PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte's Instagram PURGE Has D-backs Fans PANICKING About a Trade

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are just one week away from the MLB trade deadline, and after dropping their series to the Washington Nationals, could their biggest need have shifted from first base to starting pitching? We break down the latest on Arizona's trade deadline priorities and why adding another arm might now be at the top of Mike Hazen's wishlist. Plus, Ketel Marte's latest Instagram purge sent the fanbase into a frenzy with trade speculation. Is there any reason to believe the D-backs would actually move their All-Star second baseman? We discuss the viral reaction, Gambo's response to the rumors, and what it all means. We also preview a crucial upcoming series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and answer your Mailbag Monday questions.   0:00 - Intro 1:30 - Ketel Marte Instagram 19:00 - Looking ahead to the Pirates series 31:00 - Mailbag Monday   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/coll...   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/?ut...   bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-... 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.   #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Monday, and I wanted to have a very level-headed discussion about if the Diamondbacks trade deadline priorities may have shifted after their two rookies cost them their two losses to the nationals over the weekend. To you all, welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Presented by our friends at Circle K, it's your mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. And I feel exposed when Shane pulls that circle. Yeah, that was on me. That was on me. I'm just out there screaming like a madman without that thing up. Mouth wide open.

Wide open. Welcome in to you guys. Happy Monday to you all. Thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be talking about Arizona Diamondbacks baseball. Not thrilled to be talking about more insane overreactions to trade rumors that we're going to get into here, mostly now involving Citellm. But we'll calm everything down, hopefully.

More importantly, this is the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. I am your mayor, occasionally known. is Derek Montia. That sexy voice you heard on the other side of the ones and twos is the Shane Gang himself, Shane Defenbach. Here holding things down while Damon once again takes another vacation. It's crazy. This time he went to Alaska, and it's probably for the best.

It's probably for the best that between more Catell trade rumors and what the info coming out about Cheneauho Tani over the weekend, it's probably for the best that Damon is literally as far away from this state as he humanly can be. Don't worry. He's still going to be tweeting about it. Oh, I know. I know. He's going to be fighting with people online and all that stuff. But this is the PHNXDBACs podcast.

Brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Bet365, we're winning is everything. Download that app today and use our code of PHNX 365. When you sign up as a new user to get some bonus bets, 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 to apply. Before we act irrationally about the Cotell Marte information,

I did want to at least kind of talk about the weekend news, but it feels like that seems silly now at this point, Shane. It's hard to get over this stuff. And again, we are talking here about Cotel Marte today, or last night, actually, news kind of broke credit to DBAX Insider and DBAX prospects on Twitter for pointing out that Cotel Marte had apparently scrubbed his IG of all references to the DBAX, and he also unfollowed the team account.

Now, when we say that, I will preface at least the scrubbing of the Instagram account didn't seem to be specifically of Dback stuff. It looked like Cotel Marte basically had gotten rid of every single post he's ever posted on his Instagram is what it looked like here. So, and there is also the fact that. that if you go to search who he follows, of the 193 people he follows on Twitter, the team account is no longer an account he follows. Now, here's the thing. I'll be honest with you guys. I have no idea if he even followed the account before this. This might just be old news.

He might have never followed the team account. I don't, I mean, he seems to be the kind of guy that uses Instagram the way that he feels like using it. I don't know if he necessarily tries to send a message, though. We've thought that in the past when he's posted things like the story about when he posted the story that said not a good teammate and things like that. There has been times where we see Ketel reacting to news and information on social media. And again, I think that if you are talking about anything like this happening over this particular week, I feel like it's justified to freak out about. I do. I think that, again, And even if nothing comes of it, there's a good chance that maybe a discussion was had with

Catelle about possibly waiving his no trade clause, or maybe not Catell directly, but with his agent who then relays that information to Cotel. I don't know. That's pure speculation on my part because we have no idea if Cotel's reacting to anything here with his Instagram. However, it was enough of an issue for it to essentially be a trending topic on good old Twitter, and it's enough for us to have a little panic here during this particular week. It's understandable, once again, to be sensitive when it comes to Catele trade rumors if you are a

fan, or if you're like, Nate, in the chat, he's not a fan, he's ready to dump Catell as we speak. Now, I will say that if Catell is going to get the Diamondbacks of Hall, there's still no reason to not hear a team out on it. However, I doubt that that's the case, and I didn't feel like this is necessarily something that had a lot of fire smoke to it overall. There's a little bit of smoke, but not. And luckily, we have our guy, Gambo, aka John Gambadoro, to kind of verify things with. Gambo was asked about Cotel Marte trade rumors if they were worth watching. Gambo responded with, if you are referring to him scrubbing some, his Instagram, it is not

trade trade trade trade. Marte. Interesting, though, that he says it's not trade-related, right? But he is acknowledging that there is a reason, it seems like, that Cattel did scrub it. But, hey, I still don't think that that's any reason for us to panic, at least as of now. Good shout out to all the eagle-eyed folks out there that are looking for everything, though, because this is a week between now and next Monday that a lot could happen, right? And I discussed it this weekend, kind of did a short video on it, as well as Rock and I discussing it on D-Backs after dark while saying a lot of curse words while discussing it. But you can't help but wonder if the Diamondbacks trade priorities

have changed here with the upcoming deadline. I am not prepared to put Tyler Locklear in as our first baseman and do a pen, right? I'm not ready to permanently say that the Diamondbacks have solved their first base problem with the way that Locklear has performed. I will say that his performance can at least give you hope for the future. And perhaps that could change your trade deadline targets as being perhaps someone more of a rental rather than maybe a controllable player that you might have been looking at. We know someone like Christian Walker, for instance, has another year of control. And perhaps, again, with Tyler Locklear looking like he's developing into that first basement of the future,

for the debacks makes it easier for you to look at somebody that might be a little less expensive than Walker considering he has that year left of control. But you can't help but wonder if at the very least if a starting pitcher after what happened this weekend has become as equally important as a first baseman, considering the Diamondbacks lost their two games to the Nationals with their two rookies on the mound. They lose on Saturday by a score of five to three. Mitch Brack couldn't work deep into that game. He gave up five earned runs and five innings.

