PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Gabriel Moreno and Christian Walker bring home Gold Gloves for Diamondbacks

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks have struck gold! Gabriel Moreno has won the Rawlings Gold Glove for NL Catcher for the first time in his career, while Christian Walker brings home his second Gold Glove for NL First Base. We are also discussing the free agency rumors about Justin Turner coming to the Valley, answers to your Mailbag Monday questions, and more!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Check out all Gila River Resorts & Casinos has to offer from fine dining to Arizona’s largest casino sportsbook. Visit https://www.playatgila.com to learn more.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.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!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits or Creams. Go to https://zenleafdispensaries.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local Zen Leaf Dispensary. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.

Let's go. Welcome in to another edition of PHNX D-BACs podcast. My name, of course, is Derek Montia, your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the vice mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Thunderstake Jesse Friedman. And we are definitively going to tell you what the Arizona Dimebbacks are going to do in free agency on this show. No, we're absolutely not. We cannot predict the future. One podcast is all it takes. That's all it takes.

We're going to do this show. And then we're just, we're just not going to do another show until what we talk about today starts happening. in real life because it's only a matter of time. More importantly, what we say definitely dictates how the front office is going to approach free agency. 100% because we're just, this is the brainstorming session, of course, here on this show. But of course, we thank you guys for being here today. And we do have some fun news first to talk about stuff that we do know, in fact, happened.

And that is the fact that Gabriel, Gabriele, Gavriel Moreno, Gabriel, and Christian Walker are your gold glove winners for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And of course, this is very exciting. Moreno wins his first gold glove here as the current and future catcher of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Christopher Walker takes home his second consecutive gold glove. Well, well earned. He's been incredible defensively. Both guys have been.

We've been warning teams all season long to not run on Gabby, and they refuse to listen to us. But what were your thoughts on these two? And I know Christian Walker felt a little bit like a lock, but Gabriel Moreno, not necessarily a surprise. We thought he had a good chance. but I mean, this is really fun for our future catcher. Yeah, man. I mean, Giants, Twitter is sort of in shambles right now. They very much believe that Patrick Bailey should have been the winner behind the plate.

And I can see sort of where they're coming from. It really depends on the metric that you look at and kind of what you value. If you look at defensive front saved, then Gabby Moreno is the rightful winner. If you look at Fangraph's defense metric, I think it has Patrick Bailey. pretty far out in front of Gabby Moreno. I know a lot of people were looking at that number. But what I think a lot of people are maybe missing about Patrick Bailey is a lot of his defensive value is tied up in pitch framing.

That is what Patrick Bailey is like absurdly good at according to the metrics. And pitch framing is kind of a dicey. I don't know. I mean, it's something that we didn't really have any way of measuring like not that long ago, right? It's a, it's kind of a newer thing. and I think there's definitely validity to Patrick Bailey being one of the best framers in the game. And, you know, Gabby Moreno maybe being more around league average, which is sort of what the metrics say.

But pitch framing is not, I don't know, I think if you ask, you know, like a major league manager, you know, what would you want your catcher to be best at if you could pick one thing? I'm not sure framing would really be up there necessarily. And it's also a hard thing from a metric standpoint because. it's based on like real calls that umpires make sure and it's it's not the the process by which we measure it is not very refined so definitely understand where people are coming from Patrick Bailey is a very very good defensive catcher well and and the pitch framing is one of those things obviously that's a that's a night in and night out kind of attribute right where it's it's a benefit to everybody in the starting rotation and in the bullpen that he can go out there and do that but like you said I mean it's still a man matter of being objective there and like how many calls wouldn't have been called. Like there's still a lot to be determined there as far as like what calls wouldn't have been called a strike if it wasn't for him and stuff like that. Just like defensive runs saved as a metric that tries to, you know, be a little bit more

precise on on the contributions to the team and how those contributions defensively kept runs off the board versus things like fielding percentage, which just relies on errors, which again is a very arbitrary thing where like we've talked about in the past if you're if you're gifted athletically you're you're almost in danger of getting more errors than someone that's not so but yeah i mean i i definitely think that moreno's ability uh his arm is you know what what he did in a season where you know stealing bases and being active on the base path was greatly increased due to everything involved you know the the number of of you know engagements that a pitcher can have or disengagement the bases being bigger, everything.

Like it was just a season for running. And the Diamondbacks took advantage of it. But Gabriel Moreno did such a good job of making sure that the opposing teams did not have an opportunity to do so. So that's, it's great. And obviously Christian Walker, you know, I mean, we could just talk about it. We try to talk about it all the time. I know a lot of people are still kind of, you know, upset with Walker's performance in the postseason a bit. But his overall body of work during the regular season was incredible.

and he just he makes it look so easy over there he really does yeah yeah back to back for christian walker at first base and i i mean it's sort of hard to imagine anyone else winning it next year right like this is sort of a thing now where christian walker is just really freaking good at playing first base and he made some interesting comments uh at at one point during the during the playoff run i think it was during the world series uh he talked about paul goldschmidt and how goldie had like a pretty significant impact on him, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. Like when Christian Walker came in and was sort of getting his opportunity for the first time in Arizona, he realized like, all right, my predecessor could hit. But my predecessor was a pretty darn good first

base. Underrated at times. Yeah. And I think Christian Walker, at least from what he said, like that played into him wanting to be as great defensively as he has been. And he was absolutely that once again this season. Well, and he also talked about sweating the small stuff because Goldschmidt it sweated the small stuff. And he's like, you got to have, you have to worry about those details. You have to worry about every single aspect of the game. And a lot of it is on the defensive side of it. And he also brought up like that when you're not, when you're struggling at the plate,

like at least you want to be able to contribute something to the team and make sure that, you know, you're not also making, making errors or mistakes or causing, you know, causing a deficit to get worse or anything like that. So Walker has just been great. He has just been great for this team. and he will continue to be great for this team but there are some guys who the diamondbacks will be parting ways with

and we don't still know of course what is going to occur with some of the free agents like Tommy Fam Lordus Guerrille Jr. and Evan Lungoria who are all free agents now they've all technically hit the market but the diamondbacks have decided not to pick up their side of Mark Melanson's $5 million mutual option for 2024 which will they

still owe $2 million dollars for the buyout so yeah it was basically would you rather pay $3 million more to have Mark Melanson actually pitch for you next season and the Diamondbacks said no essentially. They have been moving on, right? Like they've been moving on from guys that they feel like they

gave an opportunity to and didn't perform well. And Mark Malanson really didn't have a great time here and a lot of it was spent obviously injured as well so that didn't help. But I mean, you cannot say that the Malanson signing wasn't a good one.

You can just say that on the flip side Really? Well, here's why I say that. Here's why I say that. Because when they signed him and he came to the team, like his performance in his career was one of the worst, right? Like it was one of the worst seasons of his career, right? And it comes off of one of the best, right? He posted a 2.23 ERA with a 1.22 whip and 39 saves for the Padres in 2020. Yeah. In 2021, Jesse.

That was just one year later before he was here blowing saves for this team. But, you know, again, his time here was quite forgetable. And unfortunately, he really didn't have a chance to redeem himself with this franchise because of the injuries. Yeah. It really is crazy to think back when this move was first made. It was viewed very positively by basically everyone, right? Especially us. Yeah, we were doing our show at that point.

I think it was December of 2021 after a very rough season, right, where the diamond. Diamondbacks bullpen was one of many problems, but certainly one of the, one of the bigger ones. Everything was a problem. The Diamondbacks hadn't had, you know, really a viable closer in a number of years. And Mark Melanson, like, you signed like the saves leader. Like you signed the NL saves leader from the year prior. Yeah. Like you said at 223 ERA in 2021 with the San Diego Padres.

