PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks' Pitchers and Catchers Report, IGNITING the Start of the 2025 MLB Season

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube It’s day 1 of the MLB season, pitchers and catchers are reporting, and it’s like the first day of summer and Christmas morning according to Torey Lovullo. We have more on the D-backs newest pitcher Corbin Burnes’ first day at camp, the bullpen options dwindling, and what the Snakes are going to do with seven starters in their rotation. We are also discussing Jordan Montgomery and the new man he has become? Join Derek for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! 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/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gila River: Win a Lamborgini! Visit https://playatgila.com/promotion/350k-lamborghini-luxe-giveaway/ for details Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! 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. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

pitchers and catchers did in fact report today, and you guys know what that means. Baseball is back! I'm so excited. I hope you guys are too. We're talking about all the things that we saw out there in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere? Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXVACs podcast right here in Studio K, presented by our friend Circle K. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of this joint. Happy to have you guys with us, but even happier for it to be that blessed day known as pitchers and catchers reporting.

Let's go. We're back. Baseball is back. Things are exciting. Jordan Montgomery is in great shape. Corbyn Burns is actually wearing a Diamondback's jersey. And Tori Lovolo kicked things off with the most confusing analogy of all time. God bless this man.

I don't even know what he means, but I do know what he means. Tori. It's like the first day of summer, right? And you know, you wake up and it's Christmas morning with a bunch of really nice new packages sitting? Yeah, yeah. It's like the first day of summer on Christmas morning. Absolutely dark. Like, who am I to throw stones? As if I don't say, I don't say wrong phrases on this show all the time. But I love to hear that analogy. I love to hear from Toro Lovallo. It's great to be out there. We'll hear more from Tori here in a little bit. But I got my man, Shane on the ones and twos.

And I know Shane loves this day because today is the day. that he can have a little bit of hope in his Seattle Mariners. Hey. Hey. You think you're better than me? I do. I really do. You think you're better than me?

I don't like that at all. I don't like how you did that. Are you excited about first day then? I'm excited that Julio Rodriguez was at the Sun's game last night. Known Suns fan. Known Suns fan. Well, you get to see them in Peoria here very, very soon. And all of our teams here in the Cactus League, that's a lot of fun.

I heard that this team is aiming for. for a eight and a half games back of the wild card come play off time. Okay. Yeah. That's all right. That's better than I thought. And a division lead at the All-Star break. Hey, yeah.

That's how to really tear hope away, right? And it might be up to like 10 games. Yeah. They might be 10 games ahead of everybody at the All-Star break. But they're going to blow it. They just crumbled. Jorge Polanco is back. You know, that's a good time.

Well, I'll tell you. 189. I will tell you, we also have Tori talking about. about the season crumbling away from them. And boy, did he make some poignant comments in regards to how he felt and the memories that he took away from not only the 2023 off season, but also last off season. First, Corbyn Burns, I don't know if you guys have heard,

but he's in Arizona Diamondback. And it's real. I know we went to the press conference and showed it, but I have some footage here that actually is real. This is Corbyn Burns throwing a baseball. Look at him. Look at this. Feel it. This is what a batter has to deal with, by the way. This is what, like, next, I think everybody should go out there and have to see how it actually looks to stand here and see a ball get tossed in here.

But that is Corbin Burns wearing red, Sedona Red and teal and looking quite, quite excellent in it. He looks amazing in it. But, yeah, man, I mean, this is why, especially for me, this today is, is, such a tremendously cool day. Not often do I get to go this close behind the backstop and watch someone of Corbyn Burns's caliber come out there and pitch. And I mean, his stuff looked good. He looked ready. Everybody looked really good, man. I mean, it's just what this day is about. It's about excitement. It's about seeing, especially a team that added a piece like this, come out there and see him throw his first pitches. But yeah, it's a great day. A lot of, a lot of

fans out there, that was something that was very cool. Corbyn Burns will sign in some autographs. If you haven't had a chance to come out to camp, I implore you to do so. You will have a great time doing so. DeBacks fan, 17 asked somewhere in there if this is pre-recorded. I think that answers your question, right? All right, we figured that out. But we do have some video here from Corbyn Burns talking about him joining this Arizona

Diamondbacks team. This is what Burns had to say. It means that you can't stay home and they on the couch. morning and he got to get out of bed and get to the field. No, it's, it's fun. We all, we all love the game. I love to be here. Me especially getting, getting to be on a new team and getting to know a lot of new faces and just learning things from all these guys that are here. For me, it's exciting and it's day one of, it's going to be a fun camp. It's weird because he got a lot of questions about like knowing people and stuff and it legitimately is like the first day of

school or as Tori said the first day of summer and then when Christmas day happens. But yeah, like there's a lot of a lot of these guys getting to know each other. He talked about having to develop a relationship with Gabrielle Moreno as well. That's something that takes time, obviously. These aren't things that are going to happen on day one. But he did talk about his new pitching coach and the impact that not only will have on Burns, but on the rest of the team. Yeah, Brian's a very intelligent guy. You know, obviously his background of being around pitching and kind of the analytics and the design of pitching before he was in Philly. I think gives him a good background and good knowledge of kind of what it takes for each person to tick.

