PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - NEW D-backs 3B Nolan Arenado Speaks After Messy Cardinals Split

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Just when it felt like the Ketel Marte trade rumors were finally over, they’ve suddenly come roaring back, and the Boston Red Sox are the reason why. After adding ace Ranger Suárez to an already stacked rotation, the Red Sox are once again being linked to Marte, and we break down why they remain the *only* team with the prospect capital to realistically pull off a blockbuster deal with the Diamondbacks. Plus, we hear from Nolan Arenado in his first media availability as a Snake as he explains why he waived his no-trade clause, what attracted him to Arizona, and how his relationship with St. Louis completely unraveled. And to wrap it up, we react to Clayton Kershaw joining Team USA and why that news has Damon switching allegiances to root for the Dominican Republic.JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — 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 visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we have more from Nolan Aeronado discussing why he's happy to join this Diamondbacks team and how that situation with the Cardinals may have grown a bit toxic. But speaking of toxic, we have more Cattel Marte trade rubers. Didn't we shut those down? We're talking about all of this in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. And happy Thursday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDVACs podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at CircleGay.

It is I, your mayor of P. HNX occasionally known as Carl Winslow, according to somebody's response to one of our shorts. I don't see the resemblance, but I could be wrong. Of course, my name is Derek Montia, and I am here with my pal, the lechette to my captain, the one the only, Damon dog, Damon Farrell on the ones on Tuesday. Bark, bark to you, Damon. Happy Thursday. I know you were here until like 2 o'clock morning covering ASU. I slept on the couch here at the studio. The dedication is real.

Megaran and I stumbled up here after watching some pro wrestling in the studio was full at like what? 11 o'clock at night? It was crazy in here. But thrilled to have you guys here. Welcome into another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. We have some news in the free agency front. Finally, we also have the things starting to move here in the starting pitching market. However, the things starting to move are now causing Cotell Marte trade rumors to happen once again.

and I hate that. You hate to see it. According to everyone yesterday while we were talking to Dre Jameson, Ranger Suarez was acquired by the Boston Red Sox on a five-year, $130 million contract via free agency. Suarez obviously was one of the best available starters on the market after opting out of a qualifying offer from the Phillies. Damon and I highly coveted Ranger Suarez. We wanted him almost as much as we wanted Tatsuya Amai, but really not anywhere close. But he's 30 years old. He's an all-star from 2024, and he comes off a very, very strong 2025 season where he went 12 and 8 with a 3.2 ERA and 157 and two-thirds innings pitch. So again, this was Boston getting their guy, getting a guy. We know that the Red Sox had a lot

to spend, and we know that they were very much in on trying to bring Alex Brighman back to that team. They miss out on Brighman, who signs with the Cubs, and now they pivot to making their starting rotation one of the strongest in baseball. The Boston Red Sox are going to be a problem. And part of this problem is now that their pitching is so good, they might still be interested in adding bats to this team. And that will not let me ever escape the Cattel Marte trade rumors. But first, let's talk about this rotation because the Boston Red Sox, if I'm not mistaken now, have added Ranger Suarez and Sunny Gray. to a starting rotation that already featured Garrett Crochet.

So now you have your ace and crochet. You have another ace as your number two. I mean, this is a 1A, 1B situation with Ranger Suarez there, slotting in as the number two starter. Then you have Sunny Gray coming in at number three, and then some good youngsters. Again, another off-season edition in Johan Oviedo and Bray and Bello, who's a young right-hander with front-line starter potential.

On top of that, we know that the Boston Red Sox are stacked with pitching in their farm system because we highly coveted a few of their young starters as potential trade pieces for a Cattelmarté trade. Prospects like Peyton Tolly and Connolly Early are both guys that could factor in for the Boston Red Sox this season as far as depth starters. So they are set there. They also have guys like Patrick Sandoval who's returning from an injury and Cutter Crawford who's currently blocked. due to the depth. So overall, it feels like the Red Sox are absolutely stacked. With Suarez added, some analysts are actually projecting that this is,

if not one of the best rotation in all of baseball. Literally, possibly the mess staff in the majors on paper. And this was brought together by this Boston Red Sox team over this offseason. So again, this is one of those situations where, as you can see, the Red Sox have a surplus of the exact thing the Diamondbacks needed, which was young controllable starting pitching. And now, of course, that means the Cotel Marte trade rumors are abound. Again, in a very ill-fated quote from Corbyn,

Burns, you'll never make it through a season with just five starting pitchers, and I'm sure the Red Sox know that. However, at this point, they have two high-end arms in Crochet and Suarez. They have a veteran anchor in Sunny Gray. They have young power arms in Bello and Oviedo. And then they just have quality depth behind them. Four guys who are all capable of starting at a major league level right now, who are going to be currently blocked for the foreseeable future.

Now, obviously, that fifth starter spot for the Red Sox isn't a lock. But after adding, you know, some of these guys over the offseason, it does feel like it might be a lock. You could say that Sandoval or Crawford could potentially factor into the Boston Red Sox for that fifth starter rotation spot over spring training or during camp. However, you know, when you talk about

adding Ranger Suarez to that team, it's hard not to be extremely jealous of what the Red Sox are building there pitching-wise. It's something that we thought we were building and unfortunately starting pitching and injuries you know, kind of failed us. And again, we were talking at the beginning

of 2025 about the Diamondbacks being one of, if not the best starting pitching rotation. in baseball. That's laughable now. Ha, ha, ha. But again, that doesn't mean that nothing is guaranteed for the Boston Red Sox either. What this means, though, is that now the Cotel Marta trade rumors are back. There has been nothing that has been said by Mike Hazen or the front office here, Damon, in regards to this. But our pal Bob Nightingale, he had to just go out and, you know, like the trade rumors were

dead. We had buried them in a cemetery. And Bob Nightingale went out and resurrected them with some sort of witchcraft or black magic in which he had to make sure that we brought these Cotel Marte trade rumors back to life, Damon. Bob Nightingale said yesterday on foul territory that he believes the door is not completely shut on a Cotel Marte trade between the Red Sox and the D-Backs. Even though Mike Hazen specifically said that

they're shutting down the trade talks for Catele Marte. Now, nothing is dead. Nothing is forever gone, right? We know that. You know, no pro wrestler ever stays actually retired. And, of course, no trade rumor actually stays dead. In fact, the Diamondbacks added Nolan Aeronado here this offseason via trade. And that is a man who we're going to talk about here in a little bit, but kind of seems to have been tormented by trade rumors with the St. Louis Cardinals for.

