PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Eugenio Suarez BEATS Jackson Chourio, Wins Venezuelan Winter League Home Run Derby

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

36-hour sale! Become a PHNX Diehard for just $36! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube PHNX Cyber Monday! Up to 75% off! https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker Even though the Diamondbacks didn’t make the playoffs in 2024, their players continue to win during the offseason. We have more on Eugenio Suarez being crowned “El Rey del Jonrón”, winning the Venezuelan Winter League’s Home Run Derby. We are also discussing if the D-backs are going to make any moves before the Winter Meetings, if one of those moves could be to acquire outfielder Mark Canha, and if Rob Manfred’s Golden At-Bat concept is MLB’s worst proposed rule change to date. Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin 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/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 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/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. 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! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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 #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode, I want to talk about what Xavier and Kofi did to Big E, but Jesse says we have to talk about baseball. So I guess we'll talk about Gino Suarez winning the Venezuelan Winter League home run derby, as well as this golden at-bat rule that I do not like. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you guys go anywhere. To another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX, my name is Derek Montia. Of course, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This band is my vice mayor and your thunderstick, the one and only, Jesse Friedman. And we got, of course, large, intimate Kevin Thomas on the ones in Tuesday today. Happy to see all of you guys here. Happy to be talking about baseball. Not happy, once again,

with what Xavier and Kofi did to Biggie last night. And I will never stop talking about that. You cowards. But anyway, moving on to actual baseball talk, which is what this podcast is about. Jesse, the Diamondbacks during the off season keep winning. I know we might not have made the playoffs. I know that the record and the wins that they had this year might not be enough to satisfy fans. But what they are doing in the off season is bringing home trophies. That's what these guys are doing. And there's a new one to be added to our trophy case because Gino Suarez comes out on top. El re de Hongron, the one and only Gino Svarez winning the Venezuelan Winter League home run derby last night.

Look at this beast. He absolutely caught fire. see exactly what he need to. And it was a, it was a very exciting home run derby. It really was. Yeah, this is not an event that I'm, I'm used to tracking on an annual basis. I think, I think it's going to become a new tradition for me. It was star studded. It was. Yeah, you, you hear about, you know, the Venezuelan Winter League and you're like, okay, you know, maybe there's, there's a few major leaguers that find their way into the Venezuelan Winter League for, you know, play a handful of games or whatnot. But yeah, I mean,

yesterday, Derek, we had a Eugenio Suarez, we had William Contreras, we had Conreras, we had Jackson Chorio, we had Jose Altuve, we had Luis Anhele Acuna, we had Andres Shapiro. Former friend of the podcast.

Diamondbacks legend, Andrew Shapiro, who they signed to a minor league deal last off season and then traded to the Washington Nationals for Dylan Floro at the trade deadline, a deal that didn't go so well for the Diamondbacks. really didn't out. But yeah, there are some big names here and A Eugenio Suarez was, was able to pull it out in the end. He wins in the first round against William Contreras, and then he moves on to the second round, which had...

He didn't just win the first round against William Contreras, Derek. It was 12 to 3. Yeah, yeah. 12 to 3 in the first round. Well, and then what's really interesting there is in the second round, what happens is, of course, there's the eight first round or four first round matchups between the eight competitors. Right. And then those four that win their first round matchup move on to the second round. In the second round, there's five people because whoever of the remaining four that,

lost in the first round hit the most home runs, they move on to the second round. So we had five in the second round. We had Jackson Trurio lead the way there in the second round, I believe with 14 home runs and then a weird thing at the end because

Gino was the last batter to hit in the second round. Right, because he hit the most homers in the first round. So I think they allow him to go last in the second round. Which is what happens in the final as well. So he goes last and it looked like he lost by one to, yeah, had Jackson Chero leading the way with 14.

And then Andres Chaparro had 10. Gino catches absolutely. It was wild to watch that he has three minutes to hit home runs in the second round. After two minutes are gone, he has two home runs, two. That's it. And I think with his final 50 seconds, he hit eight home runs or, or, yeah, something like eight home runs in the final minute. They had to go back and review the tape or something.

There was some, there was some shortage. He thought he only had nine. is not good enough to figure out exactly what was going on. I was watching at 5.30 at the morning. It sounds like, yeah, the broadcasters, according to my Google Translate interpretation, were talking about people looking back at the tape. Originally, they showed Gino having nine home runs, in which case, Andra Shaparo would have advanced the final with Jackson Chorio.

But they reviewed the tape, Derek. And I'm not sure if Gino and Shapiro tied and Gino won the tiebreaker. That's kind of what it sounded like. me. Yeah, because he had more in the first round. Right. He had more in the first round. Or maybe, maybe they looked at the tape and Gino actually did have more than Shapiro. But yeah, they, they weren't able to keep up with the number of home runs that Gino was hitting in that last minute. It was just such a, yeah, it was incredible. He just, it was just one after another. Fireworks were going off. It was insane. Like, it was wild. And Nicholas, you're absolutely right.

It wasn't the final round. It was the second round. But his second round was essentially a three minute recap of this season. Yes. He caught fire late and couldn't be stopped. And then the mistake there is that Jackson Churio, I don't, I'm like, like Jesse said, the person with the more home runs goes second. So they let Gino, who should have technically been gassed by this point, considering he went last in the second round, go first in the finals. And he was just locked in. He was just dialed in. He did not stop hitting home runs. I think he hit 12 in the final round in two minutes to win over uh over jackson churio there i think churio hit uh four or five i think churio it's six what i saw but yeah yeah yeah gino just obliterated churio in in that final round and yeah i mean

i guess out of those guys like you know gino is not a perfect major league baseball player but hitting home runs is perfect to me is something he's perfect to me hitting homers is something that gino is pretty good at it has been pretty good at for a very long time this is a situation where you figured he might go in and thrive. And he did exactly that. Yeah. It was just a real cool moment for him, obviously. And I mean, again, Diamondbacks keep winning this offseason.

