PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Let's Go Shopping! How the Diamondbacks Could Make a Splash in Free Agency with $30 Million

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube  The Diamondbacks have not made any big moves this offseason, unlike their division rival in San Francisco who continue to improve. But the D-backs may not need to make the flashy moves we’ve seen during the Winter Meetings to compete in 2025. We discuss their needs this offseason and take our best swing at improving this team through free agency with a budget of $30 million. Can we find ample replacements for Christian Walker and Joc Pederson while also adding a game-changing closer to the bullpen? Join Derek, Jesse, and Shane for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/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/ 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/ Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen#corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is the NL West becoming the N-Hell West starting to feel like it? Much like Tori said one time, I really do wish the best players would stop coming to this division. On today's show, we're going to talk about the Giants, now being another team that we're going to have to worry about, as well as how this guy and I would spend $30 million in free agency. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Don't you guys go anywhere.

We'll be back here in 30 seconds. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Deepak's podcast right here in Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. My name, of course, is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This guy next to me, fresh off the winter meetings from Dallas. Boo this man.

He didn't go down the slide. It's the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Of course, we got Shane Diefenbach on the ones and twos. Give me a bark there, Shane. That's a good one. I mean, that's appropriate because the Arizona Diamondbacks's chances of being a relevant team in the NL. West might be dying the way that whatever is happening to that dog is happening.

And things aren't great, Jesse. Things aren't great. Obviously, I think we're going to talk here about some rumors. We do know that the San Francisco Giants already picked up Willie Adomis on that historic contract for that franchise. It's being introduced today. He is being introduced. And they continue to get better, Jesse. They continue to get attached to other big name free agents.

According to Bob Nightingale, the Giants have emerged as quote unquote heavy favorites for Corbyn Burns. which means the NOS just got a little bit more difficult if that's the case. If they end up getting Corbyn Burns, that Giants team looks very, very formidable. And again, it's part of the, I guess it's the terrible part about being in this division with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Because in order for you to compete with the Dodgers, you yourself have to become an all-star team. The way that we've seen the Padres do that, and now the way that the Giants are making attempt at it this offseason. And the Diamondbacks don't really have a choice, but to do their best to try to keep up with what these other teams are doing.

I had a reporter come up to me while I was at the winter meetings, Derek. It was just minding my own business in the media workroom. Someone comes up and disturbs me. And their question to me was, am I crazy in thinking that the Diamondbacks and the Giants are not that different from each other after the Willie Adama signing? And granted, the Diamondbacks haven't done anything yet, this off season and the Giants have already made probably the biggest move that they're going

to make, right? Well, I guess maybe not. You just said that they were interested in Corbyn Burns. So that would probably become the biggest move. But yeah, and I think that where I stand on this is the Diamondbacks, I would still take the Diamondbacks over the Giants as of right now. I would. I still think that the starting rotation that the Diamondbacks have, you know, the Giants have Logan

Webb, like he's awesome. He's one of the best pitchers in the National League. but the diamondbacks have Zach Gallen and they have Merrill Kelly and they have some pieces that you like behind those guys. I think I would take the debacks from a rotation standpoint. I think I would still take their offense over the Giants offense, even though maybe that gap has closed a little bit with the debacks losing a couple of guys, at least as of right now, the Giants adding Willie Adomis. But yeah, the gap has undoubtedly closed.

And I think we're getting to a point where the diamondbacks are maybe closer to the Giants on paper than they are to certainly the Dodgers and maybe even the Padres as well. So, yeah, they absolutely have their work cut out for them this offseason. And it's just, it feels like it's an uphill battle constantly because the Dodgers and the Padres, they're, you know, the Padres are competing with the Dodgers. The Dodgers are competing with no one other than the other top teams in baseball. You know, so it's it's the whole like, you know, I've been, I've been thinking about you or, you know, I've held this grudge for this long and I don't even think about you.

You know, like the Dodgers aren't even worried about the Diamondbacks and the Giants right now because they don't have to be because these teams right now, at least as far as talent-wise, are considerably behind them and the Padres. It's just luckily the good players in this league are kind of getting dispersed a little bit. It would be nice if they stayed out of the NOS like I said. But, you know, again, there's not the Dodgers aren't, you know, adding these big names yet. they've done a good job of bringing back some of their guys that they believe in, and that's been solid. They've gotten a couple of role players, which is, you know, just shows that that team is, you know, continuing to try to stay very relevant. And they got like a big signing in Blake's now, right? So, like, but the Dodgers at the very least, everybody thinks the Dodgers are going to be the team scooping all of these players up.

For a moment, you can breathe the sigh of relief. You see Juan Soto. You see other players going, you know, elsewhere. The problem is is that here you have now the Giants. you know, which you're not paying a whole lot of attention to, becoming a team that we should be paying attention to. And again, this is all speculation based on, you know, them being in on the Corbyn Burns thing.

But like Jesse says, the signing of Burns would make the Giants a problem for us. It would really, it would really narrow the gap. I mean, if the Giants sign Corbyn Burns, I think we'd be at a point where on paper the debacks and the Giants are in a very, very similar place. But again, the Diamondbacks, they're going to make some moves this off season two. I don't think they're going to do anything of that magnitude. But this roster is definitely going to look different in a couple of months than it does right now.

And as we've been saying, the last couple of days, the areas of the market that this team is going to be most engaged in, we just haven't really seen a ton of movement in those areas just yet. But it's coming. And it could come relatively soon. I think the one thing we at least caution Diamondbacks fans to not get too upset about is the fact that these moves haven't happened yet. We are going to make the foolish mistake of attempting to spend $30 million of Ken Kendrick's money and free agency this offseason to try to make this team better. We'll have some rules for that game. Him and I are going to pick some different players that we would go out and acquire.

