PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - EMERGENCY POD: Diamondbacks Sign LHP Jordan Montgomery

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

The Arizona Diamondbacks did the unthinkable and added one of the biggest arms on the free agent market, Jordan Montgomery, to their roster. We discuss the move and how unbelievable it is the D-backs front office is going all in on this season. We also discuss when we expect to see Montgomery start for the Snakes, what might have given Arizona the edge, and if this in fact means the Diamondbacks now have one of the best starting rotations in MLB.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Friedman, I am in disbelief right now. Welcome in to an emergency podcast of the PHNXD Back show. I, of course, am your mayor of this place, occasionally known as Derek Montia. And I cannot believe the news that we are reporting on. Of course, I'm joined by my vice mayor in studio, the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Wow, Jesse, what the hell has someone done with Ken Kendrick?

I am worried about this man. Is he locked up in a closet somewhere? Is he okay? Because what is happening? The Arizona Diamondbacks have reportedly signed left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery to a one-year deal worth $25 million with a vesting option for 2025. Here is the tweet from Nick Picorro. Jordan Montgomery and the Diamondbacks are in agreement to a one-year $25 million deal.

Sources confirmed. Jeff Passan had it first with 10 starts. He will trigger another $20 million guarantee for 2025 that can increase to 25 million with more starts, but Montgomery can opt out. Wow, Jesse. Oh, my God. I mean, we just discussed this. And I know, I'm doing all the talking here.

I'm not even giving you a chance to speak, but I just can't believe that this is something that is real life. Is this real life, is it? I don't know if I'm dreaming or not. Did I die on the way home? It's okay. You could tell me if I did. Yeah, I don't know where to start with this.

We did touch on it yesterday, right? There had been a report from Jim Bowden a few days ago saying, don't sleep on the Diamondbacks with Jordan Montgomery. Nick Bacoro, D-Bak's reporter for the Arizona Republic, followed it up yesterday and actually did some of his own reporting, which we found interesting that he actually checked in on it. Normally, he'd be maybe a little bit more dismissive of some of those loose rumors, like the one that we saw from Bowden.

But yeah, I don't know what to say or where to start, Derek. I am honestly shocked that the Diamondbacks did this. They already, as we've said, numerous times had gone far above and beyond our expectations for what they were going to spend this offseason. I remember a time at near the beginning of the off season. I think the Diamondbacks had acquired Ehoyohenio Suarez, but they hadn't done anything else. And we were talking about them having around $20 million more to spend in the entire off season, in the entire off season.

And since then, after getting Suarez, the Diamondbacks not only have made this move with Jordan Montgomery, which is more than $20 million in and of itself. They also signed Eduardo Rodriguez. They also re-signed Lordus Curiel Jr. They also signed Randall Grishik. And they also signed Jack Peterson. What an unbelievable offseason this has been for the Diamondbacks. And man, I mean, they're going for it, right? I mean, there's no other way to say it.

This is not. Like, Hazen got that dog at him. Jesse, he's got that dog. him. Oh my God. Well, let's take a look for those of you unfamiliar with Jordan Montgomery because I know there are some people out there. I've actually had quite a few friends text me and ask me, is Jordan Montgomery good? The answer is yes, maybe very. Let's take a look here at his 2023 season,

188 and two-thirds innings pitched, a 3.20 ERA, a 1.19 whip, 7.9 strikeouts or Ks per 9, a 2.3 walks per 9, and a 3.56 FIP. Wow. Yeah, those are some pretty darn good numbers. And it's not only what Jordan Montgomery did in the playoffs, Diamondbacks fans might be a little bit more familiar with Montgomery than they were with, say, Eduardo Rodriguez, given that Montgomery pitched game two of the World Series

against the Diamondbacks, which oddly enough is the one game that the Diamondbacks actually won in the series. Montgomery still pitched reasonably well, gave up four runs over six innings, but over the entirety of that postseason, Montgomery was an enormous part of getting the Rangers as far as they did. He was basically their Merrill Kelly. He was the number two behind Nathan Evaldi throughout that postseason run. Over the course of the postseason last year, he had a 2.90 ERA with the Rangers. So, you know, when the moment was brightest, he was, he was very, very good. He also pitched in game seven of the ALCS on short rest.

helping the Rangers get to the World Series in the first place. That's something that the Diamondbacks didn't do with any of their starting pitchers. So there's a track record here in the postseason. There's a track record here in the regular season as well. It's not just about what he did in 2023. We go back to 2022. He pitched with the Yankees and the Cardinals. He was dealt to the Cardinals at the deadline. He's been traded at the trade deadline the last two years now. But in 2022, we had a 348 ERA over 178 in the third innings. You go back to 2021. when he was with the Yankees, he made 30 starts, I had a 383 ERA there.

