PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How should the Diamondbacks fix their third base problem?

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

We’re not feeling great, but unlike some of those in attendance at the GM meetings it is not a stomach virus that has us uneasy. It is the free agent options for the Arizona Diamondbacks at third base that has us concerned, or more importantly the lack thereof. We are discussing what the Snakes can do to fix their third base problem, Torey having a close call with an illness of his own during the World Series, and more accolades for members of the Diamondbacks roster. 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.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast, right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia, of course, I'm the mayor of PHMX. This man next to me is my vice mayor and your Thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse, we have a lot to talk about, including what the Arizona Diamondbacks can do with their third base problem. Of course, we're going to dig into that more. But before we get to that, we have a little bit of beef. I have a little bit of shade to throw. Who are we throwing shade at?

I feel like we need our, we need our sunglasses. Yeah, no, I mean, we'll just go in on this one real fast because it's major league baseball. And I'm throwing shade at them because they've already put out their first way too early power rankings for 2024. And guess who they left off it? You're defending National League champions. You're defending National League champions, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Do not appear anywhere on this power ranking for 2024. It's topped off there at the top.

the Braves, followed by the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles. Then at four, it's the Philadelphia Phillies. Five is the Tampa Bay Rays. Six is the Houston Astros. Seventh is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Eighth is the Toronto Blue Jays. Ninth is the Seattle Mariners. And 10th is the Minnesota Twins.

Now, I am not going to attack the fact that obviously, you know, the Dodgers and the Braves with what they do during the regular season are going to appear on this list. And they're most likely going to be higher than the Diamondbacks, no matter how far the debacks went in the postseason. But I do have a problem with, like non-playoff teams from this year being ranked higher and the Diamondbacks not even being on that list. I have a problem with some of those.

I guess the Mariners didn't make the playoffs. The Mariners didn't make the playoffs. You know, I mean, I'm just like I don't know. I think that of course, you know, continue to disrespect us because as we've seen, Tori loves to use that as bulletin board material. But yeah, I mean, it's just I don't know. I don't know. Figure it out, figure it out. Drop a like while you here.

This is what the, this is what the diamond backs want, right? They don't want to be in the top 10 of Major League Baseball is way too really power rankings. They want to be buried once again and they want to go out and prove all the doubters wrong. It's true. Just like they just like they did in 2020. This is on brand for them.

Very much so is. I, if I'm being totally honest, like I kind of understand this. Well, yeah. We do. We do. Like at the end of the day, you just have to compare the Diamondbacks roster with the rosters of all of the other teams. Fair.

And objectively, I don't know if the Diamondbacks roster, especially given the free agents that, as of right now, have departed from the team, right? The fact that Loris Gariel is not on this roster, he's probably the biggest one. He was a three war player for the Diamondbacks this past year. And yeah, if you take him off the roster of an 84-win team, it's hard to argue that that that team belongs in the top 10. So I understand where they're coming from here, but I also understand your beef that, yes, the Diamondbacks just won the NL pennant, and it does feel a little bit icky that they are not in the top 10. And who knows where they would be? I mean,

I wouldn't be surprised if some people are viewing the Diamondbacks as like the 15th best team or something in the majors as of right now. Maybe over the course of the off season, you know, they're able to make some moves and the perception of the team changes a little bit. But I think that's kind of where things start realistically. Oh, well, I mean, where things really start, honestly, is the GM meetings. And obviously we know that because we've talked about that quite a bit. The GM meetings are where everything kind of gets kicked off during the off season. Then we move on to the winter meetings about a month later. You're at the GM meetings this week. And of course, now we are learning that today's GM meeting, which was the final day of the GM meetings was today.

Yeah, not much happens today. I think today is primarily for agents more so than anyone else. But yeah, there are there are some things that would have happened today, even though the, you know, all of us media talking with the front office executives and whatnot. that happens on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there were some final events for agents that would have taken place today. And those events have been canceled early due to what appears to be an outbreak of a stomach virus over there at the GM meetings, which are here in town. It has been reported that more than 10% of the participants at the meetings got sick, prompting MLB to cancel today's final day of the meetings. It was originally blamed on a buffet on Tuesday that might have been the cause because it was like a welcome buffet that a lot of people attended. But according to, again, the report, some of the people that got sick did not attend the buffet, which caused it to actually be ruled as caused by a contagious virus. So my first question is, are you okay?

I'm fine. Yeah, I didn't eat the welcome buffet. That was only for, you're just going to play it safe here. I'm not going to take any chances. I am totally fine. And yesterday, I was not at all aware. I mean, as far as I could tell, there were no, there were no front office executive. like absent or anything because they were because they were sick.

But yeah, unfortunate. Get out. I hope everyone's okay. Get out. Just get out. I feel perfectly fine. Yeah,

that's what people say before they don't feel fine. You start off with feeling fine until you don't feel fine. But of course, one thing is that this does kind of impact things, just a little bit for the Diamondbacks. Not a huge impact, right? But still the Diamondbacks short off season gets even shorter

because if any days that, could be part of them talking to agents, talking to anybody potentially about what they're going to do with their offseason plan, has been cut short. And again, not a tremendous amount of loss, like you said,

covering what would be covered today. But yeah, I mean, this does kind of have a little bit of an impact, considering that the Diamondbacks were just playing baseball games like a week and a half ago. And now they're really trying to get things going on the business. And as far as moving the ball down the line for some of these free agents that

they're going to need to acquire. Did you, I'm somewhat hesitant to bring this up because some people might be like eating lunch right now. But did you, did you see the story on Sports Illustrated that originally broke the news that this was happening, that the illness was taking place? No. I have to read this and I apologize in advance. No. But it's, it's hilarious. It's some of the best writing that I've ever heard in my life.