He's not the only one hoisting that trophy up, even though I do. I want to see it again. Kevin, if you don't mind throwing that picture up again because, yes, it's a gigantic Pepsi trophy. And yeah, I don't know where he's going to put that in his house. but I hope he has a massive I hope he has bolted ceiling you know if he wants to put it on the mantle

but yeah he's not the only one right we got Yumen Lin and the Chinese Taipei aka Taiwan team winning beating Japan to win the premier 12 tournament got Tommy Troy Gino Grover and the Salt River Rafters winning the Arizona Fall League and Jordan Lawler even though it sounds like he is no longer playing in the Le Dom

he had himself quite a season for the Tigres he is still currently tied for the team leader in home runs with three and rbi with 14 so i mean luller even though his slash line wasn't great he slashed 237 315 355 uh that's a 670 ops he still you know had had himself a fairly successful season and you know again i think the team thanked him for his time so it sounds like it's a rap for him there but i mean again it's i guess you could call it small victories i guess this is we are a silver linings podcast at times but

It does feel good to see our guys out there winning during the off season, you know, even when the team itself couldn't, you know, at least get into the playoffs and make some noise. Well, everyone knows, Derek, that the time to put trophies in cases is in the off season. It is in December. I don't like the way. This is the most important part of the baseball. I don't know. I don't like his tone, Kevin. I'm going to spin it around.

We're a Silver Linings podcast. They say you've got to learn how to win, all right? We couldn't lift the trophy last year. Yeah. All the players are doing is lifting trophies in the off season. Yeah. They're going to get that it. They're going to feel that itch.

That's going to keep them awake at night. It's going to keep them from getting good sleep, but they're going to win when it matters most, Jesse. They're going to learn how to lift that heavy trophy, that big Pepsi trophy. I'm glad I have you to balance out his negativity because, as most of you know, that's Jesse's job. He's Captain Brindown on this podcast. But, no, I mean, honestly, like, again, this was,

I think the thing is, is we tend to think of things like the Dominican Winter League and the Venezuelan Winter League is not really being super competitive. But it is. Like, when you look at the, just this star-studded lineup of this home run derby alone. You know, you have current stars. You have Jose Al-Tube,

which is kind of an MLB legend. And then, you know, you have future stars like Luis Angel Ocuna and other Andres Chabarro all playing in this. So like it was just, it's a nice mix. And we've said that about the Dominican Winter League. That it's a nice mix of talent from,

you know, guys that have 20 years of experience in baseball plus to guys that, you know, are brand new just making it in the game. Yeah. I mean, you also have to love. just how big a part of the culture baseball is in in some of these places, right?

Like going back and watching through a lot of this, this broadcast of the home run derby in Venezuela. Like it's a really big deal there. They had Carlos Mendoza, the manager of the New York Mets. He threw out the first pitch. And people are just kind of going crazy through the whole thing. Heck, I think I watched an hour and a half of broadcast before the first home run was actually hit.

This thing is a spectacle. It was held in a stadium that holds like 40,000 people in Venezuela, so it was not a small venue whatsoever. So, yeah, it's a baseball is a big deal in Venezuela. It's a huge deal in the Dominican, certainly. And it's fun in the offseason to kind of get a sense of what baseball is like in these places. And you're not wrong because I think when I was looking up Jordan Lawler's stats, there were games played for the Dominican Winter League.

in City Field and Yankee Stadium in November. And again, it's a, it's a growing, you know, it's still like a growing league, but it's just a reminder once again that baseball never really stops. And, you know, I still remember seeing video last offseason of Kattel in the batting cage in the Dominican, like a week after, you know, the World Series was over.

And I think it was something to the effect of, you know, like the training never stops or next season starts now. or something like that. And like again, Katel had a monster season this year. But yeah, I mean, got to take a little bit of time off at some point, I guess. But there's no rest for some of these guys. There's no rest for us. The winter meetings are right around the corner.

Jesse will be out there in Dallas to cover that. I know we've talked about that. But it's just, you know, again, there's a little time off here for baseball. And then we get right back into the swing of things for some of these guys playing in these winter leagues. They, they barely get any time off. I'll be curious to see if Gino sticks around and maybe plays some games in the in the Venezuelan Winter League. He did play in his first Venezuelan Winter League game. I believe the day before the home run derby.

So just a couple of days ago. And he went two for five with two homers. So my goodness. Gino is going off. He's going off in Venezuela. But yeah, I don't know if he's like just making a quick pit stop there. Yeah, I was going to say this seems fishy to me. This seems fishy.

He shows up for one game. It's a couple of dingers and then he's in the home run derby. I feel like that's all he's there for. He just wanted to go mash some dingers. I mean, it's hard to, it's hard to blame him and it's hard to blame like, I mean,

the fans are probably not arguing with that. Like, Gino is is probably a legend in Venezuela, right? Yeah. Like these people, they want to see Gino in the home run derby, right?

He was signing autographs through the fence and there was a line of kids. And like, you're right. I mean, like we've talked about this with human lin and i think it's easy for us to lose sight of things living in a country like the united states but yeah i mean when these guys are representatives for your country in a sport like baseball like yeah there's i mean don't get me wrong there's a lot of venezuelan players just like there's a lot of like dominican players a lot of cuban players

a lot of porto rican players but still like these there's a tremendous amount of pride in those guys and they know who their guys are right like there's no doubt they will tell you like when I go to Puerto Rico, they will tell you every single major leaguer of Puerto Rican heritage, even if they were born on the island, they're like, well, his grandmother was Puerto Rican, and we know, we keep them in the family. And again, it's just really cool. I think it should work the other way. I think Diamondbacks fan should have a tremendous amount of pride and Juno for doing this, right?

