at least for right now

are ryan waltrowman who's not made his l-lb debut though he's a top 100 prospect very excited to watch and play in the in the desert when he gets called up um jordan luller potentially moving to the outfield there was rumbling that he might potentially move to centerfield or left field that could be an option but again has primarily been on the left side of the infield for most of his career and then blaze alexander who just recently moved to the outfield during the end of last year he was primarily a middle infield there played some third base so you have three guys whether they're inexperienced at the position or haven't really played major league baseball as the guys currently penciled in at that left field spot obviously right now alec Thomas corp and carroll that

remains the same so there's not much change on at center and right but left field's a big question mark And it's arguably outside of first base in the pitching spots. That's the next biggest blank area for the team. Yeah, I'm with you. You know, it seems like Lourdes is really moving fast in his rehab. I don't know if you're locked into what he's posted on Instagram, Dalton, but the dudes in the cages every day, he's sliding. He's doing full base running outside, doing sliding drills.

Like, and he's even posting stuff like hashtag opening day 2026 on his Instagram stories. So I don't know if, you know, maybe he's being a little bit hopeful and whatnot, but I do think we're going to see Lordus Gurriel sooner rather than later once the season starts. Hopefully we won't be without that piece for so long. And it's funny because I've been really hard on Guriel. But when you look at the roster that we have right now, like, we need Guriel. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Because he is, you know, outside of the three triumvirate of elite players at the top of this lineup,

up, he's probably the next most, you know, I guess the guy that you would put your, your chips in on and say, like, this is a, an MLB player that is going to help you win baseball games for the most part. You know, he obviously has his flaws. But I think Lordus, you know, hopefully is back soon, not much in the way of outfield additions here. But I really do believe in Ryan Walshman. I think Ryan Walshman, for some reason, he just has the makings for me as like a really good

baseball player that you know is he played SEC baseball he's moved to the minor league system very fast he's looked good at every stop um so i'm hoping that he just takes it you know full grasp in the spring and just says this is my position because i'm undeniably the best that we have here i think that's the ideal scenario for arizona but i'll go give it a d plus um i did want to see jake moved not that like you know not in a nasty way but uh i did think it was time to move on from from jake McCarthy so I was I was fine with that that trade happening and uh you know I I hope Alec Thomas rewards this team with with a little bit of you know better play with the belief that we've shown in him as an organization so far but yeah I'm gonna go D plus on the outfield

situation uh you can go ahead and just mark me down as an F minus at DH because and that's not to say that I think that you know ADC can't be good because I do think ADC could be good and I like ADC. I just don't know if I like ADC as my penciled in starter at DH going into a season. You could say D for me in DH. I do have a soft spot for ADC. A quick story. One of my, I think it was my first time back in Arizona after the 2020s World Series was August 9th, 2024. It was a Friday night game versus the Phillies. It was a two-two ball game. ADC. It's a walk-off solo home run. It was such an electric atmosphere, such a great moment. It was so awesome to see that.

And so ever since then I'm like, oh, ADC, I totally believe in him. He can do it. He could be the guy. But we're doing offseason grades. There's question marks about ADC in terms of, you know, facing lefties. Is they're going to be able to an option at DH? And they haven't really made a move to complement the DH position. So I have to give it a day.

Yeah. The second you said that where you're like, I got a soft spot for him, I was like, oh, yeah, Dalton was at that ADC walkoff. game where he came in and pinch hit and just sent it to the moon. That was one of the best, you know, moments of that season for sure. And just an absolutely electric moment in general. I really like ADC. I hope that he carves out a role for himself as the long-term, you know, kind of option at

catcher because I do think that, you know, with his hitting prowess and him being a lefty and Gabby being a righty, like you could make that platoon be a long-term situation here in Arizona. And if he could just defend a little bit better, get. a little bit, you know, of development on the defensive side, which, you know, is asking a lot here. But I don't know if he's good enough to straight up be your designated hitter. I do think he provides value in that if he's your catcher, he's a really good offensive catcher. But as a designated hitter, I think he's, you know, you're hoping for middle of the

pack almost. So we'll see here on the DH side of things. But yet another hole that really wasn't exactly the best filled hole. One thing I'm realizing we forgot here was catcher. We can just kind of toss in and off the cuff. Like, I'll give it a B plus. I'm happy James McCann's back. I think that's a good move. He kind of seemed to settle the pitching staff last season when he got brought in.

And so I'm happy with that. So if you want to give a quick James McCann grade, go ahead. Ditto. Literally. I mean, he was fantastic when he came in, helped the pitching staff. I couldn't say it better. Now, Dalton, if you had to give an overall grade for this off season,

what would you be sitting out here? I think there needs to be an asterisk next to just because obviously it's not done, but currently where the D-back sit from this off season, I would say a C-minus. I think that also comes about what they do at first base. Is there a left-field move? Is there another pitcher brought it, whether it's in the bullpener rotation? But it's a little bit underwhelming. I will say my favorite move currently has been the Merrill Kelly bringing him back.