Obviously, we're all a little bit different in what we do with pitches and sequencing, that kind of thing. So he's kind of got a background where he's seen it all and he's worked with a lot of big-name guys. and I was still work with a pretty good, pretty good pitches staff in Philadelphia last couple of years. So just an intelligent guy, excited, all the good ideas, a lot of good info to pass along, especially to, you know, the young group of pitchers we have. So he's a good guy to kind of help him grow and help him get to that next step. There, the Brian's talking about there is the Diamondbacks new pitching coach, Brian Kaplan. And I think that there, the theme for me today was being very excited.

about what the pitching is going to look like for this team in 2025. Obviously, we know they haven't made a move yet to improve their bullpen, which is something that Mike Hazen has talked about wanting to do. However, the addition of Corbyn Burns is just one addition to make this pitching staff better. There is the transition of coaches over to Brian Kaplan from Brent Strom last year. And right now, we don't know the positive impacts or negative impacts that a new pitching coach could have on this staff. However, when you look at the overall numbers from the starting pitching staff last

year, it's hard to think that you can get worse, right? I guess I should knock on wood about that. But like, when you look at that, when you look at finishing in the bottom five of the league with essentially the talent that the Diamondbacks have, it is a bit of a, it leaves you to scratching your head, you know, a bit about how they ended up being that bad. Obviously, those of us that suffered through the 2024 season can attest. through the injuries and other things that impacted that, right? Like Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez's late start,

trying to just patch the holes at times and have a full starting five-man rotation was difficult for this team. And the disappointment of Jordan Montgomery and acquiring him at the dead nut, or very close to the beginning of the season and having his season go the way that it did. But I think Brian Kaplan has been,

there was a lot of praise amongst the players, amongst Tori, about Kaplan. And I'm excited. I think I really have undervalued what the impact of a new pitching coach could really have on this staff that we do feel is so talented. Trent Walker says no excuses this year for the snakes. Let's win it all. And he's not wrong, right? It's not wrong.

Like this team is very deep. The ownership group went out and added somebody of Corbin Burns's caliber once again to a pitching staff that you could argue was already pretty good outside of like some anomalies last year, right? Like the number on paper, Merrill Kelly, Zach Gallen, Brandon Fott, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Jordan Montgomery are, that's a solid starting five. And that's not even with Ryan Nelson and how well he performed last year. But I will say that you're right. There is, there should be no excuses for this year. Definitely not the excuses that we had from last year. Gabriel Ferrer said, Tori said he's a people person.

That's something that Tori brought up a lot about the new coaching staff quite a bit. He called them connectors. He called them relationship builders. And that is something that I think is a, I mean, I don't really know because I'm not a player on the team, but it sounds like it's a different tone from last year. It sounds like them bringing that up kind of makes it feel like the coaching staff that the Diamondbacks partnered ways with maybe wasn't doing those things. Maybe it wasn't they didn't feel like they were connecting them or they didn't feel like

they were building relationships with them. So maybe that's a big, big thing. but Corbyn Burns does have a relationship already a little bit with Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly. He was asked about, you know, obviously discussing with those guys, what, you know, like mechanics and things like that, which you said it's way too early to do that with. But here's what he had to say in regards to not just sharing information amongst himself and Galen and Kelly, but with the young pitchers, which this team has quite a few up. Having the conversations with him and Merrill, guys that have been in this division, I think, for that many years is what's going to be most beneficial for me. Those guys have faced the Padres, the Dodgers.

They face those guys a ton. So for me, that's where I'll get most of my tips from them just because they face them so much. And then, yeah, whatever I can do to help anyone. It doesn't matter. It's not necessarily those two guys, but anyone on the staff to help get the most out of each other. and the goal of everyone in here is to win a world series. So if I can do one little thing to help a guy, you know, that much better and develop that much more than I'm all for.

But I was just excited, like I say, to get to know everyone outside of just being friends. It's just then getting to the nitty gritty of pitching and how to win baseball games. A lot of things I like to hear there, right? You like to hear him talking about doing whatever he can to make this team better, to make the young pitchers on this team better. You like to hear him to throw in that word, that little phrase about the World Series, right?

But most importantly, I mean, I don't know. You've got to be impressed by his attitude. One thing I took away from Corbyn Burns today is he comes across as a leader. And it's not to say that this locker room doesn't have leaders. It's not to say the starting pitching staff doesn't have leaders. But I would say he feels more like that guy than maybe others have in the past. And sometimes that leadership title is a reluctant title. that a lot of athletes don't want to have.

A lot of athletes, like, don't feel like they're a leader amongst their fellow athletes, and they don't feel like they have any kind of right to, like, take that step forward, right? And sometimes it's just about your attitude, your experience, and everything coming together. When you hear Burns say that stuff, he sounds like a leader. And that's something that, again, gets me very excited. Connor Mormon in the chat says, so the team will be more connected. And what is it? Some people may have said about a connected team.

Well, I'm not allowed to say the one word anymore. but you know, dangerous. Shout out to my guy Jackson, by the way, who came out in our connected and dangerous shirt out to the camp and got Tori to sign it. Appreciate that. Appreciate you, buddy. And of course, again, I don't think I talked about it quite enough,

but the amount of fans that were out there was great to see. I mean, this is day one. Tori brought it up. A few players brought it up. Like, they were kind of surprised to walk out and see the amount of fans that were out there in support, especially, you know, someone like Corbyn Burns, to, you know, again, he's talked, he talked a bit about, you know, going back and forth between

the different franchises and, you know, what things are similar and how things are different, you know, reporting for the Brewers, reporting for the Orioles. And he actually discussed that there were a lot of similarities. But he did say at one point that the fan support today was great. And that sounded like the thing that kind of maybe separated us. That's not something we're used to around here. But here's what he had to say about the differences between, you know, previous years and this year. You know, it's actually pretty so much.

