PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Non-Tender CHAOS Across MLB Opens HUGE Opportunity for D-backs in Free Agency

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

The Diamondbacks, like almost every MLB team, faced tough choices on who to tender contracts to on Friday. Now that the dust has settled, we break down which players the D-backs non-tendered and which stars are now hitting the free-agent market. We also discuss the D-backs bringing back catcher James McCann on a one-year deal. On top of that, we dive into a mind-boggling trade between the Mets and Rangers that has us questioning what were going to see this offseason. And of course, we answer your burning questions on a stacked Mailbag Monday!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/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded 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=allcityShowNotesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website www.access-insurance.com.Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 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!Monarch: Use Monarch to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen 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, Friday saw a lot of free agents that got added to the non-tendie gang, and we were going to talk about which of those players might help the Arizona and Diamondbacks in 2026, as well as which players, the Diamondbacks themselves non-tendered last Friday. Also, we got more on James McCann coming back as well as this weird trade between the Mets and the Rangers. Also answers to your mailbag Monday questions. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go any. And welcome in to another edition of the P.HNX Diamondbacks podcast. last from Studio K, presented by our friends in Circle K, it is I, your mayor of PHNX,

occasionally known as Derek Montia. Happy Monday to you all, thrilled to have you guys joining us here. This show, of course, is brought to you by our friends Game Time. Go download that Game Time app right now. Just that way, it's Andy and ready to go to save you on last minute ticket deals. Use our code of PHNX. Create an account. Use our code of PHNX and sign up there.

We get yourself $20 off those already low last minute ticket deals, terms, do it. apply. I am not alone. Of course, I'm joined by the one, the only Damon Farrell, the leche to my cafe cone on the ones and twos today. Bark, bark to you, Damon, and bark bark to all of you guys out there for joining us on a Monday. We have so much to talk about, including the Arizona Diamondbacks tendering contracts to almost everyone except two players, specifically eight arbitration eligible players. We're also going to look at the players that were non-tendered across Major League Baseball and see us. if any of those now new free agents would be a fit for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But first, we have to talk about this weird trade that happened. It went down late on Sunday. Reports came out that the New York Mets and the Texas Rangers were engaged in a trade. As we are going to talk about here shortly, the Rangers are already in a weird mode where it would appear that they're trying to shed as many contracts as possible, save themselves as much money as possible. Now, if you looked at last, year's contract situation with the Rangers. I believe they had the most money invested into

injured players that weren't a part of their roster. I could be wrong about that, but their amount was very, very high. But again, really to us, a little bit of a mind-boggling trade here because the Rangers have traded essentially their captain to the New York Mets. The Mets will receive second baseman Marcus Simeon. The Texas Rangers will receive. receive outfielder Brandon Nimmo. Plus cash considerations do get sent to the Texas Rangers. The Mets are reportedly sending $5 million to the Rangers to help offset the salary difference. Brandon Nimmo waived his no trade clause to make this deal happen.

And I just cannot understand what the Texas Rangers are doing here with this move. I would love to hear from our pals over at DLLS to get their thoughts on it because this is like a gut-wrenching move for a franchise. Not often does a major league baseball team actually name a captain in the way that Marcus Simeon was named the captain of that Texas Rangers team. We all know that Geraldo Perdomo is our captain. We know he's our heart and soul. We know he's the leader, the on-field general, the on-field manager, all of those things.

But I don't know if there's actually been an official designation, Damon, of Perdomo being the captain, like in an official capacity. But my understanding here is that Marcus Simeon was that for the Texas Rangers. He had three seasons left on his deal with about $72 million remaining. Meanwhile, Brandon Nimmo has five more years on his contract, and he is making about $20 million per season. The contract, obviously the contracts are different here. Simeon's is shorter with time left.

Nimmo's is longer. it's not just a financial dump for the Texas Rangers but it does get rid of a you know a lot of money that they were paying to to Simeon just not much more right like it does they do have two extra years of memo there and Simeon did have a down year offensively overall in 2025 he hit 2.30 at 15 home runs in 127 games but he did win a gold glove and again his defensive value makes him arguably one of the best second baseman in all the baseball. He brings the Mets defensive stability there at second base and helps address one of their biggest problems that they had, especially in that epic collapse they had coming into the

playoffs, which was run prevention, right? Also, he's a right-handed bat and he's under contract for three more years. He gives the Mets some flexibility there. Meanwhile, Nimmo had a good season for the Mets. He slashed 262, 324, 436. He had a career. high 25 home runs and 92 RBI. So it makes sense for the Rangers to have interest in Nimmo. And meanwhile, I mean, from the Mets perspective, Brandon Nimmo has also been a staple of the Mets organization. So it's just, it's a real weird trade, right?

It's two players that I think were very beloved by the franchises that they played for. And you don't often see a trade like this that kind of benefits. both teams but kind of leaves you wondering who truly won. I mean, Nimmo's defense has declined definitely. And that, you know, with their surplus of outfielders that they have, motivates New York to move him. Plus, I think this is more than that. I mean, I know that you're bringing into a New York bet's team,

Simeon's glove and that they want to improve defensively. They want to improve run prevention-wise. but I don't feel like this is really just about that. I feel like this is more than just swapping players. I feel like it's philosophical for the New York Mets, who were an absolute mess and absolutely lacked leadership down that stretch that caused them to collapse. That team had no business letting the Reds and the Diamondbacks and the Giants

and all of the other teams that came close to making the players, playoffs or in the Reds case, the team that did pass them and make the playoffs, even in that race. That's the one thing that, you know, like I tried to keep into perspective for us here as Diamondbacks fans last year. The Mets collapsed in the most embarrassing fashion ever considering the payroll that that team has, right? And a big part of that is the fact that they don't have leadership. And that's something that Marcus Simeon brings to that team. I mean, he just, Just, again, he brings defense, he brings flexibility. And meanwhile, to the Rangers, it brings a long-term player that has put up some very good numbers,

who quite frankly, you know, in two or three years will be a steel making that $20 million if he can keep up the same offensive production that he has and allows the Rangers to kind of start restructuring and managing their salary situation, which has gotten a bit out of control for them, especially wasted money for the New York Rangers or New York Rangers. It's easy to get that too. I'm confused. That one's not on me. That's because this situation.

But for the Rangers. Meanwhile, the Mets, this could be the start of them adding more players like Marcus Simeon, guys that have, I don't know, that leadership quality, guys that impact the clubhouse a bit more. They have the talent on the roster, right?

It feels like really what they need is it just, they need leadership. I mean, they need somebody that can, come in and can help that locker room get back on track because again they're they just have too much talent in there for that met's team to have collapsed in the manner that it did right but again um this allows the rangers to shuffle their outfield to gives nimmo nimmo gives them a stable piece in a corner outfield role and uh they open up second base which uh they could have

some internal options there or they could pursue outside this offseason the that as well, right? Don't come for Coutel Marte. I'm just going to tell you that right now. But again, Simeon is older. He's 35 years old. His bad has declined. If he doesn't bounce back, this could be a bad deal for the Mets, even though I'm kind of leaning in the direction of it being a bad deal for the Rangers. I just don't understand it. I mean, that's what it is for me. Like, I get certain aspects of it trying to look at it objectively, reading the article from MLB.com and reading other pieces. But the consensus out there still seems to be that Rangers fans are a bit baffled about trading their leader,

and Mets fans seem to be very welcoming to a guy who, despite the declining numbers, brings something different that they feel the Mets as an organization need in the clubhouse, need in the dugout, need out there on the field every single night. So interesting trade, weird trade, and it is just the beginning of weird trades. It will be interesting to see what trades the Diamondbacks make and how this impacts things on, you know, things in the free agent market overall here, right?

But we do have good news here. We did do a quick emergency podcast on this because, as always, news broke the minute we stopped recording on Friday. Shout out to Coggs, by the way, for stopping by. He did an outstanding job. And I do hope to have Coggs back on this show very soon to co-host with me. Young Goat. Young Goat Cogs. But meanwhile, we got James McCann is back.