That's, that's, I'm sorry, I'm just laughing at the aster. That's a great job. That's awesome. I love the Merrill Kelly signing because the rotation needed a for sure fire pitcher. Obviously, is better as SP2 than SP1, but they needed a stability, somewhat like a calming cause person in that spot. But there's still a lot of holes to be filled for this dime back's roster. Hopefully they make a move at first base, left field, starting pitcher, reliever. Aeronado upside.

if he has an offensive resurgence on back in. I love it. But right now I would sit at a C minus. Yeah, I think I was going to, I was rolling with a C minus myself as well. You know, I think that you do kind of bare minimum. And I think you do enough to get along where, you know, this, this team is going to be decent next season. Right. Like I do think that this team will be, will be good enough.

And really, if they just have some better luck, that alone could give you a few more wins here and there because the injury luck has been so poor. The bullpen luck has been about as disastrous as you can imagine where every guy is either getting hurt or, you know, the ones that you do feel comfortable with, like Ryan Thompson and Kevin Dinkle are just having absolute stinker seasons. So, you know, I think that this C-minus is fair. It's enough to make this team competitive in 2026, but it's not enough to make us as Diamondbacks fans feel like this team is like a real contender to win anything significant in 2026. I'll just say C minus. What am I doing? Like I'll just, I'm going to be with you, Damon. Like, it's, they'll

hopefully they make another move and hopefully we're able to change and be like, yeah, this offseason was a lot better than we originally thought. But currently where it sits, I'm a little bit pessimistic and that's tough coming. That's tough coming from a usually an optimistic guy, Kev, great job. I mean, just looks, that looks fantastic. Yeah, just a phenomenal job by my guy, Kevin Thomas. and of course, great job by my guy, Dalton Feeley as well. Always bringing the heat here on the P HNX D-D-Bax podcast. Generous with his time today. We kept him a little extra long.

I appreciate you, Dalton. I know you got that migraine. Take care of yourself, and we look forward to talking to you next time right here on the P-H-N-X-D-Bax pod. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Dalton.

Of course, give Dalton a follow at D-F-E-E-L-Y-14. That's D-F-E-E-L-Y-14, and just support all of his great work that he's got going on for John Boy Media talking baseball, you name it, Dalton Feeley is the absolute man. We're going to get back into this podcast, the PhaGenXD Backs podcast, and get into some mailback questions,

answer your mailback questions right after our final break here on the AZ Wildcats pod. Oh, PHNXDBXPod. Studio K sponsored by our friends over at Circle K and for good reason because Circle K is America's Thirstop and the Inner Circle Rewards membership program is free and it's here to save you guys money. So guys, if you haven't signed up for this Inner Circle Rewards membership yet, I don't know what you're doing.

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They also have drink deals, snack deals, you name it. Everything inside those Circle K walls, they're offering deals with our Inner Circle Rewards members. So guys, get involved. in that. Check it out for yourself and join the Inner Circle for free by downloading that CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Also need to tell you guys about my good friends over at Branded Bills. Now branded bills, they don't have a ton of D-Backs hats, but they made this really special one last season,

Kevin, for season ticket holders. You know me and Derek had to get our hands on a couple of them because it is absolutely pristine. I'm excited for maybe some more future Diamondbacks and Branded Bills memberships down the road, but that's not where the buck stops. They got Arizona hats. They got Arizona State hats. They got Phoenix Suns hats and they got so much more over, what is it? The campus collection has what 80 universities, 80 plus universities involved with, or sorry, 40 partnerships of the universities, but we always care about the ASU, the U of A ones, also NAU, GCU, you name it. They got all the local ones because they're a local company based out of here in Mesa, Arizona. We love our friends over at branded bills. We thank them so much for sponsoring all

of our podcast here at PHNX Sports and getting us fitted with the absolute premier headwear in the game here, whether it's a truck or a fitted, a snapback, a beanie, even a t-shirt. Branded Bills has got you covered, the ultimate custom apparel and the ultimate team branded apparel over at branded bills. Head on over to brandedbills.com. Use promo code BBPHNX and X. Get 15% off your first order. Welcome back to the PHNX DBAX podcast. Please drop a like on this video. If you are here in the chat, I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much the journey. That means the world to me. Damon Dog Week at PHNX Sports,

and I hope you guys are all ready and locked in for it, because I'm on every damn show. I even told Anthony Totry, I'm taking over the PHNX Sun Devils podcast from here on until the end of the week. So I'm doing it all. I got my hands in every pot. Whatever you guys want.

