PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Recapping Day 1 of MLB’s Winter Meetings with more from Mike Hazen on Diamondbacks moves

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Jesse Friedman is live in Nashville with updates from Day 1 of MLB’s Winter Meetings. We discuss the moves that have already been made and what Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks need to accomplish this week. Should we prepare ourselves for a big move or temper our expectations? We have more from Hazen and Torey Lovullo, as well as our answers to your Mailbag Monday questions.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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 in to another edition of the PHNXDBACs podcast right here on PHNX. I am occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX and your mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, because I am in Phoenix, Arizona. It's of course, Derek Montia. And I'm joined by the vice mayor of Nashville, Tennessee and the winter meetings. It's the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Jesse, how are things there in Nashville? It seems so far like they're a bit boring. Yeah, you know, first of all, I just have to tell everyone that I'm in this weird position where if I look at Derek, it looks like I'm looking at the ground.

So I'm just going to, I'm just going to try to ignore Derek the entire show so that it can look like I'm actually talking into the camera. That is nothing new, Jesse. That is absolutely nothing new for this show and for you co-hosting anything with me. So it'll be fine. We'll get through it. but I joke, of course, about things being boring there in Nashville, but obviously today being day one of the winter meetings, not a lot has popped off yet there for MLB. No, no, not exactly. We still don't know where Eric Fetty is headed, which feels like one of the greatest injustices in the world today.

That was reported, what, like seven or eight hours ago at this point, that Eric Fetty had signed with some unknown team, and we still haven't figured out who that unknown team is to my knowledge. So, but yeah, I mean, that that's basically what we're dealing with today, Derek, is, you know, trying to figure out where, you know, the mystery team had signed Eric Fetty is pretty much the most exciting thing. Well, I mean, I know you already haven't figured out about where Shohei Otani is going. That's already a done deal.

No, that's old news now at this point. No one's talking about that. But, yeah, no, of course, nothing's going on. Ken Rosenthal, though, did say that Yoshinobu Yamamoto is kind of, of the talk of the winter meetings. Did you get the feel for that? As his name been brought up quite a bit? Yeah, I mean, you know, his name didn't come up at all when we were talking with Mike

Hayson earlier today. So I can't say like, you know, in any of the conversations I've had with feedbacks for an office members or anything like that. But yeah, I mean, it's no question that this market right now is really waiting on, on two people primarily, right? It's Shohei Otani and it's Yoshinovo Yamamoto, who it appears is going to get significantly more money than even I anticipated going in. I mean, you know,

you picture a $200 million? Yeah, like I didn't really see that coming. I mean, you picture like a 25-year-old free agent and you, you know, you kind of expect that a 25-year-olds who has top of the rotation type potential at least, like, yeah,

I mean, that doesn't really happen in, in the majors ever, right? Like, you don't have guys hit free agency at 25 years old who have the ability to be that good. So it makes sense. to me on one hand, but also I think it's like mildly insane because like we've never seen

Yamamoto pitch in in the majors at all. There's obviously no track record there at all. And, you know, his numbers were certainly good enough over in Japan that I think people expect he'll do pretty well for himself. But you don't know until you know. So, you know, that'll be an interesting thing to monitor. Well, and obviously there's going to be a lot of storylines that develop. Things opened up strong. We already had the Braves opening up the winter meetings by completing a five-player trade with the Mariners on Sunday night, right? And so that that got things started. But aside from that, not much else going on.

But of course, of course the Braves are in the middle of being active. Yeah, I mean, the Braves have basically supplied all of the hot stove, like intrigue that we've had before. Like, I mean, not quite all of it, but like maybe almost half of it at this point, I think is pretty fair to say with the whole Aaron bummer trade that they made recently. Yeah, that was an interesting deal. This seems like every day life gets a little bit worse for Seattle Mariners fans, which is sad. I mean, I lived in, I lived up there in the Northwest not that long ago. So certainly have a have a soft spot for that fan base. And they're a passionate bunch. And yeah, I mean, I saw a quote from Scott Service today during his press conference.

We spoke with some of the managers today, Toro Lavello spoke as part of that as well. And I don't remember his exact words. This is a rough paraphrase, but Scott Service said something about the hand that we've been dealt. You know, like this being what the Mariners had to do given the hand that they've been dealt,

which basically tells you everything you need to know in my mind about the reality of their payroll situation and what appears to be some cuts that have kind of been mandated, and a fan base that is understandably not very happy about that. Well, and a fan base that felt like they were close, that they were building towards something exciting. And now so far,

that's not really what they're seeing reflected by ownership, right? I mean, it would be like the Diamondbacks making the run that they made in the World Series and then kind of see them start dismantling the team almost a bit. And I'm not saying necessarily that's the case. But like, you know, again, there was some strong feelings about Gene. coming over here from a lot of people, you know, about him being the heart and soul of that

Mariners team. And again, like, I know that the Diamondbacks due to free agency are going to lose some of the guys that have kind of been a big part of the team's heart and soul. But it doesn't really feel like, you know, they're doing that. And that would be a bit devastating after the success that they had in 2023. It's a really weird trade too. I mean, like Jared Kalenik is not, you know, certainly hasn't lived up to the prospect hype that a lot of, you know, a lot of Mariners fans, I think saw him being a star player. And at the beginning of the 2023 season, it really looked like Jared Kalinick was about to become a star player that he was really blossoming into that, you know, didn't finish the season especially well. But what this basically

looks like for the Mariners is, you know, them basically getting rid of some money and tying Jared Kalenik in there in order to do so. They are getting an interesting pitching prospect back in the deal as well. Cole Phillips, I think, was the number seven prospect in Atlanta system, according to MLB pipeline, guy who missed time due to Tommy John's surgery, hasn't pitched professionally that, but has, you know, some pretty intriguing stuff. So, yeah, I mean, this isn't totally like Diamondbacks trading, you know, trying to get off of Bronson-a-Royos contract and including Tuki Toussaint. The return here is a little bit more interesting from the Mariners' perspective, but not, maybe not all that much. Like, it is, I think, kind of.

of a disheartening thing to see if you're a Mariners fan yeah well the hot stove hasn't really heated up for the Arizona Diamondbacks they don't appear to have anything close right now we haven't really heard them tied to any rumors that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not in on stuff but you know when you when you look at a lot of these big name free agents especially the starting pictures that Arizona isn't in a mix it doesn't feel like that that right now they're being brought up even in rumors connected to really anybody. We heard the Justin Turner rumors earlier. We've heard a couple of names brought up like J.D. Martinez, Nick Picoro,

brought up J.D. Martinez as potentially being a good fit to bring back for the DH. But what did Hazen have to say today? Because I know you had a chance to speak to him. You invaded his hotel room. That's my understanding that you went in his hotel room. That's the way it works at the winter meetings. Yeah. It's, it's, it makes sense why I'm not there.