or what was described during the media availability yesterday is 15 months that this whole ordeal has been going on. It's not great for you as a player to have to go through that for such a long period of time, especially when in the case of both Marte and our new guy, Aeronado, both players seem to very much feel like they were going to retire as members of that team. Kattel Marte has said on more than one occasion that he wants to, you know, retire as a member of the Diamondbacks. And I want to retire these trade rumors, Damon,

and I thought we were past this. I was ready to move on. I still feel like we are. Just Bob Nightingale just bringing this up isn't really him saying that, you know, they're actually back or we're actually discussing this. But again, this is the same way that these trade rumors in the first place

kind of caught fire and grew into what they grew into. You know, they grew into what they grew into, because of the fact that there were experts and analysts out there kind of adding fuel to this fire, saying that, you know, this was an imperative for the debacks to get rid of Cotel. And even though, you know, even though we had Mike Hayson himself telling us that they weren't shopping Cotel, Marte around, it was merely listening to offers. It was experts and analysts that told us differently and said that they were, in fact, trading him.

So, or we're shopping him around. Yeah. So what are your thoughts here on this overall? I think, you know, it was pretty clear the Diamondbacks were gauging interest around the league of what could we get for Catele. How many holes could we fill on this roster for Catelle? Right. Like, I don't think the smoke would have been as loud as it was outside of that. But as Mike has noted in the past, like, yeah, they might not be actively pursuing trading Catell at this time anymore.

But he's listening to offers on everybody. Right. He told us he's listening to offers on Corbyn. Like that alone should tell everybody that, yeah, if someone calls him and says, hey, we're still not done trying to trade for Cattel and here's our offer. Mike's going to listen to him. Now, I'm sure that the threshold since he said we're not trading him has now even gotten higher. The barrier to entry of trading for Cotel Marte has only gone up, in my opinion,

because we are now so far into the offseason and Mike Hason has to start planning around having Cotel Marte on his team. Right. So if you guys want Ctele Marte, you better pay up or else lose this number as we've noted before so we thought we told you to lose this number yeah i lose this number so many times we block your number and then you opened up a new line and memorize our number and called it again we're like social media you're making burner accounts like this is crazy it's a crazy it's crazy it's crazy behavior but it just goes to show what what how the red sox feel potentially about could tell again this is just

just bomb night gill i'm saying this but you could definitely see that there would be continued interest and especially with losing Bregman, but putting together this pitching staff, there would be a sense of urgency on the Boston Red Sox part here to add a bat of Marte's caliber. He's just that perfect baseball player all around. He's got power. He hits for contact. He's got speed. I mean, honestly, the question marks about him as a teammate are pretty much some of the only things you could bring up as negatives about Ketel.

And even then, that's just might be a situation that was blown out of proportion. Did you notice in, I think like John Heyman wrote an article like last week or a couple of days ago, Derek, where in the article it says like notoriously Corbyn Carol do Pardomo and Cotel Marte are the hardest workers on the debacks. And it was like it was like I think it felt like it was starting the process of being like, let's mend some fences here in Arizona. We love Cateau. Let's walk this back a little bit now. He's not a bad teammate. He's one of the hardest workers we got in the organization. We heard what you said. We wrote it down. We make quote graphics about it. Don't forget it, right? We'll never forget what you said, Dan Bickley, about Alex Bregman, but sometimes we're wrong in life. I will say, though, that, you know, again, it's still, Damon, it's still the Red Sox and it's still the most alluring team to trade with. That's the hard part about this. If there was any team that you and I felt like could actually offer the Diamondbacks enough to make us go, okay, like, you know, especially a deal that includes Jaron Duran and.

Peyton Tolly and then even maybe another player outside of that. It seems like the Red Sox are interested in maybe trading us Bello. Yeah. Or Bayo. I don't know how you say it. But I believe he's Dominican. It's probably Bayo. It's very possibly Bayo.

Yeah. Montilla. Notoriously Montilla. But he seems like a really good future pitcher. As you noted earlier in the show, like he's a back end guy right now. He's young. He has a lot of potential. He could be a front line starting pitch.

option in the future. But from what it seems like from our very minimal sources that we have on this show, but that have been right pretty much all offseason. The accuracy level is 100%. It seems as though Marcelo Mayer was the holdup in this deal from a Red Sox debacks perspective. Right. I think the Diamondbacks were comfortable with what the Red Sox were offering in terms of pitching, but they were saying, we want the position player who is ready for MLB action right now. has proven that he's a good player at this level, and it has a lot of potential. Now, Marcello Mayer is not perfect.

He's had a lot of injury issues, and I think that that is concerning if he's the headline of a package. Like, that's the type of guy where it could blow up in your face because what if he's just injured forever? And you're like, well, we traded a top five hitter in baseball for this guy who can't stay on the field. But I'm not doing the trade unless they give me mayor, unless they give me a guy that I feel comfortable putting at second base

in replacement of Cotel Marte and saying, yeah, it might be a better move for the future of this organization to get the younger guy and, you know, maybe long-term development. But I just don't see that happening. I don't see a world where the Red Sox give us, you know, Beo and, you know, a guy like Marcello Mayer in a package. I think that it's basically like one or the other. It might not even be mayor at all. I think that they're comfortable offering the Ely's and the Tollies of. of the world. Like, I think that the Red Sox almost don't even care,

especially now that they have Ranger Suarez. But the Diamondbacks want the more upper echelon guys that the Red Sox have. And I don't think the Red Sox have been necessarily, I don't know, willing to do those offers. This is like, as Jacob says here, do you do it if it's totally early and Duran? Yeah. Because it feels like the Red Sox want to get rid of Duran. For some reason, Red Sox fans are like, this guy is the most valuable center filter in baseball, but we want him off the team.