I just ran the applause for you, Damon, by the way. Thank you, Kevin. I appreciate that, man. We're going to get into some mailbag here, but first Karen asked a question, what are we going to do for Cog's 21st birthday next year? man I mean we got to do something special

clearly I'm sitting here and I'm sick to my stomach that the A's are still going to be in Sacramento because the move was always Vegas A's was it not I thought that was the whole point of them moving to Vegas was that so we could celebrate Cox's 21st birthday in Vegas I guess not

what a disaster we'll figure it out there we'll do something fun absolutely have to maybe talking stick who knows when it when is cogs's birthday karen would you mind putting that in the chat what what what is the what is the month because that will factor into uh you know maybe some of the activities that we could or could not do especially here in arizona um but yeah appreciate appreciate everybody being here in the chat drop a like for your boy here drop a like for my guy kevin thomas and drop a like for a little bit of mail bag monday because you guys know what time it is and you know what we do on mondays you know what

what day it is. What is it, Kevin? You know, every single... Every week is Shark Week. Every month is Black History Month, but this one is actually Black History Month. Every day is Black Women's History Day. Every month is Black Women's Latinx History Month Day.

Shout to all the mail carriers. This is Mail Carrier Monday. You can't get your bag without the mail. Play the music. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go wow, wow, my bill box. Wow.

It's Cog's birthday today. Happy birthday to one of the goats of this podcast. One Coggs, who is a staple, has been on the show now multiple times, had to earn it by doing a scavenger hunt to find our new office, which was absolutely electric. And Coggs has a very, very bright future in this business. I know that dude loves Diamondbacks baseball and just baseball in general more than just about any single person that you will ever meet.

So Coggs has a super bright future. We're really excited for him. 20 years old, man. Is that right? 20 years old? We got a two in front of him. I mean, that's special. He's growing up.

Our sweet baby boy, Karen, he's growing up in front of our eyes. Make a grown man shed a tear, Kevin. Why don't we get into our first mailbag question here? And it is, of course, from my guy, Travis Moore, who is our lead-off hitter. It wouldn't be anybody else other than Travis Moore to lead this one off.

how do we convince the front office to DFA Barrosa? He seems like a really nice guy in all, but he's literally just taking up space in a major league lineup. He's a negative value at the plate and blocking guys who have potential. Now, here's what I'll say to you, Travis Moore. I agree with you. And you know, you guys know me.

I'm not the guy who's going to mince my words and be like, well, you know, Pavin Smith's a nice guy. So we want him on the team. It's like, no, let's hope. If you're not helping this organization win, then you need to do it's time to move on that being said you know i i think horre barosa is a guy that really has no business being on the 40 man roster right he's he's somehow still on the 40 man roster feels like he's the first guy that would be off of it if there was a move to be made here in

the near future um so i do think that they all i'll go get out ahead of it and say that if they're if the diamondbacks are to bring in another guy another free agent you name it i think horhe Barossa will be the one that goes. But on the bright side about Jorge Barossa, and I'll give him this, he played such a little amount of innings last season. He had 77 plate appearances in total. And he had four outs above average. Four outs above average in that little amount of time.

I mean, he's an absolute black hole at the plate. Don't get me wrong. He's not a good hitter. But that's pretty impressive. To me, I mean, that shows that he's a really, really, really solid. outfielder. And I guess that would be what I would say is that he's on the roster because he's a very, very good defensive player. He has a lot of range. He tracks the ball down for, again, four outs above average in the amount of the sample size of time he played last season is really

damn impressive. So that's why he's on the roster, but I agree with you. He's the guy that I'm looking at on the 40 man that I'm saying, if anyone has to be kind of, you know, hemorrhaged here, it's him. It's him. So, uh, sorry Jorge Barrosa I would say I feel bad about doing stuff like that but I really don't way under Cesar and if it's if it's over

we're in trouble if it's over we're in trouble let's let's go let's go under and let's hope for the best moving on here to question number two we got my guy Jason Jarmy if the roster is set and no more splashes are expected

before opening day I'm actually feeling good on a scale of World Series champs to 2025 Rockies, how would you take the 2027 DBEX, 2026 Dbacks? How would you rate the 26 Dbacks? I say winning record and make it postseason. Well, you know, this question was funny because it's essentially what me and Dalton just did our entire exercise on. C minus is what I'd grade it.