That definitely makes sense right there why I'm not there. But what did he has have to say? Well, first of all, there were Mike and Ikes on the coffee table. So it appeared that Mike Hayeson and Mike Fitzgerald, who was also there. They were enjoying their Mike and Ikes. But, I mean, it does make sense, right? I mean, there's literally two people in the same room named Mike. I mean, it's just common sense, right?

It's crazy. But, yeah, I mean, it's not. as far as today we talked mostly about starting pitching and the diamondbacks pursuits on their front it doesn't particularly sound like the diamond backs are um i have a hard time believing that they're playing at the top of the market i guess is is what i would say mike hayson did say uh today that the diamondbacks are engaged um you know at every at every part of the starting pitcher free agent market but you know even hazen acknowledged we know where does that land us at the end of the day there's a lot of competition out there i don't expect the debacks to get yamamoto or blake snow or

you know any of those guys at the top of the market i'm not going to say it's totally impossible but you're right the rumors haven't really been out there recently and i have to believe that you know there's probably a reason for that we thought at least we hypothesized that maybe a trait was more likely just due to the expense, just due to the market, the cost, all of that. But Hazen said that they are more likely to land their starting pitcher through free agency than a trade. That's what he said today.

Yeah. And yeah, I mean, it was fairly cut and dry. He did say, you know, we're still engaged in the trade market as well. So he, you know, certainly sounds like things could change. But yeah, I mean, he was just asked today, I mean, you know, do you see this kind of leaning one way or another? And it was a pretty clear cut answer.

So wouldn't wouldn't close the door entirely on the Diamondbacks trading for a starting pitcher, I guess making a trade and, you know, to improve some other aspect of the team. But it doesn't seem like that's where things are headed right now. I know one of our mailbag Monday questions has to do with this. But are we talking still like a lower mid-tier guy or the Diamondbacks swinging for the fences, potentially on one of these big names that are out there. Yeah, I mean, I guess kind of what I said earlier, like Hazen is currently saying what he said today

is that the Diamondbacks are engaged, you know, in all parts of the free agent market, including that very top tier from what we can gather. But he also said that, you know, it just doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of confidence that the Diamondbacks would come out on top there, given how much competition there is. And I mean, you know, if Yamamoto goes out and does get the contract that people seem to think he's going to get now, like maybe even approaching $300 million, obviously he's in a pretty different situation than a lot of the other guys in the market. I mean, Blake Snell's not 25 years old. But you still have to have to feel like if Yamamoto is getting, you know, 270 or whatever it winds up being, Blake Snell's not going to get 140, you know, like there's going to have to be some more, it's going to have to be a little bit more. It's going to have to be a little bit more.

more balanced than that. So with the way that things are trending now, it's pretty hard to see the diamond backs competing at the very top tier of the market. Could they be like a step below that? I mean, I guess Jordan Montgomery is one of those guys who's, you know, probably not going to command quite as much as some of those other top tier arms, you know, probably not going to get what Aaron Nolan got, probably not going to get, you know, what Blake Snell will ultimately get either.

But beyond the Jordan Montgomery level, it's really hard to imagine. And honestly, even Jordan Montgomery himself, I'm not sure that debacks are quite going to be able to go that high. Well, this is what Mike Hazen had to say about them trying to go for some of those top tier pitchers. Yeah, I mean, we're engaged all over the free agent market. So depending on like how you, I mean, gowns of one. So like getting somebody that's over a one, like, I don't know. That's me, you know, probably shouldn't want to start young. So like, it's hard for me to say that we'd be.

getting somebody over Zach no matter of what we were planning on doing. But we're involved in the entirety of the free agent market and the starting pitching. We just, I don't know where that's all going to land. There's a lot of competition out there. I completely get what he's saying. They're like they're not looking for an ace. They have their ace. And I mean, they have their one A and one B guy, essentially.

Right. Not even a one two punch. But, yeah, I mean, I also understand the idea here that there are some top tier arms available. out there and who gives a damn about where they would be in the rotation. It's just, you know, I get, I get they're trying to pursue somebody, but they're most likely with the financial situation and the positional needs they still have. They can't really put all their eggs in the basket of going after one of these S-tier starting pitchers available on the market.

I think that's why they're not connected via some of these rumors and some of these, you know, kind of here's 10 teams that are all interested in Otani. It's like there's 30 teams that are interested. in Otani. There's no, there's no, like a lot of these guys, there are 30 teams interested in them. That's not just the ones that they name. It's just the idea here of you guys start looking at what they're going to command in the market and the money that is available. We've discussed this. We had Nick Piccoro's, you know, we had Nick Piccoro's report about how much the Diamondbacks were possibly looking to spend. And, you know, so far, the numbers, the math ain't mathen.

Jesse, the math ain't math for them to go out there and be able to get all these positional needs filled and also bring in some of these top pictures that are available on the free agent market. Yeah, I think, I think Elise made the comment in the chat. It was, you know, it is an interesting thing to hear. If, you know, if you really only have $20 million to spend from that Nick Picorra report recently, that is interesting. Like, okay, you're going to get your starting pitcher via free agency.

and you only have $20 million to spend. Well, I mean, at that point, it's like how do we actually fill all these needs that the diamondbacks have? It seems like there's maybe, like, you know, between starting pitcher and outfields and DH and backup catcher and maybe some bullpen help, it's abundantly clear to me at this point.

The debacks aren't going to be able to do everything. There's just not, I just, I think they're going to be like one thing short. maybe. And it's just at this point a question of what is that thing. Are they getting an outfielder, but not a DH type? Are they getting a DH type? But, you know, like Jake McCarthy is sort of being relied upon as your everyday outfielder. There was also some conversation about two starting pitchers as opposed to one today, which we'll get into. I don't know if they're going to be able to check all those boxes. They're probably just going to have to, you know, kind of get what's in front of them. And my guess is

there's going to be sort of one thing left over at the end. You ruined it for me. Because I was going to do a but wait. Let's make it more complicated because they're like you said. Mike Hazen made comments today about wanting not just one starting pitcher, but two. How? Where? With what money?

I say this to my wife quite often about a lot of the things that she wants to do in that order, in that voice, in that tone, Jesse. How? With what money? Right? Like so I don't understand how this is going to work. But I feel like the only true answer here is that the Diamondbacks really aren't

committed to this set dollar amount that we have read this report about, that they could potentially, if the opportunity presents itself, spend more money than they are basically saying right now that they're looking to spend, right? That's the only answer for them to be able to fill all these positional needs and bring home to starting pitchers. Yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess let's start by hearing what Mike Hazen had to say about that. Here was Mike when this is a question I asked today about the possibility. of acquiring two starting pitchers. No, adding multiple starting pictures would be the ideal outcome in some ways, yeah,

just to build up, sells out. But we still have that group of young pitchers that are going to play a major role on our team. And that's the way it goes to build a rotation and build the lineup and go into the probably the reliever market at some point. We're not going to do that. We didn't do that right out of the way, but if we end up doing that at some point, then, you know, I don't know we do all those things.

