PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Per report, Dansby Swanson almost became the Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop of the future again

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports, the Arizona Diamondbacks made a “substantial offer” to shortstop Dansby Swanson that was not far off from the deal he ultimately signed with the Chicago Cubs. Should the Diamondbacks have pulled the trigger? Meanwhile, the D-backs reportedly brought back Zach Davies on a one-year contract.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Join us at the Inaugural PHNX Tee Party, presented by Four Peaks Brewing Co., at Dobson Ranch Golf Course! We are renting out the entire driving range! Come hang with us for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Our PHNX Suns crew will be hosting a watch party for the Suns vs. Timberwolves. Check out https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-tee-party-presented-by-four-peaks-brewing-co-tickets-482724852027 to reserve your spot right now! DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY),If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visitccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI /NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN OH/ONT. Eligibility restrictionsapply. Free bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. $200 issued as free bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms. No Sweat: Valid 1 offer per customer per day of NFL 2023 Wild Card Round. Opt in req each day. First bet must lose after opting in. NFL bets only. Paid as one (1) free bet based on amount of initial losing bet. Max $10 free bet awarded.Free bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/footballterms.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNX_SPORTS15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comLiquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome into the PHNX D-BAC show brought to you by the Draf King Sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. My name is Jesse Friedman. I am the thunderstick, the vice mayor, around here. And I'm joined by these two goofballs today. Jacob Franklin and Sean DePaz both here together. I've only ever done a show with one of you at a time. No, we've done one before together.

We definitely have done one together. Only one at a time. No, no. All three of us, I think all three. Yeah, because we had this situation before we had to switch seats because Jacob was too tall and he got blocked by the- I know Derek did one with you guys. I don't think I did. I think that.

I think that would have been Derek. It was in the winter meetings. I think. Yeah. That was two dads and a dude. Yes, he's got a forgettable face. Right. Makes sense.

Two dudes in a dad. Just kidding. Jesse doesn't have a forgettable face. Thank you, Jacob. Appreciate that. Anyway, we're here talking about a pretty crazy report that came out. yesterday about the Arizona Diamondbacks. Apparently, old friend, Dansby Swanson, almost returned to the Arizona Diamondbacks,

almost being, I used that term loosely. We don't know exactly how close the Diamondbacks were to bringing him back. But if we can pull up the tweet from Gambo at Gambo 987, John Gambadoro on Twitter, said the Diamondbacks still have some money to spend in free agency. They were in on Dansby Swanson and did make him a substantial offer a few weeks ago, an offer very competitive with what he ended up. signing with the Chicago Cubs when he agreed to a seven-year $177 million deal. Jacob, what do we think?

I mean, is it a better positive sign that they might be willing to spend a little bit of money? I think so. Now, I don't know. I might be in the minority here. Like, Danesby Swanson's a good baseball player, but I think, I don't know if Dancy B Swanson is a game changer. Like, in my opinion, I just, would it have been nice to have him, sure, but am I sad that they didn't lock themselves into a contract that I'm not entirely sure is going to work out.

That's fair. I mean, Dansby Swanson is not, like, he's not Zander Bogartz. He's not, he's not, he's not Tray Turner or Carlos Correa. Like, he definitely falls in a different class here. But, I mean, you look at his numbers from last year. Honestly, I was kind of mind-blown to find that he had 5.7 war, according to baseball reference, and 6.4, according to fan graphs. Those are some really big numbers.

Like, that's not a pretty good player. that's like a borderline elite player frankly if you look at his offensive numbers last year 277 329 447 those numbers don't really scream elite player they're pretty good for a shortstop the counting numbers were good 25 homers 96 RBIs he played all 162 games last year for the Atlanta Braves so there's certainly something to be said for that Sean what do you what do you think here is this is this a miss opportunity for the

debacks I don't think so I'm with Jacob kind of that for me this was more just encouraging that they at least showed signs that they're willing to spend money. Yeah. I don't. I'm glad honestly they didn't sign Swanson. I think doing it right now on a shortstop is not the move I would have made. But my, my biggest takeaway from this is like, oh, they're actually like, they're getting ready to spend money.

Hopefully they keep that energy because I think next year they'll be in a better position to actually make moves like this. Because I mean, as, as Brett's in the chat, De Bex of the Kings of, we were interested. and active within this player and not signing them. It's cool and you could get hopeful about it, but they actually have to make moves eventually. So I'm kind of right there with Jacob that I'm glad that this move ultimately didn't go through while also being encouraged by the sign

that they are willing to spend money. I'd like to point out what Raider Hawks says in the chat here. He says, I guess they're losing faith in Lawler's defense. And I think that was one of the biggest indications for me there because you heard that they were in on Bogart's. and now you hear that they were in on Dansby, which to me, because I think all three of us might be on the same page here

that we think Lawler is kind of in the position that Corby and Carroll was last year where you might see him by the end of the year. Possible. Yeah, I think so. And this to me was kind of signaling a flag that it's like, okay, maybe he's not our shortstop of the future. We still like him.

We can move him to third. Sure. So let's go out and find a defensive shortstop that hits at an almost elite level and see if we can fill that hole and move Lauer over to third base. Yeah, I think like, it is a good point. I mean, I think with Xander Bogarts, with that rumor, you could make the case that like, oh, Zander Bogarts is, you know, he hasn't always been very highly touted as a shortstop.