Like, this is one of those things where, you know, it's fun. It's an honor for him. It's a great privilege for him to go, you know, do this and win this, you know, derby in front of his home country. but I mean again this is this is an accomplishment like I don't I don't think this is all for nothing I mean these type of things even though it's just kind of small and fun this goes on to the resume for a player you know and again I know that he's on the other side of his career getting towards the end of it right but still like these are the kind of things that if you wonder why they participate in this stuff it this adds to like their value and they can like throw this in

there when they're negotiating for contracts and such that they you know accomplish these other things championships in other leagues you know home run derbies all this stuff it all matters to them on their personal career yeah absolutely um yeah this was a cool cool moment for gino cool seeing him celebrate with his family out there and uh yeah more more gno dingers to be had in uh in 2025 more home run derbies i need all the home run derbies i need like a lot of this i don't care whatever way we need to make it star studded like this too even if we have to just have them come play one game and then be in the home run derby, I am fine with it. But of course, on the other side of this break,

we are going to talk about if the Diamondbacks are going to make any moves here soon before Jesse gets out to Dallas for the winter meetings. And some of the moves that have already happened, because like we said yesterday, the hot stove is heating up, and moves are happening, things are happening? Are the Diamondbacks going to be one of the teams that does something here soon? We'll talk about that on the other side of this break. So, of course, don't you guys go anywhere?

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All right, Jesse. Well, of course, we wonder, we, we ponder if the Diamondbacks are going to make any moves here before the winter meetings. We know historically they have done so. And they, their biggest, I guess their biggest agenda item was to get their pitching coaching staff in place, which they've done. And so it feels like a move might be eminent, if not here before the winter meetings, fairly soon afterwards. Yeah, we've talked about it recently that the Diamondbacks do have a history under Mike Hazen of making moves not just before the winter meetings, but in November, like sometimes mid-November. We saw the Gino Suarez trade happen last year in the middle portion of November. So obviously that is come and gone at this point.

But yeah, based on a story that came out from Steve Gilbert last night, it sounds like it is possible that the Diamondbacks could make a move between now. and when the winter meetings start on Monday of next week. Mike Hazen said in this story from Steve Gilbert, not a lot has happened on the trade market, but there's enough out there that I think something could happen around the winter meetings or leading up to them. So it seems possible, Derek, at the very least, the Diamondbacks could make some sort of a move here at some point this week.

Well, that's exciting. But, of course, we have no idea what they're going to focus on. We know what their needs are, and we still don't know what ultimately is going to happen there with Christian Walker until Christian Walker signed somewhere else. It would be weird for the Diamondbacks to sign another first basement while Christian Walker is still available on the free agent. That would be weird. You're right. Right. I mean, again, there's no certainty that that's what they're going to do.

But we know from their end, they've been asked about starting pitching as well as their outfielders. both of which they have a surplus of. And, I mean, you know, again, the Diamondbacks know, we know what they're in the market for. We also know that they are not shy about upgrading, even in areas that they might not need it. We see that the Rangers made a move here. That is one of those type of moves.

The Rangers went out and added one of the top catchers available on the free agent market when they already had one of the best catchers, I guess you could say, already available. So the Diamondbacks, I don't know. It's not out of the question that the Diamondbacks might go out there and make a move for a player for a position that they already kind of have covered, but they still have a lot of needs to address. And of course, Mike Hazen also said in that piece from Steve Gilbert

that Dre Jameson will likely be used as a reliever. Yes. And his first season back from Tommy John. So we've kind of wondered what Dre Jameson's role would be that there's no surprise there that Jameson will be coming out of the bullpen. No surprise. is and I think he could be a real asset there. We haven't been totally sure exactly what his role would look like going into 2025.

It sounds like this is the direction that the team is leaning. And we saw Dre Jameson as a reliever in spurts in 2023. We saw him in a, it felt like we saw him as a, what was it, reliever, then starter, then starter, then back to reliever again, something like that. I mean, he started as a starter, right? Yes. Wasn't his initial? I think they, so out of spring training, they chose to put Ryan Nelson on the roster as a starter.

And I think they chose to have Drey Jameson as a reliever. Or were you talking about 2023 when he actually gave you? I'm talking about 2023. Oh, okay. Okay. Because Dre would have, he would have had, he had Tommy John toward the end of 2023. So, yeah, all the dates are sort of jumbled in my head at this point. But yes, all that to say, Drey Jameson, uh, the Diamond,

backs did him no favors last year with the way that they used him. And they wondered after the fact if maybe having him switch back and forth between roles was maybe the reason or at least part of the reason that he needed Tommy John surgery. You kind of have to wonder what that would do to a guy physically to constantly be moving back and forth between those roles. But yeah, Dre Jameson was an asset for the Diamondbacks out of the bullpen last year at times. There were games that they won because he was able to come out and get. give them two or three really good innings when a starting pitcher, you know, didn't have it that day or whatever. So that's, that's interesting. That's good to know as we kind of think about

what this bullpen is going to look like in 2025 that we should probably be penciling Dre Jameson into that group. Yeah. And meanwhile, of course, in regards to starting pitching, at least we know that that's not seven starting pitchers for the Arizona Diamondbacks going forward. And like I said earlier, they still are continued to be asked about the starting pitching with that surplus and and their outfielders. So feels feels like a moves imminent. It feels like we're going to have something. I'm just,

I'm waiting patiently for, for Mike to do something. We need that freaky Friday situation that we talked about yesterday to happen. But again, like I said, didn't stop the Rangers from going out and adding to a position that they already had covered, which, which is what happened. And if you're a Diamondbacks fan,

you're probably very happy to see Kyle Higashioka go elsewhere. Bye Kyle. Because in 2024, Derek, I knew, I knew that he went off against the Diamondbacks. I didn't know it was to this extent. He went 11 for 29 with four homers, eight RBI and a 1207 OPS against the Diamondbacks in 24. And he also, as people will probably remember, he's the guy who hit the two run Homer that effectively ended the Diamondback season the day before their final game,

AJ Puck, the Diamondbacks reliever who could not be denied. He had a bit of a rough night that that game is Tagashioka hit a two-run Homer. And then the Padres went on to put up five runs in that inning. And basically end the Diamondback season as things turned out. I'm so glad that he is gone. I don't understand the move. Like I said from the Rangers perspective. Jonah Haim did have kind of a rough year.

