PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is BIG MOVE Coming for D-backs After Jake McCarthy Trade Opens Roster Spot?

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

The Diamondbacks made a move over the weekend, trading outfielder Jake McCarthy to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for right-handed pitcher Josh Grosz, Colorado’s No. 20 overall prospect. But does this deal signal that another move is imminent for Mike Hazen and the D-backs? We break down what free agents are still available, which direction Arizona should go to improve the roster, and what this trade means for the 2026 outfield. We also react to the Chicago Cubs signing Alex Bregman to a $175 million deal and explain why, once again, this move never made sense for the Snakes. Plus, it’s time for another edition of Mailbag Monday with your best questions.JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An 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/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — 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/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: 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/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!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.

Well, the Diamondbacks do, in fact, make a trade trading Jake McCarthy on Saturday. And while it did not exactly bring the return that many of us were hoping, we wonder what's next for this team. We're going to be talking about it in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. And welcome into a Monday edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHMX, occasionally known as Eric Montaia,

with an extremely sore throat. I had no idea I was even capable of living that live like that. But glad to have you guys in here. Happy Monday to you all. Thrilled to be talking about the Arizona Diamondbacks and hoping to see them make another move to improve this roster.

I got my guy Damon Farrell, aka Damon Dogg. On the ones and twos today. And of course, we are talking all about what the Diamondbacks did over the weekend. For those of you that may have missed it, The Arizona Diamondbacks did make a trade yesterday, or on Saturday, excuse me, Saturday morning.

The Diamondbacks made an official announcement that they had traded Jake McCarthy to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for the Rockies number 20th overall prospect, right-handed pitcher Josh Gross. And of course, this was a move we knew was coming. I said it yesterday or I said it on Saturday show. I keep skipping Sunday like Sunday didn't happen. But on Saturday, we did discuss how we have. how we have been talking about this move happening all offseason. In fact, it felt like this rumor about the Diamondbacks trading one of Jake McCarthy or Alec Thomas was on the horizon once the season ended, right? It was probably something that felt like it did come up prior to even the Cattel Marte rumors.

And now that move has happened. What's interesting about the move is that Jake McCarthy, in fact, does get traded for a pitching. prospect who last year pitched at the high A level at the highest and would not be ready to pitch at a major league level most likely until you know 2027 or beyond at this point so realistically it does open up a roster spot for the diamond backs and from what we're hearing and what we're seeing it sounds like the diamondbacks are still engaged in free agency discussions as well as trade discussions though we don't know what those pieces would be at this point, right?

What we do know is that Jake McCarthy does end his tenure here with the Arizona Diamondbacks after playing five seasons for the debacks and being selected 39th overall by the debacks back in the 2018 draft. And Jake, like I said, kind of set the world on fire and then he cooled off and then he was hot again and then he cooled off. So inevitably, 26 will probably be an incredible season for him and we'll probably regret this trade very, very much. However, you know, we knew a move was imminent.

It just feels weird that with the Diamondbacks kind of having an outfielder shortage with Lordus Gurriel being injured and their current needs, trading Jake for a prospect just does seem weird. It's the reason why we have red flags going off right now, right? It feels like alarm bells are ringing and the reason why is because it feels like the Diamondbacks are poised to make another move. we don't know what that move is going to be though and we do not know how the diamondbacks are going to add to this team. Obviously the biggest deficiency right now still seems to be the bullpen

and again we had our guy Steve Gilbert over on Jesse Friedman's podcast along with Jack Summers on Snake's territory discussing that he felt like a big move was imminent as far as the Diamondbacks making a move here.

This was also prior I think prior to the Jake McCarthy trades So it kind of coincides with the Jake trade, and it feels like the Diamondbacks could, in fact, add based on, you know, the kind of money that they were going to throw at Alex Brighman, could add some players here that could help them out and would cost considerably less than Alex Brigman. Meanwhile, like I said about Jake, Damon, I know that this was probably the move, and I don't want to get, I don't want to get mean about this because I really like Jake. But with this was the move, I think we preferred over trading Alec Thomas.

Both guys had their struggles, especially offensively. We just know how great Alec Thomas is as a defender in the outfield. So if you want to just kind of call their offensive production awash, then you would rather keep Alec Thomas for his value as a defender, especially out there in center field, when the Diamondbacks still haven't really made a move to add to the outfield yet. Yeah. And I know, I mean, that's a fact.

Alec Thomas is a better defensive player than Jake McCarthy is full stop. That being said, I know that some people have kind of talked a lot about Alex defense, maybe taking a little bit of a step back recently. If you look at his outs above average, his fielding value and whatnot on baseball savant, the underlying metrics and stuff do not like Alec Thomas's center field defense as much as they once did. And that makes Alex Thomas a lot less valuable of a player if you believe that stuff fully. I think that Alex Thomas is better than maybe a lot of those measurements are indicating. still defensively.

Like, I still am very confident with Alec Thomas in center field. I think he knows Chase Field well. I think he has a lot of, you know, good range, good reads off the bat. He's not necessarily the fastest of center fielders. But, you know, I still think that you're, it's clear as day that Alec Thomas has a higher ceiling to hit than a Jake McCarthy. Like, if Alex Thomas figures out how to get some lift on the ball, he's going to be an insanely good baseball player.

The problem is that he can't, from what we've seen his like, what, three or four major league seasons thus far, he hasn't really shown that ability to show, to have that improvement yet. So it's a big risk, but yeah, I mean, it does feel like most debacks fans were for sure more in on Alec than Jake long term. Meanwhile, Jake has put up some of his best numbers in his career at Coorsfield, Damon. In his career as a hitter in 53 plate appearances, Jake has a 375 back. adding average at Coorsfield. He slashed 375, 423, 500 slug for a 923 OPS. His, he is going to drop so many bloop doubles into that outfield

and turn even singles into doubles with his speed, which is one of his biggest strengths. But you just feel like overall, it's a great move for Jake to just kind of have a new, a change of scenery, especially in a ballpark that he's had. a considerable amount of success. He also goes over there while there is a regime change happening where he could very much be a part of the Rockies plans,

more so than you could argue he has been as part of the Diamondbacks' future plans because that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case. You could probably also say, you know, Alec Thomas might be feeling that as well, considering he was also part of these trade rumors. I don't know how much a rumor like this truly impacts the player themselves, but I could only imagine that this wasn't, You know, this, this sucks, especially considering how close this clubhouse is, how close all of these guys are. It's also going to be awkward just seeing Jake around, you know, Salt River Fields because the Rockies also play there.

So we're just going to be passing each other in the hallway. Oh, it's up, Jake. Yeah. Good to see you. More importantly, though, Damon, what does this do for the Diamondbacks as far as a roster spot, right? This obviously opens up a 40-man roster spot, probably a 26-man roster spot. And it feels like the Diamondbacks paired with what Steve Gilbert's. said over on snakes territory that this is uh that that a big move is happening i just don't know

how big of a move it's going to be sir anthony dominguez i'm coming up with a little bit of a cough or something there no i mean it sounds it sounds it sounds specific it sounds like a specific uh free agency uh virus perhaps that you've caught but no sir anthony dominguez a nine million dollars projected for for a season or perhaps you have to give them two years not terrible at all also some other interesting names out there we've talked about marcelle ozuna he continues to kind of be remotely connected to the diamondbacks i'm not like it's funny because we we do this right we we aggregate rumors and we talk about what people are talking about on the internet that's what we do on this show uh however it does make me wonder at times if like a simple bleacher report

like theory or idea can spread and make, you know, someone like Marcelo could stay connected to the Diamondbacks or if there's really interest on the Diamondbacks end, a person that a lot of people don't want from a personal perspective from a, from his past where he has had domestic violence charges against him and other things like that that people don't want a part of. Other names that have been floated out there, Luis Arise, potentially for this team or Reese Hoskins. Now, I kind of like Luis Arise more than Reese Hoskins, but his defense is terrible.