And you're like, those two things aren't really mathen in my head right now. But would you do it for two, like, you know, ready for their first action in Major League, top, you know, 50 prospects and a bona fide starting center fielder in Jaron? Yeah, probably. I mean, again, Duran has his not, it's not like the issues we were talking about with Marcelo Zuna, right? But he has that infamous issue of, you know, using a homophobic slug. and kind of having that whole situation spiral a bit, right? So there's, I don't know, you might say that there's a little bit of a character issue,

but again, the Diamondbacks at this point have to kind of overlook that stuff, especially things like that that aren't like egregious, law-breaking, you know, character things. However, you know, it still feels like sometimes you have to sacrifice to improve a team, I think that could tell Marte is still the guy that I want in a Diamondbacks uniform. form. But it's hard to, especially with what the Diamondbacks did this off season, see what the future is going to look like for this pitching staff when the best that they could do is bringing back Merrill Kelly for what's probably the final stint of his career, a reclamation project

there in Michael Soroka, and still no additions to the bullpen. So I don't know. They need to do something to try to improve this organization either for the here and now or for the future. I do like Nolan Aeronado moved quite a bit, but I still don't think it addresses the biggest shortcomings of this team, which right now still feels like it's pitching. The Cotel Marte trade in this case definitely feels like, you know, that if you're getting back multiple pitchers and a quality center fielder, it's hard to turn that down. I honestly, like maybe you'll think I'm crazy, but I'm turning that deal down. I don't want to. I don't trust this organization to develop young pitchers. That's a good point. I want guys who are a little bit more ready made.

And I don't think Jaron Duran holds that much value. Like they want to get rid of this guy. So why are they putting him in my face like he's some sort of headliner for Tell Marte? It's shocking. It's a good point. I mean, that's a valid point. And it does feel like, again, that one incident that I'm referencing isn't necessarily enough for you to feel like you need to get this guy out of Boston. and I'm not going to attack Boston as a city.

I just feel like that's not going to be the most sensitive environment where you feel like someone using a homophobic slur is a rarity. I'm sure that gets thrown around Fenway quite a bit. Didn't C.C. Sabathia say he never got called the N-word out of baseball game except for every time he played at Fenway, which is crazy. That's the way things go. But you also have Kyle Tucker now set to potentially make $200 million over $4,000. seasons, Damon. And I will say

at the end of the day, hearing contracts like that and Bregman, once again, make me just want to keep Catele Marte. And it's a reminder that if Cotel Marte would not have signed an extension the way he did, and even though the Diamondbacks restructured that contract in a way that they felt

like was fair and deserving for him, you still feel like there was no way that Arizona could afford Cotel Marte if he was on the open market. So we should just be thankful that he's ours, and we should just stop all of this nonsense and also stop offering Kyle Tucker $50 million a year

I promise you he is not going to bring $50 million a year of production to your team because he can't because no player can because no player is worth that much money I hate to be that guy but Otani is worth that much money okay yep well and I think and I think Aaron you love the Dodgers Aaron Judge is too Dodgers fan in this room and you have to admit there's two guys that are worth that it's Aaron Judge and it's Show Hey Otani and then

maybe skeins and scoble. Yeah. Personally. Yeah. I mean, you're not wrong. You're not going to get argument out of me, but it's definitely not Kyle Tucker. No, God, no, it's not Kyle Tucker. One guy who I think is totally worth the money is Nolan Aronado,

especially if you're talking about him being here for two seasons and $11 million. And we have the first media availability from Aeronado from yesterday. We have more on why he wanted to become a member of this Diamondbacks team. And, of course, we have more on this situation that somehow turned pretty top. for him there in St. Louis. We're going to do all of that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. I don't have Corvette money, but I could still get a Corvette with the fabulous Corvette giveaway at Heel of River Resorts and Casinos. And this is at all of their casinos running January 16th through April 24th.

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Well, we had our first chance to talk to Nolan Aeronado, who I realized is a spitting image of my younger cousin, Danny. But also a very nice guy. I mean, honestly, it was great to hear from him. It was great to hear about why he was excited to become a member of this team. He, in fact, had a no trade clause with the St. Louis Cardinal. and he added the diamondbacks to that no trade clause this past off season, which did not have many teams on it. So it just goes to show that, you know, he did feel good about coming to this organization prior to this move happening.

And it did open the door for him to become a diamond back. And we got a chance to speak with him about quite a few things yesterday. I know the first thing that we talked to him about was basically what's been going or joining this team. And of course, you know what his reaction was to being traded here and why he wanted to add Arizona to his no trade list or I guess approved teams that he could be traded to. This is what Aeronado had to say about coming here to the Debex. This is the reaction to the trade there. Obviously, you know, I was kind of in shock because I feel like this process has been going on for a little bit. So it was kind of like, man, I can't believe we're finally getting to this place.

but obviously, you know, Arizona was one of the first teams to show interest in me. And, you know, I love the way they played the game. It was, you know, I expanded my list and there was one of the teams that I expanded from last year. I put them on this year. And, yeah, I mean, it's close to home for me. I'm from Orange County, so it's easy. I got family in Arizona, and I really like this team. They're a good team.

They play hard and they're young. but I feel like I could really help this team win ballgames and contribute. And obviously being around good, young, hungry players, I think it just helps me stay young. So it was kind of a no-brainer for me. So I was really excited about it. Jason in our chat asks, is that modern art? Those are actually posters depicting different Quentin Tarantino movies. So me and him already have a connection there when it comes to that.

