PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte Thought He Was GONE? D-backs Star Reveals Stunning Offseason Admission

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks battled back to salvage a split in their four-game showdown with the Atlanta Braves. But on a day meant to celebrate Ketel Marte’s 10 years of MLB service time, the D-backs star opened up about how convinced he was that he was going to be traded this offseason and the emotional toll the constant rumors took on him. Then, in a moment that felt straight out of a movie, Marte delivered a walk-off hit in the 10th inning to seal Sunday’s finale. We break down the full series, Marte’s revealing comments, and what it all means moving forward. Plus, we dive into your Mailbag Monday questions and our guy Dalton Feely joins the show to discuss the Snakes getting back to .500. 0:00 SkeeYee & Happy Monday!  3:00 Dalton Feely joins the show!  9:20 Bullpen lowkey alright?  18:00 Rotation when Merrill Kelly comes back  22:10 Braves series recap  27:45 Ketel Marte receives no-trade clause  42:15 Mailbag Monday  52:45 Jose Fernandez so far  58:30 6-man starting rotation?  1:08:00 Carlos Santana injury Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 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/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes 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/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are going where no man has gone before. We're going to compliment the Diamondbacks bullpen. Don't you go anywhere. We're starting right now. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast. Presented by our friends at CircleGay. It is I, your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montea. Happy Monday to you all.

Thrilled to have you guys here joining us. I'm thrilled to be talking about Arizona Diamondbacks baseball. I am joined by my guy, your guy. Actually, I take that back. My guy and your dog. It is the one, the only Damon dog on the ones and twos. Bark, bark to you, Damon Dog. How's everything going with you?

You know, Derek, I've had better weekends, but I'm excited to be here in the baseball season talking about a 500 baseball too. There we go. We're on the baseball now. We're on the baseball. Nothing else can hurt us here, at least for the time being. But thrilled to have you guys here. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365.

I bet 365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use code P HNX 365. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply there. And we are not alone. We are here.

You guys are here. Thrilled to have you guys here. Thrill to be talking about the Diamondbacks salvaging this series overall. After losing the first two games, especially game one, in embarrassing fashion by a score of 17 to 2, somehow winning the final two games on Saturday and Sunday and eveninging the series at two games apiece. They also, Damon, have reached 500.

And of course, you guys all know what that means. Damon, got to send a little prodomo up the mountain. That always feels good. Well, to celebrate us getting to Mount 500, we got our guy from John Boy, the one the only, Dalton Feely, joining us and still representing team Puerto Rico in the WBC proudly.

What's up, Dalton? Glad to have gear, buddy. Let me make sure I look right. There we go. There we go. Never looked better. That of God. What's happened to, man.

How are we feeling about our snakes? Better than I did after the Dodger series. Let me tell you, back at 500. Listen, after a 17-2 gave us to Braves to start that series, I was not feeling great, but Saturday and Sunday, salvage the series back to 500 off day, traveling to New York. We'll see what they have for the Mets coming up. Yeah, no, I mean, it's going to definitely be a tough task. The Mets are now without Juan Soto, news coming out that he will be put on the 10-day IL.

So at the very least, that would seem to be an advantage for the Diamondbacks here, who found a way to win two kind of ugly baseball games over the course of the weekend. And their offense did step up on Sunday, not only scoring those six runs, but Cotel Marte delivered with that huge walkoff hit there in the bottom of the 10th inning. But I think game three, more importantly, the more impressive win here, where the Diamondbacks are able to take that one by a score of 2 to 1. And Dalton, I mean, again, this is not the typical Diamondbacks game we see them win. Usually these close games, at least over the course of last year,

you would almost guarantee it would be a loss, would be blown in some way. And honestly, they found a way to lock it down in another one-run game. I mean, when we talk about one-run games and the Arizona dimebacks, it's usually never a good thing. But in this case, they win back-to-back one-run games to clinch out the series and go two-and-two-version Braves. In the Dodgers series to open up, they lost two-one-run games. So it wasn't a good start to the 20-26 season in terms of one-run games. They're back at 500 in that stat.

They're two-and-two so far this season. And so trending in the right direction. Shout out Jose Fernandez. I mean, that bunt is just beautiful. Crazy. Completely flip the game. Completely flipped the game, momentumized. And shout out the bullpen.

I mean, Paul Seawald obviously struggled in that Friday game, giving up the home runs to Ozzy Albies and Matt Wilson. And he had been nails prior to that. So that was not the greatest doubting by him. But that said, the Dimeback's bullpen outside of the 17-2 game, and then outside of Paul Seawald alone in that Friday game, they got the job done. Loisica, you know, blows in the ninth,

but he keeps the game tied rather than a deficit going to the ninth inning. Just kept it there, and Marte did his thing in the 10th. Yeah, I mean, again, Jose Fernandez, he just has emerged as a star. He seems to be getting it done. And now with the injury to Carlos Santana, not knowing the severity of that injury, but he did stay behind for imaging. He did not get on the plane and go to New York with the team.

It would appear that Jose Fernandez is going to be their option at first base over there, which is just, again, a really big opportunity, but it feels so much better. It feels so much better than it would have two weeks ago before Fernandez made his debut. If you would have told me that they would already be down one Pavin Smith and one Carlos Santana at first base, I would probably be losing my mind right now.

Yeah, and the other person who might be getting a lot of playing time is Ildamara Vargas, who... Oh, Vargy. If you told me through 10 games at Ildomarovar Vargis, maybe outside of Corbyn-Carrul is the best offensive. a player in the Arizona dime backs lineup. I would be laughing and saying what the heck, what the heck's happened?

He's been lights out. I think he's got six hits, three of which have gone for extra base hits this year. I think he's going to see some time at first base. He's just a ball player, man. Like he, you can move him all over the infield. You used to be able to play him in the outfield too,

gets on base. He just does everything right. He might not like have a lot of pop in the bat, but he just does everything needed, all the little things he just does right. I completely agree. And again, And it's like he's also one of those guys that when you feel like you can lean on him,

then he kind of comes back down to earth. But when you plug him in in these scenarios, when you need him here and there, I mean, he's clutch. And he was clutching this series. He was clutching yesterday's game. He came up with the big hit there, as well as Corbyn and Kattel, which was nice to finally see both of them delivering in a game. I mean, again, I'm not panicking about the production of any of these guys.

When you look across Major League Baseball right now, it feels like a lot of stars are not doing great, but it's baseball. So it's hard for you to immediately like expect in the first 10 games for everybody to be tearing the cover off the ball. It just felt good to see, you know, Corbin had to have a day where he was three for four with that big triple. And then Cotel Marte obviously stepping up in a huge moment and specifically, you know, delivering when the Diamondbacks needed it the most. That felt like something that that Cattel has kind of always been. been capable of in his career. But it also feels like we haven't seen it much lately.

So it was just refreshing to once again see Catelle come in in a situation like that and make it a no doubter right away. I mean, one pitch and the ball game was over. He called game. I mean, it was awesome. You knew right off the barrel that it was going to be for base hit. I think on the broadcast, they said that was Cattel's first regular season walkoff hit since 2019, which also so happened to be against the Atlanta Braves.

So I guess he has something against the Atlanta for you. Right. That doesn't even seem possible. Crazy. I mean, he had that moment in 2019. Well, if you don't count the NLCS. Yeah, right. Regular season is what he said.

Yeah. That's not. Yeah, he had that moment game three, I believe, versus Phillies in the NLCS. Sorry, I have Shelfy in the room too as a Phillies fan. Sorry, just give a quick big. I know. You got to make sure you heard that part for sure.