So I really don't know what you're going to do with a Luis Arise, Damon. I don't know. I mean, I don't love all of these options. I don't love most of these options. But I also still think that the Diamondbacks could take that huge sum of money that perhaps that they were hoping to,

spend on Alex Brighman or thinking that they might have to spend and perhaps spread it around at least a little bit here to bring in one of these guys that can help them perhaps over. I mean, again, Marcelo Zuna terrible defense over at first. So I don't love the Ozuna signing or the idea of him coming to his team. Well, he'd be DH now. Yeah, but again, I think that the Diamondbacks can't afford to just have a DH, right? Like, they need to have a guy that's also going to be capable of playing first base. And I don't feel that about Marcelo Zuna.

I don't know if I feel that really about Louisa Rise. I just love his ability to get on base and his ability to be a guy that gets, you know, gets this team a lot of runs, scores a lot of runs for this team. Yeah, I mean, I think either one of those guys obviously elevate the lineup a little bit, right? Because they come in, you know, you look at the debacks team right now and let's just, you know, call it like it is. Like our top three is as good as any team in baseball, if not the best. Sure. You have Geraldo Prudomo. you have Catele-Marté, you have Corbyn-C Carroll.

It's hard for anyone to- after that. Yeah, it's hard to beat that. Now, after that, as you said, lots of question marks. Pave and Smith, probably going to be the cleanup hitter as of right now. Yeah, no, it feels bad. Lordus, we're hoping that, you know, he's going to be back pretty soon, and we'll talk a little bit more on Lordus later. But, like, there are holes to fill in that lineup after those upper echelon guys.

I think that, you know, as much as a rise is a flawed player, he's better than what we have. His floor is higher at least. I don't necessarily love Ozuna because of some off-the-field stuff and it feels like he changes the vibe of everything that makes this team so likable a little bit in that regard.

But I do think that Marcel Ozuna is a huge upgrade on what we have currently planning on going with that designated hitter. Even his bad season last year where he hit 232, he had 21 home runs, close to 70 RBI. That's a massive upgrade on anything we have on this roster right now. So if you could get in Ozuna for like 10 million a year for one year,

I think that does improve the lineup in a pretty decent way. Now all of a sudden that's your four hitter. That's your five hitters. So yeah, I mean, I do think the dimebacks do need like at least one upgrade here from, you know, a designated hitter slash first base standpoint the rest of the way. We'll see if we get it or not. More importantly, I mean, we could talk about adding to the lineup, but we still haven't done anything to add to the bullpen. No.

And I mean, again, there's some guys out there as we've talked about not a lot of guys, not the best selection of guys. Maybe a Danny Kulam for about $6 million, maybe a Michael Kopeck for about $6 million, right? I get in on the Kopeck. I mean, again, it's guys mostly with some years of experience here. And I think that's something the Diamondbacks need outside of Kevin Ginkle. and Ryan Thompson. Quite frankly, those guys, you still don't know what you're going to get out of either of those guys. You know at their best how good they can be. You also know how inconsistent both of those guys can be. So, I mean, again, the Diamondbacks aren't bringing in a Pete Fairbanks. They're not

bringing in a closer like Robert Swares now to solidify the back end of their rotation or of their bullpen to give them that guy that they know is going to go out there, right? They have been kind of seeking what we've heard referred to as a bridge closer, which, I mean, again, I went to Seattle not too long ago. I was a big fan of the bridges that went up and down. That's like a, because we don't have those here. So nightmare term from, from Mike Hazen. Yeah, bridge closer. Oh, like I cower in fear when I hear those words out of Mike Azen's mouth. It's because how do you get somebody that's elite enough for you to feel comfortable about them closing for you over the course of essentially what, 80 plus games until we get to the.

Star Break. And then also... So likely more like, you know, 20. Yeah. Probably 25. Okay, yeah. Like actually closing situation and such like that. Yeah, sure.

But the point is to get you through that stretch of the season, who is also going to understand their role that that role is going to be reduced when those guys return. And who's to say it is, right? If you get a guy that's good enough as a closer, perhaps you just have yourself an elite little pen full of studs with just. and J. Puck returning. You have options. You have set up guys. You have essentially three really good pitchers that can handle the high leverage innings. And again, if whoever they picked up was so good that they earned that spot and continue to earn that spot when those guys return,

that is definitely not the worst thing in the world. It just seems very unlikely. And again, a closer especially that is that that is their role. That's what they want to be. That's what they're going to go to a new team to be, they want that, you know, they want to know. They want that security that they're going to go in there and have that role. No, obviously, no player, no role is secure with your performance, right? You have to go out there and still perform and still earn that role regardless of who you are. But this was just a weird situation for the Diamondbacks. Plus, you factor in this waiting game that they had to play with both Catelle Marte and kind of Alex Breggman, too, right? Like those two pieces.

they needed to make a decision on, and it took them until January 9th to make those decisions before they moved on and started filling roles in other ways for this team that they need to fill. Again, I'm not shocked here that Jake McCarthy is the guy that they traded, and I think that he is, you know, again, for the Diamondbacks, it's a good option, I feel like, for them to move McCarthy. but much like most of you, the return doesn't move the needle at all. And that is no offense to Josh Gross. Like, I'm satisfied with adding an arm to the Diamondbacks, you know, to their bullpen or to their minor league system. I was a starting pitcher, not a bullpen guy, starting pitcher to their minor league system, especially a guy that could be a big part of this team in the future.

However, the Diamondbacks are in such drastic need of help with so many, positions they need to upgrade right now or at least need to address that I was kind of wishing that they got a reliever or something of the sort. Mike Hazen was asked about that. Basically, he stated that this deal with the Rockies to get Josh Groves was the best offer that the team received. And again, sometimes as a manager or as a as a GM, you have to manage both now and the future as far as a team is concerned. So I don't know though, but We were asked to bring up the free agency list from SpotTrack and see what we still got. Damon, what do we got over there?

We don't, I mean, again, you don't love the options, especially when it comes to bullpen arms. And again, when you see a lot of these big names still on this list, you know that the Diamondbacks cannot be in on a lot of these guys. So, again, I don't know where they go, who they add. but I mean I feel like once again if they were in fact at one point in on Alex Brighman that they should be able to add some names from this list that potentially could help them. Yeah, you got Cody Bellinger at the top, JT Real Muto. I won't even discuss that second guy. That's not a name I'm going to say on this podcast.

So these are annual values from last season. Correct. Correct, Eric. Jordan Montgomery, the second highest annual value. of any free agent pitcher. Yeah, let's get that out of my face. I'm changing it to market value. Get that loser out of my face. All right.