He battled, but again, he just has been having a problem with walks. He's been having a problem just with consistency. And again, the Diamondbacks, that particular loss highlighted the lack of rotation depth behind our actual established starters. The offense did enough this weekend to stay in both games. I mean, they lost five to three on Saturday, so I'm not going to say that that was enough. but scoring seven runs on Sunday definitely should have been enough. And it feels like when the debacks do score seven runs this year, that they typically win those baseball games. However, Cole Drake once again could not replicate his performance from his MLB debut.

He gave up four earned runs in four innings pitched. And the bullpen just completely fell apart on Sunday. Now, that might be a product of overuseage of certain guys, might be just a product of the Nationals offense being one of the best. in the league. But they have another really good offense coming or that they have to travel to here in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. So things aren't going to get any easier. And the Diamondbacks did have a four-two lead in this game and again scored seven runs overall, but really feels like the bullpen absolutely let them down. Everybody gave up runs, I believe, except Brian

Thompson. And it just felt like this reliable bullpen finally snapped. Forget bending, forget get breaking. They broke in half on Sunday. But that might be due to the fact that once again, you had Drake and Brat both going less than, you know, both going five innings or less, and this bullpen already being overtacked. So I don't know. I will say that this team really needs their starters back. They need some guys from the IL back. Hell, I even said it yesterday. They even need Zach Allen back, which is crazy to say, right? But you feel like Michael Soroka returning and even Gallin pitching will give you more length than these young guys are going to give you potentially. And perhaps even just more consistency, even if that consistency is Gallen giving up four to five runs every single time he's out there.

Right. But it doesn't feel great. And it feels like the Diamondbacks now might have to shift their priorities after the two losses this weekend. there's a lot of time left between now and the end of the season. And there's just too much uncertainty when it comes to their starting rotation right now. Who is going to fill in? When are guys going to return? Are they going to get Corbyn Burns back?

Is Michael Soroka going to be 100% and back to his normal self? And, you know, again, you also have the question marks about a few other guys that are in the starting rotation. like Merrill Kelly, who's had a very up and down season, and Brandon Fought, who's been excellent since returning from AAA, but you just can't help but feel like the other shoe's going to drop at some point for a Fought. It felt like he got very close in his last start. But again, Eduardo Rodriguez, he's been a little not as sharp as he was prior to the break. And again, a lot of questions here.

Deb, Deb and I are on the same page here, a lot of questions. And again, if Corbyn Burns can return, if all of these guys can return, and you're certain that they're going to, then it makes it that much more difficult to prioritize starting pitching and to go after one of, you know, an arm that's going to potentially cost you a lot in prospects or maybe even actual major leaguers in order to obtain. That's the part that makes it hard for the front office. I just can't I don't know Again, if you feel like you're going to get Corbin Burns back before the end of August

and if you feel like you're going to get Michael Soroka back in less than two weeks, I feel like that would make it hard for me as a GM to want to trade for starting pitching. But you still need to get to that finish line. You still need to cross the finish line for the season, and you need to do it with enough wins

to make the playoffs. By my calculations, and again, I'm very bad at math, The Diamondbacks, to get to 90 wins, pretty much need to win or split every remaining series for the rest of the year. That's to get to 90 wins, right? That's splitting every four-game series and winning every three-game series. And I am skeptical that that's going to happen. Color me skeptical about that, right?

So, I mean, maybe they don't get to 90. There's a lot of teams right now that are below 500. there's a lot of teams right now in that final wildcard race or that file, you know, that race for that final spot. And the Diamondbacks are right there in the thick of it. I couldn't imagine, honestly, trading Cattel Marte at this point. That seems like one of the most insane topics for us to even be discussing here one week from the trade deadline. There's so much more that this team needs right now. I can understand it from the perspective that,

Marte's had kind of a down season and that decline might continue if you feel that that's going to happen. If you think that's going to happen, then now might be the time where you could potentially trade Marte at his highest value, higher than it ever will be again from this point on. But I'm doubtful of that. I'm doubtful that Kattel is going to continue to declining. I bet Kattel has a tremendous second half, especially after this. Because now Kattel's mad. about something. I don't know what it is, but he's mad. And Cattel plays good when he's mad. In fact, he plays his best baseball when he's angry about something. Not when he's emotional, but, you know, when he's angry. There's also the anniversary of his mother's death that has come up.

And that also could be a reason for him to be emotional and sentimental and just wanting to maybe flush the Instagram of personal stuff. I don't know. He has one video left on there, and it's still a pretty personal video to him hanging out. with his friends, I think, in Miami when they were there on that road trip. But I still think that the very concept of trading Cattel Marte, while the Arizona Diamondbacks currently hold a wildcard spot, is crazy. And if anything, this team needs to not be trading away stars, but doing their best to add to this roster as quickly as possible to give them some help.

I believe in Gambo when he says there is no trade. trade, no chance Diamondbacks are trading could tell because even with this being a story, it doesn't make any sense, just logically at all. So, but I do still feel like the debacks may need to change their trade

deadline priorities, and I do think that a starting pitcher, as much as I was against it at one point, seems to be a necessity at the very least one starting pitcher if you can get your hands on one at this point. But again, that's because the Diamondbacks have

a very, very tough team here coming up. And it would be great if they could add before the trade deadline. Just do it now before we have to play the Pittsburgh Pirates, because they are a good team this year. We're going to talk about their season on the other side of this break and how the debacks match up with them. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PH&X deback show.