Now, I don't know what that means in the scale of 2020, World Series team to 2025 Rockies, but I don't know. maybe you're the maybe you're the giants or something from the last couple years like I don't as it currently stands I don't think this team is making the playoffs I think this team is competitive

I think this team is 500 I think this team is a team that you know if things break right and you win a few games that you know you were losing all of them all of those types of games in the first half of the season next year you could convince Ken Kendrick

and Mike Hazen that this team is a buyer at the trade deadline. And for me, I think that that is the idealistic scenario, that this team is in a battle for a wild card spot, a few games above 500, and Mike Hazen and Ken Kendrick are looking at it saying, if we make a couple of additions via trade, we could be looking at a team that could make the playoffs

and could make some noise in the playoffs. And I think that that's the ideal outcome for the debaq season. But as of right now, I think you're going to be about as good as you were last two years and that's like an 81 win baseball team. And I have no reason to really believe otherwise considering that, you know, we needed massive jumps from a guy like Geraldo Perdomo last season to even have that record. You needed, you know, there was there, there was a lot of things that were, you know, somewhat going well for you. Your hitting was elite and yet you still faltered

and had such bad pitching that it just was, it was too much for the team to overcome. And so I, I feel very similarly about this team as I did about last year's team while we were watching it. Now, last year's team before the season, I thought we were winning it all. I thought, I mean, not actually, but I was sitting up here being like, this team's a world series contender. You know who doesn't want to see us in the playoffs? The Dodgers. Still think that's true.

I still think we might be the last team that they actually want to face off against, but who knows if we even get there. And that's where I'm out with it. I think the Diamondbacks need to make a few more moves to get over the hump to getting to that spot. But I think that they're a decent enough team as is. Kevin, you have any thoughts on that? I know you're not the, you know, Mr. Dback here,

but just from an outside perspective, you think any chance, any chance of debacks are, are better than last season, or you think it's going to be about the same? I feel like, I don't know. I'm an optimist, glass half, full type guy. I'm inclined to say that last year, you had a lot of, out of your control,

contextual things happen resulting in poor performance on the field such as injuries, right? And I would put my money that this year's team is going to be healthier. And I do think that this year's team still has talent. You talk to Dalant about, or not Dalton, Philly, Damon talked to Dalton about like the returning players from last year to this year. You're able to keep sweet, sweet frogman, Geraldo Prado, Cotel Marte, still suiting up for the boys as well. So I think you have the top end talent and if the bullpen and if the pitching can kind of, you know, help supplement it, you have the foundation of a winning roster for sure, at least in my opinion. Yeah, I think you do have the foundation of a winning roster. You have the best trio of hitters

in the entire sport, not named Otani, Freeman, and Betts probably, which is, or Tucker. I guess you could throw in Kyle Tucker now too, which is fun. But throw the, throw the biggest scumbags you know to the side. The Diamondbacks have the best trio of hitters in the sport. And when you have that, you can win a lot of baseball games by those three players alone, but they're going to need some help. And we don't have the Gino Suarez, the Josh Nailers, and the healthy Lordus Guriel's next to those guys as of now. So what does that lead us with? That leaves us with Pavin Smith needing to take a big jump. That leaves us with Jordan Lawler. Can he become what he was supposed to be this entire time? That leaves us with, you know,

Alec Thomas. How many years is Alec Thomas going to get before, you know, it's clear that he's not the hitter at the play. I think that this is the last one, right? So there's a lot of guys, Gabriel Moreno is probably the number one of like he needs to show up. He needs to be healthy and he needs to be probably the fourth best player on this roster from a position player standpoint next year or else it's probably not going to be a very good season for the Arizona Diamondbacks. So you need a lot in terms of internal development, but as long as you have those guys, you'll always be somewhat relevant. And I think that that's, that is what at least, you know, makes things interesting as a Diamondbacks fan, makes you excited for the season to start. Because it's an unknown when you have Corbyn Carol, Herald Operdomo, and Cotel Marte, what could happen. And so we'll find out soon enough. But yeah, as far as, you know, where I'm feeling, I'm feeling like this team is a 500 baseball team as of right now. And I hope that they prove me wrong in a good way. moving on our next question here which team will you be rooting for during the world baseball classic team

u s a with corbin carol team dominican republic with marty and perdomo team taiwan with umin lind or team porto rico with nolan aeronado now kevin i've i've given my thoughts on this well-known and i'll get into it here in a second but do you do you have a world baseball classic team that you might be rooting for i mean as i look at this list right obviously Marte and Perdomo on the same squad is nuts. That is the squad to root for. It's scenes. It's box office.

Absolute limbs, Damon, right? But I know that that is also your squad, so I'm going to be different. I'm going to say team Puerto Rico with one Nolan Aronado because... With one Derek Montia. If he can't play for my Cardinals and he's going to play for the D-backs, I'm still going to root for him. So this is a nice little avenue to do that. Give me Puerto Rico with Derek and Nolan Aeronado. I'm with Zabe.

Team anyone with Japan is really my favorite team here in the world baseball classic. We cannot let that scumbag show Hey Otani win yet again. It's so funny thinking back on the last world baseball classic, Kevin, where Otani was the man. Yeah. And remember he was pitching against Mike Trout in the final inning? And he was closing it out. And everyone was like, don't you just love Otani?

And he was on the Angels. Oh, isn't this great for baseball? Japan won. It's scenes. Celebration on the field. Did you see Derek's tweet? And now I hate Team Japan more than I hate anything. No, I did not.