Maybe Sean, you can speak to that, having watched a fair number of Red Sox games over the years. He had a really good year defensively this past season, at least according to some of the defensive metrics, but it's not necessarily something he's always been very good at according to the metrics. metrics. Dansby Swanson, I think, is in kind of a different class. He had 20 outs above average last year at shortstop, which is really an insane number. You're not going to bring in Dansby Swanson for six or seven years and expect him to play, you know, second base or third base or something. You're bringing in Dansby Swanson to play shortstop probably for at least the first several years of that contract. So I do think it's a fair question that, you know, maybe the Diamondbacks

don't have a whole lot of belief that Jordan Lawler will stick at shortstop long term. And we talked about it a little bit yesterday on the show when this rumor first came out. Maybe you kind of just, you know, kick the can down the road. Like you're not too worried about, you know, how the positions shake out in the long term. Those things have a way of kind of working themselves out. The point is Danube Swanson is a really good player. And the Diamondbacks certainly, certainly had a chance to get him. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, anybody interested in a little Javi Bayes action, next year? I know. Too many strikeouts. Can't do it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

all of your bias is just not a very good player. No, I know. He's just not really that good of baseball anymore. Talk about contracts. Yeah,

but it's going to be interesting. And something I brought up on, on TPSP earlier, like, if you are in a position where, like, you think, because it's,

if you're making a move like this, that signifies to me that you think you are closer to winning than I think the public does. Yeah. If you think you're in that position, make a move of the trade. deadline. I just feel like

doing that now before you know that you're in the position for that move, you'll be worth it. Am I crazy for thinking this team is over 500 team as it sits? No, yeah, I think not. I mean, yeah, 84, 85 wins is what we're projected for on Zips, which is

crazy. I mean, I don't know if people are necessarily going to buy into that just yet. I think there's a period of time here where the debacks are going to need to prove themselves before anyone's going to be locking them in for an 84, 85 win season. But, yeah, I think to what you were talking about earlier, Jacob, just like the debacks apparently have some money of some sort. Somewhere in some way.

Everyone saw out, King Kendry's like, oh, yeah, like, I've got some cash. Right, right. He got a Christmas present. He got money for Christmas. He got a big Christmas present if he sold the team. The Christmas present was the selling of Bamtech, right? Apparently every big league franchise made about $30 million dollars off the back. His big Christmas present would be selling the team.

There was a report that we talked about. a couple days ago, which honestly wasn't a report. Gambo became the Reaper again. Yeah, Gambo did what he's famous for doing in the Arizona sports scene is shutting down, you know, everything that everyone wants. But yeah, it looks like there's nothing to the Diamondbacks possibly being for sale, at least not at this point. But yeah, it does speak to this team maybe having some money to spend.

Sean, Mani Machado next offseason potentially. Listen, I'm a Mani Machado fan. I like Mani Machado a lot. It's not the guy you want around a bunch of young impressionable guys. I feel like, see, I feel like he has kind of done a 180 in his, like, I feel like he is a better person than people think he is because of how he acted when he was younger. Sure. And that's very possible. He came in the league when he was 19 years old.

I'm a big fan of Mani Machado. So that'd be interesting. I don't know what kind of money that man is going to be looking for. So I don't know about it in that. regard, but just on its face, the idea of Mani Machado. A lot. Yeah. So on its face, the idea of Mani Wichotto being an Arizona downback is fun, but I don't know.

I don't know if I wanted to spend that. It's a bit of a pipe dream, admittedly. Mani Machado is still very, very good. Hey, someone mentioned in the chat, Carlos Correa still isn't signed a contract anymore. So the defects are going to swoop in and get Carlos Crayas. I would say, I wouldn't hate it. As long as he's actually healthy. But I just.

They would have to double what they were offering Dansby. It's wild to me that like nobody is saying that this issue with Carlos Correa is going to really hurt him in the near term. Like this seems to be something that, you know, four or five, six years down the road. That's really what teams are concerned about here. Carlos Correa, like this, this leg, this lower right leg issue hasn't bothered him for years. So it still blows my mind that, you know, it's been more than a week since this contract was reported with the New York Mets. and we still have no developments on that front. But yeah, Carlos created the debacks.

A little far-fetch. I bet you can get them on a bargain now. I mean, you scoop in there, four years, $100 million. He's damaged goods now. See what happens? Yeah, I don't think so. The devx do have some payroll flexibility moving forward. However, of course, after 2023, you have both Nick Ahmed and Mark Malanson coming off the books,

as well as a number of, you know, one-year contracts. the debacks just signed. One of them being Zach Davies, we'll get into him a little bit more later on. Madison Bumgarner, of course, that contract will be up at the end of 2024. There's still $37 million there. It was an $85 million contract.

The T-backs have hardly reached the halfway point of the amount of money that they're going to spend on Madison Bumgarner, which is kind of crazy, considering that we don't exactly know, we don't exactly know what his role in the starting rotation is going to close. Make them a closer.

No. If you aren't signing Shantaro Fujimami to be your closer next year, I don't know what you're doing. No, make him closer now. There's quite a bit of risk there. I know. I mean, the guy pitched in the Japanese equivalent of the minor leagues last year for a not insignificant number of games. But he did pitch well while he was pitching with the NPB. So who knows?

Other than that, we have, according to roster resource, we just look at the Diamondbacks overall payroll situation. right now. Their payroll currently sits at about $113 million, which from the DBAX perspective might really be about $1.17 because they have to factor in the bonuses included for Zach Davies and Evan Longoria. That's a decent number. At the beginning of the offseason, we were looking at this team and saying like, well, they already are on the hook for $100 million to just basically bring back the exact same team that they had before. And we kind of wondered, you know, is there actually lot of room to add here, you know, what exactly is the front office working with. And it seems

like the debacks have had some money to work with here. We did talk about 115 to 120, something in that range being plausible. And that kind of seems like that's what's going to happen. Yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's kind of where they sit for a while. Like, until you start seeing them extend their younger players, like what we've been calling for them to do, to follow in the footsteps of Alex Anthopoulos and just start throwing out contracts for guys that are 22, 23 years old. I don't expect that number to move, though, very out. In the near future, I think that's kind of what they're going to sit at.