So as we touched on yesterday, like I don't view Montgomery as being a number one starter necessarily, but he doesn't really need to be a number one starter for the Diamondbacks because on paper he's the number four starter, I guess, number three starter. I don't know where you want to put him. But the Diamondbacks have an extraordinary amount of, they have an, I mean, their rotation is just really deep, right?

I mean, you talk about having not only Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly at the top. I mean, those two guys, like, that's how the debacks got to the World Series, was having those two guys along, of course, with Brandon Fott. Now, Brandon Fott is basically your number five starter. And you have not only Eduardo Rodriguez in the middle of the rotation once he gets healthy, but you have Jordan Montgomery as well. I didn't expect this. I don't think anyone expected this. I am shocked by this, Derek. I don't know what else to say.

the debacks have already shocked me with a couple of things they've done this off season. This one shocked me to a completely another level. I did not expect to see them make this move. Yeah, I still don't know what to think about this, Jesse. I think that to be honest, this is a huge surprise. Now, let's get the bad out of the way. And the bad here is that, unfortunately, like we discussed the other day when we were just talking. I, like, I made you do this hypothetically, like as if this was a real thing.

And I forced you to into the scenario, like as if why were we wasting airtime discussing it? And now look, now look. But what, he still doesn't solve the problem of Eduardo Rodriguez's absence, unfortunately, because E. Rod or Montgomery, like we talked about, he hasn't been with the team. It's the reason why Scott Boris has taken another L here. And Jordan Montgomery is only signing a one year, $25 million deal. The reason is is because Montgomery needs to sign with the team. He doesn't have much time until that this, you know, hiatus is going to become an issue for him to play baseball this season. And as far as him joining the Diamondbacks, he still needs to ramp up. He will still need to get ready to start. So he probably will still not be ready for opening day or the first week of the season. It just doesn't. It's like that's a mild concern. right now because most likely the Diamondbacks are going to get Erod and Jordan Montgomery

into the starting rotation probably around the same time, considering that we heard from Tory today that Erod was picking up a baseball. We don't know what he's doing with that baseball. We just know he's picking it up. But, you know, these guys both might be back around the same, or ready right around the same period of time. Jordan Montgomery might be ready earlier than Erod based on, you know, how slow or how precocious they might be, which they might be more now that they can afford to be. Yeah, yeah, Gambo, a few people have tweeted about this. Gambo said that the Diamondbacks hope that Montgomery can be ready in a few weeks, but he will certainly miss a couple of starts for sure. So yeah, he'll probably go down to the

miners and make two or three starts. We'd seen a report the other day that he was built up to 75 pitches. So it's not like he's going to start from one inning and then build and then build his way up. But there's just a reality of no matter how many pitches you're built up to. You need to be throwing those pitches against like actual hitters, right? In a competitive environment in a normal game environment. And so, yeah, I expect to probably go down to the miners and get those opportunities. And then in a few weeks, come up and be part of this Diamondbacks rotation. And, you know, I think some people are maybe wondering, like, does this mean that Erod is

missing more time than we thought? Like, is this the Diamondbacks kind of countering Erod's injury and making sure that they have a safety net in in place. I don't, I don't think so. As you just said, we heard from, from, you know, some pretty good news today from Tori that Erod is going to begin playing catch potentially this weekend. So, you know, it's not like he's going to be back next week, but I still don't think he's going to miss a ton of time.

And when you think about this rotation with, with all of those guys in it, with Gowan and Kelly and Erod and Montgomery and fought, you know, now Ryan Nelson and Tommy Henry can kind of settle into depth starter roles. which probably suits them a little bit better on a team that has aspirations of clearly going, clearly has aspirations of going far in, in 2024. We're doing the damn thing. Yeah. And the Diamondbacks, the other thing that I'll say real quick is the Diamondbacks payroll

is about $175 billion, which is not, not only is that the highest that we've ever seen in franchise history, it is the highest by a wide margin. I think, I think their previous high was in the 140 range, a little bit of. bit over 140. They'd already blown past that with their previous signings this offseason. Montgomery puts them in another stratosphere as far as payroll is concerned. Justin Plum says Monty knew he'd be a deba back during game two of the World Series. That makes sense. Joe Blow, great question now.