But it shows that he already had kind of a not much of a connection to this. team, but I guess as he says a few times during that media availability, he talks about having an admiration for players on this team and an admiration, you know, even a little bit for the coaching staff for sure. But I think the biggest thing here overall is that he already discussed that he has been sending videos to the hitting coaches of himself and discussing with them things that he thinks he was doing wrong or perhaps maybe stuff that he was being asked to do wrong. So again, that's kind of interesting here. But here's what he had to say about playing at Chase Field, getting ready to help this team win.

And he adds a little fuel onto it. It puts a little fire in my blood makes me want to maybe run through a brick wall here at the end. Here's what he had to say about driving guys in. Yeah, well, obviously, I've played there for so long, you know, and I really like going there. You know, when the dying backs are good, the environment gets pretty electric, which is always kind of fun. But, you know, the batter's eye is always great. You know, it's a huge batter's eye, so it obviously feels better to hit there. But, you know, I still have high expectations for myself on the offensive side.

I do on both sides of the ball. You know, I expect to go out there and help this team win on both sides. And, you know, that's where my expectations are. I know the last few years haven't gone the way I wanted. Obviously, dealt with some injuries and different things. I think some of the adjustments I'm trying to make and the adjustments that I've talked with the hitting coaches already about, I think they're going to pay dividends down the line here. So, you know, I feel good about it.

And obviously, being in a lineup with these group of players is going to be great. These guys could all really run. They could steal and hopefully get in scoring position. And if I could do my job, I don't see why I can't be driving these guys in. I love that last part. I love that last part. And I love his attitude overall about joining this team, Damon. I mean, do your job, Derek.

Do your job and I'll do my job. And then together collectively, we're going to win games. That's what, uh, that's what Cam Newton, the wise words of Cam Newton said. Do your job. Do your job. And I'll tell you also, there's something a little bit here about Nolan Aeronado, which we'll get to here shortly, that again, it feels like, I don't know if I want to say, again, like a toxic situation with St. Louis. But you can definitely tell here that there are, you know, some, some, um, some, some, um, some, um, some, feelings here with the Cardinals overall. But again, being added to this team and kind of being

a veteran leader, veteran third baseman over there, there's been a lot of comparisons to Evan Longoria. He was asked a little bit about his leadership style and how his experience can help this team, these younger players kind of flourish here and what he can do to help the team overall. Here's what he had to say. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I'm not a very vocal person. You know, I'm pretty quiet. I try not to talk a whole lot. I feel like when I do, hopefully you can reach people. But, you know, I try to show who I am by the way I work and the way I go about my business.

You know, obviously, I think the older I've gotten in this game, there's times where I probably should be more vocal. And I plan to do that. But, you know, I still got to get comfortable with the guys. The guys got to get to know me. I got to get to know them and see how they click and how they go. So, you know, it's just going to take, you know, obviously getting to know each other. and then obviously putting in the work together. And, you know, there's a brotherhood that comes with being teammates for this long

and playing a long season. So, you know, we've got to just come together. And I plan on just getting to know these guys and showing them the love that they deserve and get after it. Showing them the love they deserve. You know what he sounds like, Damon? He sounds like he's a connected teammate. I agree.

You know what? This strikes me as. And I know that you somewhat made this alluded to this comparison earlier. but like I think everybody when they when they mention the first thing they say about Alex Brigman is man what a what a guy that what a presence that is to have in the locker room sure what what a winner that guy is he makes playoffs every year he's he's been there before he's such a leader right and I feel like the debacks were like yeah you know what we probably can't get Alex Brigman that's too much money for us to be working with here but what if we went out and got maybe a guy who

also can bring that experience also can bring that leadership also can bring that winning mentality to the table. And that's what you get in Nolan Aeronado, right? Like I know he didn't exactly have the postseason success that Alex Bregman did. And, you know, I don't necessarily think it's fair to be like, well, that's all on him versus Breggman. Like if if Brighman wasn't on the Astros and was on the Rockies, he would have been carrying them to the World Series.

But I do think Aeronado is just a seasoned veteran and a guy that you want to have around a bunch of young players and that's what the debacks have. So I love the move from a locker room standpoint. I mean, he's maybe had 20 at bats in the playoffs, right? So it's hard to hold that small sample size against him. It's also weird that he's had more experience and more success in the playoffs when he was a member of the Rockies than he did as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. However, he's had 33 ABs in the, so you shopped him short eight ABs. Okay.

Which is not really chill. Yeah, that's so not chill. 35 plate appearances. I'm sorry. I shorted him to eight plate appearances. You should be. I'll tell you, I mean, again, like there's just a lot of things to like here about him. And I also think that, you know, you kind of keep that leadership role or that veteran status on a guy that hasn't really been a veteran very long.

He's still only 34 years old. he has a number of years of experience, obviously under his belt as a third baseman. And it's easy to say, 34. That's old as hell. God damn it. People are that old and living? I am here to defend people of age that are older than 30. 34-year-olds are still breathing walking around on this planet with the rest of us.

So much. This is a hate crime. I think I'm pretty sure this is some sort of a crime. I'm going to research it after the show. The more you know how I'm going to contact HR on you. But overall, I think that what you said is very, very correct, right? You get so many of the benefits of going and adding an Alex Bregman, but you get it for the cost of $30 million less per season. Yeah.

You know? And so that's a huge factor here because, again, baseball is so stupid. It's so stupid because a guy that hits the ball, 28% of the. the time gets $35 million a year and a guy that hit it 23% of the time is washed and people are like get this bum off my team so I don't know but baseball is like that but he did give his thoughts on working with Tori Lavolo and this coaching staff what his level of excitement is and again he brings up Dave McKay who he gives a lot of praise to in this media availability yeah I've been able to most of them.