Yeah, I mean, they clearly show that they were ready to spend more. So I'm not ready to put anything past the Diamondbacks yet. Because, I mean, you come into this off season, I was not expecting them to be this active in the shortstop market. Yeah. So, I mean, it appears to be something that they have a lot of interest in improving. So who knows if they, I mean, we were joking about the, Carl's Correa, I think, but who knows if they are actually going to try and improve it still.

But, yeah, I don't, if I had to guess, it's not going to be much different than that number right there. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. Like, I mean, if maybe if the Diamondbacks had gotten Danesby Swanson, you know, maybe they, maybe they don't get Evan Longoria or they don't get Zach Davies or, you know, maybe that causes cuts elsewhere. But there's no way to, you know, bring in Danesby Swanson and not wind up with a payroll, you know, 130, 135, something like that. So apparently there was some room to add here if this report is in fact true. And if the Diamondbacks, you know, were actually able to pull the trigger on something like that. Next off season, I guess it's not just Mani Machado. You also have Julio Urias will hit free agency at 27.

The man is going to get paid because not that many starting pitchers who were that good. Julio slide through. He is an excellent, excellent young starting pitcher. I'd rather have Zach Allen. That's fair. That's fair. And I mean, to what Raider Hawk media said in the comments, the debacks must

start extending their younger players. There's a case to be made here that like the best way to spend your money if you do have this money available for guys like Bogart's or Danes v. Swanson, the best way to spend that money might just be bring back Zach Allen.

Oh, thank you. I finally got to a long-term extension, right? I don't know. I mean, honestly, I think bringing back Zach Allen might be a matter of waiting until he hits free agency and bringing him back at that point. But you could at least try, right? One way or another. But I think that's sort of where the debacks have to go here, right? Yeah, I mean, that just seems to be the trend, right?

If you want to compete in a world where the Padres and the Mets and the Dodgers are dropping $800 million in an offseason, you've got to start spending some money. But in the organization that you're in right now, you're probably. best suited on being really good at drafting, which they seem to be right now. Yeah. Last few years, last few years, it at least looks good so far. There's obviously, you know, when you rely on your drafting ability, there's obviously risk that comes with that, right? Like, you don't, baseball is such a crapshoot. You could get an MVP candidate in the 10th round, and you could pick first overall and find yourself somebody that never plays in the big leagues, right? So that's the danger. But if you draft

a kid and two years later, you're seeing him in their major leagues and he's made. making a huge impact. I mean, you at least have to go out on the limb and try. Yeah. I feel like at this point, the Braves set the example. And I feel like you're foolish not to try and imitate them to the extent that you can. That being said, I don't want them to get overzealous because with like a Jake McCarthy, for example, I've been pretty clear that I am nervous about him and that I wanted him to be the outfielder to go just because of his.

Interesting. expecting that expected batting average and all that kind of stuff yeah i mean the expected batting average for all of the outfield was not was not as good they were all over batting average yeah but um like i just don't i don't want then because like there's a situation where they they get overzealous they try to be the the braves and now they're locked into a bunch of bad contracts right um so i they need to exercise a little bit of caution in that regard but i do think that is probably the way to go because like i said with the dansy sponson thing i i do not think right now is the time to make that move yeah And I agree with Jacob that it's probably much better to secure these young guys.

So you actually have a foundation. You might swing and miss. Yeah. That's the truth, right? You might swing and miss. The Braves might swing and miss too. They've got a ton of contracts that's still a bunch of unproving guys. They've extended a lot of players for a lot of years.

Right. They wait for one good year, right? Essentially. I mean, in some cases, not even one full year. Right. But at least. I mean, they haven't even had Sean Murphy play a game for them. Yeah.

I mean, he's at least play. I mean, he's been a big leaguer for a while, right? It's not like what they did with Michael Harris. But it's almost kind of like what happened with Paul Goldschmidt, right? Yeah. So like Paul Goldschmidt comes up in the big leagues. The year after he gets called up, he, I think if I remember correctly, he was a serviceable baseball player that hit somewhere in the realm of 250. 250. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, that was his first year. Yeah, yeah. I believe. So he hit 290, 20 home runs in 82 RBI. And they were like, okay, we need to extend this guy now before he, you know, we deal with the whole, wait for arbitration, take some battles. They extend him for like five years, $32 million.

Yeah, it was absolutely absurd. And that was quite possibly one of the best contracts that's ever been given out from an Arizona team because two out of those five years, he was probably the number one candidate for an MVP award. Maybe not the Bryce Harper year. I think he got kind of snubbed by Andrew McCutcheon that season.

Yes, yes. That narrative will never die in Arizona, that's for sure. So, I mean, but you got an MVP caliber player. for that whole contract. Right. And it would have been worth the gamble. Like even if Paul Goldschmidt had just been that same guy that he was in 2012. 290 with 20 home runs and 82 RBI.

You would have probably been okay with that too. So, yeah. And in my story for diehards last week, I took a look at the outcome of every top 100 prospect of D-BACs have ever had in the history of the franchise. And, yeah, on it, the results, if you've gotten a chance to check out the story, if you're a diehard. The results are not great. But what was fascinating to me

is that Paul Goldschmidt's not even on the list. He was never a top 100 prospect, at least not according to baseball America. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody, nobody saw it coming. Whereas with a lot of the young guys, the feedbacks have now, they have been on these prospect lists. They have been highly touted.

