PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is J.D. Martinez coming back to the D-backs? We cover who is already off the MLB free agency market

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

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Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. And happy Monday to you all. Big shout out to our friend Josh Hunt. We want to say to him, congratulations on the news about you being an expecting father. We are so happy for you. And we will get those PHNX onesies that he's requesting in the chat as soon as we possibly can. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX. Occasionally known is Derek Montia.

This guy's your vice mayor. He's the thunder sick. He's Jesse Friedman. I feel like it only makes sense that like Josh's first reaction to expecting a child is like I need a pH and X1Z in my life. It's the way to go. It was only a matter of, you know, a few hours after he got the news. That's the first thing that you think of is I need my baby. Yeah. If I were expecting, I mean, that's probably the same.

I would probably be thinking the same thing. I know you've been very fatherly over the young players out at Arizona Fall League. And we'll get to that, of course. But this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. And Jesse has had his watchful eye over the youngsters over at the Arizona Fall League, who most of them are actually probably older than him. But still, you're out there for the Arizona Fall League championship game on Saturday.

I was, and I was freezing my butt off. It's our last edition of Fall Guys. So, of course, welcome in to Arizona Fall League Fall Guys. And I'm going to miss that image a lot now that it's gone. But it was definitely a very, fun Arizona Fall League season and capped off by an incredible championship game that went

pretty long as you were there I can attest to it. Three hours and 54 minutes I think is the exact game time of that one. Oh baseball. Yeah for everyone thinking that the pitch clock was going to completely eliminate four hour baseball games. I have news for you.

But it was an outstanding baseball game. It was so fun to watch. 7-6 was the final score in that one. Both, it went to extra innings. Both teams scored a run in the 10th. Both teams scored in the 11th as well, but the surprise Suarez were able to push two runs across

in the bottom half of the 11th. And ultimately became the Arizona Fall League champions for 2022. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of energy in the stands. There was just under 2,000 people there, which for Fall League Baseball is a lot of people. So, yeah, it was a fun environment. And even though I don't think I was the only one freezing my butt off

at Ted Scottsdale Stadium, It was absolutely worth it because the game was that great and it ended on a walkoff. So what more could you possibly hope for in a championship game? Answer this question. Did you not come from the northwest part of the country? I did. I did. And my theory is that dry air feels a lot colder.

So like 52 degrees when it's dry. I don't know. I swear the 52 degrees in Seattle, Washington was like fine. and 52 degrees here feels like I'm like... Okay. Louisiana... Leah's going to weigh in. Okay, so Arizona, like, it messes with you because I'm from Canada and I get cold here.

And Petey is from Minnesota. And last night he was wearing flannel in his house and was saying, I'm cold. And everyone in the chat was roasting him because he's from Minnesota. But listen, you're here one winter and it changes you. That's all. And they were probably roasting him to try to warm him up. Come on. Let's be honest.

Yeah. But it's the same reason why Jesse gets roasted all the time. Jesse, Suaro, surprise Swarrow. Of course, they had the best record in Arizona Fall League play. Anything particularly, you picked up, anybody stand out to you as far as players that, you know, obviously we've talked about Kumar Rocker being on that team and such, but anybody else stand out? Sadly, Kumar Rocker did not pitch in the game. I think people were hoping that would happen, but it did not.

Something that was interesting that happened is Matt McLean homered in that game. Matt McLean was actually drafted by the Diamondbacks back in 2018. He was their first round pick, and he didn't sign. And so the Diamondbacks wound up getting an extra pick in the 2019 draft. That's when they had like seven of the first 100 picks or something ridiculous like that. That was a fun year. Right. In 2019.

But yeah, Matt McLean, it's funny. He, you know, he went back. He went to college and then he got drafted three years later in 2021, I believe. And he was picked 18th overall instead of 25th. So I don't know if he would say it was worth it for him to, you know, decide not to sign and come back three years later and try to get drafted again. But he's still a highly touted prospect. He's a top 100 guy and he did Homer in that game. So kind of interesting seeing that DeBax connection there, even though, of course, there weren't any debacks prospects in the game seeing as how the Salt River Rafters did not have a great showing in the following this year.

No, they did not. And you had a funny video of friend Andy Pahas. who we get his name right this time. It's not pages. It's not pages. It's Pahas. And apparently he thought he homered for a big moment that game. And it ended up not quite going over the wall.

That was the best moment of the game. Honestly, that was an impressive. It totally had that swaggy pee energy, you know, the famous video where, where, yeah, he shoots and then turns around and does this little dance and he actually missed a shot. In Andy Paz's defense, it was. still a double and possibly the longest double that I've ever seen. It hit off the very top of the center field wall at Scottsdale Stadium. So it wasn't necessarily. It was a home run. Yeah, it kind of felt

like a home run off the bat. I think a lot of people in the stadium thought it was gone too. But maybe it's that cold air, that cold dry Arizona air, you know, it does weird things, just like it did with me. So I don't know if that's to blame, but... These all sound like excuses to me, but that's just... It was funny seeing Deepak's fans react to that on our social media account because, yeah, anytime a Dodgers player does something like that, you know, we got to get them for it. The other fan bases have to capitalize. Meanwhile, I was at Elton John that night, and I have never seen Chase Field that full in my entire life.

How many people were at Chase Field did you say? I think they said that the announced attendance was like $75,000 or something like that. But it was crazy to see every seat in that building full just about. And obviously the entire, we were in the outfield, essentially. I was probably right around where Corbyn Carroll would play. So that's very exciting as far as where my seats were. But it was great to see Elton John, by the way. I don't know if there's any Elton John fans out there.