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Every phone number in Phoenix still starts with 602 as far as I'm concerned. But we are out of the 602 right now. We are in Pittsburgh taking on the Pirates, which is a team that's been a tough team this year. And they are no longer a pitching team, just a pitching team. They're still incredible when it comes to pitching. It's the reason why we stole Jeremy Blige away from them. He is part of the scientists that develop pitchers in a lab over there in Pittsburgh, and they continue to be incredibly good,

including Paul Skeens, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, and Braxton Ashcraft. That's been an excellent edition. That's not a guy. That's a wizard. Yeah, you're right. That is a wizard. That's definitely an NXT wrestler, for sure.

Making his debut, it's Braxton Ashcraft, and he's going to destroy some jobber. But they also just have a really potent offense, surprisingly good offensive numbers here for this team. But PNC Park, it's a team that it's a difficult place to play they got a definite home field advantage there overall and I will say though the one advantage we get is we miss Paul skeins baby we don't get Paul skeins in this series let's take a look at the probable pitchers here for the diamondbacks and the

Pittsburgh pirates here Merrill Kelly kicks things off for the diamondbacks in game one going up against Mitch Keller who is six and seven this year with a 4.90 ERA he has 83 strikeouts and just having a bit of a mid to bad season overall. Brandon Fott goes in game two. Can Fott keep up his winning ways. He's been really, really good lately, even when he's had some of those difficult jams. That's been the biggest change I feel like so far in Fott's season is when he gets himself into those jams, he's been able to get out of them.

Five and one, he's lowered his ERA this season of 4.43. but it's been really good once again since returning from AAA Reno. He takes on Bubba Chandler, one of my favorite names in all of baseball, just a great name for an actual human being that exists in real life. He is 3 and 8 this year with a 4.47 ERA 90 strikeouts. And last but not least, we got our ace, Eduardo Rodriguez. He is 9 and 3 this year with a 2.64 ERA, going up essentially against the best pitcher here that the Diamondbacks take on in the series

and Jared Jones. He is two and one this year with a 3.72 ERA, and he has 53 strikeouts. And again, as far as the pitching matchups are concerned, you feel pretty confident about these three guys going in this series. I think it would be nice if the Diamondbacks could somehow separate Mitch Bratt and, you know, Cole Drake from being in the same series because right now I don't feel like those two guys are giving you a big chance to win

baseball games overall. but I do feel like it's, you know, it's probably, it's the biggest problem. Michael Soroka cannot come back fast enough right now for this team. And I wouldn't be surprised to even see the Diamondbacks make a roster move to perhaps replace Mitch Brat with, you know, Jose Cabrera, who at least you felt like was giving you a better shot to win baseball games than what Mitch Bratt has been doing so far. But again, this is out of necessity.

So that's the part that sucks for all of these young. pitchers that are being leaned upon, that, you know, they are being asked to do this, not because they're ready, not because it's time in their development, but because the Diamondback simply need arms. And they, that's why this whole trade deadline thing suddenly has, has kind of shifted here after watching, you know, these guys get their chances, right? Like, you got to give them an opportunity to see what they can do. Cole Drake, in fact, was really good. And his debut, not so good on Sunday. But this is a tough pirates team that they're taken on. And in fact,

looking at some of these numbers, I have my concerns because we just took on a tough offense in the Nationals. And here sits the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 769 team OPS, third in baseball. Third in baseball

behind the Dodgers who are now second in baseball behind the Washington Nationals after they put up 10 runs on the Diamondbacks on Sunday. So here we go. Another very, very tough offensive team and another, I mean, this almost tracks exactly with what the nationals are as well. A mid-rotation and a bad bullpen. Can the Diamondbacks take advantage of that? The Pittsburgh Pirates are 54 and 52 this year with a plus 40 run differential. They have, like I said, they're five and five in their last 10. So at least the Diamondbacks are catching him at a time where they're not on fire. Starting pitching ERA is 4.17, which is 12th best. and MLB. Bullpen is 4.53, which is 24th. So there's a good thing. Offensively, incredible at 769 team OPS. Outts above average, they're minus 11, which is 20th. So defensively,

not great, not solid. But they have, again, they have a good, they have some key bats here. And Brian Reynolds, Brandon Lowe, Ryan O'Hern, and Nick Gonzalez, and these guys have all been helping that team OPS. They are, again, another team that's like the 2024 Arizona Diamondbacks which is something we just said about the Nationals and then we saw how that series went but

it's a very important series. You feel confident looking at at least the starting pitchers that the Diamondbacks have in Merrill Kelly, Brandon Fought and Eduardo Rodriguez that we have our solid three. We have the guys that you want going here in one of the most important

series of the year and holy crap that seems hyperbolic to say about a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates that starts on July 27th, but it's true. Because again, not only does this dictate the wildcard race, considering that the Diamondbacks and Pirates are locked in for that last position, you also have the Phillies kind of coming back down to Earth, so there's another wildcard position up for grabs it would seem like. At least the Phillies are in the mix. And again, you have the trade deadline looming on Monday. A lot of decisions have to be made for a lot of teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So what happens this week could definitely dictate that? If the starters in this series struggle against the pirates, I mean, I don't even know if the Diamondbacks go out there and get a first basement anymore, if they can at the trade deadline. I would imagine that if their starters struggle, they have no choice but to completely shift their focus towards prioritizing a starting pitcher at the deadline. But, I don't know, man.

I will say that this is incredibly important. And again, as far as the pirates are concerned, they have a bullpen, inconsistent bullpen, and that's probably going to be Diamondback's biggest opportunity. They are taking on two of the weaker starters in the rotations, so that bodes well for them as well. But the bullpen for the pirates has been unreliable throughout the entire season and remains one of the biggest reasons why they've been hovering around 500 and that they're fighting for a wild card spot instead of firmly holding onto one

with a 769 team OPS. They struggle more against left-handed pitching, so you feel like that gives Erod a definite advantage there in the finale. And again, they strike out a lot, which I don't know how well that goes with the Diamondbacks' philosophy of pitching to contact. Could be good. Could be very bad. Could be bad.

