PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is Christian Walker STAYING With Diamondbacks Looking More Likely As MLB Offseason Progresses?

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube As teams around the league snag some of the biggest names off the market, Christian Walker has yet to find a new home. Could that be a good sign for the Diamondbacks? On this Mailbag Monday edition of the show, we are discussing a Walker reunion, the possibility of shifting into rebuild mode, Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is the longer Christian Walker stay available? Does that mean that the Diamondbacks have a chance of keeping him? Probably not, but we're going to hope that that's the case. That's just one of the mailbag Monday questions we are answering today. You know what day it is. You know what we do. Don't you go anywhere. We'll be doing it in 30 seconds.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right on PHNX. Happy to have you here. Happy holidays to you all. I hope your holiday shopping is going well. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of the holiday season. This man just had his DNA tested. Turns out he's 100% that Grinch. It's one and only Fenderstick, Jesse Friedman. And yes, you know it's true. You know it's true. Jesse. How is your holiday shopping going? I feel like you know full well how my holiday shopping is going.

I do. You insist on asking me this question. We got we got large intimate Kevin Thomas on the ones and twos, L.I. Good to see you. How is your holiday shopping going? It's been going great, actually. You have actually some of it done? I have, I would, I would say it's 85% done. Wow. All the important stuff. All the important stuff. Yeah. All the big stuff. Yes. Yeah. All the big stuff's done, Jesse already. It's all the 85% he says. How does that feel, Kevin? Because that doesn't sound to me like it would be like there's no adrenaline rush that comes with having 85% of the jockey down December 16. Right. People, people see you and they think you're a very calm, very reserved guy. They think when you're going on those hikes on the mountain that they're very peaceful, nice hikes. No, Jesse's climbing.

He's scaling mountains is what he's doing. He's going up walls. He's one of those climbers. He's doing it with no, he doesn't even have a restraints or anything to protect him. And that's how he lives when it comes to the shopping season. The holiday season, Jesse gets no bigger rush than waiting to see if there's actually going to be anything left in the store. Or if the store is even going to be open on his way to what. party function that he would have to give a gift out to.

Yeah. Is that accurate? I think that is. When I go on these hikes, Derek, it's me trying to run from my problems. I know that. That's for sure.

This time of year holiday shopping is certainly among them. But we're not here to talk about my shopping habits. I just wanted to get an idea of how everybody's shopping is going because I know the one thing that everybody is curious about is how is Mike Hazen's shopping going. And everybody wants to know when that process is going to start. And much like yourself, I have a feeling that somewhere right now, Mike Hayes is sitting very calm, cool, and collect without a worry in his mind about what gifts he's going to bring the Arizona Diamondbacks this offseason. Yet we are all sitting here nervous as hell.

But I will say if you are looking for some last minute gifts, there are some great Diamondbacks related things out there. Max is going to kill me. But let's just start off with some free ads. Spring training tickets are on sale right now. I would would that I mean spring training tickets aren't cheap they're not exactly like what they know they're not they're not yeah like Arizona Fall League I don't really need someone buying me tickets it's like 10 bucks 15 bucks I'm gonna go I'm gonna pay I'm good I'm good the beers are cheap everything's good but I might I might need someone to buy me tickets like tickets in general the concerts and stuff are a great gift that's something that's very cool because I'm at a point in my life where I value experiences over things. So if someone were to get me like tickets to a concert, I really like, that'd be great. But, I mean, spring training tickets, that seems like a pretty nice stocking stuffer.

Yeah, oh, absolutely. The secret is very much out, Derek, about how lovely of a place Saw River Fields is. That's very true. And the ticket prices have been adjusted accordingly. But yes, somehow, some way, we are only 67 days away from the Diamondbacks. That's not the day that pitchers and catchers report. That's the day that they're actually playing a spring training game against the Colorado Rockies.

Wow. Yeah, just a little over two months away. It's crazy. And 60. So what? Like pitchers and catchers would be like, what, 50 days? 54 days. Something like that at this point.

Yeah, I think that's February 22nd. We don't have the exact days that the pitchers and catchers are reporting yet, but probably, yeah, somewhere roughly like 10 days before that or so. Tim says maybe put out your spring training ticket sale promos after you do something to improve the team. Not a terrible idea. The Oakland A's acquired Lewis Severino just to sell season tickets, I believe. Well, they also are trying to avoid a grievance with the players union and have to get their payroll up as a result of that.

So I think there's a variety of factors playing into that. We talk about this team not spending? Imagine your team spending so little that they're like, oh, we got to spend on someone quick or else the MLBPA is going to be mad at us. And legitimately for not spending enough money. We've talked about this damn. sport needing a floor almost more than it needs a ceiling and this is kind of what we're talking about. This is the reason why we need a floor because there can be grievances filed against teams for spending too little. But I will also say that at least they did something, which is not,

which is something you can't say right now about the Arizona Diamondbacks. By the way, you could also splurge on the ballpark pass by the way if you are really looking to make someone stay because I don't think another team in baseball offers a season ticket for $299. But But there you go. There's another free ad just to infuriate Max a little bit more today. We also, I think the best gift that anyone can give on this Monday afternoon is a super chat on today's show. That would be the giving gift for sure. Not for us, but because all super chats are being donated to Operation Santa Claus.

That's right. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday as well. 100% of the proceeds going on the operation. We like to be a little competitive around here at PH&X. So, you know, not like we're comparing our numbers versus like the Suns show or the Cardinal show, but we kind of are a little bit. So if you feel like, if you feel like throwing in, yeah, do the thing. I'm not going to, I'm not going to voice who I think we should beat in Super Chats. But I think I have.

Can I? Am I allowed to? Yeah. No, you get. Nothing. Nothing. Eric. Nothing, Eric.

What, what, what, why, why, why are you? getting so defensive over there. Eric Ruby, why don't you answer the question as to why you think that that's the person? Why? What show you are attacking? I'll tell you what. I know everybody here right now. There's no way. No way that y'all are going to super chat to support Operation Santa Claus. I don't think you have it in you. Oh, that's good. Not even five dollars. That's good. It's good. He goes an aggressive route. Me and Jesse, we don't really. Notice. Notice how the ASU host. Yeah. Do you have the dog in you? Yeah. This ASU host is off the rails. I mean, he goes. I mean, He got defensive from across the room when he thought I was talking about his show.

This is the high scene to help the kids. We all want to help the kids. It's a great cause. So make sure you donate any super chats. You guys leave. Definitely go to Operation Santa Claus and not to Eric Ruby, no matter how much he makes you believe that he did. With that passionate speech, I would have a hard time believing that he's not somehow involved in it. But he is not at all.

Can he accuse me of grifting charity? See, again, getting very defensive. ASU. Yeah, I'm just saying. I didn't make any accusations about him grifting charity yet here he is defending himself against it. This is like Jesse getting defensive about me talking about him not, you know, shopping yet. It's more shame. I'm trying to shame him into not waiting until the last minute for shopping.

And I think that maybe, I don't know, maybe shaming might be the way that go on the super chats. I don't know. Like, oh, look, no super chat yet. How dare you guys? You guys should send super chats. It's going to a good cause. Do you not like giving to a good cause? There it is. Feats of Yoshi comes through.