Please get to me. This is from Stephanie Epstein. Hopefully I'm saying that correctly. She's a columnist for Sports Illustrated. And she's the one who broke this news. and this is how her story starts. She said, if it seems that baseball news is developing slowly,

perhaps that's because executives' bowels are moving too quickly. More than 30 of the 300 or so officials in attendance have come down with an undetermined stomach ailment in Major League Baseball's annual offseason kickoff event. The GM meetings have become the GI meetings. Man, give her the Pulitzer. It's poetry. It's absolute poetry.

It's an absolute poet. Oh, man, that's incredible. And yeah, I mean, we didn't expect any news to really come out of the GM meetings. But again, it's just not really helpful for things to be impacted in any way about the Diamondbacks and the business that they have to attend to in regards to, you know, their roster and things that are happening in the off season. I think it was just the agents would have had a big in-person meeting today. Like with each other? With each other, I believe is my understanding. And instead of that happening in person at the Omni Resort in Scottsdale, it's just happening over Zoom.

So I don't think like the Diamondbacks offseason conversations are really hindered by this in any way. But you know how it is, though. A lot of that business is done just in reality about people talking and just being around each other in these kind of environments, right? Yeah. So it might have some of the executives might have stuck around for like a little bit this morning. Yeah. And yeah, you know, maybe shot the breeze a little bit with some of those people more so than, then they will with the ailment

and swimming around and everything. Well, and that wasn't the only ailment because we kind of glossed over this yesterday, but Tori had said in his media availability yesterday about getting the contract extension that he actually came down with COVID right after the end of the World Series. And when he said that, he made it sound like right after,

he was basically said COVID was like waiting for him after the World Series, right? And like, there's a good chance that maybe maybe maybe he doesn't catch it if the diamondbacks are still playing maybe however whatever way he caught it was maybe due to them uh maybe maybe on the way home or something like that right but uh it doesn't matter the the bigger thought here for me is what if he had COVID in the middle of the world series it couldn't have been on the bench and couldn't have been managing this team like the way he made it sound was like you almost got it the day after they were bounced so if that's

the case then uh yeah that would uh that would have been a problem for this team yeah it's hard to imagine what that would have looked like. Yeah. I remember, I think like, I think this was before this season ended, maybe at some point in mid-September. Tori was asked in a press conference about COVID kind of spreading around a little bit among certain teams and how seriously the Diamondbacks were taking that going into the playoffs and whatnot.

And I remember Tori, you know, kind of acknowledging it, but not being overly concerned about it at the time. And the Diamondbacks made it through the postseason, through the end of the regular season and the post season all the way to the world series without that ever being an issue. And to my knowledge, I don't think any team ever had an issue with this. I'm not, I'm not aware of any player or coach or anything that ever missed time in the postseason because of COVID. But there were some reporters.

There were some reporters along the way through the postseason. You were sort of there one day and then mysteriously gone the next day. And anytime it happens, you have to wonder, I mean, us reporters, we are, the access in the postseason is fairly limited, but we're still interacting with these, with these coaches and these players. And you'd hate for any of us to pass anything like that on to any of them. And you're also in very close quarters at times, right? Like in order for you to get the videos that you bring us and I know about the way that it goes, you have to be right there in the scrum.

You're around each other and you're around the players and everything like that. So yeah, it's definitely interesting how that would have impacted everything, you know, if that happened. But that's in the past now. And luckily, Tori's doing great. And, you know, best wishes to anybody impacted by what happened at the GM meetings. We do have some good news involving Chase Field looking a little nicer, getting a little better. According to a source, LED lights are going in as we speak and should be completed prior to the Billy Joel concert on December 8th.

So if that is true, first of all, moving out is going to be electric at that concert. That song is going to go hard. and also jump around next year when Paul Seawald comes out is going to go absolutely crazy. But of course, LED lights are fun. It means a lot of things, right? I mean, first of all, the old can lights, we talked about this before. But I imagine that it was probably as difficult as the bulbs for the out-of-town scoreboard, you know, to kind of find some of these replacement parts that they need.

I know I saw a picture at one point of the can lights that are kind of up there pointing at the crowd and such. And there were a lot that were out. I'm not sure if that was because the bulbs needed to be replaced or whatever. But yeah, it's just it's 2023, almost 2024. And LED lights are just, they're they're cheap, right? By comparison because of the fact that they are, once you put in the system, they're easily fixable. They're easily replaceable.

They don't cost nearly the money. And they don't take nearly the amount of energy to power them as some of these old lights do. Right. Yeah. They also last like an eternity. Yeah. Like I just, we moved into our new place.

I bought some light bulbs for various light fixtures and things that we installed. And the LED ones last for like 20 years or something in certain situations. It's like that doesn't seem possible. But somehow it is. That's just sort of how LED lights roll. It's amazing. But it's still not a cheap investment, right? The estimated cost for these lights is somewhere in the neighborhood between $3 million and $5 million.

Right. So I feel like once again, this investment is going into a stadium, obviously. that needs it and Lord knows what would happen to Chase Field if the Diamondbacks weren't playing baseball there. But I feel like this is once again kind of leaning in that direction of the Diamondbacks staying at Chase Field and continuing to renovate that and make that, you know, that home, their home, that place, right? Because it's still a, yeah, still a great location as far as centralized here in town. And it's just got so much history now, you know, especially the two world series being played there. I, I, the more that things like

that happened, the more I want them to just keep this building and renovate it more than trying to find another location. Yeah, and it, like we've said in the past, it seems like that's the direction. This is all headed. We know that the diamond backs all along have liked the idea of staying downtown, all of the memories that have been made there over the years. And really just, I mean, the logistics of getting the funding to go somewhere else is that's a daunting task, right? there's a lot of money that goes into building a new facility and not just the ballpark, but all of the amenities around the ballpark that the diamondbacks would want if they were to move somewhere else.

