PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Gabriel Moreno’s Return Sparks BIG CHANGES Inside Diamondbacks Dugout

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterThe Diamondbacks shook things up this week, designating Jose Herrera for assignment with Gabriel Moreno back in the lineup and replacing third base coach Shaun Larkin with veteran coach Tim Bogar. Dalton Feely from Jomboy Media joins the show to break down the moves, what they mean for the team’s playoff push, and why D-backs fans still have reason to believe. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX 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.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Out with the old, in with the new? Might be too little too late, but the Diamondbacks make some drastic changes to improve this team before the end of the season. Well, out with the old, in with the new, the Diamondbacks did not hesitate to make some major changes this week. Is it too little too late?

Probably. But we're talking about it right now in another trending podcast. It's your mayor, occasionally known as Derek Montia. I got my guy, Dalton Feely, aka New York's finest here from John Boy, joining us to discuss some major changes made this week

here Dalton by the Arizona Diamondbacks and some surprising changes that I think a lot of fans are in favor of. Obviously, the earlier change this week was after winning that extra innings game. Tori Lavello made the announcement that they are removing Sean Larkin as third base coach.

They have made an announcement as to who the person that is replacing him is, but first, and I think the bigger news here is that Jose Herrera has been designated for assignment with the news that Gabriel Moreno will return to the Diamondbacks major league lineup for tonight's game.

Shocked that it's Jose Herrera, even though it feels like that was the right call, or is this just more of the Diamondbacks pivoting in the right direction based on the results that they're seeing from their players? Yeah, I'm a little shocked at Tosie in the sense that I felt like he's been around and it was like obviously the bat has always been a struggle with Hosey. And that was never his game. He was a great backup catcher in the sense of, like, you were going to provide, you know, a decent job call on games, fielding, whatnot. And obviously, there has been some positive splits for him versus Gabby ADC in terms of catching for certain pitchers.

But Jose's been around for the last four years, so I'm a little surprised. But that said, like, I know there are fans of the Dianbex community that are probably happy that Jose is getting DFAed. I'm not to say I'm excited. Like, I have a little sorrow because, like, he's been a little bit of. round. He was on the 2023 team. And I always, you know, there's some infatuation with the position of the backup catcher. Like, that's one of the hardest jobs in baseball because, sure, offensively you're not expected to do much, but you're still, you know, calling, let's say, 25 to, anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of the games behind the dish, helping the pitching staff out. And I think

Hosey did an underrated job behind the plate. So I'm sad that he's gone, but I will say I do think they made the right choice in keeping ADC and McCann on the. roster because I think they have outperformed him. And Gabby obviously is the number one catcher. And so when he's healthy, of course, slot him in. But yeah, shout out, Hosey. A quick four years it felt like. But he had some moments. He did have some moments, right? But those moments for few and far between. And his strength definitely was, as you said, calling the game behind the plate. I have been in several pitcher postgame interviews where the pitchers, credited Herrera for the game he called.

And it felt like the difference there between Jose and Gabriel Moreno when they were both catching at the same time was that it sounded like Gabriel let the pitchers call their game and Jose Herrera was calling it behind the plate. Now with the addition of James McCann due to Moreno's injury, it was about both players doing something very similar. And McCann has been credited quite a bit by pitchers for his game calling behind the plate. Not to mention the fact that McCann is, you know, a 11-year veteran in Major League Baseball, and he came into this team, he came into this opportunity and shot and just outperformed,

Jose Rere. He put up better numbers offensively McCann slashing 247, 337, 403 for a 740 OPS. He's had some big hits and some big moments already. And you already kind of see that he has a veteran leadership that this team desperately needs. when you hear it from Zach Gowan, and again, I go back to this because I just kind of really love this moment, when you hear Zach Gowan say that James McCann just looked at him and said, I hate, I hated hitting against you. You know, like, and trying to give him that boost that like, hey man, you're still a good pitcher. Like, don't forget that, you know, in their first meeting the first time that he caught him. It really felt like his impact could go beyond what the box score showed.

Now, his numbers are fine. league average, maybe a little bit better, but still just right around there, right? But still giving you far more production than what you were getting out of Jose Herrera's bat. And I don't care how many times Tori said he likes hosies at bats. A lot of fans definitely did not like hosies at bat. So it feels like this definitely was the right call. In baseball, it just sometimes comes down to who performed better.

And when you both share similar traits, offensively, McCann's numbers are just much better than Herrera's. Yeah, and off of that, and talk about the offensive side of the ball. McCann has three home runs with the dimebacks and just the 77 at bat so far the season. Hosey has three career home runs. Sorry, I'm not just laugh about that, but. No, and you know what? Like, it is just kind of ironic.