And so I think that group of young pictures is in the five-hole at that point. I think that picture, by the way, is fascinating. Tale looks so sad. You got some, I don't know who the gentleman in the background who is deciding whether or not Mike is important enough to stick around and talk to there in that image. But there's a lot of stuff going on and I like it. But yeah, obviously, yeah, it doesn't sound as much like he thinks. that that's going to happen as much as he's like, ideally, yes, we would like to do that.

We do know how short we are in starting pitching, and we would love to go out there and pursue that. And maybe the opportunity presents itself if they do a bit of bargain shopping, you know, and not to discredit the guys that they could pick up, but maybe just some of those guys that aren't going to cost them nearly as much money, not only this year, but, you know, future money, you know, connected to them as well. and maybe still bring in two, but they have a lot of work to do. Yeah, I mean, you know, if it is that the Diamondbacks are the mystery team that is landing the legendary Eric Fetty, noted popular Scott Forrest client, then I think that was,

that was reported as $5 million a year. So like if you're if you're bargain shopping to that degree, maybe if you spend $5 million on a starting pitcher, you do have some space to go and get another one if you kind of stretch the 20 million a little bit. But yeah, in most, I mean, in most conceivable scenarios, the debacks are getting two starting pitchers who are actually, you know, like upgrades over, you know, a Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson type, like guys that, you know, are viable major league starters who have some kind of a track record. Yeah, it's really hard to see the diamondbacks being able to get two of those guys and stay within the $20 million that we've been floating around

and address the other needs that they have offensively, you know, backup catcher, DH slash outfielders, as I said earlier, bullpen help as well, factoring in potentially. So it's hard, yeah, there's a reason I think that Mike answered that question is ideally because it doesn't, right? I mean, what is ideal does not always actually happen because of, you know, the limitations that you have.

And it kind of looks like those limitations are, going to be too great for the debacks to get two starters, even though it's something they want and who knows, maybe they're able to find a way to make it work. Well, obviously, one of those concerns is the fact that they have a limited time frame for some of the members of their roster. And, you know, the future does look good for this team. They have a number of 23-year-old guys right now that got an incredible experience this postseason. But there are guys like we've talked about. We knows that gallon, but Merrill Kelly, another guy that we don't talk about nearly enough, you know, being not not having too much time left here, as well as Christian Walker, right?

So it feels like if the Diamondbacks are going to pursue maybe some of those pitchers that aren't going to cost them nearly as much, it could fit, you know, a short, short-term deal on a guy that's not going to cost you nearly as much is going to fit that timeline, at least for those, you know, guys and trying to win in this short term, I'm trying to build on the success of this world series and trying to get back there next year, you know, and in 2025, then this actually feels like maybe, maybe something they can do, but, but, you know, quite, quite a big of a long shot. This is, yeah, I mean, this is something that I talked with Patrick about the other day when our, our good friend, Patrick Lyons, was on the show, filling in while you were slacking on vacation or whatever you were doing. You have no idea the amount of, I worked harder. on that day than I've ever worked a day at PHNX.

I'll tell you that much. It's the holiday season. I had a lot of work to do. Fair enough. Yeah, I think I just think it's, at least to me, it's clear that the Diamondbacks should, they don't have to be crazy aggressive this, you know, this offseason, next off season. I don't want to make it sound like they should, you know, trade the entire farm system or something. But at the same time, I do think it makes sense.

to have some urgency about pushing the chips in on 2024 and 2025, considering as you were talking about, Christian Walker has one more season here, at least under his current deal. Merrill Kelly is under team control for two more years and is aging a little bit, although certainly hasn't shown it. Zach Gallin, of course,

the two years, as we've mentioned many times. So if the diamond backs are being realistic and recognizing what things could look like in a couple of years, It makes sense to really try to push the chips in and take advantage of, you know, you've got a lot of guys who are young and not making very much money right now. Corbyn Carroll is not going to make, you know, $3 million or whatever it is in 2024 for very long. So these are important years where your roster is cost controlled pretty nicely. And I think it kind of makes sense to push some of those chips in.

I asked the question along those lines to Mike today. And here's what he had to say. So the urgency is that we made to the point of the, World Series last year and trying to replicate that season. That's the ultimate urgency. Having some mind of where the nucleus of our team is, from a control standpoint,

yes, that adds. Yes, we're aware of like, you know, what the rotation might look like three years down the line. Or the lack of answer for that right now. But the urgency is to go back out there

and replicate what we just did. That's the urgency that I feel. And that should be the urgency, right? I mean, that feels like the correct urgency to not try to just, you know, be like, hey, we were here early. This was a good run. You know, let's try to stick to the plan. I feel like this pushes his hand a bit and has to change maybe a longer term plan that they might have had for this team into, you know, hey, we need to try to stay competitive and we need to try to build on this, you know, success. This is a good team that felt like they were very close to potentially winning a championship.

They were, right? I mean, you know, there was obviously a number of, it's like three games away from it, Jesse. They were three games away. And, you know, there are the naysayers out there would say that, you know, maybe the Diamondbacks didn't deserve to be there or whatever. I don't think we have to. They went through some tough opponents, buddy. I mean, I don't know.

I can't. It's not like, it's not like the, you know, I've seen those playoffs. runs teams have had where like things worked out for them you know oh a lower seed team beat a bigger seed in front of them and then they had to take on like a seventh seed or whatever and so the road was easy and then there was an injured superstar or whatever they that was not the case that was not the case they took on the best teams in the national league in some of the toughest environments and they won and i mean again there there there might have been this idea that they didn't belong in any of those scenarios.

So that might have helped them not have the pressure on them and have the pressure on their, you know, opposition. But still, I mean, what Mike Hazen is saying is 100% true. You basically do have to act like those three guys aren't going to be here at the end of their deals. And you have to try. You got to try to win it for them. And you got to try to win it with them because those three guys were arguably, you know,

40%, 30% of the reason why this team. is here. Like those three guys did so much this season. And even though Christian Walker had a rough postseason, he was incredible all year long. And, you know, there's still no denying how good he was defensively all the time. It really is remarkable that, I mean, Christian Walker has, you know, been on the, been on the wrong side of 30 for a little while now.