$5 super chat. He said Jesse is a Tucson. Jesse is Tucson a real place to you yet. He wants to know. No. No. It's so weird on that. He's so weird. But of course, the one thing we do want to know is when will Mike Hazen start his shopping?

And we hope that he doesn't have the same philosophy as this man. But John Heyman reported last night that the closer market is very slow to develop. And I don't know. Is that a good thing for the Arizona Diamondback? Said it's slow to develop or a bad thing. How would you view that? I don't know if it's really a good thing or a bad thing necessarily. I think it just is, right?

I don't, we probably didn't need John Heyman to, to tell us this necessarily. We have eyes, John. We can read the fact that, the fact that, you know,

I guess there have been some relievers that have moved, right? Or all this Chapman signed relatively early on. Jordan Romano. Jordan Romano went to, went to the Phillies. He's in a little bit of a different category as kind of a bounce back candidate type. But,

uh, Yeah, in terms of the vast majority of the relievers on the market. Yeah, we haven't really seen, we haven't seen movement. And we also haven't really even seen rumors about teams that are interested in these guys at this point. I know the Dodgers certainly seem to be interested in Tanner Scott. But outside of that, we haven't heard a lot of connections between teams and some of these guys at the top of the market. So, yeah, I don't know exactly what it means for the Diamondbacks in terms of their chances of landing these guys. But that is definitely the reality of where we sit here in the middle of December.

Wonderful, wonderful people in the chat. Tim sent a $20 super jet. Thank you so much, Tim. We're 1999. He says, thanks, kids. We do appreciate the kids, of course. Groundhog Mama, phenomenal singer, by the way, which I heard of the other day. Really?

I didn't get a chance to hear her sing. I just heard from others that she has a voice on her. She sent a 999 super chat and says for the kids, happy holidays to you all. Thank you very much. Is that for real Elizabeth? Holy cow. Whoa. Whoa.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth, one of our favorites, one of our OGs, my goodness, comes through with a $100 super chat. I want to hear Jesse's shopping plans an excruciating detail. Let's go. This gets Espo out here. Let's go. Thank you, Elizabeth.

You are amazing. Oh, man. The problem is that there are, there are no excruciating details to share at this point, Derek, because none of these things have actually come to pass yet. But I know that Elizabeth is one of our faithful diehards. She's amazing. She'll get all of the inside. No, well, here's the thing.

Here's what I want. Here's the excruciating detail that he wants to know. Is there a plan that goes into this? Or is this just? It's just shopping chaos. And what is the end result? Are people satisfied with the gifts that you've given them? I know I've been in the past.

You've done an excellent job at getting me gifts. And that's ridiculous to say. But you're thoughtful. They're very nice gifts. You tend to spend more money than I think you would. And yet somehow it's just chaos until the last minute. See, this is something that this has been a thing in my life for a very long time, Eric. I procrastinate on virtually everything in life.

And I don't learn my lesson to not procrastinate because I have people like you giving me glowing reviews for my gift giving, right? I can't. I got to be honest. Like I appreciate good gift giving and you check all the boxes when it comes to good gift giving. So if it ain't, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's it. So year after year, we just continue on with the same process.

And I continue to have, you know, very satisfied friends and family. members with the quality of my gift giving. I can't be upset with that because if you're you're getting the excitement and the rush out of it that you seek and people are happy with the gifts that you give. So I guess I can't really harass you. But it's just a life. It's a life I couldn't live. Jesse. It's a life that I couldn't live.

I don't have. I don't have the soul for that. But I guess you're a different again, 100% that grid. Some of us operate best under pressure. That's true. That's not. We live. We shine in the most stressful moments.

I appreciate that. The Diamondbacks did try to give us the gift that we very much wanted because according to Gambo, the D-Backs did try for Devin Williams. He's another closer that's off the market. So at this point, the closer market just seems to be not going the Diamondbacks way. However, I do think that this wait and see approach right now is probably the best thing for a team that doesn't have the money that these other teams are going to be throwing around. Most likely other guys are going to be snatched off the market. I think the only benefit to maybe signing someone earlier is that some of these other players where they land and what contracts they get might continue to increase the cost.

Yeah, you don't really know how the market is going to go. And, you know, having talked with Mike in Dallas last week, it was clear that like he doesn't want to drag this process out super long, right? There are advantages to be had with getting some of these deals done sooner than later, right? It gives you more clarity in terms of how much money those things are going to cost, right? At this point, it's sort of like everything is on the table. And it's hard to really narrow down exactly what you want to do and the kinds of things that maybe you don't want to do if you're still in a state where everything is still an option for you. And we've talked about in the past, like specifically the idea of trading someone like Jordan Montgomery, where you're getting some salary relief. Like that's another thing that you'd probably want to do sooner than later if you can.

It just sort of sets the table for your whole offseason, allows you to know how much money you really have to work with. But again, trade is a two-way street, right? And the diamond backs clearly have not gotten what they wanted in those trade talks so far. Well, the first base market also seems to be moving very slowly. And that's the other area where the diamondbacks are mostly trying to improve. I think this could answer the question as to why we really haven't seen the diamondbacks make any moves yet. but we still have Pete Alonzo and Christian Walker out there, the two biggest names on the market. And we have a lot of questions today in the mailbag in regards to Christian Walker and basically his availability right now.

But you saw the majority of the other candidates available as well, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana, Justin Turner, Mark Kanah. There's a lot of guys out there that have not signed yet. And then the trade candidates haven't really moved either, including one Ryan Mount Castle or Miaot Castle. By the way, as an update to the new cat story, Oh, we have a cat name, right? We do have a cat name. It is official. The smoke came up in the air from my attic.

There was no fire. It was just because we picked a new cat. And that cat name is Jerry Perdomo, P-U-R-R-D-O-M-O. So thank you to you guys for the wonderful, I guess, suggestions on that. I might be the only person calling the cat that name in my house. I tried to get it to be a unanimous thing. My daughter wants to call it Odis. Because she's very into Greek mythology right now.

My wife simply doesn't care. And so you guys are really all over the map. We are. We are all over the map. But I mean, it's it's, it was down to, for me, it was down to Ryan Miao Castle or, you know, Jerry Perdomo and Jerry Perdomo won the day. But is that the, is that the first pet in pH and X history that has been named as a result of like a suggestion in the chat? It might be. I think it might be.

We should have made it the super chat thing. We would have gotten probably. We should have waited until today to hold that. That would have been a good thing. Yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely. But, of course, we're going to talk about potential landing spots for Christian Walker and all of that in today's Mailbag Monday. So we're going to get started on that. We have lots of questions.

We've got to get to all that. We're going to do that on the other side of this break. Of course, don't you guys go anywhere? We'll be right back. Of course, now is a great time to stop by Circle K, especially if you are on your way somewhere, much like Jesse, get someone a gift. Get them the gift of chocolate covered almonds. No one's going to hate that at all. You can make sure to try out all Circle K's wonderful snacks.