But yeah, it was very good to see Ketel come up clutch in that moment. Yeah, that's, I mean, yeah, and not only that, but like you said, the bullpen deserves credit. I know that it's still been shaky. I know it's still a work in progress. But you just start to feel a little more confident. And even in some of these blown games, like the 17 to 2 game, I have a lot of thoughts on, especially Kevin Ginkle not being able to get that final out. Outside of that, it was garbage time.

They threw Joe Ross in there, who cares what he does. I think the team knew they were probably going to DFA him anyway, so they might as well have gotten some innings out of him before making that specific move and then you put James McCann in and James McCann go slider heavy instead of going with his fastball and he gives up five earn runs right but I mean again that's that's not a concern to me considering the circumstances of that particular game overall though when you look at this series like this bullpen did a great job at at holding these games close they weren't perfect and they're not going to be perfect there's this isn't going to be a top 15 bullpen in major league

baseball at any point as the season progresses. But you do get the feeling that we're finding some guys here that Tori can count on and guys that are able to come in and do what a reliever is supposed to do. Come in, get an inning of working and keep the game the same score that it was when you entered the game. Just keep it here, right? Just keep it competitive because with the dimebacks, we know how it goes. The offense can get you out of a deficit.

They can come back. There are the answer backs for a reason, right, Derek? Like this is what we've come accustomed. with the dime max lineup. And obviously the lineup hasn't started off. I think the way most people thought they would in 2020. There's been some struggles outside of Corbyn and Nildemarovarovargas. Again, just a hilarious pairing of players to be the productive guys in the lineup so far this year.

But yeah, like one guy that really kind of stuck out to me this weekend was Taylor Ashi. Like the stuff just looks a little bit better than it did last year. If he's someone that can come in and contribute as a leverage guy potentially, that's a big swing to the bullpen. And mind you, it's 10 games, so it's a limited sample size. But we are talking about, oh, yeah, this timeback bullpen's okay. They might be able to get the job done. They're still 29th and bullpenny are right. But that's not 30th.

That's not 30th. Obviously, some of it's skewed from the 17-2 game. I get it. Some of that is James McCann. Some of that's Joe Ross, who just got DFAed over the weekend. But you're right. Right now through the eye test, things have not gone awful yet. Right.

And I hope it stays that way. And for the most part, again, these close games have been more the fault of the offense. it feels like than the pitching staff. In fact, the starters have been incredible. Coming into yesterday's game, they had the sixth best starting rotation, ERA and all the baseball, and that's still with Brandon Fought 7.5 ERA and Ryan Nelson's five and a half ERA.

And the only thing that sucks here is that there is, you know, a roster dilemma coming up. And my friend Brock and I talked about it on yesterday's D-backs after dark, but the truth of the matter is the two guys that have minor league options left are the two guys that are not performing at their best right now. And that it very much sucks for them because it feels like they're making the Diamondbacks decision that much easier as far as what to do when Merrill Kelly comes back and possibly when Corbyn Burns returns too.

I know we all love Ryan Nelson and Brandon Fought. Like the Diamondbacks fan base embraces, I think, those two pitchers right now, more than anybody. You know, maybe Merrill Kelly a little bit, but I mean, overall, it feels like because those are the young guys that have come up in our system, we covet them. But again, Brandon Fott had another outing

where he couldn't really get through the fifth there, and he was about to have that inning turned sideways on him, like we've seen one inning due to him far too many times in his career. And Nellie had himself a rough outing there in that 17 to 2 loss that wasn't entirely his fault. A lot of errors being made and mistakes being made in that game, but still, you know, just not to start either one of those guys want,

considering that there isn't a lot of time. There isn't going to be a large sample size to determine who stays and who goes when Merrill Kelly returns before that date is here. I think there's two options that the dimebacks have. If I was evaluating the rotation circumstances right now, number one is do you option Brandon fought down to Reno and have him work on some things and figure it out because obviously the first two starts haven't been pretty. The Detroit start was really odd too because outside of the third inning, I believe, where he gives up five runs, the other eight innings, the entire time backs pitching staff doesn't give up a hit.

I think they go like eight perfect innings or eight, no hit innings outside of that one massive inning. Yeah. The other option is, and this is interesting, and I love to hear your thoughts on it, Ryan Nelson to the bullpen because I'll be honest, I think Ryan Nelson is a very good pitcher. I think that fastball is quietly one of the best pitches in baseball. It hasn't been so this year. But last year, it was a plus 24 run value.

It was 99th percentile in all of major league. We've seen it even the eye test, right, Derek? Like that fastball just plays. But he's really a two to three pitch pitcher. He tries to sprinkle in a little bit of a curve and cutter, but it's primarily that fastball and slider. And I'm just curious if you moved him to the bullpen. I don't know if it's full time.

I don't know if it's like he becomes a truly converted reliever instead of a starter. but like his stuff could really play in the bullpen too. It could potentially be a good problem for the snakes where that rotation is when Burns and Merrill are back, you have Ryan Nelson intentionally in that bullpen giving a couple and some length with that nasty stuff. I think that could be an intriguing option to my case in company too. I don't hate that at all. And I think that as long as that's the second move when Corbyn Burns returns, I feel comfortable about that.

Considering that you know you have Brandon fought in Reno still starting, still staying stretched out and available to start. should something happen to one of the guys in your rotation. I think that's the biggest key. Like, I was explaining this to, you know, a few people. I don't know how Major League pitchers feel themselves. I haven't had a chance to, like, pick their brain and ask them this, especially guys that are in a competition. It's the last thing I would want to put in their mind right now.

But, like, what would they rather? Would you – because, I mean, we as fans see being sent down to the minors as a demotion, but in the case of being a starting pitcher, it's just different. because ultimately they want to keep you stretched out. They can't keep you stretched out by going into the bullpen. And in some cases, the danger of you entering the bullpen is you being good as a bullpen arm because then you have value there. And now they're just like, well, we kind of need a bullpen arm more than we need a starting pitcher,

thus stealing your fate potentially as a bullpen arm going forward. And I don't think they think of Ryan Nelson as that. I don't think he would be held to that. I think any moves that are made this year are just made based on the fact that they have Zach Gallin on a one-year deal and, you know, Michael Soroka on a one-year deal. Like, these guys are just here temporarily. And there's a good chance that both of those guys want to prove their value so that they can get a higher contract after the season ends. I believe that's probably in their future. But, you know, again, the Diamondbacks aren't going to not have Ryan

Nelson and Brandon Fott be in their plans. They just need to figure something out to do with them. I don't think they do. I mean, you're right from the perspective that I don't think they need to send both of them down either, right? Like they don't need to option both of them. So maybe Ryan Nelson really can help this bullpen become complete by being that guy that can give them, you know, multiple innings of work and saving some of the other arms in there so that the debacks don't have to turn to somebody for or six, six relievers on a short outing or whatever the case, you know, may be there.