And, yeah, I mean, defensively is still, is still spectacular. But yeah, this, this kind of leads into another conversation that we had with Mike today, which is how willing are you to deal from the very top of your farm system? It gets pretty clear right now, at least from my perspective, Diamondbacks Farm System, is Jordan Lawler, Drew Jones, Tommy Troy, and then everyone else. And it's not to say that there aren't some valuable pieces there, some guys who could become great players. There are some guys who have, I think, relatively high ceilings,

but they're just really far away right now. There are some guys there that could be good baseball players, But in terms of like trade value, Tommy Troy, Drew Jones and Jordan Lawler, I think are kind of in a class of their own. And so my question was, you know, I mean, to what degree are you willing to deal from that group? And, you know, Hazen, as you'd expect, kind of chose some middle ground. It wasn't like, yes, we are definitely trading them. And it wasn't like, no, we are not willing to even discuss it. He basically said that the Diamondbacks are open to any trade.

And he talked about the value of those guys, especially. the ones that are close to the majors. So I guess Jordan Lawler, maybe even kind of put Tommy Troy, at least somewhat in that category, given that he's a college player who should rise through the system, you know, fairly quickly, you would think.

You know, those guys are players that the Diamondbacks value a lot, especially given that they could be on the Major League roster really soon. Mike referred to them as young major leaguers, less so than prospects, which you can, especially with Lawler, you can certainly understand where he's coming, from there.

But yeah, I mean, it seems like a situation where in the right deal, the diamondbacks, I think would be willing to part with those guys certainly is not, you know, I don't think they're shopping them or anything. I think they would certainly like to keep them if they can. But the diamondbacks are in a position right now to, as we were saying earlier, to be pretty aggressive, not reckless, but be pretty aggressive in 2024 and in 2025. and if there's a deal out there that they like, that they feel really meaningfully improves this team,

if it involves one of those guys, it sounds like it's something that they would consider. Diamondbacks are getting some calls about their relievers to the surprise of nobody. And, Jesse, kind of to this, I mean, it's not, it shouldn't be surprising,

but like it doesn't, but it is surprising. It's also surprising to say, like, that's not an area that they really, it's not to say that they wouldn't, add a bullpen arm. It's not to say that they don't need to still try to continue to evolve their bullpen and get better.

But at the same time, it doesn't really feel like that's a main area of concern. It's really not. Yeah. And it's so maybe. When can we say that? Is that the first time ever that we've ever said that for a postseason or, you know, any kind of free agency period that they don't need to do something about their bullpen?

Yeah. I mean, we, we had a, you know, I mean, even Mike was kind of laughing at that when we were talking about it today because he was like, I mean, how many times we've been sitting in this room every year and we're talking about how many, it's not do the diamondbacks need bullpen help? It's how many bullpen arms do they need, right? Is it three? Is it four? Is it just, is it just erase the whole thing and start over again? Right? We, you know, at least feels like we've had some of those years too. So, yeah, it's a, it's a really different position that the diamond backs find themselves in right now where their bullpen heading into 2024 is in a decent spot.

I wouldn't say it's a top five bullpen. I think it's important to be realistic about, you know, what happened the last couple months of the year and not expect like a sub two ERA from the bullpen in, in 2024. I don't know if the like the peripheral numbers there really support the diamondbacks having like a top five bullpen in the league or anything like that, even though that's basically what they were in, you know, in September and leading into October. but it still seems to be something that, you know, if not a strength is at least not something

that's going to hurt them as it has been in the past. And yeah, as you pointed out, something that Mike talked about today where he's getting hits. He said he's getting hits on all of his relievers. He's gotten hits on all of his relievers except for Paul Seawald is what he said today. He's been contacted about everyone else. And Seawald, you kind of understand the devax literally just traded for Paul Seawald. So it'd be a little weird to flip him. this point right right it would be like calling them about gabby right like i hope he's leaving them

on read when it comes to gavie when they when they text him about gabby or or is he actually taking physical phone calls jesse like what is what is what is happening here is my kisan uh do they do they do speak in person how does how do things get done at these winter meetings obviously you invaded his hotel room so i feel like that's just fair game for any gm to just kick in the door and walk in there and start talking to yeah you know uh Dave Dombrovsky was like trying to bang on the door while we were in there and we told him to go away. No, that didn't happen. But yeah, it definitely seemed, I mean, there is a face-to-face component to it for sure.

Mike talked about how much he enjoys being able to see people in the industry that he doesn't get to see very often. And I'm sure they have at least some conversations face-to-face, whether it be with agents or with front-office members of other teams. but the reality is that it at least appears to me that the vast majority of, you know, those kind of communications happens over text and over and by the phone. I mean, of course, the winter meetings is one of the few opportunities throughout the year where these people are actually in the same place. And yet even when they are in the same place, it sounds like they still do a pretty good amount of texting and phone calling.

But Mike did make it a point today to explain that he's one of those people where if you text him. He doesn't text back. He calls back. He's one of those people who prefers to have discussions over the phone. I am also one of those people. You know that. You know that, Jesse. I will. I will. You'll even ask me, are you driving or something? I'm like, no, no. I just don't want to, this is a 40-minute text conversation or potentially just a five-minute verbal conversation. Let's just get this taken care of now. I appreciate that for Mike Hazen for sure. But rumors continue to swirl about who the Diamondbacks could be connected to, but nothing concrete yet. Have you heard anything new as far as who they could be potentially looking into?

There were a few reports that floated out there today. People have probably seen on Twitter. I know CJ Crone was a name that popped up in one spot. I apologize. I'm forgetting the Twitter account that I saw that from. CJ Crone, not a particularly great player. I'm honestly not even sure if I would expect him to get a major league contract. I guess you would be like the ultra budget option if the debacks were looking for

a DH, you know, maybe a bounce back candidate type, someone who could be a league average hitter or something like that. Um, you know, I guess there could be some value in that for them. But JD Martinez and Justin Turner are the names that we're kind of seeing in multiple places. It seems like those are those are both, you know, both substantive and probably Justin Turner more so than J.D. Martinez. It seems like there have been mixed reports about their interest in Martinez, whereas Justin Turner is pretty clear across the board that there's some level of interest there. Yeah, two out of three of those are fine, but one of those,

and I'll leave that up to you to decide which one would be probably a huge disappointment as far as an acquisition for the Diamondback. And I'm not going to badmouth anybody. So like I said, I'll leave that up to mystery for you guys to figure out which one I would be disappointed with those three. but I'm sure we probably agree on that. Again, though, part of it is just factoring in, you know, how much money the Diamondbacks have to spend.