But you got to tip your cap to a man that's 75 years old and goes two and a half hours of playing song after song with maybe two five-minute breaks the entire set. Was this his last trip to Arizona? This was his last, he said it was his last show over in Arizona. He had two shows on consecutive nights. So I was glad they'd be able to at least go to because they added the second show and I think they added it to Friday instead of Sunday, mostly because they did bill this as the final show in Arizona.

So had they added another show after ours, it wouldn't have been the final show. Not that that really matters much, but, you know, it is something special. My wife is a huge Elton-Jonton fan. She's been to see him like, seven or eight times. Wow. Yeah. So it's very, very much.

It was very, very incredible to see somebody of that age have that much energy. And now I have no excuses for myself, and I will accept no excuses from any of the young players on the Arizona Diamondbacks for not just being at 110% every day. Because we saw Elton John do it in the outfield, so everybody should be able to do it in the outfield. But there is possibly some new energy coming to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and not the one you guys really want or I want, but it seems like Evan Longoria to the Diamondbacks is picking up some steam. I've seen several articles about it. I've seen several sources saying that he's very interested in coming here. He had a very heartfelt goodbye that he posted on his Instagram,

which was very sweet. And again, he wanted to stay in San Francisco. He expressed, this several times. He even said in an article or in an interview about a month prior to the end of the season that if it was up to him, he would end his career as a giant. But that is not happening now. So at least, you know, it's good to see somebody handle, you know, leaving a team with this much class. And I mean, this, if you didn't really want him as a part of your team before, part of the Diamondbacks before, maybe this will help you kind of, you know, warm up to him a little bit because he definitely seems like a sincere guy. and he wants to be a part of either this team or the Tampa Bay Ray. So it looks like there's a great likelihood that that could happen, considering the Diamondbacks could use a veteran right-hand bat. Yeah, yeah, they could. And I wouldn't necessarily close the door on him returning to San Francisco. I think it's still possible.

They basically just chose a $5 million buyout over bringing him back for $13 million, which makes sense because wherever he signs, he's probably going to get less than $8 million. for the year. That would be my guess. So they could potentially have them back and still save money. And still save money, right? So in some ways, it was kind of a no-brainer to decline the team option there. But there is also some closure being brought here.

I mean, by this Instagram post that maybe suggests that his sense of the situation is they've returned to San Francisco is not likely. But yeah, I mean, it seems like as the debacks of the race, we haven't really heard anything from the race camp about this being a possibility for them next year. They don't seem like they are in that mode. A lot of reports are suggesting that the Rays are looking to trade off some of their talented young pitchers. A lot of teams have been contacting them about acquiring pitching. Yeah, Tyler Glass now has been a big name the last few days.

So it's interesting because the Rays look like they might be going back into a period of time of rebuilding for them, I guess. I don't know. They seem to always do that. So I don't know when they are rebuilding and when they're not rebuilding. But in regards to teams, you know, players electing free agency but resigning with their teams, we have two of the best relievers that were on the free agency market are now no longer on the market, staying with their current teams. Robert Suarez signs an incredibly lucrative deal for a relief pitcher.

Yeah. He resigns with the Padres to a five-year, $46 million deal. Jesse, this is starting pitcher money. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. I think after seeing what he did in the postseason, and how consistent he was for the Padres and the fact that he throws like over 100 miles an hour. I think that's a pretty compelling combination of things.

The other fact that it really plays into this is that the relief pitching market is kind of bare right now, at least in free agency, after Edwin Diaz and these two guys. I mean, there's a few other names in there that are interesting, but it's not a very, there's not a lot of depth to this market. And so I think from the Padres perspective, yes, it's five years, which is honestly insane. Robert Suarez has pitched one year in the major leagues, and he was very good, but he pitched one year, and he just got a five-year deal. And he's also not young.

He'll be 32 next year. So it's a bullish move for them. But I think if you're the Padres, five years, 46 million, that's an average of about nine million a year. With how much that organization is spending at this point, nine million a year is not that. much to them, right? If, if Robert Swarres at some point drops off in the next five years, they probably feel comfortable about like, hey, we could eat that money and not, you know, not be in a horrible spot. So a pretty crazy move from them, but I think the fact that the Aavie is so low probably works in their favor. And then, yeah, Raphael Montero, a guy that we

identified a while back as being a possible target for the debacks. I think he just pitched so well in the playoffs that his, again, yeah, yeah. His price tag just shot through the roof as a result of that. So no real surprises there in him getting the deal that he did. Ontario gets three years, $34.5 million. Again, pretty impressive for a more than what the debacks probably would have been willing to spend on that. Now, analysts have said that this is good for the free agency market because these deals are, again, very lucrative, very big for relief pitching. Yeah. But does that translate over to it being good for the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team not known for not wanting to spend a lot of money,

not really wanting to go that deep into their pockets. It seems like it's just going to mean that price tag on a lot of these guys is going to be much higher than anticipated. Yeah, I think you're right. Which is not, I mean, it's not unexpected. Like I said, there's just not enough free agent relievers out there to make it really easy for a team like the debacks to compete. Just sort of supply and demand, right? Just kind of how the market plays out. So, yeah, I think the debacks are going to be in the market, but probably more.

on the lower end. I don't know if it was ever realistic that they were going to get one of those guys at the top. And unfortunately, this just reinforces that it's going to be tough for the debacks to really get involved in the free agent market and do what they want to do. But they're going to do something. I mean, they're not going to come back with the same bullpen next year. So I still think we're in for a pretty significant makeover on that front. It's just a matter of what exactly that looks like. For sure. For sure. And of course, we know the baseball season's over. Now the Arizona Fall League season's over, but we are less than two weeks away from World Cup time. And of course, the Mexico and U.S. all World Cup games will be over at our friends at Four Peaks,

8th Street Pub. That's where we'll be. Make sure to join us out there, enjoy beer specials, giveaways, special appearances, and so much more. There'll be $3 kiltifter and wow wheat pints, which, of course, you know, this guy over here is a fan. And if you're interested in finding out some more about the World Cup. Those rosters for the U.S. and Mexico teams dropped. Fun story. I know you're not a big Ted Lassau fan

or even really know what Ted Lassau is. But Ted Lassau is a fictional coach of a... Right, right. It's the Apple TV plus thing. So our friends over at Ted Lassow sent some notes of encouragement to each U.S. World Cup player. Just a fun note kind of based on their name and where they come from.