Get great deals right now if you sign up for the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But when you do join the inner circle, you'll get on the app a little punch card where you get buy five, get a six one free on a selection. Circle K products. You will just get random coupons. You will get your first five polar pops for absolutely free. And you also save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five fillups and then save three.

cents per day per gallon every day after that so i don't know what you're waiting for sign up for the inner circle today start saving some money get some cheap gas and stop by america's thirst stop get yourself something to drink today i've been talking a lot about staycations here because i've been i went on two of them around uh the last week i was last weekend and this past weekend i was staying right here in town and i'll tell you nothing beats a staycation forget all that travel all the stress from traveling just go check out healer resorts and casinos because no one does it better and give yourself a little

time this holiday season visit any one of their four locations to experience the best the valley has to offer and of course lounge around sometimes just stay in an hotel room and just and just relaxing and being away from the world is a great experience but you can also go in with all the fun they have with over 4,500 slot machines

and live table games as well as their sports books which is a great place to catch the NFL and NBA action you can check out all the event We'll be doing there. We'll be hosting events there, including cards and sons watch parties and more. So stay tuned on how to come hang out with us. Of course, most importantly, you do you at Heal of Riversorts and Casinos.

Visit playatheela.com for more details. I'm not joking about those. The staycations. It's a must, Jesse. It's a must. I'm telling you. I don't really need to go. I don't go to Mesa, Arizona often enough.

It might as well be a foreign city to me. So just staying over there. great time. With where you live, it's true. Yeah, I live in South Anthem, so it's crazy. But you know what year it is. Every year on this show is our year. And it might be coming to an end here.

But next year, also our year. Every month on this show is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day, it's Passover, according to Jesse. But of course, every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Kevin, let's go to the mailbag. Fran would be. Oh, he's going to be furious.

with me that we did that. He's never going to let me get on stage with him again. What do we got? All right. So our first mailbag question comes from Travis Moore. Travis Moore wants to know, do you think, sorry, do you think that the D-BAC's front office is handcuffed to any extent with making moves until they know Walker's decision on whether

or not he stays or signs with another team? Yes. Everybody's saying no audio, Kevin. I think that was the result of the, yes, yes. No, no, we're good. So when it comes to, they said I can start cussing now. believe that. Yes, in regards to the question, yes, I do think that the Diamondbacks are, are kind of, they're in a holding pattern until Christian Walker makes his decision.

Their priority right now, I'm sure, is bringing Christian Walker back. And that is above anybody else. I think that's above a bullpen move. I think that's above any other priority that they have right now. Jock Peterson might be right up there as a second, you know, move. And that might also be kind of holding them up as far as the DH market or what they do to replace him and Randall Gritchick. But it does very much feel like Christian Walker is the reason why we're, you know, we haven't seen them do anything right now because that's essentially who they want to bring back until he moves on.

They can't replace him. It's hard to say exactly where the dynamic stand. I mean, my sense of the Christian Walker situation for this team based on what's been reported is that the Diamondbacks would certainly like to have him back, but I don't think they're expecting it necessarily. Correct. We'll get a little more into the dynamics and maybe bringing him back in our next mailbag question. But yeah, I don't I don't really view this as he's holding them back from doing other things because I think ultimately they're they're sort of waiting for his price to maybe drop into a range that they're actually comfortable with. And they're probably not expecting that to happen given at least what we've heard so far about his market, right?

with the Mariners being in on him and the Astros and the Yankees and other teams as well. Like it doesn't feel like the kind of situation that is going to end and Walker having a depressed market and getting less than he was expected to get. Right. But yeah, again, it's very complicated with the order of events is a really big factor in what any team ultimately does in the offseason. And you don't always have a ton of control over that, right? Like maybe there's a reliever out there that you really like and the dollar value is something you're comfortable with. Are you willing to pull the trigger on that now knowing that maybe if Walker's price does drop down down the line that you're in his spot? We're like, oh man, we've actually done a little bit too much in other areas to have the money to bring him back.

So it's a complicated process, but I don't really think that Walker is holding them up right now. Yeah, I think in regards to that, yes, you're right. Like I do think that they're still having conversations and they're looking for replacement. So it's not like they are completely waiting to make any moves. But they can't really make a move until Christian Walker does make a decision because it really, I don't know, it would be a, I guess a bad look. Like it would be like they are kind of walking away from him more than him leaving the team for, you know, free agency. Specifically with getting a first baseman. Yeah, maybe maybe they're not so on board with the idea of like signing just in turn.

right now or something because they're like, well, we kind of want to know what happens with Christian Walker first. But I mean, generally the way that these things play out is that the top of the market is sort of where things start. And then there's a trickle effect from from there. So I think there's a pretty good chance that we see Pete Alonzo and Christian Walker come off the market before some of those some of those other guys in free agency. I agree with that. All right. What else we got, Kevin? All right. Our second mailbag question comes to us from Bevenator gaming. Has Walker not? not as yet signing me and the debacks are realistically in play for him.

Yes. I mean, yes, it might be just that this might just be me being cautiously optimistic, if you will. But I would say that like he hasn't left yet, right? Like that's really what it comes down to it. I mean, you know the Diamondbacks are interested.

We know that they want to bring him back. It's just a matter of, you know, again, there's many teams interested. The agents and, you know, teams have to have a lot of. meetings and then there still has to be more meetings and second meetings and third meetings. So it'll be interesting to see, especially considering I know that Christian Walker does

want to stay here. It's just a matter of what's best for him and his career. I think once again, when we talk about money and we talk about what teams are willing to spend on players, it's easy for us to see like, oh, well, what's, you know, why would he leave for an extra $5 million a year or, you know, something kind of what we would determine to be small? that is $5 million per year extra that he's getting. And in the case of Christian Walker at his age, he is going to go to the team most likely that gives him the biggest contract

because this is most likely going to be it for his career as far as a big contract is concerned. So I would see Walker very much going where, you know, whoever's willing to offer him the most money. If that's the Diamondbacks, then yes, I could very much see them coming. I mean, he's just more valuable, I think, to the Diamondbacks potentially.

than he is to another team. And I'm basing that maybe a little bit too much off of, you know, the reaction to him online from other fan bases and such. It just, you know, again, it doesn't seem like,

you know, the, uh, there's this huge interest in him and there should be considering how freaking good this guy is. I think he gets overshadowed a little bit by Pete Alonzo in a way that he probably shouldn't, right?

Everyone knows who Pete Alonzo is. Uh, I don't know if that many people necessarily know how good Christian Walker is at baseball. But I do think, front offices know. Like front offices are not going to be fooled by the fact that Pete Alonzo, you know, maybe shows up on on more home run hitting highlight reels or whatnot. Like I think there's probably a sense in the industry that Christian Walker is sort of the value play there. Like,

would you rather give Pete Alonzo $130 million over five or six years or would you rather give Christian Walker, you know, three and 60 or something like that? Like, and that's why ultimately I'm not particularly bullish on the Diamondbacks chances of bringing him back because I think there's a lot of people around the industry that feel that way, that look at the price tag for Walker, even at this stage in his career, entering his age 34 season, and they see a player who's arguably better than the guy who is, who is ranked above him and is going to get a significantly higher guarantee pretty much no matter what, right? But it does come down to the actual teams that are interested. Like what is what is going on with those teams? The Yankees are very much, there's a lot of

A lot of reporting out there about the Yankees getting Cody Bellinger. Does that take them out of the Christian Walker sweet stakes? Maybe I'm not totally sure. I think they could maybe just play Bellinger in center field, in which case they still have an opening at first base. The Mariners seems like a team that absolutely should be in on Christian Walker. I'm not sure they're going to be willing to spend that kind of money. This might hinge on them moving as Shane, our resident Mariners fan is yelling at me in the background.