So we could skip past pretty much the top. God, Ranger. Isn't Ranger just looking good right now? Ranger swore isn't it looks good since you and I started? True, true. But like the pretty girl at the bar is still somehow at the bar. Oh, yeah. It's 150 a.m.

And I'm looking over and I'm going, if that isn't Ranger, She's hanging out with her hot friends, Framberbaldes and Cody Bellinger. You're like, why are they here alone still at this point? What up, Ranger? A hundred percent. Anything changed from when I called you at the beginning of the night and you said you didn't want to hang out? I mean, a lot of people have been clamoring for a Gino Suarez reunion.

We talked about that briefly. That'll cost you, according to this, less than $15 million. Dude, I'm in. I'm in. And this is a projection from the beginning of the off season. I would imagine that it's less than that. now because it's like it doesn't feel like his market is that crazy. I'm all in on Gino.

I mean, he can DH. He can play first a little bit. You know, obviously he'll be the third baseman until maybe his defense falls off a bit more. I love it. Bring him home. Yeah. I don't hate it. It's better than Luis Arise playing first base.

It is. It is. That's for sure. Ozuna, J.T. R.Muto. There he is. There's the guy. Sir Anthony right there. Hmm.

Just kind of running down the list here. I mean, it's, it's, Bader. Bader's good. Harrison Bader, I mean, is that really what is estimated value is going to be $10 million a year? Yeah, that's what they got it at. Goldie's still available,

obviously. Paul Goldschmidt, $7.1 million. I'm adding him to my cart. I'm adding him to my card. And I'm completing purchase and then I'll come back and shop more later. Just want to make sure they don't sell out of Paul Goldschmidt's. And now we're getting in a, the realm where there's just not very good players.

Is Moncada still available? Dude, I told you... I've seen a couple of names on here that are not still available. They don't feel like they're still available. Yeah, but I'm not under percent sure on him. I'm pretty sure he signed elsewhere, didn't he? No, he's a free agent. I'm telling you, Derek, I like that move.

I know he wasn't that good last year, but... Or ever. But he was the number one... He was the number one prospect in baseball. He would be cheap. He was the number one prospect of baseball. And I feel like this organization, the, you know, the Latin influence that we have with some of our best players on the team, the way in which that he'd be protected in the lineup, the way that this is a good hitting organization consistently. Joe Mather seems to be a really good hitting coach.

Like all of those factors for me are like, yeah, why not? Give him a shot. He could play second. He could play third. Like, I'm all in on a, that's the type of player. And that's what we've been talking about with Soroka as well is like this is a dude who's flashed. signs of greatness, but it's been a while since he's gotten back to that point. Yoan Moncotta was very highly thought of.

I'd be in on getting a guy who has a ceiling, but, you know, maybe his floor is also pretty low as well because we got to find some difference makers somewhere. And we don't have a lot of money to do so. We have said that we are just going to have to settle for guys that are a risk in a way, right? A guy that when I say a risk, I mean, you're going to look at his numbers and you're going to be like, P you. right but the reason why is because there are certain things that the diamondbacks are looking for Michael soroka is a perfect example of that because there were certain things that he did in the

second half last year that in fact made him one of the better pitchers in major league baseball so it's a matter of something perhaps clicking and maybe the diamondbacks feel like that's going to carry over for him to have success consistently throughout an entire season also betting on his health right because saroka is a guy that's experienced so many different injuries and his career that you kind of feel like you can't 100% be confident that he's going to pitch an entire season for you as a starter right but again if you were making a the debacks don't need that they just need to make it to corbin burns return sorry to cut you off if you're making a top five list of realistic free agents there that like maybe you you would want derrick who would be who would be your five

i mean because i feel like actually there's better now that i looked at that list there are a little bit better options than maybe i was previously thinking like i do think think that there are guys who are no doubt upgrades on what this team has in place at the moment um you know like i look at you know arayez um um munkata paul goldschmidt um you know even uh even a erjino uh ozuna like i think all of those guys could be pretty solid for this team honestly if if they get brought in and and i i mean i kind of feel like we need one of them at least i i hate the idea of bringing in Ozuna because of the, you know, off-field stuff. But like, you know, again, this is where the Diamondbacks. And unfortunately, sometimes a fan base has to decide if they're

going to accept that or not. And if they feel like it's egregious enough to not have them be part of the roster. I kind of feel like it is because of how this team is constructed. I feel like this team is a team of character. And I don't love the idea of bringing in a guy that has, you know, things like that. I think Jacob Junis is still a name in the reliever market I really like. I also like Sir Anthony Dominguez. I like Paul Goldschmidt returning. I really like the idea of adding Luis Arise. I know somebody in the chat said he doesn't get the Luis Arise hate.

This is for me more about the versatility, but I love the idea of a rise's bat and being part of the lineup. I just hate the idea of his defense being needed. He could be a DH, but I don't think the Diamondbacks have the kind of budget to go out and add somebody that's going to make $14 million a year, even for one season, as simply a DH. But again, like, we're pretty late in the off season. I think we could be looking at potentially less for these guys, maybe on shorter-term deals so that they could re-attack free agency the year after, potentially. Yeah.

So that's really what it's going to come down to is what guys that are on the market settle for and if the Diamondbacks are able to convince them that this is their landing spot where they can, you know, kind of rebound. I mean, there is a case to be made for that. but you know other other players have done that exact that exact thing right not that long ago but yeah let's i mean honestly i i i've never been a big arise fan but uh i i do think that like from what is available out there from a d h perspective i know he doesn't hit for power either but like that's a consistent bat yeah you know and and i do think that raises the floor of the lineup a lot so

i wouldn't be i wouldn't be necessarily opposed to it one guy the diamondbacks won't be adding is Breggman, he has been added to the Chicago Cubs, which is going to be a problem for us in 2026. But we're going to talk about Breggman and if the Diamondbacks indeed did dodge a bullet on signing him here on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. I'll tell you when it comes to multipliers, the Diamondbacks need to figure out a way to

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The Window Depot more than just a window store. Visit the Window Depot.com and get started on your next project today. There's a fly in here, and I'm going to kill that fly before this episode is over, damn. I want to kill that fly. But all right, well, we have news that broke over the weekend, and it wasn't just the Jake McCarthy trade. It was that the Chicago Cubs have indeed won the Alex Breggman sweepstakes, agreeing to a five-year $175 million contract. The deal reportedly includes a full no-trade clause

and about $70 million in deferrals, which will help the Cubs manage its competitive balance tax it. Meanwhile, Breggman, who is a three-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion, spent one season there in Boston, which now is in shambles. The Boston Red Sox are in shambles after missing out on Alex Brighman and hearing that they will not be trading for Catelle Marte. They do not know what they're going to do, especially after that whole Raphael Devers disaster last year.