It's another really young team. Last year, Milwaukee, last year of Baltimore, all were a really young team. So it's good to have that youth and the energy, get some of those older guys move a little bit. But, yeah, it's a good group of guys. Obviously, still get to know a lot of them. I mean, first day and not only facing the names alone, but we've got a good first day. Again, he was asked quite a bit about knowing his teammates and such. And, like, he didn't try to act like he did, but he does act like the kind of,

teammate that wants to get to know them, wants to develop that relationship, and again, wants to be connected, and we know what connected teams do. But Brandon Fott sounded very excited about Corbyn Burns and also the competition that it brings. Here's what Fott had to say about meeting Corbyn Burns on day one. Yeah, we've said hello. Obviously not too much. Just first day in, but looking forward to watching him pitch, learning from them. I got a good group to learn from and follow up. Is he not the most wholesome lad ever that there ever was? I don't know what to say about Brandon Fott other than that's what he always strikes me as.

But I will say that it's a weird, I guess it's a weird vibe and a weird question to maybe some of these young pitchers. They were asked about the seven-man rotation. They were asked about, you know, competing here in camp. that's what it I imagine it's going to turn into Corbyn Burns is not not going to be in the starting rotation you have a hard time imagining that Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly

won't be in the starting rotation Tori also went on later to talk about the idea of a six-man rotation and he kind of shut it down he didn't really play into it like that I mean a lot of times Tori does leave things open leave possibilities open he doesn't want to you know

completely shut something down that they might end up trying. However, it did very much sound like a six-man rotation isn't really in the cards for this team. So when you talk about a Brandon Fought, you talk about Ryan Nelson, those guys are essentially competing for their jobs

or whatever their job might be with this team in 2025. And that's a weird thing to say. We know that Brandon Fought is not only a big part of the Diamondbacks future and their future starting rotation, but he's a big part of their present. You take a look at what Ryan Nelson did, like I said earlier,

You take a look at his numbers from last season, and it's hard to really discount Ryan Nelson as being the automatic choice to go either to the bullpen or perhaps be sent down to keep stretched out. However, you know, the guys that the other guys in the starting rotation don't have options. They're not the kind of guys that they can send down, right? So you've got, you know, Jordan Montgomery, who I assure you I will get to his shape and conditioning here very shortly. But that's a tease. I'm going to keep that one going on.

And no, we don't have any pictures of it, so you're just going to have to take my word for it. But I didn't, yeah, we might. We might. I might have found one. No discount that we do. I might have found one. But, I mean, it's right, because it is something that, again, all players in baseball have to deal with, right? The idea that you could be replaced or the idea that you are competing for your spot.

However, it's, you know, it's one of those things that kind of turned pretty quickly, right? Like, this team looked like there was a good chance they were going to trade Montgomery during the offseason. and the Corbyn-Burn's signing was on nobody's radar. So at that point, I feel like you may have shifted mentally as a young player going from feeling like you were fairly secure and you're starting a rotation position to now kind of having the fight for your job. And it'll be interesting. But here's what Fott had to say about having seven arms in the rotation.

Not seven, Brandon Fott doesn't have seven arms. That's not. Again, we can't confirm or deny that. He's right. I'm sure if you asked him, he would say. I don't. I don't. Do I know?

Who do we live amongst? And I mean, you immediately assume that the arms are the same size as the other arms. What if they're tiny arms? What if they're like really small ones in the back of his head? Yeah. Who knows? I don't know.

Anyway, here's what he said about seven arms in the rotation. Yeah, I think we can we can all push each other to becoming better. You know, we learned last year. Injuries happen unexpectedly, so hopefully not this year. But we got we got enough guys to pat that. and I think we can push each other and make each other better day in and day out and see where we're at in the spring training. I will say this over and over again until the day I die. WWE, the pro wrestling company, is only at its best when it has a competitor, right?

And sometimes in life, competition brings the best out of you. So that is something that's very exciting about this, right? But also, yeah, I mean, you know, when it comes down to it, injuries are very big. That's something that this team experienced in spades last year. It's not even, and I think this was either Corbyn Burns or Scott Boris said this at the press conference, but no team makes it through a season with just five starting pitchers. No team does. And I mean, again, there is a lot of possibilities as to how this could shake up.

But the one thing is, is that the Diamondbacks are in a very good position as far as depth goes, especially after experiencing what they went through last year. perhaps not trading one slightly refurbished Jordan Montgomery is the worst thing in the world maybe there you go you got the hang of it man right I'm in it there oh I're seeing him today it's hard to not say slightly refurbished forget slightly fully refurbished he's a new guy he's a new man open box maybe yeah yeah open box but like you know that they didn't take the like the thing out of the plastic like the plastic the original like interior plastic is still sealed one open box near perfect.