And he comes here. And man, that 22 season last year, it was, it was rough when Mark Malanson was in that role. And it didn't last particularly long. The Diamondbacks eventually needed to. pivot, but a 466 ERA, a 150 whip, a 5.6 strikeouts per nine, which strikeouts have never been everything from Mark Melanson, but there's really no one on the planet who can put together like a successful year as a closer striking out that few batters. It's just really, really hard to do.

And yeah, you know, it'll be interesting to see where things go from here from Melanson. Maybe there's an opportunity to out there waiting for it. Maybe there's a team that, you know, wants to give him a shot. But this also might be the last that Mark Malanson has, has pitched in the majors. I think that is at least a possibility. And if that's the case, it was a heck of a career. I mean, you know, just really impressive numbers. Yet a career ERA just under three has a career ERA just under three as of right now.

But yeah, it was unfortunate for the Diamondbacks that they sort of got the very tail end when, when most of that productivity was gone. And maybe I phrased that incorrectly, but I just mean like it wasn't a bad signing because it because of his numbers, because of everything he'd done in his career to bring somebody with that experience and that consistency over to the bullpen. Yes. It very much felt like a great signing. It is what the diamond backs needed. And yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying that like sometimes good signings end poorly. Yeah. Like this doesn't feel like hindsight is 2020, right?

We can't always play the game of like, oh, that was a. terrible move and they should have known it was going to be a terrible move. Right. Right. All signs pointed that to be a great signing, you know. Yeah. And so like you were saying, sorry to cut you off. But yeah, sometimes it just doesn't work out. Right. And I mean, you know, it's different like Araldis Chapman, for instance, as a guy that if you took a chance on it, that might be a signing where a lot of people would have criticism to bringing someone like that over. And then if it doesn't work out, there would probably be a vocal majority that were like, yeah, we thought, like, we didn't want this guy.

We did. That was not the case with Melanson. And like you said, everybody saw the move is fairly favorable. And unfortunately for Malanson, it just, and for the Diamondbacks, it just didn't work out. There is always some risk when you're signing a guy who's as old as Melanson was. I guess that is part of what we have to acknowledge. Watch it. Watch it free.

I'm just saying. As a professional athlete, Derek, people in their upper 30s and low 40s. Oh, there it is. They're great contributors to society. But maybe you don't want them always pitching the ninth inning. or playing third base for you maybe that's the case uh but again uh no knock to any of the guys we have no idea how this is going to work out for the diamond backs uh as far as the other guys of the free agency but it's it's it's it kind of sucks to already think about maybe moving on

from guys like tommy fam lordis garriel junior and evan longoria when they contributed and were such a part of this of this run like it it and that's such a bitch about free agency with melb like when your team makes a deep run like this it's like i All right. Well, you lost the World Series. Free agency starts today. Yeah. You don't have a chance to take a break until free agency starts. And of course, those are the three free agents that are hitting the market. And those are guys that at times have contributed greatly to this team and at times have struggled, right?

Tommy Fam, big part of this team, just an absolute leader. Lourdes Guriel Jr. just been here doing it all season long, right? And I mean, he was an all star for this team. defensive Defensive savant Over there in left field at times I don't even know That's what the numbers say

And then obviously I'm in Lungoria You know I mean the dynambacks Definitely struggled to figure something out At third base Longoria brought a lot of experience over there And I think at times made some incredible plays But the question remains Is if are any of these guys coming back

To this team and is that something That is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how the diamondbacks can potentially upgrade those positions if they don't bring those guys back. Yeah. So let's go one by one here. So Tommy Fam, he had a 111 OPS plus this season for the Diamond, or for the Diamondbacks and the Mets. That's his entire entire season, 481 played appearances. He was about a one and a half war player.

But a lot of his offensive production this year did come with the Mets. After the Diamondbacks traded for him, he had a 95 OPS plus. I think it was like a 720 OPS. the rest of the way, which is decent, right? Like that was a totally a valuable move for the Diamondbacks because they didn't really have anyone on the roster who was going to give them that in a corner outfield or DH spot. So it wound up being a, you know,

a perfectly good move for them when all was said and done. But yeah, you know, going into next season, Tommy Fam is, I think, 35 years old, you know. He's definitely, you know, in sort of the later years of his career. And to his credit, I mean, he just had one of the best seasons. of his career, all things considered. I don't know if I,

I don't know if I see the Diamondbacks bringing him back. They do need someone like that. Yeah. They need a right handed bat who can, you know, D.H or place him outfield. They would have to go, you know, they'd have to go and find, find someone who can fill a similar role.

But it does feel like just what we saw from Tommy Fam in the second half. In the playoffs, I know he had his moments, right, the four hit game. But a lot of his production came in, in like, big clusters like that, where I think he had a three hit game in the Philly series as well.

But by and large, he was kind of inconsistent for them offensively. And I don't know where that lands him going into next year. Yeah, it's interesting. And I mean, there could be something to be said about that with all of these guys because they all had inconsistent stretches, but they've all just contributed in their own way, especially when you talk about what, you know, Longoria and FAM brought to this team as far as experience and leadership goes, right?

Like they're not quantifiable categories that you can look at and say this is what they brought, but you'll never be able to know how those guys impacted the young guys on the team and help them get as far as they win, right? I mean, even if the numbers don't show up on the field, you know, it's kind of like what we said at times about the coaching staff.

This coaching staff is so good and deserves so much credit because it seems like a coaching staff staff specifically. that the strength is developing young players still. Like that seems to be like what this coaching staff is really good at. And that's why it's so good for this organization. But again, there's just stuff about these guys that you can't say enough about. I still think Lourdes Gurell Jr. and his production is going to be valued by another team much more, much more than the

Diamondbacks are. And that's no slam to the Diamondbacks. I think the Diamondbacks know exactly what kind of player he is. But when you put together a World Series appearance, you put together the fact he's on the last year of a $22 million contract. And this is going to be his big, this is going to be it for him. Like that $22 million contract might have been seen at one point in his career as like the high point. But he's going to get paid a lot right now. He's going to get more than that.

He's going to get way more than that. I mean, that's over seven seasons. That's basically $3.3.3 million a year. So like, but I mean, that's the thing is between the All Star bid, the World Series appearance. everything that he did this year, just his vibes, the vibes are great. I mean, you know, there's just, Lordis brought something different to this team that, that he somehow instantly felt like he was part of this organization for,

for a long time, not just this one season. Yeah. I think that's what, like, if Lordis does walk, I think he's going to be maybe missed the most out of these three guys. I think Diamondbacks fans have a positive view of all of them.

Yes. Well, after this run, how can you not? Yeah, absolutely. But Lordus, like, Lordus is sort of a vibe, right? I mean, like, Lord's like with the hair. He's a whole ass vibe. You know, we definitely, I guess you benefited from the whole hair situation. I'm the mayor of the city of Phoenix, thanks to Lordus, right?

Yeah, according to how to what? Yeah. Derek would not have ever been elected the mayor of the city of Phoenix had Lordis not played for the Diamondback. It's true. Ever. Ever. Never. But, yeah, I think there.

I think the Diamondbacks are probably interested in bringing Lordus Gray-L-Jriel back. But it goes back to what you said before of like another team might value this a little bit more than the Diamondbacks. There's one thing to have Lordus on this team, you know, for $5 million for one season. He was a big part of where they went this year. It's another thing to invest, you know, a three-year, 36 million, whatever it winds up taking to bring Lordus back here.

I'm not sure that's an investment in the Diamondbacks. are ready to make. And yes, he did defensively. He had the best season of his career. 14 defensive runs saved, one outs above average. If you compare his defensive metrics with Ian Hap's defensive metrics, Lordus Correel, the gold glove winning left fielder, Ian Hap, Lordus is, Lourdes outperformed him in those numbers by a pretty significant margin.