But I don't know. I will say for Ryan's case, like he could be a starting pitcher because like he's had success in like shown flashes in certain starts. I'm just very curious with the pitch repertoire, like can he go consistently through three times a lineup? Because he's been able to do it in some cases. Other starts, he hasn't been able to. Because like if he doesn't have that fastball one day or if he doesn't have that slide or the one day and you're kind of just sitting on that one other pitch that's really good. It's much easier to hit because the stuff's there. Brandon, I mean, you give Brandon some credit. He's got I think four to five pitches. He uses 10% or higher. So like he can

mixed things up. His problem has been more, I feel like runners in scoring position. He's coming from the stretch. That's where he really struggles, a putaway pitch. You know, he's so much over the plate, so much in the zone. Hitters are just go, go, go, ready to swing. So I think both these guys do have something to work on. I think long term, like, if you could just combine these two guys, right? Brandon fought and Ryan Nelson. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You get Brandon fought Ryan Nelson's fastball and then you give maybe Fott also. Nellie's like, I don't know, like I feel like something's going on with Fott. Like you said, I feel like he's tipping pitches or he's doing something different out of the stretch that makes him more predictable. You know, maybe his arm slot is different. Maybe his

delivery is different, but it seems like there's something there. Teams have picked up on because, and it's not just recent. It's something that's been for a while. It just feels like once he starts letting base runners on, like you said, the floodgates open. up and the run starts scoring and he just has a real hard time getting getting out you know in some form so i don't know if you know i don't know if if a bullpen move is is the help or if perhaps again like you said perhaps going to to the miners to not only stay stretched out but perhaps to work on some things like that could be helpful to him as well it's it's you know i i keep saying it's a good problem to have and i don't know if that's a cliche or if it's stupid to say

you know, but I will say that at least for the time being, the Diamondbacks have some starting pitchers that are performing far better than we expected to the point where it did push Nelly and did push Fott out, kind of exposed, versus what everyone else is doing. You also know that they're not going to put Zach Gallen into the bullpen, and they're most likely not going to make Eduardo Rodriguez as one of the highest paid relievers in baseball. Michael Soroka has always kind of been seen as, you know, the easy answer.

Soroka, though, I mean, he's killing it. He's doing an excellent job. And he also expressed to us during spring training how he feels like his best way to help this team win is as a starter. And I'm inclined to believe in that. He has handled business so far

and it's only two games, but he's looked tremendous in those two games. I do want to say to Tidal Bow and Brandon fought and Roy Nelson, like both these guys could still be very big contributors as starting pitchers in at the major league level. I agree.

There's just things for both of them in different ways they can work on. I think Ryan can contribute in the bullpen, at least for this year when everyone's healthy, because that stuff will play out of the bullpen, like especially going max below. That said, you got to give credit to Erod and Mike Soroka. Like that is, or Michael Soroka, excuse me. They have looked very good through two starts. And like especially Erod, man, like I think everyone last year had, like we're starting to get a little frustrated about the struggles that Erod had.

But one stat that really was eye-popping, he. He threw seven shot out innings. It was the first time he did that since 2023, Derek. Yes. Since September of 2023, it was his first time opening a season with consecutive starts of no earned runs allowed in ever in his career. It's the first time he did it against L.A. One of those outings is against L.A. And the Braves offense, which obviously last year was a little bit of a, I don't want to say a fluke here, but it was an outlier of a year because they'd made the playoffs.

I think seven straight seasons prior to 2025. But that's a good lineup. I know they're missing some guys, but that is still a pretty good lineup too. So shout out Erod and shout out Michael Sorokin. If the dimebacks want to have playoff aspirations for 2026, they needed improved results out of the rotation. And those two guys, and even Zach Allen as well. So I would like to include him too.

Those three guys have got it done. And hopefully they can continue that through April, May, and so forth. Well, we appreciate your analysis. As always, sir, we thank you for loving our snakes. And we'll see on the show next time. Thank you for stopping by. Of course. I do have some quick, sad news.

Did you see not like sad and sad news, Did you see the D-Backs Mets game time? What happened there? What happened? The Mets tweeted that the game got bumped up. It's now a 4-10 Eastern time start. So it's a 110 our time? Oh, my God.

Well, I guess this just became a pre-game show. This is Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah, so Tuesday, Wednesday, it's a 4-10-start Eastern, 1-10-start. I was going to go to both those games, but now I can't, So I'll be, I'll be rooting. Oh, that sucks. That sucks.

Oh, man. And let's sweep the mats. Why not? Yeah, well, we need you there. We need that energy there. So we appreciate you, sir. Thank you for updating us on that. And we'll make sure we don't miss those games.

But appreciate you, as always. Thank you. He is at Defeely 15? 14. 14. 14. Defeely 14. Zina, I've said a bunch of times you'll never forget it.

Follow him on social. And again, thank you, sir. for your time. We appreciate you as always. Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. See you later, man. Great analysis. And of course, John Boy, just the best on the game at baseball, for sure. Well, besides us, we're pretty good at this stuff too.

Damon, I know we didn't get a chance to look at it with Dalton, but before we get out of here, let's take a look at the stats from this weekend series because this one's ugly, but still, misleading. It's ugly, but misleading. It's ugly, but misleading.

I mean, a 17-2 game that was at one point. Again, like I'm doing this a lot recently, Derek, I find myself. Michigan beat the absolute dog shit out of Arizona. I don't even care if I cuss, whatever. I had a bad weekend. Yeah, you're allowed to cuss today. Michigan beat the absolute dog shit out of Arizona. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, if only Jaden Bradley didn't get called for that

third foul, five minutes left in the first half, we could be thinking about a different game. If only Nolan Aeronado fielded that ball that was hit right at him. Right. Maybe that 17-2 game is a W, which is crazy to say, but it's the truth. I know. And then other than that, it was a very competitive series. They punted on that game, and it's fine that they did. I mean, it was the opening game of his four-game series.

The last thing you wanted to do was have to exhaust your bullpen in a game that you lost anyway. But this is ugly, and it's still unbelievable that the Diamondback split this series, considering these numbers. Outscored 25 to 10 there by the Braves. That is not a mistake by Damon. and that is accurate actual information. They were out hit 37 to 21. Diamondbacks, if my calculations are correct, one home run in this series to the Braves seven,

seven home runs. A lot of foul ball home runs for the debacks in this series. Oh, so many foul ball run. You ripped one last yesterday. They almost went for a walk off. And it just felt like every time the Diamondbacks connected on something, it was like, oh, and that's foul. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Great numbers here for the starting. pitching ERA once again for the Diamondbacks. 1.64 here to 1.96. You might wonder how the hell that's possible. That's because Ryan Nelson was only charged with two earned runs in that first game. Aronado. Seven runs total allowed, but two run runs charged to them. And then the Braves were just really good.

The Braves were just so goddamn good. It was ridiculous. 1.96 ERA for the Braves. Relief pitching ERA here definitely favors the Braves. 1.50 for them. They had two games where they didn't allow a run and one run allowed into two other games total. Diamondbacks, meanwhile, allowed 15 earned runs in this series

in 15 innings of work there for a 9 ERA. And then wins, again, two. Two wins apiece. So that's a push. And that's how we stay 500 right there, boys and girls. Electric Cattel picture as well. Oh, well, Cattel is electric. and he couldn't we couldn't be more thankful that we get to watch the finale of that game

and with marty hitting that big walkoff hit but what if marty wasn't here what if that trade would have gone through this offseason would we be talking about the absolute object disaster that it was in the same way we're still mad about the blaze alexander trade well we were talking about could tell marty reaching his 10 years of service time on the other side of this break and the comments he made about thinking he in fact was going to going to be traded. We're doing that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next time in Beck Show. Well, we are almost here to summer and APS wants to help you when it comes to budget. You're budgeting, you're billing this summer with rate plan options.

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com with real-time access to in-stock products. Check out your nearest location. Get what you need when you need it. The Window Depot more than just the Windows Store. Well, welcome back to the PHNXDback show presented by Bet365. We did reach a milestone on Friday. Well, we didn't. We can't claim credit for his work.

But Catell Marte reached a milestone on Friday. That prestigious milestone of 10 years of service time. He is just the second Arizona Diamondback, all time to play 10 seasons with the club, joining Nick Ahmed, who played for 10 seasons between 2014 and 2023. Kattel has played 1,061 games for the debacks, which is third all time.

he is the third person all time to appear in that many games and he is third behind Luis Gonzalez who played 1,194 games for this team and Paul Goldschmidt who played 1,092 games for this team. I feel like... I know you don't want to say it, Derek, but I'll say it. Thank God, Catelle Marte gets added to that list of names longest tenured diamond back.