He was awesome in 2023, and obviously the Rangers went all the way to the World Series. He was a big part of their success. But in 2024, Heim only had a 602 OPS. Even though he stayed relatively healthy, he played 131 games. Wasn't terrible, still a decent defender. But yeah, I guess they decided to add some depth in that area. Kyle Higashioca might be the best catcher available this offseason. And according to reports, they are going to.

split time. Jonah Heim and Kyle are going to split time. So it's, yeah, interesting in regards to that. Again, I don't,

I don't hate the move. Well, I love the move to get him out of the NOS. I love the move. Get him out of the NL, get him out of everything, right? Get him out of our lives.

But I think that, again, like you said, there's times where you can't continue to hope that a player is going to return to their past glory. If they end up both being good,

then this is a great move for the Rangers and they have a lot of versatility, a lot of depth. Plus, you know, there's still the DH spot, which I know they kind of have covered, but, you know, again, it's not to say that they can't figure out a way for both of these guys to be in the lineup at the same time. However, you know, I don't know. I mean, the Diamondbacks are in a position right now where they have things that they need to address before they could go out and just upgrade at a position that they have already fairly covered. And I don't know how I would feel about the Diamondbacks going out and getting another catcher right now. How would you feel about the debacks?

You know, I mean, it wouldn't make you feel a lot of confidence in Gabby's future with this team. Yeah, it would have been very weird if the Diamondbacks had gone out and gotten Kyle Hagashioka. I mean, I know people have maybe had some concerns about the backup situation behind Gabriel Moreno. It hasn't necessarily been ideal. But Gabby is still a guy that you expect to catch the majority of games, even if he has been a little bit banged up over these last couple of seasons. like, you know, is it, is it worth paying, you know, $10 million a season or whatever the number was for Hagashoka to have a guy who's, who's, you know, going to start like 50 games for you or whatever that, that number winds up being? I think it just would have been a poor use of resources from the Diamondbacks perspective. What did Hegashioca get?

I do not have what he got. It's a two-year contract, though. And it's not, I don't think it was a ton of money. I think it was like $12 million or something like that. I was actually kind of surprised about it, but I don't know what the market is for a player like that. But yeah, like, yes. Yeah, so I'm looking at ESPN here. It says that the Texas Rangers on Monday signed veteran catcher Kyle Gashioca to a deal worth $13.5 million.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, I see the breakdown from our buddy, Jeff Wilson over from DLLS. That's right. 5.75 million and 25, 6.75 million and 26. And then there's a $7 million option with a $1 million dollar option with a $1 million. buyout for 2027. Club option? I'm not totally sure.

I don't hate that for them. I think that's a pretty good deal and I think he's a very, very good player. But yeah, I don't, I wouldn't feel great about the Diamondbacks going out there and, you know, making this like one of their first big moves to get a player that essentially plays a position that you feel like they already have covered. But interesting to see and I hope all the bad things happen to the Rangers and nobody about the Rangers. Actually, that goes for all teams that aren't the Diamondbacks. Adding some depth could make some sense for the debacks at catcher. But yeah, Higashioka would have been like shooting at the top of the market needlessly in my mind. Yeah, isn't he one of the best catchers essentially available on the free agent market?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, the catching market is not, there's not a ton of options this year. No Contreras brothers. Yeah, neither of the contraris brothers are available. Although Wilson now is a first basement apparently. Oh, yeah, that's right. Cardinals are even planning on having him catch anymore. But yeah, Higashioka had a really good season.

And again, if you're a D-Baks fan, this is good news because Higashioka, even gone. Even aside from what he did to the Diamondbacks in particular, like, he was a valuable player for that Padre's team. I know they have Luis Campasano, who I imagine will be their primary catcher going into 2025, but he is not the hitter that Kyle Hacogashioka is. We'll see you for four games, Kyle. Bye.

Speaking of guys on the move, apparently a roll. this Chapman, according to Jeff Passon, has signed a deal with the Boston Red Sox. It's a one year, $10.75 million deal pending physical. And he had a pretty decent year last year. He was the 3.79 ERA in 61 and two-thirds innings pitched. 98 strikeouts, 14 saves for the pirates. I mean, he's a name. He's one of those guys that he feel like it's getting to the end of his career there.

But, I mean, the Red Sox are definitely active in the market. We've heard them, well, not only were they trying to woo, Juan Soto, but we've definitely seen the Red Sox connected to a lot of the top free agents. Yeah, I mean, or all this Chapman just keeps just keeps doing the thing. You know, he's, he's 36 years old. He's entering his age 37 season and he's still averaged 98 miles an hour on his four seamer, 99 miles an hour on his sinker in 24. That's absurd. The results are not what they used to be, right? It's not like a mid one ERA. You mentioned it, the 379 ERA from 2024. It's, it. It's, It's really just around average, a little above.

But he still strikes out a ton of guys. His strikeout rate was just under 40% in 2024, which is very, very good. So he's someone that you can still, you know, you can use him as a back end reliever. You can use him as a closer if you need to. And he can hold his own in that role. So a nice get for the Boston Red Sox. Well, again, we just, we want to see the Diamondbacks making moves. So do something.