Yeah, Jordan Montgomery. Near new. Near new. Near new. We are going to talk about that. More from Tori Lavallo and so much more on this episode. Of course, we appreciate you guys so much for being here. And of course, you are watching the P.HNX Diamondback Show. Don't go anywhere.

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That's the house that the Diamondbacks built. And it's fun, again, to be out there. I will say, I know I kind of picked on them a little bit, but I have to hear Tori compared. this summer and Christmas one more time. Can we do that, Shane? They both hurt. It's like the first day of summer, right? And you know, you wake up and it's Christmas morning with a bunch of really nice new packages sitting in front of you and you get a chance to unwrap them and get to know them. So it's a great day for me. It's the signal of a lot of a lot of hard work and a lot of ambitious goals. a lot of ambitious goal setting and try to trying to go out there and achieve those goals.

And I think there's no greater task that each team has at this point in time than to go out there and do what they're supposed to do. Everybody's talking about him going to Australia. Yeah, that might be a phrase that makes sense in other parts of the world, but definitely not here in Phoenix, Arizona. But yeah, I mean, it's, it is the first day of camp. There's a lot of cliche things that are going to be said and sometimes non-clishe things. But as far as the potential outlook for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2025, you can't help but be excited about it, right?

Like the additions of Corbyn Burns and the additions of Josh Naylor, who will have some more from his press conference as well, really do feel like they've made this team better, or at least in Naylor's case, kind of fill that gap left by Christian Walker. We talked about Corbin Burns being a leader coming across as a leader. That's something they lost in Sea Walk. So it's great to have Corbyn Burns here to kind of provide that leadership and to be a guy that has experienced quite a bit of success in the game of baseball, right? But we also know that the Diamondbacks have had their share of, I guess, off seasons to forget. And you can't really say that about the World Series off season. But Tori Lovolo, you know, having not won the World Series, had some sadness, ate some chocolate ice, chocolate peanut butter ice cream. I should correct that.

But he also, you know, talked a bit about which was worse here, whether it was the 2023 offseason having, you know, obviously lost the World Series and come so close or the 2024 off season where this team finished so close to, you know, making the playoffs and came up just short. Here's what Tori had to say. They both hurt. They both took a lot of my time over the past two offs. and cycle through it and work through it properly. And then I find both situations extremely motivating. You know, I know that we came very close a couple years ago and we lost in five games in the World Series.

And I feel like I could have done more for this team and been better for this team. And I reevaluated myself. And I did the same thing. I did a lot of soul searching because I know that I made a lot of decisions that impacted the day. difference of us winning one more game and that's what we've taken. So I told the group that yesterday, the coaches that I'm committed to them to growing and learning and we're going to do it

all together. We're going to do it right this year. One thing Tori said that he took a lot of things away from all of these situations, which he was asked if he had anything tangible that he kept as motivation from those losses. I believe it was Lena Washington who asked the question. and she brought up Jalen Hertz keeping the confetti from losing the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tori brought up more of memories, visual images that he kept or sounds that he would not forget. But he talked about at the World Series sitting in the dugout and listening to the PA announcer, call them the World Series champion Texas Rangers. And he got a certain look on his face when he said that.

But the look only got worse when he talked about last year because he's, He said from last year, what he takes away as motivation is the Mets and the Braves hugging on field. And he said it didn't sit right with him. He sounded a little bitter and angry about it. And I think that it's the proper maybe way to feel, like to kind of turn that those feelings, those emotions into motivation for not just yourself as a manager, but for your team. Right.

He talked a lot about the fact that this team came up one game short. And I think, you know, he brought this up, but I think it's going to be easy motivation to go out there and to teach those guys, to show those guys that every game matters, every outmatters, every at bat matters. And I think that this is going to be a different team. Not to mention the fact that when Tori and Corbyn Burns first spoke, Corbyn Burns asked him if he's was ready to win a lot of effing games. And I inject that directly into my veins. That Josh Naylor's energy, Dre Jameson being back, fire in my blood. Fire all in my blood.

But again, there is a lot of changes that are going to take place. And Tori talked about the changes of the impact of the coaching staff changing over and the new guys that they're going to have in there. Right. But one of the big changes is Jordan McGone. Now, I've offered up Jordan Montgomery quite a bit in various forms and fashion, refurbished, slightly dinged, used, pre-owned. I've used a lot of phrases for him. But Jordan Montgomery, Tori said this a few weeks ago, that Jordan Montgomery was in the best

shape of his life. And I think that that might have seemed a little hard for people to believe. And I think that people felt like maybe the shape that he was in last year was somehow, non-professional or not ready for the season. But we actually have an image here of Jordan Montgomery, as I promise, in the amazing shape that he's actually in. Here we go. Oh, Shane, I don't, I don't know.

I don't think that's going to play, Shane. Connor's probably going to unsubscribe here. No, we don't have pictures of him. He was like the Yeti. He was like Sasquatch, Bigfoot. He was just moving. and I saw him. And I think the words that came out of my mouth were, who was that?

Who was that man? Just the disclaimer with guys, that was Photoshopped. I don't know if you could tell. It was a really good job. Photoshop is Shane's passion, for sure. But yeah, like, I could not believe seeing him. I don't know how much weight he's lost. But I think that, I will say, I think that comparing him to Ryan Thompson might be a little bit too far.