This might hinge on them moving Luis Castillo, moving another contract so that they have a little bit more money to spend. So that's something I'm watching with the Mariners. As of right now, I'm not sure. I'm so confident about them getting involved here. The Astros are another really interesting team after the trade they just made. You know, you figure that Isok Paredes is probably going to play third base, which still leaves an opening for them at first, theoretically. Maybe they bring back Alex Bregman and they move Paredes over to first. the nationals or another team that hasn't done a whole lot

that I think could absolutely use someone like Christian Walker. So it really comes down to what are all these other teams doing. And as of right now, some of these teams have made some moves or there's reports out there about moves they could make that would maybe take them out of the running for someone like Christian Walker. But we're not there yet. It's just something we have to kind of continue to watch here in these next few weeks.

Very true. All right. What else we got, Kev? All right. So our next mailback, question is going to come from us from Gabby dearth they want to know do you think as the offseason goes on especially if Dodgers or Padres gets Asaki that Hazen may shift into more of a rebuild mode that's an interesting question I am going to be doubtful on that I think that the contracts that

the Arizona Diamondbacks have that are expiring this year and Gallin Kelly Jordan Montgomery you know that that that right there is enough for them to try to be all in on this year considering they know that most likely all three of those guys aren't going to be part of this team after the 2025 season. So I don't know if there's something that other teams could do to make the Diamondbacks like shut down and not try. However, I could see there be a point where Mike Hazen doesn't want to make a big trade that involves mortgaging a decent portion of the future, moving prospects, potentially that could help this team in the near future just to try to desperately keep up with the other teams in the National League West. I think that is probably not likely at all in the grand

scheme of things. And I don't think that there's an amount of pressure that these teams could do to put, you know, or amount of pressure they could apply to the Diamondbacks in order to make them do that. However, you know, it's, you got to be aggressive and you got to continue to do whatever you can to make this team better. I mean, they won 89 games last year. There's, there's possibly a high watermark right now at 89 where this team isn't as good next year and doesn't reach that mark or doesn't improve on that mark. It's a very, very, it's, it's very likely possibility considering the losses of Christian Walker and, you know, Jock Peterson and Randall Gritchick, right?

So, but I, going back to the question, no, I don't really think that what the diamondbacks do is going to be directed by the other teams in the National League West. I would be very shocked if the diamondbacks went a rebuild route, uh, just after talking with Mike Hazen for three straight days last week at the winter meetings. This team has no interest in going that route. It's pretty clear. However, I do think there's a case to be made that they should go that route, right? Like, what could you get for Zach Gallen right now?

Based on how many teams seem to be going for it, how many teams are interested in someone like Corbyn Burns? Like, I have to believe the Diamondbacks could do pretty dang well for themselves if they move Gallen. What could they get from Merrill Kelly? I hate that you're right, but you're right. In a time where it feels like every team is going for it, that's something Hayeson emphasized in Dallas was like nobody wants prospects right now. Like every team is going for it except for, you know, maybe a handful.

It feels like this would be the prime time to switch gears and to maybe embrace not like a full scale rebuild, but moving off some of those guys that you could lose a year from now. We just saw the Astros do it with Kyle Tucker, right? and they got a pretty good return in that deal. So it's something you could argue they should do, but I don't think they will. The Diamondbacks aren't going to be viewed like the Astros. The Diamondbacks would be viewed more like a team like the Marlins or the Tampa Bay Rays that don't keep their guys on and then trade them off to, you know,

to just keep their budget, you know, under control and things like that. The Astros do though, like, yeah, they've let a number of these guys walk, right? Like George Springer, they let him walk. They let Carlos Correa walk. For sure. So they have a history. whether it should be the case or not, they have a history of losing,

losing some of their stars and for a agency. And to be fair, you can't sit here and dwindle and mediocrity as a team, right? You have to pick a lane. You have to either just be bad and be okay with building towards the future or you have to actually try. And the problem with the Diamondbacks is, is that they are good.

This is a competitive team. When you look at this starting rotation, this should be a team that absolutely competes. However, if you're not going to commit, Pete, then, you know, that's something that you need to be honest, you know, as an organization about. The problem is, is that this organization has built a ton of goodwill towards fans with this team over the last few years. And if you start trading off guys like Zach Gowan and Merrill Kelly, you know, to start off the year, people are going to very quickly turn on you. And the

fans are not going to be happy because it would be seen as waving a white flag before the season even started, especially if it's to get back prospects that aren't going to be major league ready, you know, anytime soon. So there's, there's a problem with that. And I mean, honestly, I think that this season and the way, you know, the time between March and July, what the team does in that time frame, I think that very much determines whether or not this team instantly becomes a rebuild during the middle of this season or if they, you know, stay competitive and maybe try to even add at the trade deadline. So, uh, rickety break. asks, uh-oh, did I pick a bad time to be a new fan?

I'm not going to say no, but I'm not going to say 100% yes, that you picked a bad time. We picked a bad time to start this podcast. It was right at the end of like one of the worst seasons in Diamondbacks history. It was a remarkably bad time. It was a remarkably bad year. I mean, it was so bad that we were mad that they won the last game of the year. And, you know, that was only because of, you know, where they were going to draft and such. but we got one more and then we're going to read some commercials.

But what do we got here, Kev, before we can move on? One more question from Gabby. Also, last season you guys spoke a lot about a potential Gabby extension. That's Gabby and Gabby. Wonder if that might happen this offseason. Gabby stick together. I didn't know if you know that or not. Clearly.

It doesn't matter the spelling, unlike us Derricks who wore, we wore over the spelling of the name Derek. I don't know, Jesse. I mean, I think that a Gabby Moreno extension would be very, a very high priority for them. I just don't know about how much Gabby would be interested in signing an extension. Yeah. Some people might have seen it. There was, I can't remember which Twitter account put this out,

but there was a list of top 100 players by their projection for 2025, according to fan graphs that was floating ground on social media. And Gabriel Moreno, I think, was 41st on the list. This is a list that includes all position players, all pitchers, and Major League Baseball. they have Gabby Moreno projected as the 41st best player in all of baseball. This is someone that projection systems are bullish on, and I think the Diamondbacks internally are bullish on as well.

I think you might have gotten to the point now where, you know, not that Moreno is close to free agency. Like he's not going to be a free agent until after 2028 as things stand right now. So you still have four more years of control. But as we inch closer and closer to that final, season, it feels like the odds of an extension go down. And so not to say it's impossible at this point, but I feel pretty confident that the Diamondbacks explored this last off season when obviously they had success with a similar

sort of extension with Corby and the two sides, you know, presumably were not able to come to an agreement. Hazen didn't talk specifics about any one player with regard to extensions at the winter meetings, but he did talk about extension. in general and how they're really challenging. A lot of times players are, it depends on the player. Like some players are interested in, in, you know, finding a situation for eight, nine, 10 years with their current team.

And other players are like, I'm really good. Like, I feel good about entering free agency and what I could get for myself there. So I'm not expecting a Gabby Moreno extension, but it still does make some sense for the debacks. and I wouldn't rule it out entirely. We've talked a little bit about what the Cotel Marte extension meant to this team. And that's great and all. But for Cotel Marte as a person, the ability to make a lot of money was kind of left on the table there by him signing that extension when he did with the 9thandbacks.