But it wasn't easy. And $30 million doesn't go as far as you might. think it will. No. You know, so in, and I guess in the, in the effort of doing this that we, that we've done, you realize that the Diamondbacks do have to make some trades in order for them to improve this team in order for them to stay competitive. That's really the only way at this point that I think that they can do it outside of, you know,

they are going to have to spend some money, but they are going to have to make some trades. That's, it feels like, especially with the surplus of outfielders and starting pitchers they have, not only doesn't make. sense for them but is the only way that they're going to be able to get in you know more talented players that can help this team win that was definitely my biggest takeaway from doing that exercise which will will unveil our results here in the next segment but yeah you can't really you can't really fill all of the holes on this team with just the 30 million dollars in free agency maybe you could have felt better about it a few weeks ago before some of these moves before some of these

signings had happened, but now that we have a sense of where the market stands, $30 million is just not, it just not really feel like enough, at least to get the caliber of players that you would like to when you're replacing some pretty big contributors, right? Like Jack Peterson and Christian Walker and Randall Gritchick, like those guys were really, really important parts of this team this past year. And we also know that the diamondbacks want to add a closer. And that's not something that you expect to be cheap in free agency either. So we'll get into that. a little bit later. There are a few storylines around the league that I wanted to touch on.

Nolan Arnado, it very much looks like he is going to be traded this offseason. As we discussed the other day, I don't think the Diamondbacks are a fit here. You know, he's willing to move to first base. Yes, but that doesn't really make any sense for the Diamondbacks. And I think his contract is prohibitive there as well. Kyle Tucker, this is something that really gains some steam over the course of the winter meetings. I think the Astros are probably going to trade.

Tucker and this is a guy who you could argue is better than Juan Soto like Kyle Tucker is that good when he's healthy certainly better outfielder than then Juan Soto brings more to the table in other areas of the game even if he's not quite as good of a hitter although he is very very good at that as well so so yeah it sounds like the Astros are going to make a move there with him one year away from free agency and yeah as far as guys who were traded like I know Garrett Crochet was a huge name to be moved but Tyler is an enormous name there as well.

Rickety Bridge brings up the question that everybody's asking, which is we are actually making moves this off season, right? And here's the thing. They have to. That's what it comes down to. Like, yes, Hazen has said things like Pavin might be an option at first base. And some of them, they can't not make moves. It's just the way that this roster is constructed,

if they lose the players that we think that they are most likely going to lose due to free agency, then we are going to need to go out and make some sort of move. So I don't think that that's going to be the case at all. And I think that's what Diamondbacks fans are fearing. At the winter meetings, Mike Hazen said that the team actually doesn't have as much to do this offseason as they usually do. Right. So, like, they do feel like they are in a very good position as far as, you know, a lot of their position players as well as they're pitching. They just feel like there's some, you know, a couple of areas.

is they would like to get better. And then obviously, first base, DH, that they kind of need to figure out. Right. But they did do something, Jesse. They did. They did. They did make a move. So to answer that question, it's already been done.

They've already made a move. Technically, the Diamondbacks have already made a move. This is sort of old news at this point. I think this technically went down on December 3rd. You can find it on the transaction log on the minor league baseball website. It shows how important it is. Yeah, right, right. You have to go to the minor league transaction log.

If you go to the major league transaction log, you don't find it. But, yeah, the Diamondback signed right-handed pitcher Jeff Brigham to a minor league deal. Brigham is in the MET system. Most recently has some major league experience spent 2024 in AAA in the Mets system at a 4.64 ERA there. The numbers here aren't really all that impressive. But I will say I looked at some of the underlying, some of the pitch R. personal numbers from AAA this past year. That's something we can do now in baseball savant.

And this guy has an insane fastball. At least that's what it looks like. It average is 94, so that's not like crazy. But it has a lot of induced vertical break, and it had a 40% whiff rate, which is absolutely absurd for a four-seem fastball to have a 40% whiff rate. So, you know, is Brigham going to be a big factor for the Diamondbacks in the majors next year? I don't know. I think he's probably more of a depth piece for them.

But looking at the underlying numbers, like his expected stats against him were significantly, it looks like he got very unlucky looking at some of the underlying numbers. So you can at least understand why the Diamondbacks would have wanted him. They also did make a selection in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. How is that impacted? Are there any rules attached to that the same way that it's attached at the major league level where you have to stay on the major league roster for the entirety of the season?

Yes, I believe so. Yeah, Drake Osborne, the Diamondback selected him in the minor league phase. He's 26 years old. So, you know, is he like someone who's really on track to be a frontline catcher for this team down the road? I'm not so sure at 26 years old. He hasn't played above AA. I had a 67 OPS between High A and AA this past season. And so I think this is more of just a depth play for the diamond backs, just wanting to make sure that they have all of the catching depth they need in their minor league system.

And so, yeah, they're just plucking, plucking guys from the Mets here, Derek. Yeah, Drake Osborne coming out of the Mets system as well. All right. Well, we are going to, like I said earlier, appreciate our guy, Mark Salary. He says, Oos sneaking in wrestling references. It gets better than that. This is a bronze stroman sweater. It's the Stroman Express.

I stay on brand when it comes to wrestling references. But we do appreciate you guys being here so much, of course. Make sure you sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so. And of course, leave that like. Hit that like button. We always appreciate when you do that.

Of course, on the other side of this break, we are going to make a feeble attempt at spending $30 million of Ken Kendrick's money and a little game we're going to play. We did set some rules. This is a very imaginary scenario, but I don't think. I don't think it went well for either one of us. However, we're going to make our best attempt at it. We do thank you guys again for being here. We will be right back on the other side of this break with the PHNXD Beck Show.

We are very busy during this time of the year, especially this guy traveling around to Dallas, and there is nothing that we love better than not shopping and not having to figure out what we're going to eat. We don't take a good job taking care of ourselves, but you know who does Hello Fresh. Hello Fresh does a great job at taking care of us. With Hello Fresh, you get Farm Fresh pre-Presh, pre-Perex. portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. You don't have to go to the grocery store and you can count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. I know we're talking about a partner here, but I can't express enough how much fun it was to

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free hellofresh meals. Just go to hellofresh.com slash free debacks. And of course, if you want to put a on this holiday season and be an incredible gift giver. Go get your loved one a new vehicle from Sanderson Ford. You can, of course, be that baller from those car commercials and then treat yourself to lunch at the Starliner diner because if you're buying someone a car, you definitely deserve that. But we are proud to have Sanderson Ford as an official vehicle partner, and they are thankful to have lived and prospered for the past 70 years in Glendale, Arizona.