James McCann. Big body, James McCann, sexy man, James McCann, back in an Arizona Diamondbacked uniform in 2026. And it feels very good to have him back, mostly because that was going to be a need going forward for the debacks as far as what they were going to do for a backup catcher role. And I do know they have options. I get that they have options, especially in the minor league system. And they also have a guy named Adrian Del Castillo over there that I think a lot of us have been wondering what the diamond backs are going to end up doing with him. and a lot of us would like to see him get some more playing time, you know, but of course he's just kind of been limited as far as their usage of him

and their desire to have him behind the plate. But James McCann, again, signs a one-year deal worth $2.75 million. This was according to Nick Picoro, with up to $500,000 in bonuses. GM Mike Hazen said that McCann is, quote, a stabilizing force behind the plate and a good compliment to Gabriel Moreno, and that is something that we have been saying for a very long time about James McCann. Herrera was frustrating at times, especially at the dish, but we did constantly hear from players, from pitchers,

about how much they liked Jose Herrera's ability to call a game. We've also heard that from James McCann. As Damon pointed out on our emergency podcast, that does say something about your starting catcher, when the compliment seemed to be almost a backhanded compliment towards your everyday regular catcher. When everybody's highlighting how much of a, How good the game is that other catchers call makes you believe that maybe Gabrielle Moreno doesn't call a good game or leaves it up to the pitchers entirely too much, which is something that some catchers tend to do.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to make it seem like I'm saying that like Gabby is not doing his job. No, for sure. Because we definitely don't know that to be true. I do, however, just think that it bears noting that when everybody is like, man, the way that this guy controls the game and calls the game is so like, you know, it's, I feel like I'm just like locked in with this dude, right? Like, we haven't heard that since Zach Gowan said it about Gabriel Moreno in 2023. Right.

Right. And so it feels like maybe he's lacking a little bit in that aspect. And it's just something to key in on and try to improve upon going into next season. It's not necessarily like we're saying Gabby Moreno sucks at connecting with his pitchers during the game. However, I do think that there is something there. Like I don't think. Yeah, probably. We are speculating.

But we're speculating in the same. manners if I were to say like, man, I love going to Heelab River resorts and casinos with my wife. But when I go with Damon, we have such a great time. Like, we really light it up. Oh, my God, we have the best time when Damon and I go. It's an educated guess. My wife, we have fine. It's fine.

It's fun. When I go with Damon, oh, my God. He has the best time, you got. And then we put it all on red. Right. Oh, when we put it all. We always win. We always win.

We always meet celebrities. We always have people buy us dinner. It's wild. When I go with my wife, it's fine. It's okay. But when I go, right? Like, sir, I don't have to say I'm having a bad time with my wife for you to know that that's the truth here in this particular scenario.

And again, same thing with Gabby. There were just certain things that were said. And again, especially with Jose Herrera, right, his bat was lacking. He was hitting below 200 at one point, yet he was still getting starts regularly. And the reason why was because of the things he did well that Gabriel Moreno didn't necessarily do as well, right? Again, I won't even say he was bad at certain things. However, you could look at his numbers from 2025 and see that Gabriel Moreno's numbers were down across the board, not just offensively, but also behind the plate, getting runners out, you know, other

aspects of his game that used to be very strong when the Diamondbacks first brought him in via that Dalton Barso trade, right? But James McCannigan, in 42 games, Damon, he had 260, 342, 431 with five home runs. He gave you so much more at the dish than Jose Herrera did. On top of that, he had that stabilizing force that Mike Hazen described. He's a glue guy. He's a guy that, as Tori Lavolo said time and time again, was making good conversations happen in the dugout, right? Like, positive conversations where guys were sharing information to help them win out there on the field, help them win at the plate. But also, like, honestly, teaching guys how valuable those conversations have.

So one day when James McCann isn't there. in the dugout having those conversations, those young players that were around him will continue to do so because they understand the value of them communicating between themselves in the dugout and sharing what bits of things they're picking up from the pitcher that they're facing and other things like that happening in the game. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think James McCann was such a solid addition to this year's roster. He kind of coincided with the start of the little run that the Diamondbacks went on. Right. He definitely coincided with Zach Gallen's research. Right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you look at last season, I think a lot of things had to start going the D-BAC's way for them to start winning games at the clip that they were down the stretch. But, like, not lost among that was the addition of James McCann. And then, of course, bringing back Gabby Moreno and getting rid of Jose Herrera. And I feel like the combo of all three of those things kind of led to a much, much better catcher room position group when it comes to just, their overall presence in the game.

And yeah, it feels like this is like a natural partnership with Gabby and James McCann now. Like he's the kind of older, grizzled veteran who can, you know, kind of help, you know, maybe teach Gabby a few things. You know, Gabby's still a young player with a lot of potential. Gabby will still be the primary piece here and we'll get majority of the playing time when he is healthy. But you feel comfortable with a guy like James McCann, you know, getting some A-Bs. We've seen him be productive at the plate, which,

is hard to find in a backup catcher, frankly. So I'm happy with the move. I think it was good for this team. And it's good to just kind of cross that off the list of like positions that we need to go after. Because now we can go be serious about the things that we actually need to go get. 100%. And not only that, but it also just, I mean, I know he's 35. There is the risk of physical decline at 35 and getting older.

Have you seen Big Body Games? I was going to say, have you seen his muscles? Have you seen his bicep straps? We're going to add tassels to those bicep straps and then strategically market those and either have them be giveaway items or sell at a merch stand and they'll do better than the purple hair from this guy right over here, this guy.

But I do want to say overall I think that, I mean, this is a strategic move, right? This is like James McCann in year two, or I guess not even year two. He's only been here for less than half a season, right? But in this second season, I think he will, be more of a leader. I think he'll be more of a presence because he feels more comfortable taking on that role. I think that he's one of those guys that probably didn't want to overstep his bounds as

someone that was already coming into an established locker room and didn't want to like one up or big up the young guys and step up and be that leader. I think it's just something that the players look to and I think that they become natural. It comes natural. Your experience speaks for itself and players will come to you as a veteran and seek you out and ask you advice rather than you needing to be preachy and go to them. However, I think that now with that time under his belt and coming back for this season, I think he'll hopefully feel more comfortable to be more of that leader that he already has shown to be and help his team just kind of continue to mature,

continue to get better overall. And I just, I think it's a low risk decision overall here for the Diamondbacks. I mean, that's not a lot of money. And like you said, it crosses off a big need. Almost a need, you could argue, potentially the biggest positional need besides first base for them was a backup catcher. Not to say that they didn't have a very... I think they need an outfielder pretty bad. I'm not going to lie.

You're right. Unless you want Jake, Alec Corbyn to be the three in the outfield for all season. Blaze would be part of that as well. Well, then you need a third basement, no? Jordan Lawler. I know. I don't like it either. We got a lot of things to figure out.

You need a backup catcher, but I think you need it. I think you need third base or first base, and then a corner outfield there a bit more personally. I don't think you're wrong, but we do have some new additions to the free agent market that we are going to talk about on the other side of this break, thanks to the non-tendie gang. And we're going to talk about that here shortly.