Obviously, talked to Tori last night. We had a great conversation. I talked to Dave McKay this morning. I talked to the hitting coaches already yesterday, already sending a video, sharing some things that I felt last year that hurt me with the past couple years and then talking about the things that made me great. And we're already trying to get on that page already,

just so when spring starts, we're already off and running. And I'm planning to go out there sometimes soon just to get to see guys and get to know them and, you know, put faces with names and stuff. So, you know, obviously the conversation, Comstracians are great. There's an expectation there. There's a standard that they have, and I've always heard that, and I'm excited to be a part of it. Well, I feel like one of the things that was discussed at least a little bit, and this was mostly with like these two St. Louis Cardinals reporters that hopped on to try to follow up with him. They've been covering him for a number of years.

And actually, I left the question in on this one just for a little bit of clarity overall here. But apparently, like I said, this has been a situation going on with the Cardinals for far too long. And you could tell that perhaps overall his bad numbers from 2025 were impacted by this relationship kind of deteriorating. He thought that he was going to be a, you know, a Cardinal for the rest of his career. And suddenly the Cardinals pivoted not only to needing to get rid of him, but to the point where the Cardinals have spent, as we We discussed yesterday $51 million just to like offload people. I don't even know if that number is entirely correct, but somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million,

just to offload talent, just to offload Sunny Gray and Wilson Contreras and now, you know, Nolan Aeronado. So while it might not be personal, it does seem to be that the Cardinals had a sense of urgency to rid themselves of all of their high dollar contracts and allow their young prospects to start getting playing time and coming up at a major league level. I have no idea what the hell the Cardinals are doing.

I have never seen a team so eager to give so much money away and their players away. But this is Nolan Aronado discussing this situation with the Cardinals that has been ongoing for nearly a year and a half. Yeah, I think it was, you know, obviously when I opted in in San Luis, I thought this would be a place where I would end my career. But, you know, it's baseball and things change very fast. and the scene where we were headed as the years gone on the past few years is very evident that there's a step that they need to take

in letting these young guys go and finding out who they are and who their identity is and I think I'm just kind of in the way of that in a sense and I kind of always felt like that last year in that way but you know I love my time there I think you know the conversations

I had with time also was very much you know we want to let some of these young guys play. And not that I'm in the way, but, you know, we need to let, we need to see what we have. And we already know what we have with you, but at the same time, we need to move on. And it was very respectful and I was very understanding of it. And that was all there is to it. And like I said, things changed fast in this game.

And, you know, you just move on. And I'm excited for the new opportunity. It feels like a fresh start. And I just got to go out there and compete. And the other quick thing I wanted to ask you is when you made your list kind of expanded it. What role did looking for a team that might help you rebound, might bring out the best in you play into that? Yeah, I think it was like, you know, how the core group was. If they're, you know, dedicated to competing and winning, and the Arizona is very much like that.

I'm very familiar with the NOS, obviously, from playing there for so long. I played in Chase Field a lot and having Arizona spring training. So all those familiarity and being close to home, I feel like it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I felt like Damon that this is, I mean, again, a situation where like he's professional, he's moving on, but it does feel like, you know, like many players, it hurts to think you are part of a team's permanent plan, at least on your side. Like, I'm going to retire with this team. Even to say that, like he's 34, right? He would have been 36 at the end of this contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. So there's no guarantee that he would even be done then and retire as a cardinal but he very much seemed to enjoy playing in st louis and

seemed to have some at least hurt feelings about not the trade coming to arizona but their once again sense of urgency to rid themselves of him yeah yeah it seems as though nolan aranado was not yeah happy with the direction of the cardinals franchise and it it would be hard to be right like you look at what they got going on they're essentially paying their best players to leave all across the board. It's weird. And he was one of the last guys standing that was a part of the build that was supposed to be a World Series contender with Contreras and Paul Goldschmidt and all of these guys, right?

Like where it's like he that was supposed to be a World Series title contender. And yet it just didn't work out in that way. They played like one playoff series in his time as a Cardinal and got swept. And, and yeah, I mean, it's a. it was a disaster. So I'm sure that he had built up in his head, leaving Colorado, which you know, you would figure would be a very, you know, special place to him in his heart, you know, just given that that's where he first got his MLB action.

That's where he became a superstar. And he probably thought St. Louis was endgame. Like I'm going to a real organization. That's going to be the team that I play my, you know, my next half of my career on. And that's going to be how I round things out. And instead it ended with the Cardinals trying to offload him and asking him to expand his no trade list and asking him, hey, where can we send you that you'll actually go? Yeah. And where can we pay 75% of your salary to do so?

And so it's like what's the account number and routing number for the Diamondbacks payroll so we can give them $30 million to get rid of you? Like, that's got to be disrespectful. So imagine if Derek, we were like, hey, uh, Aspo wants to talk to you for a second, Derek. You get called into his office and he goes, hey, so we're going to, we're going to send you out to, uh, to, uh, CHGL. We're going to have you, we're going to have you cover the white, the white socks. You're going to cover the white socks podcast.

Oh, no. Uh, we're also paying. Can I cover the Cubs? We're also going to pay 75% of your yearly salary just to have you leave. So we won't. Yeah. No, yeah. Derek.

We're going to pay. We're going to pay most of your salary, but, but it's going to come to me, right? But good luck in Chicago. No, we're paying it straight to CHGL. Oh, wait. No, that money doesn't come to me and then I don't get more money from C.H. Well, I don't like this. I don't want to go there.

They're just going to pay 25% of your salary. Yeah, so, I mean, we appreciate your tenure here. You were great. 2023 was magical. We'll never be able to replicate that. But thank you for your tenure. And good luck on the White Sox podcast. I literally showed my nipples for this company.

Damon, that's crazy. Free the nip. Yeah, no, that's how it feels. That's how it feels. But I did love his honesty when asked about his relationship with Tori, LaVolo. I'm really upset Killarex isn't here for this one. Here's what Aeronado had to say about his pre-existing relationship with our manager. Yeah, well, our relationship started off pretty rocky when the 2017 wildcard game. So it wasn't a huge fan of him or too many people over there.