And they're thankful for you, their customers for without your support, they couldn't give back and support our community with a very very very very. like Operation Santa Claus. Get deals right now in the new 2024F150 truck with a 3.9% APR financing for 66 months, plus up to 4 grand cashback, similar savings on over 900 new and pre-owned vehicles on the lot. Jess, have you cook a lot? I wish I could say yes in response to that question, but. So there's only one that's the answer is no.

The answer would be no. Like he likes to cook. He, no, he doesn't. This man. No, I do not like to cook. Hades to cook so much that as he's talked about on this show, he hates making himself a sandwich in the morning that he's not going to eat until later in the day that he's bringing to work. I can understand that a little bit.

It's the longest five minutes of my day. So you're not a big fan of investments then. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I mean, food investments, no. You're investing in your future. It's future investment is what it is. That's fair.

Maybe if I look at it that way more. so then I would enjoy those five minutes of my day a little bit more but no it's absolutely miserable see I thank past Derek when I eat the sandwich I'm like thank you past Derek for caring about future Derek you know I mean like there's there's a time those two guys might meet up you know I think there is no you never know you never know that would be crazy there there is a time I do wish I would go back to though and that was when I didn't have to spend my own money on Christmas gifts you know like when you got when you were like eight and they would send you with like $20 to that crappy school fair.

I tried to talk to Jesse about this, but he's homeschooled and I can't. So I'll talk to Shane about it because, yeah, how hard was it to resist spending some of that $20 on yourself, Shane? Come on. I wanted all of it. You wanted all of it. Give me every single Guinness Book of World Records book. Yes. I found out.

I loved getting his book. At a thrift store the other day, I found a 2002 Guinness Book of World Records book that I'm going to use as a display piece of my coffee table. Fun fact, friend of the show Megaran is a Guinness World Record holder. For what? For the most songs about a video game character, Mega Man. That's fun. Yeah. I thought it was going to be like longest tenured friendship with Derek Montaia.

Oh, that's a whole other category. That's a whole other category. But I do want to spend some of Ken Kendrick's money, much like I used to spend my parents' money on them during the holiday season. So we're going to play a game where we make a list of how we would spend $30 million on free agency this off season now. we know the Diamondbacks are not going to do this. They are going to probably spend $30 million, but they could spend more, they could spend less. We don't know the amount particularly or what the budget is, but we know it's going to be in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 million. Given how much money is currently on the books and the fact that we've heard a variety, a number of times at this point that they're expecting payroll to be in roughly the same range it was a year ago.

$30 million is roughly what they're looking at to spend this offseason. And whether they're going to spend all of it in free agency, that seems fairly unlikely. As we said earlier, something we learned from doing this exercise is that doing something via trade is probably a good idea. But we're going to try to just do all of it via free agency. You know, that way if Jordan Montgomery does bounce back, he's bouncing back with the diamond backs. You know, you're not having to pick between Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy. You're able to keep all of those guys for the foreseeable future. So here are the rules of the game.

We don't have to worry about the length of the. deal or what the player would make beyond 2025. This is simply an exercise for what they would make in one season if they were signed to a one-year deal. Like I said, I know some of these guys wouldn't go on that. We can't defer money. Nope, that's also a no. Cam.

Cam asks if we can defer money. I mean, we can, but we can't in this exercise. And we will only go based on crowdsource projections of what they will make for one season. The problem with that being, we know these crowdsource projections are crap. There is no way some of these players are going for as cheap as they're going. And also, some of them are very expensive, which made me kind of halts what I wanted to do. And we'll get around to that. But the assumption would be that the debacks are going to lose all pending free agents.

Yeah, right, right. So before. Oh, and no trades only. Only free agents here. Right, right. So first we need to assess what they actually need, Jesse. And we know the one thing is first baseman, right? They need a first baseman.

Christian Walker does not stay with the team. That is a must. I mean, I guess you could look at internal options, but I mean, a first baseman feels like a fairly glaring necessity for this team going in the 2025. At least, yeah, at least someone who could platoon at first base with a Pavan Smith, right? Even the biggest Pavan Smith apologists would probably acknowledge that having him face lefties on a regular basis is maybe not the best idea there. So you're not a Paveensmith apologist? I didn't say that. I would just say that.

I just kind of want to know your stance on Pave and Smith before we continue. Wait, is Jesse going to apologize to Pave and Smith right now? It's been a long running bit. Is this? Is this happening? I think that Pave and Smith very well could be a strong side platoon guy for the Diamondbacks in 2025 and do totally fine. I talked about this with my case in the other day. like it is how do you evaluate somebody who who just sort of went off for like 200 played appearances

the way that he did but doesn't necessarily have the track record before that to back him up and uh like how mike's answer was you just did yeah yeah yeah he was like it's that simple like you that i mean that's all of the information we have to work with and uh it is it is really challenging to to know how to evaluate a player like that it's really one of the biggest questions that this team is going to have to wrestle with this season is how big of a role are you willing to commit to him If you are willing to commit a significant role to him and it pans out and he winds up being productive in that role, then that gives you that much, you know, that many more resources to go after other things this offseason. I would love to know how to say your name. I'm going to give it a shot.

Who's a little poachy lee? No, who's a little poachily? It doesn't feel right. I don't know. That's not right. It doesn't do right. I said, I finally made it here while you're last. I'm so excited.

We're so excited to have you and very excited to be. You know what I think their name is? What? Maybe the dog. Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's the dog's name. Yeah. I'm just going to go with pooch.

Is that a headless toy the dog has? Well, I mean, come on. It's a dog. Dogs do that. That's their job. Their job is to destroy things that they perceive to be threats to your home. That's a good dog right there. I feel like people give like generally dog names are on the shorter side, right?

Like every time you call your dog, do you want it to be like 10 syllables? I mean, there's some sort of nickname in there. If that's the case, they're shortening it down. But still, I'm, that's fair. That's fair. I mean, again, you call them hoots. Get over here, hoots. Yeah, there you.