But he would say have a similar body type, maybe as you. chomantiply? I don't know. I was, but I'm not, uh, the, the, the, the Photoshop, that was a joke. I'm not joking about Jordan Montgomery in the brief moment that I saw him, um, looking outstanding. I mean, credit to him for taking this as seriously as, as, as anyone should, especially as an athlete that we've seen perform at the elite level that Montgomery has performed at. And I've said it before, but this is it, guys. This is the only way that. the Jordan Montgomery signing can be rectified. It can't be rectified through a trade where you get some cash back and then you're able to go out and get somebody. The only way that the Jordan

Montgomery deal can ever look like it was a positive deal for the Diamondbacks is if he comes back this season in the shape that he is currently in and shoves for this team. And I think that that is something that can be done. There's totally the possibility that he could still be traded here before we ever see him pitch a regular season baseball game. However, I am already optimistic about, you know, the changes that he's made. And again, I've said this. Like, what is worse? Dumping him now and seeing him go out and shove with another team, especially if you're talking about not getting anything in return for him, simply a salary dump where you eat a portion of it and trade him off to another team.

Like it, it's, again, it's still a very real possibility for this team that that's the route they go. However, it's not something that will end up making this deal look good. What makes this deal look good? What makes us end up forgetting about the struggles he had last season is him coming through for this team and pitching for this team. I don't know what they're going to do with this rotation. I really don't.

And Tori Lavello didn't really give many answers today other than, like I said, pretty much confirming that they are not going to go with a six-man rotation. So outside of that, it seems like, you know, the odd men out are kind of Montgomery, Ryan Nelson, and Brandon fought. And I don't even know if that seems fair or if that's accurate. The truth of the matter might be there might be less guys involved in the decision. They might have a smaller pool that I'm saying. Or in general, they might already have an idea for what they're going to do.

And we just don't really know. But again, it's hard not to be excited about the depth that that is provided by having this quote, unquote, seven man starting rotation. And you can't really have that, right? Like you can't, you got to kind of keep someone stretched out. Most likely one of the other guys will be a long relief arm for this team. And that's if nothing changes, right? But I don't know. It's it would be a hard, I would see it being a hard decision for Mike Hazen to ask Jordan Montgomery last season to, you know, kind of come back and, you know,

especially if he was going to accept the option, come back and give it his all for this team this year and see him in the condition that he's currently in and not be excited about that. Like it's hard to do that. However, like I said, he's slightly refurbished now, maybe even better than slightly refurbished. Shane upgraded him to open box item, right?

So maybe now, just based on the fact that he is in much better condition and much better shape, maybe that does entice another team even more to take an opportunity on Jordan Montgomery. I feel like a lot of it is going to have to, at least a lot of the unknown shell game portion of this is going to be based on, you know, how he looks in camp, how he looks in some spring training games. But we're not really going to know what he really looks like until the regular season comes around. He was renovated at that picture I showed you. He was renovated.

I was renovated Jordan Montgomery. I get it. I did some renovations around my house. They don't look as good as that on him. But not bad. But again, a lot of questions. and of course the biggest question is the bullpen. We did get a few answers on what the Diamondbacks might do if they don't make a move.

Those options outside of the team are dwindling. So we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere you're watching the DeVax podcast? Well, of course, I have had a chance to enjoy some of the fine products from our friends at Cornbread Hemp. And I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life. They have a wide variety of CBD and THC gummy. that you can try out. They are highest quality, full spectrum gummies on the market, and they are made from flour

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You need something to drink every single day or stop by America's Thursday. Get your sour wriggly warm on. Oh, that's. And your chocolate covered almonds. Yeah. If you see me, just know there's sour or there's sour wrigglyworm somewhere in the vicinity as well. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, I mean, probably in your pocket getting a little too warm, but still nonetheless.

Come on. Give me some more credits than that. Well, I can't, because I have questions about a lot of things, especially, like, where those worms are right now as we speak. They're in our kitchen. They're in our kitchen. They're nowhere in the studio. They're in there.

Actually, there might be some on the big snack card. They always keep us hooked up. I hide them. See, they're back here. Oh, my God. Those are irregularly worms. You got to hide them. These people will eat everything in this place.

You can never. I'm not here off. I'm going to take those. See? See, I should never have showed you. Well, of course, we know the Diamondbacks have a lot of decisions to make. And they are keeping something secret because I'm sure they're still working on a deal that would bring someone here. Again, it might involve Jordan Montgomery, might still involve one of their outfielders like an Alec Thomas or Jake McCarthy.

I know nobody really wants that. But I also know nobody really wants to go into the season without a closer. Right. And I mean, that very much could be what the Diamondbacks do. No decisions have been made as of yet. And Kenley Jansen is now going to the Angels. What are like someone still explained to me what the Los Angeles Angels think they're doing? What the hell do they think they're doing?

I don't know. I don't think they ever know. They're just like, I mean, they're almost doing the Kansas City Royals thing from last off season, but it doesn't feel as like shopping on a budget. Like they're getting some of the bigger names available on the market as well. If it wasn't such a sad situation. so unfortunate I would poke fun at the Rendon thing where he just doesn't want to play for the team. Yeah.