And like, so the World Cup team turn these into billboards that they put in the hometown of each World Cup player. And they're pretty fantastic. So definitely check that out. Get hype for the World Cup. And then join us down at the East Street Pub.

Also, before you do that, make sure your house is ready. I like to make sure my house is like clean as crazy as this sounds before I leave somewhere so that when I come back, my house is nice and I don't have to like look at the pig pen

that I actually truly live in, right? That's fair. If you want to make your house look nicer for you to return from watching these World Cup games with us, make sure to stop by more furniture. Check out their false sale on morefurniture.com. For every thousand dollars you spend, you will receive a hundred dollar gift card. Jesse, I realize I think I need a new bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and both my back and my chest hurt in a way I can't explain.

Wow. It's like I'd been laying on concrete. And I found out this morning that if you're bed, is like uneven. It can have that effect. Like if it's not level. So either I need to figure out a way to level my bed, or I need to get down to more furniture and get myself a new setup.

How does one level a bed? I don't know. That's a great question. Once I find out that that's the problem, then that's step two. But we'll see what we got going on here. We got some questions. And of course, you guys know what day it is. You know what we do around here.

Jesse knows what we do. Every week is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. and every Monday we go to the mailbag. Let's go. All right. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox.

And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go out. All right. Let's check out our questions from our friends on Twitter. Leo, we got our first question. Patrick Martin at Luck Martin 317 on Twitter asks, How is Lawler's shoulder fracture going to impact his path to the big leagues. And I know Josh Barfield recently had some comments on this. Yeah. What are, how do you think this is going to impact him? Yeah, not at all. Theoretically, Josh Barfield said it

really shouldn't affect his, even his offseason at all, at least not in a significant way. When I spoke with Jordan Lawler, um, a couple of weeks ago, he said that he's just waiting until early December and then at that point he can start to get back into baseball activities. Um, so yeah, it really doesn't make a huge difference for him. He played a full minor league season. He still got about 50 played appearances in the fall league. So it was still a pretty full year for him. And come December, once we get a little bit closer to the end of the year, he should be able to do his normal offseason routine.

He's talked about wanting to get stronger as being one of his main points of focus for the offseason. So, yeah, as unfortunate as it was and as much as it sucks that, you know, we couldn't go out to fall league games and watch Jordan Lawler anymore. It still shouldn't really have a huge impact on him in the long term. And they weren't really too concerned about the defense that we saw or the mistakes that he made defensively during fall league play. They just felt like it was all part of his natural progression. And then he was kind of on path still for where they wanted to be. Yeah, I think so.

I think so. I mean, the guy has played one full year of pro ball after high school. So he talked about it just being something where it's not something that he's really like focused on too much at this point, not something he's put a lot of intentional thought into. It's just a matter of kind of getting the reps, and the more that he's done that, the more that he feels he's playing well defensively. So that'll be another point of focus moving forward for sure, but it didn't seem like something that he was overly concerned about. Well, we have a lot of shortstop infield questions today. And of course, one thing we have been seeing is that the Chicago Cubs have been very aggressive in the shortstop market, basically requiring about all the top short stops around the league. I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to be in that position.

I think that they do kind of have their present and their future figured out for the most part. So I think they're kind of the opposite as far as the Cubs go. But our next question asks, should we start Pardomo over Nick Ahmed? And that comes from Alex and a bunch of numbers. Sorry, Alex. I'm not reading all those. But start Pardomo over Ahmed. Jesse, your thoughts.

I think you, this is a situation where you kind of let the competition play out. in the Cactus League and just see where we're at. Because I don't think Pardomo did enough in the regular season to be like, oh, this guy is someone you have to play 150 games next year. But also Nick Ahmed, you know, before he got hurt, was struggling a little bit. I'm sure the injury played a role in that. But if he comes out in the Cactus League and starts to look, you know, like his old self. At one point, Nick Ahmed was, you know, kind of getting better offensively,

like getting close to league average offensively while playing out. an elite shortstop, which has a lot of value. So if you see that version of Mick Ahmed again in the Cactus League, I think you probably go that direction and maybe give him the majority of the reps. I agree a thousand percent with Jesse when it comes to that. At this point, I think that the Diamondbacks have a few positions, have a few positions where they can literally let the competition play out amongst the players that they have.

They have other positions, obviously, that they're not as deep on, that they're going to basically do everything they can, like third base, to just have someone be there. I think Catell is mostly secure at second. I think Christian Walker is mostly secure there at first. I don't see there being any competition for those positions. But shortstop, there will be a competition for. In the outfield, there will also be a competition for as well.

So I think that that tends to bring out the best in these guys. And I know in the past it has when the Diamondbacks had like pitchers competing against each other for a final roster spot and such. It was, you know, much, much different time where they had, you know, that much talent. as far as arms go. I don't think they're there right now, but it's going to be interesting to see how a lot of this plays out once we get to Cactus League play. You're very likely going to want Ahmed in there against the lefties.