I don't know, but you're there. That's a great name. It's great. Yeah, so when it comes back to things they actually need, I don't think anything else you could say they have to have. And that probably goes for first baseman too, right? But as far as the things that we assess that the Diamondbacks need, first baseman would be at the top of the list.

I believe it depends on how you would want to rank this. Maybe DH would be next. feel like DH would be a fairly high priority. I know that the Diamondbacks are looking to add to their bullpen. However, you could argue that with the way that their bullpen is constructed now, that they could be fine. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's reasonable.

The starting point for the bullpen this offseason, it's in a much better place than it's been in past years. Even last off season, you know, when the bullpen was a real asset for this team down the stretch, it still kind of felt like, you know, not that it was a total fluke the way that those guys performed in the last couple months of the year. But it felt like they should add some reinforcements.

And this offseason, yes, they would still like to add reinforcements. They would still like to add a closer if they can, as we've discussed. But I agree with you. It feels like more of a want than a need at this point. We got the loss of Jock Peterson and Randall Gritchick, obviously, leaves them in a place where currently, you know, it would be somebody else as a DH or some. somebody from the minor league system getting called up. But yeah, I'm sure they would like to bring in somebody that they can actually have as a DH,

considering how important that was to them in 2024, how much offense they generated from that, from that spot. But then after that, we would see the bullpen, most likely a closer being the most important priority there. And then maybe another reliever as well. And then as far as another need, backup infielder, right? like somebody that takes like Kevin Newman roll on and like I think that's kind of a kind of a necessity honestly I mean I'd say that probably be higher than like a second reliever or maybe even a closer right where would you where would rank that yeah I it's hard to say exactly where I would where I

would put it I mean based on what on what Mike said yesterday it sounds like there's a chance that they try to fill this internally I'm not sure exactly what that would look like I mean I guess you know Blaze Alexander does have plenty of shortstop experience or I It didn't look great for him this past year when he was there defensively. But yeah, Kevin Newman was such an enormous part of this team this past year. I can't really imagine what those two months without Geraldo Prudomo would have looked like without him. So I think you want someone else that you feel pretty good about a shortstop if you can get that. Well, to further the conversation that we were having here with our new friend, his name is an Aztec God, Jesse.

Oh, okay. I think I found the pronunciation if you can let me give a shot. You want to give it? We'd see La PouchTilly. Wow. We'd see La Pouch Tilly. That's really good.

Huh? Or I could see how people like me butcher it and then they just call him Hooch and that's how he goes online by Hoochtally. We'd see La Pouch to Lee. I don't trust that lady. More importantly, the dog's name is Blue and Blue is my boy.

Yeah, there you go. See you want like dog names. This should be short, right? It should be like two syllables is it with the dog name. My life. One week ago, we had our PHNX Christmas party, and at the Christmas party, Mrs. Montillo was in attendance, and she told one Leah Merrill that we weren't going to have any more pets

in our house because we had too many as it was, and we couldn't take any more on. Fast forward to today, Jesse, I have a new cat. One week later, that statement about us not getting any more animals didn't last a week. That's what happens when you work in the animal care industry. That's fair. And now I have a cat that I need the name. Blue sounds like a fine name. I'm trying to go with cat scataboo.

That's what I'm going to do. Or cam, just yeah, just cam cataboo, right? Camcadaboo. The problem with cat scataboo, as great as that is,

is that again, like realistically, every time you call your cat, you don't have time for that. It's going to be scat. Okay, okay. Oh, he'll be boo-boo. Or cat.

Or cat. That was exactly what I'm, Exactly what I was getting at is that then his first name is cat. And it just doesn't feel right. My cat's name is offset. And most of the times I call him Mr. Boy. Offset. It's a great name.

Offset's a great name for a dad. Elizabeth wants you to name the cat, Jesse. No, we're not. It would be Jesse the third, Elise. It wouldn't be Jesse the cat. He couldn't be Jesse Jr. We know that. You're going to offend our pet snake.

We've drugged this on too long. So we're going to make you wait, I think, a little bit more to see our actual list for this, Jesse, before we reveal the actual list, I think we're going to make people wait. But we appreciate you being here, and we'll be right back with who we chose to spend our $30 million on on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere?

Well, downtown Phoenix is going to be hopping for the holidays. There's already a lot of fun things to do, but one of the most incredible things you can do is stop by at Chase Field for the Rape Bowl. Get ready to huddle up at Chase Field for college football postseason action. The Rape Bowl will kick off on December 26th at 3.30 p.m. You have family in town. or you're looking for a little fun, holiday vacation fun while you're maybe off from work,

huddle up with the friends and come on down to Chase Field. You can join us for a football game in a Major League Baseball Park, making it one of the most unique and fun atmospheres in sports. It's also the only game featuring a matchup between Big Ten and Big 12 teams, two of the toughest football conferences in the country. I'm not sure if you've heard, but our ASU Sundevils won that one of those conferences. I'll let you figure out which one. But game tickets, premium experiences, and reserve parking are all available right now.

Get chores. now at ratebowl.com. Also, it doesn't matter where you're going this holiday season. You got to take care of yourself. You got to hydrate. You got to stop by America's third stop at Circle K. We are here in Studio K, presented by our friends in Circle K. I'm still upset that we don't have a Polar Pop machine in this room,

but you do sign up for the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. You'll get your first five Polar Pop for absolutely free. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. You'll also save 25 cents. off per gallon on your first five Phillips and you'll save three cents per gallon every day after that. So of course, get down on the inner circle. It's not just those savings.

There's lots of savings to be had. And we know, of course, with lots of gifts to buy, especially if you're like Jesse, who has not even started his holiday shopping yet, you need to save yourself as much money. Oh, it's not even that he hasn't started yet. Yeah. I mean, actually, Jesse would probably find some great deals at Circle K and he would do it on the way to the party or whatever he's going to. But that's because Circle K has lots of great options to be had.

But again, stop by. Get yourself that inner circle for free. Save some money on gas and save some money on snacks. It is America's Thirstop. So get yourself something to drink. We have some pretty awesome cat names in the chat that I want to read off before we get. I'm ready to go. So Riley says, Ketel Miaoete.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Thunderstick? The thunderstick. The cat thunder stick. Ooh. Yeah.