Right. So and again, it's you never know if that's the case. Even you as a player, you don't know really how good you're going to be. So sometimes you're gambling when you're, you're gambling. when you are not accepting an extension by the team that you are going to maintain this level of performance and you're going to become better each year and that by the time you do reach for your agency,

your value is going to be quite high. I think that very much could be the case with Gabby. I also think, and this is just speculation, but if we don't see an extension done this year, much like Jesse is saying, it feels unlikely that an extension will get done. And I mean, we kind of went through this with Zach Gallen. We knew it was not likely based on who his agent was.

But the more time the past, the more we felt like, all right, well, you know, he has two years left. I think we can kind of wrap up the idea that an extension is going to be signed. As much as we would like to see that, you know, it really just comes down to a point of a player kind of betting on themselves a little bit and betting on the fact that when they do reach free agency, that the value for them is going to be through the roof. What we're seeing this free agency backs that up. I mean, you know, I'm sure players are getting substantially more than they thought. And I know one, Juan Soto was once valued at what, $600 million is what the contract was supposed to be. That was cute. And then it ends up going for $135 million more than that.

Like, my God, that's 165. 165, excuse me, 160. With the potential to make 200 million. Yeah. Yeah. That's just, it's nuts. It is crazy. The amount of money that you can make.

if once again you make it to that point and your war and your numbers and your stats are still high enough, you know? I will say just real quick about Gabby that catchers do not age particularly well historically and Gabby is currently set to become a free agent after his age 28 season and based on what we've seen in the past not that this is necessarily going to be the case for him

but catchers, the aging curve tends to strike a little bit earlier than other players and I think there's a chance that Gabby could be an awesome player for the next four seasons and yet simultaneously not be someone that you'd want to be paying, you know, $15, $20 million for for multiple seasons thereafter. So it's a hard, it's a hard position to assess when it comes to extension. He's very right. I was a catcher and I just lie about being 43. I'm actually younger than Jesse. I'm 23 and I've just aged terribly. That's what happens to you. Well, on the other side of this break, we got some more mailbag Monday questions and of course

we are going to find out eventually what exactly is up with Mike Hazen and what he's been doing with his time around this time of the year. Don't you go anywhere. We'll be right back. Little Derek. There is. There's a general. Hey, if you are looking, if you're looking for Derek, here I am. If you're looking for the perfect gift for that last minute outdoorsman in your life, the perfect last minute gift, get them the perfect cooler from Rugged Road.

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you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 now. All right, we got some more mailbag Monday questions. Large intimate, what are we got in the bag? Yeah. Next question comes from Austin, who wants to know who could be the Jordan Montgomery type signing this year that Ken will push the payroll for if it has a soft market?

That's a very interesting question, especially with some of the names that we've kind of discussed being available on the market, I would say like when I take a look at candidates for that, I feel like first base might kind of be that where, again, some of these guys are going to fall to other teams. Some of these trades may or may not work out where teams do or don't need first baseman. But I could see a Paul Goldschmidt or Carlos Santana being available as we close in on, you know, pitchers and catchers reporting and the start of spring training

and those guys not wanting to miss out on, you know, getting back to, you know, basically what happened to Jordan Montgomery last year where he didn't have a normal spring training and kind of was off track, you know, for the whole season after that. So I could just see based on the age and the available options that maybe one of those guys kind of gets left behind and the Diamondbacks are able to make, I guess, get a good deal on him. I guess if we're trying to. If it's short Montgomery, it would have to be somebody much more, I guess, a bigger name on the market. If we're trying to make a comparison with Montgomery, like Montgomery is the guy who's expected to make north of $100 million, right, on a five or six year deal. And then he winds up signing this short-term contract with the Diamondback.

So it almost be like a Tanner Scott maybe or maybe one of the top players available on the market. The Diamondback spending that much money on a reliever is is really hard for me to imagine. And I just don't think Tanner Scott is going to have that kind of suppressed market. Like the Dodgers are interested. What else do we need to know? Yeah. But I do think like my realistic answer to this question is Christian Walker, frankly. I love that.

I love that. I think that that as we were kind of saying earlier, the route for the Diamondbacks to bring Walker back is if time just sort of continues to pass. And his market is is maybe not where we thought it would be. And they're like, yeah, well, we'll step in and sign Christian Walker if it's, you know, three years and 50 million or whatever. But yeah, not necessarily the expectation right now as we were talking about earlier. I think if you'd ask me this at the beginning of the offseason before we had any idea what any of these guys' markets would look like. Alex Bregman is a name that probably would have come up, not saying I ever would have really talked myself into that too much. But Bregman is the kind of player that I think the Diamondbacks would really value.

He's a good defender. He doesn't strike out. he has a lot of the characteristics that this team really likes. He's very well known as one of the best clubhouse guys around the game that you could possibly have. Like there's just a lot to like about someone, someone like Bregman for this team. Again, I don't think I ever would have gone too far down that road. Except for the fact that we have a third basement already and another budding third basement waiting in the wings a little bit there, right? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think it would be, it would have been an interesting move because, Yeah, they obviously picked up Gino Sweraz's option. But I think if Bregman's market got unexpectedly to a place where they were comfortable, then maybe they'd be like, yeah, we're going to sign Alex Bregman because he's a really good player. And sure, for one season, we're going to have both him and Gino, which might be a little bit of an odd situation. But we'll figure it out for a year and then, you know, figure out what to do after that point. I guess one of those guys moving to first base would maybe be the ideal solution there. But yeah, not expecting the Diamondbacks to sign Alex Breggman.

The correct answer is Corbyn Burns. That's the correct answer. He's another name that like. And then he'll stink next year for us. He's another name that I maybe would have mentioned as, you know, if somehow this market doesn't develop the way we think. Like he is the diamondbacks have spent big on a free agent starter in the past. Is that Granky, right? But, you know, they wound up trading Granky several years later because they didn't want one player taking up that.

big a portion of their payroll. And for as good as Corbin Burns is, yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure they would feel differently about him. And again, it does not look like Corbin Burns market is going to be suppressed at all based on some of the numbers. It does not. It does not. Yeah, I don't, I don't think they're going to be signing Corbin Burns either.

Well, whatever. Way to squash my dreams, Jesse. What else we got, Kev? The next question comes to us from Ryan. They want to know, you guys have discussed how there have not been many. rumors about the team this off season. I've kind of thought that for a couple years now, there seem to be a lot fewer rumors about this team than most other teams. Are the diamond backs just a particularly tight-lipped organization?

That's a good question. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I asked around a little bit on this one with some other reporters just to kind of get their perspective. And I think there is a sense in the industry that the diamond backs are maybe not like the most tightly-lipped organization around, but they are among the more tightly-lipped organizations for sure. We saw this firsthand in Dallas last week where a lot of other front office executives were willing to speak openly about Roki Sasaki. And like, yes, we are making a pitch for Roki Sasaki.

Yes, we do want Rokey Sasaki on our team. Mike Hazen was not willing to speak about Roki Sasaki really at all when a question was sort of asked, kind of nudging him in that direction. And that's something that we've seen quite a bit with Hazen over the years. Like he'll never talk about a free agent. He doesn't really like to talk specifics with just about anything that he's doing over the offseason.