Oh, yeah. Because it makes me feel a lot better than Nick Omitt as the longest tenured diamond back. I mean, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. And also, I mean, when it comes to... the amount of seasons with these teams. Like, I can't imagine these other guys not being close to that 10-year amount of time.

But obviously, as we know, that 10-year and 10-5 rights holds a certain weight. That means that the player that has those 10-and-5 rights can veto any trade. They have a full no-trade clause in their contract. And for some reason, that became the talk of the off-season when it came to Cattel Marte, that the Diamondbacks were on a ticking clock to trade Cattel before he reached this milestone that he reached on Friday. And if they didn't, there was going to be some sort of terrible outcome for this team. And I would disagree, including this for a guy that is finished top five in NL MVP voting twice,

was a three-time NL All-Star, a two-time All-MBA, first-team honoree, two-time Silver Slugger, 2023 NLCS MVP Created by the way has the longest hit streak In postseason history and a two-time D-backs Arizona BBWAA most valuable player Ketel means everything to this team and he should And of course he was asked after the game Or during the game actually it was before the game on Friday

He was asked you know a little bit here about these What this meant to him and what specifically Having this full no trade clause means to him, this is what Kattel had to say. calm at ease because I do have that control. But like I've always said, I'm comfortable here, I'm happy here. I've had great support from the organization. The fans as well have always supported me.

And perhaps down the line when the fans get sick of me, maybe then I'll make a decision to possibly move on or make a decision. Listen to me when I say this. We will never get sick of you. We will never get sick of you. So that day never needs to come. And more importantly, I mean, yeah, Kattel obviously is glad that he has that control. More importantly, I think it means more to someone like Catelle considering that this is a man,

and Dame and I can attest to this, considering how many times we've talked about it on the show, that wants to be here. He wants to be here. I don't, I mean, I know a lot of players want to be where they're at because they like the city they're in or the organization is well ran or whatever. Like, there's a lot of things about Arizona that you could probably justifiably understand. a player wanting to play elsewhere. And the way that Marte has always treated this organization and this state has been as his home and the one place that he wants to be.

So it just feels good. And I imagine it feels good for him that he has that control considering that he doesn't want to just abruptly be moved somewhere else, considering how much he enjoys being a part of this team with this particular group of guys and how much he enjoys living here in this state, you know, and again, he's, he's a guy that's an adopted son. As book's journey says here in the chat, he came to us as a baby back. And we've seen him grow up literally. A guy that, you know, made his debut with the Mariners in 2015, makes his D-BACs debut in 2017. And now here we are, you know, talking about him being here and being one of the longest tenure diamondbacks in history. And I think his desire to be here plays a huge role in that. Like, Kattel wanting to be a part of this organization and a part of the city

makes it feel like that adds to the reason why he's been here as long as he has been, right? But more importantly, just like we all were worried about, just like we all thought, Kattel was asked if he thought he was going to be traded this offseason. And his answer was very straightforward. Did you ever feel that you were going to get traded? No translation needed for that's probably the most straightforward answer I've ever seen Cotel other than the few instances where he started answering before the translation was even completed. Cattel was so convinced as the rest of us were that this was a reality. And I mean that's that had to have put him through a lot.

But he was asked like, what? did that feel like? What did that feel like to him to essentially feel like you were going to be traded and to have that, I guess, certainty in his mind that that was going to happen? This is what Catelle had to say. And I think this is very telling about what bothered him the most about this entire situation he went through. No, I just simply, no, I'm not for the change, because I I know that this is pelota, but there were a commentary that no me liked. And if I saw each one of the

chos, knowing that I'm not so that type of person, there were a commentary that not went with me, and that was what me frustraught. I wasn't so much frustrated about the trade talks about this, this ball, this professional ball. What I was frustrated with some of the commentary out there that it didn't

line up with the type of person I am, everybody knows my teammates know the type of person that I am. I think that's probably the biggest thing, is that Kattel had this narrative that he was a bad teammate around him. And that is the part that I felt like we thought was unfair the entire time. And it felt like there was being pushed as a narrative on purpose, right? It felt like the Diamondbacks were potentially exploring it and the fact that this got out made it at least easier to understand why an organization would suddenly trade

one of their superstars rather than it just being something that they felt like they needed to do in this time frame to make this organization better before he had the opportunity to have full 10 and five rights and reject the trade. Right? But again, it's the big reason why this whole thing felt terrible and it felt like it was kind of being made.

Now, again, we will be the first to say Ketel missing time sucked and was bad. It was bad for him. It was a bad look. It was bad for the team. And quite frankly, it's, Kattel's fairly lucky that the team just won both of those games

because it makes it that much easier to not focus on him missing those games. With how short the Diamondbacks fell of the playoffs once again for the second consecutive year, the thing that really does suck there is that every game counts and should the Diamondbacks have lost while he wasn't with the team,

then they just could have that narrative pushed even further. Right. But overall here, Cattel has been an amazing teammate. He's been backed up by his teammates as far as being that. And I don't think, you know, at the end of the day, he ever deserved to be discussed being traded.

But it is a reality of the business. And if you were going to discuss him being traded, then it could have just been that and not paired with he's a bad, he's a bad teammate. So that that's where we sit with Kattel. I'm just very thankful that he got to celebrate his 10 years of service time with this organization. And I'm thankful that there he was hitting the walkoff hit to tie, to split this series essentially with the Braves there on Sunday. So I think Catelle is hopefully going to get going now offensively. And let's keep our fingers crossed that we see a big weekend or big week here from him in New York. I think he's definitely capable of it.

And I think Catele likes going into someone else's house and making a little bit of a mess, especially with the Mets on the schedule and then the Phillies up after that. What do you think, Damon? Yeah, I mean, it's a big time in the season, right? And we talked about how important like this getting off to this fast start is, right? And you're five and five, which is in a disaster, especially after how poorly the offense has played to start this season and how really not great the bullpen has been either.

But if you can continue to stack here, I think this is a really important time of the year. And Catelle needs to get going. And it feels like, you know, maybe that walkoff yesterday could be exactly the thing that does that. I agree. And again, it's not like the season can be won in April, but it definitely can be lost.

As we've discussed, we help that we. we foresee the Diamondbacks getting some reinforcements and getting better as the season goes on. Plus, this month is difficult. They have a stretch next month where they play the Rockies and the Giants for like 13 consecutive games, Damon. And neither one of those teams are playing great baseball right now. So you feel like you get to those stretches of the year. And, you know, you might be able to stack some wins. right there and get yourself into a position where you can be back above 500, have your head

above water a little bit. You just got to kind of maintain, you know, the record here to 500 until about that point, which is easier said than done, because some teams here that were on their schedule that you might be kind of looking forward to are playing some good baseball here this month, including the Pittsburgh Pirates, right? There's six and three. So there's another team that the Diamondbacks have to deal with here before the end of the month and another young hot player that's helping his team win. So we're going to take a quick break, though, and on the other side of this break, we are going to do what we do on Mondays every Monday until the end of time.

And we're going to do that here shortly. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next Diamondback Show. You guys all know I'm a huge fan of Pure Edibles, and that is because Pure Edibles helps me get through all sorts of baseball games throughout the season. Good times, bad times. It doesn't matter. Pure Edibles has a candy for me, and they have a candy for you.

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It is game time. Well, Diamondbacks are off today. They start their series with the Mets. And as our guy, Dalton Fieldy reported, that series has now been moved up. I don't know how to feel about that. I mean, I know that's going to be now taking place smack dab in the middle of The Wildcats show, right? So that's not great.