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Again, another big news day. We found out that the Diamondbacks have, in fact, tendered contracts to 31 players on their team. No real surprises here, except for one player. I think that was a little bit of surprise to fans. They did non-tender Tommy Henry, who we'd already discussed based on their Rule 5 draft roster additions that he was being. designated for assignment, but also they have non-tendered Taylor Rashi. So pour one out for the Rashi Rashi Mee. That man was incredible for this team at times. And I mean, again, he had like

two moments for sure. He had limited opportunities and he did have his fair share of bad moments as well for sure. But still, I think that he was, he came in and delivered in a lot of those moments. I know what you're saying, though, but still big, big moments for this team down the stretch. Meanwhile, they tendered contracts to eight arbitration eligible players, Kevin Ginkle, Jake McCarthy, Gabriel Moreno, Ryan Nelson, A.J. Puck, Pavin Smith, Alec Thomas, and Ryan Thompson. And then they also agreed, as we said earlier, to a one-year contract with James McCann. So the 40-man roster is currently set at 40, right? So we have pitchers that include guys like Philip Abner, Kyle Bacch, now Mitch Bratt is part of this,

Gilbert Diaz, Cole Drake, Brandon Garcia, Andrew Hoffman. These are some of the younger names on there. Drake Jameson as well, part of that 40-man roster right now. So again, Diamondbacks have themselves a full 40-man roster. It'll be interesting to see if they do go out, make those moves, make those free agent moves, how they're going to move these players around that they have tendered contracts to. You got, of course, Cotel Marta under contract.

through 2030. Perdomo under contract through 2029. Corbyn Carroll under contract through 2030. Lordis Gurriel currently under contract for one more season as well as James McCann. E. Rod under contract for two more years. And then Brandon Fott and Corbyn Burns technically under contract through 2030. So yeah, I mean, this is where the roster stands. I thought maybe we might see some more movement on the Diamondbacks tendered contract, non-tendered list. But again, this makes me feel like we will see some trades here from Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks. I think we will see some of these players move. It's the reason why they keep them under contract because they can definitely still be assets here for them to improve this team this offseason.

But meanwhile, the non-tendered players across Major League Baseball, I think, were more of the surprise, right? The debacks definitely, you know, again, they had a couple of guys that they let go, but there are now not counting Tommy Henry and Taylor Rashi, 42, Daman, 42 new pitchers on the free agent market that were not free agents as of Thursday last week. And that's kind of the thing I think that's going to change things quite a bit for this Diamondbacks team, right? Yeah. It depends on how things go for those players, how those contracts go, but it does give the

Diamondbacks a lot of options for them to improve not only their starting rotation, at least in a limited capacity, potentially for a cheap capacity for half a season. But, I mean, there are some really good players here that are now part of the free agent market. And honestly, the flood of pitchers specifically might help to change the cost overall and what it's going to take to get some of these guys. Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, when you're a team that needs as much pitching help as the Arizona Diamondbacks, anytime that you hear that there's 40 plus new pitching free agents, I think it's got to be good news.

Let's get to work. Now, on the other hand, these aren't exactly the, you know, cream of the crop when it comes to Major League Baseball because otherwise their teams wouldn't be trying to get rid of them. But at the same time, this is where good organizations make their money, right? This is where they do what they need to do. And, you know, I hate to bring up this comparison because it's almost incomparable with how different the organizations are. But like a team like the Dodgers seems to find people on the margins that just play above the, their heads and become solid, you know, contributing players no matter what, right? Like, we get rid of a guy like Anthony Bonda because we're like, he's horrific.

And the Dodgers are like, he's going to be in our bullpen for five years. You know what I mean? He's going to be one of our best bullpen. Yeah. So it's, I feel like, you know, that's the type of situation where the diamondbacks need to prove that they can find an under the radar guy who maybe they can buy low on who can help this roster, right? And that's why Mike Hazen gets paid the money that he gets paid.

That's why they're trying to change their organizational structure of how they handle pitching development. So let's see it. Let's see it in action. And we probably have to buy low on a couple guys in order for next year's roster to be a successful team. So it starts with guys like this. Well, it also starts with making the moves that are the hard moves to make. When you have guys that are big names that, quite frankly, in the Rangers case, helped bring them, a World Series title, here you are two seasons later, non-tendering contracts to guys like Adola

Garcia and Jonah Haim. And quite frankly, I know it makes sense looking at their numbers, but it's still shocking. It's still shocking to see some of the players that have been non-tendered. Now, some of these guys definitely can help the Diamondbacks out, and I don't want Adola's Garcia at all. I will tell you that. Me and Damon have both collectively agreed, keep that band away from our baseball team after he did what he did. us, right? We can't, we can't, we can forgive, but we don't forget. And also, we never forgive. But the Blue Jays, Brewers, and Marlins, as well as the Nationals, those are the four teams that did not non-tender any players. They did not remove any guys from their roster. But again, the Rangers,

they're non-tenders. Nationals make sense. They just got such a stacked roster. Oh, I know. They are an incredible team, right? Well, again, when you don't have roster concerns and you're not necessarily trying to balance the cost. The cost. of guys you've paid like the nationals aren't paying anybody they have no high paid players so who are they getting rid of exactly but the rangers meanwhile they they let go of adoles carcia jonaheim jacob web and josh sorbs and again i know i know that jose carcia he's always going to hold a special place in the hearts of rangers fans for what he did but again um he he had a 684 ops in 2024 and that was 2024 and then he was even worse than 2025 he had a 665

OPS, right? Like, so, um, you're just talking about a guy that fell really fast from putting up 39 home runs, 107 RBI and an 836 OPS in a regular season back in 2020. And helping his team win the world series, right? Um, do you want, do you want to say it or do you want to say it or do you want me to say it? No, go ahead. You can say it. You're the one that says stuff like that.

The supply line must have been cut off. I didn't know. Yeah. Like, right. Let's just move on. They were like, you got your world series. We're not. going to oust you as a as a as a as a as a as a writer we're not going to try to taint this season and

make it out to be where the rangers won on cheating you could so we're going to sweep it under the rug don't do it anymore adolus or else you will be banned and since then he has decided that i'm he's going to take a big crap on the field two years in a row and stink at baseball are you done you're done well i mean i just if i i feel like i'd be doing a disservice to the people that tune into this show daily if i didn't yeah they're waiting for that 100% uh Meanwhile, Johnaheim, again, another integral part of the world series run there in 2023. But in two years since, he's been worth minus 0.06F war. And he's declined on both sides of the ball.

He is a guy that, quite frankly, if the Diamondbacks would not have signed James McCann, I might have been like, hey, why not? Sure. I mean, like you said, they needed a backup catcher. And why not give an opportunity to a guy that has, you know, been on the decline just to give him a change of scenery and a new opportunity, right? Yeah, and he has experience and he's been a productive player in the past. It just, you know what's funny about this Rangers whole thing, Derek, to me is that I remember,

I vividly remember during the World Series run, everybody being like, or afterwards, Dodgers fans and Padres fans and, you know, rival teams of the debacks essentially saying that what a fluke run, the Diamondbacks just went on. Yeah. Right? And, you know, like, what a free world series for the Rangers. And in reality, the Diamondbacks were. a tiebreaker away two years ago from making the playoffs again with 88 wins.

Last year they clawed back and, you know, almost were 500 with a roster that had no business clawing back to 500. And meanwhile, the Rangers have fallen off of an absolute cliff since 2020. And they keep making the wrong moves, right? You could argue the Merrill Kelly move. They were the frauds, not us. Yeah. The Merrill Kelly move, definitely the Diamondbacks won.

And it's not to say that because Merrill Kelly was bad or that they didn't have the results they were hoping for out of him. They just simply didn't make the playoffs. And they gave up a vital part of their future that substantially helped the Diamondbacks farm system improved, specifically in pitching. These guys are now part of the 40-man roster, two of them, two of them. And David Hagamon probably is worthy of consideration as well. And he could see time this year at a major league level as well. Right. So that's kind of a loss for them, especially, especially if Merrill Kelly somehow finds his way back to the Diamondbacks.

Then it just looks like an overall fleecing of the Rangers. That would be, that would be pretty embarrassing. It would be. That would be like very indicative of a team that is just making all the wrong moves. Trading like three pretty solid prospects for a pitcher and then that pitcher going straight back to the team you just traded them for. There's a lot of players on here, though. A lot of names that I like, a lot of names. that at times have really had great careers, but for brief stints.