Like he hasn't played in 400 days because he doesn't want to play for the Angels. It's the most insane thing ever. It really is. But of course, the options, again, continue to dwindle with more and more free agents getting picked up. Tori said there was no decisions at all made yet. And the candidate could be internal. He brought up the fact that Kevin Ginkle closed games for them last season. Obviously, we know Justin Martinez, A.J. Puck, always a weapon there.

if you really want to limit your best left-handed pitcher there to being, you know, your closer, it's going to kind of limit you in that regards. But one other person who he brought up, not in regards to the closer conversation, but he did bring up hitting 95 to 97 miles per hour on the radar gun already, is one Dre Jameson. And it's easy to forget about Dre. There's a song about it. But the reason is because he missed all last season.

Stop. That's the last time I'll make this joke. promise you, but it is easy to forget about him because he did miss all of last year. And I mean, he's just a guy that was kind of on the rise and just has an incredible personality. What's the last time he pitched? Uh, 22. No, no, it was no. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was a while ago. But I mean, he is back and he looks great. He was rocking the scooby cleats today. And again, Tori Lavallo bringing up the fact that he was hitting 97 miles per hour on the gun. And he is back. And he was, that's another one of those pieces that makes this pitching staff better that I was talking about earlier, right?

July 6th. July 6th. 2023, right. And so, you know, again, Jameson could be a dark horse candidate for the closer role. We don't really know that. But again, like I said, if there was anybody that had the personality for it that wanted it and, like, wanted to be better than everybody, it's Dre Jameson. I just dare you to bring up how fast Corbyn Carroll is around him. I guarantee you he will tell you that he beat him in a foot race.

But there's just like that competitive nature to him. Like there's something sometimes about closers that have to have a certain nature about them to be able to go into those big moments with the game on the line and want it. Want to be out there. Not dreading it. I mean, we had Archie talk about it. There's times as a bullpen guy that you kind of don't want them to call your name when it's that time. Right. That's not Drey Jameson.

Drey Jameson is not that guy. He is built differently. And I think that I would put him up there as one of the potential candidates should this team not make a move that could end up as closer. Yeah. And do you have to think about the song? Like obviously it's either going to be forget about Dre or some Dr. Dre song. It has to be, right? It absolutely has to be.

And it's going to hit so hard. It's going to be nasty. And it's going to be great. Speaking of nasty, AZ, devil dog, AZ, I'm going to ban you if you make another comment about Al-Dray's movies. I love it. You're probably right. I mean, the deal is already in the works.

The photos and Hazen are just texting memes back and forth. Yeah. And then Hazen will sneak in us. So Andres Munoz, he goes, sure. Send me a good meme and I'll consider it. Oh, man.

That's a great point. But, I mean, again, there's other guys that obviously, I mean, I still feel like Justin Martinez is the closer of the future for this team and just kind of has some development still to go,

has some maturing still to go, but I think it's already shown. not only he has the stuff. Like there's no question about him having the stuff. It's a matter about developing that attitude of wanting to be out there, wanting the ball in your hand when the game is on the line. And I think it's something that, again, not every relief pitcher is ready to do.

But he's close. He's close. And again, AJ Puck is a name that a lot of fans bring up as well. But again, like I said, it kind of limits your deadly left, you know, left-handed specialist and putting him in the close rolls great. but there's other big times during a baseball game where you want to have that flexibility. I will say that, you know,

Tori did kind of bring up once again that like, or he hinted at it, that we could see, I don't want to say Closer by committee. I don't want to say that because he didn't say that and that wasn't the words, but he did say that maybe potentially they don't have somebody named Closer once again. And I think a lot of people after seeing this team

over the last two years, would agree on is that no matter what, we want somebody to be named closer. Like, I think that Tori wants that. I think the organization wants that. I think everybody wants this team to develop or either go out there, acquire a closer or name somebody internally as the closer.

Connor once again brings up a great point. He says, 0.00 ERA for Pavin Smith as the closer. I mean, you can't argue with that. The man does everything. That's crazy. Yeah, it's wild, right? But yeah, no, I mean, Brandon says 100% need a designated closer.

And he, I mean, it, it, it, it, it, you just saw the way that everything fell into place so nicely. Paul Seawall was, I mean, he's always going to be kind of like a weird figure for Arizona Diamondbacks fan. Polarizing, but polarizing because his season was so polarizing. His season was so polarizing? Dynamic, rather. It was so, he was so good. so bad. Well, and you could say that about the 20-23 season, right? I think a lot of people will agree that, like, the Diamondbacks don't make the playoffs. If Paul Seawald isn't there,

they don't maybe go on the run that they did in the playoffs. But then people very much remember the big blown saves in the World Series and at other times. And like you said, last season is a great example of that. It's just the fact that, like, a closer takes that blame. You know, I think two blown saves, people were ready to fight. fire Paul Seawald and send him, send him into the sun. Fire him into the sun. Right. And like that's,

that's kind of what happens, I think, when you are a closer. It's like, it's like being a goalie. Yeah. Like, yeah,

you're out there as a team. You're on an island. But you are the guy. You are the guy. When, when the loss happens, typically you can blame other, other components of the team.

But if it happens and it happens in the ninth inning when your team had a lead, it's on you, it's fully on you. And I mean, even if a defense, there's a bad defensive play, it's still kind of on you. So it's just a tough role. I do think that logically, it makes so much sense to not have a closer. And that part is what blows me away the most.