It's just a matter of taking that next step. I could see a scenario where at the end of 2023, we're coming back here and we're saying, okay, these are the guys you need to extend. You've seen enough now from, you know, Alec Thomas or Jake McCarthy or Corporateau, whoever it is. These are the guys that you need to extend and need to, you know, get the ball moving on that front and try to spend your money in a way that can keep the

core together, which, which what we've been saying and what I think a lot of people in our audience have been saying, too, is we want to keep these players. We don't want to see. Yeah, we don't want to see, you know, these guys come up here and be so good and then walk, you know, once they hit free agents. and that's the end of the story. I might be in a minority here, but it just feels like watching this team play.

Like they might be lacking some power, I think, across the lineup, right? Like, Christian Walker is going to get his fair share of home run. There's no Dalton Varshow. They're going to be missing a little bit of power. But I might be in the minority when I say that, like, last year, I had more fun watching them kind of link together those eight or nine run innings when it was just like single,

double, triple, double. Yeah. They're just, like, it starts with some, like, Corwin Carroll getting on base. and stealing second base. Like, it was one of those, like, as soon as somebody was on base, you just felt like something good was going to happen. Yeah.

Because they just put so much pressure on in such a small ball, like, type of play that I think that was more fun than just watching a guy who hits 40 home runs and strikes out on her 60 times a year. I would not mind seeing someone hit 40 home runs. No. Yeah, no, I'm with you. Like the Diamondbacks were watching the Diamondbacks last year and is saying this is someone who grew up as a Red Sox fan

and watched them win three world two. Some of the most fun I've ever had watching baseball. Like, yeah. Watching just like the young guys run all over the ballpark was enjoyable to me. So, yeah, the power might be lacking a little bit, but I don't think the downbackers are going to be any less fun to watch necessarily. Yeah. Sean, you ready for the tea party?

Week from tomorrow. I've been ready for the tea party. Been ready. Join us. If you haven't already heard about it, honestly, don't know how you possibly could not have heard about it. We tell you about it. Every single day you've been hearing about this for like two weeks.

But we're going to tell you about it again because if you haven't already signed up, you need to do that. Join us at the inaugural PHNXT party presented by our friends over at four peaks. That is happening at Dobson Ranch Golf Course next Friday, Friday the 13th. Makes me a little bit nervous about it, frankly, but I'm getting over it. We are renting out the entire driving range over at Dobson Ranch golf course. Come hang with Big Drive Energy, the PhNX crew, and fellow, diehards for night of golf, free food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Our P.HNX

Suns crew will be, our troubled pH and Xunx Suns crew will be hosting a watch party for the Suns versus Timberwolves. They're quite depressed right now. Just that that basketball team continues to struggle. Four Peaks will also be out there providing beer, samples, and swag. Check the link in the description to reserve your spot right now. And for our diehards, check Discord for your special link where you'll save 20% off on this awesome event. Sean, I've been talking up my ping pong abilities quite a bit. Is there any trash talk you would like to put out there before. I'm like a ping pong match.

I am like an okay ping pong player, so I have to see what kind of game you have. That's not one of those things that I'm like, we're confident in. I'm still ready to play. I'm still and I'm going to come and win. We're doing like a shootout, like some sort of a basketball shooting thing. Shot of glory. Shot of glory. If you're a if you're a.

The waste management fan on the Wednesday Pro Am, they do this thing called The Shot of Glory Wednesday evening. It's where all of the celebrities that took place in the Pro Am event, they all get together on 16, and they, like, for charity, see who can get closest to the whole winner gets X amount or whatever. Yeah, we're not doing that at all. I think it's just a three-point contest. Okay, okay. Well, I'm glad we know what it's inspired by. It's a half-court shot. It might be a half-court shot.

You might be correct. Oh, okay. Half court shot. There you go. I made a couple of those in my day. Oh, all right. Gabriel says Jesse needs to be humbled, which, you know, I have talked to talk. We'll see if I can walk the walk here.

I just got killed in the real shot at Glory last year. There's video evidence to prove that. Dude in front of me, poor man might not be having kids anymore. Oh, no. Friday night, next Friday night, we'll also be a great night to take advantage of our friends over at OGs. Check out their new CBD, THC, happy balance ratio flavor, Strawberries and Cream.

As always, you can find them at your local dispensary. It must be 21 plus to enjoy. Have we tried this strawberries and cream thing? Not yet, but I am highly anticipating it. Strawberries and cream or like a strawberry shortcake thing is one of my favorite desserts. Like, yeah, no, I'm very looking forward to trying it. There you go. So, like I said, as always, you can find them at your local dispensary.

must be 21 plus to enjoy. Zach Davies returning to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a one-year contract worth $5 million with $3 million in incentives, which appears to be based on the number of games that he starts. I've also seen from a couple of different sources that there's a mutual option for 2024, which was not initially reported yesterday.

The backs haven't officially announced this move yet. So those official details are still to come, but it does look like there's a $5.5 million mutual option in place for 2024 as well. Of course, the debacks also had a mutual option on the deal that brought Zach Davies here last year. So this is sort of a similar construction of a contract for Davies. Jacob, initial thoughts. Think what you want about Zach Davies, the person. But Zach Davies, the pitcher last year, had a 394 ERA before he went out with a shoulder injury.

was a great piece at the four spot of the rotation. Like, there's not really much else that needs to be said other than he showed flashes of being a really, really decent piece at the back end of a rotation. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm out with it. It doesn't really move the needle much for me either way, but it's a good solid spot at the back of the rotation. And if he can, I mean, if, obviously there's a lot of,

I guess, not questions about what the rotation will look like, but a lot of flexibility with what the rotation can look like. like if he can be a solid, like you can trust him to not, maybe not win you games, but not lose you games. Sure. I will take that at this on the contract. I also think it's really smart that they're able to kind of keep him in the rotation and ease in Dre Jameson and Ryan Nelson.