Derek's tweet about all the Shoha Tani, like, like, outfits he's seeing out there in Los Angeles. And I think he captioned it. Like, this would be Damon's personal hell or something like that. And Derek's Hotel had a picture of Shohey Othony. Otani big giant life-size poster of Shohei Otani in it. And like, thank God I'm not staying there. Yeah.

Me and the hotel manager would have shared a couple choice words. Maybe a couple choice limbs like fists, for example. Maybe a knuckle sandwich or two. I mean, I'm going to just go out and say that. That's discrimination against Diamondbacks fans. Wow. It is. Wow.

He's going there. He's going there. I am. I'm pulling the card. He's pulling the logo card. Yeah. That is straight up discrimination. I don't want to see that at my hotel.

That doesn't make me feel comfortable. That makes me unhappy. That puts me in a bad mental headspace, thinking about this scumbag cheater who's trying to steal money out of people's pockets on a daily basis. I mean, it's Team Anyone but Japan is right. In reality, though, as you said, it's Team DR.

Yeah. And wherever Jerry and Cotel go, I go with them. Like, I don't, it's not complicated. It's not rocket science. if they go to the freaking, you know, if they go to the Blue Jays, I'm going with them. Like, I am a Catelle and a Jerryman, and I will continue to do so

as the best middle infield in baseball makes its way to the best team in the world baseball classic that's going to win the entire thing. And I'm buying my Geraldo Perdomo jersey and painting the Dominican flag on my face. Wow. You know how they have the cross right here?

Yeah. I'm going cross right in four panels painted. on my face for this world baseball classic. It means everything to me. This super chat from AZCat. G means everything to me, Damon. Wildcats went on Saturday and Damon and Kevin start taking over PH and X shows. Good job, guys. Keep up the good work.

Good job. Thank you, Aizcatch, G. We appreciate you, man. Yeah, I mean, Lando, I hear you. I want to root from my country, my homeland. But when you start doing make-a-wish charity cases for Clayton Kershaw, I'm out. I already said that on this show. You start doing charity for Kershaw, and I'm done.

I don't want anything to do with that scumbag. Just like I don't want anything to do with the scumbags on Team Japan, notably Yoshi Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, and Shoei Otani. I want nothing to do with it. Oh, Team Canada, Freddie Freeman, want nothing to do with it. Like, I'm consistent here. What is evil to me is the powers that be in, in Los Angeles, California, Kevin.

And that's what I root against. Get Kirshah off of my baseball team. What are we doing? Should we take Randy Johnson out of retirement? Kevin? What's Kurt Schilling up to? I'm sure he'd put on the red and blue. Nothing good, brother.

I'm sure he'd put on the red, white, and blue. He'd love nothing more. We're giving it to guys that use walkers and in our own wheelchairs, like, what are we doing? Clayton Kirshaw's done. He's done. If Clayton Kirshaw gives up a bomb in this world baseball classic in a pivotal moment, I'm going to laugh.

I'm going to be sitting there laughing at what a baffling decision that was to add him to the roster. And honestly, I hope it happens. I hope it happens. Because that means that my sweet baby Dominican Republic is probably doing just fine. So yeah, you know what? That's how I feel about the world baseball classic. I'm anti-Japan, I'm pro-Dominican Republic, and I'm anti-Clatan Kershaw.

Those are my three main takes on the matter. And let us continue with Mailbag Monday, Kevin. Michael C, what is the top prospect you have given hope on? Giving up hope on. I'm not doing a good job reading. Man, that's a tough one. We got a few to pick from, guys. we really do.

Whether it's Drew Jones, whether it's Jordan Lawler, whether it's Slade Caldwell, there's a lot of guys that I think were brought in to be, you know, big time additions to this team drafted very high, and it just hasn't worked out for whatever reason that it is. So I think I'm going to roll with Jordan Lawler. I think I believe more in the, in the, in the, the chance that it's too soon on Drew Jones, who's still very young.

Drew Jones is still very young. He's 22 years old. He just turned 22. And I think he has really good tools. And he also has shown flashes in the back half of seasons consistently. Now, he sucks in the front half of seasons. Go look at his numbers. It's a disaster.

You're like, this guy can't hit it all. Then he pulls up in the second half and you're like, maybe we got something here he's got like a close to 800 OPS he's got you know close to a 300 average like he's he's obviously a really solid defender as we all know so I'm I'm holding out a tiny bit of hope for Drew Jones I really am slade Caldwell you know I think is a little bit more of a yeah he was a high draft pick and yeah we had high expectations for him it's also not over but you know it's it was never the juice that was brought in with Drew Jones and Jordan Lawler Like those guys were like supposed to be stars.