I don't know. Merrill Kelly probably will still figure out a way to adapt, as will Brandon fought. But Erod, again, that's the one thing is that I'm not sure. Maybe E-Rod can definitely use this change-up. which has been brilliant this year against those impatient but powerful pirates hitters to keep this game as close as possible and give the Diamondbacks a chance to win.

Everybody seems to still be waiting for Erod's regression. Let's hope it doesn't happen ever, ever, never. Let's hope that never comes. But we're going to take a quick break and on the other side of this break, we are going to do what we do on this podcast every single Monday and we'll probably until my time on this earth is done. Don't you go anywhere?

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Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P-HN-X for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Shane, what time is it? Game time. Game time. And also, financial success does begin with the right institution and the right checking account. That institution is Mountain America Credit Union with the My Style Checking account. The one and only My Style checking account designed around exceptional member service.

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And unfortunately, yeah, Damon's abandoned us. And I'm getting some news here from Eric Ruby that might actually be more concerning about Damon not being with us at PHNX Live on Thursday. I do have a backup. I do have a reliever coming in. Alex Dagestino will be joining us at Heela River to help me out and to discuss this Diamondbacks team as well as the trade deadline, which will be. Very, very close at that point.

So make sure to join us. It's free to RSVP. All Die Hard to attend. We'll receive a free drink ticket for the event. The show does start at 6 p.m. So if you love this show, come see us do it live with alcohol, basically, is what it is. Or your drink of your preference. I'm not going to make you drink, but drinks are available.

The link is in our show notes. So make sure to click in RSVP if you want to join and for more information. Eric Ruby is in the chat, and he says pretty messed up that Damon took all of his P-H-N-X-D-back stuff out of his Twitter and Instagram. That's not great, Shane. Is that?

Is that real? I don't know. I mean, he did leave to Alaska. Oh, my God, it's real. Oh, my God. No, this is, that's just Damon being Damon. That's just, that's just, that's just guys being dudes. That's no problem.

I'm not going to freak out about that. I am not at all worried about Damon coming back to the show now. I don't know, man. I'd be worried if I were you. Oh, my God. It's not going to be the same without him. It's going to be much more calm and reasonable. But people don't want that.

People don't want that, Shane. They don't want that. They especially don't want it today because everybody knows that every single year on this podcast, on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, is our year. Every single year is the year of the snake. Forget your stupid horse. Forget whatever stupid year it is.

Every single month on this podcast is Black History Month. Every single month on this podcast is Women's History Month, and every single month on the PHNXDBacks podcast is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week, and every single day is Earth Day, because Shane recycles. But on Monday, we go to the mailbag. Shane, can we go to the mailbag? All right, well, we got ourselves some questions in the mailbag today.

I think our guy, Jay Army Strong, asked what's the over-under on Catell questions. That's weird. He's like one of those websites that's somehow fixing it because he asked a question about Ketel. So he's trying to like skew the numbers. I feel a little bit there, Shane. But what do we got in the mailbag today? First one comes from college and curry. Lead off hitter Travis Moore. Says Ketel is chate or Kato. Who's Kato? He's Ketel. I don't know. Ketel is chasing at an alarming rate this season. He's being way too aggressive at the plate and it's honestly shown through the eye test. The ninth inning AB on Sunday drove me nuts. What is it going to take for him to adjust? He needs to work the counts more in his Aves. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's probably

been a problem with a lot of people on this team. And it feels like when you see the players start to have some patience, you start to see them, you know, have success. In fact, Gabriel Moreno has by far been the most patient hitter at the plate this year. Gabby isn't hitting for power. His OPS isn't crazy, but his batting average kind of is, as well. as his on-base percentage. Because Gabby right now is seeing the value in taking what's given to him and hitting the ball, hitting the baseball for singles, for doubles, and a lot of those, and walking a lot.

And the reason why he's doing that is because of patience. Seeing more pitches just gives you a better chance. The problem with Catelle is that Catell has had success hitting those first pitch, you know, for swinging at those first pitches, especially a pitch like that where he's hitting left-handed, it's right in his power zone, and he's hit those for home. runs a countless number of time in his career, times in his career. But that, that for me, is just about Cotel being, you know, that guy that wants to win it too bad. Being that guy that's too, again, I don't want to even say too impatient. He just, that is it. It's too impatient.

But like, he literally can't wait to get up there and hit the ball instead of at least seeing some pitches. And I'm with you. That's been something that's driven me crazy about this team, quite a bit. You know, having a reliever that hasn't thrown one single pitch in a game, come into a game, and swinging at the first pitch that that man throws. It was insane. It's been insane. And, I mean, it's something that the Diamondbacks have addressed.

Tori even said at one point, if he could go out there and make them all be more patient, he would. But chasing and chase rate, that's just something that comes with, I think, confidence in knowing that you are as valuable as a baby. base runner if you walk as you are if you get that hit. And that's something that maybe Marte isn't thinking about enough. He's probably thinking about winning the game for this team too often, which is something he's done quite a few times.

So I can understand where his head is at, but I would also, much like you, prefer to see every single batter in this lineup be more patient. The problem is that sometimes when you have the scouting report on a guy and then he throws the exact pitch that you were looking for, it's so hard to lay off. it's so hard to lay off a pitch that it's like that's it he said they were going to throw a fastball high in the zone and it was and uh i didn't hit it for a home run so it happens baseball's hard what else we got chain

next one comes from j army strong there he is the the manipulator uh kattelgate 2026 quote the instagramming has given me a headache social media sucks man he's not wrong he's not wrong It sucks to even have this be a story today. I don't sincerely give it much thought. I don't. I don't care what people do with their social media accounts. But when there's enough things there to give you a little bit of a concern, I can understand where people are coming from.