For the next two days. For the next two days. So today is still a regular, the regular scheduled start time. Today's off. They're off today. Oh, yeah. Today they're off. No game today.

And then, yeah. Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah, moved up three hours. Why do they do this to us? Is there any other sport where they move it up this close to like the games actually? Must be a weather thing, right? Yeah, probably a weather thing. I mean, the heat is unbearable.

And luckily, we have a retract. roof. That works great now, by the way. Can we talk about how fast the roof is? The roof has been turbocharged, David. It's wonderful. So it's so great. But the air conditioning, that's still not working so hot. We still need to work on the air conditioning. But of course, welcome back to the PHNX D-Back show presented by our friend of Bet365. And of course, we got something special happening, something we do here every single Monday, because every year on the PH&X Diamondback show is the year of the snake, not the year of the stupid horse. Every year on this show is our year, including this year is our year.

Every month on the PHNX Diamondback show is March Madness. Every single week on this show is hate week. Every single day on this show is opening day. That's the level of the excitement and energy we bring. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. All right.

What do we got in the mailbag today, Damon? Yeah. Our first mailbag question, Derek, comes from, I believe, Michael Rokickey. Oh, that's our guy, Michael Rokiggy. Yes, of course. The Pavan Truther. Correct. The world's biggest Pavan Smith fan.

Yep. Who says, is it just me or does it seem like other teams have ABS figured out? And the Bbacks are still getting used to it, all hail pavement. A hundred percent. And I was worried about this. and you guys know, you guys know I defend Tori. I'm a Tori.

I glaze Tori. I stand Tori. Me and Damon go over to Tori's house for dinner every Sunday. But I will say that this is one of those moments where I just detected danger ahead. When I heard Tori so close to the end of spring training still sounding like he hadn't even figured out

what they were going to do with, you know, with ABS, it was kind of baffling. And I think more than anything, it's the lack of usage. I don't feel like the Diamondbacks are necessarily doing a bad job. Their success rate isn't terrible. It's still above league average. It's just the lack of using it. And I think that that does call to Tory strategy.

I mean, it feels like guys are unsure as to when they could use it. And there's a whole chart. There's a whole chart involved involving like your certainty level that it was a missed call. mixed with the moment, like the severity of the usage, how big of a moment are we in? Again, it's even if you are able to challenge a call in the second inning, what does the impact? What is the impact that this call is going to have on the game, right?

Maybe it's not going to have a big impact, but maybe you guys already blew one call and you're down to one challenge and you don't want to do that. Also, Tori has said that his biggest rule seems to be that he does not want to be out of challenges, is by the seventh inning. Is one major focus seems to be that like the Diamondbacks need to have one challenge for the seventh inning and beyond should they experience a big game moment, which is fine. But Damon, I find on more than one, two, or three occasions in this 10-game stretch that the Diamondbacks have multiple challenges left at the end of the game.

And it's not even like they're burning through them or using them poorly. I will say that I might not let Gabby use it at the plate any longer, at least when he's batting. But I will say that, again, there's been some missed calls, but for the most part, it's more of a lack of usage than it is about misuseage. Yeah, I mean, and Gabby being as bad as he has at it is a disaster. Because behind the plate. Well, I'm just saying in general, like that's the one guy that you would, I think, want the most to have a good job. Yes, that's what I'm giving the green light to.

I'm even giving him the green light at the plate. Like I feel like Gabby should be better, but he's very bad as a batter at it. And he also had no problem using two in a row during and at bat. He got one. He did get one, but it's kind of gluttonous, right? It's just kind of selfish. I feel like you're being selfish.

Clearly he got a little bit ahead of himself on that second one and was feeling getting the first one right, kind of Gino-Saurus style, like in the Reds game. I know this better than the Zump. Yeah, that guy's the thing. I agree with Michael 100%. Obviously, I've been kind of hammering that since the start of the season because it looked like the Dodgers have, there's never been a team that was more prepared for anything

than the Dodgers being prepared for ABS. Every Dodgers player looks like they're, they're prepped for ABS. Particularly Will Smith, who's the Dodgers catcher, who apparently has the best eye of anyone in baseball because not only is he good at it defensively, but he's really good at it offensively as well. And it's like, that's why I'm saying it would be nice if Gabby actually had a good eye for it because it feels like the most impactful dude

to have that working for you is your catcher because of how often he's involved in the, on the defensive side of things. It's just, it's not, it hasn't been a good start. And it feels like from my perspective, Derek, I've said, it feels like the Diamondbacks are being very soft about it. Like, it's more of like, we don't, we want to be passive. We don't want, we don't want to,

waste our challenges. And it's like, well, why not, why were we not practicing this in the off season? Well, yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. When we were coming into the final week of spring training and Tori was kind of still saying in media, no, we're going to learn. We're going to learn as the season goes. It's like, this can affect games now, right, now. This could lose you your season to start the year. And it's like, you should have, you should have figured it out during spring training. That should have been when you figured it out. And you come into opening day with a well-rounded game plan, which I do think, like look I think this might be a case of Tori being too honest at times where his honesty makes you feel like he doesn't know what he's doing and he doesn't you know but so do a lot of a lot of managers across baseball

don't know what they're doing this is all new to them right but you know using figuring it out is something that is going to change and adapt throughout the season maybe just some more confidence that you had a game plan coming in would have made me feel differently I just think he was being truthful in his approach here and his approach isn't great. The team's approach with this isn't great. In fact, urgency. Urgency, Eric. Yeah, use it, use it, especially with your offense right now being in the rut that it is.

I feel like those ABS moments can give a spark in the same way that getting a base runner or something can give a spark to your team. In fact, Damon, Optistats tweeted this out. This is a wild stat. There were 269 walks issued an MLB on Saturday and Sunday combined. That's the most combined walks over. any two-day span in the modern era of baseball. And it's all because of the ABS system.

It's all because of getting these calls right. And it just shows how crucial that is and how many walks, how many additional base runners there are that are being added because of the ABS system. So the Diamondbacks need to figure out their strategy on this. And they need to figure it out soon because the lack of usage is not really helping them win baseball games. Yeah. It just feels like it was a little bit more of like the Diamondbacks are going in being like,

we're going to slow cook this thing. We're going to figure it out as we go along. And it's like, well, other teams seemingly have a way better read on it right now. And it's giving them an advantage in these baseball games. So when you're a team like the Diamondbacks that assumes to be kind of hovering around 500, fighting for a wild card spot, probably going to be within a handful of games in either direction of making a wild card, you need to be on top of these things because it can be the difference between making the postseason and not.

Mark asked a great question, by the way. one that I thought the other day when the Diamondbacks missed the strike zone by less than a tenth of an inch. He said, quick question, since ABS is only accurate to a median value of 16th of an inch or 16th inches, do you all think a call on the field stand in challenges that are closer than that? I think so. I think in some of these calls where you see the ball touching the strike zone and because you can literally put some molecules of air between the ball and where the, line is like it seems crazy to me you know what i mean what was that the tiger series where we got screwed by that oh yeah and i mean this this is what ryan thompson was complaining about long before

this a b s system was implemented and i'm starting to think that he was more right than crazy i'm starting to think he was more right than he was pitcher at least i understand a pitcher uh having these feelings about this especially these in these instances when you throw a ball that close and that accurately to a dumb little imaginary box and they're like nope you were one zero point zero zero, zero, you know, of an inch away. Like, it's dumb. And considering that there is, as Mark said, there is, there is an accuracy, a little range of accuracy that they could be inaccurate that, I don't know.