You know, you can paint the numbers to create your narrative, but like that is, it was never Hosey strength was the offensive side of the ball. And as you said, when McCain comes in, gets a lot of credit for pitch calling and working with some of the pitchers. Obviously, when you compare Hosey and McKin, I think those are both their strengths, but then the tiebreaker, McCann is way more close to the league average in terms of offensive production. Hosey nowhere near that. So again, thanks for Herrera since he's been around for the last four years in different spurts, but I think it was the right choice overall, too. There's another factor here that I think is very much or very much compliments why this is

the right decision. Again, McCann is an 11-year veteran, right? This is a guy that, that can offer quite a bit of experience and knowledge to Gabriel Moreno, who I think all of us agree is the catcher of the future for this team. Right. So there is kind of a mentor-menti relationship that could occur there. I'm not saying it has because they haven't had a chance to really be on the field together at the same time. But it feels like that is much more advantageous for Gabriel Moreno's future than playing alongside Jose Herrera, which, again, not to take anything away from Herrera, but it feels more like almost a. almost a competition for playing time between those two rather than you know that then what mccan might be able to offer i've said it before but it feels like again this team feels lost without that kind of veteran leadership out there they don't have it at times now guys like perdomo are becoming that you could even say that about zack gallon but his future with this team is still unknown

right so uh there doesn't really feel like there's a lot of that you know evan longoria tommy fam kind of veteran presence in the clubhouse, and it feels like once again, James McCann offers that another thing that he offers his team. But what's great is we do have Gabriel Moreno here on the horizon. He's coming back tonight. And Gabriel Moreno was just absolutely mashing the ball for Reno.

I know it's six games, Dalton, I don't want to get excited, but he hit 400 with a 478 on-base percentage, an 850 slug for a 1.328 OPS. And he just had some huge moments. It feels like he's very much back and that the time off may have done him some good. And again, I'm not, I don't want to ever say like,

oh, he's back here for a push at the end of the season, but it's still baseball and anything can happen. You just have to be happy that you're making changes to make this the best team that you can for right now and that Moreno is back to be a part of it. All I'm saying is Derek, the Reds, a big series versus the Reds, right? If you sweep it, it's a whole different outlook.

It's a whole different outlook. It's a whole different outlook. And I'm not saying they're going. going to. I'm just saying if they end up sweeping the reds at home, changes everything. And going off of Moreno, too, another big, big aspect of him come back for the first time. And it feels like forever, the dimebacks are completely healthy on the offensive side of the ball. No active, no player on the 25, 26 man roster is on the IL on the hitting side of it. So look at us. We're getting healthy on that side, at least. Well, and not only that, but now they made the big

change there at third base. Sean Larkin has been removed. And Nick Piccoro released an article today saying that Tim Bogar, who has experience as a major league third base coach for a period of time there, he was the third base coach for the Boston Red Sox. I believe, what was it, 2010 and 2011. And again, a little bit of a surprise. I did think that former Sod Poodle's manager, who is now kind of the bench coach,

third base coach for the Reno Aces, Sean Roof, might have been a good fit internally, but they did go with another internal candidate with Bogar, and it appears that at least for now, the Diamondbacks were trying to not just sit around and wait for the season, and they make these changes to improve this team, and they did it for what they feel like

as an improvement at third base coach. I, this is going to sound bad, I feel like, but I don't think I've ever seen more, clamoring from a fan base to fire a third base coach. Like that's, and I'm not like, I'm not going to be the one to celebrate someone losing their job. And he's still with the organization. Like, Sean Larkin will still be coaching the infield for the Arizona dimex.

He's just lost his duties within the third base coach. So we can celebrate him still being on the team, but also, you know, be happy there's a different third base coach because let's face it, if there was war for a third base coach, he would be well in the negatives. I feel like there are numerous and countless decisions where I, I, I, you know, I, you know, myself and other fans in the Diamondbacks community were like, what the heck are we doing? Why are we holding him?

Why are we stopping? Why are we sending him? So I feel bad in the sense of like, you know, somebody had their role taken away. But I do think in terms of looking at it from the macroscopic version for the ears of Diamondbacks, this is huge because I think there's been a couple of games where the win-moss could have been different if there's a different third base coach. A couple different choices are made on the base paths.

And so like I mentioned, this is a this is, You know, there's a sliver of hope with this series, right? There's there, I believe, five and a half out right now in the wild threat, third wild card spot. If you beat the Reds, if the Mets continue to sink their own postseason hopes, there's a world, Derek. I, you know, just putting it out there. Stop giving me hope, Dalton.

Stop giving me hope. What are you doing you? I'm sprinkling it. I can't say for sure that they're going to make it. It looks very slim. Yeah. But we've seen weird with things. We saw the tigers last year.