Dilly? Dillie? Oh, I like Dillie. I could call it. Just Cattaboo. Just Cateroo. Yeah, I like Caterboos. Caterbo is pretty good.

Just Caterboo. Yeah. Don't skip over ex-Wobicon, Shane. Yeah. I know you were ignoring that on purpose. Cam recommended ex-Wobicon, and that's my favorite. Is that breaking your rule of the three syllables? Yeah.

We can make an exception. We can make an exception for X-Wobico. We're calling them Wobo. X-Wobie? Yeah, there you go. Bacon. All right. Bacon.

All right. Well, it's time for us to spend some of Ken Kendrick's money. And of course, we are going to do so right now. I mean, this is not easy. Per-domo! Oh, my God, there it is! I got to call my wife. Hold on.

I got to call her right now. I'm going to get her on the phone. All right, I'll do that later. I guess I got to shoot it. But before I call my wife and name my cat perdomo, we got to get on with this. Jesse, this wasn't easy. Right? You start looking at those annual values of those contracts and what these guys.

guys would make last year. I will start off by admitting before we show our lists that the number one guy on my list, as Jesse can attest to, was Paul Goldschmidt. And then I got very frustrated with how much Paul Goldschmidt takes up of my $30 million budget. I can't spend $14 million on one guy, Jesse. I just can't do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we probably both started with being very ambitious and then we sort of had to downgrade a little bit from there. Yeah. All right. Well, let's start with Jesse's moves. Jesse, what do you got for us? All righty. So I have a total of five players that I am bringing in, Derek. And again, we're going off of the fancrafts crowdsource projection. So on fan graphs, they have decided how much money they think all these players will sign for. And so this does add to, I think it's $29 million. Technically, they didn't have a projection for John Bertie. I'm thinking that's about $2 million. But yeah, I'll run through these guys real quick. Carlos Santana, one year, $7 million is what Fangraphs has for him.

We've talked about him on the show, someone who's a switch hitter who absolutely killed left-handed pitching this last year. So if you're looking for a quality platoon option with Paven Smith, Carlos Santana could absolutely do that. Or if Paven Smith is not able to replicate what he did last year, Santana is also a perfectly fine option as an everyday first baseman. He is a very well-regarded defender at first base. just won a gold glove in the American League

and is not Christian Walker offensively, but is reasonably close. He hit 23 home runs this past season. Jesse Winker I have in here as well as a designated hitter. He's basically the jock Peterson, someone who can hit right-handed pitching pretty well. Someone who can survive against lefties, you'd like to avoid that if you can.

He also can survive in a corner outfield spot, but you'd also like to avoid that if you can. Jeff Hoffman is my number three option here. Hoffman, they have at three years and $30 million on fan graphs, which I think is probably very low. I think Hoffman is going to get more than $10 million per year. But we saw him pitch against the Diamondbacks in the NLCS, and he was awesome, and he is one of the best relievers in all of baseball. He had 10 saves in 2024. So he's a guy who has closing experience.

It would be maybe a little bit of a new role for him, but he is one of the best relievers in the sport, as I said. Randall Grishick, just bringing him back. He was awesome in that role this past year. So I like the idea of just bringing him back. They did not have a crowdsource projection for Grishik. They had him below a guy who was one year in $3 million, which I think, I think again, Khrushik is going to sign for more than that. And then, yeah, John Bertie is the last guy on my list, someone to basically, fill the Kevin Newman role can play a variety of positions, including shortstop, was hurt

for much of 2024, but you can get him on a pretty affordable deal moving forward. All right. And that what was your total spent? Well, it's a little, it's hard to say because neither Grishick nor Bertie had actual projections. But if you say Grishick is $3 million and Bertie is $2 million, then I have a million dollars left over, Derek. That would be $29 million total. You can for your crystal shopping. Yeah, I can. Yeah, there you go. Well, I spent all

of my money. Let's take a look. I didn't get five players. I only got four. That's the way that this is going. Carlsonanta absolute same. I mean, as far as if you're looking for a deal on the free agent market at first base, Carlos Santana feels like the best deal. Yes, he's 39 years old

and you're not signing him long term. This is a one year investment in a player that put up very, very good numbers last year. We talked about him before. He put up comparable numbers then to Sewalk and not just offensively. He put up comparable numbers, if not even better numbers defensively. Like Carlos Santana was very good. Is he going to be that good next year? There's no way to know. Let me tell you, as a 43-year-old man, things fall apart quickly. So once you start getting this age, you have no

idea if you're going to be able to still come up and, you know, drink champagne and take off your shirt the way you used to. Next up on my list, of course, is J.D. Now this has nothing to do with how good he is as a baseball player or how he would improve the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is simply for my love affair with J.D. Martinez. I love J.D. Martinez more than I love people who I actually know in real life. And I mean, present company in this room. Include it. That's for sure. That's for sure.

And yeah, so J.D. Martinez there would fill in that D.H. role. I think that, again, if you're talking about a guy that you're looking to primarily do that, that's what Jady Martinez is going to be for you. I know you guys are going to hate the Kikey Hernandez thing. He kind of fell in there as a value pick, I guess, for me there, because they had him listed at making $5 million. Again, that's why it's odd to see Randall Gritchick and Bertie, you know, at three or two or whatever you're estimating them to be at.

But Kiki Hernandez is a very good veteran. And you cannot deny what he did for the Dodgers in the playoffs last year, nor can you deny that he could help make a young team better. There's also the fact that he plays every infield position in the diamond, so he would be able to back up just about anywhere that you needed him to. He plays outfield too. And he plays outfield. I mean, he's a good player.

And again, he's a guy that could absolutely just add a lot of backup versatility to this team, which is what we're looking for in this role. And then as far as pitchers, it was expensive. It was hard to find somebody. I don't know if you want to consider Carlos Estevez to be a closer. We've discussed it in the past, and I do think he has closer type stuff. He has, he has, you know, pitched in that position before. He has definitely, you know, pitched in high leverage situation and has been very good.