Thought Brickman was part of the long-term plans in Boston, but he is not. He is now part of the long-term plans in Chicago. The Cubs signing is one of their biggest free agent moves of the off-season, and the Cubs have been, like a lot of the big spending teams, they've been part of a lot of the SWATTS, sweepstakes. They did have Kyle Tucker, who they lose in free agency here, but they do add a proven starbat and glove to their lineup, boosting their roster profile. And along with the trade for

Edward Cabrera, they get better. I mean, you could arguably say they got better. Obviously, the loss of Kyle Tucker does not make them better, but yeah, the addition of Alex Brighman definitely does. But again, $175 million, Damon. That is $35 million per year. according to this, again, the $70 million in deferrals makes it a $20 million a year tax hit or $20 and change because there's that extra $5 million. So $105 million essentially stretched over five years. Not a bad cap hit for the Cubs. However, in the grand scheme of things, the actual money spent, I would have hated this for the Diamondbacks. I would have hated this.

Arizona was obviously seriously linked to Bregman for quite a lot. a long time. In fact, one local radio host told us that he was coming here, that it was a done deal. Apparently, it is not. Multiple reports indicated that the debacks had interest in signing him, and Bregman obviously has personal ties that we've talked about to living in Scottsdale and wanting to come back to Arizona. We've also talked about Alex Bregman still wearing the number two, like a constant reminder that he was not drafted by the Diamondbacks, and he was in fact drafted second by the Houston Astros. The D-Backs front office reportedly saw Breggman as a game changer,

but the reports time and time again were that the D-backs had to trade Cotel Marte in order to create payroll space to get Alex Breggman. And overall, I don't love it because of that. That's the biggest reason why I don't love it. I also don't love it because of the amount of money the Diamondbacks would have had to invest here in one single player. $70 million in deferrals and, you know, again, even just the $20 million cap hit that the Diamondbacks would have been taking here if they would have structured this deal in a similar

way, still means that the Diamondbacks could have brought in three players. Yes, I know that it's not three elite all-stars in the way that people view Breggman, but with the rostered, you know, holes that we've been discussing all offseason long and the fact the Diamondbacks really have not addressed much other than starting pitching, it's hard not to feel like that money could have gone a lot further for the Diamondbacks elsewhere. Not to mention future implications as far as Breggman getting older and a potential decline there. It's still having him on the, you know, on the payroll in two or three seasons. The same's kind of been said about Cotel Marte and his contract, right? So there's

there's the fact that there's just the uncertainty of how a player is going to age and if they're going to get better in their older seasons. But again, Arizona ultimately not trading Cotel Marte and keeping a very expensive contract on the books, and limiting, and again, not really an expensive contract. I hate to even say that. Those words shouldn't have come out of my mouth. I've actually argued that Kattel's contract isn't expensive, but it's viewed for some reason as being expensive,

and it seemed to be the biggest reason why the Diamondbacks didn't go after Brighman. The Cubs get better for the Diamondbacks, again, it signals a preference for some financial flexibility here in keeping their core intact without having to make that big trade for Mark You could also argue once again that the Breggman move does not make them better if it involves losing Marte. And while I feel like that's true, I still have given my thoughts on what I feel, at least speculating-wise that the Diamondbacks, the reason why the move didn't happen is because, again, you would have had to get, you would have had to solve all of your needs that you had with a Catell trade so that you could justify adding Breggman's. payroll to the roster. I mean, overall, if they would have moved Kattel, the difference would have been about $5 million on the payroll hit between Bregman and Kattel, maybe about $6 million at the most,

but that would have been the difference. So it would have been a small difference as far as from Kattel to Bregman, but that is with $70 million and deferred. But again, the Diamondbacks do miss out on a hometown link star due to budget constraints and roster commitments. However, I still feel like it was the right move for this team. And we've made all the metaphors. that we can make. You know, you don't have any food in your fridge, but you're going out and paying for a steak dinner. You are renovating your home with the fine folks at the window depot, but instead you decided to

go with the fanciest door you can find and spend $5,000 on it and limit the rest of your remodeling budget to like $200. But again, this is because the Diamondbacks have far too many needs to be spending on this. I will say, from a show perspective, from someone who hosts the Diamondback show, Bravo to the Diamondbacks for staying linked to some of those top free agents in baseball, despite it not making any sense at all. They've been linked to Kyle Tucker. They were linked to Alex Bregman.

Meanwhile, they were never once linked to any high value starting pitchers. They were never linked to any top closers on the market besides Pete Fairbanks, right? So I don't know what the hell they're doing. I hope that they can figure it out. And I hope that they can improve this team here. not a lot of time left between now and when pitchers and catchers report on February 11th. We had less than a month now until that day comes. So I don't know.

Candice in the chat says, I wish we can invest in players, help get them or send them away. Look, I'll say overall, I think that the Diamondbacks have done a good job of investing back in their lineup. It's just kind of like I've seen a few MLB insiders go to bat for the Dbacks and they're spending.

The narrative now has kind of become like, oh, look at the Diamondbacks being cheap again. The nine of backs are not being cheap. In fact, bravo to them for actually checking in and being a part of some of these rumors as far as big free agent names are concerned. But you can also understand the intrepidation

on Uncle Ken's part, Ken Kendrick here, for not wanting to go all in and spend as much as he's done in the past two off seasons on one of the biggest names on the market, right? And we definitely know that the starting pitcher market did not work out for them. So I can kind of understand

them testing out the position player market. Again, though, from my perspective, I'm glad they didn't make this move, but I do think that they need to get going here as between now and February 11th, a lot of names are going to start coming off the board much faster than we've seen with a sense of urgency

and not a lot of time left out there. But I guess the more time that passes, the more free agents that are available out there, the market changes and the amount of money players might be looking for or the length of deals they might be seeking might shorten. So that would all be in the Diamondbacks favor,

especially if it involves getting Ranger Suarez. That's what Landos says. He says, watch us sign Ranger Suarez. I wouldn't be surprised. Would you, at this point, this team, you can never predict what the Diamondbacks are going to do. But we are going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break,

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Yeah, he waits until I can, I'm going to get him. This son of a bitch is smart. I'm telling you. He is not. Flies are evolving. They are. And then right now he owns us, but we're going to change that very soon. All right.

Well, but we're not going to change it just yet. We have business to attend to. I'm sad to say that once again, the year of the snake is over. but as you may or may not know, every single goddamn year on this podcast is the year of the snake. Every single year on this podcast is

our year. Every single month on this program, Hispanic Heritage Month. Every single week on this show is Shark Week. Every single day of course is Earth Day because Damon and I recycle. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag.

Damon hit that Grammy-nominated award. Or not Ward nominated music, right? Grammy nominated music. I'm going to give him this. Grammy nominated artist Megarant. Let's... My mailbox.

Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then what makes we go out? Lando in the chat is asking if anybody, or no, excuse me, R.A. in the chat said, did anyone read that Brewer's article on Freddie Peralta? And Lando followed it up by saying they want Ryan Nelson and Jordan Loller for Freddie Peralta.

Ha ha ha ha! Get out of here. Lose this number. Damon, what do we have in the mailbag today? I mean, I don't want Ryan Nelson gone, but if you're sitting there going, Jordan Lawler's the headliner of a Freddie Peralta package, I'm listening. Ryan Nelson is the headliner of that. Yeah, but who else can we give them instead of that?

You know what I mean? I'm listening on Lawler. I really am. What are we got in the mailbag today? All right. First question here is from, of course, Travis Moore. We all know. Travis Moore leads us off.