And I think it's all going to depend on what moves they make. I think if we see them land a fairly decent starting pitcher that, you know, substantially improves their starting rotation, which I really feel isn't super difficult. I feel like the Diamondbacks right now just need a solid pitcher. It doesn't even need to be one of those names that completely blows you away, but just a guy that could, you know,

pick up this starting rotation and make it look a little bit more solid one through four instead of, you know, right now where there are a lot of question marks after Brandon fought there in the starting rotation. That's what it feels like, totally. It's like the, you know, the E-Rods, the Michael Waukas, the Seth Lugos,

James Paxton, a guy who'd cost a little bit less, there's some durability questions, but kind of maybe a similar level of pitcher when he's at his best. That tier of starters, kind of what it is really speculation on my part right now, but that's sort of what it feels like the Diamondbacks are pursuing.

But, you know, hopefully we'll get that narrowed down here in the next couple days. The Michael Waka, the Wicca memes, Jesse, are going to be off the hook. There are going to be so many Fossey Bear. You have a great time.

I have a field day with that. It's like when, it's like that sick feeling that Sean got got when we got Tommy Fam. And the minute that we, We got it. We saw Sean like hold his head down and discussed in both of his hands. And we asked what was wrong.

And he was like the amount of like what up fam and we fan we hear fam jokes that are going to be disgusting. And it's like you have seen nothing yet until the Diamondbacks get Michael Walker. But anyway, well, we appreciate you guys being here for our, I guess not really late late night, but it is, it is mailbag Monday after dark here on the PH&X Diamondback show. So we appreciate you being here to accommodate for Jesse's tardiness. You know, he has all these people to talk to and hotel rooms to invade. But make sure if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet here on YouTube, do so now. Sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a like. We always appreciate that. It's our add-a-boys. And we like att-a-boys around here. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you listeners too. Make sure you're subscribed over there. Leave us a review.

We always appreciate those five-star reviews. They help us quite a bit. But of course, one of the things that I was doing when I was out, like Jesse said, I was out, is I was stocking up on Arizona lottery holiday scratchers for everybody on my shopping list. I started to fill some stockings, but then I decided I have plenty of time. So I decided to just keep those scratchers for myself, scratch off some tickets. Jesse, we won $4. So $2 of that, of course, is yours and goes to your flight fund.

So maybe you can upgrade, I don't know, something. Maybe. Yeah, that's going to get me on first class on. the way home. We'll see what happens. I mean, you're on Frontiers. So, I mean, it might go a long way or it might go no way at all. So we'll see. But I will say, there is a scratcher for everyone on your list. And once we hit that big one, my man, we will get you in first class. And you won't have to wear all of your clothes on you. We'll get you on an airline that you can take a bag, I promise. But scratchers can start out at just $1, but could win you as much as half a million

dollars. So do not miss out on the opportunity to get those today. Stocking stuffers, procrastinators, Even people that have plenty of time to shop. Everybody loves holiday scratchers from Arizona Lottery. So go out and buy your holiday scratchers today. And of course, holiday season can be stressful. So a great way for you to deal with the stress is with Wink Seltzer's, which are available online for consumers to buy direct to their doorsteps at drinkwink.com. That's W-Y-N-K.

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blurry, Jesse. We have him looking great over there today. But whether Jesse is here in Phoenix or in Nashville or halfway across the world, it's still Monday. And you know what Monday is. Monday we do the thing on Monday. Of course, every year is our year. Every week on this show is winter meetings week. That's the way it works. Every week on this show, winter meetings week. Sorry, Jesse, that's the life now that you live. I'm going to be here for a while. You're going to be there for a long time, but it's a very nice looking hotel. So I think you'll be all right. But it's gorgeous. But also every month, of course, Pride Month around here. But every Monday on this very show, we go to the mailbag. Damon, can we go to the mailbag?

My mailbox. 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 we got for our first letter in the mailbag? It comes from Gabriel. Gabriel says,

will the deback shock the baseball world with a trade or a free agent signing? And I'm guessing by Gabriel, meaning shock the world. We're talking about one of those big deals. feels Jesse like if that would happen the shocking the world type deal might happen more through a trade than a free agency deal. Is that fair to say?

I mean at this point like the bar for shocking the world as far as MLB hot stove stuff is concerned is quite low. So I mean it don't like if if the Diamondbacks like came out and you know were the Eric Fetty team or like signed Michael

Waka or something that would be, I guess it would be not shocking exactly, but like, you know, somewhat surprising that, that, you know, someone managed to actually warm the hot stove mildly. Something going. Yeah. They got something happening. But yeah, I mean, as we kind of said earlier, it's a little hard to envision the Diamondbacks playing at the top of the market in free agency. that's something we've kind of suspected all along. On the trade market, I guess you can't really count out shocking the baseball world. I mean, I don't know if shocking the baseball world would be the right way to categorize the trade they made last year with the Blue Jays, but it was certainly a fascinating trade,

a trade that was very, very interesting. And, you know, I think something that I think a lot of baseball analysts enjoyed, you know, just these kinds of challenge trades. You've got two players with a lot of, a lot of service time or a lot of years of control, excuse me remaining on both sides. So, you know, let's be fair. A lot of people outside of the Toronto Blue Jays fan base and the Arizona Diamondbacks fan base did not know who Dalton Varsho or Gabriel Moreno were.

And I'm not taking anything away from those guys. There's plenty of baseball nerds that knew how great both of those guys were. But I'm just saying it wasn't a shock to the world like a name, like household name kind of thing where like, you know, your casual baseball fan is going to understand the impact of that, you know, of that. that player changing hand teams from one team to another you know won sodo that's the kind of player i think that when he gets traded which seems like an inevitability is going to be kind of a shock the world type trade a bit if he goes to certain teams right yeah that's like almost

expected right but yeah i guess well i just want to like some crazy team that no one's expecting like the brewers yeah like the brewer's got him or like the diamond backs got him that would be a shock the world move, right? But if it's the Yankees, if it's the, you know, one of these other teams, like, yeah, no, there's no surprise there that they go out and make that trade for Juan Soto. So I guess going back to the question, though, is I think the way that I would be shocked is if they actually were able to ball out on a budget and get this shopping list that they have done and stay within the budgetary constraints that they had set for themselves or kind of said that they were going to stick to. So if that's the case, that would show.