I will say that once again, it's the fact that Marte did scrub everything. That makes me feel like it's a little less. directed at the Diamondbacks. However, when you're a baseball player, your entire life is about that team you play for. So when you're removing everything, it could be every post that you've had.

I think that the discourse around Cotel is crazy all the time. I've never seen a player that loves playing for a team and being in a state that's as good as Marte is in his sport, constantly somehow be, you know, the focus of trade rumors and accusations of being a bad teammate and all this other stuff. Nobody liked that Ketel took a few extra days off last year. And it made it even worse that part of it was that, you know, home robbery, home invasion that also went along with it that made you feel like the reason why he was missing time was because of reason A and it really was because of reason B. I also hate the fact that just because

could tell's 10 and 5 rights were coming up, that was enough to connect the dots to say that he was one of the biggest trade or rumored discussions over the offseason. And I think it's dumb that we have to do this over an Instagram post. But if this was any time of any other time of the year, I really truly wouldn't care. But the week of the trade deadline, I care a little. I care a little. I care a smidge. And I can't help. not. All right, what else we got? Next question comes from Ed saying

what's the strategy going to be for the trade deadline, buying, selling, or just browsing? Ed brings up a good point. We haven't talked about the just browsing enough. I do that a lot. I do that a lot. Just browsing eventually leads to buying though. So maybe they're just browsing now and they will move into buying. I don't necessarily have

the money to buy a lot in my life. So I do the browsing portion quite a bit. But I will say that I am leaning more in the direction right now, the Diamondbacks not only being, like being buyers and at the worst standing pat, or making a move that we are not nearly as excited about, that we aren't, you know, that we don't think is going to improve this team very much. That, that's kind of what I'm leaning towards as being the downside. But the upside, I still think that we could do some pretty big things here at the trade deadline. It's,

It's hard not to look at this team and the way it's comprised and be satisfied to a certain degree with this roster and feel like this roster with the experience they have and the very, very talented players that are on this team that they could go far, right? You have a lot of things working for you, at least up until this weekend. The bullpen has been one of your most reliable cogs in this machine. And again, it feels like the offense putting up as many runs as they put up in the last week. is finally starting to get into gear, at least into some sort of consistent rhythm

where they've been able to put up runs. I do know that there's two, three-run games in there, so I'm not going to acknowledge those. We're just going to pretend like those don't exist. But still, it feels like this offense has been more consistent than they were during the entire month of June over this last week. I will say, though, that, you know, overall, I think that they're going to be buyers.

and I don't think the moves are going to be small. I think they're going to make a big splash. I just hope that it works out for them and doesn't become another move like Jordan Montgomery or Corbyn Burns or anything else that's come back to burn them. Let this be a move like J.D. Martinez. Let this be a move where we get somebody that's a slugger who comes over here and just hits more home runs for us

than he was even hitting in the first half. That would be great. I still feel like first base is a priority and based on the options that are out there, there seems to be very limited options when it comes to that. I mean, very limited options. So I don't know. I don't know.

And I think that this week is important because a lot of teams are going to make that decision whether they are a buyer-seller. And there's, you know, looking at the standings, there's just too many teams right now that are still in the race. In both leagues, you got, you know, obviously in the wildcard situation in the American League, you can be 10 games under 500, and you're still in the race over there. But in the National League, you know, you have everybody, you got the Diamondbacks right now in the control of the last position, just one game up on the Pirates.

You have the Pirates, Nationals, Cardinals, Padres, all above 500. You have the Marlins that have been an absolute disaster losing 12 games now in a row who were, the team that was holding this spot that the Diamondbacks now have, and they have literally sunk into the bottom of the ocean. And every team beyond that is probably out of reach. Reds are six games below 500. Giants, Mets, Rockies, they all suck. So again, there's a lot of teams,

but if the Cardinals lose some games this week and drop below 500, they could definitely be a team that just kind of drops out of it and makes some moves to try to improve their future, considering they've already done that. and this season up to this point has been a very pleasant surprise for that franchise. And they're still also the franchise that I hate the most right now, and they deserve all the bad karma in the world. So I'm just heaping that upon them.

But again, the Diamondbacks and Pirates right now sit right here split for this wildcard spot, and I can't help but think about how much the Diamondbacks need some help, both offensively as well as now at least one starting pitcher. But what's it going to cost, you know, especially in this market? with so many teams being buyers. That's what I keep looking at, and I have a hard time finding the assets in order to do so. The only thing I can think is for the Diamondbacks to take on a bad contract,

and that's probably going to involve taking on a player that's not putting up good numbers this year that, again, might not be that offensive savior and threat that we're looking for. What else we got there? That's all I got. I wish I could give you more on buyers or sellers. Mr. Bobbitt says, looking long term, could Gabby be a possible fit to fill the first base hole if Locklear doesn't pan out? Oof. I don't think Gabriel Moreno is enough of a failure as a catcher to do that. In fact, Gabby's a really good catcher.

So I feel like that would be more of a role for a guy that, like ADC, right, that has kind of been stacked behind a few guys, especially with James McCann being back and being healthy. it doesn't feel like Del Castillo is going to get very much playing time behind the plate. He's going to DH. And again, that's the kind of guy that you convert into a first basement if you can do so. Gabby, again, is a tremendous catcher. He has a great arm behind the plate. I think staying healthy has been a big problem for Gabby. And I think, again, getting into, you know, furthering his development.

You know, it feels like he's kind of regressed from that 20-23 season versus getting better. A lot of that is due to injury. A lot of it is due to changes in the game overall in that time. But I still think that his value is too high behind the plate. And I agree with Mark. Mark says Gabby at first base would be a huge waste of his value. Couldn't agree more. We have more Gabby questions, though.

We'll get to those here shortly. But I think we got one from the Discord, and then we got to take a break. What do we got there, Shane? Well, we get to take a break. Oh, we get to take a break. We can't wait to take a break. That's a question comes from Katie in our Discord. But if you're not a member of our Discord yet, well, then you're not a diehard.