What plan gives you the most confidence at third base? this season, do we make Blaze the full-time guy, Lawler? Is there some, or is there a free agent or trade candidate that makes the most sense? I feel like Blaze deserves the nod and has earned confidence. Am I in the minority? I don't think you're in the minority. I think you're actually, you know, right on point. I think the problem is what do the Diamondbacks do to maximize the talent they have

and solve the positional issues they have, right? Like the discussion has been brought up of Jordan Lawler playing the outfield potentially. But you don't really love Jordan in either of those spots as much as you love Blaze. You feel comfortable about Blaze playing left field. You feel very comfortable about Blaze Alexander playing third base. I believe it's the reason why they haven't really felt the need to address third base. It doesn't mean that that might not still happen. And I do wonder how everything plays out if this Diamondbacks team did at a third basement.

If they added Alex Bregman, right, what does the future hold for Jordan Lawler? Is he a utility infielder at that point? Does Blaze get moved to the outfield? You really don't want Blaze's arm over at second base, and you're not going to get much playing time behind Geraldo Pernomo. So I really don't know the answer to what the Diamondbacks are going to do. As far as, again, if you're talking about having a limited budget and not being able to make a lot of moves.

I would much rather see them address first base. I would much rather see them address an outfielder. And more importantly than either of those things, I think I would like them to address their bullpen. So, again, I feel like ideally it feels like Blaise Alexander would be over there at third base, but then that makes me question what Lawler's role is at this point. If you keep Lawler in some sort of backup role

where he still doesn't get much playing time, I'm not sure if you're going to see his development change or improve. And again, it feels like he needs regular at-bats. We saw him, I think, take a big step forward last year offensively at a major league level as far as at-bats, but it was late in the season. And, again, not extremely consistent, just enough to give you hope that, you know,

he can still put things together. Meanwhile, Blaze feels like he's ready, right? So Blaze is also a guy that I don't really want to see Block. And wherever they put him, I'd like to see him just get regular at bats there. So I think at the end of the day, it does feel like Blaze is their best option at third base. I don't think that's what's going to happen, though. So we'll see what happens as things evolve, especially, you know, with this roster spot, the mystery roster spot that they have opened now. I think the dying backs are open to competition and, you know, they like to have their players earn it.

It's not just like, oh, Jordan Lawler is a top 10 prospect. Let's give him the job type of situation. So I think it's going to be between those two guys as of now. And I think Blaze will win that battle if I'm being completely honest with you. So that's why I think Blaze will, I think it's going to be a committee with those two. And we'll see what they do in the regular season. But I have a little bit more belief in Blaze. I'm 100% exactly what Damon said.

What else we got? Next question is from Austin. And Austin wants to know about the Snake's territory, Steve Gilbert interview where he says that he expects something big in the works of the snakes. What do you think it could be, Derek? Well, I do think that step one of that was the Jake McCarthy trade, and those comments were made prior to the Jake McCarthy trade. So shout out to Steve Gilbert for knowing his stuff. And I think when he says that, Steve is a fairly, I would say conservative about rumors and spreading hot takes. Usually he's a guy that confirms things.

And I do think that when he says that, that something is in the works. I feel like if I'm being honest, a trade is going to have to involve prospects. And I know that the Diamondbacks have been reluctant to move prospects. I know that teams have been reluctant to accept prospects in return from other teams, despite the fact that the debacks just did it. So we'll see as far as, you know, what that big move could be. I think it's going to be through free agency. I think it is going to be, you know, shoring up some of these other positional needs.

and I'm hoping that if it is a position player that they add, that that position player is a regular first baseman slash DH of that variety, no matter who it is. Luis the Rise, I still like, I still love bringing back Paul Goldschmidt. I just feel like for two different perspectives, Paul Goldschmidt fits this team very well. Not only is it on-field performance, but the sappy, you know, heartwarming side of.

things that I tend to enjoy myself quite a bit. All right. Well, else we got got, Damien. Next question. Hold on. We got breaking news, by the way. We have to address this really fast. I know it's not Read Friday, but Ryan Hanley in the chat is giving us some important breaking news.

And that is that Dutch Bros is back in the stadium. Wow. I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes. But if that's the case, Ryan Hanley, I owe you a kiss on the mouth next time I see you. That might be the biggest thing. Ryan shows up all. the time so you know that that kiss is going to happen oh yeah no for sure that's why it's it's it's it's imminent the kiss is imminent i have to get i got to get confirmation first that dutch bros is back because

if it is me and louis gonzalez we got to go have ourselves a little uh little drink date over there for sure but uh what else we got in the uh in in the in the in the bullpen in the in the in the mail bag today our third question is here from jason and jason wants to know with marty now staying do you think number 4 has a chance to join the lonely 20 and 51 in right field. PS2 bad Toriware is 17 because 17 should be up there too. Yeah. Is that a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, web's number.

Um, yes, I believe that's web's number. Um, but I also think that, uh, in, in regards to this, how, how do you not imagine that could tell Marte's number four has a chance to go up there? Would, would, let me ask you this. Do you think he would need to do more than he's already done? from not like a statistical position, right, but perspective. Like, I'm not saying like, oh, Cotel can just, like, he can, he can just be average or mediocre from this point on and that's enough.

But like if Cotel kind of maintains this level of production for the next few seasons, regardless of what the Diamondbackers do as a franchise, do you think he achieves that? Or do you think that they need to win a championship or do something monumental in order for that to be considered. No, he's an NLCS MVP. He has that in his bag. He's a part of the second greatest Diamondbacks team of all time. Like, I don't think that's debatable. So, and he was the driving offensive engine of that team. So I, MLB record for consecutive. Absolutely. He is, if he plays at the end of his contract throughout and is a Diamondback the entire time, there is no doubt my mind number four is going to be up there in the, in the rafters. Yeah. But you would agree that at

this point he would need to maintain a certain level of production for that to happen. But I have a lot of confidence in that. I think he's, I think he's a top five pure hitter in the sport. Like, just get that guy up there and let him rake. Yeah. My only concern with him is, is injury problems, which he's shown in the past. But I think that as he gets older, we make him DH. I've said that forever. Yeah. And just let him focus on hitting and let him be that guy who's going to, you know, just drive your offense and don't worry about defense brother. Not to say that that is this season, but I would not be surprised to see more of Ketel at D.H. This season, especially if the roster doesn't change.

Someone suggested it in the chat, but seeing Jordan Loller over at second base, actually playing second base while Ketel D.Hs would not surprise me at all, especially just to get him off his feet and make sure that he stays healthy, you know, throughout the entire season. It's a marathon, not a sprint, that damn major league baseball season. What else we got, Damon? Our next question here. and by the way, Ryan thought that the big move you were talking about from Steve was the Dutch Bros situation. So he was a little confused on that.

But our next question here is from Jarmie and Jarmie asks with the trade so far this season, which teams that gave the Diamondbacks trouble in 2025 should be easier in 2026. He mentions the Padres as one of them. And then follow up frozen room, frozen or room temperature, Reese's pieces peanut butter cups. Reese's peanut butter cups, not pieces. I love Reese's peanut butter cups. I will say that I feel like they've fallen off over the years. Wow. Wow.