And I mean, it's funny because you as a fan sometimes hold on to how good they were. Alec Manoa has been non-tendered, right? That is a guy that I thought was going to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. Just incredible with the Blue Jays back in 2022, posting a 2.24 ERA and 180 strikeouts. But since then, option to the minor leagues after a bad 2023 season, Torres UCL in 2024, made several rehab starts coming back in 2025, but then was eventually designated for assignment and then eventually claimed by the Atlanta Braves,

who have now non-tendered him. Not the guy I want the Diamondbacks to give a shot to, but almost like the opposite of what they've kind of gone after, right? They've gone after the top pitching arms, and those things have been a catastrophe. I don't hate the idea of an Alec Manoa being given an opportunity on this team at a very low cost, at a very low-risk deal, where he could potentially be that guy that helps them,

the cheaper option of the two that they need for starting pitching, right? It's exactly the type of move I'm talking about. Right, exactly, right? The give a guy a chance, don't pay him a ton of money, don't make it a super long-term deal, maybe a second, maybe a team option for a second year, perhaps, you know, something like that where if he is a stud, we can, you know, bring him back.

But also maybe a guy that they only need up to a certain point, Maybe a guy that they convert to a bullpen long reliever once Corbin Burns returns, quite frankly, if Corbin Burns returns. I'm sick of seeing that in these articles, by the way, the amount of writers that have to specifically say that Corbin Burns is not going to be back for the 20-20-60s. And it makes me. Well, you just did it right now. I know. They make me. But why did you do it?

I don't know, because I'm seeing it everywhere. Because I didn't like that. I don't like it either. I don't like it either. Trust me. but again, he was, he's a guy. Now, as far as realistic additions, I do think obviously pitching is very important.

That's the reason why I zero in on Alec Manoa. A couple of other guys that I would like, though, as far as a pitcher is concerned, is Mark Leiter Jr. from the Yankees. He was really good with the Cubs. He posted the 3.85 ERA in three seasons with the Cubs, but then he goes to the Yankees and he sucks. That was at the 2024 trade deadline.

He has a 4.89 ERA in his time in the Bronx. And I just think some pitchers just aren't meant to pitch in the Bronx. I don't even think it's a high pressure situation. I just think that the Yankees are so indecisive about what they're going to do. It's similar to Devin Williams where, you know, his role was very, he knew what his role was with the Brewers. And he comes over here to the Yankees and he kind of just gets moved around and, you know, doesn't, like, isn't the closer and becomes a high leverage arm and things like that. I think that, again, as far as relief options are concerned that Mark Leiter Jr.

could absolutely be a guy, especially a high leverage arm that could help the diamondbacks in their bullpen, right? Like, they don't have a, they don't have room to go out and get a ton of these guys. But you feel like one solid relief arm could really help this team, specifically a closer, right? No doubt. But still, like even a Mark Leiter Jr., it feels like it could really help this team and the bullpen figure things out. Yeah, I mean, listen, they have. How many arms do we feel comfortable with in the bullpen right now? I'm scrolling the list of players that you have on here.

I hate that. I hate to say that because I don't know who like that so many of them are unproven still, right? Like I like Philip Abner, but I don't love Philip Abner because I haven't, I don't feel like the sample size is big enough for me to say I feel comfortable with him. I mean, of these guys that are there that are healthy, I think Andrew Saul Frank was pretty good. I think Brandon Garcia was pretty good for an extended period of time. He had a little bit more time in the pen than Philip Abner did. But yeah, I mean, I don't even know if I feel great about Kevin Ginkle or Ryan Thompson anymore. Yeah, I mean, let's just be realistic.

They're not going to obviously like, you probably have about what, eight relievers in a bullpen. You're not going to. Yeah, you're not going to wipe it clean and go and need eight new guys. So let's just assume that Garcia's in it. Let's assume, you know, Abbas. in it, Thompson, Ginkle, right? Yeah. I mean, you're going to, you're going to need some, you're going to need at least one big

name guy, I think, right? And to, to supplement that and probably be the closer. Hopefully, J. Mark comes back, but I don't think you can, with a guy that throws that hard, who's that young, I don't think you can assume that he's going to be back. You know, I think it's much more likely, in my opinion that Corbin Burns is back than Justin Martinez. I think so, too. I agree.

AJ Puck should be back, no? Mm-hmm. Because he got hurt so early in the season. He's still in a similar place, though, where, like, again. It could take him a minute to get back, for sure. That's, that's a thing. We probably need about three guys that are semi-established, with one of them being, like, a bigger name.

Wouldn't you say so? No, I agree. I agree. And I don't know. I mean, you have guys that have been non-tendered because of injuries, guys that are going to miss the majority of the season next year already. So there's a big reason why some of these guys are, you know, like you said earlier, why some of these guys, like Evan Phillips was released or non-tendered by the Dodgers, right?

But again, I think that when you're talking about what the bullpen needs, what the starting rotation needs, it's just too much. It's too much to go out there and expect them to be able to add all of these guys. However, you never know, right? Like the difference in baseball sometimes between the small contracts and the big contracts are crazy. The Diamondbacks could easily bring it in like six guys below $5 million. You know, and they're not going to be names that move you. Or one Devin Williams.

Or one Devin Williams. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah. And this is the crux of, you know, the issue with the sport. If you're the Dodgers, you can just go sign all the top really first. Right, right. Even though you have all the top position players and all the top starters, but you go into this

offseason thinking, well, what do we need to fix? Oh, the bullpen. Cool. We'll just sign all the best bullpen pitchers. It's that's that's the part that's that really stings that that that is the part that stinks especially considering you know that the Dodgers did have a huge weakness last year and that they can go out this offseason and it didn't matter fix that yeah it didn't matter and also Sasaki's just the best closure in baseball now yeah it'll be yeah one more name again there's a lot of guys here that people would probably recognize mj melendez from the outfielder from the royals he was once one of the best catching prospects and all of baseball but kind of of sat back seat to Salvador Perez there in Kansas City and then had his own struggles as well. Let's see. Who else here?

Christopher Morrill from the raise. I just saw that one. I did not notice that. Derek, that is the exact type of player that I am talking about. I mean, we could have two cat men. You know how like Perdomo likes to do the little cat whiskers with the eye black every

once in a while? Yeah. Two cat men out there? Yeah, dude. Why wouldn't we do that? He was such a highly touted prospect coming up. And he was supposed to be such a good player. And obviously it hasn't worked out, right?

But the Diamondbacks are a team that they clearly know how to coach hitting and they know how to develop hitters. Yeah, but he get him around this lineup with these batters. And I think that maybe that's a by-low candidate that maybe could play some left field while you, while you wait on Gurriel. He's almost a worse Jake McCarthy. He has more power than Jake McCarthy. And it's not even close. 26, 21 and 11 home runs in his three seasons. 204 batting average with a 651 OPS and a 30% strikeout rate and then a bad glove.

Yeah, no, I mean, I think Jake McCarthy has a bad glove too, to be honest with you. But I understand the strikeout rate is not good. Yeah. That's ridiculous. That's a lot. But he is a power hitter, which I think this outfield needs more power. I think that you can bring back one of Jake or Alec, but you need more power in that third spot. I like the idea of checking out of Mike Tauchman.

just because I had to listen to the CHGO Cubs podcast talk about that guy for so long. And meanwhile, he didn't have a bad season with the White Sox. I mean, he was better defensively and he hit 263 with nine home runs and a 756 OPS. If you talk about upgrading your outfield offensively and... Old. Huh?

He's 34. Shut up. That is not old. All right? I don't want to hear old. Like, don't even old me on a 30, someone, under 35. You son of a bitch.

I will say he does on his baseball savant, Derek, 68th percentile in batting run value on the season. Fielding run value 48th, so very average. But his batting is, I mean, that's pretty damn good.