So become a PhD next diehard. And you can do cool stuff like this and ask questions in our Discord. You automatically get it. You only have to wait for my prompt. You just get the mail-bent Monday questions. Kitty asks, do we have any updates on Gallen? I haven't seen anything. Do we think that they may be letting him bow out quietly or pull him to work on things?

If it's truly inflammation, does any possibility, is there any possibility he needs to go to Tommy John University? Okay, well, first of all, we are not attending Tommy John University. I almost feel like Zach Gallin is the opposite situation. Zach Gallen avoided potentially having surgery on his elbow and basically the latest update that we got suggests that Gallen might be back on track to return this season. Again, when we heard that Zach was getting a second opinion, it felt like that second opinion was going to be that Gallin was most likely going to

to be done for the season and need some sort of surgery. We didn't really have much information on his injury other than it was right elbow inflammation. And Lavallo said that Gallen has already began his throwing program a couple of days ago. So it would appear, at least for the time being that MRI results and other things have cleared Gallin of having any injury and he is on his way back to at least getting stretched out or seeing if he experiences any further pain. Like I said earlier, at this point, you still feel like Zach Gowling returning gives you a bit more consistency and just a better chance of winning than the unknown variables of Mitch Bratt and Cole Drake. Is he going to still suck? Maybe.

Maybe the time off's been good for him? I don't know, right? But overall, I feel like it almost feels like this was one of those second opinions where they were searching for an injury rather than trying to. to confirm that he didn't have one. And it would appear that they were basically like, nope, you're fine. Get out there and start throwing. So we'll see what happens with Gowan.

According to Tori Lavello's last update, he was out to 75 feet. So they're going to probably have another MRI done to see if there's any further damage or anything if the inflammation has gone down. And then they can determine from that point how they want to move. But again, it still sounds like,

Gallin is a ways off and he is not going to be back, you know, to begin August or the middle part of August. It sounds like he might be on the same exact coordinator, the same exact time frame as Corbyn Burns returning. It would be very similar. Tori said it would be very similar to what Corbyn Burns is doing when you're talking about the flat ground and then getting on a mound. We need these guys back though.

We need them back so bad. And even if it's Gallen and his near 60RA, we've, We still need some veteran arms back to give this team depth and to help them win some baseball games for sure. But we're going to take a quick break. We get to take a quick break. I'm excited for that. And on the other side of this break, we're going to answer more of your Mailbag Monday questions. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PHA next Diamondback show.

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They sell up fast and then people DM me and ask if we can add more. And I try to do that. But you never know. So make sure to get in on that ASAP. And we got some more mailbag Monday questions powered by our friends at GameTime. Once again, thank you to Game Time for powering our mailbag. What else we got in the Mailbag? Oh, just a bunch of good stuff.

Oh, gosh. This question comes from Michael. More Gabby. Gabby is clearly the best slash hottest hitter right now. Should he be batting second? Corbin's numbers batting second this year are great. I'm torn. What say you?

I think that there is some changes that's needed to the lineup. I think that Gabby makes a lot of sense in that spot. Gabby needs to, I think Gabby needs to be behind somebody. I think hitting second or third with his consistency this year makes so much sense, right? Again, Catelle isn't going to move out of the first or second spots in the lineup, period. That's just the way that it seems to be written in stone. But Gabby, again, he has been driving the ball, he's been getting runners over, he's been scoring runs, but most importantly, he's just been getting a lot of hits and a lot of walks. So you feel like putting him as high up in the

lineup is not only going to give you a chance to knock in some runs from Moreno, but also give him a chance to be a run that gets brought in as well. Moreno is having an incredible season. I literally cannot say enough about how good Gabby has been, especially over this stretch while the Diamondbacks have been winning. Gabby's numbers are just through the roof. I think he's up to 42 straight appearances, straight starts reaching base safely.

He has recorded an RBI in a career best five straight games, and Gabrielle Moreno in his last seven. games has reached base two or more times in 13 of those games, hitting 422 with a 1043 OPS, 6 doubles, one home run, 12 RBI, and 10 walks. I mean, Gabby's just incredible lately, and again, there's no reason why he shouldn't be hitting higher up in the lineup. Nate says he hit third Saturday and Sunday.

Hitting second might even make more sense. I don't know, though. This lineup right now is very confusing, and it feels like, right, when you start doubting one of these guys up at the top, they have a good game, but they still can't seem to be putting it together consistently. And that goes for Pardomo, Cotel, and Corbent. At least Pardomo has actually been, you know, finding a way to be very, be productive. Be productive.

But it's their four through nine guys. That's the thing, is their four through nine guys have been doing it. They even said it on the broadcast the other day, and it sounded insane. They were coming up to bat and they were like, well, here's the, here's the, the six through nine guys. These are the guys getting it done. But he's not wrong. Their four through nine batters have an MLB best 308 batting average, 895 OPS and 34 extra base hits since July 9th. And since July 1st, they're 7-8-9 batters. They have 40 RBI which leads the MLB. Make it make sense. It just feels like this Diamondbacks team in their lineup is upside down all the time. And

consistency is key. Figuring out which guys. guys you can group together that's going to give you the best chance of scoring runs is is is amazing and that's what they need to figure out it's hard though I'm sorry I was I was literally thrown off my game because Jason in the chat says Derek Hoppy Beer is objectively gross bud I don't even know where this attack came from but I've never been more upset at you Jason it's in reference to your ad read about the tower station you're you're simply wrong You're simply wrong.

You are. You're simply wrong. All right, what else we got? I got to move on. I'm upset with this. Yeah, no, I'm upset too. I'm going to ban him. You're banned.