And not even a hyperbolic one, Jesse, not even a question that would come from my lips, which we know tends to say insane things. do the Diamondbacks have one of the top two rotations in baseball and I ain't talking about number two. Yeah, that's, I guess that's one way of saying. That's what people are saying. That's what, that's the word on the street. That's according to reports from people. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's a conversation for us to have in the coming days.

I haven't had a chance to really do enough homework to figure that out. But the fact that that is a very legitimate question, I mean, you pretty much everything you need to know about the signing you know even if montgomery doesn't have a three two o er a like he had last year i mean he he still has a a track record of being a pretty good pitcher in this league i mean look just last season the the top four in the diamond backs rotation from last season zach allen had a three four seven er a and two hundred and ten innings which was really a down year by his standards merrill kelly had i think it was a three two nine er a and around 175 innings, something like that.

Jordan Montgomery, a 3-2-0-E-R-A in almost 190 innings. And then Eduardo Rodriguez, he did miss a little bit of time, but he had a 3-3-0-ER. I mean, you've got one through four in your rotation, who all had low three ERAs a year ago. And then you're adding Brandon fought to that mix, who had an ERA of about three in the playoffs, you know, when the games mattered most. So, yeah, it's not, I don't know the answer to that question, but it's not outrageous to at least wonder, you know, if this Diamondbacks rotation, if it's not number one, you know, is it top three, is it top five?

I think it is very much that good at this point. I'm Ladris in the comments that we also now have two lefties in our starting rotation, which shouldn't get lost in the mix here. This is no disrespect to Tommy Henry, but having Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez as the lefties in your rotation is much different. That is a much different thing. And I think that that is a great point and should not be lost here. the mix of the starting rotation, the guys they have there.

These are two premium elite pitchers that we both really wanted the Diamondbacks to pursue at the trade deadline. One of them. One of them. Then when the free agency period came around, we hoped that they would sign one of them. And when they did get Erodd, it felt right because we know that he was kind of an object of desire for them during the, during the trade deadline and it was great for them to kind of follow through in a guy that they had interest in that then they were able to get as a free agent. This is, this is just so different.

I don't even know how to approach this right now because this is also new, but, you know, I guess just playing devil's advocate, we can take it from the approach of like, yeah, we don't, we don't know just like what we've said about the Dodgers team being this team of, you know, kind of superstars coming together. We don't know how it's going to mix. We don't know how this new form of the Diamondbacks is going to come together. However, adding, you know, obviously adding Montgomery here changes, you know, the roles for both Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson. And I don't know what those roles are going to be for them going forward.

Yeah. It's going to kind of have a cascading effect to both of those guys as well as Bryce Jarvis and the rest of the bullpen. But it's going to be interesting to see, especially with the loss of Paul Seawald, how this could maybe positively. impact the bullpen. I mean, you know, it's a good problem to have for the organization, but not a great problem for those guys that just a little while ago thought they were competing for a spot for the season in the starting rotation and now are also finding out this information, right? I just think that there is still something that could be like a tremendous addition to the bullpen if one of those guys perhaps goes to the pen and becomes that long reliever for

Tori Lavallo that we were kind of discussing Bryce Jarvis would be for him. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Ryan Nelson in particular, I'm intrigued at what Ryan Nelson would look like in a bullpen role. I mean, as electric as that fastball has been with the strides that he's made with some of his secondary stuff,

like I think he could be a pretty formidable reliever. And yeah, maybe, you know, the debacks are going to convert Ryan Nelson to a reliever tomorrow because they still kind of need him to help get through the next few weeks at the very least. But maybe, maybe, maybe the added depth that Montgomery gives them makes them a little bit more willing to go out

there and say, hey, let's try Nelson in one inning and see if he can throw 99 miles an hour and blow people away. You know, maybe Slade Sacconi, similar situation. We talked about a week ago about the Diamondbacks looking at moving him to the bullpen. Maybe this allows them to be a little bit more aggressive there. I think Slade Sikoni could be really good in that role. So you're absolutely right. This really could, you know, for the next few weeks, they need to be.