I agree. For a guy that you could pick up on the cheat potentially, I mean, I think that that's not a bad option. He is really slow. He is fourth percentile speed. Yeah. But his range is not bad. It's 46 percentile. So who knows? I mean, I think that that could be, I don't hate that option. He was he was average in 2024 as well. He was pretty good in 2023. Like, he seems like a solid baseball

player. Here's the thing is, is that all of these options, you got to Jake Freely out there, you have other options out there on the on the market now. And again, it's just, it gives the diamond back some leverage in negotiating with agents and saying like, well, we're going to go look at one of these cheaper options. And agents know that those cheaper options are out there. And, there. Baseball is one of those weird games too, where quite frankly, a guy that hit five batting average points higher than, you know, Talcman can somehow be seen as a stud. And for some reason, he's seen as a dud. And then the difference in their contracts of 2026 could be like night and day for sure, right? But again, I'm in trouble there. People are coming for you. Yeah. I met in

baseball terms. I meant in baseball terms, especially in Diamondbacks baseball terms. We have a young team. Yeah, no, I'm going to go die under a rock now, Damon. So, you know, you go ahead and host the show by yourself. So when we get Paul Goldschmidt, we're going to call him a spring chicken. I just want to get on, I just want to get on the same page with everybody. Don't you do that to me? He's got half his life ahead of it. Oh, he's, at least, at least.

I have less than half of my life ahead of me. I know that now, but I'm in the second half and things are looking good. Well, that's a lifestyle choice, Derek. We're here for a good time, not a long time. You know that, brother, you know that. It's me and you. We are going to take a quick break and then we're going to do what we do on Mondays, Damon. We're going to go to that mailbag.

So let's go ahead and do that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, when Damon is not antagonizing people that you could say are, what, mid-range in life, he is rocking branded bills. And that's because branded bills are incredible. He's got it on right now. And you can check out the wide variety of hats that branded bills has to offer over at their website.

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looking to get yourself fitted for any tailgate event for if you're looking to get yourself fitted for hate week and make sure you represent the side of hate week you're represented check out everything they have to offer including drink wear signage coolers socks babies diapers make sure to put all that out there on display for your friends and your family when you're having that wonderful thanksgiving get together or whatever you're doing this holiday season so Find your local Rallyhouse location and shop their entire product assortment online at rallyhouse.com today. Damon, how are you gearing up for hate week? Are you just you just punching a like a sparky face on a?

Well, I started off today and last week, so I had talked to Eric Ruby on the side, you know, just conversing with my good friend. I thought. I don't think so. I don't like how this is going. I said that it depending on we just came up, who's going to be favored? in the game. And I said, depending on how we look against Baylor, I think we'll be the, we'll be the favorite. Sure. And then we beat Baylor by 20. We beat Baylor by 24, shut him out in the second half. Nation's leading pass, passing yard thrower had 150 passing yards for the entire

game. Great game. No, no, that was Sawyer Robertson. Oh, well, that's Baylor's QB. He's really good, but he had a bad game against us. And so then the line came out. And, we were, and we're going to, we were one and a half point favorites and i and so i i i ira ruby brought it up on the show earlier to and asked tootry anthony tootry what what will happen and mr tootry said that's not happening yeah and then i came in here on monday when he walked in the building and i just said what happened i thought that i thought that that was not happening and then now it's like oh what you want to pat on the back it's not going to it's not going to end well for you guys and i'm like okay all right let's go so i'm i'm i feel good i feel good i feel good

about this game. Yeah, I walk in from my little walk around the building to this agitated conversation, best way to describe it, friendly, agitated conversation. Neither guy seems mad. And they both want the other person to tell everybody that they're not mad and don't put it in the newspaper. No, please don't put in the newspaper that I'm mad. In all reality, I was trying to be funny, but I also, when you rub someone in their face that they're wrong, it doesn't really always come off as you're being Mr. Nice guy. Right. But I think that, you know, that's just kind of who I am.

So I, the animosity is building. It's palpable in the office. And you know what that is, Derek? And this is where I was thinking about this with the somewhat of the animosity that was going on there. I was like, if he really truly felt comfortable about this game, I don't think he, I don't think he'd be as as agitated of me bringing up that we were favored. Yeah, no.

I mean, it's clearly a pretty 50-50 game. speak on behalf of 10p and say, I am worried, sir. I am concerned. And that's what I'll leave it at. But it's a, it's minus 115 to minus one, 105 on, on bet 365. U of A is a one and a half point favorite. It's about as close as it gets. As close as it could get.

And this is the most. And that's how these two seasons for these two teams have. 100%. Great defenses for both teams. And I mean, with ASU, it's the case of the quarterback situation, right? And guys being healthy. And quite frankly, that's one thing that, that U of A has an advantage on is not only the length of time.

Yeah, but same love, it's not playing 100%. You know, it'll, it's going to be a great game. And you have, like you said, two great defenses. That should make it a close game pretty much alone, you would think. And we haven't had a game like this that's this big since 2014. So I'm just fired up about it. Huge. Have you ever gotten to touch the territorial cup?

Have you got to hold it? Ooh, I don't think I have. I, well, because, so I used to work for the UVA football team for three seasons. They weren't a good three seasons. And when we had the cup, it was sitting in a place where I literally could have just picked it up and ran. Yeah. Like I could have picked it up and just ran to my car. I couldn't believe they let me touch it.

It wasn't in a case. It's literally on a shelf by where the secretary would like answer phone calls, basically. And I always thought that that was insane. I kissed it. They said it oxidized it. I'm proud of that. Anyway. Did you know that it's the old.

oldest trophy in college, college sports. And it just so happened to be found in a basement of a Tempe church a couple miles off of ASU's campus. It was lost for 60 years or something like that. How did that happen? Yeah, definitely no one from ASU stole it. It's in a basement in Tempe and you're asking how that happened. Did anyone?

Alcohol. Alcohol is how that happened. Did anyone in Tempe steal it by chance? I'm pretty sure they did. I'm pretty sure we cannot claim innocence on that. But you know what day it is around here. And you know what we do here. We don't debate ASU versus UA on this show.

And we don't fully engage in Hate Week. That's for when we play the Dodgers. But of course, every year on this show is the year of the snake. Every year is our year. Every month on this show is Black History Month. Every month on the show is Women's History Month. And every month on this show is Black Women's History Month. Every week is Shark Week.

Every day is Earth Day. because Damon and I recycle, but on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's get that Grammy Award-nominated music going. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while, there's a letter that makes me go out. All right, what do we got in the mailbag today, Damon? Our first question here in the mailbag comes from, of course, Travis Moore, who says,

at Damon Dog, how about them fins three weeks in a row without a loss? We're celebrating by weeks over here in South Florida. I love it. Travis Moore. You got to take what you can get in a season like this, of course. But in the real question, Dback side of things, piggybacking off of last week, what secondary pitch would you want to see Nelly develop? I think a sweeper or slider would play well into his arsenal.

I completely agree with that. If you were to ask me, I would say slider. I think that whenever a starting pitcher has a dominant fastball, like Nelly does with the velocity he has, with the control command that he has over it, you would love to see that slider, almost like a Randy Johnson-esque slider that makes batterers just look silly as a wipeout pitch.

Just one of those pitches that comes in looking exactly like his fastball until it's too late and it's already, you know, cutting across the zone, landing, you know, especially in on batters, things like that, like that. That would be great. I think just anything that really changes speed and direction is going to be big, Right? Because, you know, the fastball is just so good. The fastball is so good. So I think that a slider sweeper would work. I think a changeup would work really well, too, if it was a really just devastating changeup, that kind of lost speed as it approached the plate. And again, had a similar arm slot and release point as his fastball. So I think that's the most important thing is he just needs one really good pitch that pairs extremely well with his fastball. ball based on, you know, his mechanics and how he throws that ball to the plate.

Brent Strom explained to us time and time again how important that was and how like when we conventionally think that batters are or pitchers tipping pitches, we think it's something in their grip, something in their body language, but a lot of times it's because, you know, batters throwing or pitchers throwing like their fastball up here and their slider is here. And that little difference between this arm's angle and that arm angle is enough to tell batterers. you know where what's coming right so knowing what's coming is so important but it it's the reason why it's still baffling to me the idea of like batters having that information transmitted to them by an outside source like the astros did with their cheating scandal right it's baffling because

it's just something you have to know as a batter in the moment and be able to pick on and pick up on and go after. I guess from the perspective of knowing whether it's a fastball or a breaking ball, that right there is big enough for a batter, I'm sure, to have an advantage. But again, I think Nelly is still developing, and I think he still can develop that secondary pitch that would really complement the fastball and kind of elevate his game. I think Nellie could be a sub-3 ERA pitcher, and quite frankly,

be the, you know, an underestimated A-Says. of this staff for sure. All right, Damon, what else we got? Our next question here comes from Brian Bobbitt, who wants to know, could any of the recently non-tendered players be possible solutions for the debacks? Personally, I kind of like Joey Lucchese, not a great strikeout percentage, but had a career high 51.7 ground ball rate last year. Yeah, no, I mean, there are a lot of guys like that, and specifically, that's why I highlighted the 42 pitchers available. I would love a guy that had a 51.7% ground ball rate, especially with this defense playing behind him. I don't need a starting pitcher that's going to put up flashy numbers or cost this team a ton of money.