Like baseball is a game of matchups. And the bullpen is made the way it is to, so you can utilize matchups and base, you know, bring guys in based on who makes the most sense for you. yet almost every major league baseball team decides no matter what this guy's going to close the game in the ninth and like that does like even though it works so well and even though like obviously we saw the way that it caused all of the pieces for the debacks to fall in the place beyond it like setup wise and and just everybody knowing their role and honestly the pitchers themselves bringing that up you to this day will still hear guys like mantipli and ginkle say that the best part about mantiply being named the closer and being brought in was the fact that every day when you got here you knew what your role was and as as it stands without that closer guys don't right but it just it's still to the the logical side of me still doesn't make any sense groundhog mama said it isn't closer by committee we just have multiple closers see it's all how you look at it right it's all how you frame it you frame it

correctly. So, but yeah, no, I love that. So that's probably the best way to look at it. I have more. We have more. I mean, we could talk to, like just being out there, the sound of Corbyn's pitching. I wish I probably shouldn't have even talked over that earlier because just the sound of the ball hitting the mid and the whiz of it flying through the air was just a beautiful Sam. If you asked nicely, we'll give you 10 seconds of Corbyn's baseball sounds. Yeah. I just need one. I mean, I want, I want that. But yeah, we're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't go anywhere. You're watching the pH and X Diamond. Back Show. Well, it is a gloomy day here in Phoenix, Arizona, but it's not going to be for long.

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a PHNX for 20% off your first order. Well, before we get out of here, we did have the introductory press conference from Josh Naylor, who I just have to say, I've been around him for two days now, and I've fallen completely in love with him. And I'm not afraid to admit that on this show. I mean, I know he's probably watching,

and he already knows I love him, but... He's busy building a relationship with all of his teammates while you're trying to build a relationship with him. Correct, correct. And I know a great way for them to do. do that is for them to all sit around in the clubhouse and watch the show, which I know they're doing right now. So that's a great thing. Before we get to Nailer, let's give the chat while we promise them. Oh, yeah, let's do that. Let's give them a little bit, a little bit of baseball Zen right here.

What the umpire sees. That's what, that's what the umpire sees. That's why they have that job. That's why they take that job. Uh, Josh Naler, though, we had a media availability. He said it was the most people he's ever talked to at one time. Um, and I mean, there was just some really great moments from that. And I just, I think a lot of us have, uh, they were already familiar with Josh Naylor as a baseball player. We've all seen the clips of him headbutting his teammate while he was wearing a helmet. That's electric. Again, talk about fire in my blood, fire in my blood. But I will say that Josh Naylor, uh, brought a different kind of level of, of, I guess, appreciation for the game, appreciation for being here. And just, I mean, I don't know, just a very

eloquent guy. It was great to hear from him and kind of get to know him a little bit better. Here's what he had to say about the Diamondbacks adding Corbyn Burns and also just about the front office kind of going all in on the 2025 season. That's great. What a phenomenal picture that guy is. I'm excited to get to know him. Yeah, this team, they clearly want to win and I'm very thankful and happy to be part of it. There was another thing he said about it. Like sometimes for me, talking about your family and your relationship with your parents really just kind of shows me what kind of person you are. That's why I'm a terrible person.

I have a bad relationship with my mom. We just bicker at each other all the time. But Josh Naylor, much better than me, much better person. Here he credits his parents for his brother and his success as Major League Baseball players and his younger brother who's coming up. I think both our parents are upbringing. They grew us to be gentlemen first, kind, loving people, and then hard workers. They sacrificed endless hours for us, you know, took days off work, weekends off work,

just drive us to a tournament wherever we're going, pay for this, pay for that. They really made all this happen for us, and we owe them a lot. So I think that's why we work so hard to give back to them. And one day, hopefully, be able to retire them. and have them come out to every single game that they can. So that's probably my best answer is both our parents. They did a phenomenal job raising us, and we're very thankful. I can only imagine my child ever growing up and talking about me as a parent like that.

Like what a wonderful moment and reflection of you as a parent, right, like that you were able to bring these kids up, make those sacrifices, which we know so many parents make in the, you know, in the sports. growing up world, right? Like, it's not an easy life. There's a lot of Saturday tournaments at 8 a.m. A lot of traveling if you're trying to do it at an elite level. And it's just very cool to see the appreciation that he has there for his parents.

And Connor's absolutely right. Personality-wise, it's hilarious that we're going from 14 years of Goldian Walker to known psycho Josh Naylor. Noon psycho's hilarious. I love that. But it's true. I love that he plays with so much personality. and so much energy.

Candice says Naylor and Gino would be so fun to see together. Yeah, those guys. This is going to be a fun team to watch. This is going to be a fun team to cover. Like, I was telling Shane before we get on air, like after doing this for as long as I have, this is going to be my 14th season covering this team. I'm not that old, I promise you,

but somehow that's true. And like, it's not really like the, oh, we're going to win it all kind of stuff that gets me excited, like, as a journalist and as a host of the show, it's more of the fact that we get to cover these people and these personalities and who they are. And like, when we meet people that are, like, unique and different, like, that excites me so much. It excites me because you do know that there is going to be this dynamic between guys like Perdomo and Catell and Gino that's just going to be a next level of friendship. Forget the power of