I still think, and Jay Army Strong brought it up. He said by 2028, he thinks that this whole ABS system is going to be gone. I agree. I still think that maybe not a light that lights up. he says that it's just a light that pops up for balls and strikes. I still like my beeping in the umpire's ear because then it protects the umpire's ego, right? The umpire doesn't have to be shown up in any way on a board or anything.

They're the only one that knows it's a strike or a ball and they can still be given the like the the right to override it. The authority to override it because they feel like it was like that they know certainly it was a call strike or whatever. That way it puts the human element back into it. It takes this silly challenge Mario Party mini game out of it, and we can just move on with our life and have more accurate calls, which is what this should all be about.

However, after watching CB Buckner call some games, Damon, I question if that man would even listen to a buzzer in his ear. He might be buzzed that it was a strike, and CB Buckner would probably toss the system out of the game. So did you call that a strike? It's a ball. Takes his earpiece off, throws it. You're out of here.

That's how CB Buckner would handle that. But all right, let's move on to the next question. What do we have? Our next question here. I'm laughing at my jokes. Well, it was just, we spent 10 minutes on that question.

Yeah, no, that's fine. Trying to get past it. All right, moving on. Next one here. We got Ruggnar,

who says, is it okay to commit arson against those who pushed ginger propaganda to an unhealthy amount? I'm going to say no on that one. Michael Rokicke. Yeah. Also is Jose Fernandez a certified stud or what?

Dudes a menace and has realistically had some pretty good A.Bs against good starting pitchers. Yeah, I mean, he definitely came to, back down to earth after having one of the most amazing starts any of us have seen, but he still has found ways to contribute defensively, offensively,

laid down an amazing punt, made an amazing double play to help hold that lead in that Tiger series. He has been a proven game change. And I think that he needs obviously some more experience, but more than anything, he just looks ready to be here at a major league level. He looks poised defensively and at the plate. and I just think that he's a winner. I know it's a very small sample size. I know his offensive numbers are probably going to come back down to being in the mid-200s.

However, I don't care. I just think that this guy is a big part of the future of this team already. And I think that what we need is reps. I think that you know, you're stalling him out a little bit there after having some good games and then having him ride the bench. So I just want to see him play. I want to see him start. And I hate that Carlos Santana suffered this injury. However, I am thankful that the Diamondbacks have somebody like Fernandez to step up in this opportunity.

And it's somebody who, you know, we want to see get more playing time. So the injury sucks. Santana, unfortunately, was not producing very much, you know, offensively. So it kind of makes it at least for this period of time a welcome site to see someone in, someone step in that you feel like could potentially give this team more offensively than Santana was. Yeah, and we'll get more into the Santana first base side of things a little bit later here in Mailback Monday. But how about that seal from Jose Fernandez? That was, that was awesome. He's fast as hell. He's fast as hell. He's like as Mark says here.

Makes some mistakes, but not like huge mistakes. His swing speed is faster than Judge and Schwerber so far this year. You like that. He looks like a player. You know, obviously, you know, Obviously, you aren't going to hit two and runs in every game. But, you know, it's a, I think that he's a guy at his age, the way people talk about him, he feels like a legit MLB player. It's also a lot to live up to that debut, right? So you almost feel like you just want things to kind of even out for him. He's been making some plays, though.

Oh, 100%. I'm not trying to act like he's not ready to be out there. I feel like he has changed legitimately in some way every single game that he's played in. It's just, again, you want to see, you want to see him get everyday reps. and it's the problem when you call someone up like this in the situation the debacks called him up in. They called them up to kind of plug in, but they intended at least for the time being to not have them be an everyday player.

They almost called them up just to kind of be a backup. It's stupid. That's the biggest Tory Haysenball thing that I think bothers every single person in this fan base where it's like, well, this guy could help us win more games right now, but we invested in Carlos Santana this offseason. So we're going to play him until the wheels, fall off and you're like, as Mark says again, Mark just keeps hitting the nail on the head. Carlos, half a win below replacement Santana.

The dude had the worst war in baseball to start the season, Derek, because he was that bad. And Tori and Mike were willing to just, let's keep beating a dead horse over and over again instead of playing the guy that looks like he could actually better what the team is doing every single game. So it sucks for Carlos Santana. Like I said, we'll get into it here in a second, but it does seem like maybe the dimebacks could get better for it. Michael asked any chance that he gets sent down when payment comes back. Of course, there's a chance. That's what's going to happen. Because he has options.

That's what's going to happen. Right. Again, this is more. That's what they do. That's what the diamondbacks do. It's frustrating as hell. It's what baseball does also. Well, it's really what the diamondbacks do every time.

You want to see a move made where they just cleared the roster spot for him to come back, but the diamondbacks can't really have that lack of depth. They can have both guys, but in having both guys, they have to send him down. And it's just like the pitcher situation where, as shitty as it is, and you cursed earlier, so now I get to curse. You can send him down because you know he's going to play every day. And he's going to go to Reno, Nevada, where he's going to mash the ball and hit it 500 feet. Why can't he DH here, though?

No, I have no DH. Because it's about, you know, the 40-man roster and who they would have to cut and get rid of completely. Or he could, like, Tim Fowler. So that doesn't really make any sense. He's at first base. No, no, no, no. And paving to D.H. But Pavin's on the IL.

Got you. So they have to clear a roster spot for Pavin to return from the IL to be back on the 40-mail roster. Yeah, yeah. So that's what I mean. That's what I mean. I think, but Jose Fernandez can, let's not get it twisted. He plays shortstop, third base, second base, and first base. So he's a guy that can kind of play all around the infield.

So it's not as if he's just pigeonholed, you know, like he can only play one position. No, 100%. He's a very versatile player that I think he would want your roster. There are other guys that have options as well. So I'm not saying that. But like for instance, Jorge Brosa, out of option. So the Diamondback. can't send Jorge Barrosa down anymore.

They would have to DFA him or do something else with him. I think Tim Tawa might have options, so he might be a reasonable replacement to be sent down instead of Jose Fernandez. And I like Tawa, but I would way rather have Fernandez on the roster, obviously. I don't disagree. And I expect it to be a decision where they definitely choose Tim Tawa over Jose Fernandez because it's seniority and the debacks are, they love seniority. That's their favorite thing in the world.

Mark in the comment also said we could have had Jose Fernandez throwing to Blaze Alexander and I'm not ready for that. I'm not ready to deal with that because that makes me sad. He said, imagine Blaze at third and Fernandez at first. I do every single night before I go to bed, Mark. It's the last thing I think before I close my eyes and say goodbye to this world. Keith Stroud. What else we got? We got move along, Damon.

Yeah, we do. We got D-BACs UK. What do you think the rotation will look like when Kelly comes back, Derek? Again, I do think that there's going to be a painful roster move made regardless of what it is. I think that maybe the Diamondbacks might do a six-man rotation one time through, but I'm doubtful of that. They're not going to keep it around, though. It's something that we've talked about. But again, if you talk about a six-man rotation, you got to factor in that there's going to be days off, perhaps multiple days off over that span.

and then you have starters that are waiting seven, eight days before between times that they're pitching, and it's just not great for starters to have that much time between their outings. However, I wouldn't be surprised to maybe see the Diamondbacks try to pull that off at some point with their rotation, or at least once Merrill Kelly or Corbyn Burns returns that when they return, having that extra man in there just for one time. But regardless, within that two-week span, they're going to have to make a decision here. And I think ultimately it ends up being Brandon Fott being optioned down to Reno for length. And again, it sucks.