They were top 10 prospects, top 20 prospects. And Jordan Lawler cannot hit, sadly. Jordan Lawler has shown us an inability to hit a breaking ball, an off speed pitch. Like it's been a struggle for Jordan Lawler. So because of that, I think I'm going with him. I also don't know when you look at this team and you look at Aeronado, Pardomo, Ketel, where does he fit in? Where is he getting these at bats that he's apparently so needs to prove that he's an MLB

caliber player? Because all I ever hear is, well, he can't hit because he only gets one out of every four starts. Okay, well, when is he going to start starting more than that? Because the best players on this team, the guys that you have sharpied into the starting lineup are playing his same positions. Maybe he moves to left field. Maybe he takes that opportunity with Lourdes out for a little.

bit and says, you know what, I'm going to take these at bats because I've earned it. But for me right now, Jordan Lawler is the one that I am most concerned about as a high profile prospect that, you know, we're just essentially not getting anything out of, out of that guy, whether it's via trade, whether it's him playing for this organization. It's really, it's really one situation that is pretty demoralizing because this guy's hit everywhere he's been, except for when he gets called up to the Major League level. It's now or never for Jordan Lawler. He needs to prove something this year.

But I guess that would be mine that I'm going with. I'm interested in Jacob's take on the matter. Did Jacob give an opinion? Because I know Jacob's locked into the farm system. Jacob says way too early on Slade. Jacob, is there a prospect that you are most concerned about out of this roster? And we're going to have Big Jake Franklin on on Wednesday's episode of PHNXD. Backs.

Cannot wait for Big Jake's for team. But yeah, I'm interested in the comments. You guys, everybody drop who they are most concerned about out of these prospects here. And let's move on to our next question. Katie May wants to know if I have thoughts and hopefully a rant on Otani writing a book about his dog like a sellout. Now, I'll be honest. I wanted to research this a little bit more before I hopped on this show. but we're going to just do it live on air.

Shohay's next trick, a children's book from MLB.com, isn't that fun? So now Shohay Otani is trying to infect the minds of young children. Now propaganda is being spread to the youngs of this country, the miners that we have in such a deplorable way. I mean, I'm looking at this, Decoy Saves Opening Day. he's the MLB's most valuable dog according to who Kevin according to who this fictional children's book

well I don't remember voting him as that I don't remember the voters sitting down and saying this is the most valuable dog in the league what makes him better than uh... Catelle Marte's dog what makes him better than Brandon Fott's dog what if those are the the most valuable dog you don't you haven't compared them you haven't seen them out on the on the field doing their thing to venture to guess that decoy is nowhere close to the most valuable dog. How about, here's an idea for a book for Otani. And Easy Catch G puts it in here and gives me the idea. How about a gambling book?

How about teaching people how to, how to sports bet? I think that's what we really know. I would buy it. A book on beating the books. Yeah, I would buy it. Sports gambling for dummies. Fall guys for dummies. How to, how to blame your.

best friend and make him go to prison for dummies. Now, that's a book that Otani probably owns, right? But man, I mean, what a joke. What a disaster. Is anyone sick of this Otani propaganda fest that we just have to abide by on a regular basis? I don't care about his dog. In fact, I hate his dog. I'm a dog lover, Kevin. You know that. I love dogs. I hate Otonis, scumbag. His name is literally decoy. We talk about it all the time, but is that a coincidence or not?

Because it seems like he's a damn distraction to what's really going on behind the scenes. Mr. Otani, freaking money laundering and doing all this real estate crap in Hawaii. I mean, God, it just makes me sick. And now he's making money off of the children of society as well. There's no bounds.

that this guy will not go to to make a buck. Seriously. It's all about making a buck for Mr. Shohei Otani. And I cannot believe that we were convinced that he was different, that he was special, that he was this sweetheart of an individual. And meanwhile, here he is ripping off real estate dudes for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anyone that buys this book, please don't talk to me. Please never have a conversation with me. Please block me on all social media because I could not care less about your opinion. Let's move on to the next one. I hope that was what you wanted, Katie. We got Michael Roe Kiki, and now we're getting into the nitty-gritty questions here, Kevin.

This question is for Damon. Thankfully, Damon's the only one on the podcast today. You have to choose one. You guarantee a national title for U of A, but Pavin Smith has to stay on the roster the entire season, or you can immediately cut Pave and Smith and guarantee the D-backs winning the World Series in 2026, which do you choose?

Wait, so it doesn't? It doesn't preclude us. Yeah, that was my question. So you could still, they could still win it. And so, so I guess my question to hear, for you here, Kevin, and I want you to pop on screen for this one, if, if I was to say the second option solely because I think our wildcats have a really good shot of winning as is, You think that's the smartest play?

Because I'll tell you what, I'll be honest with you guys. I'll be a level with you. And I know the D-BAC chat probably doesn't want to hear this, but I'm going number one. Wow. Like, number, if it's in a vacuum and it precludes me from winning the other two, I'm going number one. I'm sorry.