Do something. That's what I implore you. Give us something to talk about before the end of this week. Did they make a move, Kevin? Oh. Is that all? Yeah, Elise. Yeah, could we address this, Elise?

Rickety Bridge finally figured out that he's never seen Elise and Mike Hazen in the same room at the same time. So people are starting to put the puzzle pieces together, Elise. I think we have a super chat from Michael Rokickey. You put it up on screen, but I'll read it for our guy, Michael. He says, you mean you're waiting for Elise to do something. Yeah. Elise is a known baseball gym. We've never really pegged her necessarily as being Mike Hazen, but she very much is probably Mike Hazen. There is evidence to suggest. There are. There's definitely evidence to suggest. Yeah. And if you're Mike Hazen, no better way to throw people off dissent that have one name as your name and have it be Elise. It couldn't be farther from Mike, you know, or Hazen. It's fair. It's a pretty good cover. It's a pretty good cover. It's a pretty good cover if you're Mike Hazen. I mean, not the same amount of syllables. There's no last name there. It's very, it's very deceptive. But. Uh, anyway, uh, Candice wants to know what does Kevin know.

Um, not a lot, apparently. Kevin also roots for you of A. So I mean, we, this question is judgment is questionable. Uh, we have more to talk about though. And we are trying to get the Diamondbacks going here. So we have some ideas on who they could potentially pick up as, uh, by low target for the debacks this off season. We will get to that on the other side of this break.

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So let Desert Financial help you. Save some money and get yourself started on the right foot for 2025. Well, Cyber Monday isn't over, Jesse. We know a lot of these websites are still sending us emails telling us that the deals are still going, including our deal, which you don't have much time for. If you're not a diehard yet, you got a few hours left, not 36 hours from this moment. That timeframe has come and gone. We're almost to the end of it. So if you have not signed up yet, if you're not become a diehard yet, it is the lowest price we've ever offered.

You can get down on it right now for $36. Basically the price of a shirt, you get a shirt for free, and then you get all of this wonderful content. You get access to our Discord lounge and I guess an introduction like so many new diehards have found that to our community are very weird, wild, wacky community, especially in the Diamondbacks chat. We love you guys so much. You guys help make not only the Discord special, but everything we do here special. You also get access to all of Jesse's writing. You get access to everything we do over here, including Deebaks After Dark, Ask Archie, and all of our other special content as well. So make sure to join us today.

And of course, if you ever have been curious about doing so, we hope you try it out and we hope you enjoy it. Yeah. And if you want to see Derek on some PhNX puffs, let us know. Yeah. We got to make that happen. Yeah. I don't know how that happened without Derek. There's a, there's a show called pHNX puffs.

It involves marijuana and somehow I'm not directly involved with it. Eric called me a fake smoker, I believe. And there's going to be there's going to be consequences for that. But before we get to those consequences eventually, and not for Kevin. Kevin understands I'm a real smoker. But before we get to that, we do have to find ourselves a deal for the Arizona Diamondbacks before all these deals can go the other way.

We know those deals can go away fast, especially in this free agency market. And we were wondering if Mark Kanha would make sense as a low buy target for the Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder, someone that we've talked about in the past as a potential target, just someone that's always kind of felt like a good fit. for the debacks yeah uh mark kana plays a variety of positions outfield as you mentioned he actually played uh first base slightly more than the outfield in 2024 so you can move around move around a little bit

yeah 50 games at first base a total of 43 in the outfield in 2024 some of that and left some of that and right he did play one game at third base as well in 2024 although i don't know if that's where you really want to be playing mark kana moving forward we look at his numbers for the 2024 season Not going to blow you away. This is definitely, as you said, more of a buy low type target for the Diamondbacks guy that would allow them to allocate more of their resources to other needs on this roster. In 2024, 242, 346, 7 homers, 42 RBI. He was worth exactly one win above replacement.

So, again, not going to blow you away with these numbers. That slugging percentage of 346 is a little bit on the low end. but he gets on base, Derek, and, you know, people have probably seen Moneyball. There's value in getting on base. And Mark Kana does that very long. Have you seen Moneyball, Jesse? You say people have probably seen Moneyball. I'm not worried about him.

Jesse hasn't seen money ball. I'm worried about him. He's seen money ball a lot. I'm offended that Kevin even asked that question. Yeah, I mean, you have. It's a valid question. Hold on. When we did, Jesse hasn't seen it, I believe you had, what, what baseball

movie did I task you with that you hadn't seen there were a few were there not there were quite a few yes I mean like how many ball is so clearly right up my alley that's for very true that's very true it's in his like a range of of growing up and it being a new movie because he doesn't watch old movies we know that he didn't even know a christmas story existed as a film um so there's that but uh in regards to his on base percentage and everything that he can do is this an ideal like put i guess i not ideal the potential like platoon at first base uh just a guy that can kind of plug in at different options what would you see you know him being his splits uh he's got fairly better statistics against left-handed pitching so there's that yeah absolutely yeah he

hit 275 380 394 against lefties in 2024 so again he doesn't have a ton of power at this stage in his career but a 380 on base percentage against lefties is pretty valuable And the diamondbacks do have a need for sure against left-handed pitching, whether it be at first base as maybe a platoon partner for a Pavan Smith, if the diamondbacks wanted to go a cheaper route at first base. Sure. He could get some DH opportunity as well. You know, if you were to sign a jock Peterson and you wanted a platoon partner for him, that could make some sense. He can play in the outfield as well.

So he kind of, uh, it's kind of like a Randall Gritchick approximation. I was going to say, of replacement for Gritchick. Yeah. I, I think he could, his role could could sort of stretch along all of those different, uh, all of those different possibilities. So, uh, yeah, if we look at his baseball savant page, you'll see it's, it's, uh, pretty just turner-esque, I guess, not impacting the ball a ton. I'm glad we made that a turn.