But yeah, I don't know if I see it at the end of the day. It's going to, it's going to cost a decent amount, given the same. season that he had and I just am not sure I see the diamondbacks being willing to make that investment in a player who has been like above average like he's been an above average hitter every year in his major league career but just kind of narrowly right like Lordus isn't like a number three hitter you know on a good team in this league and and we'll see how things turn out but I would be somewhat surprised if the diamond backs brought him back you know what the diamond backs could do is they could upgrade at third base,

their 38-year-old third baseman with another 38-year-old third baseman in Justin Turner. Now we're thinking, right? Now we're thinking. Because apparently Justin Turner has been connected to the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to our friend Bob Nightingale over at USA Today.

The Diamondbacks were reportedly interested in him last off-season as well, which we understand. And that makes sense, considering that they went with Longoria, right? Like makes sense that the interest was there. But yeah, I mean, on one hand, I feel like this team is still going to need that leadership, that veteran leadership to come from somewhere, right? And so I don't hate that in the idea of Justin Turner coming over here. But his numbers also weren't terrible in Boston.

I just don't know. Do we still want Justin Turner playing third base or would he be brought in maybe more as a DH? Yeah, Justin Turner is not a third baseman. He's just not. And that's, I would be shocked if the Diamondbacks were, I mean, it seems they're interested in Justin Turner. I don't have any doubts there. I would be shocked if the Diamondbacks are interested in Justin Turner to be their everyday third baseman. Yeah.

This season, he played only seven games for the Boston Red Sox at third base. In those seven games, this is 57 innings. So not much at all. It's a really small sample size, minus three defensive runs saved, minus four outs above average. Wow. It's hard to take defensive metrics seriously. and that short of a sample. But those are some super heavy negative numbers in seven games.

So I just don't think he's a viable third baseman at this point. I think he could play first base and I think he could DH. D-backs don't need a first baseman or we were just talking about they've got a gold glover over there as it is. They do kind of need a DH, right? Like that would make sense. So I think the Diamondbacks, if they are indeed interested in Justin Turner, which based on this report they are, in my mind it's got to be for him to be a D-H.

to kind of fill, you know, the Evan Longoria sort of role, but not to not to play in the field, you know, more to just add another bat to the lineup, which is something they need. Like he hit 276, 345, 455 last year. It's an 800 OPS, 23 homers, 96 RBI. He had a career high, 626 plate appearances. He was pretty durable for the Red Sox. So it makes some sense. As a DH, I think it could work for the debacks, but just not as a third baseman.

they're going to have to figure something else out there. He could also backup at first base potentially, just if you're looking for that as some more reasons to bring him on. They played him at 10 games at second base too, which is kind of scary. Like I don't know exactly the circumstances that led the Red Sox to do that, but I imagine they sort of didn't have a choice. 41 games at first base.

Yeah, yeah. He played a decent amount of first base. And his defensive metrics were good there. Like I think he, I think he's a totally fine first baseman. But again, that's not really a position that Diamondbacks really have a need. Sure. But if they start treating DH more like an actual position they need to acquire someone for

and not just some spot for one of their guys to hit when they have a day. Like you can still use that, but it's not, it's just, I don't really feel like they had like an actual designated hitter this year. They really have never had an actual designated hitter since the DH was added to the National League, right? They've kind of done this thing every year where it's like, all right, like whoever's not playing in the field. today we're going to use the dh spot as a way to get guys days off and you know once Tommy fam was was in the fold it was basically all right well we have four outfielders and Tommy fam is the one that we like the least defensively so he's our DH right and that's kind of how they how they use the spot you could make a case that the deback

should try to fill that dh spot with someone who can really hit and can be in there every day and yeah think there's a good case to be made that Justin Turner would would be solid in that role. Well, the Diamondbacks have a lot of things to address in the offseason. I personally think, in my opinion, that resigning Tori Lovolo to a contract extension should be their priority more above all of this stuff. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

It has to happen, right? But of course, there's a lot of questions to be asked. Justin, not just Justin Turner, but maybe another guy with a J there for a name, maybe a little J.D. Martinez action, perhaps. Yeah, I mean, he's out there too. He just had a really good season with Dodgers. Bring him back. That would be. Bring him back.

That would be like if Mike Hazen is just looking to get like Diamondbacks fans to just like absolutely adore him for what he does this off season. It probably starts with signing J.D. Martinez. This guy. I still have a man crush on that hunky, hunky heartthrob. But of course, we appreciate you guys being here. And of course, we're going to do our best to answer your mailbag Monday questions. But as you know, almost every single one of them was about free agency. So we'll definitely try to give you as much as we can.

But we are going to continue, of course, to cover this free agency as as this short period of time continues. We don't have much time. Jesse will be at the GM meetings, which are next week. The GM meetings are tomorrow. Tomorrow? My God. Thursday. I don't know exactly still waiting on a schedule there.

Don't know exactly which days, which days I'll need to be out there for the most amount of time. Yeah. Things are getting real here in the MLB off season. keep it locked here so we might have a little change of schedule as far as what time we go due to the GM meetings but then the winter meetings in Nashville are right around the corner and the next thing you know we'll be back here uh doing spring training you know before we know and catches report in what like 100 days a hundred days something like that yeah it's some absurd about a time but of course we appreciate you guys being here all postseason all off season all

regular season all the time thank you so much make sure to subscribe to the p hennic sports youtube channel if you haven't done so already sign up for notifications that way you want oh wow there goes my eye uh We don't miss when anything goes live. And also make sure to leave us a thumbs up. Gabrielle Moreno would absolutely appreciate that. And as a gold glove winning catcher, you should do, as he says. But also, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side,

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Yeah. Oh yeah. I think it was like that she basically the cheapest gas station in the state while or at least like in the Phoenix metro area while also getting my 25 cents off. Let's go. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. And like Sean used to say there's no better feeling than seeing that last 25 cents drop off after

you already know what you're paying. So make sure to join that inner circle membership program for free now. Of course, shout out to our friend. at Foco for decorating our set with these incredible bobbleheads, which are tiny works of art. I don't know how much longer the World Series special edition bobbleheads are going to be available or if they even still are. But Foco is a leading manufacturer of merchandise, sports and entertainment merchandise with a product line that includes apparel, includes accessories, collectibles, but most importantly,

they're bobbleheads, which are limited edition, they're numbered, and they are tiny works of art. So make sure to check them out. baseball season never ends around this place. So you can always get ready for baseball season. Jesse was watching Fall Ball. I was. The Fall League all-Star game.

It never stops. It never stops around here. So make sure to sign, check out Foco. They have our back for Arizona Sports and they have yours as well. Get the best year around by visiting Foco.com and using code PHNX. For all non-presale items, use the code PHNX and you will receive 10% off. Well, Jesse, some things have changed around here

on Mondays, but as you know, it's still the exact, we still do the thing we do on Monday. And of course, it will always be the same. The one thing will always be the same. But of course, every year is our year, even when it's not our year, right? Like this was our year, even though it wasn't our year. Every month on this show is Black History Month. And it's, of course, Women's History Month. And of course, every month on the show is Black Women's History Month.

Every week on this show, Shark Week. Every day on this show, Indigenous People's Day. And of course, every Monday, we, we, go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mail. All right.

What do we got from the mailbag? Of course, our guy Michael, who just signed up as a member. We die hard. Welcome to the family, Michael. He says, how much more special do you think this season was since more people were able to watch games

after Bali got dropped? Well, I'll just take that and the idea here that Diamondbacks games were a little bit more readily available towards the second half of the season. And I think it allowed, obviously the team to be seen more. I think the playoff run did more

because you just get seen on a national level. You're one of the few last teams left. But I'm just glad people got to enjoy watching this team. I think this team has been fun to watch all season long. And especially once those games were available through MLB, I felt like we were in that place where every single game was kind of a playoff game for them. Every single game was kind of a must win.