But, you know, obviously I respect Horry and all those guys, those coaches. They always seem very prepared. I always thought that even as a young player in Colorado, whenever I look in their dugout, all their coaches are very locked in. Dave McKay's. very locked in. So, you know, all these guys, I always had, you know, great respect for them. And the conversation I had with Tori are phenomenal. I'm excited to play for him. And hopefully make them make them all very proud that they made the right move. I like that sentiment at the end. And I also like him being honest about not having the greatest relationship at Tori when they had the wild card game because that was a lot of fun on our end, but maybe not so much fun on theirs.

But the one thing I disagreed with him this entire time, Damon, like I was I was viving with him. The everything was good. His vibes were good. His answers were great. They got me fired up. But then he was asked about the difference of playing spring, spring training in Arizona, which he did for a number of years with Rockies, including playing at the same facility that he's going to at Salt River Fields.

Or playing in Florida as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Here is what he said that was very pro-flora. Well, you know, it's funny to say that. I've always, it's kind of tough. you know, well, Florida is, you know, Florida's fantastic. It really is. I mean, as a veteran player, when you're a young player taking those bus rides, it's a little tougher.

But, you know, you wake up in the morning, it's like 70, 75 degrees in Florida. You know, Florida, I mean, Arizona is pretty cold in the morning sometimes. But, you know, they're both great. They both have their, you know, their positives. But, you know, I love both of them. They're both great. Like I said, Arizona environment is a lot of fun. Obviously, being in Scottsdale, you know, it's lively.

but Florida like I said when the weather is hot and warm it's easy to get loose and kind of feel fresh so like I said it has both their never in my life have I ever heard anybody say somewhere else is better than Arizona because it's warmer in the mornings that's crazy it rains every day at 3 p.m. in Orlando and we're still picking Florida and those long road trips over Arizona I mean driving a surprise stadium definitely sucks

but everything outside of that fairly accessible I mean he gets He gets to ride in a freaking bus where he's just on his phone the whole time. Yeah, you're not wrong. It's different from me being stuck in traffic and screaming. No doubt. Retired people that have nothing to lose and nothing to be out there on the roads for. Imagine you have a police escort, Derek. By the way, UMMA 177 brings up a very good point.

She says he is Cuban. Of course, he likes Florida. He's also part Puerto Rican, my understanding. Wow. You'll have to talk to him about that. Nidos, Herman. This is what I'm saying. Boricua.

But anyway, he doesn't really have much of a preexisting relationship with the players. This was something I was curious about overall. But he did discuss, you know, his relationship with Merrill Kelly from the WBC. And he also, once again, discussed his admiration for several guys on this team that he's played against for a number of years. No, you know, I don't know too many of them, obviously just from playing against them, I'm spending time with him. And, like, I spend a lot of time with Merrill and the WBC. Got to know him a lot.

Corbyn-Burns-Offy playing against him for a long time. I admire Carol. I admire Pardomo. And obviously, playing against Cotel Marte for a long time, too. I mean, he was there when I was still in Colorado. So, you know, I just admire the way these guys all play the game. They're pitching staff.

You know, I have much respect for them, always have. But I'm excited to get to really know them on a personal level and go out and compete with them. You love that, right? I mean, again, especially like Cattel, I love it. them acknowledging Catelle overall. But again, I feel like this once again reasserts what we've said, which is this team has superstars on it. This team has the core that it needs.

This team offensively is good. Need some help still, right? You can't have Gabby struggling offensively like he did at times last year. There's still a lot of question marks about who's going to play what positions. But again, bringing Aeronado in, bringing in, you know, his bat, his consistency and his experience feels pretty good to add to this lineup, even if he doesn't put up numbers that are around his career averages, even if he just puts up, Damon, numbers that are better than last year, but still not up to what he's done, you know, historically as a player on the field.

Yeah, no, I, listen, I was talking to Noah Wolberg about Nolan Aeronado yesterday, and I believe he was on for the emergency podcast that you guys did on Nolan Aeronado. But we were talking about his stats and, you know, just kind of the lackluster year he had last year. And yeah, he wasn't good two years ago, Derek. He was not. But when I look up these stats right here, like he also wasn't bad. Is anyone that is on the Diamondbacks organization right now going to give you a 272 average, a 719 OPS, 16 bombs and 71 RBI. And that's in a down season for Nolan Aeronado.

And I think if you get that, bare minimum that, this was a very successful trade. And I think this is going to be a different Nolan Aronado a bit. I think playing at just field is going to allow for him once again. The slugging percentage seem to be something that really drug his OPS down. His batting average hasn't been terrible. He gets good contact on the ball. He just hasn't been getting, you know, extra base hits and home runs like he used to at one point in his career. Diamondbacks definitely don't need him to come in here and be a slugger because like we've said, we have that in a way in Cattel and Pardomo and Corbin.

But we just need somebody that can be somewhere close to that. RBI production, I think. RBI production, close to 20 home runs. It's not like they need that much. But overall, great defense. Great defense. And a guy that is hungry for another opportunity, hungry to prove himself, hungry to continue playing this game that he loves, right?

Like, this is two seasons with the Diamondbacks. But like I said, he's going to be 36 at the end of this contract. I feel like he probably has another couple of years left in him. I'm sure he does. So this is more about proving that he's not washed or that these, you know, statistics that you're seeing that are kind of on a definite decline over the last few years aren't the direction he's heading, right? So it's funny, Derek, how opposite I feel about the debacks pitching development versus their hitting development. Because when we're having the conversation about when you trade Ketel for two top 50 pitching prospects from the Red Sox, I'm like, no, because I don't think that we. can make those guys into good quality MLB pitchers because we have not proven that we can do that.

And I'm not trying. I'm not in the business of trading a top 5, 10 hitter on the best contract in the sport for guys that are wild cards. Now, when it comes to the hitting side of things, I'm sitting there going, yeah, we can rehab Nolan Aeronado. Get him in this lineup. Get him with Joe Mather. Get him with Joe Mather. I love Joe Mather.