He's got a Justin Turner baseball. Yeah, it basically means like blue at the top where we're looking at, you know, like how hard is he hitting the ball? It's almost like you could say he knows the strike zone well. Exactly. But he's like you can tell his power, his bat speed, all of those other metrics that the baseball smart measures offensively have kind of, uh, gone off a little bit more to the cold side, the little blue side there.

Not to say that Mark Kanha was ever the like best offensive player, you know, but I think the thing was is, you know, obviously offered a little bit more, uh, contribution wise. And he was a little bit better defensively. His defensive metrics are okayish, but not great either. Yeah, I think he can hold his own at first base. So then he can hold his own in Yachtfield corners as well. He's not going to be plus at any of those positions, but, you know,

relative to like a Josh Naylor or a Josh Bell some of these other guys we've discussed. He might be a better defender at first base than some of those guys. Plus a little bit more versatile. Yeah. As far as where else they could use them

and what else they could do. Right, right. There is value in having someone who can sort of, yeah, platoon with a Pavan Smith at first base and also go out and place him outfield or you can just plug him in at DH if you need to. So there's some versatility there as well.

He doesn't swing and miss much. He doesn't chase out of his own much. He does drive. out walks. So yeah, he can he can get on base for sure is is the total offensive package super compelling, not necessarily, but it's a guy who who can have some value if you use him in the right way. If you're not bringing him into being an everyday starter. Right. It absolutely could be that for you. And let's be fair. Last year, we were looking at some of the metrics for Jack Peterson and Randall Gritchick and both of these guys had not a career season, but both

of these guys had a substantially better season as a member of the Airs. on the Diamondbacks than what they did in 2023. So there's always that as well. Right now, crowdsource on Fangraphs projects him for one year, $8 million, which would be a fairly inexpensive option to bring in and use in that

versatile backup role where he could play some first base, play some DH, and like we said, do a lot of the things that Randall Gritchick did, maybe not as well as Gritchick did, but still in a way that, you know, you don't miss Randall nearly as much. The way that this offense was built last

year you had a lot of things going in the right direction and i think the one thing that the diamond backs might want to focus on is guys that can get on base a little bit more and i mean we we actually saw jock peterson do a much better job of that than we thought we were going to see him do in twenty twenty four but they need they need a little bit more patience and if they're going to go with experience guys canhawk could make a lot of sense just because he could be that kind of i guess nuisance that gets on base comes into a game maybe you know maybe a little bit like kevin newman where they and maybe not plug him in as an infielder all over the place, but plug him in a lot of different places

and just still have him get plenty of playing time, even though he's not necessarily an everyday starter. He just has been a solid hitter for a long time. I mean, you look at his 203 numbers. He had a 108 OPS plus splitting time with the Mets and the Brewers. 2022. He was with the Mets, a 122 OPS plus 111 in 2021, 124 in 2026 in 2019. this guy at 26 homers for the Oakland days back in 2019.

Yeah, not that one ago. Yeah, he's not not that guy anymore for sure. But yeah, as you said. That's pre-pandemic. What are you talking about? That's a lifetime ago. It does, it does feel that way for sure. That's before the snap.

Yeah, Kanha is is not, he's not going to impact the ball a ton at this stage in his career. I think one year eight million seems a little bit on the higher end for me. I wonder if the actual number could come in a little bit lower than that. And I think of the deal that the Diamondbacks gave Randall Gritchick this past season. The base was it was one year, two million, something like that with, you know, some some bonuses and obviously the mutual option on top of that. But if you could get Mark Kana for just a few million dollars, then you're filling a need. You're getting a valuable, a valuable bench utility piece. And again, the real value in doing this is that it leaves you with a lot more money to spend potentially on some of your other.

needs and ultimately that's really the selling point of going on getting someone like this. Jesse, I can't tell you how proud I am right now of this moment. Kevin, if you wouldn't mind, the rickety bridge had a comment. If you scroll up a little bit, he said right there. He said, expected weighted on base percentage is barely above league average at 288. Look, I don't care about, like his take is his take. This man knew nothing about baseball like just a short time ago. And here he is in our chat talking about expected, weighted on base percentage being barely above league average. Let's go, rickety bridge. I'm proud of you.

You've adopted us very quickly as a sport. We appreciate that. No, but I mean, when you're talking about a player like this in regards to those kind of stats, I mean, you're not really looking, you're not going to be able to get a guy this cheap or cheaper that's going to have stats that are significantly above league average. So what you're trying to do is just bring on a guy that can contribute and can deal with kind of playing in that backup role. And I think at this point in his career,

Ken I would be comfortable with that. And again, could add a lot of value and still get plenty of playing time, even though he's not necessarily a starter for this team. So I think that that's the reason why he could be a good fit. The Diamondbacks don't have a lot of money to spend this offseason, though. So they are going to have to do a bit of shopping in the bargain bin.

They are going to have to look for maybe some reclamation projects a little bit like, I don't know if you want to say Peterson or Gritchick was that last off season, but the guys were, they were relatively inexpensive options. for this team and they came in and absolutely, I guess, contributed in a way that was sufficient and well above, I think, expectations for both of those guys. So that's really what they're looking for. And again, the big money that we want to see them spend here is on a closer, on a first baseman, and really just something that settles specifically those two holes in their lineup right now. And I mean, they still need to figure out DH. Like we heard that are still

interested in bringing Jock Peterson back, which is awesome. And I think is the right move. but we don't know if that's going to happen either. I do think it would, I feel kind of bad for Marcana because he was traded bizarrely from the Detroit Tigers to the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline. Obviously the Tigers went on to make the postseason and the Giants did not go on to make the postseason. So Mark Kana was part of the selloff that preceded the Tigers remarkable late season run. That made no sense at all.