shocked the hell out of me. What else we got to do it? Our baby boy, Aaron Hughes says, since things just got a whole lot more interesting, if the Diamondbacks get a starter in free agency, where do we think they fall? Most of the lower to mid-tier starters are off the market. I know we've answered a lot of these questions, but I don't, what, did things get more interesting? Did I miss something? Because so far, I don't feel like things have gotten interesting, Jesse. I am I am very still waiting for things to get a lot more interesting. But what are we? think here again, we really think that the Diamondbacks, if they do get that starter, you know, he does make a good point. We are starting to see, you know, some of, you know, the, not lower,

but I mean, you know, if we start to see some of these more of these mid-tier, you know, value kind of starting pitchers fall and all that's left are kind of some of the higher price free agents. Like, what do the Diamondbacks do? Do they just not, not make that move? there's i mean there's still a decent number of of those guys out there i think uh you know wayd maylie signed with the brewers today that was a report that came out today um he was maybe a maybe a guy that would have kind of fit into the tier that we suspect the diamondbacks are are going to ultimately fit in but there's still other guys i mean you know we've seen kentemaiah ago uh eric fettie apparently is going somewhere but there's still as i mentioned

earlier. Seth Lugo is still out there. Michael Waka is still out there. James Paxton is still out there. I don't know if the Debacks would go down to Mike Clevenger route, but he's still there as well. And yeah, I mean, you know, Marcus Strowman, I don't think is maybe totally out of the question either that they could get into, you know, a little bit of a higher tier, Eduardo Rodriguez, probably in that same region as well. So yeah, I'm guessing Aaron is saying like things got a lot more interesting in that we kind of have a idea that free agency is the way to go here rather than just sort of guessing like is it going to be a free agent signing or a trade but yeah i still think there's enough of those guys out there and if i had to guess today i still would kind of put them in that in that mid-range tier all right what else we got next question comes from louise and louise

says i really hope they don't but do you see the diamondbacks trading away luller jones jones or Troy this off season for anyone. And obviously Mike Hazen's comments that we discussed earlier said that everybody, you know, like you said that they were maybe, maybe hanging up the phone on Gabby and we know they're not even going to call you back if you even think that you're going to call about Corby and Carol. But what about these guys?

I touched on him a little bit earlier. I think that, I mean, from what Tori said today, this was basically a question that I asked. I mean, I'm not, I didn't mention these guys by name, but Jordan Lawler, Drew Jones, and Tommy Troy, I think there's a case to be made that it's, it's those guys and then kind of everyone else in this farm system. Right. And yeah, when when asked about that, as I said earlier, Mike said that their diamondbacks are open to anything.

He did talk a lot about the value that those guys have and how, you know, presumably talking about Troy and Lawler, how they could be majorly contributors in relatively short order. So the debacks certainly value those guys heavily, but like we were saying earlier, there's also a sense of wanting to be aggressive and not just for the sake of the gallon and Merrill and Christian Walker contracts or, you know, kind of the optimal financial situation that they're in right now, but because the debacks were just in the World Series.

And when you get to the World Series, like you kind of want to get back there. You kind of want to push the chips in again and try to go for it again. And because of that, I wouldn't rule out trading away any of those guys, although I still would say it's pretty unlikely. We're always trying to build towards the future,

you know? And that's the one thing about sports is there comes a time where you have to build for now. And if was it a fluke? You know, I think that next season is very important to prove that this team is a good team, that it is a playoff contender team,

playoff contending team, and that they didn't get to the World Series last year just on a fluke. I don't think they need to make the World Series again in order to make that statement necessarily as much as they just need to be good enough next year to play those meaningful games late and make the postseason again.

And just make a showing, make this something that isn't, you know, something that comes once every seven years for this franchise, put together multiple seasons of at least making the postseason and being a contending team. And I think that like there's a part of this franchise that for the last five years has not even really been focused on building for now. They've just constantly been kind of building towards the future in a way and kind of trying to figure out what their path is and things aligned for them very quickly between the mid part of last season and where they got to by the end of this postseason, obviously, right?

But like this team definitely is in a position where sometimes you have to make those tough decisions that, might come back to bite you in the future when you look at a trade and see that one of these young guys went off and became a stud somewhere else. But you still have to value what you get back. And if they're able to make this organization better for the now, it might be worth it. You know, but. Yeah. Those three guys, those guys, it's hard to doubt that those three guys aren't going to be very, very good Major League Baseball players at some point in their career. and should you part ways with them,

there's always going to be that, you know, that thing, like the Cardinals have with Zach Gallen and the Cardinals have with several players that we kind of poked fun at them at them this year because they were bad. Cardinals have not been bad like this. So there wasn't much to poke fun at prior to this year, but now that you have Zach Gallin and other guys dealing elsewhere

that were once in their organization, it's kind of fun to take those jabs. Diamondbacks, you know, might have to deal with that possibility because they need to build towards this team being good now. Now is the time. Yeah, it was interesting. Mike was, we were talking about his comment about free agency over trades when it comes to the starting

pitching pursuit. You know, I think it's only reasonable to, we didn't get too deep into this, but I imagine the reason the debacks are thinking free agency over trade is that, you know, they've seen the asking price for Dylan Seas. They've seen the asking price for Corbyn Burns.

and I imagine it is extremely high, and you're having to grapple with, would you give up, you know, six years potentially of a star player? You know, you trade Jordan Lawler, you're risking,

trading away, you know, six full seasons of a guy who could be extremely good and not make a whole lot of money during that span. There's a lot of risk there. But Hayes in at the same time.

I mean, it just seems like he's kind of keeping all these perspectives in balance. He also talked about how, you know the debacks aren't out here just trying to hoard years of control of guys you know like if they're in a if they're in a situation where they're giving up six years of control of someone and only getting two years of control of a player back that's not necessarily a non-starter you know maybe in the way that it was last off season like when they traded dalton varsho i think it was maybe important for them to get a player back who had more control than varsho and they got that in gabby merino i don't think they necessarily feel that way i think there there is you know a universe in which they trade away some good young players and get back some players who might not be here for very long. It's just a matter of finding the right fit. And as of right now, it doesn't really seem like they've found that. But, you know, we'll just have to kind of see how things

play out. At one point, the Phoenix Suns had the timeline, Jesse, right? Well, we don't, we have two timelines. We have two timelines. We have the shorter timeline, which I think coincides more with this World Series run, Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly's contracts, and what the Diamondbacks can add in that period of time before the uncertainty of what they're going to do for their next ace comes after that. Maybe it's Brandon Fott. Maybe we figure that out between now and that. Yeah. There's a lot of time for that to happen, right? But there has to be those two timelines looked at. The short one, you know, and that could be what they're addressing. And then they have, you know, their timeline with Corbyn Carroll that.

also has Gabriel Moreno and Alec Thomas and all these young guys also part of that. So there's a lot of excitement around that. But I can understand right now how difficult it is to manage those two timelines and not try to jeopardize one for the other, if that makes sense. Yeah. You still have to look at that six-year timeline as well as like the two-year timeline. And that's not an easy task for Mike Hazen. But glad the Diamondbacks have him, you know, there in that place. because if he was no longer here,

I have no idea what the direction would be for this team. That's a scary proposition. I'm glad the Red Sox kicked rocks when it came to bothering him. All right, we got one more, and then I've got to do some more ad reads. What we got, Damon? Travis Moore asks, Hazen stated that starting pitcher is much more likely through free agency.