If Nick Ahmed is healthy, you'll almost definitely want him in there when there's a lefty on the mound. And if there's someone on base, you want our wrist king in there. Right, exactly. So you start Ahmed against lefties, and then if at any point in the game,

there are runners in scoring position, take him out, with the wrist king, Haralvo fordome. who did have a very, very good season with runners in scoring position. So give credit where credits do there. And I think I kind of answered our next question a little bit. And that question comes from Veselyarahide at Dwight Bird.

And he asks, do we bring in a top-tier shortstop like Turner? And I think, honestly, the shortstop position is the one position right now where even if they're not there yet, I don't think that they're going to look to spend that money on a shortstop. Yeah, well, not, not Tray Turner. There's, yeah, Tray Turner is, D-BACS wouldn't be the only team in that market, and Trey Turner is going to get paid like crazy this offseason. So, yeah, I can say with quite a bit of confidence that, you know, Dansby Swanson, Carlos Correa, Trey Turner, none of those big name shortstops are going to be within the realm of possibility.

All the guys the Cubs are in on, we are not in on, basically. Exactly, exactly. All right, let's get to this one because this is the real important question of this first set. And that is, comes from our friend at Don's Bread. Of course, it's a ridiculous question. Don's bread asks, did you know in Moraka, Morioka, Morioka, Japan, I'm going to say that. For $31.80, you can compete in an all-you-can-eat noodle challenge. The record is 570 bowls.

So he has two questions. One, between the two of you, who do you think can get close to the 570? And two, which DeBax players could you see getting close to 570? Well, I'm not betting on myself in some sort of an all-you-can-eat competition. I'll start there. Not at all. And I mean, first of all, I mean, you should be asking if the two of us combined it together can get close to 570 bowls. I wouldn't want to pay $31.80 to enter something that's like probably severely going to damage.

My digestive tracts. It's only $31.80 for something that's going to damage your intestinal tract. Like, I get it's a lot of food. But if I really am competing and, like, actually have to put all of that into my system, I really wouldn't, like, you would have to pay me to do that, frankly. That would be more like a dare situation. But, yeah, I guess we would, I don't think combined we could possibly eat that many bowls of noodles.

But I don't know. On the debacks, Derek, what do you think? Well, I mean, first of all, we got to get ours in. And just to kind of help people understand. 15 small portions will account for one normal size bowl of sova noodles. So 15 would at least be one bowl. Okay. How many bowls, like a full bowl of what we know is a full bowl of noodles, do you think you could eat?

Two, three? Like a full, I could maybe get up to like four or five. All right. I think I can reasonably do that. Right? So you talk about five. That's 60. That's 60 bowls.

All right. Okay. All right. All right. Now, I myself, I'm going to put in the 570, of course, because that's what I do. I don't take challenges like this lightly. So, of course, I'm going to out-eat-eat-Jesse. And I did find out that you can add to these bowls, tuna sashimi, Nameco mushrooms, radish,

cooked minced chicken, all sorts of stuff you can add to it. It's delicious. And I can't wait to take Jesse. I could eat maybe too. Maybe two. All right. Two regular size, so 30 of these. Fair enough.

I have to be starving. That's a good point. And you know what? There's a fine line because sometimes when you're too hungry, you can't really eat that much. Yeah, because then your stomach is shrunk down and you eat like one bowl. I'm just, yeah. All right. So, Jesse, who on the Diamondbacks?

Which two are we are we sending to eat? Noodles. I think you just, you want people who like are just more outrageously competitive than anything else. Okay. At a certain point, it's not really like, oh, let's try to figure out who on the debacks like can eat the most. like who on the debacks is like the craziest guy who like would be willing to do anything at all costs in order to like win this competition right that's really what you're looking for so Josh Rojas is the first name that comes to mind as he often does for these sorts of questions so

I think that's the clear cut answer dare Josh Rojas to do it you'd be like I bet you can't and he'd be like give me the bulls yeah right right right exactly exactly um based on his experience and again competitive nature he's not a big guy you think we would go with a big guy. You think we'd go with Stone Garrett because of those muscles. Those muscles need a lot of fuel to get him going. Stone Garrett would be too concerned about like his protein diet and, you know, wanting to make sure that he's getting the right nutrients and everything. I don't think he would even be willing to enter the competition in the first place. I'm sending in someone who I know can kill a whole lot of Japanese food very easily. And that's Merrill Kelly.

Okay. Okay. Merrill Kelly, known competitor. Again, guy that wants to grind it out. Right. Merrill Kelly might take some breaks, you know what I mean? But he's going to go outside. He's going to go outside. He's going to drink some water. He's going to do what it takes, but he's going to get through at least 500 of those bowls. I mean, he's an innings eater. He's so it just makes sense, right? The mail the mainstay. We had some questions, by the way, in the chat, and they weren't from sexy robots or whatever we got here.

Elizabeth asked, favorite Elton John song, and that's difficult. Oh, man. I'll say funeral for a friend is my favorite song that I don't ever get to see him perform. And he performed that at the show the other day. So that was incredible to me. Off the top of my head, it's really hard. I'm still standing. I like him.

I like I'm still standing. Billy Joel and Elton John, there's songs that aren't like giant hits, but they mean a lot to me. Charles Woodall Pike said, thoughts on pickles, with it being National Pickle Day. Oh, national pickle. Is it National Pickle Day? I have a complicated relationship with pickles Oh Yeah I do

Well here's here let me just say this I like pickles I also like pickles I just don't like them on my stuff I don't like them on my sandwiches So you just want to eat them You just want to eat them straight I like a fried pickle

I like a pickle spear I like a big old you know Vlasic out of the jar I'm fine with those Just don't slice it and put it on my sandwich That's all Do you like the bread and butter Pickles like the sweet ones

I love those I think they're incredible Like, I know that's kind of controversial. I'll pick them off the stuff and put them on the side. I'm sorry, Louie. Go ahead. Bread and butter pickles are amazing, but people either love them or hate them. So, Jesse, we're on the same page.