This was, I mean, this was a pretty big year for the Diamondbacks in terms of just. just like exposure locally and nationally, right? Exactly. You go to the World Series. That's a pretty good way to get some eyes on the product, right? Hard to, hard to imagine anything better than that.

And, yeah, Major League Baseball stepping in and televising these games in the middle of the season like they did. And, you know, expanding the reach in that way as well. I mean, I guess that happened at a pretty good time, right? You know, good time for more eyes to be on the product of this Diamondbacks baseball team. And yeah, you know, I hope there's people out there who are who are able to benefit from that. Yeah, it's definitely a fun team to watch. And we are happy to have new snake aficionados watching this team. So however you got here, you know, and again, if it made the, if it made the games more available to more people, then it's a good thing.

Especially on a year where they wound up doing what they did. So this is, it's been an incredible season. I'm still, still not over it. I was texting with Rock Knowledge this morning and we were still like, did our team really make it to the World Series, bro? like it's just such a it's still like a was that a real thing that happened it's still incredible to me so yeah what else we got damon next question comes from our guy aaron aaron hughes on twitter and he asks rank your top three pitching free agents you would like to see in sidona red and then again he said is just a turner a big enough move to fill the third base hole no it is not as we discussed due to the

reasons uh as as as as we talked about there with turner not probably not being a great option for third base But, I mean, as far as pitching free agents are concerned, there's so many of them, right? I mean, and it feels like my biggest concern is that so many of them are going to be high priced. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of money that's about to be spent. And probably in about five or six years, some regrets that will be had depending on which team, you know, which team signs, which play. Mike Hazer could have had regrets if he would have pulled some of the trades that we wanted him to pull there at the trade deadline, right? It's almost good that they didn't.

But I do know one name for me is Eduardo Rodriguez, which I think is going to be very expensive. But I know we've been linked to him in the past. And I know that he is a guy that I think based on his age and his stats that he might be worth the money that some team ends up paying him. Yeah, yeah. I think he's on my list as well of guys that that would make sense for the diamondbacks. and that clearly a higher quality of innings than what they have available to them in-house with some of their younger guys.

And yet also someone who can, you know, who can probably be somewhat durable for you in 2024, someone that you can count on. There is maybe one complication there where he seems pretty committed to being in Detroit. We know that the Dodgers attempted to trade for Eduardo Rodriguez at the trade deadline. And he bunked the idea and said,

no, I want to pitch for the Tigers rather than pitching for the Dodgers. independent race. And I don't know the specifics of, you know, exactly why he did that. But you have to wonder if that would affect the Diamondbacks ability to sign him as well. Maybe he would rather, you know, stick around in Detroit than come to another West Coast city in Phoenix, Arizona. So, yeah, but I think in theory, just, you know, that kind of mid-tier of he's not Blake Snell, like he's not going to win a Cy Young award and get paid accordingly. But he's a clear up great over what the diamond backs have in house.

I think it makes a lot of sense. If we're really going like full on, you know, if, if, if how realistic it is is not a factor here. I get, get crazy. Jesse, you want to go Blake's now? Well, I mean, the diamond backs were theoretically tied to Yamamoto. Oh, let's go. We've seen.

We've seen that. And, uh, I mean, I'm not really surprised that the diamond backs are interested in some regard. Like, why wouldn't you be? Everybody's interested. Everybody's interested. I have to believe that everyone is interested. I don't know if I'm necessarily reading that the Diamondbacks are, you know,

like really serious about spending the kind of money. But this guy is really freaking good. This guy had a 1.21 ERA in Japan this year with a 0.88 whip. He allowed two home runs in 164 innings. He's only 25 years old, which is probably the biggest selling point because he's not 30 or 30, or 31, like you're not, you're not probably having to pay for his age 36 season or something on this contract. He won the Salamura Award, which is like their Say Young, their vision of Syong, right?

He's been like the best pitcher there for basically the last several years. So, yeah, I mean, if you're really trying to dream, like, that's, I mean, that's the guy. And I think he's a guy who's going to get a ton of money, but is like really might be worth every penny he makes, whereas some guys like, all right, Blake Snell, you're, you know, even though he just won the Sai, or he's probably going to win the Sye Young Award, and it'll be his second one, and he's going to have won the Sai Young

and the American League in the National League. Like, he's represented by Scott Boris, and you know you're going to pay heavily for the season he just had, even though he doesn't necessarily have, like, a consistent track record to back it up. Aaron Nola has been sort of up and down, right? This year, he had like a four and a half ERA, even though he was outstanding in the playoffs.

I just think with Yamamoto, it's like, all right, this guy's young, and he's really good. And even though you haven't seen him pitching the majors, there's a lot of confidence he's going to come in and be a number one or number two starter from day one. I think there's just less risk there than with a lot of the other guys. I think Jordan Montgomery is a guy that we talked very highly about. We spoke very highly about.

We were very interested in. And I would love for somebody of that caliber to join this staff. I think once again, there is kind of an idea here of you don't have a lot of time with Zach Gallen left. You don't have a lot of time with Merrill Kelly left. So I feel like you really want to take advantage of those guys being part of your rotation and add another guy that just compliments them so much. You know what I mean? And I mean, I think that based on the free agency market, you might be able to get away with maybe, you know, getting a Jordan Montgomery for substantially less than a Blake Snell and have Jordan Montgomery potentially outperform him.

I mean, I feel like I know he's going to get a ton of money, though. I mean, he has a hit a 4.3 F war this season. And we saw what adding him to the Texas Rangers did. Like I feel like that was the move almost that put them, you know, into the spot, you know, into the playoffs, into the World Series winning it, right? Like, I know a lot of guys contributed to that. But I feel like he definitely was one of the better pickups at the trade deadline when looking at the performances of some of the other starting pitchers that we were interested in. Yeah. I mean, if Mike Hazen is having, you know, regrets over not getting a.

starter at the trade deadline, which he is, it seems, from what we heard the other day, Jordan Montgomery is like the one guy out of that group that you're like, man, I really wish I would have to trade for that guy. You're not, you know, you're not like having a hard time sleeping at night because you didn't trade for Lucas Gellito or Jack Flaherty. Not even one night. Not even like an hour, not even getting up at 2 a.m. and thinking about it for 30 minutes before I go back to bed.

But Jordan Montgomery, not only was he really good for the Rangers in the second half in the regular season, but he went out and he like, carry. that team in the postseason all the way to the World Series. Not by himself, like some guy named Corey Seeger was pretty good for them. Nathan Nevaldi was all right too. But he was really good for them in the postseason, a big part of how they got, where they got. And according to the athletic, I don't know if I agree with this, but the athletic has Jordan Montgomery getting more money this offseason than Blake Snow.

I have 5127 for Montgomery, 5122 for Blake Snow. Seems kind of outrageous, but I sort of understand where they're coming from, given at the guy just pitched all the way to the world series that was really really good the entire way and i mean blake snell can win all the accolades he wants to but the one thing of course that teams are looking for is is a younger ace that can you know be a part of your team for a number of years and and blake snell he's not that much older than jordan mcgumbray right but he definitely has some more years on him and and again Montgomery just might be part of that core that so many teams are looking to build around and i mean the diamondbacks still are trying to add pieces of

to that core, even though they got as far as they did this year. And I think that's the thing is, is that like, at least maybe, maybe the, how far they went will make this an attractive destination for somebody. Maybe we don't get that guy on a six-year contract, but maybe we're able to add some free agent pieces on a, on a one or two-year deal that can help compliment, you know, Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly in the meantime. It's not going to be any of those guys, though, because those guys are going to get paid, just like Lordus is going to get paid. and they and they should. You got to take your opportunity to get paid at some point and coming off of a World Series appearance. Get that money.

Get that money, guys. We have another question from COGS, which is impossible to answer just like so many of these are. But COGS wants to know who is the most likely added each position, third base, starting pitcher outfielder. I mean, good Lord. I love this quite. This is like predict the entire off season in one question.