A hundred percent. Is so underrated for what he's done for the Diamondback since coming over to this team, right? But again, it's only if you're a coach and your team, your particular department sucks. That's the reason why Brian Kaplan gets so much flack. It's also the reason why Sean Larkin lost his job. So, again, you got to make sure that you're performing. The Diamondbacks have been performing extremely well under Joe Mather. And again, he's a great dude, by the way.

I don't say that enough about how cool of a guy that Joe Mather actually is. So the fact that- That's my goat. Our goat, our goat. But Nolan Aronado's goat now, too. You know, he's already sending video of himself over, already working with the hitting coaches on things he can do to improve himself. And that's something that excite you. And again, another thing that it should excite you is that he added the Diamondbacks to his no trade clause this year.

Or I get like, again, I'm saying the wrong term, teams he would be traded to that supersede is no trade clause, right? That's something that was added this past off season. That's not something that he added in 2023 when he saw that. this team make a World Series where I was like, oh, I kind of want to be a part of that. Right. So there is still a belief in this team from people outside of the organization, including players like Nolan Aronado. And this is what he said about how many teams were, in fact, on that approved trade list.

Um, I mean, probably like eight, 10ish teams probably. What was that number last year? Was that a lot more? It was a lot less last year. I mean, not a lot less. but it was like five or six last year. I mean, of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, right?

We are one of the teams that he wanted to come to. And I think, again, I have said in the past myself that I didn't feel like Diamondbacks are a very desirable location for certain players that might want to win now. However, Aeronado, I think, is more about having a comeback, right? Like, he needed to see some place, he needed to be some place that one was going to give an opportunity, even if. if he struggled, which the Diamondbacks are definitely going to do so.

But two, a place that he was going to be so welcomed and so needed, right? It's still not the position that we would have addressed on this show as a priority, but you can't help but admit getting him for $5 million in 2025 or 2025, or 2026, is the exact kind of crazy deal that we discussed Mike Hazen needed to find six weeks ago when we were talking about what the hell the Diamondbacks were going to do to improve this team over this offseason on such a limited budget. Mike Hazen has pulled off a masterclass when it comes to bawling on a budget here this offseason. Between the trades that he's made, the additions, bringing back Merrill Kelly.

You also have Steve Gilbert yesterday on Arizona Sports 98.7, I believe, discussing that he got a call or text message from Paul Goldschmidt, who loved the addition of Nolan Aeronado to the Diamondbacks. That door is still open for a potential Paul Goldschmidt, reunion so we have that as well and that could fix the first base situation if they can figure out a way to get Goldie here and once again get him here on a budget it's not the moves and I'll be the first one to say it that are going to compete with the los angeles dodgers these moves aren't enough to be like yes we're in national league west powerhouse now luckily the rest

of the division hasn't done much up to this point the giants getting scary potentially adding Nico Horner or Brendan Donovan from the same Cardinals team, they could be a problem. But for the most part, outside of the internal adjustments, you know, on a front office level that the Rockies had made, it doesn't really feel like any of these other teams have gotten better, but it does feel like the Diamondbacks have, right? And Katie's reminding me of sexy man James McCann. Don't forget McCann was a steal for what he has done for us. And she's absolutely right. And that was James McCann in a limited capacity, bringing brought over here for less than half a season

to a team that he didn't have very many relationships with prior to coming to it outside of Corbyn Burns, right? But again, he's played with these guys, he knows these guys, and he somehow acclimated himself to this team so quickly. And not only did he do that, but he became an asset where you saw significant improvements in the pitching staff

right around the same time that James McCannes joined this team. I'm not going to act like he was the sole reason for it. It's hard not to say that he was a big part of it, though, considering the timing on it. And when this pitching staff started to really get into a groove, right? So again, his addition to this team is something that we definitely are probably going to undervalue here during the offseason when we talk about these other moves that are being made. But overall, before we move on, we did want to give you what Aronado's thoughts on this team was. this is his evaluation of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And once again, why he wanted to become a part of it.

Yeah, I think, you know, they play really hard. They always have, there's a standard that you see when you play against them. It's very familiar, like, the similarities of, like, when I first got traded as St. Louis and the way the dimebacks play, it's just smart, hard-nosed baseball. And I see that with the Diamondbacks. And obviously, when you watch Carol and Pardomo and Marte and all these guys play the game, And they play hard.

And, you know, you can tell that they have a way about them, good or bad. And I really respect that. I've always respected that about them. They always seem prepared for games. They always, no matter what their record is. And that's something that you can admire. And I think that's just the more consistent you are doing that, I think it's just, it's just going to work out for you in the end.

So it was a, like I said, it was a pretty easy decision. And I'm excited about it. I'm so glad that 2BMC heard the same thing I heard. the standard that they've set here, right? I've poked fun at that, right? I've said you can call expectations all what you want, all you want. But it does seem like Tori LaVallo has succeeded a bit here in setting a standard that's known by other players

and that players appreciate and want to be a part of the thing that they're building here. So that's, again, this is exciting. It's also just a new player talk. And I'll also say that. You're not going to come over and do a media availability where you're a miserable sad sack unless your name is Jordan Montgomery, which we absolutely saw. So we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We are going to talk about a few things, including World Baseball Classic, as well as Emmanuel Claucet texting about, I'm not going to say it. But we'll talk about it on the other side of this break.

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If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call when you under next step, text next step to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Well, Damon, I don't know any other way to handle this correctly, but I will say that there was a report from the New York Post that disgraced All-Star Relief pitcher Emanuel Classe was texting about bets, but the texts were not about baseball. The texts were about cocks. I'm allowed to say that. Explain? It was cock fighting. Oh. According to somebody who remains anonymous, the unidentified man, did give some sort of report here in this investigation because the unsealed court filings have now been found out, reviewed by the New York Times and such.

And they've discussed this betting scheme, obviously. We still think it's one of the dumbest things we've ever seen a baseball player do. allegedly Class A was tipping off what pitches he was going to throw so that betters that he was giving this information to could place bets, specific prop bets on which pitches he was going to throw, right? But according to this filing by attorneys for the two pitchers, Claucet was referred to as a well-publicized breeder and participant in rooster fighting activities, also known as cockfighting.