their rotation depth. They need to get through this this beginning part of the season. But after that, it might give you some more flexibility to, you know, convert some guys to to relief roles where they might be more effective. You know, maybe you wouldn't have been able to do those things before this. How electric is the team feeling you think right now? How, how energized coming into opening day do you have to be? I know it's just one guy being added to the roster. But it's one of the best pitchers that was available on the free agent market the entire offseason. And like, it's just, it's, it's just got to feel good to know that the front office, the ownership, everybody is behind this team and believes in them. Like that's, if I was a player on this team,

that message would be very clear to me right now based on the Diamondbacks going out and doing this. Yeah, 100%. I mean, the Diamondbacks had already had, I think you and I both would have given them an A for the offseason they had before this move. They had, they had an A level offseason already, you know, drew high praise from around the league for the offseason that they'd already had. And Jordan Montgomery is the best player that they have acquired this off season. For all of the moves that they've already made, they're presumably their last move. I guess I shouldn't say that.

Who knows? Who knows at this point of the diamond facts are actually done? But what we anticipate is probably their last big move was, was their best. one. I mean, Jordan Montgomery, I think he was sixth on MLB trade rumors ranking of the top free agents in baseball. The Diamondbacks landed three of the top 14 guys on that list in Montgomery, E. Rod and Lordus Coriel Jr., bringing him back. So yeah, I can't say enough about how shocked I am by this and how genuinely good it makes the Diamondback starting rotation as a result. I got to give credit where credit is due B's.

drop this exact comment on our show when we were talking about the Seawald injury. He dropped this comment the other day when the rumor came up about Montgomery. And Bees will say it again, damn it. Jordan Montgomery, you are an Arizona Diamondback. I, like,

I just, I don't know, man. I mean, first of all, if you're hearing the chat right now, God bless all 350 of you. Make sure you drop a like.

We love that you guys are here. We hope you guys stick around. The season's right around the corner. So we are very excited. to be covering this team, this exciting team that was already exciting, like Jesse said, but make sure you drop a like. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the PHNXport YouTube channel, do so now. Sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss whenever, whatever, our emergency podcast like this one go live, because where else are you going to get them broadcasting right now talking about Jordan Montgomery? Maybe MLB Network. I don't know what they're doing over there, but of course, we are here talking about it because this is very important to us and this team. I just, again, can't say enough about this offseason and what Mike Hazen has done. Not only has he kind of played it cool the whole time, you know, he's very much downplayed, the moves he was going to make and the things he was doing.

He has downplayed, you know, of course, any, I guess, you know, any, any, making any statements. He's refrained from making any statements like that they were all in on any of these guys, right? Like the Giants were kind of sneaky good this off season, the way that they acquired play. players. Like, you kind of hear that they were in on guys or whatever, but not really that, you know, they weren't making big statements and, you know, their, their GM had said they were done before they got Matt Chapman and before all the stuff they did. Right. So like, there's, there's a lot to be said about how savvy these moves were by, by, by Mike Hazen. Like, you. Yeah. Absolutely did not mortgage the farm. And you made this team an actual contender for the

National League West and the World Series. And that's something to be said against a Dodgers team that seems unbeatable, right? Like, you pair that with the fact that things aren't going so well for them. They have a lot of distractions going on. You know, their guy that they got hasn't worked out so far. Their big starting pitcher. But the Diamondbacks, you know, of course, they still have to see how this, all of this kind of translates onto the field.

We haven't seen Eduardo Rodriguez pitch in the regular season. So I haven't seen Jordan Montgomery pitch for this team in the regular season. So, you know, of course, it's just better. It's just so great to know that they have. have that depth with the guys that were going to be in the starting rotation available to them because who knows if more injuries are going to occur to anybody in the starting rotation as the season goes on. So I think that's another thing is that exactly. There's guys that are going to miss days or guys are going to miss time.