Yeah. Great, Coggs. Putting a lot of pressure on us. Well, we're going to talk about this actually. That could be a whole episode onto itself, right? I mean, we talked about a lot of our starting pitching choices there, but there aren't a lot of choices at third base. Yeah, third base is we'll probably do an entire show at some point,

trying to figure out what the Diamondbacks can do at third base because it's clearly a need of theirs. And yeah, there aren't really a lot of clear options available in the market. Like free agency, you've talked about it. Do you want to give Matt Chapman a whole bunch of money? Probably not. Do you want to give Jammer Candelario a bunch of money? probably not

those are really the only two guys out there he said probably not I absolutely want to give Candelario all the money I mean like we said earlier I don't think Justin Turner is really part of that like third base group that's available in free agency so those guys are almost by definition going to get paid

more than they probably are worth just because of the scarcity in the market at that position trade wise is where we'll maybe do more digging for a future show I don't see a whole lot of clear options there either. A. Eugenio Suarez is one guy who comes to mind third base with Seattle Mariners. Maybe now that they have Josh Rojas, they're like, hey, we're covered. We're good at third

base. Suarez is available. We know the Diamondbacks have made a lot of trades with the Mariners over the years. Still don't know if I fully see it happening from the Seattle side, but, you know, Suarez is a solid, a solid third baseman defensively. I think he underperformed, you know, some of his batted ball stuff this year. I think he's maybe a better hitter than he's. showed he would be an upgrade for the debacks at third base and i want to say it's just uh is it just this season that he's under team control for i believe so i think it i think it is uh maybe one more year let's see what baseball reference has to see yeah but he's a 2025 team option so it's it's he's under control for 2024 and then it's a club option for the year after it's a pretty friendly

situation for the diamondbacks to acquire if they were to if they were to go that route um what about a Giovanni or Shella from the Angels. Geo or Shella. Not really like an everyday guy, right? Urshella, 62 games this year. I think there were some injuries there, 91 OPS plus. I don't know if you're really bringing in Urshella

expecting him to be like your everyday third baseman and be like a clear upgrade over what the diamondbacks already have. Yeah, that's true. Third base is just like, we're just at a time in baseball right now where it's like if you don't have one of the top few third basemen in the league, you're just maybe not getting that much from third base. It's kind of just the reality of the league right now. Joey Wendell.

Oh my gosh. I'm just joking. Joey Wendell. You want to talk about Joey Wendell there? No, I do not want to talk about Joey Wendell. No, I'm not going to do that to you folks. He's a 554 OPS this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I mean, yeah, like everybody, like you said, that's literally, we went over basically the top candidates and there aren't many. Like there are. Someone mentioned Jonathan, India. in the chat. That's interesting. He's like kind of an extra guy with the Cincinnati Reds, someone who I think could be available in a trade. And yeah, natural position, third base. I don't know, they've been using him at second

base pretty much exclusively for a while. His metrics say second base are not good. Maybe you feel okay about putting him at third base. He's been like a league average hitter. Has reverse splits, which is interesting for his career. Yeah, like that I guess that would be all right. Yeah. Ryan McMahon.

another guy who like just because of Colorado like I think we perceive him to be a better hitter than he actually is it's kind of like a league average hitter so yeah I don't know like third base is just tough and I think the debacks are gonna they're gonna try to figure out something they're gonna try to find a way to plug that hole externally I think I don't think they feel good about just like saying Jordan law there's our opening day third basement and see what happens I think there's there's maybe some more development that needs to happen there but it's hard to envision them finding a perfect solution given the options that are out there. Shout out to Benjamin Hunley in the chat. He asks, will Jake McCarthy be a D-back next year? I could see Jake McCarthy potentially being a bit expendable as far as maybe a trade candidate. But as it stands right now, Jake McCarthy will be a D-back next year. Yeah, it's interesting. They could trade yet another left-handed hitting outfielder if they wanted to.

I mean, like Dominic Fletcher is still still in this system, right? He could kind of slide in and be that fourth outfielder type if he needed him to. but Jake McCarthy's value right now is just not it's about as low as it's been in a while I don't know if it makes sense to trade him right now that's a good point A piece of Yoshi will not stop until we acknowledge Eduardo Escobar so Eduardo Escobar

I'm still with you I love Eduardo Escobar but we know his history with Baxter and I'm not sure if we can bring him back to this organization Eduardo Escobar was a minus 1.1 war player Is that what you want according to baseball Is that what you want piece of Yoshi 613 OPS? He just

a couple years ago, like, I mean, he's the last really productive third baseman that this Diamondbacks team had, right? And he was incredible when he was here. Ever since they traded Eduardo Escobar, it's just been really hard for them to find a way to plug that hole. Elise says his value is so low right now, meaning Jake McCarthy, why not trade playoff Pavin instead? I mean, there's a lot of, given what Pavin Smith accomplished in those, suppose it, like 11 postseason plate appearances, there's, teams just lining up, I'm sure. Values that all the time I. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know about that. If you want to burn a player, uh, making the opposing team think you're a pitch hitting for him just so you could switch them out with another guy. Pavin's your guy. Pavan is your guy. It was,

it was hilarious how many times that played out in the world series. And it goes three separate times where, uh, yeah, Tori goes to Pavin, Bruce Bochie goes to the lefty and then poor Pavean Smith enters a world series game, but doesn't actually get your ass back to the dugout.

All right. What else we got? Dakota LaMaster, I think, is how this is said. Dakota underscore LaMastor on Twitter says, since Lordus Gariel Jr. might be leaving during, might leave during free agency. Do you think we need another outfielder with power or just stick with the ones we have? I think the Diamondbacks definitely need to upgrade.

I think that they need, they still are short on, you know, a lot of, a lot of things. I mean, and considering the comments made, I think that they'll continue. to try to upgrade this lineup in the like they don't they don't need to upgrade so many positions because they know those guys uh are are here and then they're not going anywhere right so it's like maybe maybe another outfielder maybe that third baseman maybe a dh and and definitely starting pitching but yeah uh like it definitely feels like they are going to at least address some of those and and i don't i still don't really think that they're going to bring either any of those guys

back but that remains to be seen yeah i mean I mean, what we can say is that you don't let, you don't let Lordus walk and his, you know, as 24 homers and his 82 RBI leave the team without having some sort of a plan in place to try to recover that production. Correct. And going back to our earlier conversation, I think part of it might be that you have a DH, that you have a guy cemented in that DH spot who's a solid, you know, a solid offensive player that could maybe help cushion that blow, even if you're not necessarily replacing Lordus's

production in left field. But yeah, the debacks, they can't let Lordus walk and not get, they still need probably a right-handed hitting left-fielder. It's hard. I don't think you want to have, you know, three left-handed hitting outfielders in the lineup every day. So they're going to do something to fill that spot. Maybe it's Lordis. It's still, I don't want to say that we're here saying the debacks. There's no chance they bring Lordis back.

But it does seem somewhat unlikely. I mean, taking a step back to Erod, right? E-Rod opted out of his deal with the Detroit Tigers, but that doesn't mean he just. not staying there. He just has the ability to opt out of that last year and now can get a bigger contract that he deserves based on his performance. So it's not to say that Lordus might not come back because he meant a lot to this team. He meant a lot to this community. I think everybody, like all three of those guys at some point really endeared themselves to Diamondbacks fans, but Lordus has just been doing it all season long. And again, he just fit in with this club so well.

He really did. It's hard to imagine an outfield without him. It's hard to imagine not seeing his purple hair bouncing around at Chasefield. So I'm not opposed to them bringing him back. I just understand the business side of a deal like this. And I know that his value will never be higher than it is right now. So as far as he is concerned, he needs to get the bag. He needs to get the bag. Yeah.