I just need somebody that can be effective, perhaps post a sub-4 ERA and give this team this offense a chance to win. More importantly, I need an arm in the rotation. I need somebody that the Diamondbacks are okay with changing what their role is when Corbin-Burn's return, should he return. I also need an arm that's capable of being in the starting rotation for the entire season. It's a lot to ask of a starting pitcher that you're bringing on. You know, it almost would need to be a guy that has a history of being both a reliever and a starter and it's kind of okay with making that. Perhaps a guy, like I talked about with like Chris Bassett, a guy that, you know,

starting days aren't necessarily behind him, but he's kind of found a new role as of late, a new success as a reliever, and perhaps a guy that as he ages, and gets up there in his career, wouldn't mind taking on that role as, you know, a high leverage reliever for a team after starting for 60 to 70% of the season, right? And that's something the Diamondbacks could kind of need to factor in here when it comes to who they go after for their second starting pitcher. The first one can be whatever the hell, right?

Like, they could once again go after one of the top arms on the free agency market and add them to the rotation because they need that. And that person is going to stay there. But as far as the second starting pitcher is concerned, it's going to be interesting to see what the Diamondbacks do. And, of course, again, another name for the bullpen as well, right? So we kind of went over some of the bigger names as far as the non-tendered list is concerned. But as Brighton points out, there are a lot of good pitchers who their numbers might not look outstanding. But, you know, again, if they are perhaps on a team like the Diamondbacks that is going to value defense over other flashy statistics,

and kind of get back to their defensive prowess that they've had in the past, having a ground ball pitcher up there is not the worst thing in the world for sure. I do think that there are some names, though, again, that we did not cover here. And there are a lot of specifically available pitchers. The Tigers dumped a bunch of guys. They dumped right-handed pitcher Dugin-Darnell, right-handed pitcher Jason Foley, left-handed pitcher Jason Gunther, right-handed pitcher Tyler, right-handed pitcher Tyler, Right-handed pitcher Jack Little and right-handed pitcher Tanner Rainey.

The Tigers alone are flooding the market with pitchers as well. Also, the Rockies parted ways with Michael Toglia. Surprise? A little surprise there. Again, another name, a bigger name that they just kind of see, and you're surprised to see out there available as now a free agent on the market. But again, the Diamondbacks don't necessarily want to go after other teams damaged goods, right? That's another thing they have to consider. With a limited budget,

they can't miss on these choices unless they're low, low risk, low value choices. Like, guys they're not paying a ton of money to guys that they might get on a one-year deal. That might be the way to proceed forward and kind of get themselves out of 2026. Not agree to anything super long-term with anybody and then just figure things out again, reassess the plan in 2027 once we get through next year and once the whole labor dispute is behind the Diamondbacks and all of Major League Baseball. Well, else we got, Damon. Our next question comes from Jack Somers' burner, Mighty Shoe Man. Mighty Shoe Man. Who asks, what are the chances that Marte gets traded to the Rangers for Jack Lighter and some prospects, given that they no longer have Marcus Simeon?

Zero. Screw the Rangers. Screw the Rangers. The chances of that happening is zero. I feel like the chances of Cotel Marte getting traded are like 0.5%. I definitely sub 5% total, right? Like it doesn't mean it won't happen. This trade with the Mets and the Rangers, oddly enough, makes me very suspicious and nervous. It just, it doesn't, again, these teams might see the purpose in it. I as a person that is not very familiar with either team don't.

And I kind of gauge things based on. off of Twitter as I normally do because that's my sounding board. It feels like the Mets fans once again are thrilled to get Marcus Simeon. It feels like the Rangers fans are still confused as what the hell just happened. I don't really know, you know, how this works out for either team and we won't be able to assess who a winner is until, you know, the 2026 season is coming gone. However, just this kind of trade is weird. And this is the kind of trade almost that it would take, I think, to move Cattel Marte,

something where the return, probably more than just one player, but the return would be a substantial name that would need to move the needle quite a bit. And again, I'm just waiting to hear that news on Marte being traded for Terrick Scoobel. So when that happens, wake me up. But overall, yeah, no, I don't know. I don't think that Cte would be traded to the Rangers for Jack Leiter. or quite frankly, I mean, anybody that wouldn't be an absolute superstar that doesn't have multiple years still under contract and quite frankly a proven track record of being that said superstar,

right? So I don't know. I have no idea what a trade package for Cattell Marte would be because everything in my mind seems like you're either asking far too much or you're receiving far too little in return. And that's usually the case with a trade for a super star. star the caliber of Catelle Marte, who has the number of years of control left on his deal, as well as what the Diamondbacks have to pay him for the remainder of this deal. So, uh, all right, Damon, what else we got? Next question here is from takes of wisdom. I like the report

that we are in talks with Gialito, not really a question. Nope, but I mean, we can phrase it as one. And I would say, Damon, I also like the talks. I, I like the idea of that Lucas Gialito. Again, he is a guy that he's had. High floor. High floor? He's had a bounce. We've said that before, though. I mean, how many times have we probably done a podcast about going after Lucas Gialito, right?

Yeah, yeah, seriously. He had himself a terrible season, didn't play in 2024, and then he comes back for the Boston Red Sox for one year, and he's outstanding. He had a 3.41 ERA. He went 10 and 4. He posted a 2.1B war. He pitched 145 innings. I mean, his numbers were outstanding.

His whip was a little high at 1.290. and his FIP was 4.17 a bit above average, which goes to show that he probably had pretty good defense behind him to maintain that 3.41 ERA. Overall, though, I just feel like, again, this is a guy that, you know, this is the type of guy, right? Like, this is the guy that wants maybe a shorter term deal because he still might want a big contract,

so he might be willing to sign a one-year deal overall or, you know, I mean, again, he does have the team option, but I believe they declined the team option or did they pick up that team option? I'm 100% sure on that, but I'm going to check that out. But overall, like, again, Lucas Gio Lido, he is one of those type of guys that the Diamondbacks absolutely could use for a short, for a short period of time. And again, he's a guy that's probably looking to kind of get rebound and get one more multi-year deal before, you know, his

MLB career is over. He's 30 years old, so I think he still has plenty of time to do that, Damon. Yeah, no doubt about it. I like that move. I think it's solid. We've talked about Gialito a million times on this podcast.

Every trade deadline, every offseason, it feels like we're like, is Gialito, is he a good option for the snakes? Okay, he had a mutual option. He declined it. Yeah, he was pretty good last year, wasn't he? Yeah, and I mean, again, he had, let's see, a player option for 19 million and a $1.5 million buyout. So he declined the

mutual option. And I mean, again, Betting on himself after posting that ERA in 20, in 2025. So might be a little bit more expensive than the Diamondbacks are looking to spend, but they do the money to do so. And I mean, if he can come back in and kind of be what he has been at times in his career, then it would be worth it. We are looking for that. 2019, 2021, Lucas Gioito that posted a 3.5 ERA. And quite frankly, last year he had a better ERA than that. So I don't know. I don't hate the idea, but I'd be interested to see what it's going to cost and, you know,

who's going to pick it up. He's just bounced around a lot. So I feel like ever since leaving the White Sox, he's really just, you know, kind of been looking for an opportunity to have a little bit of peace and security. with the deal. But all right, well, let's get one more in, and then we've got to talk about drinking on Mill Avenue. Flea ball.