And yeah, it seems like, you know, getting that investment was just never going to be all that realistic for them. And maybe there's still an opportunity out there. We don't have anything official on this yet. But, yeah, all signs are very much pointing to the diamond back sticking around at Chasefield. Michael asks the question, can you explain to me like I'm five, what LED lights are? Okay, Michael. Can you actually do that? I can.

LED lights are called, it's light emitting diode, right? Which is what the little, little thing that emits the light inside of an LED. This is like that legal situation that we talked about the other day. You're going to have to explain it to me. I am. I'm going to try. So an LED lighting product emits basically uses 90% less energy than an incandescent light bulb. Right.

They're very efficient. They're a little expensive, but they're very efficient. Right. But now, because they're being mass produced in the way they are, they are actually becoming lower in costs, especially than when you talk about like specialty bulbs for like large, gigantic specialty bulbs. There's just not even companies making those like they used to. So because of that, those bulbs are going up in cost. And it comes to a point where like, okay, to replace all of these light bulbs, it's going to cost almost the same amount as it is to put in an LED lighting system. also LED lighting is controllable which makes it fun right they can do a lot of stuff with it

make it go colors make it flashed music make it do all sorts of cool stuff and of course we've seen it all around baseball and other sports so it is time and it's exciting for chase field to be updated because again I never thought the footprint center could have been updated the way it was and I love that place now and I think the changes actually made it a completely completely different environment lighting was a big part of the changes there was more of opening up the the area, like especially when you first walk in, you know, like, yeah, it used to be very much, especially that front area that they added after a couple of years used to feel kind of different than the rest of the building. And then there was like the concrete bunker that you

walked into that was the arena, right? And like, I just think, oh, they have a big bar now there right in front that's very welcoming. It is very nice. It just feels, you know, again, it wasn't, it didn't take an incredible amount of losing seats. I know they did lose some seats to put in some of these standing room areas. But again, it makes me want to buy a ticket. anywhere in the arena and then just go hang out at the bar or just be there. Right. So like Chase Field could definitely use that with all the space they have. And I know during the World Series, they made like some standing room only areas that I didn't necessarily see during the regular season.

But again, more of that because I think that that just can definitely help with making people want to come and just have a fun time, you know, especially during the long regular season. But if you want to have a fun time here in town, a perfect place for you to do that is at Heila River Resorts and Casinos because nobody does it better. They offer an authentic and immersive experience where you can literally get away from everything there. They have fine dining. It can be a high roller. You can lounge poolside and do all of the things that a big wig does over there at Heel of River Resorts and Casinos.

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And I have to ask Eric, if you went on a boys trip, am I invited? It's an important question. You know how you have to answer this, Eric. Yes. See, that's my guy. This is why I'm not Damon's dog anymore. This is why I'm Eric's dog, is what I am. But of course, I also will still get my betting advice from Damon over there at the PHNX bets.

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Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. And leave us a thumbs up. Drop us a like. Do what Gabby says there. Also, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure to subscribe to us there as well. Leave us a five-star review. We always appreciate you doing that. And of course, we did say earlier that we were going to address the Diamondback's third base issue, like as if it's the elephant in the room here. No, we're not talking about that anymore, Derek. We're actually a lighting podcast now.

Oh, yeah. All right. So, again, back to light emitting diodes and their efficiency. Look, I mean, whatever's going to get the clicks, whatever's going to get the clicks. If I have to do a reactions podcast, I will absolutely do that. But I want to react to the Arizona Diamondbacks getting a new third basement. And I know that when it comes to free agency, the options are very limited. Luckily, we're not looking for a second baseman or a catcher because those options are even more limited when it comes to MLB free agency this year.

But the position player market in general, as far as free agency is concerned, is just terrible. It's not great. Outfielders seems like good. But then again, when you're looking at them ranked, when you're looking at them, when you're looking at them ranked. Lordus is like in the top five. So losing Lourdes really feels like, you know, you're losing one of the best options available. So you better find somebody to upgrade there at that position. But when it comes to third base, the Diamondbacks production this year hasn't been great from the guys that have been there. Right. We have obviously Josh Rojas is no longer with the

team. But out of the guys that have been here and it played third base, we have Manuel Rivera, Evan Longoria, and Jace Peterson getting the majority of the time this year. And offensively, all those guys have kind of struggled. I mean, Emmanuel Rivera at one point was pretty good about getting, getting some hits, you know, back in the West annual Rivera days of the early season, right?

But still his final numbers this season end up at 261, slashing 261, 314, 358 with a 672 OPS. He had four home runs, 29 RBI. And I mean, he was your biggest producer, I guess you could say. Evan Longoria was up there with his 11 home runs.

Longoria had a 717 OPS, and he had, 28 RBI but he slashed 223 295 422 so I mean you just weren't getting a lot there out of that and then there's jace peterson who was also there he was he was there this is this is a problem for the diamond backs and we are here today to try to find a solution and we're going to really struggle this whole time because I'm just going to bear I'm not going to bury the lead uh it's It's going to be hard for the Diamondbacks to come up with a solution at third base this off season without going out there and spending on Matt Chapman, I guess, which we'll get into him a little bit later. But yeah, I mean, you look at the options that the Diamondbacks have in-house.