Can we speculate on why? Our team's asking too much. Prospect Capital are the guys the debacks are targeting in free agency, not as expensive as we originally thought. Are they really aiming low for starting pitch? switching like a four or five guy. I think we addressed a lot of the stuff there. I think you just talked about it, right?

About the trades, you know, essentially what we're seeing teams ask for, be too high maybe for the Diamondbacks and that spending the money for them is much easier right now than the idea of losing some of these very valuable prospects that they have in their organization and even guys like Jordan Lawler that, you know, he's right down their tier of being a major leaguer versus a prospect still. But yeah, like, I mean, I don't think it's anything other than maybe the trade requests are too high. So free agency makes more sense because, again, that's just money. We'll make more money.

You know, we'll make more of it. That's easier. It's much harder to find talented players and have them in your system. And then, like I said, trade them away and experience that sense of regret that so many organizations go through when trying to make that transition from a team building to a team contending. Yeah, I feel like the Diamondbacks, I mean, yeah, kind of like we were saying earlier, it seems like,

I don't really think the debacks are looking for a number five starter. I would be, I would be a little surprised if that's, if that's what happened. Hazen has never, at least in conversations I've been a part of, he's never said we're looking for a number two, we're looking for a number three. you know, he tends to kind of work around questions about like where guys slot in the rotation

because granted it is a little arbitrary. But yeah, I would be pretty surprised if the debacks, you know, just went out there and, you know, gave someone three or four million dollars to be a number five start or something like that. I don't think that's really the intent here. But I mean, yeah, in its purest form, like free agency is just better because in free agency, you don't have to get rid of any players. In a trade, you do. So, I mean, obviously, you're, you know, you're probably going to pay a little bit more in terms of money in order, in order to get that. But it's just a decision to open up the wallet, right?

I mean, and like we've seen that that does not make you any more of a contender by spending more money, right? And it does not, you know, look at what happened this year with all the teams that spent a lot of money that didn't even make the playoffs. So that includes the Padres, that includes the Mets, that includes the Yankees. This isn't a sure thing. But when you have a team that's close, that's got to be tempting. And I mean, when you talk about the fact that historically, the Diamondbacks haven't really shied away from making that big move the year after their team made the playoffs, the year after their team kind of emerged as a potential contender, it tracks.

You know, I think that that's really ultimately what it comes down to is we can talk about what they're going to spend all day, but they're in control. of that and they can change that whenever the hell they please, right? They have a lot of money before they start getting taxed on how much money they've spent on players. They're not even going to sniff that. So they don't have to worry about the competitive balance tax or anything like that. But should they, right, right? We know that, right? So I'm just saying, like, if they get to a point where there's something that's close and all it's going to take is money that might happen for this team and they have as Gabriel asked earlier

they have shocked the world before with some of their moves when it came to starting pitching and they were suddenly signing guys that they weren't even in contention for they weren't even in the market supposedly for a Zach Granky you know or Madison Pump Gardner so

very interesting to see how this plays out but so far not much not much has happened I think though you get on bet MGM and you might have some future bets on where these guys are going to land. And that's a great place for you to make these winter meetings more interesting. So check out the vet MGM.

Somebody's got to make it more interesting, Derek. I don't want to, I don't want to just be here in Nashville for three days and just be like speculating on. I know you're not going to go down to Broadway. I know you're not going to go get drug party. I mean, I know that's a for you. But did I get drunk and party?

No, I did not. But I did go to a barbecue place last night. and it was on Broadway. Let's go. So I'll have you know, Derek. I'm not quite as boring as you think I am. I'm probably like 90% of it. I defend you constantly.

Maybe not on this show, but in real life, people that say the things are like, I'm like, Jesse's a wild man. You have no idea. Get them out there in Nashville. Watch him go crazy. But again, like Jesse said,

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Sign up using our code, of course, a PHNX. Once you have placed that deposit or placed that deposit and made that wager, you will receive $200 instantly in additional winnings, regardless of your wager's outcome. Check out the show notes. details and now listen to Shane talk about the disclaimer. Ontario. Yeah, we got to do it. We're very far apart, but we still got it going on. Jesse, another great thing that people can check out is the GameTime app, obviously, for buying tickets.

Tickets make an absolutely outstanding holiday gift, by the way. Sometimes when you're searching for gifts for that person that's so hard to shop for, taking them out to a concert, a show, a sporting event. That is an absolutely great gift. And you can buy those tickets on Game Time. You can buy them now for events far away. or you can buy them for last minute events because game time is the place for last minute ticket deals. It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. Snag the tickets without the stress by downloading game time today. Download the app, create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms to apply. Again, create an account, redeem code. PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right. Let's get back to some more mailbag Monday questions. And before we get to the actual questions from the mail,

bag. I saw Tim in the chat sent a good question for you, Jesse, in regards to if the Giants and Dodgers get Shohei and Yamamoto, let's just say they add both to the Giants and the Dodgers. Both of them raised their starting pitching game. Does that pressure Hazen and the Diamondbacks to be more aggressive? I don't think so. I think the debacks are going to do what the debacks are going to do. And I mean, Mike Hazen has already openly said when opening day of 2024 comes, the Dodgers are probably going to be expected to be the better team or at least like projected to be the better team. That's something that he's already acknowledged.

And yeah, I mean, if the debacks were purely reacting to what the Dodgers were doing, I mean, they would feel the need to probably add a whole lot more this offseason. Or, yeah, I mean, it just wouldn't be possible, right? I mean, the Dodgers are the kind of team where, I mean, with a sort of decimated roster last year, they still found a way to win over 100 games.

It feels like that team can just roll out of bed and win 100 games like it's nothing. So I don't expect their actions to have much of an impact on the Diamondbacks. Well, let's get to some more mailbag Monday questions. What do we got here? We got Ryan asking a great question. Ryan says, what is the best motivational quote from Tori that comes to mind? What has he said that made you want to run through a wall and say, oh, yeah, I'm guessing he means. like the Kool-Aid man right there.

I think we all know the best motivational quote, Jesse. We made it into a shirt, right? But I mean, like, I'm not even joking about this when it comes to this. You know, we've shown it a lot. It got us amp during the playoffs. But I think, do we have the clip?

Damon, let's roll that clip. Let's just get right to it. Are you fucking kidding me? Listen. This is part of the journey. We're not there yet. Let's enjoy it. Let's embrace it.

Let's fucking party. And the connected team is a fucking dangerous team. We are fucking dangerous. Let's fucking party. Let's go. Even with our little subscribe ending there at the end, I'm ready to run through the brick wall, Jesse. Oh, my God.

All right. Well, no, you know, there's a lot of cursing. He owes a lot of money to the swear jar there, obviously. So that can't be said. But there is something. to be said about what that means. Holy shit, Jesse, saying a connected team is a fucking dangerous team and we're fucking dangerous.