So, I mean, he could be that guy. It also allows, I don't know, maybe you do want a definitive closer or maybe you just really want another really good back end arm that you can go out there and decide who's going to be your closer. And, I mean, let these guys pitch and figure it out a little bit there because you have three. very good options there potentially a closer. Regardless of where he would fit in, he would make this bullpen incredibly good. I have a last minute addendum to my list. Sure. Am I allowed to do that?

Please. So we are going to sign Corbyn Burns. He is going to play for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And you may be wondering how am I getting Corbyn Burns to fit in the $30 million budget. No way, Derek. This is a serious thing, all right? I have a way to actually do this. the way that you do it is you sign Corbyn Burns to a 30-year, $270 million contract,

and that averages out to $9 million per season. It's really not all that much. You have to give him 30 years, which, granted, is a little bit ridiculous. I was like, how does it average out to 9 million? Okay, yeah, yeah, I guess it does if you give them 30 years. Why not? Why not? You get a 40-year contract.

You get a 50-year contract. Everybody gets to be on these teams. until the day they die. I'm just saying if the only limit here is the A-A-V, we can get the A-A-V down by just giving some absolutely ludicrous year guarantees. I think that's the... I mean, Corbin Burns at age 60. Are you not willing to buy in, Derek? You're the one who's always getting on me for making agist comments and whatnot, so... You put me in an awkward position of having to defend attacking old people? I don't like that. I don't want to do that. But you're not wrong. And I think, that's one of the reasons why we're seeing these absurdly long contracts. And again, I don't know what some of these teams are doing. I don't know how any of this stuff is going to work out. I mean, it doesn't feel like it's worked out for the few teams historically we've seen give outrageously long contracts. And even those contracts were like 10 years, 12 years. You know what I mean?

Now it's like 15 years is becoming the norm plus deferred payments outside of that and all this other, I don't know. But I will say this, in doing this, in doing this, and doing this little game that we just did, it really does make you understand how hard it is, not to mention the fact that even if you're budgeting for these guys, as we discussed, there is a total possibility that at this point, these guys cost more than this based on the direction the market is going.

So despite the fact that we think Carlos Santana is going to be $7 million, maybe Carlos Santana is 13. Maybe now Paul Goldschmidt's 17. Like you have no way, and that's a frustrating, frustrating part of, about being a GM in baseball, especially when, you know, as good as these big contracts are for the game, you have to kind of wonder, when is it going to stop, right? There's just this wild thing.

There's just this huge gap between the players that make outrageously large amounts of money in baseball and then everybody else. And I mean, maybe not everybody else, but like, man, the difference between those guys and the majority of baseball players in minor leagues and are, you know, basically newer. to the game is incredible. Like it's great that it gives you that hope that one day you could be one of those guys that makes that big contract. It's just a very hard road to get there. And the odds aren't in your favor. Do you think Corbyn Burns would accept my 30-year $270 million deal?

Does he have to pitch for 30 years? Or can he like, does he get like the like, you know, home plate dugout suite and just sit there for like seven or eight seasons? I think he does have to pitch for three. Like, he has to be prepared to pitch for 30 years. The only way that that ends any earlier than that is if the Diamondbacks eventually decided to just pay him off because he's not good enough. But if you're Corbyn Burns, like, you have to be motivated to try to, you know,

extend your career as long as well. Honestly, I will say this, that, like, when the uncertainty is facing, the uncertainty you face as an athlete as to how long you're going to make money for, how relevant your career is going to be, if an injury could just end it tomorrow. the next day, next month, right? Like, I feel like at the end of the day, you getting money promised to you in the future of some kind is fine. You know, like we're talking about this in a fictitious, funny way, right?

But if it was a deferred payment, let's say, over 30 years for Corbyn Berger. Right, right. That would be something that could actually, I mean, deferring for 30 years would be kind of insane, but. But it could happen, right? It definitely could happen. And if a player was willing to accept that, they're willing to accept it based on the fact that they are going to live this sweet life for the rest of their life.

Like there is never going to ever be a concern of money in their lives ever again. You know, so like, yeah, I mean, you know, that's why when everybody talks about Cho-Hae, that man has plenty of money and he keeps getting more of it. So why not defer it and take care of future Jesse, future Derek, right? We were talking about that earlier, taking care of past Derek and future Derek. On a more serious note, something that I do wonder going through this exercise. is if the Diamondbacks might try to sign a player, maybe multiple players, to multi-year deals where year one is a lower dollar figure.

Yeah, because they can structure it that way. Yeah, just because you do have, at least as of right now, you're expecting to have quite a bit of money coming off the books after 2025. And so it would just sort of make sense from the Diamondbacks perspective, try to save a little bit of money up front. Because, yeah, if it really is only $30 million that this team has to work with this offseason, It is really hard to fit all of these pieces in there. I don't know if either of us necessarily love the teams that we've put together with these lists.

But even the teams that we've put together, I don't think are realistic because I think Carlos Santana is going to be more than $7 million. I think Jesse Winker is going to be more than $7 million per year. And to be fair, the Diamondbacks are most likely going to have to spend more than $30 million in order to potentially make this team a competitive team. Or just be aggressive in the trade market, right? and try to, and again, like, just trading Jordan, like, you know, going to trade out could be as simple as just trading Jordan Montgomery, in which case you're maybe just buying

yourself an additional $12 million or so to play with. That could be really valuable, too. So it really does feel like making a trade of some sort, even if it's just the Montgomery thing, is going to be necessary to get where they want to go. Two thoughts on that. If there was one person that I would think that would be willing to structure his contract in order to do that and help the Diamondbacks out, I still have to be. receiving the amount of money he's owed, Christian Walker.

Yeah? Which once again brings me back to Christian Walker being the best replacement for Christian Walker. And then, during regards to the other part that you said, can I interest anybody in one slightly refurbished Jordan Montgomery? I'm still pushing that. You're persistent with this. You know, it's really impressive.

Keep putting it out there. Someone's going to take me up on it. We did this last time. It's not slightly used and it's not slightly refurbished. It's just refurbished. Just refurbished. Because if it's slightly refurbished, Yeah, that means I only kind of fix it.