Jordan Montgomery isn't in a great position just based on how rushed, you know, this is. However, if he was staying, you know, ready, if he was out there training and preparing himself and like you said, he's up to 75 pitches. He should be fairly close to being ready to play for the Diamondback. So I say at this point, I'm fine with them taking their time on both of these guys. The Diamondbacks can, you know, allow Ryan Nelson and Tommy Henry to kind of take over for now, knowing that those reinforcements are coming and make sure that those guys are 100% ready before, you know, proceeding. I don't think there's any reason to panic or rush into this, even though the April scale,

schedule is far from easy. Yeah, I just go back to the thought that we had over and over last year of what the debacks were getting in the rotation when Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly were not on the mount, right? It was Madison Bumgarner for a while at the beginning of the year. Zach Davies got, you know, 10, 15 starts. It was Brandon Fodd in the first half really struggled a lot. I don't have the number in front of me, but I think it was around a six ERA from

Dback starting pitchers when when Gallin and Kelly were not on the mount, right? There's a big difference between like a four and a half ERA when your best starters aren't out there and a six ERA. And now what you're doing with adding Montgomery, you know, and having already added Eduardo Rodriguez expecting Brandon Fought to be even better, like what is that number this year? If it was a six ERA without Gallin or Kelly last year, I mean, is it a three and a half ERA this year?

Like that's probably a little bit bullish knowing, You know, you're going to have to dig through at least some of your depth, especially at the beginning part of the season. But that's an enormous improvement, an enormous improvement. And, yeah, I mean, especially given the fact that the Diamondbacks are making this move, as you said, without tapping into the farm system. They never really tapped into the farm system the entire off season. You know, they traded Carlos Vargas and Sebi Zavala and the Aohenio-Hawares trade. Outside of that, the farm system is still fully intact. They get Davidson de Los Santos back.

Yeah, yeah, they even got Davis-Dill-Band-A-K-K-K-K. So, yeah, I mean, they've done all of this without, you know, subtracting really anything except for money. And that's something the Diamondbacks haven't done much of in recent years, right? They haven't been among the top spenders in the league. And, you know, it's not like $175 million puts you in the top five in the league in payroll. But it does, I mean, it does move you up there. I don't have the rankings in front of me. But the debacks are probably in the top half of the league in spending, you know, prior to this move,

they still had the lowest payroll on the NOS because the NOS does a lot of fairly high spending teams. That is no longer true after this move. Give credit where credit is due, though. Again, to the ownership, to Ken Kendrick, I know people don't like, and I am not one of them. I very much like Ken. He's a delightful human to be around, to be honest. And I know people don't believe me when I say that, maybe, but he is. And honestly, I think the idea here is that when you are running a, team, you have to be looking ahead at what is coming, right? You have to be looking at when you're going to invest. Are we going to be receiving money back to, to spend on this team to cover these

investments to make sure that we're not running in the negative? And I know baseball teams make an ungodly amount of money and they don't have to show us how much they make. So we have no idea how much they make. But we do know that Derek Hall just the other day told us that this team is expecting almost historic levels of attendance this year. We know that the popularity based on their run last year was going to yield that. You mix that with the ballpark pass, right? Where that ballpark pass is going to come in very handy for a lot of people now to come watch a very good baseball team play this year.

But, you know, you got the improvements with the sound system and the lights and just the enticement to come out more. I mean, the food is much better this year than it. Did you guys see the Sonoran dog on my Twitter? Like, come on, get out there and eat some food. It was bigger than my arm this thing. But anyway, this is just an exciting year. And I think from the business perspective of it, they forecast that they're going to be getting a lot more money this year than they have in the past.

Even that ballpark pass, which makes big games nearly free to attend, will allow people to come to the ballpark, spend money on parking, spend money on concessions, buy merchandise. Like, this isn't a situation. Even if you give away tickets for absolutely free, you're still going to make money because we as fans want to come to the ballpark and buy food and buy drinks and get some merch, right? So, like, it's a matter, I think, of the Diamondbacks being able to see. Ken Kendrick has always said that he is taking the money they receive and putting it back into this team. And at times when you see they're not spending money on this team, it might also coincide with the fact that there's like 9,000 people in the stadium on average, you know, a lot of nights. And this is going to be a much different year as far as they're, you know, what they're expecting for attended. So I think that allows them to make this extra bold step.