It's the quality of the chocolate. It's like a chick-fil-a. Yeah. Like, it's just not the same. Oh, you are so right. Like, I still remember being a teenager where chick-fil-aes were only available in the mall, and I would go there and get a chicken sandwich, and I would be amazed by the fact that I was just eating an actual, like, fried chicken breast,

not the crap that we have been served by fast food restaurants for decades. No, no, no, like a real fried chicken breast, and like those days definitely are over for Chick-fil-Aid. But what I will say, I do like things being frozen for the most part. There's a lot of things that are excellent. Grapes are excellent frozen. I'm a big fan of a lot of candy actually being frozen. Reese is probably up there, probably pretty good frozen. I just, I tend to like a peanut butter cup being, you know, what it is, smooth, peanut buttery.

you know, there are other candies, though, that I definitely enjoy frozen. I like the cold better, I think, for Areases. You like the cold? Well, it's, I feel like part of it is the lack of quality in their chocolate. And I don't mean to throw them under the bus, but I did a snack podcast about this exact topic for a number of years, Damon. And I was very off on everything going off with chocolate in American candies because it's very low quality chocolate. It's very low quality chocolate. We deserve better.

and if you go to Europe or elsewhere, you'll experience it, you'll taste it, and you'll know that you deserve better in your peanut butter cup than what the fine folks at Mars are currently giving us. But I think it's Mars. I'm not sure. Those companies change all the time. I will say as far as teams, Damon, that gave the Diamondbacks trouble last year, I do think the Padres are one of those teams that aren't going to be as good next year as they have been in the past. I am a little bit worried about the Colorado Rockies being more competent now with the group of owners there.

But I don't know. I mean, I guess I feel like a lot of teams didn't do much to improve themselves this offseason. And the Diamondbacks could be considered one of those teams. If you look across the NL West, I don't feel like any of the teams in the NL West did enough to keep up with the Dodgers, who basically said our one weakness was closer and we're going to go get the best one of those on the market. So I don't know. I do think that the Cubs are going to be a problem. I think the Braves have done some things to make themselves better.

I'm hoping that the Mets continue to fumble the bag and bad things happen for them. And then there's just... The Mets are a joke. The Mets are a joke. The Mets are a joke. Imagine having the richest owner in baseball tenfold. And you just are like, yeah, see you Pete. Thanks for the great years you've given this organization.

Peace. It doesn't feel like the Phillies are getting tremendous amount better. They're just kind of bringing back the same pieces. They don't have Real Muto or Ranger Soros so far. So I think they've gotten worse, actually. You could argue that, for sure. They might bring in Ranger back or get Gallen or something. So it's not over for them.

But that does feel like as of right now they're worse. I didn't love the Marlins getting Pete Fairbanks for multiple reasons. And one of those reasons was the Marlins getting better, but then they traded Edward Cabrera away, which was one of their better starting pitchers from last season. So I don't know what direction that organization is going in. I think there's going to be a lot of teams that are going to be left, like, standing out in the cold a bit here when a game to, like, additions that they wanted to make, like the Red Sox, like the Mets. I think that they're going to have the money to make those moves, but just somehow couldn't get the job done and improve their teams. But, again, it's hard for me to sit here and say that the Diamondbacks have done enough to get better.

I mean, it's still a matter of, you know, this being the same. team, you know, with the addition to Michael Soroka. So hard for me to say that the Diamondbacks have gotten better than these other teams. But I will say, like, I feel like the Padres have lost more than they've gained. And I am thrilled to see that. Thrill to see that. You love to see that. Also, you love to see you guys being diehard. It's great to see so many of you guys as members of the Supporters Club. Also, part of our diehard community. You get some great exclusive content as members of our diehard community, including some new stuff that we are put. together for 2026 and it's very exciting we also have our phnx discord lounge which is the best place

to talk arizona sports on discord with phnx personalities and other fans you get a free t-shirt as part of your part of your membership as well as 20% off merch 20% off events so head on over to go p hnx.com improve your fanhood by becoming a phnx diehard today all right damon what else we got there in the mailbag i do i do want to touch here on on what john puts in the chat because i think it's interesting He says, would like to point out that we're all going to hate the McCarthy trade when Jorge Barrosa has a roster spot on opening day. And I do hear that and I do, I am tired of the Jose Barrosa or the Jorge Barrosa experience. Like I, that is, I 100% agree with you. Like he's been given enough at bats and has been such a negative on offense at this point where you cannot trust that guy to get regular ABs.

That being said, isn't it more like? I feel like we're going to be looking up in July and go, hey, this Ryan Waldschmidt guy is pretty good. Good thing we had an open outfield spot on this roster to bring him up and give him some of these A-Bs. That's more how I see it going. Maybe that's pie in the sky optimism type of thought process. But personally, I'm like, Jake wasn't good enough. He is better than Jorge Brose, no doubt about it. but I think that we have people in the organization who are going to be given that mantle of being the backup outfielders and hopefully they stick.

Ryan Waldschmidt might seem like he's far off, but it doesn't mean that that. I don't think he is. I mean, I'm just saying from the perspective of his ETA being 2027 and him currently being at AA in Amarillo, right? Yeah. But he's been moving, dude. He has been moving. And not only that, he's been excelling and he's prospering, right? Yeah.

We know that there is an advantage to a player playing in both Amarillo for the Sod Poodles and in Reno for the Aces, right? And that is an incredible boost to your offense and just kind of, again, growing that confidence, growing your at-bats, getting better against a higher level of pitching. However, the way that Mike Hazen so confidently and quickly said yes to the answer of that question in the Jake McCarthy media availability definitely made me feel. like this is going to be an open tryout for an outfield position. It's not to say that between now and then, they don't acquire an outfielder, that kind of shores that up for them. But for now, with the way that this team is constructed,

he was asked. Mike Hazen was asked, do you see players being able to come into camp and come into spring training and win a starting outfield spot on the major league roster? And Mike Hazen couldn't wait for the question to be done being asked before he was saying yes, yes, yes. Like he was so adamant about that. And again, that's because they have such elite outfielders

that they feel like are in their minor league system that quite frankly, you know, we're not doing the time of service manipulation thing with these players anymore. The Diamondbacks can add these guys as soon as they feel like they can help them be ready or help them win at a major league level. Ryan Walschman is 23 years old. We had an interview with him. is he's a great, great guy who gave some great answers.

And again, just the kind of guy that you can't help but root for. But again, not just, you know, not just Ryan Walshman. There's other guys, there's other outfielders that are going to get an opportunity, guys right now that might not even be on the Diamondbacks, you know, radar as far as, you know, being ready at a AAA level. However, it doesn't mean that they won't get a chance to shine in spring training and, you know, compete. Competition brings out the best in these guys.

So hopefully that's what we will see. And hopefully we'll see this team figure out something, you know, better than going with Jorge Rosa there in the outfield. We do know that Lordus Guriel is on track. Like, go watch Lordus's IG. Go take a look. Me and Damon were getting pumped up before today's episode, watching him take it bats in the cage.

Because this man looks like he's so. ready for opening day. Derek, I've never been happier to see Lordus Curiel, Jr. I mean, for real, right? Especially with what the, there's multiple reasons. Like, the idea of never seeing Lordis play in a Diamondbacks uniform, which was the reality there when that injury happened, right? So late in the season, we were told that it could take a year for him to rehab.