Yeah, you only fix it a little bit. I feel like I'm being honest there with the slightly refurbished part. But that's fine. But to sell things in this country, you shouldn't be asked. There you can. Pre-owned is a great one. Pre-owned, plenty of good pre-owned players that we could opt. You're including one, George McKeown.

Is it certified pre-owned? Oh, yeah, certainly. Why not? PSA-9. Yeah, certified. All right. Well, on the other side of this break, you know what day it is, and we haven't yet had a chance to talk.

about yeah but it is throwback Thursday you can tell from those wonderful colors there at the bottom of the screen we're going to talk about some things that happened historically for this franchise in uh in a minute so of course don't go anywhere we'll be right back on the other side of this break of course if you want to have some fun this weekend you can join us for our phnx winter pickle pickle tournament on december 14th out at chicken and pickle in glendale which by the way is a great place to go anytime enjoy all the wonderful indoor outdoor activities that you can be found at Chicken and Pickle. They have a wonderful chef-driven restaurant.

It's a very casual sports bar. They also have, of course, a variety of yard games. And most importantly, they have those indoor, outdoor pickleball courts where we will be. We doubled the field this year for our tournament with 48 teams this year. All skill levels are welcome. We'll have PHNX prizes as well as food and drink specials. And the proceeds are going to Operation Santa Claus. So join us out there.

You can head over to go phtnx.com slash events for more information and to sign up. Get yourself some tickets. You can sign up even as a single or as as a duo. So if you're looking to partner up with someone, make sure to do not hesitate. Please join us for that tournament. You can also head to chicken and pickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location. Also today is, you know, getting closer and closer. We're, what, 13 days away from that big Christmas day.

And I know things might be hectic. But, of course, a great way to start 2025 is with some new flooring in your home. And you can do so with Empire today. You've heard the name for years and the reason why is because Empire Today is a trusted company here in the state of Arizona. They keep shopping for Flores Simple with a curated product selection and their philosophy is to help you find what you need and not overwhelm you with thousands of choices and substitutes. What they leave out of their selection is as important as what they put in. Empire's product team exhaustively comes through thousands of product samples each year to find the perfect styles. Then they find out what you need and they offer you that curated product selection.

So, of course, shopping for floors at a big box store can be frustrating. And Empire Today prides itself on convenient shop at home service. Schedule free in-home estimate today. All listeners can receive a $350 discount when you use promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. Like I said, Jesse, it's Throwback Thursday. We know because these colors always make us sad that our jerseys don't look like this when this happens.

But we did have some things happen, including one year ago today. I think today was today the actual day that was? It was not actually today, but it feels like it was actually today. Because news of the Eduardo Rodriguez signing broke on Wednesday night of the winter meetings last year. But last year, the winter meetings were basically a week earlier than they are this year. So the actual anniversary date was last week. But yeah, I remember the day after the winter meetings, I think I was still in Nashville, and we were talking about Eduardo Rodriguez being the, you know, the new, the big get for the Diamondbacks, what felt like possibly their biggest move of the offseason. Of course, they wound up signing Jordan Montgomery just before, just before the season began as well.

But, yeah, it was, it was a huge day for the team over the off season. They drew widespread praise in that moment. And a lot of people around the league were basically saying, like, this is the way it should look. You find your way all the way to the World Series and you invest, reinvest that money back into the team. And the Diamondbacks did that. Whether it really panned out, that's sort of another question, right? Eduardo Rodriguez, that year one obviously was not what anyone hoped it would be. I will say this as a fantasy football manager, Jesse.

It's frustrating when everything you do does not work out. you got fired. I did get fired. I got to let go. Let's say, hold on. Let's calm down. We parted ways mutually is what happened. But I will say I now have a new job at the Waffle House, apparently. No, but yeah, there are times where you think, and again, I'm not an actual manager or GM of any kind of sports team, but it's the only way I can compare it to. Things work out fine in the video game world for me, but in the real world of fantasy football, right? For instance, you think you're making all the right moves. You pick up guys, you drop guys, the guys you drop go on to greatness and the guys you pick up do dittily squat. It's a frustrating thing. You do think you're making

the right moves. You think that you are going out there. You're spending this money to improve this team. And then honestly, I think the most frustrating thing is after one year, we don't even know what we have in either of those guys. Like, it's hard to sit here and evaluate either Eduardo Rodriguez or Jordan Montgomery on the season they had last year because it was so abnormal. And not only was it abnormal for them in different ways, but it was abnormally bad for both of them as well. So I think, I think at least Eduardo Rodriguez, there were a lot of encouraging signs when it came to him, especially when he was feeling like a ballerina, as we know, because when he's like a ballerina, he's unhittable. But, you know, maybe that's it. We need

some more ballet classes in his future during this offseason. It's just that the, you know, the team did go out, like Jesse said, and tried to do the right thing. And, you know, and, you know, the team did. And, And it just didn't work out. And, I mean, it was catastrophically bad as far as the starting pitching went because, you know, whether guys couldn't stay healthy, whether it was the fact they were just bad when they were healthy, it just, it was an awful year. You get the sense, much like I've said about Jordan Montgomery, you get the sense that you really do believe that if you just stick with it in 2025, that this starting pitching staff will be much better. And maybe everything you hoped it was going to be in 2024 next season. It still very much could be, not to mention the fact that we know Ryan Nelson has emerged as an incredible option for them as a starting pitcher as well. So it's not, it shouldn't be doom and gloom when it comes to this.

It's just we still have no idea how these guys are actually going to pitch this season and if they're going to be able to rebound from what happened last year. One of the X factors going into next year, right? Like Eduardo Rodriguez is really, really important for this team. And it is hard to evaluate his 2024 season because he did miss so much time. and it was only 10 starts. And, you know, he was kind of limited, I think, in terms of how deep they wanted to push him into games and whatnot. I will say his last four starts of the season, he had a 3.92 ERA. He was pitching really well in that last start against the Padres.