Sure. You got to look at at the end of last year. It's easy to say, oh my God, they were so good. Yeah, I mean, they each had like a 1.5 ERA. Yeah, they looked phenomenal. So one of them should start on opening day, right? Yeah. So I think this is much, much better.

for them, give them some time with Strom to work out a few things that he might have seen last season that he didn't like. You know, even if you feel the need to let them alternate or if you feel somebody has the edge, give them the fifth spot. We're kind of overlooking Tommy Henry in that whole regard. Like people have just kind of forgotten about him, I guess, in the mix. Yeah. For, you know, if Madbubbom goes down, he's your only left-handed starter.

So where are you going to get another one? Because you can't just go five straight righties. You have to change the... I mean, you could. You could, but you got a little weird. It's a little weird. You could. If they're all good, if they all throw gas and they all have a one, one, one, five, why not?

If they're your five best starters, then I think that's probably just what you do. We tweeted out earlier today, just kind of a list of all of the Diamondbacks rotation options that they have after making this move. You can see that here on your screen. Zach Allen, Merrill Kelly, of course, those are your number one, number two starters. Then you have Zach Davies slotting in. You've also got Madison Bumgarner. Madison Bumgarner, of course. We're not totally sure what to expect.

Mike Hazen was asked at the end of the season, whether Madison Bumgarner had a guaranteed spot in the rotation. He kind of danced around the question. That contract says he does. You think, you know, Hazen talked about how an incumbency probably matters. Those were his exact words, but he also talked about how, you know, they've upped the level of performance in the rotation

and at least up the level of competition. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see. We'll see what happens with Bumgarner. And then, of course, as you mentioned, Drey Jameson, Ryan Nelson, Tommy Henry, Brandon Fott, a guy we've talked a lot about recently. Fott led all of minor league baseball in the strikeouts last year and put up pretty bonkers numbers at AAA Reno. You figure he's right on the doorstep.

Tyler Gilbert is still in the organization. Had an elbow issue at the end of last year, so he would need to bounce back from that. You also have Corbyn Martin, who is on the 40-man roster, but it's a little bit unclear what sort of what his future holds at this point. Sean, when you look at this list, is it impressive? Is it kind of me? What do we think of? I think it's, I feel like it's just a microcosm of the debacks in general.

It's like, there's hope. There's hope. There's, I think, two guys there. There's some things that could go right. Yeah, there's two guys there who are clearly like you're expecting big things from. Yeah. And outside of that, it's like, okay, you're hoping Zach Davies could at least be, I guess what he was last year.

Yeah, serviceable. And if he gets hurt, you have a plethora. And you're hoping that someone makes it so you don't have to play Madison Boggarner. Or that Madison Boggarner somehow figures it out and it's good again. But I just think there's hope and potential there, especially with some of those young guys that it would be exciting. But I don't think it's like, I'm not looking at it right now. I'm being like, this is one of the best rotations in baseball. No.

But I think there's pieces there where at the end of the year you can be pleasantly surprised with how well the rotation performed. Think about what could be if Madison Bumgarner somehow returns to a semi form of his old self. That'd be nice. That'd be very nice. I mean, one through three, even if Mad Bum is not, you know, 100% 2012, 2014 Mad Bum. Right. Like, even if he gives you a 3-7 and he wins you 13, 14 games. That would be huge, honestly.

Yeah. You might have the best one through-Zer. If Madison Bungarner had a 3.70 already. I would be. I would. Deepak's probably going to win the World Series. I'll get a jersey. I'll get a tattoo on my back.

I don't like it. Bad? I would, no, not bad. I would be, I would be floored if that happened. And hopefully they sell high at the trade deadline and get rid of them so we don't have to. Somebody might be willing to take on a two-year $36 million contract if he looks good.

Yeah. And I mean, I wouldn't say it's totally impossible that something like that could happen. Like we talked about a lot last year, the issue with Bumgarner. wasn't really the stuff, like the movement numbers, the velocity was pretty similar from some of his best days in San Francisco. He just wasn't hitting his spots, frankly, and that seemed to, you know, if you don't have overpowering stuff, which Bumgarner never really has and you're not hitting your spots, it's not going to go well for you in the long run. I look back at the

Dback stats from last year in the starting rotation, and I was particularly interested in trying to figure out how many starters they used over the course of the year. They used. They used. He just 14. They had 14 different pitchers start games in 2020. One of them, I think, was Kyle Nelson, which was like a goofy spot start situation or something like that. But all that to say, like when thinking about the rotation for 2023, you can't just think about one through five.

You have to think about who's number six, who's seven, who's eight, who's nine, who's even like 10 in beyond. Injuries are inevitable. Injuries are absolutely inevitable. And for a team like the Diamondbacks that has so many young guys who could be great, but also could really struggle. Yeah, yeah, right. You should just have a 10-man starting rotation.

Change the look every day. But no, I mean, there's some serious, like, there's a lot of volatility in the different outcomes that could happen. And I think the Diamondbacks would be wise to try to make sure that they have a good amount of depth there. And the Zach Davies move seems to do that. He just gives them a little bit more stability. Maybe he's not, you know, winning them games necessarily.

he was about a league average pitcher last year. But I do think it makes a lot of sense for them in the long run. If we think about this offseason as a whole for the Diamondbacks, just kind of thinking big picture here. You sign Miguel Castro and Scott McGuff for the bullpen. High upside. There's some upside there. Castro is bizarre where he throws 98 miles an hour

and has this really nasty sweeping slider and yet had a four ERA for the Yankees. And it's kind of unclear exactly. He pitched in a toy ballpark. Yeah. Because he pitched for a cursed franchise. That's a joke. And Sean's unbiased opinion. Completely unbiased.