And again, I think it proves that. even though it's very unbelievable when Ken Kendrick says he and his partners take the money they receive and reinvest all of it back into the team that they're forecasting more money coming in and thus they're spending more money on the team. Now is the time. Zach Gallin is not going to be a diamond back forever. Well, I don't know. With the way Scott Boris keeps, you know, getting these Ls, maybe we get him resigned. But, you know, Merrill Kelly isn't going to be a diamond back forever. This team is special right now. We've talked about, I think last year, we talked about it a little bit. There's the short plan and then there's the longer term plan, right? You have your,

your window where the Zach Gallons, the Christian Walkers, the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, longer term window with the younger guys, you know, like the, the, the, the, the, the, you know, the, you know, uh, brand and fought all of, you know, those, those, those young guys, they're going to be here for a while. You, you just got to start looking at that window that is open now to win. And I mean, yes. When you see when this team did what it did last year, it's hard not to turn

around and try to invest properly in this team. It's all about how you spend the money. And they spent a lot of it, but I feel like they spent it in a very savvy way. Can we look at the contract details one more time? Jacob, can we pull that up? Yeah, I just want to go over this one more time real quick, because I do want to make it clear that while there's two seasons involved here, it very much has the makings of a one-year contract. You see Nick here term today is a one year $25 million deal with 10 starts. He triggers a $20 million guarantee for 2025 that can increase to $25 million. I think I saw on another tweet that it was 23 starts.

If Montgomery makes 23 starts, then that guarantee for next year goes up to $25 million. But he has an opt-out. So it's not like he makes 10 starts and he has a guarantee for next year that he has to take. It's he has an option for next year. So if Jordan Montgomery comes out and pitches well for the Diamondbacks in 2024, there's a very real chance that he hits the market next season. And that goes back to what you were just saying with this window that the Diamondbacks have. You know, I still think that the team has a chance to be competitive four or five years from now.

But in these next couple of seasons, and I guess for now we're just looking at this year, Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly are very good and they are both under team control for the next two years, right? In making this move, you are trying to win the whole thing in 2024, right? The diamond backs going all in as all in as I could really imagine them going. Honestly, they've already gone further than I probably could have imagined them going. Blown our minds. Blown our minds. Yeah, blown our minds, really.

And yeah, I mean, it makes sense. This is what we've talked about for the last, you know, year. Like the debacks have kind of a window here with a really solid frontline rotation with with Gowan and Kelly, you know, you add Erod and Montgomery to that mix for this season. That's a, that's really, really formidable. Tim keeps making some great points. And I think we got him out of his crumagion phase when it comes to this team. But Tim says it certainly puts Boris and Hazen in better terms heading to a gallon extension.

I mean, who knows if it really does. But I mean, Boris was dragged kicking and screaming. It looks like this, honestly. He's punching. He's punching a picture of Mike Hazen right. now. You stupid idiot. You got me. I thought it was funny that, I don't know if you saw Keith Law's

reaction to this on Twitter. Keith Law quote tweeted, uh, Ken Rosenthal when he tweeted out this news, Keith Law quote tweeted and said 29 teams should hang their heads in shame over this. There is, there is going to be the sent to the end of the tree that Jordan Montgomery

signed with the Diamondbacks for a lot less money, fewer years that he was really worthy of getting. And that's, and that's the reality of the situation, right? Like Blake's was also deserving of more than two years and $62 million. Say what he will about the walks and the fact

that he's not the most watchable Cy Young winning pitcher out there. He was worth more than a two year guarantee after winning the Sy Young Award. Jordan Montgomery didn't just win a Cy Young, but he was also worthy of more than this deal that's really like a one year deal with a potential

vesting player option for 2025. Montgomery's a more valuable player than that. The diamond backs are benefiting from, again, we've talked about it with all of the other Scott Boris clients. The diamond backs are benefiting from Boris just waiting too long and not having the offers that he wants on the table. You know, he probably, as I said before, he was probably dragged into this deal. This is not what Scott Boris had envisioned for Montgomery, you know, three or four months ago. Jesse, Jesse, this message from walkoff sports talk is incredible. He said in the 2023 MLB regular season, 58 pitchers logged 150 innings pitched.

And 17 of those pitchers also posted in ERA under 3.50. Four of those 17 pitchers are now in the Arizona Diamondbacks 2024 starting rotation. It's pretty good. Pitching wins ball games. I don't know if you've ever heard that one before. Conner says Mike Hazen saw the playoff bullpen games and said never again. And I completely agree with that. think we all said that. Well, not only that, though, but like, if, if the Diamondbacks had a healthy rotation going into a postseason series, Zach Allen starts game one, I guess it's Merrill Kelly in game two, maybe it's Montgomery and game three, Erod game four.