The other funny thing about this question is I had no idea it was National Pickle Day until 10 minutes before the show. We got Chop Shop for lunch. Shout out to Chop Shop. And Sean had a sandwich and he had a pickle spear. And he said, do you want this? And I said, of course I do. And I just can't believe there are people out there who don't like pickles.

That's all. There you go. Sean gave away his pickle on National Pickle Day. Another reason why he can't come on the show. Yeah, strike two. Yeah, sorry, Sean. Brett Johnson said, I don't know if this was asked, but how interested the Red Sox Sound in Varsho?

Would you like them to target? Would you like them to target, given the fact that Mike Hazen said they are done with trading for prospects? It depends on what they get back, to be honest. It depends what the return is. I think Varsho, we've talked about that. Varsho is a very alluring trade candidate. And I feel like, of course, he has all the tools. We talk about that all the time.

But Varshow just really does have a flexibility that other players do not have. And not only that, but he's shown his ability to just kind of accept whatever role that the Diamondbacks give them and excel and succeed at it. Yeah, that's a great question. One that I was just thinking about too, as we were getting going here, that the Red Sox have, according to one article, have some interest in Dalton Varsho specifically and probably just Dback's outfielder's in general. But yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean, at this point, we should be able to pinpoint guys off of other teams Major League rosters.

Like, that's what the Debex won in return. So looking at their roster, I mean, Raphael Devers, I mean, that would be the dream scenario, right? But you're not really expecting that to happen. Although, I mean, they produced similar war last year. So I guess there's a case we made there. But I don't think the Red Sox are interested in trading him. Trevor's story, probably not interested there. I don't know.

Honestly, looking at the position players that the Red Sox have, I don't think there's a really great fit here. Christian Vasquez, I think, is a really interesting possibility on the free agent market. But obviously, he is not going to be with the Red Sox next year, at least unless he happens to resign with them. So that's not really a name you'd be looking at either. So I'll look more into that and see if I can find a fit. Maybe it's like a package of players that would go back to the debacks. But there's nothing super clear that I think the debacks would want from Boston. And make sure he's writing, by the way.

He has that wonderful interview with Jordan Lawler that you can read more on that over at go phtonx.com. If you haven't gotten yourself a membership yet, get yourself an annual membership. You'll get a free t-shirt from the phtonx locker.com as well as all sorts of other added benefits. If you are looking for a month-to-month option, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. And regardless of your membership status, you will get members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. You'll get members-only invites to our events and members-only access to our Discord, which, of course, is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan.

If you're watching us right now on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, make sure to subscribe to us. Leave us a little thumbs up and make sure you sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live or any shows on the channel go live. Also, if you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a review. We would appreciate you for doing so. All right, Leah, we got some more mailbag questions. This time we have an interesting question in regards to free agency off season. Can the DMAC's leadership resist going all in on a team that's not quite ready for primetime? Or will the Phillies success this past postseason cause an unjustifiable leap? That comes from our guy, Rick Hughes, at DB11S3 on Twitter. And I hate this because he's so right. I mean, that's such an Arizona Diamondbacks thing to do at this point. And I feel like it has to be a little hard to resist based on the success of this team.

And some key components right now. We've talked about selling high when some of these guys have had a good season. I hate that you fucking said it about Jake McCarthy, but you're not wrong, right? Like, who knows if Jake McCarthy continues to be that good? Who knows if our show continues to be this good. So there might just be that opportunity to sell high. But at the same time, too, we've seen this happen so many times with good young players that the Diamondbacks trade away or don't retain.

And they go on to show their greatness somewhere else. Yeah, I do view that I know that there has been this trend and frankly this problem in the past with the debacks pushing in the chips too early. We've talked about that a little bit over the last. couple of weeks. But I think this situation is different. The Diamondbacks didn't win 84 games last year. They won 74, right? Like 74 and 88 is not, you're not on the doorstep of winning a championship or, frankly,

even making the playoffs yet, right? I know it feels like a huge step forward from 2021 and it was. I mean, they won 22 more games, but this team still has a long way to go. Like thinking back to 2019, which is probably the most recent. an example of the D-backs kind of pushing in the chips a little bit too early, going and getting Madison Bumgarner, going out and trading for Starling Marte, a trade that looks worse and worse by the day, frankly. That was a situation where the Diamondbacks were coming off a pretty good season.

They won 85 games, I believe it was, in 2019. And so they felt like they were close, right? And there was at least some, I think that team probably overperformed, and that's why they they maybe shouldn't have made the moves that they did, but 85 wins is a lot different from 74. I don't think the debacks are in the same spot here where they're going to be, you know, tempted to kind of push all the chips in. I think they understand that they're not there yet, but they're getting closer. I don't expect any of the moves that they make to be the kinds of things that would jeopardize the future. They're not going to trade, you know, top prospects like they did

to get Starling Marte. I don't think there's any chance of them signing a guy of the ilk of Bumgarner. I just don't think they're in the market for a starting pitcher that would make nearly that that much money anyway. So, yeah, it's a different situation. I understand where you're coming from, but I don't have that much concern about that going into next year. All right. Next question. If you could add any and only two current free agents to the debacks, here we go. Who would you add?

Oh, my God, Jesse. So this goes back to last year where we had a show where we. We had a show where we basically were like, all right, how would you, how would you fix the diamondbacks? And you could spend, and you could spend whatever you wanted. It was the most ridiculous thought experiment we've ever done. But here we are again. Here we are doing it again. I'm going to start with Wilson Contreras.