But after the trade with San Francisco, Granted, this is 32 games and 85 plate appearances. Canna hit 288, 376, 329. So again, they're like all singles, but a 376 on base percentage, that has a lot of value, even if you're not, you're not hitting the ball out of the ballpark much. And that's San Francisco, right? That's not exactly a hitter friendly ballpark at all. Yes.

Well, of course, we can't wait to see what the Diamondbacks do. And again, it's still be really weird for them. I don't think this would be the kind of move that would like make it weird, but it would be really weird for the Diamondbacks to pick up a first basement before Christian Walker has figured out where his future is. It would be a very interesting emergency podcast for us. Diamondbacks sign Mark Kana. What does this mean exactly?

For Christian Walker, maybe nothing, maybe something. I don't know. But I do think at this point we've basically finished our survey of like all of the first base options that the Diamondbacks have, both in trade and trade. free agency. If you've been listening, watching this show for the last couple of weeks, then you've heard us talking about a lot of names, right? Yanni Diaz, Ryan Mount Castle, Alec Baum, Nolan Arnado. Say it right. It's Ryan Mountcastle. You got to say it like a video game. Right. My bad. In Free Agency, Carlos Santana, we've talked about Justin Turner,

Marquina, obviously. So, yeah, I think whatever the Diamondbacks do at first base, I'm going to be a little bit angry if it's something that we haven't already discussed because we've tried to be as thorough as we can. Granted, there are, you know, there are some guys that maybe could be had in trades that convert to first base. Yeah, or guys that we didn't really think were going to be available that suddenly did become available somehow. Like these things do change. But in terms of what has been reported so far, the guys that seem realistic to be acquired via trade or in free. agency like i guess we didn't talk about pto lanzo but i feel like there is basically a zero percent chance that the diamond back signed pt alonzo because if you're willing to spend that kind of money

then why not just re-signed your own guy right who a lot of people view as is maybe being a better player at this stage in his career anyway so uh yeah we've we've discussed a wide variety of names here i guess there are other guys that are more kind of like back-end depth options like cam mentions Yulee Guriel in the chat or, you know, players like, uh, I'm trying to look at the world is ready for two guerrille brothers on the same team. Like a like a Joey Gallo or I mean like Anthony Rizzo is going to be out there. No, but the answer is no Rizzo. Don't even don't even call us.

I think we've, I think we've covered our bases pretty well here. So it'll be interesting to see what the diamond back. You did not. Groundhog mom was 100%. She says, Freddie Freeman. We haven't talked about. You want to talk for a great for a preman? All right, well, we'll figure it out.

Candice also says literally on the edge of my seat every day thinking about Walker, as are we, Candace, because it really feels like, you know, the Diamondbacks can't really get things moving until Walker figures out essentially what he's going to do, right? So that's a big piece in this entire puzzle. And I know because I spent a long time putting together a 2,000 piece puzzle, and my back still feels it to this day, Jesse. I did very old person stuff over the weekend, and I'm realizing that that's just what I am now. But I'm going to I'm going to exhibit those same qualities here on the other side of this break

because I'm going to yell at the sky about the dumbest proposed rule change in Major League Baseball history. I'm coming for your stupid golden at bat rule. Roger, I don't like it one bit. I'm going to tell you guys why I don't on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. I couldn't throw some shade over this rule we're going to talk about. But of course, I don't want to bring our friends in Shady Ray's into this discussion. But I do appreciate Shady Rays for being a quality sunglass company that offers a premium pair of shades that won't break the bank.

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Of course, use code PHNX for 10% off your order over at Saturdayneon.com. Jesse, Major League Baseball is trying to turn baseball into banana ball. And while I don't mind that at all, I say you can't half ass it. You got a full asset. You can't just say we're going to do one of the banana ball rules, but not include the one that involves fans catching a foul ball as the last out of the game. But that is what our guy here, Rob Manfred, is trying to do. I called him Roger earlier because, you know, him and Roger Goodell kind of run together for me.

but Rob Bannfred discussed the idea on puck. Dot news. It's John Orrin's podcast, and he said there are a variety of rule changes that are being talked about out there. One of them, there was a little buzz around it at an owner's meeting was the idea of a golden at bat rule. Jesse, you want to tell us what the golden at bat rule is? Well, it could be a variety of things. It kind of remains to be seen exactly where form this will take. The general idea is that each team can choose one at bat at some point in the game

where they can send up whatever hitter they would like to send up. So if it is, you know, the eighth or ninth inning in a tight game and you're down by a couple of runs or whatever, you got a couple guys on base and you're Tori Lavello and you want Catelle Marte to bat instead of, you know, Jose Herrera or whatever, you would. would have you would have the opportunity to do that just once a game can't can't yeah once each team gets one golden at bat per game uh but it is only allowed in the seventh inning or later that's one way they could do it they could also do it at any at any time during the game uh they could also have a rule where a team is only allowed to use a golden at bat when they

are trailing or tied in the ninth inning or later these are all stupid to me this is all dumb to me I hate it. There are so many different rule changes that baseball needs to improve the game and make sure that they're getting the calls right, getting accuracy right, that the last thing they need to worry about is implementing a rule where this, we're allowing, we're allowing a star player to come up and have an extra at bat in the game. I mean, first of all, I don't want to get all sanctity of the game here, Jesse, but I mean, we're really just going to constantly throughout the course of a season, allow a Juan Soto

or Shohei Otani to just have extra at bats every game. Just five at bats, five at bats, five at bats. Like just for the purpose of records and everything in baseball, that seems like considering that we, you know, people harp so much on on those records and how today's players would be versus yesteryear's players. Like it just seems like an asinine move. Plus, like what are we going to have?