All right. What else we got? We got one more question. And then we'll come back to these. But first we got this one that says from who dat nation asks with the windfall. I like that we're discussed. We should just refer to it as that. the windfall, the windfall this postseason, is Bellinger an option?

Who are the top three realistic starting arms that could be added at the top of the rotation? Realistic starting arms, I don't even know where to start with realistic starting arms at this point. You know? Yeah, yeah. We just, I mean, like we touched on the other day, we don't know exactly where the diamondbacks are financially. I don't think the diamond backs necessarily know how much exactly they're planning to spend this offseason, which is a huge, a huge variable in all of this. And Benjamin and Elise have both addressed it. But it's not like the Diamondbacks haven't shocked the world and made that big free agent acquisition like when they went and got Zach Granky. Right.

So it's not to say that's outside of the realm of possibility, especially with this regime. Yeah, it wasn't this regime. Right. But it was still the owner. Right. And we always talk about Ken Kendrick not opening up, you know, the checkbook. But that's not necessarily true. It's just a matter of opening up at the right time for the right guy.

Granky performed very well for this team. So, you know, it might have been seen as. as an overpayment, but I remember that being huge news that felt like, you know, the Diamondbacks were back, you know, getting Granke felt like we were back. And it felt like things were heading in the right direction for this team when they got him. So, yeah, no, I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility. But the first part of that question, can we throw that back up there, Damon? The first part of that question was with the windfall is Bellinger an option.

Do you think bringing belly, belly back to the valley is a possibility? Yeah, probably not. So he's left-handed, right? That's number one. You'd have a third left-handed hitting outfielder. You know, he's a solid center fielder, which is something that Diamondbacks don't really need. They don't need a first baseman.

So positionally, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And I also think he's going to get a heck of a lot of money because he's represented by Scott Boris and he just had an incredible season. And if you look at some of the underlying metrics with Cody, Bellinger, they're actually not that great. His expected batting average was 270. His expected slugging percentage was 437, according to baseball savant.

You compare that with his actual numbers. There's a pretty big difference there. I think there's a case made that even though Cody Bellinger definitely bounced back last year, it was a really good season for him all the way around. His strikeout rate was the lowest it's ever been. I'm not quite sure that he's like a 900 OPS guy moving forward. If you're, if you're, but that's probably what you're going to have to pay for. If you're, if you want to make Cody Bellinger, you know, your guy for the next six years or whatever it is.

So I don't know if I, I don't know if I see a fit there. You know who else is represented by Scott Boris? Me. I need to be at least. Because I need to get that money, right? And every time we talk about Scott Boris, I feel like strategically, he might be a good agent to have. So I'm thinking about looking into it. What do you think?

You think he would accept me as a client? uh come on i was on felt territory i was on you were on yeah you did have your picture your picture next to ken rosenthal come on a youtube thumbnail you didn't you couldn't get enough of that it was he harassed me endlessly yeah maybe maybe i don't know i'm not sure if scott boris is into representing media personalities i would be happy to be his first i'm sure you're right at the i just want to get that bag i just want to get that bag um but uh let's get that bag real quick before we move on to more mailbag Monday question. We thank you guys, of course, for your mailbag Monday questions.

I do want to say, I ate entirely too much bread this weekend, Jesse. Like way too much bread. Biscuits. I had sandwiches from Jersey mics. I ate so much bread. And you know what? Sounds amazing, honestly. It's supposed to be, but I'm 42, as you addressed earlier in the show.

And I don't feel the same way I used to after eating a whole bunch of bread over the course of a weekend. And that's because bread can not be great for you. But there is some great bread out there that is good for you and can help you address a lot of your particular needs when it comes to nutrition. Hero Bread, which makes sliced breads, buns, and tortillas are available on Amazon and at hero.co. And of course, what's the thing that makes them better than any competitor? They can customize the experience that you are getting depending on what you're looking for, whether it's ultra low net carbs, a bread that's high in fiber, zero sugars, 5 to 10 grams of protein per serving, whatever you're looking for.

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What we got, Dim? Oh, Hanley. Ryan Hanley says, I'm still depressed. How are we doing, fam? I miss you guys. Look, we're not depressed around here. All right? I can understand depression for the first 48 to 72 hours.

But at this point, we need to be proud. We need to be happy of what this team accomplished. And now, what's that? I'm a little depressed. I know Damon's still having a hard time with it as well. It makes me sad every single day. I miss Ryan too. He does.

I miss going up. Jesse, did you hear this story? Yeah. I believe what we told you. They hung out with Ryan during one of the postseason games. Sean and I got seats in the second to last row in the 300s. And Ryan right behind us goes, hey, Sean, what's up, man? And we were like, what's up?

And he was like, I'm Ryan H from your, from your, the chat and we're like wow that's what a coincidence what are the odds what are the odds good guy uh and he's and we're going to try to help you all get over this great guy uh no need to be sad no need to be depressed we're building on to next year and uh i know one of the questions that we're going to get or we should get or have been asked has been you know about is is this is this this is like a one-time thing are we just getting here now and now we're going to go back to another like 10 years of mediocrity no That is my answer. No, there is a lot of good things to be happy about.

And, of course, this was supposed to be just the start of something special. And somehow this team made it to the World Series. So I want you all to continue to hold your head high because this team, this team has did something special. And we should be proud of it. People miss Patrick in the chat. That's really why the people are depressed, Derek. It has nothing. It has nothing to do with the Diamondbacks losing the World Series.

It's incredible. It's that Patrick is no longer doing our show. You've been here for like three days. and I don't know what to say other than Patrick. Patrick just texted me, by the way, while you guys are talking about it missing me. What else we got? Our guy Gabriel at Bold as Bronze asks, will we hear any D-BACs trade-free agent news before the winter meetings or after? And that is a Jesse Friedman question.

Yeah, clearly I have. Clearly, you know the answer to that. Clearly, I know. I mean, more likely after than before, you know, last year as of the winter meetings had, I don't think the Diamondbacks had really done much of anything. You know, the big trade with Varsho and Moreno happened. It was later in December, early January. That's probably where I would expect the majority of the action to happen.

You never know. Some of the talks happen at the winter meetings, right? That lead to the deals happening, right? They're kind of progressing toward it. And that, I mean, that starts tomorrow with the GM meetings, right? Like these teams are going to start having these conversations. And that's actually when I asked Mike Hazen, like when did when did you start laying the groundwork for this this varsho morano trade and he said

the gm meetings he said that the uh blue jays general manager was one of the first people he sat down with at the gm meetings in early november and that's kind of where uh things started with that big trade that the diamond backs ultimately made so wouldn't wouldn't expect to hear of any any big time there might be some rumors uh you know between now and in the winter meetings or during the winter meetings we saw that last year but for stuff to actually happen more likely to happen later. Yeah. And and and and it is interesting. I remember one of my first, uh, GM meetings seeing like two GMs talk and I, I was literally like, is this is this where the magic happens? Like, or are they just literally asking. That means they're making a trade. Is that a trade? They don't speak unless

they're actively making a trade. Or they just ask where the Starbucks is at. Like that's, that's, that's the questions. You know, that goes on there. But, uh, yeah, no, I mean like, like, like he said, yeah, most likely we'll see that after, uh, the winter meetings. When are the winter meetings this year? December 4th through 7th, so we're about a month away from the winter meeting. So maybe the Arizona Diamondbacks, if you're good, we'll leave you a starting picture under your Christmas tree this winter. We'll see. Or, or depending, I feel, am I a monster? Am I just, I'm leaving out religions?