I don't think Brandon fought to the bullpen makes a ton of sense. I do agree with what Dalton said earlier about Ryan Nelson going to the bullpen making a bit more sense. But there's just not a lot of time for either one of those guys to turn things around and truly impress before a decision has to be made. So I think that it's going to look like Zach Gallen, Michael Sorrell. Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryan Nelson, and then, you know, Merrill Kelly coming back in as the fifth starter, essentially. I agree. I don't think, and I've said this a couple of times, that the six-man rotation is as far-fetched as some have made it out to be, I think, in this band base. The Dodgers are currently doing a six-man rotation.

Sure, but they're not doing it like permanently. Like there's stretches where you do a six-man rotation for, but it's much harder for it to be like your rotation for the remainder of the regular season. And I wouldn't expect that because injuries are bound to happen. That's true. So someone is going to miss time, you know, we have, you know, knock on wood, but Soroka has had injury problems. Erod's missed a bunch of times since he's been in a D-back, you know, gallons missed time with injury.

Merrill Kelly's out right now. So you're going to miss pitchers. And I think it's good that the Diamondbacks have this starting pitching depth where you feel pretty comfortable. If you need to keep them stretched out, I don't mind a six man. It helps the bullpen a little bit more as well because, you know, you're not having to use the same guys every night. You can hopefully, you know,

considering, hoping that the starting pitchers are pitching well enough. That's why you have a six-man rotation. Like you're getting more length out of those guys considering the time between stuff. Exactly. So I, we'll see.

But, you know, I wouldn't say it's like out of the question for a six-mean rotation, especially when Corbyn Burns comes back. Like you said, I think that that you almost are like, you kind of have to if people are healthy at that point. I think the only problem is, is that when you do that, you're still putting yourself at that risk because those guys are going out there and playing of somebody getting injured and then you just having to reduce it back and missing them.

But you could say that you're putting that same risk out there if you're sending them to Reno to go be to start for the aces as as a minor league option. So I don't know what the answer is there, but I do have a feeling that again, it feel like it's going to come down to Brandon Fott and Ryan Nelson. I think that decision is going to come down to the same when, you know, Corbin Burns returns as well. Let's do one more and then let's go to a break, Damon. What do we got? Last question before break. El Gaiio, fought or Nelson, who would you option? Nelson, two options left, fought one option.

We could have just paired these two together. I mean, see, that's the other thing, too. He brings up a great point. Nelson does have two options left versus Brandon Fought's one. The next time you optioned Brandon Fought, that is the last time that you can option him. And I feel like he's at that point in his career where it's fine for him to be out of options, which is why stashing him now kind of makes, sense. However, again, when you have one guy that has two and one guy that has one, it might make it that much easier for you to just option the guy that has two. So perhaps that extra option for Ryan Nelson puts him a bit more at risk than I thought. And at the end of the day, this might not just be about what their ERAs are when the Diamondbacks have to make this decision. It might be about other factors such as that, which suck. We hate that. We as fans hate that. That's definitely more of the business side to it, but it's a reality.

Fott has pitched well enough to so far, and it's not to say he's pitch great, but he's pitched well enough to not necessarily lose his rotation spot. Ryan Nelson obviously hasn't been the ideal start to the year, but I feel like Ryan Nelson has been consistent enough over the last year and a half. Oh, yeah. That it wouldn't really feel fair at all after two starts to be like, okay, we'll see you in Reno, Ryan, after being the best pitcher on the team for a season and a half in a row. And we've done this to them entirely too often. A hundred percent. Including the bullpen thing. That's why it sucks.

It sucks to do this to Ryan Nelson. You also feel like from what we've seen, like mentally in my heart, I feel like Brandon Fott has a higher ceiling because of his pitch mix and his ability to have better secondary stuff. But from what we've seen with our own eyes, his floor is so much lower. I know. And what we've seen with our own eyes is that so far, Ryan Nelson has a much higher ceiling and has proven it. He's proven it in real time. It's not just been theoretically. It's not just expected stats.

Ryan Nelson has done it in real time with his numbers. and his performance, including stretches where he was, like you said, the best pitcher on this team by far, by far. And that includes just last year. It's inarguable. Yeah. So it just, it kind of sucks that this is the situation the Diamondbacks are left in.

But as Corbyn Burns once so evilly put out there, evilly, that's not a word. He just put it out into the atmosphere when he said no team, you know, makes it through a season with just five starting pitchers. So this team is not going to be. going to make it through 2026 with just five starting pitchers, regardless of what the decision is that is made, they are going to need Brandon Fott, they are going to need Ryan Nelson.

And as we discussed earlier, Nelly might end up being something that, you know, it helps bring this bullpen all together with some of the other pieces that have worked out so well. But let's take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to answer a few more mailback Monday questions, including one about Mike Hazen assembling a team. Let's do that here in two minutes. you're watching the PHN next Diamondback show. I would be lying to you if I told you I knew where my sunglasses were right now.

There's somewhere in this office, I'm pretty sure, but I couldn't tell you where because I'm terrible at keeping track of my sunglasses. Thankfully, though, those sunglasses are shady rays, which means they have some amazing frames, which make my fat face look amazing, and they have those ultra-amazing polarized lenses that protect my eyes from the sun. But most importantly, if I am lying to you, about the whereabouts of my sunglasses and I exit this office and can't find them. Shady Rays has the craziest lost and broken replacement plan and all of I wear,

so I will not sweat it at all because I know I can contact them and get another pair sent out to me. So thankful for the fine folks at Shady Rays for not only making amazing sunglasses, but for putting together a policy such as this that allows somebody who is as absent-minded as I am to have confidence I will never actually be

without sunglasses, at least for too long. So head on over to Shady Rays, dot com right now and use our code of pH and XSR for 40% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses and of course tell them the mayor sent you. And speaking of sports, speaking of losing my mind, I'll tell you, I lose my mind about this particular time of the year because there's so much sport going on. I can't I can't pay attention to it. We got final four just taking place. We got the start of the baseball season. Seriously? I'm not going to rub that in. I'm sorry. I'm just going to move on. We're not going to bring that up. That's a sore subject around this.

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minimum odds in terms of conditions apply and app only void where it prohibited. Michael asks a very important question. He says, what happens if you lose them meeting your shady raise? Get new ones and then find the old ones. Funny you ask that. That actually happened to me. I checked my car for a pair that I lost. I swear I checked everywhere and then randomly after I already put in a loss and broken replacement plan like submission if you will uh I found mine I do I now I have two pairs of sunglasses of the same sunglasses just ready in case I lose the other one so that's what's happening one's on standby when I lose this one and then I don't have to do one of those next time I lose mine but

we do have some more questions in the mailbag damon what else do we got yeah our next question here comes from myself back on screen here next question is from Karen with the C who says with Santana being injured who's our first baseman I saw Smith in the dugout but I'm not sure if he's on the New York flight

All right well I think that Jose Fernandez is going to be that for the time being I think that Tim Tawa also has been a first baseman in his career so he can back things up over there as well as Ildamar Vargas I think we'll see a good change you'll see all of these guys playing it

at some point, I hope not. I would love to just see Jose Fernandez plugged in over there and call it a day. What do you think the chances are of that, Damon? Do you think that that's just far too simple for Tori to do, right? I mean, I think Ildemar Vargas deserves a shout as well. I agree. Yeah, Vargas has been playing some good baseball. And again, he's one of those guys that just so happens to be able to handle any position that you put him in at.

Yeah. As we said earlier. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's Vargas and Fernandez that have earned that operational. I think Tim Tawa will play plenty. He's got to play a lot of positions and he's got to kind of be the utility man that every single roster and baseball needs. So with Jordan Loller out and Mark put this in the chat earlier, like you're going to need Tim Tawa in the outfield at one of those corner spots fairly often.