So I don't know. There's a chance. Doesn't it. Doesn't it make it fun, though, to still hold out hope? Like, that's the one thing I implore people to have. And in this case, what can make you have hope is the fact that the Diamondbacks are still making these moves, not just sitting idle waiting for the inevitable to happen. It does feel like they're still trying to improve this team in any way that they possibly can and make something happen. And I do feel like this offense is very capable with Moreno returning of doing something.

fun doing something we don't expect again i i think that the move there you know to remove sean larkin like you said is a move that is you know it's an attempt to make sure that none of those kind of losses happen again i i said at the beginning of the show that they made that decision when they won an extra innings game right an exciting walk off extra innings game but quite frankly it might not have gone in that direction i know it's easy to say that but if other factors are there if lordis gurell doesn't hit that home run if a manual claus a class a is not on some suspension for a gambling investigation uh if a lot of things factor indifferently there this team might not win that game and then they lose it two to one and you absolutely had to make a move for what

happened there in the fifth inning with sean larkin however you know again you can't just say oh because of factors we won so we're not going to do that i will say that there was one interesting thing that happened. I believe it was on Monday when we were at Chase Field. It was the day that Cotell Marte made the statement about, you know, the missing time and made the apology to his teammates. Prior to that, there was a meeting that occurred kind of, you know, with Mike Hazen and Tori Lovalo and other, you know, front office personnel. It caused, you know, kind of a delay in us getting to talk to Tori. And I wonder now if these, if the wheel was kind of potentially, or if the wheels were in motion to replace Sean Larkin even prior to what happened on, you know,

in the finale of that Guardian series. So I still don't know, you know, what, what might have been, you know, going on there taking place. It definitely feels, though, like what happened on Wednesday wasn't necessarily the, the, the, the one reason why they replaced him as third base coach. It was just, as we've said, probably entirely too many times on the show, the straw. And again, as fans, we have to be happy that they're trying to make this team better and not just let this season slip by us at this point when they are still in the race. You're not entirely wrong about that. Five and a half games back right now.

Derek, they are still one of the best offenses in baseball. I think that's the stress most stress. What am I trying to say? Frustrating. Frustrating part. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's not too, but frustrating.

Yeah. Yeah, top five OPS in baseball and you're, you know, you have the bottom worst pitching and you can't get anything done, you know. Sorry, I mentally checked out because I just said. That's all right. Frustrating and stressful, two different words. Just putting it together for stressful. Like this. There's 16 runs, fourth, fifth and home runs third OPS there. That's like those are very good marks.

If it, you know, third base coach pitching, there's a lot of what it's, right? But somehow, some way, if they win three games. for Rist or Reds this weekend. We're now talking in a different tone of voice. It's so crazy. It's so crazy to say that. And I said it before and I know that the schedule gets much more difficult after that. So that is something to take on at that point.

But we have seen the Rockies take two out of three from the Dodgers. We've seen a lot of weird stuff happen. The Padres got hot and then they also got smacked in the face back down into second place by the Dodgers once they faced off. Right. So there's a lot that could still happen here. The Mets seem like a team that are very. very volatile and can't really keep things together.

They've lost two in a row and they don't help make this situation any more definitive, right? Like you said, the Diamondbacks at this point literally only have three teams between them and a wildcard spot and five and a half games separating them in the Mets. And who knows how much worse the Mets could play between now and the rest of the season. So Diamondbacks just let them get hot. Don't let the snakes get hot because if you do, we're going to go on a run.

But this, again, this has been like a snake shedding its skin a bit this week. week, Dalton, with these changes that were made. You like that one? That was a good one. I did. It's gross. It's not the best thing. And at times, you don't, you're unsure about what's going to happen on the other side, but you have to feel confident that the Diamondbacks made the right call here when it came to not only replacing Sean Larkin at third base, but going with James McCann over Jose Herrera to compliment Gabrielle Marino. I love the analogy. I'm always a fan of a great analogy. And that was a good one. But yeah. Like, there's so many things to watch for the rest of the season in a good fashion, right?

Can Zach Allen bounce back? Will Corwin Carroll reach 20 triples this season? Will Catelle Marte reached 30 plus home runs, even though he missed basically a month of baseball? Herala Pardomo continued to be one of the best short stops in baseball this season? Like, there's still so many, how does the bullpen shake out? Like, is there anyone that flashes the rest of this season? There are so many storylines to watch for this team, even though their playoff chances are right now. dwindling but i'm going to keep harbid on it derrick if you beat three games from the reds you're right

there i love it well he is dalton feely you can find him on twitter at d feely 14 of course i am at cap underscore caveman with a k our show is at p h and x underscore de bex but as always all roads lead to at p h and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook dalton thank you so much for your time and your insight i appreciate you sir as always uh and we appreciate you guys for joining us Make sure to give us a follow if you haven't done so. And keep it locked right here to PHNX for all your future Diamondbacks news. We appreciate your time as always. And remember, kids, baseball is fun.

But it's so much more fun when you don't give up hope.