I feel like by saying that, it could be a Hanukkah president, could be whatever, whatever religious belief you have this holiday season, they will leave you, hopefully, a starting pitcher. What else we got, Damon? our guy Gabby Gabby Deirth I always have a problem with Is it dearth okay With Gallin having two years left Merrill being 35

Marte and Walker 30 plus Back end bullpun guys not young Can you see debacks going for aggressive Short-term deals for now while developing for next wave Moreno Carol Loller fought in their primes I don't hate this concept at all Of building around I don't think the diamondbacks Need to really go out there

and lock in guys for 10 years and 12 years with the way that this organization is going. I think that the short-term deals, especially on that expedited time frame of like Gallin's contract in Merrill's years here, might be the wiser move to go, especially considering your building on the success that this team had this postseason.

Yeah, I mean, I guess you're kind of like threading the needle between like you don't want to do any move. You don't want to pull anything off that's going to mortgage. you know, the longer term future. Like Corbyn-Carrill's here for a while. Gary Marino's here for a while. Jordan Lawler, if he's able to figure things out, right? He could be a big part of this team for a long time.

So the Diamondbacks definitely don't want to put themselves in a difficult position three or four years from now and, you know, make some move that's, you know, just super all in on run 2024, 2025. At the same time, I agree with the sentiment that like, yeah, some of these guys aren't going to be around for that much longer, right? Zach Gallen, we've talked a lot about his future. and how it doesn't necessarily seem all that likely that he's going to return to the diamond backs a couple years from now.

Merrill Kelly, right, the debacks have him for 2024. They have a club option for 2025. Christian Walker, he's on the last year of his deal, this next season. 2024 is it for him. So yeah, there's definitely the sense that like you want to capitalize on these guys while they're playing this well. And, you know, that window is only going to last for really a couple more years with a lot of them.

So yeah, I expect them to be aggressive. Like the Diamondback should go out and they should try to put together another team that they think could make a run, you know, a deep run into the postseason. And, you know, I think they have some work to do to probably feel like they're at that point. But it's not an unachievable goal. We already saw them do it with 84 wins and the roster that they had this year. And Mike Hazen is the GM for the job. I'm glad that he is going to be here for the foreseeable long term.

and I think that, you know, again, we talked about some pitchers. We're going to talk about a lot of free agents over this period of time. I think Mike Hazen is going to try to find, if it's on a deal like that, maybe try to find a guy that didn't have a great season. Maybe a guy that had a down year again like they have with certain other guys. Like it didn't, you know, necessarily work out. But at the same time, too, it's kind of like Ryan Thompson, for instance, you know, seeing someone that has been, has parted ways with.

the different organization and finding that they still have value bringing him over here and seeing what someone working with someone like brent strom can do i mean i feel like he's the exception to the rule more more than the norm right like you're not going to bring a lot of guys over and have them instantly become as effective as thompson was down the stretch for this team but i wouldn't be surprised if hazen uh we see we we see them make some move like that that more leaves you scratching your head a bit and saying like wow they went after zach davies like and and not you And not no attack to Zach Davies, but a guy like that that maybe had like a four ERA this season. And they're not going to sign to a big deal, but give that person an opportunity to rebound.

And maybe their next big contract is in two seasons from now or whatever if they can find success with the diamond backs. Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's definitely a route that the diamond backs could try to go. Right. There's a lot of, especially on the starting pitching front, there's a lot of guys who didn't really have the walk year that they wanted, especially in the second half of the season, that might look. for kind of like a one year pillow deal or, you know, maybe like a two year deal that has an opt out after the first year if they're able to bounce back.

Guys like Jack Flaherty and Lucas Gialito, you know, guys that really didn't have a second half that they were looking to have. But the Diamondbacks have a pretty darn good pitching coach and Brent Strom. And, you know, maybe they like the sound of coming to Arizona and trying to figure things out. That would be, I think, a little bit of a change of pace for them, though. We don't see the debacks sign free agents very often. like Thompson was different because that's like a minor league free agent, right? A guy that the race had basically given up on.

But this would be different. This would be like, all right, we're going to sign a guy who like actually was a bad pitcher in the second half and bet on our ability to help them figure things out. Not something that we've really seen them do in recent years, but with Brent Strom, maybe they feel like they're in a position to do that. Yeah.

What else we got? next question comes from jw lewis and bunch of numbers and jwis bunch numbers says how does this rotation sound kelly gallon o'tony oh here we go anyone yes jesse we're doing this how about this outfield deep into the show without mentioning o tony's name carol o tawnee thomas mccarthy also o'tony at third base one guy solves all the issues overpay man it couldn't be worse right now for Otani as far as you know couldn't be worse well I'll say right like Otani will not pitch next season right he is going to have a surgery that is going to cause him to miss pitching the entire 2024 season so and I mean that from that perspective right this was the

big year where and and it's still going to happen someone's still going to pay him literally a boatload of money but I just think it's great that you said it couldn't be worse for a guy who's about to sign a $500 million dollar contract. I know, I know what I'm saying like that that but I see where you're coming. But that sucks because it is going to be the one of the biggest contracts in baseball. It some some team is going to sign it to them. But it's like that that surgery, that one thing is going to put some question in teams mind, right?

Like for sure. It's not just a slam dunk anymore because you never know if a guy is going to be able to rebound from that surgery ever from any surgery as a pitcher and be the same picture they were. You have a good idea. They are right. Right. Right.

You know what you have in him and you know that he is literally a unicorn and there is not another player like him that exists. However, if you're going to make that huge of an investment in him, which whatever team gets him is going to have to do, that's got to be a concern for you. Yeah. And I mean, just especially given that degree of risk, like if there was a, if there was even a fraction of a percent of chance that the Diamondbacks were going to sign Shohei Otani this offseason, you feel like that was like.

just cut in half or something. He's not going to pitch. And for the diamond backs, there's just, there's a lot of risk there. And for the investment, it just, I just don't see there's really any scenario where, where that would make sense for them. I will say going back to the starting pitcher conversation in general, I think there are some guys in the market that maybe you could get on a shorter term deal that would kind of go along with like the all in mindset on these, on these next couple seasons where the debacks

They have gallon, they have Kelly. They're really trying to make something work. Sunny Gray is a name that comes to my mind. As a guy who like, he's already, I think he's 34. So you're paying for like age 35, 36 and 37 maybe on like a three year contract. Maybe you have to give him a pretty good chunk of change for those three seasons. But it's only three seasons. Or it wouldn't come with the risk of like the Granky deal or, you know, other longer term things that they've done that haven't worked out for them in the past.

Or sign them to like a five year deal. that's going to, you know, there's a good chance that on the back end of it, he's not going to be the pitcher he is. I almost think they would rather give him like more money for a shorter term. Yeah, more money for a shorter term. This team is not, especially this season, they have not shied away from flushing money down the toilet to make the team better. Right. And so like, again, that's that's not committing to a guy who, what, in his age 38, 39 season could potentially be a liability. and that you might have to make a similar decision

like you had to do with Madison and Bumgarner where you still owe money and you just cut them, you know, at that point anyway, but that's, I don't even understand how my mind went right there. You're right though. I mean, that's definitely a guy that, that you could see on a shorter deal. And the athletic says three years,

64 million. I'd pay that. Like that, if that's real, I'm a little skeptical maybe that it would be that low. Yeah. Because he just had a, I mean,

he had like a 28 ERA over like almost 200 innings for this wins. this last year. He was in the Sion conversation constantly. He's a really, really good pitcher. And I know he's kind of had some ups and downs over the course of his career, but you can get that guy on like a three-year deal for $64 million. I have to think that would be something the Diamondbacks would consider if they have the money to pay that, which is something we still don't really have a great understanding. Elizabeth, no. Elizabeth, no, not you too. I thought you were better than this. Elizabeth.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth says I hear Jesse Jr. knows the Roger Bessions football slider. I can't believe you did this to us, Elizabeth. But okay, we got one more question from Daniel Kasten and we're going to get out of here. Daniel, he demands to know this, Jesse. Turner, yes or no? We don't know, Daniel. Sorry, we don't know. We don't know. We have no idea what the dynambacks are going to do. But I will say, keep it locked right here to this very show because we are going to be talking about that quite a bit over the next few weeks. weeks of course. Jesse, like he said, he has the GM meetings this week, winter meetings in like a month. And the next thing you know, we're going to blink and we're going to be at spring training. So keep it locked right here. We will break down a lot of a lot of the free agency news, including more on who we think the Diamondback should pursue and who we think could potentially be the best fit for this team. So keep it locked. But make sure if you did place any kind of future bets on this team on the BetMGM Sportsbook app, you don't forget about those because those are about, cash in, especially that Corby and Carroll

rookie of the year. So, hop on the bet MGM sportsbook app. Maybe wait for opening day. Maybe wait before opening day. Make some more future bets on the MLB. But in the meantime, there's all sorts of other sports for you to bet on. Of course, football is a great time. It always makes sports better.