And that's definitely the way I want to reference it because I can. and I am the person that I am. But, Damon, it's kind of weird to me that your defense in the realm of you committing a crime is committing a different crime. And I don't know. They might find ways to wiggle themselves out of this and suggest perhaps that where these cockfighting, cockfights were happening were not in the United States. So maybe they were illegal in some capacity or what?

whatever they're trying to argue, but it's really weird when your defense needs to essentially be like, no, no, no, no, I wasn't fixing games. I was committing animal abuse. It was a different crime. It's two different things. I shouldn't be banned for baseball for committing animal abuse. That's different. So, I mean, overall, it really just seems like a stupid thing.

It seems like a weak-sauce defense, and I don't think it's going to fly. obviously it really didn't fly, but this identified man claimed that he placed wagers on Class A's pitches, but only as a big sports fan familiar with his arsenal, his tendencies, and what he was going to throw according to the filing. Nice try, pal. The same person I was texting about pitches, especially, I don't even understand. If you have the text messages, I feel like those would be pretty clear, because you're either going to say for pitch number 30, I'm going to throw a change up, or you're going to say, you know, Big Sexy, the Rooster is going to murder, you know,

cool blue here in this fight that we're going to have. Like, I feel like those messages would be very much different. But good luck trying to battle one crime with another crime. And welcome to the show, Caesar. Caesar got here just in time for cock talk. So glad he's here for that. But Damon, I know that you have an actual more pressing issue here when it comes to the World Baseball Classic and specifically your home island. Am I right?

Well, it's somewhat in relation to that. This is a secret to me. I have no idea what you're going to talk to me about. I got to be transparent with the crowd. I wake up this morning to news that happens. and I'm sitting there and I'm going, I live in this great country. Obviously, you know, I came over from the Dominican Republic at a young age. I've, you know, I've grown up in America.

This is, so this is my second home. And so I want to root for the United States. And obviously it doesn't mean as much to me as being, you know, from the island does and how much the DR means to me. But in this circumstance, I'm sitting here and I'm like, I want to root for the USA. and then they pull shit like this, Derek. And then Mark DeRosa does a make a wish program for an absolute scrub of a pitcher, who's a loser, by the way, and says, we need this loser on our team. And that's where I say, I'm out.

I'm out. You see, I wanted to root for Team USA. Corby's. Yeah. Maybe we get another Dback on there. Yeah, who knows? I mean, they got some like, well, dudes. They do.

I'm out. I'm out. Yeah. You did it to me, Mark DeRosa. You did it to me. Team USA baseball. What are we doing here? Why are we just, why are we doing a hat tip tour?

Why are we doing a top step retirement tour in the World Baseball Classic? This means everything to us. It's ridiculous. This means everything. Beating Japan means everything to us. What am I looking at right there, Derek? I don't a washed up starting pitcher that's getting an opportunity based on past performances. We're doing charity in the world baseball classic? I just, I love when baseball players go from.

What's big poppy up to? Could E.H for the Dominican Republic? I love when this happens with baseball players because they're like hated by all of us. And then their final two years somehow have to be where we all give them standing. ovations and I refuse to do it much like Ben Johnson of the Bears I feel like we need to bring hatred back in sports we need more hate we need Damon's bitter all to be bottled replicated and sold in stores we need more of that energy Damon and that's the reason why you have abandoned Team USA for team Dominican Republic we already knew that was going to have I'll be honest Derek I have a lot

of hate to get and that's very clear but I feel like I do it in a healthy way I unload it in the world of sports rather than in my everyday life. You know what I mean? David spent 30 minutes before today's show researching James Hardin's career at ASU just so he could fire back on dudes on Twitter. What's healthier? That or arguing politics that you're so angry you're red in the face with somebody. He had 17 videos to edit and he didn't care because he had research to put in so he could dunk on people on social media. Again, that's the kind of energy we all need to bring.

It's the level of preparation we all need to bring to our hatred every single day. You just can't go out there hating all willy-nilly. You got to be focused and do your research before you come at Damon. I'll tell you that. And also comparing Rob Gorkowski to James Hardin is the craziest thing I've ever seen two people do, and you're both nut jobs. But I do love you, and I do thank you for being the biggest supporter of the Dominican Republic that I've ever met in my life. I mean, and they juice me up more.

Like, I literally, this morning I woke up and I saw that and I was like, I'm actually going to buy Dominican Republic jersey now. Like, I might root for them now that they added in, make a wish, Kershaw onto the Diamondbacks team. I'm done. I'm out. Like, no thanks. You guys can go root for that.

I'm, I plan on rooting for real baseball players that are out there to have fun, have a good time. I'm not sitting there going, oh, he's coming out of the pen and the seventh to face some Currisal lineup. up. I hope some random dude on the Nicaraguan team takes his shit deep, Derek. Just no doubt, just staring at it. Bat flip over the freaking net over like throw it into the stance. You know what I mean? Like let's let's make this thing an absolute Kershaw hate fest. That's what I'm all about. I love it. I love it. But of course, I'm not, I never made against Krogerald in my life. So I'm sorry. I can't

do that but I do appreciate your hatred and I appreciate all of you guys for being here thank you guys so much make sure to leave a like before you get out of here they definitely help us quite a bit around here on YouTube with the algorithms and whatnot we also appreciate you guys being here just in general we'll be back tomorrow at 12 pm make sure to join us for that make sure to check out damon and all of his hate on the phnx wildcat show coming up shortly after this show you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-U-N-K-N-K-N-D-A-W-G. Damien is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. And, of course, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark-Bark? No, I said bark, bark, there it is. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bex, but all roads lead to at P-HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Appreciate your time today. Thank you guys so much for stopping by. We will see you tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show. Until then, have yourselves a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves, Kevin. And remember, kids. Baseball is fun. but it's so much more fun when you respect the vets and let them have the careers with your team you want them to have.