It's not particularly inspiring. You know, we've talked about Evan Longoria and, you know, the fact that after he returned from a back injury in August, he had very little power. I think he slugged about 200 from that point through the end of the season. I think all of his home runs, if I'm not mistaken, came prior to that injury, basically in the first half of the season. He actually was pretty good for the Diamondbacks for the first couple months of the year, hit some big home runs. But that power just really slid in the second half of the season. So, yeah, Emmanuel Rivera is still here. He just, you know, you mentioned the Weiss Daniel Rivera days of the podcast early in the season.

And he was hitting like 3.30 or 340 for a while there. I was in love with that, man. But yeah, I mean, it was all line drives. And it's just really hard for any hitter to hit line drives, like 50% of the time or whatever. It just, if that's, if that's sort of the, you know, the method by which you are breaking out, it probably isn't sustainable. And it ultimately proved that way for Rivera. The debacks do have a couple of other options in-house. They have Geraldo Pardomo, who obviously is more thought of as a shortstop than a third-

baseman, but he did play some third base for the diamondbacks this year, and I think is perfectly fine there defensively. The diamond backs also have Jordan Lawler, uh, who I heard, I think it was Keith Law on his podcast the other day over the athletic. He talked about how the diamond backs could solve their third base problem by just moving Jordan Lawler over to third base and calling it a day. I don't know if the debacks are about to do that. Um, I could see Jordan Lawler playing third base. I just don't know if Jordan Lawler is someone that you can count on to be an everyday player from opening day of 2024. There's a reason that Jordan Lawler basically didn't take in a bat in the entire postseason.

And, you know, they didn't have a whole lot of room to let him work through his struggles offensively once he was in the majors because they were in a playoff race and then in the playoffs itself. But yeah, I think there's a possibility that Jordan Lawler is going to need a little bit more seasoning, maybe even start the year back in AAA. I don't really view him as a guy that the diamondbacks can comfortably count on as their everyday third baseman going into the season. And this is really an issue that the team has had for a while. You go back to when the diamondbacks traded Eduardo Escobar to the Brewers in 2021 at the trade deadline.

He was a guy. He's kind of the last like reliable third baseman that the diamond backs have had. And honestly, Escobar hasn't even been the player that he was for the diamondbacks anywhere else to be fair. He was decent in like that second half of the Brewers. Yeah, for sure. That was about it. But I mean, when you talk about the power that he brought to this team and his defense, I mean, he was everything you could want over there.

Not to mention he was an absolute outstanding clubhouse guy, and he gave me one of the greatest quotes of all time when he said that he would die for Tori Lovolo, which is not something I think I've ever heard a baseball player say, and it's still just the coldest thing you could possibly say. But you did talk to Mike Hazen on the possibility of using one of their in-house candidates. Yeah, he was basically, this was from the GM meetings. Yesterday, Hazen was asked, you know, do you view Geraldo Perdomo and Jordan Lawler? Like, you have some in-house options.

Would it, could you see a scenario in which you just roll with, you know, some pairing of those guys and the other guys that you have in house at third base in 2024? And here's what Hayeson had to say about. It's something we've talked about. I don't know exactly where that's going to fall down. I think we're in the period now where there's a lot of ability to acquire external players. and you kind of focus on that first, and then we'll see where that all comes together

after later in the offseason. Does that make it less of a urgency in a sense? I don't think so because you don't want to ever pass up the opportunity to get additional good players in your organization. I guess, but you might not feel the pressure to maybe make a mistake contractor, you know, contract for like third base specifically?

Yeah. I don't, yeah, we're still going to try to be aggressive however we can. Well, you said, going to try to be aggressive however we can and one of those ways that they could potentially be aggressive is through trades right i know we've talked about the free agency market being very slim and we are going to talk about matt chapman and how he could potentially fit in with this team but there are some other potential good fits that would require a trade and a couple of them just kind of have me wondering like how much these players or it would cost in a trade and if the

diamondbacks are willing to be that aggressive as far as trades go but you came up with a list of candidates that I really like. Some more than others. Some more than others. I like Jonathan India myself. I mean, he's under team control through the end of 2026. His defense is not great. That's the big problem there.

But offensively, I think that he is a little bit of the answer. Came up as a third baseman, but has not played third in the majors. So that's obviously the big problem there. But who knows? I mean, he had minus seven defensive runs. So maybe he's better at third base. I don't know. Honestly, I think there's a pretty decent chance that he would be better at third base if the Diamondbacks were to acquire him and move him over there. That was sort of his natural position

coming up. The Reds sort of out of need is my understanding. They wound up using him at second base. That's the only position he's played for them in the majors. But yeah, I mean, if you look at these offensive numbers, I mean, a 746 OPS. It's, you know, a pretty hitter-friendly environment out there in Cincinnati that works out to a 100 OPS plus, basically a league average hitter. But, you know, he's he's relatively young. I think he's 26 years old. And yeah, the Reds don't really have a clear spot for him to play, given the enormous influx of young players that they just called up toward the end of the 2023 season.

And I think I saw a report yesterday that the Reds are willing to move Jonathan Indier, at least are open to the idea of trading. Jonathan India and I'm sure there's a number of teams who would be interested in acquiring someone like him. Yeah. But yeah, there are some there are some questions here. I mean a 100 OPS plus. Like that doesn't necessarily get like is that a long term solution at third base? Is that more of like a utility guy you could maybe float around and play some different positions sort of like how Josh Rojas did? I don't know. See I and I know that comparing some of the guys we've had is hard because when you look at the combined numbers of the Diamondbacks third baseman, they had a

75 WRC plus and yeah it's not great uh they were ranked 27th in baseball ahead of just the tigers mets and aes as a combined unit over there at third base and i mean like i'm not i don't know if the diamondbacks need to necessarily have a superstar like of course nolan aranato is the name everybody brings up when they want diamond back to trade for somebody but i just don't think a great year in 2023 for sure and i think that someone like jonathan india potentially could come over here and flourish a bit, not only under this coaching staff, but just the ability to return to the natural position that he played previously in his career, right? But also just the guy, I mean, they just need a guy that can contribute like this. Like his contributions aren't, you know, again, when you look at

the guys that were playing third base, I mean, it's kind of a combination of them. So at least you have one more consistent guy in they're playing as an everyday player rather than platooning and getting the production out of like three guys in order to. to make up what India can do. I mean, he hit 17 home runs, right? He stole 14 bases. Like, is he a fantastic everyday option at third base? No, but is he pretty clearly better than what the diamondbacks have in house?