friendship. This is like the superpower of friendship, but you just have a lot of additions and a lot of great stories for this team. I need to see them, Gino and Nailor have a celebration. Like, Gino has his heart thing out and then Naderer punches through it or something. I think that would work so well. You can shoot an arrow through it. Brings back a little Fernando Rodney. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it. But another great story could be Trey Mancini, who agreed to a minor League deal with an invite to spring training for this team. Mancini last played in 20, 23 for the Chicago Cubs. He had at 1.20 plus four, 20 plus home run seasons, four of them in a row with the Orioles between 2017 and 2021, including a career high 35 home runs in 2019. Coming off of that season,

he was diagnosed with colon cancer and missed the entire 2020 season. But luckily, he He was in remission and then he's back to playing baseball. And hopefully this is a story that continues to become beautiful. It would be great to see him. And I mean, again, it would just be an amazing, you know, full circle moment for him to get back to not only being on a major league roster once again, but helping a team, you know, win a championship. He absolutely could be one of those guys that not only is special as far as his story is concerned, but what he could bring, what he could bring to this team. And the diamondbacks have a lot of guys like that this season. But again, it's spring camp is going to be a lot of fun.

There's a lot of storylines, right? I mean, it's hard not to, it's hard not to, you know, be excited about what the Diamondbacks are doing with their bullpen. It's also not hard to believe that they're still going to add to this team. I don't know how. I don't know in what way. I don't know if a trade, which seemed like, it seemed like there was going to be some moving pieces, perhaps a trade, once again, like Montgomery, that frees up some money and allows

the Diamondbacks to pursue somebody else in free agency. However, like I said, with the Kenley Jansen situation, we are losing opportunities or losing options, at least, for the Diamondbacks to go out there and pursue in free agency. So there's just so many storylines here from day one. And I still think that the biggest is the starting rotation. I think that's a bigger story right now. then even what's going on with the bullpen. If the Diamondbacks entered the 2025 season with the bullpen, they currently have, I think I would still be cautiously optimistic

about how good that that bullpen can be with the way it's currently constructed, right? But I don't know, man. I feel like another move is eminent. Am I wrong? Is it the Seattle Mariners part that makes me feel like that's? No. You know?

No. Okay. I'm just curious. No, the trait's still going to happen. Oh, it's good. You're good. But you don't be a really funny bit, Derek, speculating that everybody,

all the players that are reporting this week are going to become divax because they're in Arizona. Acting like you don't know that spring training is here. Julio was at a sun's game. Julio was at a sun's game last night. DeVac. Yeah, totally. I saw the supermarket.

Otani. Yeah. That's my challenge to you this week, Derek. He's just trying to infuriate as many fan bases as possible by saying, why is Shohey-O-Day. tonny in the valley right now. I don't know. I'm just asking the questions.

I'm just asking the questions that need to be. Of course, there's only one reason. He's never going to pitch. All right. Well, again, you know what's crazy about this? You get excited for first day of camp. And like, games are going to be played in basically a week. We got next Friday games start.

So the Diamondbacks open up their season. Got a lot of exciting stuff going on. We got innings fest going on. If you haven't had a chance yet to get down, we are giving away some Innings Fest tickets. That is the perfect way to kick off the baseball season here in the Valley with some great bands and a great time as well. So make sure to do that. And also make sure to go watch some baseball. Come on out.

I'm telling you this, there's a perception, I think, as a fan that you go out to a camp like this and you're like in the way or that you shouldn't be there or something like that. and it's quite the contrary. Like not only are there fans out there, but Tori, the players, they love to see it, they love the support. And it's a blast. If you love baseball, you can come out and watch these guys, take batting practice, you can get autographs. There's so many reasons.

I think that every single camp, we kind of do this where we tell you guys, come on out. It is going to be, it's an amazing time. And again, it was great to see so many of you guys out there already. But Jackson is my favorite because he showed up wearing our connected and dangerous shirt. So he wins this round, but that's just one day. If you want to be Derek's favorite, wear a merch. Yeah, just go, maybe get yourself some new PHNX Diamondback's merch and wear it. But let's see, geek Martinez says don't post pictures of Montgomery,

Montgomery, so that way people have to show. Good point. Like, we're not showing you any more pictures. You have to go watch the episode if you want, you missed how good of shape Jordan Montgomery is if you're just joining at this point. But again, lots of fun, lots of fun times. Baseball's back. That's the best part about this. make sure, like I said, if you don't make it out to camp, go out to spring training. It is the reason that most people live here in Arizona. I heard. That's what I was told.

People are like, I went for a spring training game and then I never left. But again, we thank you guys so much for your time. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-Ur-Ur-N-Sk-Mad with a K. This maniac behind the Mac is at Shane Deef. Of course, our show is at PhNX underscore D-BACs, but all roads do lead to at P-NX underscore Sports on Twitter. Instagram and Facebook.

And thank you guys again for coming out or for being here. Appreciate it. I know it's not always like trust me. I'm not I'm not a fan of the host of this show. But I appreciate that you guys are. We will see you next week. We go back to having multiple shows next week. So we are going to have a show on Monday and Wednesday.

Would be Friday. But that's Innings Fest and day one of the Diamondback Spring Training. So make sure instead of joining us for those shows, just come out to a game or go to Innings Fest. It's a great time. Until then, till Monday, hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week. Hope you have a great weekend. And we will see you then. Behave yourselves and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you remember that Christmas Day actually occurs in winter and not the first day of summer.