And he made a really good point about that before. I think when Nick asked him about that, I believe his response was something to the extent of like what good does it do? Like what good does it do to tell you that we were in on free agents? I guess maybe if you're looking at it from the positives, like maybe it lets the fan base know you were engaged and making an attempt. However, Mike Hazen doesn't see that as a positive. It means you failed. So if there's confirmation from them that they went after someone and they didn't get them, then it really just looks like the organization didn't do a good job of acquiring someone they were interested in, right?

Although we did just sort of get news along those lines with Devin Williams, that they were interested in Devin Williams. So it's not like we never get those kinds of reports. Right. And in some cases, you know, confirmation is just part of what they do. I do think that we get a lot of I think there's a lot of mutual respect but I do think that when we get media availability

Mike Hayes and he tends to say things to the extent of like yeah there's no reason to talk about that or there's no like what it is what it is there's rumors out there like he doesn't really confirm things that he doesn't need to confirm because at the end of the day I think his philosophy is it makes them look like again like I said

that they failed right so again, I don't particularly think that's a wrong route to go. I think that it's kind of a smart move. And I also think that there is, you know, there's like some phrases that Mike and Tori seem to use that make us feel good about ourselves, but also stop us from asking any more questions where he's like, you guys are smart guys. You can figure it out. And it's like, that's a Toryism. That's a Toryism. And that's one of those ones that you're like, that confirms nothing. That's it like what you just said said nothing. I mean, I guess. you're getting where I'm getting or like I love that Mike and Tori will always like stop you in the process of question of asking a question be like I know where you're going with this you know like and then they won't at all answer where you were going with this so that's also hilarious but the best case to be made for circulating more rumors is so that people like us have more to talk about on a five day per week and they and they don't want that they don't want that they really they get a kick out of holding us really like oh let's see what these guys are going to come up with on their show to Hey, without any news dropping. Let's wait until Friday. Let's wait until Friday. That way, they have to do an emergency podcast while they're in the middle of watching movies with their family. They do have a history of making moves on Friday.

I think that was a thing last off season. It was like Friday around 4 o'clock. Like you're getting ready for the weekend and whatnot. DVACs are like, nope, you're not getting ready for the weekend. You're doing an emergency podcast and writing articles the whole weekend. Let's go. All right. What else we got, Kev?

Yeah, I believe Ryan had a follow-up question here. And if so, how do they manage being so secretive and is it beneficial to the organization? I think we kind of covered. I mean, honestly, how do they manage it is like they're very truthful at times when they're telling you they're not going to answer the question. And like they don't really beat around the bush. But I also think once again, it's beneficial because to them it doesn't look like they are failing at what they're attempting to get accomplished. Right. That's that's really what it is.

It also, I mean, I've heard this from Tori, but like baseball. players don't really like to have their business, you know, out there. So sometimes when it looks like a guy, like let's say Christian Walker, you know, declined the Diamondback straight up and like they know that. They could have said that or whatever. Like the Christian Walker isn't coming back. He's already told us he doesn't want to return to the organization. They might know that internally, but they're not going to make that known because it doesn't, it makes Christian Walker look bad. It doesn't make the organization look great. There's a lot of like negatives there to that. So And that's just a hypothetical example, but that's exactly the kind of situation where, you know, the truth might be known, but there's no, I guess there's not a lot of good for the public to know that information.

I can understand where they're coming from in some ways. I mean, as a journalist, certainly. I am a fan of teams being open and honest. Very much though. You know, the more information that gets out the better. I don't honestly know if teams benefit a ton from being tight-lipped. You know, I can definitely see where you're coming from with, you know, like, guys, personal situations or whatnot.

There are certain things that certainly you would not want to make public. But I don't know if, I don't think there's a ton of harm necessarily in some rumors breaking this time of year. Like, oh, you're interested in this guy. You know, you're not interested in this guy. I like that that is not going to meaningfully change where you stand in the market as far as I'm aware. Let me give you an example, though. This offseason, the reports about the Toronto Blue Jays aren't that they are going to be active in the trade

market or that the Toronto Blue Jays have a lot of money to spend. No, no, no, no. The vibe is the Toronto Blue Jays are desperate. If you want to get a big contract, go sucker the Blue Jays into something because they can't wait to give money away right now. right like so like that's the i guess that's the storyline with that organization and that's not great it's not great that your organization sounds like they missed out on wan soto and they're trying to keep up in the american league east and they're just desperate to get any big name free agent they can

they're swinging for the fences right it makes you look a little pathetic it looks you makes you look a little inept as an organization so that's another reason why that they probably don't want things like that out there uh gabriel says devax lead the league and interested in I don't even know if they do that. This off season they don't. This off season, there is not bad. Oh, we would eat. We would eat with that.

Me and this guy, we would feast on that. We don't even get those little morsels. So it is what it is. But we got a few more mailbag Monday questions. We're going to get to them on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere. This is the pH and XDbacks podcast. Start 2025 on the right foot, both financially and with some improvements to your home.

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Monday questions. Kevin, what do we got for our next question? Next question comes to us from the basketball and football guy. They want to know, serious question. What is the difference between AJ Puck and Tanner Scott? Lefties that throw 97 with a deadly slider who started on the Marlins to then be traded at the deadline to an NOS team.

Good point. And they are basically the Spider-Man pointing meme is what they are for sure. AJ Puck did end up performing just a little better there. And I mean overall, the Diamondbacks got themselves one of the best relievers available in the market. That's really what it comes down to.

Both of these guys are incredibly good. And again, I don't know what the Marlins are doing. That's why I don't. So we don't want Diamondbacks to be the Marlins where they had guys like this and they traded them off. And then you just kind of are left, you know, scratching your head at a team that at one point seemed on the rise with the manager, NL manager of the year, who suddenly fired said manager and just reversed course and decide to sell off all of their good players. I think that there are some similarities between those two guys, but really at the end of the day, they just both, they both shoved and they both deserve to be on better teams. And that's what the result is.

This is a really interesting question. Like, I've never really had this thought occur to me, but I don't think it's a totally outrageous thought that like A.J. Puck is maybe not better than Tanner Scott, but basically on the same level. I mean, you look at how these guys performed in 2024. Tanner Scott had a 175 ERA. with the Marlins and the Padres over 72 innings. He had a 1.13 whip. A.J. Puck, if you just look at his time as a reliever, obviously he started the season in the Marlins rotation. It did not go very well.