Miguel Castro, the issue there seems to be that a sinker, when guys hit the sinker, they're just doing insane amounts of damage. That was kind of my initial findings on him. So nonetheless, still a solid arm, a guy that you can sort of count on. He's relatively well established. Like I said, Scott McGuff. DeBack signed him. of course he'll be coming over from overseas,

put up some really good numbers as a closer. Evan Longoria and Zach Davies, neither of these moves have been officially announced, but we've talked about them quite a bit at this point. And then, of course, the big trade, Dalton Varshow to the Toronto Blue Jays for Gabby Moreno and Lordus Gariel Jr. And then the debacks also traded Cooper Hummel

for Kyle Lewis earlier in the offseason. There were some other smaller moves. They got Carlos Vargas from the Cleveland Guardians, traded a minor leaguer. They got Diego Castillo from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jacob, on the whole, how do we feel about what this Diamondbacks team has done this off season? I think it's a pretty successful off season. I know people are going to be disappointed that they're like, oh, we didn't spend a bunch of money, we didn't get Dan's B, we didn't get Zander.

Did you see the contract that Zander got? Yeah. Also, you weren't expecting them to even be the, even be the in on those guys. You thought they were going to be. You were like, no, we shouldn't do that. And then they were like, D-Backs for interest. You're like, yeah, we should do that. We should do that.

But no, I mean, all in all, I think they made the moves that they needed to make. I think there's still some help needed in the bullpen. But you also could look internally for some of that. There's some guys that, you know, we didn't see J.B. Bukascus last year. I don't know if that was because after his injury, they didn't really like what they saw. Yeah. Or if they just were reserving him another year to kind of get him some reps in the minors and pull him up this year. Yeah.

A guy that I'm going to be really tracking his progress through the minor leagues this year is Landon Sims when he's back from injury. I know he's going to start low, but I think he's one of those guys that you could see him move up the ranks really, really fast. You might not see him this year, but that's definitely a guy you could be looking at for like your closure of the future. Craig Kimbril comparisons? Yes. I mean, I hate it when they do that. Player-ups? But the dude's a straight baller.

Just like player comps are fine, but Craig Kimbril player comps for, I don't know, for a guy in college. That's a little bit longer. Dude's a straight baller, like it struck out of just a boatload of guys. Yeah, he really did. Just a boatload. Yeah. I don't know how you can't be pleased by the offseason so far. Like I did, I think like Jacob said, there's still stuff to be done.

But they so far have done, I think, like I love the, I love the bar show trade. Like I love that trade for the debacks. I love Lordus Curiel. And obviously he's like kind of the piece B. to that trade. So I love that trade. I think the Kyle Lewis trade is just, it's fun. Like, it's a nice little thing.

And I think it's like, Shane Diefenbach is convinced that Kyle Lewis getting 45 homers. But I mean, I think it's another like high upside move. So I'm super pleased with that. I think I think I was so focused on the bullpen coming into this year or coming into the off season that they've done things. They've obviously done like a couple of things for the bullpen. But the stuff they had done outside of the bullpen has been like a, I guess, nice little pleasant surprise for me.

and I also like as like just from like a casual perspective the fact that they're getting names that people know like even though he was not like he is what he is but like Kyle Lewis people know that name yeah Evan Longoria like Gavin Moreno is like a big prospect

Lordus Uriel like maybe just because of his hair and he got a brother that's won a couple world series but people know who that is like it I think these trades have also done a little bit to get DBAX fans excited about the DBAX which I think is a pretty valuable part of offseason edition. So I am,

I'm very pleased with it so far. Rader Hawks says Justin Martinez can be a decent closer. Justin Martinez is definitely another name to keep an eye on. Yeah, I still say throw Madison back there. So as it stands right now,

is Mark Mlanson still your closer? I don't know, honestly. I don't think so. I think Mike Hayes in after, I think the Scott McGuff signing said that he was asked, like, is it most likely a closer by committee

or something like that at this point or a spring competition and Hazen basically said, yeah, probably a spring competition of some sort. He talked about how Tori Lavello likes to have a closer, whereas the front office is maybe a little bit more open to having that roll float around a little bit. But yeah, I think it's likely that Tori Lavello will want a closer going into opening day. I hate closure by committee.

Yeah, I'm not a fan. I think there's a valid case to be made for that. But yeah, it is a little hard looking at this roster. Like who who's going to be that guy? Like, are you relying on Scott McGuff coming from, you know, coming from overseas? And, you know, he was a good closer there. Is he going to be able to replicate that in the big leagues? There's sort of a big question mark there.

But, yeah, we'll see. Yeah, and Justin Martinez is a name to keep an eye on too. I think as far as the bullpen is concerned, like, no, the debacks didn't go out and sign Kenley Jansson or something. But they also have some more intriguing options here than they did before with Justin Martinez with Carlos Vargas coming over from Cleveland. There's some big time stuff, just like swing and miss stuff that they have access to now that they that they didn't before.

It is diehard Thursday here. Are you a diehard, Jesse? I am I am a diehard. It's sort of part of my job discussion. I don't think I really have a choice. But you do have a choice and just the stamp says die hard. Right, right. You all have a choice to become a Ph.

And we would love you if you did that. We would love you anyway. but we would especially love you if you did that. Die hard Thursday, of course. My weekly newsletter comes out on Thursdays. That'll be out later this evening. So be sure to keep an eye out for that if you are a diehard already. The perks, you get a free shirt or hat every single year.