Okay. Okay. I love Wilson Contreras. I think that the diamond backs definitely have a need for a solid catcher back there. and if I was throwing money around without a care in the world, like I tend to do, I would throw it at Wilson Contreras. Okay. I think that's fair.

He's 31 years old. He has a 5.5 war. I feel like he's just, you know, one of the best players in the game. And I think that the Diamondbacks could really use a catcher that not only can call a great game behind the plate, but can be an offensive threat, something that they really haven't had. Now, I don't want to knock Carson Kelly because Carson Kelly has shown, has little spans of brilliance.

But he just hasn't been able to stay healthy enough to keep it together and put together a great season. Yeah, I think that's a great one. I actually, if you look at MLB trade rumors, they have like a list of top 50 free agents. And one of their analysts, they made predictions. And one of their analysts actually had the Diamondbacks signing Wilson Contreras, which I don't think is a great prediction because he's going to make more money than what the debacks are likely to spend in total next year. but yeah, I would probably skip over all of the big short stops. I know we're in like a magical scenario here where the debacks can spend whatever. But you're also talking about having these guys on very, very long contracts, right?

And with Jordan Lawler right around the corner, it's just the timing there just doesn't really make sense for me. So, you know, you need a big right-handed bat for the middle of the lineup. I guess Aaron Judge is okay. So if we're allowed to be. any free agents. I'm just going to go there and say it. My second one would be still completely unrealistic, frankly. But I think Justin Verlander, having him come to Arizona,

would be Justin Verlander. Okay. Got it. You suck. Justin Verlander coming to Arizona, I think, again, there's no way they actually do this. But if I have all the money to spend in the world, it would be a more short-term deal.

You're not talking about seven years or something. Those types of deals don't tend to work out very well for starting pitchers no matter how much money you're paying. So, yeah, I mean a guy with his pedigree and being as good as he was this past year for Houston, I think there's still he saw some life left in that arm somehow some way. And putting him at the top of the rotation with Gallin and Merrill Kelly and then some of the young guys filling in those last two spots, the debacks rotation could be really freaking good next year.

So that would be the other name I'd throw out there. I'm on the same page as you with a starting pitcher, but I'm not going to go after a man that's that old. I want to keep things aligned with the DeBax Youth Movement. I want to throw a lot of money at a guy that's going to be here for a long time. I'm going to throw it at Carlos Rodan. He's 30 years old. He has the highest war of any pitcher currently available in free agency.

Oh, Saul's here. He's giving me the I mispronounced, Justin Verlander. I got us, Saul. Don't worry. I got him. He didn't even, Saul didn't have to say anything. We're getting there. But yeah, of all.

I had it right on a recent show. I said it right every time I said it. So there's growth there. Back to my pick. Yes. Go ahead. He's the youngest available starting pitcher with the highest one. No, that's a good pick.

So it's like even though financially I know he's going to bring home a ton of money. And again, that's kind of good because the giants are going to keep him. Right? That's most likely where he's going to stay is in San Francisco. And he is going to take up a considerable portion of the Giants budget that I've talked about at length with how much money they have. But of course, that's only if we had all the money in the world to spend. What else we got, Leah? Oh, Gabriel. There we go.

You troublemaker. He says, will J.D. Martinez finally come home? Will Daddy, who went out for cigarettes and milk a few years ago, come back? I don't know. Do we even want him to come home at this point? And that is an absolutely outstanding question. I love J.D. Martinez an unreasonable amount. I think J.D. Martinez, I swooned over him in a short amount of time when he was here

as an Arizona Diamondback. And it was hard not to considering what he did. The four home run game, anybody? Do we want to talk about that? I was almost at that game, too. So I was going to college in Southern California. I was like 25 miles away from Dodgers Stadium. I was going to go to that game and decided to go the next day instead and very much regretted it.

You should. Yeah, that was the day that J.D. Martinez had four home runs. 35-year-old designated hitter for a team that, to be honest, doesn't really need a designated hitter or an outfielder or anything that J.D. Martinez can do. But here's the thing. I think they need a right-handed bat. They need a right-handed bat. Right.

And that's what I was going to say. They need a right-handed power bat to compliment Christian Walker. And I think it's a fantastic idea if they can get him on a deal where they're going to pay less than $15 million to have J.D. Martinez to be a part of this team. I really think that what the Diamondbacks could use is that consistent offensive threat in the lineup that they don't really have. I think people are starting to respect Walker, but we're not there yet. And Christian Walker isn't consistent enough. He was way more consistent in the second half. So if he can continue on that streak that he was in the second half of last season,

we could see a very good Christian Walker at the dish next year with the power and everything. But Janie Martinez, there's just something special about that guy. There is. I mean, he just, I think he just has such a special place in the hearts of every diamondback stand. Because it was just this like three month glimpse that you got of a guy who, who really like in some ways I don't want to say change the narrative of that season but he became such a big part

of what that 2017 Diamondbacks team really was and a big reason that they were able to get where they went probably the best trade Mike Hazen has ever made by far I mean they gave up next to nothing in terms of prospect capital to get JD Martinez just so incredible yeah that short stretch like he slugged 740

7 to 41 He slashed 302, 366, 741 with a 1.107 OPS. It's insane. Oh, yeah, and 29 dingers in 62 games. He basically homered every other game. Over a full season, J.D. Martinez, at that same pace, would have hit 75 home runs. It's absurd. He was just better with Arizona than like he was, you know, with Detroit before him or even, you know, he went to Boston the next year and stayed on a role.

He was really good for Boston next year. He led the league in RBI the following season for Boston. So the Boston got exactly what they wanted out. And he was an All-Star. He was an MVP candidate. He led the league in total bases. He was something else. And I think he still has something in the tank at 35 years old.