It was such a must-win game that the Diamondbacks took him out early. I think he pitched four in a third innings that day. But he was starting to look more like the guy that you hoped he would be toward the end of the season. And that's encouraging, right? even though the full body of work in 2024 wasn't anything like what you, what you hoped you would get. Errod is going to be a big part of this rotation next year and for the foreseeable future, right? I mean, this guy still has three more years.

He's under contract for three more years. And then there's also a potential fourth year that could still be tacked on beyond that. So this is obviously a really, really important player for this team moving forward. Well, Jesse, we had a couple of other. other things happen historically this week. Very, very big signings back in 2016 on December 7th. Fernando Rodney signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And that actually was quite a big signing, to be honest,

especially with what he was able to go on and do for this team as a reliever, despite the fact that it seemed unbelievable he was doing the things he was doing. I wouldn't say he was a very good pitcher, but the results were good. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Fernando Rodney was, he was 39 years old when the Diamondbacks pulled the trigger on that deal. They signed him for his age 40 season and it looked utterly disastrous, right? The first month, he had a ERA over 12 if memory serves. And then from May 1st through the end of the season, he was one of the best closers in all of baseball and was really important.

Archie Bradley was kind of the star of the show for the bullpen in 2017. but Fernando Rodney was still really effective in the closer role. He saved 39 games for the Diamondbacks that year. And was somehow managing to get it done even at the age of 40s. So I'm not sure that DeBax fans missed the Fernando Rodney experience. But the results were, I think, better than like the ERA, right? You see a 4-2-3 ERA for a closer. That's pretty misleading for how good Rodney was for the vast majority of the season.

Well, there was also a very important day on December 9th in 2011, and that was when we brought back Lyle Overbay. And I can't express enough, Jesse, how big of a fan I was of Lyle Lover Bay. Really? Well, maybe it was because he was with us as a rookie, and then he came back to the team. And, like, that's always a good feeling, right? Like, that always brings the vibes. But you also had the fact that, I don't know, I mean, he was pretty good. When you look at some of his seasons, like 2012, he slashed him.

292, 367, 448 with an 815 OPS. And he was pretty damn good. Yeah, yeah. He really was. Lyle Overbay, of course, 2001 World Series champion Lyle Overbay. He had two plate appearances in the regular season in 2001. That's when he made his major league debut. And he was, yeah, he was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 18th round back in 1999.

So it was sort of a fun, a fun homecoming narrative. As you said, not exactly a ton of time as a member of the Diamondbacks. Just the 49 plate appearances in 2011, 110 more plate appearances in 2012. But he was pretty good. He had an 840 OPS in 2011 and 815 OPS for them in 2012. So there were some good Lyle Overbay moments there for sure in his return to the Valley. It's just, again, that's the kind of vibes, I think, a Gulchman return could bring. back to the valley. You know what I mean?

Probably on a different scale. A completely different level. Yeah. But I mean, I guess my thought there is reviving, and not to say that Paul Goldschmidt was bad, but I mean, you know, I kind of had a mediocre season last year. I think the change of scenery and bringing him back would not only instill the vibes and Chase Field, but the vibes with Mr. Paul Goldman. I'm not paying $14 million for him.

And it's probably going to take more than that, though. So sorry, it's over budget for me, but we'll try to figure out somewhere. way to do it. That's probably once again the part that really stinks about this and again the reason why, as we've said in the past and as Mike Hazen has even alluded to, the Diamondbacks' main route to getting better right now

is via trade. The only problem was, you know, the one guy they want to trade had his worst season of his career and nobody probably wants to give up very much for him. But as you can see, like when we talk about the Diamondbacks making some

sort of room with a trade for Jordan Montgomery, even if they have to eat, a portion of his contract. An extra $12 million to $15 million could go a very long way for this team that's kind of strapped for cash. Yeah, someone mentioned earlier that there was a report that came out today. I think it's Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported that the Angels showed interest in Eugenio Suarez as an option at third base. I don't know if I see that as being all that realistic.

The Diamondbacks picked up that $15 million option. because Gino was really, really good for them, and especially in the second half, obviously. Hard to believe they're going to do that just to trade him. Yeah, exactly. Like, you could make a case that maybe Gino is like $15 million might wind up being a bit of an overpay when all is said and done. But for the Diamondbacks, I think that decision just came down to, like,

who is playing third base for you if it's not Gino Suarez. For sure. You'd like to have some runway for Jordan Lawler where you don't need him to be an everyday player in the majors from day one, right? Blaise Alexander got off to a hot start and then he kind of struggled offensively and of course had had his defense struggles as well throughout the season. So yeah, I don't really see the diamond backs moving Gino.

I mean, I guess if a team like the Angels really overwhelmed them and they felt that they, you know, they were getting, they were maybe filling a need in another area and could find a way to backfill at third. based, then maybe it's possible, but it's a little bit hard for me to imagine. Oh, man. Well, that's what the Diamondbacks have in front of them. And that's the reason why I think we haven't seen them make any moves. At the end of the day, the Diamondbacks right now have to wait for this market to continue

to develop. And they have to also wait for the players that they want to keep who are looking for more money elsewhere, make those decisions. So if you have any concern as to why the Diamondbacks didn't make a move, during winter meetings, then rest easy because a lot of it is just due to them. I think honestly being a little smart and patient. Also, like Mike said earlier, what we said about this team, they don't have as much to do this offseason.

They don't see them having as many needs as they've had in the past. So at this point, they can kind of wait and see what deals kind of end up because there are players just like Jordan Montgomery last offseason that everybody thought was going to be signed to a big deal. And then here comes the end of literally the offseason, end of pitchers. catchers and to spring training and he's still unsigned. So the Diamondbacks could still make moves like that based on, I guess, you know, players still being left and not unsigned, you know.

So looking forward to seeing something happen for this team as much as all of you guys are. We do appreciate you stopping by. We always appreciate you time. We can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Kate Man with the K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, our guy Shane is at Shane Dief. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PhNX underscore sports.

on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys stopping by. We will see you tomorrow with another 1 p.m. show. And until then, have a wonderful evening. Go do some holiday shopping. And remember kids, Jesse. Remember kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when I get my wife to name our cat per domo.