We are in the bottom 10 in pitching every year with all the elements of Reno and the PCL. It makes it hard to evaluate and develop pitching. Do you ever see the Dinback's moving their AAA affiliate? God. Hello, Tucson. This is such a good question, and I love it. I really do. Because we say this all the time.

We've accepted this as reality, right? And teams do move their minor. league teams all the time. I mean, Jackson Bulldogs, I believe used to be part of the Diamondbacks minor league system. We've moved around quite a bit throughout the years. I think that this is spot on. I think that we can never actually assess what our young pitchers are doing. We always have to use some sort of weird grading sliding scale to

determine what an ERA really looks like in Reno versus what it would look like anywhere else or on a major league level. So, I mean, that could be a big problem. And I mean, to pair with it, Amarillo isn't exactly a pitcher-friendly ballpark as well. So you have guys just kind of going from one situation, which is not pitcher-friendly, to perhaps an even less pitcher-friendly situation. We see guys post five ERA all the time and then come up to the major leagues and, quite frankly, be better than that.

And I mean, as we've addressed a few times over probably the last week, pitching development for the Arizona Diamondbacks is a problem. It's a problem. You have your outliers like Ryan Nelson. You have guys that have found success early on in their careers, but didn't really find consistency like a Brandon Fott or a Drey Jameson. And also you had one of the most experienced pitching coaches in all of Major League Baseball here for a few seasons.

and for some reason that didn't work out either. That wasn't what you felt like we needed. So I do feel like the pitching development is very important at a AAA level. And unfortunately, we're just in a position where being there in Reno, being a part of the PCL definitely impacts our ability to have pitchers, you know, realistically show what their progression is because it's too easy to constantly write off their statistics. to ballpark factors, right? And that's why we try to look past those. We try to look at advanced analytics to, you know, see what's going on. But it's demoralizing and it doesn't help and it doesn't make you feel like you're developing

when you're posting a 6ERA and you still have the coaches telling you everything's fine, right? So, I mean, he definitely might be on to something for sure. Also, tell you something a little secret. But right now, if you are a diehard, by the way, you have early access right now to our Black Friday sale, 30% off running today through Wednesday this week. So this will operate like a discount code. The code will be automatically applied at checkout, but you will not see the discounted price until you're looking at your cart. So go to the merch store. You can find that over where is the merch store at?

Now, Damon, is it? All-City. Merch, is that it? Let me, Fall City store. Yeah, they switched it up on us. You can locate it at go PHNX.com. Go there, find the merch tab, click on it.

It'll take you over to our March store. Yeah, store. Store.orgity network.com. There's that. And again, also, if you are a trader, if you're a turncoat, if you want to go buy merch for your loved ones that root for teams that aren't our beloved Arizona teams, you will have access to CHGOs, PHLYs, DLLS, and our business daddy, DNVR. over there. So go out there, get yourself

some merch. Get your holiday shopping done early. Let's get our holiday shopping done before December and let's just enjoy the month. Let's relax. Let's drink coquito and wear ugly sweaters and have a great time and not stress out about shopping. Get your

shopping done right now over there at our merch store with our early, diehard sale. Also, come have fun with us. We're going to be having a blast on Mill Avenue, courtesy of our friends of Captain Morgan. You can join our P.H.N.E. Sun Devils crew November 28th. Our guys, Totry, Eric Shane, they'll be hosting

a live post game show following the Territorial Cup. Hopefully we keep it in a basement right here in Tempe, Arizona. You can come join them approximately 30 minutes following the final whistle for the special opportunity to witness your favorite Sun Devils podcast in person. And of course, you can join us out there at Locopetron. I didn't even say that part.

Buried the lead. I told my wife we were at Locopetron. She was like, what? Like, we were, I've never been cooler in my wife's mind than with us doing a show at local patron so make sure you join us if you think that's as cool as my wife thinks it is we'll be out there in mill avenue and i'm going to drag her out there to hang out with the kids and stuff she's going to hate it but she'll have so have a great time by the end of the night i promise you guys that all right what else we got in the mailbag damon let's get back to it next question here is from adam fox who wants to know which left-handed pitcher on the debacks

top 30 prospects is most likely to be a long-term member of this team cole drake rich bratt human Lynn or Brandon Garcia. Wow, what a great, great question. Garcia. If I am looking at those four guys right there, Damon, even maybe it's my recency bias. Maybe it's just because we just did the diamond mind about Mitch Bratt. But I'm feeling very strongly about Mitch Brad. I think, I think Mitch Bratt, I mean, again, there's something to be said about all the choices. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not, I'm not going to act like Team Canada had an elite pitching staff during the World Baseball Class right but you go with a 19 year old to face team USA in the world baseball classic yes he got

wrecked yes it did not go for well for him or the team but like I feel like you know that that national team coaching staff saw something in him saw something in him that they felt was good enough at 19 years old to be starting in a game of that importance right I at 19 years old, I don't even want to tell you what I was doing. I don't even want to tell you the mistakes I was making. I certainly was not performing at an elite level for a national baseball team. That's for sure. I think this is a list comprised of some very good young talent. I can't really make a big decision one way or another. As you know, you, Minlin is our baby boy and we love him and we will riot if anything bad happens to him. Brandon Garcia has been incredible as a reliever and I think he's

going to continue to be a part of the Diamondbacks bullpen going forward. But I do think Mitch Bratt has starting pitcher stuff. I think Cole Drake has starting pitcher stuff. And you and Lin, I'm still concerned about like his size overall and how his game would translate over at a major league level. I still want to see him make his debut right. But I'll go with Cole Drake just to be different from you. For sure. But I think I think that if the debacks can get one long term starter out of Cole Drake or Mitch Bratt. That's a successful mission on the Merrill Kelly trade. Huge win. Right. Yeah, absolutely.

We just need one of those two guys to be good, honestly. Right. And I mean, honestly, it could also be David Haggman out of nowhere as well. Totally. Yeah. Any one of those three guys contribute. If you have one of the other guys make it to the bullpen, then we win that trade 100%. Yeah, totally. All right. What else we got? Next question here. Oh, that is the last question. So let me go ahead and change that. Next question is from King Corbin hashtag bring Goldie home. If the Dianbacks bring back Paul Colchman, where could you see him slot it in the lineup? And do you think he should play every day?

I think if they bring back Paul Goldschmidt, he will play far more DH than first base. That's what I think. I think Paul Goldschmidt will play a lot because he will play DH a lot. Yeah. But I don't know. I mean, as far as his bat is concerned, I could definitely see him perhaps hitting in the bottom half of the lineup for sure, perhaps fifth, perhaps sixth.

And I know that that's, you know, again, his numbers weren't great offensively. I do think that if you kind of keep him fresh and keep him to DH, it allow him to be in the lineup more and perhaps for some more pop in his bat. But I think Goldschmidt's value is going to come from being able to play first and DH to stay out there to offer his bat up as much as possible and to also continue to perhaps share with younger guys like Pavin Smith and Tyler Lockley, right? That's going to be the primary focus. But I don't really see him being a major offensive contributor, just somebody who is solid and can be consistent there, maybe a bit more consistency that they were getting out of the

six through nine guys last season because that was definitely a problem for the Diamondbacks in their production. And that, and that goes to for even when Gino and Lordus were part of that as well, extremely streaky at times. And, you know, again, you just weren't getting consistency out of that part of the lineup. But yeah, I don't, I think that once again, at his age and everything, we're not going to see Goldie hitting third or fourth or anything crazy like that. But he could work his way there. It's not to say that it's out of, out of the realm of possibility. I think the only thing that is certain right now is that Catal Marta is going to be hitting first or second.

That's it. Anything else as far as the lineup isn't concerned is still up in the air. All right, what else we got? Next question here comes from Geraldo Prudomo's biggest fan. And again, every time that I read one of these questions, I'm like, debatable. Wait. Debatable. Yeah, that's crazy.