Yeah, I think he absolutely is. And he's also, as I said, he's 26 years old. You can still dream a little bit on what Jonathan India could become potentially. He's only played three seasons in the majors. I also at one point during the season, when we were talking about Corbyn Carroll, one point with Diamondback's hitting coach Joe Mather. I asked Joe, have you ever seen a rookie do anything like this, you know, talking about Corbyn Carroll and just the outstanding rookie season that he had? And Joe Mather talked about Jonathan India. He was the Reds hitting coach when

Jonathan India came up. And you look at his numbers, India's numbers from 2021 is rookie season. He had 21 homers that year, 69 RBI 12 stolen bases. He had a 12-12 WRC plus that year. So you can kind of, I think there's some sense that Jonathan and he could be a better player than what he's shown so far for the Reds. And, you know, maybe he would flourish with a new opportunity and, you know, new coaches to work with and, you know, a place where he really has opportunity to play every day, which is something it doesn't look like he's going to have with the Reds in 2024 if he stays there. I feel like his, him being under team control through 2026 is going to cost maybe a lot compared to some of the other trade candidates that you have. Yeah. Kyle Farmer is a guy that's a free agent after 2024. This is his final year of arbitration. So he would essentially be more of a rental. But he was pretty good at third base. Yeah. If we look at Kyle Farmer's numbers, I don't know if people are necessarily going to be super, super stoked about the thought of Kyle Farmer coming to the Diamondbacks and being their everyday third baseman. But he's another guy who like Jonathan India is not necessarily. necessarily the most exciting on paper, but someone who's a clear upgrade over what you have in house, which you could argue is sort of all that matters at the end of the day. And I mean,

honestly, you're losing Evan Longoria right now as far as free agency is concerned. So it's not like you're getting rid of Longoria as much as, I mean, he's most likely moving on and the Diamondbacks are also moving on. So like that there's there's a deficit. You know, his production isn't going to be made up right now necessarily by the contributions of other guys on the team. So, yeah, if you can find somebody like Farmer that put up these numbers, even in a rental situation, it could be very good for a team that seems to be ready to compete again here in 2024. Yeah, so it was 256 average 317 on base, 408 slugging percentage of 725 OPS this year with the Minnesota Twins. 11 homers, 46 RBI was worth 1.6 wins above replacement.

he's a decent third baseman. He played a number of different positions for the twins, but he did play 290 innings at third base, so a decent amount of work there. Grated out is basically a league average defender at third base, one defensive run saved minus one outs above average. So that's sort of a wash, probably somewhere around average defensively.

But yeah, he is maybe like the most affordable option that the Diamondbacks could go get. and it's just one year, as you said, right? He's only under team control for one more season. And he's Kyle Farmer. He's not, you know, you would think he wouldn't cost you an inordinate amount in a trade for just one season. And yet he's also theoretically an upgrade over what the diamondbacks have in house.

And I think it can make some sense. Who else do you got? We also have a Eugenio Suarez, who is maybe the best guy on our list, I guess. He was worth 3.2 wins above replacement this last year for the Seattle Mariners. This man played every single game this season for the Seattle Mariners, all 162 games. 694 plate appearances. That is a full workload. 22 homers, 96 RBI.

He slugged 391, which if you think of a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you're probably thinking of like big bopper, like guy who hits 35 home runs a year. He wasn't really that. Uh, granted. he was hitting, you know, at T-Mobile Park for half his games, which is a pretty picture-friendly environment. So, you know, 22 home runs, certainly not bad. If you look at his baseball savant page, there's some red there that would lead you to

believe that maybe he underperforms a little bit. Still impacted the baseball at decent amount. He kind of strikes out a lot. But, yeah, again, a guy who is an upgrade over what the Diamondbacks have in house. He was worth minus two defensive runs saved at third base in 2023. but 11 positive 11 outs above average. So probably average, maybe even a little above average

defensively at third base. That's a weird combination because 11 outs above average seems pretty good. Minus 2 defensive runs save isn't terrible, right? It just means that for the most part, he's not making those spectacular plays to save runs from scoring. And in some cases,

he's even made some mistakes in those situations that allow to run. Yeah, they're just measured off of different things. So, yeah, I mean, if it's minus two, DRS and positive 11-0A. I mean, I just like to average them, I guess. Sure. Yeah, probably average, maybe a little above average.

But yeah, a guy who is under team control through 2025, he'll make $11 million in 2024. He has a $15 million club option for 2025. So the Diamondbacks could make a decision on whether they wanted to pick up that option if they were to acquire him. I wonder if the debacks would look to see if the Mariners would be willing to pay a portion of this contract. Maybe that would be part of a deal that was worked out between the two teams. But the biggest problem is that I don't think the Mariners are going to move him.

I've scoured the Mariners roster. And yes, they have Josh Rojas, but he really played second base for them, not third base. And if they were to trade Suarez, you could slide Rojas over to third, but then they have a hole at second. And they're a team that really needs to upgrade offensively, not downgrade. They don't really have. It's not like they're trying to trade Svarez for pitching, and I don't think the Diamondbacks could really do that anyway. So the fit is tough to find.