I am. And again, that's not going to, it's not a popular answer on this podcast in particular. But I was asked the question on Mailbag Monday. I'm going to go option two, mostly because, as you know, I have so much un otherworldly belief in this Arizona Wildcat Squad that, yeah, I don't think Pavin Smith has a damn thing to do with whether or not they're going to win it all. So they can win the World Series, guaranteed. And we will take our chances in the Arizona Invitational, Damon.

That's kind of what I was asking, if that's the smart play. Because I think it is, because the Diamondbacks are way further off winning than the Wildcats are, obviously. you know, we're the big dogs right now. We're number one. And until we get unseated, it's like, this team feels like it has the best chance of anybody to win a national championship as of right now. So I think if you're talking about it from like an intellectual standpoint, it might be smarter to go with the second option just because you still have a really good shot of

winning that national title or at least going to a final four in, you know, in the college basketball side of things. Now, the Diamondbacks do not have a really good shot of winning the World Series if I'm not taking option two. Yeah. So maybe that's the smart play. If again, I'm going to say it again, if you were saying and the D-backs don't win for sure or and the D-backs or and the Wildcats don't win for sure as part of those options, I think I'm going option one. And I'm sorry, I just, I've never seen my team in a final four ever, ever. It's been so long.

It means everything to me. I'm from Tucson. I'm a season ticket holder. I've been doing this my whole life. I watch every game, my entire life, and we just lose. That's a great point. I need it. The debacks I've seen like a level of success.

That 2023 run was the best sports moment maybe of my entire life. You know, and I know it didn't end in a W, but it was, it was happy. I look back fondly on those times. I remember them with, you know, sharing it with all of the people. here in the chat and, you know, like embracing Derek when we went to the World Series, it was special. But I've, I've somewhat been there before. Whereas with my other team, with my wildcats, I haven't. I've never been there before. So it's, it's, I respect it. I mean, what a difficult conversation, though. Yeah, you're literally putting at my two children and you're saying,

you have to choose one. And I'm sitting there going, what do you want me to do? These are my two favorite teams. I'm supposed to just choose one. It's the teams I invest my life into, Kevin. It's a somewhat evil question. A somewhat evil question in a way. It is an evil question. It's diabolical. I said, I told Michael it's a soul. I think it registers as a soul legally. I really do. So yeah, you're right, Jacob. Once Bobby Hurley's gone, that's when ASU basketball is really going to turn things around and take the mantle here in the state of Arizona. That's a really good point. I think I'm going option two, but if it's, or option one, but if, if it's in a vacuum, but if I still have a chance, I'm going option, option two, because I think the wildcats are

actually going to get it done. Moving forward, we got another U of A question. Which would be more entertaining? Corby and Carroll playing as the UA, playing with U of A men's basketball or Coa Pete playing for the diamond backs. Baseball is such a weird sport, man, where it's like, there are times where you definitely have like a football player or a basketball player and you're like, Toby O'Waka could play football and be really good, right? But like, Co-A-Pete is built nothing like a baseball player. No, like I was going to say, I don't even know if I want to see that.

But if he's built nothing like a basketball player. Yeah. Like baseball, the type of athlete that you are is almost so much different than the type of athletes that you are in in every other sport because it's so hand-eye coordination. It's so like your eye at the plate, you know, like how hard you can throw. Like it's not necessarily just like, can you run and jump and dunk and, you know, the kind of stuff that you would want on a basketball court, right? Like, Co-A-Pete is good because he's overtly athletic.

Can Co-A-Pete swing a bat and hit a baseball at 90 miles per hour? My guess is probably not. Can Corbyn Carroll even survive on a court without being attacked on a mismatch on every single possession because he's 5 foot 8 and 170 pounds, Kevin? I don't think so. So I think we're looking at a couple bad options here, truly. Yeah, yeah. But I think if COA played baseball his whole life in lead up to a baseball career, I think he would be better than the other way around because Corbyn just doesn't have the height that you need. to become a high-level basketball player, despite the speed.

I mean, if Co-A-Ped picked up a baseball bat instead of a basketball, Aaron Judge, anybody? Aaron Judge, anybody? But, yeah, I guess give me... I guess give me Corbyn on the UA basketball? Because we got... We got LeBron's son, and he ain't playing worth the damn. So we could just have Corbyn on the bench.

You know what I mean? He's a vibes guy. He could be a vibes guy. He'd be a great vibes guy. It's him and Jackson Francois. Yeah, but I feel like Coa Pete out there would genuinely, and this is with all due respect to Coa, but baseball is hard.

He might embarrass himself, and I don't want that for Coa, right? Like people trying to actually win baseball games for their career, and Coa Pete is just out there doing whatever a basketball player would do on a baseball field. So yeah, give me Corbyn Carroll on Arizona Men's Basketball, and him and Bryce James will sit at the end of the bench

and look phenomenal doing all the celebrations. for all the big dunks. I hear you. I do think if Coa Pete went out there, he would absolutely embarrass himself right now. But what I'm saying is I think if Coa Pete maybe like grew up his whole life and like was, you know,

a baseball player, that was what he did. We could be looking at maybe a pretty special baseball player. No? A guy, just an Aaron judge. Faj saying that he would probably pitch and throw a 102. Probably.