You get access to that premium diehard level content, not only from me, but Gerald Borgay, Craig Morgan, Howard Balls are covering the Cardinals, our entire writing crew that we have here. and you also get 20% off merch and events like the PHNXT party that we discussed earlier. So become a PHNX diehard today. If you haven't already, you can go to go phynx.com slash diehard in order to do that. I also want to tell you about our friends over at the Draft King Sportsbook app. The NBA season is heating up.

Not so much for the Phoenix Suns, unfortunately. But it is heating up for, you know, the rest of the NBA is just weird this year because it feels like, I don't know, like there aren't, the best team in the league has our, I think is the Celtics and they've lost like 12 games or something like. The league is 20 and 19. There you go. I like that. I like the way you think, Jacob. Overly confident. Anyway, the NBA season is heating up and there is no better place to go to place some bets on the NBA than our friends over the Drafking Sportsbook app.

Download the app now. up with code pH and X place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game and get $150 in free bets if they do. That's code pH and X only at the Draft King Sportsbook. Minimum

age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And speaking of the Draft King Sportsbook app, we're going to spend a little bit of time here at the end of the show, Brian's his son's putting to die and die-hard memberships. That's that's tough

I promise you it's not that bad The suns aren't that bad No they're like okay the sons are bad yes but like I'm okay with that You're okay with diamondbacks you're gonna win the world series Yes I was I was here when they were here at the office When our son's crew was watching the sun's game yesterday And I just point to like asked them are you guys prepared for the Arizona

Diamondbacks to be to have the best record of any professional Arizona on a sports team in 2023 and they were like yeah it could happen i can promise you they'll have more wins ignoring the fact that they play plays in many games i bet you they'll have more they better have more wins jesus i hope they have more i hope they have more wins i think it's got seriously wrong if the diamond bags end up more wins in 162 games uh as the sun's do in 82 but anyway uh we're going to spend a little bit more time with our uh friends over here at the draft king sports book app looking at some bets that you can place on Major League Baseball. There's not a whole lot of betting, of course, that you can do this time of year, but there

are a few things. You can bet on who will win the World Series. You can bet on who will win the pennant in each league. And you can also bet on who will win each division around the game of baseball. Jacob, you got any bets on the Draft King Sportsbook app as far as baseball is concerned that look good for you? The Arizona Diamondbacks are plus 13,000. to win the World Series.

To win the World Series. They're only plus 4,000 to win the division. However, I don't think they're going to win the division. I think they're going to be that sneaky team that gets in the wild card. And then they somehow go on a tear through the whole playoffs. They're going to win the World Series plus 13,000, my drafting sports book pick of the week. So your drafting sports book pick of the week is that the Diamondbacks will win the World Series. Correct.

Relax. Okay. Sean, what about you? So I would get that to reality. Listen, shout out Leah. Toronto Blue Jays plus 210 to win the AL East. I hate the New York Yankees. I think you're going to see a regression from Aaron Judge

because it's going to be almost impossible for him to repeat what he did last year. I think this is the year that it officially sours for Aaron Boone. I think this is the last year in Pinchstripes. I think the Toronto Blue Days are good. They're getting older and more experience. Lotton Varsho is going to hit 30 home runs for them. Vladdy, Boba, and Dalton Varshow.

That's so scary. I love that team a lot, and I think just because they're young, they keep on, I think the expectations for them are a little higher than they should have been, considering how young this team has been. Yeah. Now, I think that's obviously becoming less than the listed excuse every year. I just think at plus 210, there's good value in them to win the AOL East. Also, that's my directing sports pick of the week.

A couple other things that interest me, Texas Rangers to win the ALS, AEL West at plus 900. Yeah, it's plus 900. If DeGram stays healthy, I think there's interesting value there. And then the Philadelphia Phillies to win the NL East at plus 350, they have the third best odds. They were just in the World Series, man. I know they struggled for a decent portion of like the first half of that season last year. But I just, I think the, I think they could win.

I think the, the Mets are going to be disappointing. The Braves are probably who I would actually say is a favorite. You just hear to hate on all the New York teams, aren't you? I like the Mets because they're not the Yankees. So I'm Blue Jays, D-Backs World Series. Turn me up. Leah would be in an interesting position. I would be in shambles.

That would be like a Sabres, Coyotes Stanley Cup. I would not know what to do. What if both things happen in the same year? I would lose my mind. 2025, you heard it here first. Yeah,

but Nicholas makes a good point. Varsho's going to get to a lot in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. That's true. Look at those numbers, man. Dalton Varsho. MVP odds. Give them to me.

No, I'm just kidding. But, yeah, I like the Blue Jays a lot. So my draft match in the week, Blue Jays, plus 210 to win the A at least in 2020. I think it's interesting that they have. So the Dodgers are, of course, favored in the NOS. They're at minus 135.

The Padres are a plus 130. On paper, this is a little crazy to say this, but I think it's true. I think the Padres have a better roster right now than the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have lost a whole lot of stuff this offseason. And they haven't really done much, right? They brought in J.D. Martinez. They brought in Noah Cindergard. Other than that, it's kind of the same team minus Justin Turner and Trey Turner, right?

And a number of other guys, Tyler Anderson, really good in their rotation last year. He's now with the Angels. So I think there's some interesting value just in the NOS, betting on the San Diego Padres to upend, you know, the train. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been in the NOS for a number of years here. Jacob, am I crazy and betting on the San Diego Padres? It's about damn time, Jesse. Listen, I kind of like what Jacob was saying earlier about the devax as far as the Padre is concerned. I think the Dodgers still probably win the NL East or the NOS, but they're the Dodgers, so they're going to choke.