That's why his numbers for the season don't necessarily jump off the page. But AJ Pug as a reliever, Derek, 58 games, 57 and 2 thirds innings, a 172ERA. So very similar to Tanner Scott. And a 0.75 whip, which is significantly better than TAN. Tanner Scott, right? Scott was at 112 AJ Puck at 0.75. I think there is a difference in terms of kind of just overall pedigree, right? Like Tanner Scott has built this reputation as one of the best back end relievers in all of baseball and that goes back several years. A.J. Puck is newer to

this conversation. But going into 2025, like which of these guys would I rather have on my team? I probably would lean Tanner Scott just because he has more closing experience than AJ puck. And that has value. but in terms of the results on the field in 2024, it's sort of a toss up. I might even prefer AJ Puck because he does not walk as many guys as Tanner Scott does. Yeah, that's it. And I mean,

that's the reason why the Diamondback should be thrilled to have somebody in their bullpen that is going to be here for a number of seasons. And also, two more. Has, you know, again, has that arm that he has and did the things that he did in a short span. I think that,

again, this is the reason why when you talk about the closer versus first baseman conversation, I feel like the Diamondbacks are in a much better position for the closer. If they don't make any moves to add to the bullpen, I really don't think they're in the worst spot that they

could be. Could they improve? Yes. Would it be great for them to have official closer? Yes. Would it be nice for Tori to just, if they don't add somebody, just pick a guy to be closer. That would be also great. But I think that this team could win and succeed with the arms that they have in the bullpen

versus you don't really want Pavin Smith over there at first base for the entirety of 162 games. And I know that's going to bring an irrational amount of hate my way in the chat right now. And I deserve it. It's fine. But what I will say is that we are going to continue this conversation right here for our television watchers. We appreciate you guys. We love you guys so much.

And if you want to continue watching Mailbag Monday, make sure come on over to go p hnx.com you can finish watching the show make sure to chat with us we appreciate you guys for being here of course uh as always and we thank you guys uh for for you know for loving the diamondbacks appreciate your chat comments as well i know it's mailbag monday i know we're going through uh these comments that we have but we've seen some great comments or questions coming from the chat as well i do have some super chats i think that i haven't addressed either yet let's take a look at those really fast. Ryan says, thank you, Ryan for your super chat. He sent a 99 superchay. He says, Derek, is Santa Claus real? The answer is yes, Ryan. Santa Claus is very much real. And we're actually

going to get how that actually impacts the Arizona Diamondback spending this off season here momentarily. Cam, appreciate your super chat. Cam sent a 99 super chat. He said, sending good vibes to the kids. Go DeBex. Thank you, Cam. We appreciate you. I want to take this as a moment to squash long-standing beef that I've had, Jesse. I mean, years. This is a feud that's been going on for years. But our next question, if you wouldn't mind, Kevin, I'll go ahead and take this one, comes from one and only Ruth Ferguson, who blocked me on Twitter a long time ago.

And then I, I, of course, blocked in return because, you know, I'm petty. And that's how blocking on social media works, right? Ruth blocked me due to my excessive cursing on this very program, which is understandable, and I might block me too. So now that I'm not allowed to curse as often as I was previously, only on D-backs after dark, I implore Ruth. Maybe we can come to some sort of agreement where we unblock each other and we start 2025 off on a fresh start.

I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. I just want to do everything I can to like leave path. I have so many beefs in the streets. I got to leave some of these beefs in the past. But let's take a look at Ruth's question real fast because I think Ruth wants to know what everybody wants to know. Are there any recent rumors as to this team will add this off season? I would like to hear that they are serious in improving this team, but actions speak louder than words.

I'm sure you're tired of hearing our frustrations. And yes, we definitely, especially as content creators that have to make a show about this team, very much would like some rumors or something to happen. But unfortunately, I mean, the stuff that we have. discussed, I think, is kind of the bulk of it. Like what we know, we know the Diamondbacks have been interested in a few names, but their level of interest, you know, is, I guess you could argue their level of interest because Mike Hazen really doesn't give us much of a confirmation on this stuff as we address.

So I think really going back to the tight-lipped question might be the reason why we don't hear rumors. But Ruth's point is what I was talking about, Jesse, which is like fans do want to hear rumors. Fans do want to know that their team is active. I think fans are okay with them missing out on players, especially when they see certain free agents signing for the contracts that they're signing for and knowing like, well, man, yeah, no, we couldn't have signed that guy for $200,000. We, we, or $200 million, $200,000, $200,000, that's nothing.

$200 million. You know, we can't do that move. We couldn't have done that move, right? But again, at least if you, it makes you feel good as a fan that your team was in the mix for this. I think one of the main reasons is even in the players the Diamondbacks are pursuing, those aren't the biggest free agents available on the market. So it's not, I guess it's not as big of a rumor when they're just kind of thinking about maybe bringing back Paul Goldschmidt as a replacement for Christian Walker,

you know, and Paul Goldschmidt's where he's at in his career or like a Carlos Santana at his age, right? 39-year-old first basement isn't really going to be, you know, a top headline when it compares to some of these other moves and, and deals being made in major league baseball right now. I'm just thinking of taking inventory of the diamond, the few Diamondbacks rumors that we have had this offseason.

I guess there's what we said earlier about how they called the Brewers about Devin Williams before that trade was made. We know, according to Bob Nightingale, that they were interested in a Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery swap with the Chicago Cubs. That did not materialize. We don't really expect that to materialize. We do know, though, that they are certainly interested.

in trading Jordan Montgomery. That's been reported a number of times. We know that they're interested in bringing Jock Peterson back. No surprises there. They're interested in bringing Christian Walker back. Also, no surprises there. And Derek, I think that's just about everything. Can I offer you one pre-owned Jordan Montgomery? Refurbished. We got to figure out some way to raise this right. We'll put a Facebook market post up and we'll get somebody. to bite but until then we got to figure out what else the diamondbacks got going on what Nike new he says like new yeah loved oh loved is good pre-loved oh I don't know I don't like that what does that I don't like that I don't like that that goes in a dangerous direction for me all right

what else we got kev anyway uh Cade richard wants to know with the financial constraints that the diamondbacks have could it be that that if they sign Walker this year they won't have enough money to sign gallon next year. If you had to choose, which would you keep, Walker or Gowan? It would have to be Zach Gowan. If you're just talking straight up on who of those two guys, I would rather the Diamondback signed to a long-term deal, it's Zach Gallin.

Starting pitching of the caliber of Zach Gallon's much harder to find. He's younger, and I think overall, you know, again, there's comparable first baseman out there that the Diamondbacks could pursue versus that Gallon seems like a fairly unique pitcher when it comes to his consistency. He's just an incredibly stable starting pitcher. And to have him long term here as a diamond back would be great. It's just the it's it's almost it's apples and oranges.

And it's not just because he's a position player and a pitcher like the cost of Zach Gallen is going to be so much more. I mean, three times potentially more, four times potentially more than than Christian Walker's contract is going to be. So it's it's not exactly feasible to, you know, to say that. However, I already don't think the Diamondbacks are going to be in on Zach Gallin next year. So the signing of Christian Walker, I don't think, is going to impact their ability to sign Gallen. He's just going to receive too large of an offer from another team. I guess on an Aavv basis, like you don't think Gallon is going to be three times or four times as much as Walker. Because I think Walker's going to get like 22, 23 million.

No, that's fair. Yeah, you're on an AAB per. Yeah. Maybe Gallon gets 90 million in a year. Who is to say what the pitching market will be like next year, Derrick. but yeah, seems unlikely, but totally, in terms of the total value of these deals, Gallen is going to be significantly more expensive. I think you could argue that bringing back Walker is less risky, even though he is already in his mid-30s, he has kind of shown you that as he, you know, this was just his age 33 season that he just had and he was pretty darn good. You don't necessarily expect him to fall off a cliff anytime soon.