And there's a good chance that when he was back a year later, that he still wasn't going to make it back to being major league ready in time to be a part of the Diamondbacks 2026 season. We are seeing this man writ baseballs off a bat and breaking phones and breaking phones and doing all sorts of training. So again, the role Lordus's expedited recovery might play in this whole situation might be another reason for the Diamondbacks to not feel like

they need to go out and spend this one roster spot or the limited amount of money that they have on an outfielder. I think I've been hard on Lourdes in the past, Derek, especially in the first half of this season when he was he was, like, I'm standing by, he was awful in the first half of last season. I was going to say he deserved the. Yeah, he's in large part, and I stand by this, him and Zach Gallen's first half failures were the reason that the team was as bad as it was last year. And in terms of, I say bad as it was, given the expectations, given the, how good

that roster looked on paper and how they just really didn't have many holes until they started getting injured, but like it just felt like Lourdes was kind of holding the team back from what it could have been. That being said, like right now, he's our fourth best hitter. There's no question about that. And so I'm sitting here and I'm going get Lourdes back on this team immediately. So, and I think he's going to be back by like April May. I really do.

It's crazy to think that. But again, we tend to always go with the, like when it's a range, we go with an average or we go with the, I guess, the worst case scenario, more than the best case scenario, because you have no idea when those guys are actually going to recover and you don't want to put your hope into them coming back soon. It's like we've said about Corbin Burns, Justin Martinez, and AJ Puck. We want them to take their time. We want them to be healthy. And again, we don't know what timetable any of those guys will have to return. It's a year. So we assume it'll be around the All-Star break in 2026. But they could be ahead of

schedule as well. I definitely remember Corbyn Burns when we were doing our like end of the year media scrum discussing how hard it was going to be to keep him from wanting to throw and wanting to get back once he's feeling good and once everything, you know, is clicking for him to get back. And I guess that, especially with Tommy John, is the problem is like taking your time with the recovery rather than trying to just get back on the field as soon as possible. But again, this team will be a different team when those guys come back, including Lourdes-Guriel. junior. What else we got? Yeah. And also to answer Ryoma's question from earlier, I do think Ryan Walschman is going to be at spring training this year. I do. I do think that. I think SEC baseball player,

one of the top, you know, prospects in the organization continues to rake. He's in double A now. He'll probably be in AAA to start the season, I think. I expect, I expect Waldi to get a big look. But getting back to our mailbag here, we got next question from JJ, aka Dumplings 8964. What's the best cleat designed by Dre Jameson that you've seen. I like the SpongeBob ones, Derek. The SpongeBob ones are great. My personal favorite is the Scooby-Due Mystery Machine ones, just because that's special to me. I can't wait until Dre Jameson is back full-time, and we get to see a whole wide variety of these cleats, right? Yep. I think we've seen some, right, but we've only started to scratch the surface on what Dre Jameson can do. I want Drey Jamison to

have a custom pair of cleats that simply says, I beat Corbyn Carroll in a foot race. And maybe it has like a cartoon depiction of the foot race. But would Dre like having like Looney Tune type like, you know, smoke behind him and Corbin being left in the dust or something of the sort? We're going to have to talk about. Maybe Dre will give us a heads up on his future designs when he is in studio here on Wednesday, which is very exciting. We will, we're going to have to ask him about about favorite cleats for sure.

and then we'll ask him what he's got in the works for us. Cannot wait. Yeah. Electric. Fire in my blood. Fire in my blood. Yeah, we need some fire in my blood. That puts fire in my blood.

Yeah, it always puts fire in my blood. What else we got, Damon? Our next question here comes from Heraldo Perdomo's biggest fan, who is, by the way, Derek, since conceded that me and him can share said title. And I think maybe I'm okay with that. I'm still kind of working that out in the upstairs region, meaning my brain. but I'm so happy I can stop asking about Catelle rumors. So here's a fun one.

Using only the 2001 World Series team and the 2023 World Series team, how would you build the ultimate D-BACs team? Who would be your starting nine rotation bullpen, etc? It is 105 p.m. Damon, this will bring this podcast to a halt, and we will do another hour on this. Tell you what, Geraldo Pardomo's second biggest fan. we will cover this on a future episode this week.

We'll get into this and we'll give you all the time you need on that because I love that question. It is interesting. I don't want to blow it off. I don't want to hack like we missed it. But I did want to address it and let him know. We're just going to do that as a segment on an episode. So make sure you stay tuned. We'll do it on Thursday or Friday.

What do you think would be just off the dome? What do you think would be the most controversial of that, of that, like if you're breaking down position by position? It would probably be who you would have. in the starting rotation overall, right? I mean, I think the 2001 team, their top two guys are just far and away better. There's no question about it. It's a lock. And then Merrill has to be part of that rotation, right?

But do you want Zach in there? Man, I mean, you're choosing between Merrill and Zach. So that's more of a 2023 breakdown. But I was thinking more along the lines of like Tony Womack or like, Perdomo in 2023 because that's I mean as much as I love perdomo he wasn't 2023 per yeah he wasn't 2025 exactly exactly so like I think that's a interesting one uh there's there that could be a fun discussion no doubt about it yeah I'm excited to get into it yeah we'll get into that one for Paul sewald versus biongeng Kim two to to playoff disasters yeah definitely our next question here

is from uh the the man who is you know Derek owes a kiss to in Ryan Hanley And he says, why do you people knock on public bathroom doors? Are you supposed to respond to the knocking? Oh, I don't know. I guess the idea here is if you're talking about a public restroom door that locks, and it's just a one bathroom thing, people are probably knocking because the assumption is that if they've seen the door closed and locked for a long time, maybe somebody just closed it locked it and walked away. Maybe that's the reason. Maybe we need to get a manager over here with a

key to get in here. But I want to know first before I take that action, before I go get the manager, because I don't want to be standing here with the manager, and both of us just, you know, open the door to you sitting there with like your headphones on, just doom scrolling and enjoying your time on the throne. So I don't know. It's weird in general. I think people that, like, we're getting to a point in society where we don't really know how to interact with each other any longer. I don't know if you are supposed to respond to that. I typically just shout out the standard. I'm in here. That seems to do the trick, right? But I also will like hit him with like an Adam Sandler every once in a while and I'll be like skib-a-do. And the next thing you know, they definitely

don't bother me anymore. Damon, are you knocking on a public restroom door to check? I mean, what are we doing here? Yeah. I mean, if I'm scared that there's potential that someone is in it and they just didn't lock the door. But I don't know how that works. I usually think I yell out like an occupied. And I don't know if it works or not. But I try to. Occupato was a good one.

Yeah, to scream. But yeah. Zabe is asking, do people doomscroll in public restrooms? Sometimes. 100%. Sometimes. I mean, not all the time. Not like, yeah, like typically not with my, I mean, don't judge me.

Don't judge me. I don't like this judgment. What else we got? Let's get to one more question on this. Our last question. is from Zabe. Oh, it's from Zabe, of course. And Zabe wants to know, what are the best and the worst pizza toppings, Derek? Let's get controversial. God. I mean, pepperoni's top dog. I mean, it's easy to say that. Uh, I like meatball on a lot of pizzas. Meatball is good. Something that I've had more and

more recently. I'm just saying like one for the rest of your life. I think everyone's choosing pep. Right. Like that's on top of that. You had the little crispy cup peps? I love the crispy cup peps. Oh, the ones that like kind of fold up. Yeah, they fold up. Yeah, those are fire. I like those are fire. I like a little bit. I like a little bit. of Mike's Hot Honey. Yeah, Mike's hot is good. I'm never going to get tired of that combination overall.