So if you're asking me, yes, I'm opening up my wallet and paying J.D. Martinez to come here. I just feel like it further complicates the Diamondback's situation with their young players and is going to have to force their hand as far as far as who's going to, stick around and who is going to be seen as expendable. Right. I mean, so let's look at like, okay, what is J.D. Martinez now? We know we have all these fond, right, D.BACS fans of all these fond memories of what he was

a few years ago. What he is now, he had 274, 341, 448 last year. He was above average. He was about 20% above average according to weighted runs created plus. He was a one war player according to Fangraphs, which is not particularly high. You're not getting any defensive value. I think the debacks would exclusively use him as a DH, given how good they are defensively in the outfield. There's no reason to have J.D. Martinez play right field when you have Dalton Bar Show and Corbyn Carroll and all these guys.

So he had 16 home runs last year. He's not the same guy, right? He's not the same guy. But he did finish the year well. If you look at his last 150 or so at Bats, he was a really, really good hitter for Boston. And yeah, I think he would have a lot of value on the debacks. The question is just what is the price tag? I've seen people say two years 30 million, maybe one year 15 million, something like that. That would probably be more than I personally would pay for J.D. Martinez. I think at that point you're paying for the name more than you're paying for the actual production. But if there's a way that the Diamondbacks could get J.D. Martinez back for maybe under 10 million, which I don't think will happen. But if it's possible to get him back for under 10 million, I think that would be worth seriously considering.

because his veteran leadership, what he's meant to this organization in the past, I think it would galvanize the fan base. Everybody loves the guy. Everybody wanted the D-Backs to bring him back. And I think it would just feel right if J.D. Martinez was wearing a D-Bax uniform again. All right. And apologies to you guys for the chat. We can't see your comments right now on screen, but I will be keeping an eye on them on YouTube.

I was wondering. I was wondering. No, people are crying over J.D. in the chat. Don't worry. All right. All right, Leah, what else we got? We'll jam on these last two questions. Spencer Spice asks us, if you could vacation regularly in a specific place, where would you go?

Wow. So, like, it doesn't have to be practical? No. Same thing, just like with spending free agency money. Okay. That's, it's hard for me. I really enjoyed Australia. Australia was beautiful.

The Great Barrier Reef was incredible? Was? Like, you've been there? Yeah. Australia is incredible. I've been there too. Oh, my gosh. How am I the only person in this room who's not been to Australia?

You're well traveled. I am well traveled. And yet somehow the only one year who's ever been to Australia. I currently regularly vacation at Disneyland. So I mean, I can't pick that. But I really do enjoy anywhere with a beach. And I can, like, just put me on a beach. Anywhere. Anywhere with a beach.

And yet you say like the farthest beach. Well, yeah, I mean, because I'm picking a great beach. But, you know what I mean. Yeah. Like, I will take any all-inclusive resort where I can have frosty drinks in my hand and just be on a beach. That's all I really want. Where are you going?

Have you been to the Amalfi Coast? No, where's that? It's in Italy. I've been there. Oh, my God. Leo, what the hell? Oh, my gosh. I'm the best traveled person here.

I at least thought I would win out with that one. It's incredible. It's this historic coastal place in Italy, like in southern Italy. And yeah, like all of the buildings there were built in like a thousand years ago or something. And it's just, wild. The food is also spectacular. I could eat Italian food every day for the rest of my life and not really have any regrets about that. So yeah, I would spend every weekend in the Amalfi Coast if I could. That's awesome. My friend that lived in Australia now moved to the UK, shout out Adam.

And he took his mom when he first got to the UK on literally a trip all around Europe to just go eat and drink at all these amazing restaurants and places all over the place. I was so jealous. I hope to do that with him one day soon. And then I can report back about how well, all the places I've gone to. So we should do in the off season. We should go on. We should just, we don't have to be here for D-BACs game.

So let's just. We'll bring Leah with us and we'll just go ahead. Twist my arm. As long as we include her, she'll be good. Yeah. What's our last question, Leah? This one's important. Michael Rokicki asked,

if Diamondbacks players were Thanksgiving foods, what would they be? Oh my God, I've put so much thought of him. Way too much thought. All right. I'm going to go back to Merrill Kelly real fast because, again, Merrill Kelly, his consistency, he doesn't get the love or the shine or the flowers that he should, but you just know he's good, he's always going to be good, and he's never going to disappoint you.

And because of that, Merrill is the biscuits or the rolls at Thanksgiving dinner, whatever you prefer, biscuit roll, the butter goes on. You know, the dinner could suck. And as long as someone heated the rolls up, they're going to be good. You're going to eat the rolls at least, right? No matter how dry the chicken is, no matter how bad everything else is, you're going to eat the rolls, and that's Merrill Kelly. I think Josh Rojas would be like, I don't know, turkey or ham. Do you have a strong preference one way or the other?

I feel like he's a ham. You feel like he's a ham? I feel like he's ham and not just a ham in the literal sense of him kind of being a ham. But like Josh Rojas, you either love him or you don't? Yeah. Right? Turkey is more of a Zach Galen, right? I don't know.

I don't think you can do Zach Allen like that. Turkey is one of the more controversial. Like, it's a star of the plate. Jesse, it's a star of the plate. Most people don't like turkey. Wow.

In my, I don't know. Leah, do you think that like, in my opinion, most of the Thanksgiving gatherings that I've been a part of, the turkey is kind of the thing that you like push through. Okay.

So I do feel like turkey. There is a anti-turkey movement going on. I don't like it. Because truly, and I agree, of all the meats, I don't really love turkey. No.