And at the end of the day, I don't really see this as being a super viable option. Meanwhile, there is another option for a team that seems to kind of have somebody to play third base and might have, I guess you could say, an extra arm over there. John Birdie for the Miami Marlins, right? I mean, the Miami Marlins seem to have a good guy and Jake Berger at third base that they acquired. And that would make Bertie perhaps a little expendable. And his numbers here are very, very good this season, at least as far as maybe not being a power hitter, but a guy that got on base quite a bit. Yeah, he's not your prototypical, like power hitting third base type.

Like this, this is the, this would be the Diamondbacks acquiring like a super utility player and saying like, hey, we want you to. to be our third base every day, even though, like, that's not, it's not really, like, I don't think anyone ever really claimed that John Bertie's bat, like, profiles perfectly well at third base, but the devax could, could maybe bring him in and use him there. He hit 294 in 2023 with the Marlins and 424 plate appearances, only slugged 405, only had seven home runs, but he did have a 748 OPS. And again, it's a matter of just comparing what's out there with what you already have. And John Bertie, it would be a pretty, a pretty,

clear upgrade in my book. Michael says imagine Bertie and Carol on the bases together. Yeah, he stole 41 bases, I think, in 2022. That sounds chaotic. He's still 16 in 2023. He's 16 for 22. Yeah. Didn't quite do as much damage on the bases, but you know what happens when, you know, guys who have good sprint speed join forces

with Dave McKay. You tend to steal a decent number of bases. He also is a pretty decent defender, There are five defensive run safe, two outs above average at third base this year. He played a bunch of different positions. He actually played shortstop more than anywhere else for the Marlins. But yeah, as you said earlier, like, I think the Marlins could maybe part with him. They have Josh Bell to play first. They have Louisa Rise at second.

Garrett Hampson was kind of their everyday shortstop down the stretch. And then, yeah, they traded for Jake Berger, who was outstanding for them in the second half after inexplicably being dealt by the Chicago White Sox. So yeah, I think there could be a fit here. And he would certainly be an upgrade for the Diamondbacks. Mega, man, not to be confused, Mega Ran, two different people. So as much as it would be nice to have a major power hitter, our offense drives on small ball. And that would make Bertie a pretty good fit.

But yeah, he definitely screams like Arizona Diamondbacks. He does. He does. He has Diamond Box vibes for sure. Like Underdog favorite, fan favorite kind of guy for sure. Yeah. Oh, for sure. We do know the big name that everybody has been asking about, and that wouldn't be acquired through any kind of trade.

It would be part of our free agency frenzy. And of course, that name is Matt Chapman from the Toronto Blue Jays. Chapman is basically the big third baseman free agent. He is the guy that everybody is kind of like him and Candelario are probably the two guys that are the biggest, you know, targets for all of these teams looking for a third basement. but Chapman was very, very good for the Toronto Blue Jays. And again, kind of a bit of the prototypical third baseman that we were looking for here. I mean, didn't have great power numbers last season with Toronto, but I mean, his overall numbers are pretty damn good, very durable there with the 581 play appearances.

He had that 240 batting average, 424 slug, 755 OPS, 54 RBI, and 17 home runs. I mean, even some of the other options here we talked about as a trade, better numbers than Chapman, but it just feels like he's the kind of guy that like the Diamondback could potentially lock into and have that problem at third base solved in a way that they kind of solved their problem with catcher by trading for Gabriel Moreno from the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah, I mean, Matt Chapman is so good defensively at third base. And there really is a lot of value in that. I mean, I know the debacks are not a team that really struggles defensively or like really needs to improve on that side of the ball. But I mean, having an elite third baseman is having,

having an elite third baseman and there's going to be value in that defense even though it's not really a weakness for this diamond backs team they had their best year defensively as far as errors were concerned and it would be it would be nice to add that that good defender there at third base and make this one of the best defenses in baseball the tricky thing with chapman and you know you read out the offensive numbers as a whole third they're all right they're not great for a third baseman he had a really weird season in april and March, he hit 384 with an 1152 OPS. There was time in late April, early May, where everyone was convinced that Matt Chapman was about to play his way into like a $250 million contract or something. Because like, I mean, could you imagine if you play elite third base defense and you have like a 900 OPS or something in your walkier? Especially with with the available talent out there. Exactly. He would have been far and way the prize at third base and in some ways he still is because he's such a good defender and as we've said the third base market and free agency is very thin but yeah he followed up that 1150 ops in

march and april with a 585 ops in may and a 633 ops in june and then in july at a 908 ops he was back and then in august it was 532 and in september october it was 633 so he was just a really poor offensive player for four out of the six months and a really, really good offensive player in the other two months. Absolutely sounds like an Arizona Diamondback. I mean, yeah, that's like your Lordus Curiel replacement right there, right? Like a guy who's, you know, he's going to be a little above average overall, but he's going to do it by being like the best hitter on the planet for like a couple months and then being kind of a non-factor in the other months. But yeah, I mean, Matt Chapman has you, you know, you look back through his career. He's had some really good offensive seasons. He hasn't

always been this just kind of fringe just barely above average performer offensively. But you're going to have to sign him to a big deal. I think I think the athletic had like six and 150 million or something. I don't see the diamondbacks making that investment. And, you know, he's 30 years old. So you're paying for his age 31 through 36 seasons in that case. I don't know if I see the diamond backs being willing to do that. It would just be nice because the diamondbacks don't have a lot of holes right now in their starting lineup, you know, defensively. And if they could just figure out a way to at least get that third basement that's going to be here once again for a while, become potentially part of that core with the younger guys that are also going to be