And yes, you're right. Like, even my favorite pizzas, like a white pizza or something else, is going to be something that I'm going to enjoy very much. Bro, Trevor's white sausage pizza?

You ever had that before? Trevor's white sausage pizza is incredible. Brother. So good. Brother. Free ad Mondays. Go eat it, Trevor's.

Anyway. You won't regret it. You will never regret it. I will say, yeah, I think that pepperon is the best topping. The reason why pepperoni is the best topping is because you're not going to have people mad at you that you got pepperoni.

It's expected. It's not odd. And it's definitely not Max ordering me and Damon a green bell pepper and spinach pizza. Half spinach. Because he didn't think that we would like the spinach. But he thought we would like the green bell pepper. And only green bell pepper. I mean, it's still the most like, Derek, I will never get over it.

It's still the craziest thing that any of my friends, and that's a loose term in the name of Max Simpson. You and I were convinced this was a gag. We were convinced that this was like just Max pulling a joke on us. Just ha, ha, ha. I remember I walked out with the receipt. They had the itemized receipt that the pizza people put in the box. They were just to take it out and they forgot it. And I remember I walked out and I said, am I reading this correctly?

Because it says pizza, medium pizza, toppings, green bell peasant. pepper one and then it put one dash two spinach and I was like I feel like I'm losing my mind right now and I've never to this day I will never get a crazier pizza that someone ordered for a group setting than green bell pepper and half spinach 100% I'm trying to watch the debacks in the world series yeah I'm trying to be like yeah let me slam some pet that's why they lost the world series damon that's 100% why they lost the world series max and it's godforsaken pizza. And yeah, Zaid might be right. Maybe he did want the pizza to himself. He didn't have to offer to share it with us. But Damon and I were going to order our own pizza. That's the craziest part

about this story. He cut us off. He was like, I got it, guys. Yeah, like he had this big, big, timer attitude towards us. Like, I got it covered. I'll, I'll get it. Like when the, when the, you know, you're on a date and, and the, the chauvinistic man feels the need to order for the woman, That was what Max did. And she'll have the salmon. Yeah. I don't like salmon. She'll have the salmon.

Yeah. But, dude, I mean, like, I just, to this day, I will never understand. The part that, like, Xavier right, maybe he wanted the pizza for himself, except for the fact that he was trying to be considerate, he told us. By putting the spinach only on half. So he thought we were going to enjoy the green pepper side. No doubt about it. It's crazy. It's insanity.

It's still the craziest thing ever. It's insanity. Yeah. It makes me hate green bell pepper. It makes me want to give that as the worst topping. Oh, half spinach is easily my worst top. It is. I remember when PHNX Rising did a pizza topping draft.

And they were, they, Max took spinach. And I was like, you have to put half spinach on the graphic to Kyle Cooper. Yeah. And Max was losing his mind. Don't put half spinach on the graph. I'm like, Max, that's your favorite. That's something that he did in real life. Lando says that he was eating.

a white sausage with his bro at Trevor. He's not that long ago. And then none other than Merrill Kelly sits down and orders the same thing. Ball know where alert. Ball know where alert. Merrill knows the valley. I'll tell you that much. Oh, he absolutely does.

He knows local valley brands. That's why you see him wearing branded bills all the time. And he knows all the good spots to eat because he's a legend. He's a local legend. But the worst pizza topping obviously is pineapple. That is what the worst pizza topping is. I hate to tell you guys this. I hate for those of you that are going to come for me in the chat.

go. But pineapple is by far the worst pizza topping to ever exist. And I'll tell you why. Every other pizza topping, once again, is considerate enough for you to remove it, for it to be removed from the pizza. Pepperoni, easy. Sausage, if it's small, probably a little harder, especially if it's that ground in sausage.

Anything that can't be removed from the pizza for someone that doesn't like it is probably, that's a bastard topping. That topping's a jerk, and that topping should be more considerate to people. in real life. Now, onions probably leave behind a taste, right, when you pull them off, but still, that taste improves the pizza. It's not taking away from it. I understand if you hate onions, that that might not be the case for you and it might make the pizza inedible for you. But nothing ruins a pizza like putting pineapple on it. I don't care if you like it. I don't care if you don't like it. There's no removing pineapple off of a pizza. Once it's on the goddamn

pizza, it's there forever until that pizza is eaten. You can pull the little chunks off all you want, the pineapple flavor is going to be left behind. Don't even get me started on the idea of putting fruit on a pizza, first of all, but that's a whole other topic that I could just eliminate all fruits from pizzas. But pineapple sucks if you don't like pineapple. I love pineapple, by the way. I just don't like it on a pizza. In fact, I don't really like hot pineapple at all unless it's hot pineapple all by itself. Otherwise, it is just little tiny bags of garbage being put into any of my meals or on top of my pizza. And that is how I feel about pineapple. Here's, here's what I could, I could, I could, I could, I could let level with somebody he wants to put pineapple on maybe an

unconventional setting. How about a little pineapple relish on like a taco or something? You know what I mean? Yeah. Sounds fantastic. Enjoy yourself. Maybe a, maybe a grilled fish taco. You get, you get a little bit of pineapple relish on the top. Sounds fantastic. Yeah. That's not pizza. That's not pizza. And you're, you're, you're buying that pizza for everybody. That's not cheese, tomato sauce. Get the hell out of here. That doesn't mix. This is directly aimed at my friends from the steel cage.com who proceeded to order

like an insane group of people, just sociopaths, decided to order an extra large Hawaiian pizza as the one pizza that we ordered for a group of people after WrestleMania in Orlando. And it was insane. Get a medium pep and a medium pineapple if that's what you want. Why can't we do that? People are just inconsiderate clearly with the pizza ordering, Derek. It's like, no, you know what? Why don't you ask me what I want?

And I'm not going to ask for something nuts. I want a pepperoni. I want a sausage. Like, it's simple. Cheese? Yeah. Plain cheese? Sure.

I mean, I love it, but I'll take it over a pineapple pizza. That's for sure. Wow. Pineapple pizza is overrated as hell. The thing is, it's very polarizing. So some people are on the money with their opinion. and others are very, very wrong. It's the new anchovy, which was something that was around when I was a kid.

No one eats anchovies anymore. Except these are salad. Just for it to be like, oh, let's see if you'll like anchovies. Anyway, you can keep your salty little fish to yourself. But we do appreciate you guys stopping by and more than just stopping by. We appreciate your questions. As always, Mailbag Monday wouldn't be what it is without you guys. So again, we thank you guys for your time.

Appreciate you stopping by. We will be back tomorrow with one Jesse Friedman here. We will be talking more about the Diamondbacks moves or lack thereof and what we expect to see them do. Until then, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-U-K-B-B-B-A-Ban with a K. Damon, of course, is at Damon Dog with a DAWG, and we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Appreciate your guys' time.

Thank you again so much for stopping by. We will see you tomorrow at 12 p.m. noon. Until then, behave yourselves. Landau, and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you really don't spend $175 million on Alex Brick.