At this point, Derek, not only have they made it so that they have a game four starter, they've pushed Brandon fought out so that he wouldn't actually be one of those four-starring bids. Well, let's see. Let's see. Let's see. We've said that before, I think someone said it in the chat earlier. Iron sharpens iron.

So who knows what we're talking about at the end of the season, because if Brandon fought from the playoffs emerges and becomes regular season, big game, Brandon, then who knows? You're not starting that guy in the playoffs. And it's an excellent problem to have, just like facing two lefties is an excellent problem to have. I don't know what more to say. I just can't get over this.

And I think, again, the one important thing here is not, I'm not trying to turn this around on the fans, but we got to support this team. We got to come out. We got to help them. We got to make sure that this thing is a success and they feel that support. It's crazy as a fan to think that you matter, right? Like, it's just like I saw an incredible TikTok and it was from someone who used to run a team social media. account and she said, oh, you think the players don't see your tweets? They absolutely see your tweets. They see all of them. And they even look at your profile and such. And that probably is terrifying to a

lot of people out there. But in the same sense, your presence at Chase Field matters. Like, that is the one thing. You could ask the players last year, like, hey, what was your favorite part of the playoffs? Like, was it the four, you know, home run game? Was it, you know, when Alec Thomas, you know, put the flag in the ground at Philly because that bricked me up. No, Jesse, their comment is what Chase Field felt like when they were in the postseason. And that is an experience that we as a fan base can create for this team this season because based on the way that they're constructed,

they deserve it, right? They're going to have their ups, they're going to have their downs. It's not going to be perfect, right? There's going to be maybe some times where, you know, you kind of are going to question whether they should have spent the amount of money or whatever. And then there's going to be times when you won't. So let's just realize that this team now has a taste for the playoffs.

They want to get back there. Ownership allowed them to spend the money. And Mike Hazen went crazy. Mike Hazen went absolutely insane this offseason. And he delivered in every way that you could hope that they improve on a season like the Diamondbacks had last year. I'm really curious what the explanation is as far as the Diamondback suddenly having $25 million to spend. We touched on this a little bit yesterday when we were talking about Montgomery that Mike Hazen certainly didn't rule out making further additions to this team after signing Randall Grishick. But he very much gave the impression that it was going to be smaller moves around the margins.

It didn't really sound like there was a real possibility of doing anything big at that point. And I don't know if that was just him kind of why. wanting to say that publicly at the time, knowing that maybe there was a chance that in the right situation, the debacks would have more money to spend. Or maybe it's that in the last week, Ken Kendrick and Mike Hazen had a follow-up conversation. And Ken Kendrick was like, yeah, you know, I just saw the Padres get Dylan Seas and the Giants got Blake Snell. We, you know, let's go counter this move. Let's see if we can get Jordan Montgomery. I don't know the details there but I'm curious because

yeah a month ago this is not the impression that we got talking with Mike Hazen that they had this kind of money I mean it's only short term yes but $25 million dollars is still $25 million I think that circles us back around to

the question do you think there's something that is more wrong with Eduardo Rodriguez than we know I feel like I'm a conspiracy theorist even saying that because I heard the words myself out of Tori's mouth about him picking up and throwing a baseball this week, right? So like it doesn't seem like everything tracks with the exact thing that they said.

But it like, again, was it the Blake Snell signing that allowed the ownership to the group to open up their pockets to allow Ken to go for this extra, you know, marquee player? Was it the injury? Was that the thing that scared him? Like that they don't know if maybe it's not if they're going to lose him long term, but can they count on him? And is he going to be an injury risk? the rest of the season due to this, you know, latch strain.

It doesn't seem like it, but we don't really know what the reason is, like you said, that sparked this change in direction. I'm just glad that whatever caused it to happen, happened. That's what I'm glad about, Jesse. I don't care. Sometimes, you know, sometimes you don't want to spend the money and you regret it. And then something pushes you to do so, and then you don't end up regretting it, right? You get to a point where you realize that you really,

just took an opportunity to take a solid core and expedite, expedite the process very fast, because we went from almost missing the playoffs last year to making the playoffs by one game, to making, you know, some noise in the postseason to getting to the World Series. And now here the Diamondbacks are doing that thing that I've talked about for a very long time. It's those levels. And there are levels to this, right? The level one is determining what your core is. Level two is that core finding success, and level three is adding to that core and making it, you know, a contender, like adding whatever pieces you feel that gets you to that point where you are a contender for a championship. And just like Corbyn Carroll's expedited minor league career, all of this has happened in a much faster, you know, way than franchises in any sport usually get it done.