Yeah. I'm just kidding. We've let Killer X get away with everything he's gotten away with. But that is a bridge too far to cross, my friend. Crobin asks, how would you order the lineup right now? Right back into the same one, huh? All right. Well, Cattel's not going anywhere.

Cattell's first overall. Let's go back to his idea. Let's put Gabby's side. second, then what? We have Corbin hitting third. We can't have Perdomo hitting fourth. We need some power there. We need some consistency. It's almost like I want Tyler Locklear to hit fourth and then Nolan Arnato to hit fifth. Do we have Perdomo go back to the nine hole? You know, the four through nine hitters, as I just said, have been doing their jobs, right? So moving some of those guys around still seems to be, you know, okay.

Tim Tawa's been doing okay. You know, you obviously have Max Kepler that's been very productive for this team. I mean, any kind of order of those guys after that, like 6, 7, 8 is going to play. Whoever your DH factors in there as well, but none of their DHS are guys that I truly want, unless it's one of the top of the order guys having a day off in Daching, I don't want like ADC or Ildemar Vargas or one of those guys hitting very high up there. But again, it's why this lineup is so confusing to figure out. I still would like Catell to be hitting second

so that he has a chance to drive in a lead-off runner. Right? That still seems like if I was doing it my way, if I was doing it my way, without the shackles of what they have to put up with with this starting lineup, it's Corbyn hitting leadoff. Why wouldn't your fastest hit or hit lead-off?

I know he's got power. I know he drives and runs. but why wouldn't you want Corby on base every chance you get and have Cotel second driving him in? And then Gabby third with the way he's been hitting lately. And then still, Tyler Locklear, probably fourth with the way he's been hitting. Probably still don't believe in Locklear enough to tie him to that position, but I don't hate that.

But Nolan Arnato still is going to give you a consistent bat there hitting fifth. Plus he's a good on-base kind of guy as well. And again, that's at least my top of the order. From that point on, I would almost build another starting lineup, right? So like if you have I'll have Imarro Vargas in there, I'd probably have him hitting sixth. Seventh I would probably put Pernomo. I would probably put ADC, 8th, and Tim Tao a ninth. That's probably where I was going.

But he said, Pete Sviosi said, didn't we have this exact discussion of moving Corbyn to three last year? We're just going in circles. Yeah, I know, I know. And PMAZ says Lineup today has Corbyn Batting leading off. Let's go! That's what I was just saying. Thank you. Thank you for making that happen. Appreciate it. Tori. There's my lineup.

That's the best I can do. Cool, bro. Thank you for your super chat. He says, can we get an O-T-D with RJ's Ephes pitch? Oh my God. For those of you that don't know what he's referencing one time, I think it's on this day. On this day, right? On this exact date. Randy Johnson was pitching against the San Francisco Giants

in San Francisco. And out in McCovee, one of those stupid boats hit its stupid like tugboat, you know, alarm, what do they call them?

What do they call them on boats? It's just a horn? It's a horn? Oh, one of those kind of things, right? A big deep one too. And Brandy was in the middle of throwing a pitch,

which caused him to instead release it too early and throw, I believe what was his first ever for his first ever, Eiff's pitch in Major League Baseball. Fun fact, Randy Johnson killed that man after the game,

murdered him in cold blood right on the boat, threw his body off into the waters. He was never seen again. So that's a fun on the date, on this date. What else we got? We have two more Superjurchase. Oh, we got two more. More from Coolbro?

Cool bro earlier on the show said, We were overacting the Cattel's piece sign of a long story. Yes. We are overreacting at everything Cattel did. We already overreacted. Yeah, and I mean, yeah, that's even worse. We didn't even discuss that, but a peace sign? Yeah, he's gone.

That means he's gone. He's out. This is over. A trade has been made and we don't know it yet, but it's coming down. That's what that means. I think he was reacting to the straight of Hormuz. He just wants a piece. Yeah, that's all.

Same. All right. Fleabal also says, what if Marte is the one that wants to get traded? I mean, then that's different. But again, a player wanting to be traded, you're not necessarily just going to do that because of it. He could be sending a mess. message, he could be saying, yeah, I'm done. Get this out of here. Get me out of here. And maybe they're

trying to make that happen. It doesn't mean it's going to happen, though, just because he wants to be traded. I still don't think that's the case, though. I still think Ketel's just emotional. And I still feel like this is based in something, though. It's based in something. Gambo says he's not getting traded. I believe Gambo. But it's hard not to still feel uneasy about this. What else we got? This comes from Prudomo's biggest fan. She says, A non-trade deadline-related one for fun.

Do you guys have a baseball team that you despise for reasons that are completely unrelated to the debacks? Oh, my God. I think I've told this story before on this podcast, but my hatred for the Dodgers is completely based in just me being a child attending the Dodgers game as my very first baseball game. And they were playing the Montreal Expos,

and it was on Sunday, and they had a thing. I didn't know about it. It was my first time there, Dodgers Stadium. They said that they were supposed to come out and sign autographs for the kids after the game. And that was something they did every Sunday. And they lost. They got skunked by the Expos that day.

And the Dodgers were all up in their feeling. So they decided to not come out and sign autographs for the kids. And I decided that day that I hated this team more than I've hated any other team I've ever watched play a sport in my whole entire life. Then the Montreal Expos, who were. Get dressed in suits, getting ready to get on their bus and go to their next series away game They proceeded to walk back after taking their bags out to their bus and sign autographs for the kids and that's why till this day To this day the expos in my heart hold a very special place and will forever all right All right and it's Montreal not Montreal Montreal Montreal Montreal Montreal

Montreal just like how it's Toronto and not Toronto Toronto. All right. My daughter also said in the song, Santa Fe on Newsies, the musical, you don't pronounce the T. So I'm learning a lot this week about pronouncing words. Nice. Do you have one?

Yeah, I would say it's the Cubs because my mom is a Sox fan. Okay. I've just always hated the Cubs. You pick the side. Yeah, you know what's funny? So my dad somehow raised me to think the opposite of the Duke of North Carolina rivalry. I thought everybody hated North Carolina and everybody loved Duke. Okay.