Who do you think is on Marte's five-team no trade list? Do you think that Mariners are on there? Because if I didn't want to go to ghost anywhere and saw how often Mike traded with the Mariners, they'd be first on my list. Yeah, no, I mean. That's kind of a funny question. That's good. I don't think the Mariners are on that list, honestly.

It literally has nothing to do with the organization or the or the team or the city. It's solely because you don't want to leave and you're like, well, shoot, let me think. Like who is I? Who am I likely to be traded? You like trading with the Mariners? It's got to be the Mariners, the Mariners, the Mariners, the Mariners. No, Mariners, no, Marlins. Those two teams.

I'm not going to either one of those. those teams. I'm going to start off with suggesting the first team on his no trade list is the Colorado Rockies. No doubt. I think a team is on every team's no trade list. Right. I think so. Then when you kind of look across baseball, I think Marte would be willing to overlook the fan incident to play for the Cubs, but not for the White Sox. So I'm going to throw the White Sox on there. Also, just because it's a terrible city to live in, I'm going to put the Cleveland Guardian. I think the Guardians would be on there, honestly, because, Because it's not just the city.

It's the fact that they don't pay anybody. Yes. And in the same vein, I would say the Minnesota twins would be on there as well. Maybe. I don't know. It makes it tough. I mean, it's a tough conversation. Because then there's certain guys that are like, my five teams are the Yankees, the Mets.

Like, they don't want to go to big markets, you know? Not saying that's Cattel, but. I don't see that being Cattel. I don't either. But it's like almost a. It's a, it's an. It's an impossible task to come up with. Maybe the angels?

They would be on my no trade list. I don't think the angels are on there. It's the Los Angeles, right? Yeah. So, Cal. I don't care. I care how bad your baseball team is. Look, I lived in Puerto Rico, and I barely spoke enough Spanish to be attending a private school that I was going to school at my sophomore year.

The only solace I took was getting to go to the beach every day after school. That's the only thing that kept me going. That's the only thing that made me wake up and get up. Laguna is a stones throw away. Yeah, exactly. At the same time, the angels are a team that, you know, Anthony Rendon made a lot of money in that organization. It's true. Albert Poole's, you know, was collecting checks.

That's true. Mike Trouts made a lot. They don't, they pay people. They just didn't pay Otani. They just don't pay the rest of the team. Correct. Yeah. They pay stars.

I think, yeah, let's go. Let's go Rockies, White Sox, Guardians. What about the A's? How do you feel about the A's? Oh, definitely the A's. And Tampa Bay. And Tampa Bay. The A's in Tampa Bay are on every single player's no trade.

Yeah, I just, and I can't help but feel like the royals might sneak in there. Like, that's a team. The whole AL Central is a dump. It's a dump. And Slugger's head is weird. Like, I don't like the fact that he's not wearing a crown. I hate the fact that his head is just crown shaped. It's weird.

It's weird, Damon. Lions don't have crown-shaped heads. All right. Let's get one more in. And then we've got to get out here. We're taking up too much of these people's fine time. Last question here is from Jarmi, who wants to know as the 2026 N-N-Hell West, slowly take shape.

What can we expect our division sisters team to do this off season? And how does that play into the D-BACs plans? I don't want to call them our sister teams. I don't ever want to do that ever again, Jason. I'm sorry. I hate that and it makes me want to, but I will say I'm worried about the direction

the Rockies are going a little bit, just a little bit, not a lot. And I'm thankful for the way that the Padres are going. I think the Padres are slipping down. I think the Rockies are coming up, but they are so far buried below. the earth, that it's going to take them a miracle for them to see daylight once again. So those two things, I think, are fine and good for the Diamondbacks.

I don't love the Giants getting better. And I think the Giants are not only already a good core with what they did in 2025, but I think that they're going to be active in the free agent market and in trades. And they are once again going to improve that team again. And they were already pretty good. So I'm worried about that. And of course, you always have to be worried about the Dodgers. Like we said, it disgusts me what they were able to do with the roster that they had

and the problems that they had with their bullpen. And they're only going to go out this offseason and address those problems and get better. I guess the only hope there is that once again, they spend their money on guys that don't deliver and maybe just maybe they can somehow be handicapped that they would be down here with the rest of us, plebs trying to just have a winning record, you know. But again, it's just such a tough division that before this season even starts, all you can really do is hope for a wildcard spot. And that part sucks.

That part definitely sucks. I don't foresee the Diamondbacks doing enough this off season to cause them to be a competitor with the Dodgers for the division title once again. I think hopefully we can do enough to see this team be a contender for a playoff spot. And as we know, anything can happen once you get into those yoffs. I mean, in the spirit of that question, I wanted to ask you, Derek, did you see the EMI news today? I did not see the EMI news.

Let me find you his direct quote here in regards to a team that he may or may not have interest in this offseason. You might like to hear this, Derek. Tantalize me. Tatsuya Emi, when asked about playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, I want to beat them. Beating a team like that and becoming world champions would be the most valuable thing in my life. Imi also prefers not to sign with the team that already has Japanese players. Oh, hello.

Welcome to the Arizona Diamondbacks Tzuya. My. Diamondback. I will come pick you up at the airport personally. I also think that I think the Diamondbacks could be in on that. I also think that the Giants and the Padres are going to be at the top of that guy's list when it comes to teams he'll be interested in as well. Giants have Japanese players, though. They do. Or they have a Korean player.

The Korean players, yeah. That's right. I think that though, I mean, the Padres do have, why am I, you Darvish. That's right. No, so like it's like, he's lost for the year, though, I think. He's still on the team. He is still on the team. Yes, for sure, for sure. I mean, it, listen.

I'm excited about this. I'm excited. I don't know if that last thing actually means anything. It does. It means everything to me. But I do think the debacks should be involved. and I think that if that's truly how he feels, you can sell that to him and say, we want to up our standing with the Japanese community? Yes, please, Derek, please pull that wallet.

Let's go. And say, we want to have a Japanese player. We want to market that. We want you to help us beat the Dodgers. I love it. I have 54 American dollars in my wallet. All I'm saying is, is that if we all pulled together at least $50 times, what, 43,000 people for one sellout at Chase Field,

we are at least helping the team. We're at least contributing is all I'm saying. So we'll get that go fund me going. We'll do whatever we have to do. Yeah. I mean, does that fire you up? I'll start a tree planting company and I will make him my CEO. Aspirations, Inc.

Whatever we got to do to make this contract happen. All right. See, by the way, the Dodgers are 100% doing stuff like that behind the closed doors. Like, that's a fact. But I, I, God bless Pablo Torre. I saw him give the answer to why he does what he does. And he just said simply that the rich and powerful don't really want us to know the truth about certain things. And that might be more true than ever right now in sports.

Right. So it is important for us to be learning the truth behind these situations. And quite frankly, if the Dodgers are doing it and it's legal, get down on it, Diamondbacks. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I'm saying play on an equal ground. If they're deferring payments, we need to deferring. payments, whatever we need to do to figure it out.

I would say that IMAI would also be interested in the Mariners, but I don't know if they would be with how good their pitching staff is. Like, is that the kind of money that they're shelling out to after signing Naylor and everything to get another pitcher in the building? That would seem a little bit of a misuse of resources from their standpoint, unless they made a big trade with a pitcher. But I don't know. We got to get them out here right now.

Get them actually get them out here in February. Get them out here when the weather is nice. and let him like really soak it in and tell him like this is winter here and maybe he'll just love the weather enough to stick around don't tell him what happens in june though all right well we love you guys we thank you for sticking around for an extra extra long episode of this show we appreciate you as always we'll be back tomorrow at 12 p m until then make sure to follow us on twitter i am at cap underscore caveman with a k damon is at damon dog with a da wg as always we're all damon's dogs bark bark our show is at p h nx underscore D-backs, but as always all rosely to at P-HNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, behave yourselves, Jason, who just got here late, and do the rest of you. Thank you for being on time. I'm just joking, Jason. We love you. We appreciate you for being here. And of course, have a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves all of you and remember kids. Baseball is fun,

but it's so much more fun when the free agent market is flooded with players.