Zach Gallen, if you do sign him, you're probably looking at what an eight. year contract. I mean, that's what Max Fried just got from the Yankees. Maybe it's a seven-year deal, but you're looking at paying Zach Allen around $30 million at age 37, very likely, right? Like, I think there's a higher probability of that deal going south for you in a big way, not to say again that, you know, resigning Walker for three seasons is completely risk-free. But I think they theoretically could do both of them, but it probably comes down to to just a philosophical aversion to spending that much money on a starting pitcher, you know, going to seven years, eight years, nine years.

This is something that Ken Kendrick talked about when they signed Eduardo Rodriguez last year that like even going to a four year deal for Erod was sort of stretching it. Yeah. I think this team gets pretty uncomfortable with those long term deals. Even the Zach Rankie contract was six years, which feels a little bit less risky than, you know, an eight or nine year deal. So the gallon all the way, around it just seems unlikely that they'd really be all that involved there.

I really feel like there's only two ways to run a baseball team these days, right? Like you either have the commitment to spending a ton of money and the long term deals and not really caring much about what the future is going to be like as much as you're caring about the present and winning now, right? But being willing to commit to long term deals in order to make that happen. or you have what like teams like again the marlins the the raise the astros other teams are doing where honestly it it seems like they're able to stay competitive at times while also like putting together a roster of of players that you may never even have heard of before that are

still putting up pretty damn good numbers pretty comparable numbers to guys that are making 20 times forget three four times the amount that that they're making like 20 times the amount that they're making right So like there's something to be said, especially with baseball, considering the differences between the younger players that are still under their first, you know, contract with the team versus those free agents and those big, you know, the high value players, right? Like it's the reason why the idea of trading Zach Gallen right now is very is very tempting considering the hall that you might get in return for him and how you can start building towards that future right now. It doesn't even mean that the Diamondbacks necessarily need to get back prospects. They could potentially trade Zach Gallen for younger controllable players that, you know, that can help this team for years and that can help keep that overall budget in the area where the Diamondbacks want it versus going out and bringing guys like Gallin and Christian Walker back that just silly, that seriously inflate, you know, the cost of running this team. And honestly, it just keeps them from being able to make other moves. It's the reason why going back to the Jordan Montgomery move, like we were floored by it last off season.

It didn't make any sense. It was so not like this team to do that. The only thing that did make sense about it was the lack of long-term commitment. They didn't sign Montgomery to a five, six, seven-year deal. They signed him to a two-year deal. And at the time, that felt very reasonable no matter what the AAV of that deal was. So I don't know, man. I think that this is going to be a big season for this team.

But I think that they could still see if things don't go their way, a pivot midway through it. and then kind of are talking about a rebuild instead of a competitor. And I really, I don't know how the season's going to go. I think the biggest question mark is starting pitching. And if the starting pitching is good for this team, I truly think they can hang with any, any team in baseball because of how important pitching is, you know?

Yeah. I mean, I could see it being like a top five rotation. If, if Erod bounces back and they keep Montgomery and he bounces back. And, you know, Gowan and Merrill Kelly stay healthy. like you could envision that scenario.

That's what we were talking about last year. Or you could envision a scenario where it's one of the five worst rotations in baseball, not because it really looks like that on paper, but because that is literally what just happened. They had the fourth worst rotation ERA and all of baseball. So you can't completely rule out that possibility when it is literally what just happened. All right. Let's get one more in.

And then we will get you guys out of here. What do we got? Last but not least, Anders Carlson and Joyer apparently That's a that's a piece of Yoshi What's your best conspiracy theory for why Hayzen hasn't made a move yet? Ooh This is right up your alley there

It absolutely is right at my alley and I know the I think I have a good reason why And it goes back to last year right I don't know if you guys know this but I think he was making dinner Mike Hazen was making dinner For his sons And he burnt it blew it burn it was burnt to a crisp they had to go have dinner at denny's uh in order to make up for this was christmas eve of all days right but then they come back home after their wonderful uh denny's dinner

and mike hayson sees an intruder trying to break into his house right uh being the good father that he is he jumps in action trying to protect his kids he goes after the intruder to you know to apprehend said truter called the police get him arrested uh but instead the intruder falls off the roof and sadly dies Jesse it turns out that that intruder was in fact Santa Claus and after he died

he like body like just fades away in the dust and there's the suit is still there and there's a note that says whoever if anything should happen to Santa someone needs to wear this suit and finish his rounds and that's exactly what Mike Hazen did there you see here Mike Hazen

did in fact commit himself to the Santa Claus Jesse It turns out that by putting on the suit, Mike is subject to a legal technicality known as the Santa Claus and has accepted all of Santa's duties and responsibilities going forward. So Mike just needs to get all of his baseball affairs in order basically before the Thanksgiving holiday or essentially they have to wait until sometime after the 26th of the month. So unfortunately, yeah, I think that's the best explanation as to why we haven't seen the Diamondbacks do anything. Forget the slow trade market or anything like that. Mike Hayeson unwittingly committed himself to the Santa Claus.

So I guess it makes sense because you're saying this whole situation began last Christmas Eve. Yeah, like he saved last Christmas. Like him and his sons, they went around. They put on the suit. They flew. They got all the presents delivered. Nobody was the wiser, right? A couple of people ran into him.

He didn't have a beard. It was kind of weird, this whole thing. But now this year, it was a whole thing of him gaining weight and stuff. I'm surprised you didn't see it at the winter meetings where he like could not. could not keep his beard from growing. It was crazy. So, like, now he figured it out. And that's why, like, he's not available during this time of the year.

Yeah, I was going to ask because I believe the Lordus Gareel Jr. signing happened last year, like, around December 19, something like that. Yeah, yeah. This was, yeah, they didn't get caught up in the, in this particular clause legally until the Christmas Eve last year. But now it's going to be a problem every year, Jesse, going forward. I'm just saying it's not something that he can just bestow upon another person. So this would mean he he has to wait until after the 26th in order to? Pretty much.

Yeah. Like things started happening before then. He grows a belly. It's like weird. It's a weird like flu kind of thing. But yeah, regardless, he has some big responsibilities to take care of it. It's not just this team. So I think maybe we should give him a pass if he doesn't, you know, get everything that we want done.

Right. Yeah. He has a lot of, a lot of legal matters to deal with. Brian says that explains why we only heard audio. clips of hazen during the winter meetings. Yeah, Brian, Brian cracked the figured it out. Brian figured it out. Well, I hope you guys all have a fun time turning into this, Santa Claus yourself, as I will. By the way, I think my daughter moved the elf last night herself, and I think that that's it. I'm gonna I'm gonna

kidnap the elf and make it go away and never come back ever again. She has to there has to be there's to be consequences for touching the elf. Am I wrong? I mean, you can't just let the kids touch the elf and then have the elf still be there in the morning. There are rules for this people. But I do hope that your Christmas shopping, your holiday shopping is going much better than his and much better than Mike Hazens. But we do appreciate you guys. We will be back tomorrow with another 1 PM show. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I am at cap underscore K, man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, our guy, large, intimate Kevin Thomas is at Kev-O posts on Twitter. But all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore D-BACs on Twitter as well as PHNX underscore sports. So make sure you follow us on all forms of social media. Most importantly, we hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day. We will see you back here once again tomorrow at 1pm. And until then, have a good night.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Mike Hazing gets all of his baseball-related activities done before the Thanksgiving holiday.