And it's the other way around. Yeah, it's definitely the way around. And I didn't find that out until it was like 16 years old. It's my dad loved Duke. Look. You don't know you're the villain until one day you wake up and realize you're rooting. I'm a sagger when everyone else zigs. Yeah, I get it.

I get it. Also, your mom must be having a great time right now, being a white socks fan. It is fun. That's every time I think of the White Sox, it's the Squidward meme. And I'm Squidward watching the White Sox out the Great, having a great time. And now people are like, wait, going to the, that ballpark's actually great. Why is everyone talking about? Like, well.

It's like, well, when you don't lose 110 games, it's cool. And, you know, they started to kind of keep pushing everything farther south. Let's go next to our, what else we got? What else we got? We got flea ball. Now that ABS is on the infancy stages, what changes would you like to make to it? Oh, I still don't like ABS. But I do like the excitement of it.

When we go to an ABS challenge, is it not exciting? Shane. It's not like the moment during the game, you're like, all right. I want better animations. I want like drama. You want it. It's already pretty dramatic,

but I want it to be like like a ball, like a strike and bowling when it's a ball. Yes. Or if you get a little graphics come out. Like a gulletre ball. Yeah. Like a little snake slithers across the screen and stops and says, looser and it keeps going, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Or like if it's a strike and you, or if it's a. Yeah, if it's a strike and you challenge that it wasn't a strike and then it ends up being a strike, instead of just being like red like it shows up, make it like a flame ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Strike, MFer. Yeah.

Or like put like the big X up on the, like when you're watching Family Feud and they get the answer wrong. Yeah. That would be great. Yeah. I would also like leaning up to the pitch landing, I would like a drum roll. You know, just like a br-dr-and-then-they-lands. but it's programmed to the ADS system. We don't need like an actual drum roll.

We just need like an automated one. That's all. All right. What else we got? I think we fixed that one. Yeah. Let's get one last one in here. Last one from Karen with a C.

Which players are going to be free agents at the end of the season? I know teams, including us, don't shy away from rentals. It's very true. I don't think the Diamondbacks, and see, again, this is another reason why I still feel like the Diamondbacks aren't going to be sellers because they don't have a tremendous amount of sell, right? The Diamondbacks have, as starting pitchers, They have Michael Soroka and Zach Gallen on expiring contracts.

Michael Soroka, I will say, might fetch you a tremendous amount of value, especially considering that he hasn't pitched again to allow teams to determine whether or not he's, that was just like a fluke run for him in the first half. So his value is very high right now. If the Diamondbacks truly deemed that they were out of it, or if they could possibly get a starting pitcher in return that they feel like was going to be healthier and help them immediately instead of continuing to weigh. for Soroka to come back, that might be reasons to consider it. But that's probably not even

on the table and Soroka has been excellent this year. So you almost feel like you need him down the stretch. You can't trade him. Zach Gallen has no value right now. So there's no reason to trade him because you're simply not going to get anything in return for him. If they weren't able to get more than a ham sandwich at last year's trade deadline, they're probably going to be expected to pay people to take him at this point this season. James McCann is the other guy on an expiring contract. and again, he just feels like he's too valuable to this team right now is both a backup and a DH, or at least a catcher that allows Gabby to DH more, so that feels like it's kind of locked in.

Other than that, they just have relievers that are available to trade. You got Jonathan Lelowiceka, you have Taylor Clarks, Paul Seawald, and you also have Ilamar Vargas, which I didn't write down. But those are your guys on expiring contracts. You feel like you need every one of those guys, And you also feel like they have more value here with this team than they would being traded elsewhere, especially a guy like Paul Seawald, despite how much we all get a little nervous anytime he comes into a baseball game. But it doesn't feel like they have the pieces to sell.

That's why it feels like overall it's more likely that the Diamondback stand pat and don't make a big move, make probably a more insignificant move. And that would probably be more of the, I think, disappointing result rather than making a big splash. and doing everything that we feel like they need to do in order to make this team a true contender when the playoffs roll around. Well, we got one last super chat from our guy, Coolbro, said next week to the day,

me and her at Harry Potter Night. Sir, we have been following this love affair this entire time, and we cannot wait to hear back. Kudos to you, by the way. I can't wait to see which houses you guys get sorted into. And if she says anything mean to you, Avada cadaver. He said it, not me.

He said it, not me. And Nate Cleveland says, boo, Derek for Seawald love, boo. Sorry. Sorry. Oh, wait. Sorry, he says a lot of saves. I'll actually, I'll be producing the show on Wednesday, but let's just get ahead of it now. What is the trade the Mariners and D-backs are going to make?

That's my mail-back question. Do you want Paul Seawald back? That's what I was thinking. I think that's what's going to happen. Yeah. We'll trade you Paul Seawald back and you give him back. He's been horrible in non-save situations. He's been horrible.

horrible. You got it. You guys got one of those clothes. Tell you what, Paul Seawald for Andres Munoz. Throw in Tyler Locklear and I'm down. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk. Let's just do it again. And you know what? We'll give you Domken's own too. Yeah, let's talk. I love it. I love it. I love it. Get Jerry DePoto on the phone right now.

We love you guys. We thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you stopping by. We'll be back with another post game show. Tomorrow night for tomorrow's game. Let's hope the debacks get a big win this evening. Appreciate you all being here. And more importantly, appreciate your questions. They make mailbag Monday what it is. You can follow us on social media. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with the K. Shane is at Shane Deef.

Our show is at PhNX underscore D-Backs. But as always, all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys for your time. Appreciate you sharing some of it with us. Come back here tomorrow night and we'll do a little post-game action. Until then, hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your Monday. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. when Cotel Marte doesn't give us more reasons to worry about this team trading him.