You can place your first bet MGM sportsbook wager through the mobile application of at least $10. If you do, you will receive $200 instantly in additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome. All you got to do is use our code of P HNX. It's this easy.

Just download the app on iOS or Android or visit their website at betmgm.com and sign up using that code of PHNX. If you sign up and deposit at least $10 into your newly created account and then place a wager of that amount or more at a standard odds price, you will receive $200 in bonus bets regardless of the outcome of your wager. So now I have to start being a little bit more creative and trying to win some money because I have nobody to hex. I've been using my bets as a hex.

still did a little bit this weekend against ESPO while we were playing fantasy football. I just went in and placed bets against all the teams, his players were on. Wow. Yeah, sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, Jesse. But of course, you guys can use it more intelligently than I do. I know that for sure. But you can sign up for the bet MGM. Use bonus code PHNX and make yourself some money.

Place your first bet MGM sportsbook wager through the sportsbook mobile application at least $10. You will receive $200 instantly and additional winnings regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. or Ontario. Ontario. Jay,

I got it. I got it that. I'm so proud of you. Jay made me sad with his comment. Jay said, see y'all back at the pregame show with little emoticons that make me sad. Yeah, soon.

Pre-game show, soon, my man. How soon? I don't know. Next postseason? I don't know. I don't know when we'll do a pregame show. We're going to do pregame shows for every cactus league game day.

No, absolutely not. Stop this man. But. Previewing the pitching matchup. Every single hand a post. same shows join us 10 minutes after the final out i will i will be out there though and i will tell you a good way a good way to spend fall ball games is with a four peaks in your hand i know halloween is over so they're going to stop highlighting the ghosts but let's not forget the ghosts make the

beer over at four peaks and of course what better way to enjoy a beer than a beer made by a ghost so check out everything four peaks has to offer uh they are a staple here in the valley and have been uh at tailgates for over 25 years so uh win or lose We booze with Four Peaks. You can also check out their pumpkin porter now available. Get in the fall state of mind. It's back on the shelves and in draft lines throughout the valley. So don't miss out.

Also check out their 8th Street pub. Chicken tendies are still undefeated out there. You can visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite brewery tours and events. Check out at 4Peaks brewer at 4Peaks pub. To keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink 4 Peaks and please drink responsibly. I feel like we should give Stephen vote a shout out. Oh, man, we have a lot of like managerial news, I guess, that we really...

Craig Counsel is now the manager of the Cubs, which can only mean that David Ross is now the manager of the Brewers. That's the way that has to work. Yeah, they traded managers, right? And catch considerations. Yeah, it goes both ways. That's an awkward situation because a lot of people are assuming because no actual official news was put out that this was kind of like leaked and that we didn't know David Ross had been let go by the Cubs or maybe David Ross didn't know you'd be like to go by the Cubs. I think it like just came together here in like the last few days. Yeah. Well, they said they didn't have permission to talk to him unless they requested permission from the brewers prior to November 1st.

Yeah. So apparently this all just came down in like the last few days is Craig counsel is like officially on the open market. And the Cubs were like, hey, we're willing to give you a big old pile of money. And Craig counsel was like, all right, let's do it. Five years, $40 million. I think is the announced contract there, which believe would make Craig. Counselor will make Craig counsel the highest paid manager in the sport right now. Correct. Probably worth every penny.

Probably. A rough day if you're a Milwaukee Brewers fan. Yeah, that's tough. Managers moving across divisions, like, I don't know if I like that. Bob Melvin. Yeah, like from one team to go to the Giants. Yeah. It is pretty weird.

It's gross. We've had two situations like that already this off season. I want to run a disgusting scenario by you. Tori Lavello as manager of the Dyes. How much would you? And then the D-Vax kid, Dave Rock. No, no, no. I don't want that end of the equation.

I was just talking about the nightmarish situation where we'd have to see Tori Lavolo as the manager of the Dodgers. But luckily we don't live in that terrible, terrible timeline. We live in this one. He's not, yeah. I mean, Tori is not on the open market. He still has one more season. And they're going to extend him.

They're going to extend him. Yeah, that's not an actual concern. No, yeah, that's not actual. I'm just scaring people, you know. But, yeah, I mean, of course, we'll have more on this, and it'll be interesting to see. Oh, we got Elizabeth on the fire derrick train. Yeah, I get it. It was just a terrible scenario.

I wanted to float out there. Good on Stephen Vote, man. Yeah, that's awesome. I suspected that it would only be a matter of time before Stephen Vote found his way into a managerial job. But this is quick. Like, he used a quality control coach, I believe, with the Seattle Mariners this past. season and to go from that like straight to being a big league manager is I mean the guardians clearly have a lot of faith in him yeah you can understand why someone I I've I

know Stephen Vote a little bit personally he went to Azusa Pacific University just as I did great guy fun little connection there and yeah that's why you had to get it in yeah oh yeah that's the only reason we're talking about Stephen Vote no no Stephen Vote deserves his flowers for for being able to pull this off for sure early in his in his coaching career and everyone I've talked to a number of people who are familiar with Stephen Vote been around him a little bit you know whether covering him while he was a player or now as he's been a coach with Seattle he is like one of the most universally loved people in baseball and you can understand why a team like the Cleveland Guardians is like yeah that's our guy

even though the experience maybe isn't what you're normally looking for in a job opening like that he's he's an easy guy to bet on for sure there were some other candidates including Craig counsel and including Carlos Mendoza who might end up he's got some connections potentially to the Padres. I believe he has been, I think he is now with the New York Mets. Oh, the Mets now. Okay. Yeah.

Things are happening. Things are happening. Yeah. When you asked about the winter meetings or the GM meetings, when are we going to see stuff happening, player stuff later, this stuff needs to happen now because they need those guys in place for them to start building towards the 2024 season. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of frantic coaching. changes going on today and tomorrow and we will be back here tomorrow at i don't know what time

probably one p.m. probably one p.m., but we will keep you updated so most likely one p.m. join us back here in the meantime you can follow us on twitter and we will keep you up to date on all that stuff i'm at cap underscore caveman with the k jessey is at jesse n friedman damon is at damon dog he is people's producer and that is da wg we are damon's dogs woof-wf i missed it i'm sorry Damn it, Jesse. I miss Patrick, too, guys. I miss Patrick too. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore DBAX,

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys, again, so much for stopping by, even those of you that decided to turn on me so quickly, simply because I was floating a scenario out there of what it would be like for us to be in the Brewer's position. What happened? I thought it was just a terrible scenario that I had to put out there. but we appreciate you regardless of

normally I'm the one saying things like that and you're getting really bad. But you know what I mean? I just, it was a metaphor. I don't even know it's a metaphor. It was, it wasn't a metaphor for sure,

but it was definitely something. But of course, we thank you guys again for your time, even if you were advocating for me to be fired. And of course, we will see you back here tomorrow, hopefully at 1 p.m. In the meantime,

we thank you for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When you extend your manager and don't let someone else steal him, Thank you.