But you could reposition how you're looking at turkey and instead think of it as it's iconic. It's iconic. When you picture Thanksgiving, you picture a turkey in your brain. Yeah, who do you picture when you think of the downbacks? Zach Gallen. No, no. Here's the thing. No, she said iconic.

Zach Gallen hasn't been pitching long enough to be iconic. Madison Bumgarner? Madison Bumgarner? Like a little overrated but has the name cred. Turkey? That's pretty good. I think it fits. Turkey is better.

the next day and Madison Bump Gardner isn't. What does that even mean? Turkey on a, like a sandwich is leftovers, is way better than eating it at Thanksgiving dinner. Thus, it's better the next day and you know it's going to be. Okay, you have to read the YouTube comments right now. I'm so sorry. We can't see what any of you are saying right now.

I'm reading them and I'm dying. All right. Tori Lavallo's the gravy. He brings it all together. He brings it all together. Okay. Right? He brings it all together.

You can put gravy on everything. I see people put gravy on the biscuits on the mashed potatoes, on the turkey, on the stuffing, everything, right? Okay. The clutch connect said, Josh Rollhaus. Oh, my God.

We missed that one. Oh, there we go. That one's good. That's good. I like that. Justin Verlind dinner. Oh, my gosh. Christian Walker, because he mashes, he's the mashed potatoes.

Oh, that's good. He mashes? Yeah, that's good. And here's it. other thing. I'm giving Corby and Carol a unique newer side, right? Interesting. That I never really had

prior to last year, but it was fried butternut, squash, hash. Okay. And it was incredible. So it's new. So like the new, the new thing? It's not a traditional, but it's the best thing. Okay. Oh, it was really good. It was the star of the dish. So the stuffing or the dressing,

depending on who you are, I say stuffing, but I say stuffing, too. Dressing goes on salad. not on my Thanksgiving plate personally. So as far as that's concerned, you're looking for someone who has been around a while, right? Like a staple because that's a staple of the Thanksgiving meal. So I'm a little stuck. What do you think?

Like a guy who's like been around along like pretty good. Like I think the stuffing is one of the better parts of the meal. Would that be like a Cotel Marte? Yeah, maybe a Cotel Marte. Like where I know like... You don't appreciate it as much as, you used to, but you should. Yeah.

It's still really good. Yeah. I think there's some truth to that. You know, maybe it'll have a comeback next year. Maybe the stuffing will turn out a little better next year. You never know. You just add a little bit to the stuffing and all of a sudden it's something new. Change up the recipe.

You know? Decrease the ground ball rate a little bit. Maybe it'll be better next time around. I like it. All right. I think we covered this. I think we nailed this. I have one more thing to add.

So last week on the Sudd show, they got asked, they did a mailbag and they got asked which shows were which parts of the meal like this. But peach and Xad show. Shows. Oh, fascinating. And DeBax is the utensils because you have all the tools. Oh, that could be Dalton Varshow, too. Dalton Varsho is the utensils. Don't know that.

That's pretty fantastic. And thank you guys, again, for your questions. Of course, Mailbag Monday wouldn't be what it is without you guys. So thank you guys so much for doing. It really wouldn't be. We would just be sitting here asking each other questions. It would be awkward. Of course, you haven't done so already.

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I've been doing very well on the NBA stuff. Not so well on the NFL stuff. But I have the NBA to at least get me my money back from. I keep making these outrageous parlays on the NFL, but the NBA I'll bet one solid coward bet, and I'll win it. So make sure don't let anybody bully you on how you bet, bet how you want to on the Drafking Sportsbook app and make that money. Of course, we also give a shout out to our friends at OGs. We are so excited to continue to be partners with our friends at OGs, the only edible that make you say, oh, geez, I'm high. They have a variety of flavors, my favorite, of course, the orange creamsicol, but you can get down, especially on their new sleep edition gummy flavored aqua berry.

shout out to Aquaman for those. And of course, they get you going where you need to go. Our friends at OGs not only give you a wonderful night's sleep, but they also make everything better. So check them out your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Of course, we thank you guys again so much for joining us, Jesse. Can I say one last baseball thing?

I know we're like way over our normal time already, which I blame the Thanksgiving question for. It's totally. That's true. This is actually kind of a significant 24 hours for the, for the, for the, the debacks. I just want to really quickly point this out. Tomorrow night at I believe 6 p.m. Eastern time is when teams have to have their, they have to turn in their final 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft. And debacks have a lot of work to do, frankly.

So in the next 24 hours or so, you're going to see a lot of 40-man roster movement. There are a few players that aren't on the 40-man roster that absolutely have to be. Justin Martinez, there's no way you're letting him get away in the Rule 5 draft. He's absolutely a guy you're going to have to add Dominic Fletcher, I think, is another gimmie. You're definitely going to add him to the 40-man roster. Dominic Canzon, also part of that mix. There's a few other guys that are kind of on the edge, Blaze Alexander, a name that very well could be added. So the debacks have some maneuvering here to do.

They have to create a bunch of spots, and they have to add these guys in there. Not out of the question, you could see a trade in the next 24 hours, not saying it's a guarantee or anything. But just given how many outfielers the debacks have and, you know, how many spots, They already have occupied with outfielders, specifically left-handed hitting outfielders. They have some incentive to try to maybe create some room there and maybe move a guy or two to another organization if things work out. So just keep an eye on things over the next 24 hours. We'll have updates as soon as we can possibly get them to you. So just something to keep an eye out for.

Of course, we'll be back at this time tomorrow to update you on that. So make sure to join us tomorrow at 1 p.m. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys again for joining us today on behalf of Leah, Jesse, and myself. We always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Madison Bumgarner is the turkey.