We're going to have like, let's say Juan Soto strikeout in the eighth. and then Juan Soto just gets to come back up to bat again right after himself. Like because or he hits a home run and then he gets to bag or he hits a single. And then they're like ghost runner on first. Come on back, Juan. You get to hit again. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of stupid things here that I don't like about this.

But I really think that this is one of the silliest rules they've ever talked about adding to baseball that just does nothing, I think, to add to the enjoyment of the game. There's, yeah, there's a lot. lot of different layers of this. I have a lot of questions, Derek, just a lot of different things running through my mind. One of them being bullpen management, like, you know, managers are putting in a lot of effort every game into getting the exact matchups that they want. And it's going to kind of suck for them if, if, you know, like, how is a manager would you, would you change what you're doing in order to account for the fact that the opposing team might bring their best hitter to the

play at any moment. Like you just wouldn't, you just wouldn't have a lot of control over that. And then you still have the reliever rule where they have to face three at batter. So it's not like you can all of a sudden stop because they're bringing in their best guy. Right. Right. And bring it like that's what's going to be next is like there's going to be a golden bullpen rule where you can just once per game bring in a, you know, your best reliever for one

at bat. But then you can take them out and put them back in later. Because you can bring in your closer just to pitch to one guy and then bring him back in the game. I hate it. It's stupid. You're how stupid this sounds. This is so dumb. They won't even implement the strike system of challenging balls and strikes. They won't implement. They're trying to do the stupid, like, to see if they went around, the check swing system. Like, there are other things that baseball needs to invest their time in, and this is not one

of them. I know it's merely just an idea. I know it's just something that the owners are floating out there. I am 100% sure that this decision is impacted by the popularity of the Savannah bananas and the fact that they're expanding their league and they're going to continue to expand as long as they stay as popular as they are. Those tickets for those games sell out in minutes. But Banana Ball has the kind of popularity MLB wish it could have.

But Major League Baseball can never be that. That's the reason why that works. So for them to want to like slowly, gradually move baseball itself into a world where it's more like the Savannah Bananas, I just think it's the wrong move. Like that's that for a reason. You know what I mean? like I appreciate the Savannah bananas for everything they've done to make baseball more fun.

And I appreciate the fact that they have all these crazy rules and that they actually let their games unlike the Harlem Globetrotters back in my day play out in an actual game, right? Like there's no way for you to like fake baseball. Yes, you're lighting the baseball on fire point. Yes, the pitcher is on stilts. Yes, if a fan does catch a ball, it was registered as an out in like the ninth inning, which is my, again, my favorite rule about banana ball. I don't want to see that goddamn rule in baseball.

I don't want to see in the ninth inning someone catch a Giancarlo's Stanton home run and it counts as an out because they did the rule that they have in banana ball like there's a lot of crazy things there. I think it's safe to say that that rule is probably not coming. I don't know, Jesse. It's a slippery slope. You start with one banana ball rule. Next thing you know,

you've implemented all of them, you know, I don't know. I do think one argument that you could make in favor of this rule is that in other sports, the biggest moments late in games are generally, generally the best players are involved in those moments, right? In the NBA, you want the ball in the hands of your superstar player. In the NFL, like, it's just, it's fundamentally different, right?

Like Patrick Mahomes is going to be out there and is going to be running the show, you know, in a tight, in a tight situation late in a game. In baseball, we don't necessarily always get that, right? Sometimes when you're,

you're down one run in the ninth inning. You've got 7, 8, 9 do up in the batting order. And it's like, well, well, that's not very exciting. But I hate that. I mean, that doesn't feel great. I hated that about the pitching rule or pitchers not hitting anymore because I did feel like there was strategy in that. There was strategy in the way.

Sure. You constructed your lineup. There was strategy in the fact that like, yes, late in the game. That is why baseball has things like pinch hitters and pinch runners and things like that to bring in guys that could do that. like yeah, I get it. You can't bring in your guy from another position now to be the pinch hitter in this situation. And that's kind of what this rule is almost allowing for. Like we want one pitch hitter in one situation and we want it to be able to be anybody on the team. Right. And maybe, just maybe if you phrased it a little differently and we're like, hey, we want to change the pinch hitter rules instead of being like, we're going to add the golden at bat. Like I might feel differently about it. But I don't. I hate it. I don't want this. I think that strategy in baseball is important. And I think it's a big part of why. the game is the way that it is. I'm fine.

There would be a lot of strategy in like, when do you use your golden at bat? Do you use it in the second inning when you have the bases loaded? Or do you wait until later in the game when, you know, maybe things are kind of going down to the wire? Like I think there would be a lot of strategy. It's just,

it's just different, right? I get it. And it feels gimmicky. It's similar to like a challenge call, right? Where you like, you have to pick and choose when you want to use it. You can't just use it whenever. And if you blow it, you might need it later in the game.

And then you don't have it to use. Although that does give me an idea, Derek, because with the challenge system, if your challenge is successful, then you get another one, right? No! No! No! Turn his bike off. We're not doing that.

We're definitely not doing that. We're not giving you a second golden at bat. If what, your guy hits a dinger? Absolutely not. We're not doing it. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys coming up. by. We'll tell you this. The fact that Rob Manfred is discussing this on a podcast like you're watching right now is a very telling sign that we could see this at some point either in the minor

leagues or at a minor league all-star game or something. So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. But we appreciate you guys stopping by. We thank you so much for your time. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is a Jesse and Friedman. Of course, large intimate Kevin Thomas is at Kev-O posts on Twitter. I got it that time. Nailed it. All right. Well, our show is at P. HNX underscore debats, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. We'll see you tomorrow at 1 p.m.

and tomorrow night for our live Q&A with Archie out there at Heel River Horse, a Wild Horse Pass. So join us for all that. And until then, we hope you have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't add baseball banana ball rules to MLB.