here for that time frame and help this team win now because of his experience, then, you know, it might be worth it. It might be worth the big contract because, again, this is not something that you want to continue to have to deal with as far as, you know, finding another replacement, doing these one-year deals, you know, some of the guys that we talked about potentially trading for like Kyle Farmer, who is only going to be here through the end of the season, and then we go through this again. There is the potential that during some of these other free agency periods, there might be more options than there are currently because you don't want to overpay just because you're

desperate in this particular market. Yeah. And there's only three or four, you know, really good players available. And you're going to overpay for them due to that. So a big part of it. it is is jordan lawler and like do you do you think that jordan lawler you know halfway through the twenty twenty four season could give you matt chapman numbers offensively if you could then you probably don't want to go give matt chapman a hundred and fifty million dollars uh because the debaks have

perdomo they have a viable short stop already uh that would that would make some sense but it's still it seems like the most likely outcome is the debacks you're going to find themselves a stop gap yeah and we presented some guys who could fill that role right go get a kind of Al Farmer, go get, you know, a Jonathan India potentially, a guy you could have for a few years and, you know, just find a way to sort of piece it together from that point forward. Yeah. Well, my neighbor, Reagan, has been outside installing flooring in his, like, I thought you were going to say installing Christmas lights. No, no, that's a whole other, that's a whole other conversation for a different day. He's, he's for like weeks now he's been installing flooring himself in his, not in his house.

not in his garage, in his trailer, where he, his camping trailer, right? Wow. And I've kind of, I've watched him from my front door secretly so that he doesn't know I'm there because if he knows I'm there, he's going to ask me to come help him install the flooring. But I've just watched him deal with this. And I want everybody to know that you don't have to, you don't have to do that. You don't have to put it in the flooring yourself. Let Empire today take care of all of that for you.

You'll get the flooring through them and they will have professional installers take care of this. You're not going to spend weeks at a time doing it, even though, much to his credit, he did a beautiful job with it. It just seemed like it was a lot of work, and I know he wanted me to come help him, and I wasn't going to go help him. I refuse to help anybody put in flooring. It's not an easy task, and you want to make sure you have professionals that know what they're doing. Do that. So make sure to check out Empire Today. They keep shopping for floors simple with a curated product selection.

They also help you out by allowing you to use their virtual floor design, which is a great way to see how your new floors will look in. any room or any space. It's easy. You just snap a picture and instantly you can see the different designs and how they would look. The Empire Today prides themselves on convenient, shop at home servicing. And I know that's what we're all about in today's day and age. We all, none of us want to leave our office or our living room to go do all of this stuff. Who wants to go to a big box store and stand around for like literally an hour waiting for someone to come help you because that's what happened to me when I was installing countertops in my home. It was also like kind of useless to like go somewhere and just look at flooring and pretend that you understand what it's actually

going to look like in your house and then they're just going to give you a thing the number to call a thing here set up it's like so i literally just came here to look at these that's all i came down here i'm talking to you just to look at these just ridiculous so don't forget all that do it at home with empire today uh they do service their own warranties so again you can make sure that you don't have to deal with an um or a manufacturer phone number or tracking someone down empire today will take care of it for you. You can schedule a free in-home estimate today. All listeners will receive a $350 off discount when they use promo code, PHNX. So make sure to do that. Restrictions do apply. See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. And yes, we did throw some shade earlier at MLB.com.

And of course, my shady rays are the way that I throw shade. I mean, I honestly, I can throw shade at a moment's notice. So it's the reason why I need the sunglasses on me at all times. But if you live here in Arizona or you're even just visiting for a period of time, you need to make sure you have yourself a premium pair of polarized shades, and you can get those from Shadyrays. Their website, Shadiery Rays.com, or here in town at their location at Kierland Commons, Shady Rays offers durable frames and extremely clear optics. They also offer the most insane protection plan in all of Iware.

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Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. Award season does not stop, Jesse. No, it really doesn't. It just, it's accolade after award, after honor, after thing, right? now MLB has announced that they are the return of the official all MLB team, which is something fans can vote on similar to the All-Star vote. So the Diamondbacks have quite a few guys nominated for the 2023, all-MLB team, including Christian Walker at first base,

Cattell Marte at second, Corbyn, Carroll for Outfield, Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly for starting pitching, and our guy jump around Paul Seawald for relief pitchers. So some great guys. being honored and obviously all of these guys were a big part of you know the diamondbacks not only getting the playoffs but their postseason run there so yeah any snubs there or did they get it right was there anybody that you think you would have included um i mean maybe a little jerry peel going position by yeah i think i think gabriel moreno is probably yeah the clearest uh snub on on

the diamond backs front they're nominees for catcher is our guy i can find these real quick their nominees for catcher are William Contreras, Jonah Heim, Sean Murphy, J.T. Romuto, Will Smith, Wilson Contreras, Ryan Jeffers, Cow Rowley, and Adley, Ruchman. It is a pretty impressive class of catchers. Like, I don't know if Gabby is necessarily clearly above any of those guys. Yeah. But defensively, I mean, he just won the gold glove. Like J.T. Romuto didn't, uh, didn't really outperform Gabby significantly offensively, while Gabby had a much better year defensively. according to the numbers. I think you can maybe make a case there.

But it's hard for me to call it like egregious because this is a pretty formidable list of catchers. I'm not sure that Gabby had a clearly better season than any of these guys. Well, voting is open for fans through November 19th. So get out there and vote for these guys. You can vote for them at MLB.com slash all MLB. That'll take you right to the voting list. So make sure to do that.