You're right. So it's not to say that Tim Tawa will never play. I just think that I personally, I think Ildemaro Vargas has proved that he deserves some at bats here. And I think that Jose Fernandez has done very similar, but also is a guy that I think we have a lot of like feeling like has potential and we could put a lot of stock into so we want for the future to get ABs as well. So that's my platoon if I'm if I'm rolling with a non-Pavensmith platoon obviously because especially George Waller out you make a great point about like yeah

yeah and and listen I'm obviously not the paving guy but when paving comes back it'll largely be paving which is fine I mean that's he's one of your you know more middle tier bats that's you have on the roster and you need his power output. So we just got to figure out what to do with Jose Fernandez to keep him on this roster. That's what we need. All right. What else we got? Next question here is from Jarmy.

He says the boys are sitting at 500 and came close to taking two out of three from the Dodgers sitting at second place in the NL West. Despite all the drama and already a DFA, less than a dozen games into the season, did Hazen actually do the thing and assemble the bullpengers? Oh, the bullpengers. Damon, are we assembling? Did we assemble a team? Did he assemble a team?

Did Mike, what are we calling him? Mike Fury assemble a team? I think we have a shot or a look in here at what Mike Fury would look like if he was an actual person. Yeah, there it is. Maybe he did. Maybe he did assemble a bullpenger's team.

I don't know. I mean, this is a very interesting question from the perspective of, do you believe that these guys can get it done? I think that the one thing we have put on this bullpen is that it's the exact same bullpen. And I disagree. I think when you're looking at some of the key components of the bullpen, there are some guys there that you believe can work. But I don't believe that what they did was enough.

And you and I both have our frustrations with guys that they could have added that went to other teams. And even in some cases a closer like Robert Suarez, who he just got to see strike us out a whole bunch in this series. he's against the Braves, goes to a team where he's not even the closer. He's the setup man over there. Like the Diamondbacks had an opportunity this off season to truly add some pretty good arms on what was reasonable deals to this pen and instead did not. So I do think that Mike is lucky in some of the fines that are working out. I think that Michael Soroka is probably going to end up being one of the best moves of the

2025 off season if he keeps his current, you know, obviously not a zero ERA, but if he can somehow find a way to be this level of successful throughout the season, my God, for $7.5 million, there won't be any question about what was the biggest or best value off season move. But again, there's a few names here like Taylor Clark and Jonathan Loisaga, aka Johnny Lausagna, I can say that much easier than his actual last name, that I do think are going to work out long term for this bullpen. But what they really need is the studs that they have that are injured to come back and be as good as they've been in the past.

They need A.J. Puck to return. They need, you know, Justin Martinez back. And it almost feels like they need one more arm from somewhere in order to round things out. Juan Murillo has been pretty good. And some of their other young guys have been decent. I think their biggest problem might be their commitment to the veterans that are here to have those spots regardless. like Ryan Thompson still hasn't I believe allowed an earned run this season right and Paul Seawald

somehow was very good in two of his three games that he's appeared in you know but um there's still a lot of questions about this bullpen and I think that until they're willing to start making some you know pretty uncomfortable decisions to change things I don't know if I'm ready to call them the bullpengers yet yeah I mean Ryan Thompson you're right he has a zero year right now he was also awful when he pitch in that Tigers game. I know. I want to make that pretty clear. I don't, but it's because it was a narrative runners.

Yeah, players were already on base. Ginkle has a really, really bad 10, 108 ERA right now. I thought he looked pretty good yesterday, which was good to see. Obviously, Johnny LaZania has been great. Outside of the performance yesterday wasn't fantastic. It also was, there was some pretty weak hit, like grounders that just kind of went through the hole and you sometimes you tip your cap. on things like that.

Yeah. All in all, this bullpen has been better than maybe it was expected to be. Definitely that. And it's being weighed down by horrible performances by Ross dress for less and by ginkle probably. Yes. But outside of that, like, I think they've performed better than expected. That being said, it's still not a good bullpen.

And I'm not going to say that they assembled the bullpen bullpen, bulpengers. Bullpeners. Because I'm still looking at this bullpen and I have almost no confidence. that, I mean, Derek, let's take a peek at the freaking, you know, by the numbers real quick. Like, is that, that's not good. Like, I know that it's being weighed down by the 17-2 game. I get it. It's an outlier.

Yeah, James McCann definitely is not going to work out in the bullpen. But you still have the 28th best bullpen in baseball right now, which is a Mike Hazen special, which is we experience it every year where we invest in everything except for the bullpen. It's a diamond back special. it not historically this franchise has been cursed with a terrible bullpen true but it's a decade of my kizen now which oftentimes you know most gms don't get that much time to to build a a bullpen i guess um but yeah i mean it's listen i i i wish they were better we'll get some reinforcements hopefully we're good enough where we can trade for some guys at the deadline who are having good seasons but uh as currently constituted this bullpen is not good enough all right that there's that

question answered what else we got next question that was that question. We got Grant a man. Can we stop talking about, can we not stop talking about how important these early games are and how awesome it is to watch them win close games? I agree with you, Grant.

That's something that I think we do need to applaud is how many of these close games the Diamondbacks have not only won, but stayed in. For sure. Some of them slipped away and slipped away late, especially in that Dodgers series. It sucked to see. You just knew that scoring two runs or one run

in a lot of these games wasn't going to get the job done, yet somehow it has gotten the job done. in these games where the Diamondbacks have been able only to score one run or two runs. So you got to credit the pitching staff because this is not something that you felt like they could have done last year. And again, it goes back to the bullpen. They have not been perfect. They have not been great.

Not calling them that. But I do think that what you said was the right answer. They have been far better than we expected them to be 100%. And again, I agree that we should applaud these early wins that they've had. They found a way to not let things slip away. When you look at what's happening with the Boston Red Sox, they're sitting at 2 and 7. And every single article on my timeline today, Damon,

was about absolute panic about the Red Sox sitting at 2 and 7. So I don't know. But anyway, I think that that's where we stay. What else we got? Let's get one more in before we get out of here. Our last question is from Fleabaw who says, Does Damon Dog owe Ildomaro Vargas an apology? And do we all owe the bullpen?

an apology and to which it's a common theme here the first the first question yes i would i would like to apologize del demarro vargas i said some things they were unfair he's a he looks to be a professional hitter in the same way that it may be a manuel rivera was where it's just like hey he's gonna find a way to get it done every once in a while and he's got a good start to the season and as i called for earlier on the show let's get it's let's get some more el damaro vargas abs going while we need a first basement. I think that he's earned those opportunities. And I would like to formally extend my apology to Mr. Vargas. I still think the bullpen has me all the Venezuelan baseball player. We need all the Venezuelans on this team. Absolutely. That's my fault for doubting of Venezuelan. That's true.

That's true. Jose Fernandez is definitely on team Venezuela next time the WBC rolls around according to Eduardo Rodriguez. But yeah, and we do all the bullpen. Some apologies. But we need the bullpen to keep this up. And we need this team to figure their their identity out offensively because it's been it's been inconsistent and there's a lot of guys that need to step up. Good to see Nolan Aronado putting together some better at bats, but they're still not great. So I would love to see some more contributions out of him in this series against the Mets. Yeah.

And the Diamondbacks have another big road trip here ahead of them. This month does not get any easier. Rolling into New York and Philadelphia here is going to be rough. But hopefully the starting pitching can keep this team locked into these games and give them a chance to win. We appreciate you guys for stopping by. We'll be back tomorrow with another post-game show after that 1-10 start again,

just to keep that locked into your memory. So we'll be back like 15 minutes after the final out of that game. Until then, you can follow us on social media. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Maven with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at P-N-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you stopping by. We thank you for your time. We'll see you tomorrow. And until then, have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun,

but it's so much more fun when your bullpen finally starts to figure things out.