And like you said, the Padres have a better roster. I wouldn't be surprised the Padres end up as a wildcar team and then win the Pennant. So if you're worried about that, you can take them at plus, what are they, plus, 500 to win the National League pennant. So I like that a lot. I think it's also interesting. I don't know if there's a bet to be had here, but they have the Guardians and the White Sox both at plus 130 and the AL Central, which kind of blows my mind.

Andrew Bennett-Tendee. Yeah, I guess. I mean, is that what they're banking on? I mean, the Guardians were a 92-win team last year. The White Sox were 81 and 81. I know the White Sox on paper probably should have been. Probably Tony LaRusses slept through half of their games. The White Sox, I think, they were disappointing

in a number of respects last year. but they weren't a very good baseball team. Their run differential was minus 31. In a sense, they were actually somewhat fortunate to finish with a 500 record. So that seems pretty bold. If you're bullish on the Cleveland Guardians, then I would maybe consider betting on the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. Alex says Carol World Series MVP.

Why not? There you go. Inject it. Why not? Inject it. Jackie Bradley Jr. won an American league postseason MVP. Anything is possible in the postseason.

I thought you were going to say he won like a regular season. I was like, there's no way. Didn't Stephen Pierce win the World Series MVP? I do think Steve Pierce. I think I do remember that. So anything is possible if you make it to the World Series. That's where, like, yeah, I mean, Jeremy Pena, like, I don't know if anyone really saw that for the Astros. This is a JBJ and Corby and Corby and Corbyl in those same positions, like one might have been a little more favored than the other.

Like, if Corbyn Carroll plays the way he's expected to play, him being a World Series MVP, little different odds on that, I think. So we're talking about betting on Corbyn Carroll to be the World Series MVP. Yeah. Okay. All right. If they make it,

dude, I'm going to lose so much money on the non-investst if they make to the playoffs. Oh, I can't wait for home run picks. I can't wait for home run picks. Oh, my. If you get me money on a home run pick in the playoffs, I'll lose.

Getting to go to playoff games at Chase Field wouldn't be really just. Playoff games are just incredible. Never. The only post-season sports I've ever been to is the Paxwell tournament. And it was, I mean, I saw Arizona. Never been to a post-season game outside of the Pact 12 tournament?

No, any sport. Wow. Wow. And well, and the regional, super regional for the ASU softball. I will say the wildcard game was quite possibly one of the craziest things I've ever seen live when Archie hit the triple. Like the level of loudness in that stadium was insanity. And then I went to the NBA finals and I was like, okay, that was nothing. I will say that baseball playoffs are electric.

I mean, I know Chase Field is not necessarily. like, you know, the best place to watch a game as far as fan environment most of the time. But in the playoffs, I mean, I've, I wasn't there in 2017 when Archie Bradley hit the triple in the wildcard game. Dude, it felt like you were about to take off out of that airplane hangar. Yeah, I was like 10 rows back down the field line. It felt like that whole place was like, people talking about it being an airplane hanger, we were about to launch.

Like, it was nuts. It's crazy. Just like the energy that comes with playoff baseball. I want to have energy. I'm excited for the world baseball. well classic I can't know yeah I 100% looked at my friend and I was like if Archie Bradley gets a hit here I'm pretty sure this whole place will explode like sure enough and then not only a hit but a triple yeah it was crazy uh the things I would do

to see it I I I I yeah I think there's about three teams and there's like they're like top four team I would want to see in a playoff situation for sure for me like I would I would love to see the down and back in the playoffs and witness it live I mean 20 20 20 20 Inject it. Little bullish, little bullish, but 2024, 2025. Jesse, why not us? Why not us? Why not them?

I mean, Jacob, you're the one who's just talking about betting on the Diamondbacks to win the world series. So, you know, and maybe tap the break a little bit on the optimism. But yes, playoffs within the next few years, I think is perfectly reasonable. But if and when the Arizona Diamondbacks are in the postseason are in the World Series, Jacob, there will be no better place to get your tickets than with the game. Game time app. Game time. It is an incredible experience. I genuinely have used Game Time for years when I was younger.

We didn't really ever want to pay full price for D-Backs tickets. And so I would go on the GameTime app and I would find these incredible deals and show them to my parents. And they were like, wait, what? You can sit behind home plate for like $20 or something like that. And it really is pretty crazy the kind of deals that you can find over there. And it's not only baseball, of course. It's all of the sports.

There's concerts and all of the different things that you might be interested in attending. And the best way to do it is to wait until the last minute, which is music to the ears of a procrastinator like me. Save up to 60% on tickets. When you buy tickets last minute, the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. So be sure to do that. If there are any events upcoming, you would be interested in going to you with the GameTime app. anybody wondering, Jesse says, when I was younger, like, that wasn't yesterday because he's one of the youngest people in the office.

And which Jacob says, like, he isn't also one of the youngest people in the office. Older than Jesse? That's true. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I'm not the youngest person around here, though. I think a couple people have me beat. 23? 24. I'm 24.

There you go. Of course. Everybody wants to know. Everyone wanted to know that on the show. That was the burning question that everyone had, listening to this episode. Thank you all for being here joining us. Today we really appreciate your time. If you haven't already, be sure to smash that like button below this video for joining us on YouTube.

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Jacob, Sean, been a pleasure. Maybe we'll do this again. I don't know. You guys are a little chaotic at times, but maybe we'll get, we'll get to the invite again at some point. Chaotic energy is all we need. Chaotic energy. There you go. That's what we're going for.

Thank you all for being here with us. We really appreciate your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have money to spend.