But again, just nice for these guys to be honored. and not snubbed the way that they were snubbed by MLB and their little power ranking for 2024. I'm not going to forget that anytime soon. But Joey Lent says Ginkle too probably. Yeah, Kevin Ginkle deserves flowers for sure as a relief pitcher. He was incredible for this team. But again, we have a lot of fun stuff still going on. We will have some more third base free agency candidates to talk about here shortly.

So we're not done. There's just not. We haven't totally solved the problem. We haven't totally solved the problem. We will eventually. We're going to hit the chalkboard here in a little bit and see what we can figure out. I'm definitely going to keep away from Jesse because I still don't believe he's not sick. And we will try to figure out what the Diamondbacks are going to do at third base.

But make sure to keep it locked right here. We will be back at 1 p.m. tomorrow. And we might be joined by some very special guests. So I'm very excited about that. So keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground for that. Of course, if you are out and about, make sure to stop by Circle K to fill yourself up, fill up your gas. It's probably the cheapest gas you can find if you sign up for their Inner Circle program, because that will get you 25 cents off per gallon for your first five Phillips.

It's free. And not only that, but you'll get three cents off per fill up per gallon every day after that. You'll also get buy five, get six to one free on a selection of Circle K products, including pizza, coffee, and ice cold fountain drinks. And if you download the app, they'll just send you fun little coupons for free stuff like chips and candy, all sorts of great stuff. So you can join the Inner Circle for free by download. the CircleK app today.

Terms and conditions apply, participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. And also shout out to Foco for providing us with our little tiny works of art on the table. Foco is a leading manufacturer

of sports and entertainment merchandise with a product line that includes apparel, accessories, toys, collectibles like these little bobbleheads that like I said are pieces of artwork, novelty items and more.

So check out the best officially licensed gear for all sports and fandums over at Foco.com. Of course, baseball season, stops, bobblehead season never stops. So make sure to check them out.

Get those limited edition. Maybe if they have any of those World Series ones left, they're pretty gorgeous. So check those out. Foco always has our back for Arizona Sports and they have yours too. Get the best year around by visiting Foco.com and using code PHNX for all non-presale items, use the code PHNX for 10% off. Well, that's all I got. Got anything else?

No, not really. I'm just thinking about Foco and like, you know, holiday shopping and whatnot. You're not allowed to put up Christmas lights this early, but you are allowed to go shopping for all of the special people in your life this early. So visit our friends over a FOCO. I won't be doing any of my Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve. He's already established that. See, don't listen to this man when it talks about pre-planning. He absolutely waits until the last minute.

And then like still somehow pulls off some 50% off clearance deals and such, which I don't think is fair. That shouldn't happen until after the holiday. For those of us who overthink everything in our. our lives, the need to make a decision by the time the mall closes is very helpful. It's a deadline. It's a deadline. He gets deadlines. This guy gets deadlines. I need a deadline when I'm doing my Christmas shopping. Otherwise, I'll just, I just, I'll never figure it out. You can give yourself a deadline. I mean, for real, right? Like, you can self-impose it by this by the 20th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That doesn't know that doesn't work. I know there's some people watching and listening

you understand that. Self-imposed deadlines. I get it. It's arbitrary. You know in your head that you can just... Yeah, I know deep down that my self-imposed deadline doesn't mean crap. And so I'm not going to abide by it because deep down, I know that. So we couldn't be more different on this because I get all of my holiday shopping done by the 15th of November. And that's for a holiday that is 45 days away from my date for shopping. That's just really messed. Yeah, no, I don't know what to tell you because I need to get that stuff done. I have a lot of things to do, Jesse. I have an elf that I have to move around every night. She's 12 years old.

Do I still have to move the elf? Oh, man. This is, I... Well, you have to move Yeah, there's an elf around. Yeah, it's an elf on a shelf. Have you ever heard of the elf on the shelf? I have, I have heard of. I have heard of her. We also have a snoop on a stoop. It's a whole thing. There's like all these magical creatures that I have to be in charge of every single night. So I don't have time for shopping. I got to keep up on that stuff. But Tori has to

decorate. I have to help Tori decorate. There's just things you guys don't understand about Christmas, but You got to get an early start. That's my best recommendation. That way you can enjoy the holiday instead of shopping on Christmas Eve. You maniac. No, I enjoy it. Christmas is great.

Shopping is done. The decisions were made. No stress. I used to go shopping on Black Friday at like 5 a.m. and stand in a line at Target out front in the cold. And it was kind of awesome because I would do it with my brother. And it was a tradition. But those days are over now because we have Amazon.

So thank you to Amazon for that. And Max is going to get mad at me for that free ad. But anyway, we thank you guys so much for joining us. Of course, like I said, we'll be back here at 1 p.m. tomorrow. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-U-N-Feedman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Eric has a Twitter account, I guess.

I do. I do. What is it? It's Eric Ruby with a K. So, E-R-I-K, R-U-B-Y. Wow, he got his name. I don't even know how to, like, I can't even pick on that because he just literally got his name. Like, Jacob Franklin is the fourth best Jacob Franklin.

That's why he should take him underscore Franklin for. So that's why he's rank like that. But does this make Eric the best Eric Ruby that's in known existence? At least with a K. At least with a K. Maybe there's a Eric Ruby's in the C. I haven't met another one. So it's not a lot of competition.

Well, I mean, there can only be one. That's the way it works. It's Highlander rules with Eric Ruby. But of course, our shows at PHNX underscore DBEX and all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We thank you again for your time. We always appreciate you. And we'll be back tomorrow.

Remember kids, baseball is fun. but it is so much more fun when you can figure out what the hell you're going to do at third base