Usually you try to make it happen with money, but that's when you don't really have that core established. You're not really just adding the pieces that you need that you feel like will get you to that next level. You're just trying to, you know, rush something that isn't there yet. Like the Diamondbacks, this is different because the young guys are the guys that got them as far as they did last year. And there was a lot of help from everybody. But, you know, this trusting the young players in 2023 really turned out to be the right move for this franchise. And now here they are adding, you know, again, not like the highest level as far as, you know, pay goes. but adding the most elite level pitchers that they could get this offseason.

I just, I would say I'm speechless. I'm not ever speechless. I just, it's almost like I talk more when I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say here, though. It's just still amazing to me.

We cover this team. We get to cover this. Jesse, remember when they lost 100 games and we were covering this team? Jesse, remember when we were covering this team during the goddamn lockout? It was 100. This is for us. This is for us for the dark days that we live through. thank you. Thank you for doing it for me and Jesse.

I also wonder from Montgomery's perspective, like, I don't know if I could bring myself to believe that the Diamondbacks were the only team willing to offer something in the neighborhood of what this contract is. I imagine we'll get more information on that in the coming days, but there has to be some element here of Jordan Montgomery wanting to come and play for the Diamondbacks, knowing that they were the team in the other dugout when when the Ranger won the World Series last year, you know, him seeing how far they were able to go in the kind of team that they were and wanting to be a part of that. We'll hopefully get more information on that in the coming days, but I have to believe that that was at least part of this for Montgomery.

I know the reason why, Jesse, it's Tori Lavallo. It's the exact thing I said. Remember, like, how could you not want to play for Tori at times? How can you not look across when you're playing in the opposing dugout, especially when you were in the World Series, or in a playoff series against the man, because you get to see how he treats his players, how he loves his players. You get to hear those post-game speeches that we all heard. And I don't know how you wouldn't want to come play here.

There's a lot of attractive things about playing in Arizona. But when you're talking about a guy coming here on a one-year deal, he's not necessarily going to experience the comforts of living in Arizona while going to spring training and doing all of that stuff. Like, yeah, the weather's hot or nice, but he's missing most of it. He's about to be here for the hot time of the year. So everything in.

my brain points to the fact that like if there's that little thing, if a lot of teams were offering him 25 million, it has to be the excitement around this franchise. It has to be that you think that they're going to be a contender and that they're going to win in 2024. And maybe, maybe a little bit of it. Maybe the part that kind of pushes you over the edge is looking across that field and seeing that manager and thinking, I'd like to play for that guy one day and then realizing that you can make that come true by accepting a deal from the dime of X. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm very curious that very well. I don't know what kind of relationship Montgomery has with Tori or like how he would have known him in the past. But yeah, we'll hopefully get more. Hopefully we get to talk to Montgomery here within within the next couple of days. I'm not sure if he's been throwing in Arizona or or where he's been exactly. But Rangers spring training is here. So I don't know how it is. I mean, he's not. He's not. I know. I know. I'm just saying, you know, off season. Maybe he's throwing in Scott Boris's backyard for the last few months.

I'm not sure exactly how that word. He's throwing at that secret facility they were all training at during the lockout. I know it for a fact. That's exactly where he's at. But anyway, I could keep podcasting about this all night, but we should probably wrap it up. Of course, we thank each and every one of you for being here. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel.

Make sure you subscribe over in the audio podcasting side. If you're not to die hard yet, consider joining us over at go phnx.com. It's an incredible family that we built an incredible community. And of course, if you join us, you get a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com, discounts with our partners, exclusive access to all of our content. All of Jesse's writing. We got a Discord lounge that has some amazing content there that's just for diehards as well. So consider signing up. But most importantly, make sure you support this team because this is going to be one hell of a year to root for the snakes.

Maybe the year of the snakes. I don't know. We're fucking dangerous, though. I appreciate you guys showing up. again, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our producer, Fage, he is at Jacob

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night. But remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's more fun when you go out and you sign an elite pitcher right before opening day.