Feed it to me. Why not? I think if we're starting from from, from birth. I'm going COA. But right now, I guess I'll go Corby. I bet Corby has at least like, he's probably a good defender. He's probably scrappy. You know? Yeah.

Corbin's, if Corbin's nothing, if not scrappy. But yeah. Interesting conversation. Thank you, Zabe, for your question. Moving on here. Our next question comes from Brett Jay. And he says, taking my question from last week over to this week, if you could recast the Mario movie, the first one or the upcoming galaxy movie as D-Bax players,

who would you play? Who? Mario, Luigi, Yosh, Toad, Bowser, etc. I feel like Bowser can definitely be the Dodgers and the rest can be D-Vax players. Well, Bowser is definitely Otani. He's a garbage. Trying to ruin the world. Hmm.

I feel like Corbyn's got to be towed because he's short. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shouldn't Frogman be towed? I feel like Jerry is Yoshi. That's valid. That's valid. That's valid. I just felt the Toad DeFrog lineage was too similar right there. But yeah, no, he has more Yoshi vibes.

What about Catelle? Is he the Mario? Like, who's Mario? Yeah. Who's the main character here? That one's interesting. I feel like Catell almost needs to be like a character that's like kind of more silent. You know what I mean?

A character that's a little bit more, a little bit more powerful. Yeah, Dekoy is Baby Bowser. Absolutely. Hmm. Mario and Luigi. That's tough. I really wish we had brothers right about now, you know? That would be nice.

Who acts like? Doesn't, I mean, doesn't Gabby kind of look like a Venezuelan Mario a little bit? Like, are we, I mean, Mario's got a catcher's build. Let's call it like it is. Mario is built like a catcher, right?

Get him behind the dish, let him block some balls in the dirt, block the plate on a collision at home. Like, I'm taking my chances with Mario. So maybe I'm going, maybe we'll go Gabby. We'll go Gabby as Mario. It's me, Gabby.

Yeah, we had, we had Wario and Josh Naylor. We traded him. He literally looks just like him. Jerry is Yoshi. You know what? We'll just say, we'll give Catelle Luigi. And then we'll go ahead and we'll say that a toad is Corv and Carol. Special.

Who are some other characters? Princess Peach Yeah we don't have any Is that the World Series? We don't have any women on our team Yeah but is that the World Series trophy though Yeah it is Like you're trying to save that

Bring it back home You know what I mean? It would be pretty cool If we had women on the team though That'd be special It'd be generational literally Yeah genuinely By every definition of the word

Would be generational Because that would have never Ever happened before Yeah Yeah Lordus Lordus could definitely be a shout As well for one of those spots But yeah

Well, that's what we got there. Was there any other questions, Kevin? I do not believe so. Yeah, I don't believe so. Yeah. So we also had a question from my guy, Geraldo Pridomo's biggest fan, who was asking us to combine the 01 and 2021-23 teams

and come up with a combined roster. Now, you missed it because Derek and I did that two weeks ago for you. So you're going to have to go back, scroll back about two weeks ago, find that episode. It might have been last week, but I think it was two Mondays ago. and we did that full combined roster for you. So go check that out on our YouTube channel if you haven't done so already.

But we appreciate everybody for hanging out with us on an extra long Mailbag Monday edition of this one of the PHNX DBAX podcast. I'm going to be back live tomorrow. I'm bringing on my guy, Alex Dagestino, of, of course, Dbacks on SI. And he does the newsletter here at PHNX Sports as well. So can't wait to talk to Alex and get his thoughts on the Diamondbacks. We'll get into all of that. And then on Wednesday, we got my guy here in the chat,

big Jake Franklin on the show. Cannot wait for that one. It's going to be absolutely electric. Next two days without Derek. It's the Damon show over here at PHNX Sports. So appreciate everybody for rocking with me on this one. It was a lot of fun. We'll be back tomorrow at noon.

In the meantime, give me a follow at Damon Dogg. That's DAWG. Give Kevin a follow at Kev-O Post. Give Dalton a follow at D-Filly 14. Give Derek a follow at K-U-Kman with a K, I guess, if you want. And give us a follow at Ph. HX underscore D-Backs on all social media. Thank you so much to all of those that listened and joined and watched along,

got in the chat, hung out with us today. So much love to all of you folks. And we will be back tomorrow at noon. So be there for that one. But I guess we're doing a, I got to come up with a little baseball as fun here, Kevin, which I didn't prepare and I will have prepared for the next two days as we keep going. Yes, Kevin.

Baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you're at the Grammys. Thank you.