Like that, that's what happened. That's what happened with this team. That's what happens with so many teams when it comes to the playoffs in any sport, right? Usually, you know, we call them an underdog team or, you know, whatever the case may be, you know, a rag tag group of rebels that came together to, defeat the empire, right? Like, just there's something to be said about, you know, sometimes, you know, no matter how talented some of these other teams are, no matter how much money has been

spent on them, there's no, there's no soul to the team. There is no soul to the team. This team had a heartbeat. They had a soul. They experienced ups and downs. They experienced losses. And when I say losses, I just don't mean, you know, injuries and actual losses. And, you know, games. I mean, they watched some of their, you know, veteran leaders just get DFAed this season because this team was just a wagon that was on a roll and they couldn't stop for guys that were holding them back in any way. They needed to try to keep advancing. And in a lot of cases, that meant parting ways with members of this roster that were very difficult decisions, frankly. You know what I mean? Like, very, very hard. And like, I don't know. There was just something that

as this team went through all of that, the camaraderie, the, the, the, the connection just built throughout the year. And I think that's it culminated in what they were able to do in the playoffs when everybody was doubting them. Yeah, there were, there were a lot of moments throughout the playoffs. I mean, uh, I think it's some, you know, as someone who's, you know, talking with Tori every day, that I heard it, I heard it quite a bit, but just him going on and on about how much the diamondbacks were doubted throughout that entire postseason run. And I remember him talking about how, you know, there was a whole narrative about how they should recede after the first round of the playoffs.

What an insult that was, right? Like that was a direct insult to his team for sure. Yeah, it was like, well, the brave should have had a chance to pick on the lowly diamond backs. You know, that's the way that Tori described it. And he didn't take too kindly to that, you know? I mean, he very much believes in his team. and you could tell, I mean, when he was saying those things,

he wasn't doing it just because it was sort of the thing that you're supposed to say when you're being, you know, sort of bad mouth by other teams. You could tell there was some conviction there. Like there was, there was some emotion in those words when he was talking about that. He really, you know, believes strongly in his guys.

And as far as I can tell, they respond well to that. I could also give an honorable mention to the video I posted on Twitter at once where Tori looked at me asked where I was, where I had been, what I was doing with my life, how I was sending you everywhere and letting you do all of the work. And yeah, that was a, that was motivation for me personally. That was probably the most motivation for, you know, I just felt like, wow, I'd really let things slip. I need to need to get things into gear. We're trying to win a championship here. And here I am, you know, not even coming to the yard anymore, not even showing up to do the work. Right.

So, yeah, that was a, that was another moment for me personally. What else we got, Damon? Oh, known troublemaker piece of Yoshi asks, how long do you think it is until Kyle Lewis is signed by the Mets because time is a flat circle? Has that not happened yet? I would have thought that that would have happened already. I'm not aware of Kyle Lewis having signed anywhere at this point.

Yeah, no, no, unfortunately, unfortunately. It is funny to think. Oh, go ahead. It's just funny to think back to a year ago when Kyle Lewis was acquired by the Diamondbacks and Cooper Hummel was acquired by the Mariners and I think both sides were kind of intrigued at what they were getting in that deal

and you know a year later the you know Cooper Hummel is no longer with the Mariners. He was claimed off waivers by those Mets and the Diamondbacks of course non-tender Kyle Lewis as well. So yeah it's baseball right I mean one day you know you're kind of excited about the new cool thing in town

and then a year later you know, you're looking back like, why did I get myself so excited about that? Yeah. Unfortunately, that's the brutality of this game. He's a talented guy that was hampered by injuries. And that's like one of the worst scenarios. Like it sucks when a guy just isn't good at baseball anymore. It sucks when, you know, they have a like an incredible start to their career and then things kind of fizzle out.

It's worse when, you know, they experience injuries that literally. change the player they are and you kind of feel like you never even got to see him reach his full potential of what he could have been unfortunately anywhere like three major knee surgeries i mean that'll that'll do it right there uh Ryan H in the chat asks when is the lime green hair coming Derek and that is a reference to a Twitter post I got to go to the APS light parade this weekend Jesse and it was an absolute blast it is one of Phoenix's best holiday traditions for those of you that don't know, they start the parade at Brown Bethany at home road on Central, you know, wherever they start all the parades where they start the

festival parade and all that. But they shut off all the lights, Jesse, like all the residential lights, all the street lights down Central are all shut off. And every parade, like the old school Disney light parade, every float is filled with lights and all sorts of cool stuff. They had all the marching bands. We're all wrapped in lights and everything. And our very own Arizona of Diamondbacks were there, including Corbyn Carroll. He was on one of the cars. And I got actually bumped into Ryan Nelson and Alec Thomas. Alec asked me if I still had purple hair.

I was wearing a silly Pluto hat. So of course, that's when I bump into these guys is where I'm dressed ridiculously. But come on, let's be honest. When am I not dressed ridiculously? Yeah, I mean, that's just far for the course, Derek. Yeah, it was, it was very cool. And Alec was awesome. He asked me if the hair was purple.

and then you told me I needed to go with lime green next. So I don't know. I don't know if Lordis is changing his hair to lime green or if Alec just wants to select my hair color, like I'm going to create a character on a video game. But I'm with it. So we might see lime green hair Derek next year. I don't know.

We'll find out. But I just wanted to recommend everybody to check out that parade next year or any chance you get in the future. It's absolutely one of our best things that we do around the holidays in this town. and I absolutely love it. Had a blast this year. There were a lot of people out there too, a lot of people out there. All right, let's get one more question in.

I got to let Jesse go, because I'm sure there's a lot of people standing behind this camera, staring at him, wondering when he's going to wrap it up. Phoenix Suns. Believe it or not, Derek, there is nobody here. They just loved you there with the camera? I am the only person in like a 2 million square foot hotel. That's fantastic.

Well, I guess we can go all night then. Last question. It says, what are the chances these three players land with the debacks? All right. So we're going to do Jorge Saler, Shane Bieber, J.D. Martinez. Let's get a percentage chance, Jesse. What do you think the percentage chances of them landing Jorge Saler? Oh, my goodness.

25%? No. No. No. It can't be, no, it can't be that high. I mean if yeah if I'm like keying in on one specific player of those three of yeah so I think so layer I would probably put at I don't know like 5% maybe like not not unreasonable I mean one at one out of 20 something like that um Shane Shane Bieber I think does does make some sense is a guy who

is not like your number one right at this point Shane Bieber's not really that guy but He would slot into the Diamondbacks rotation, give some stability, you know, in front of Brandon Fott. That could make some sense. Again, we heard what we heard today about the debaq's leaning free agency over trade in the starting pitching market.

I guess I'll go 3% on that one. And then J.D. Martinez is the last one. I think with Martinez, I would maybe go like 7% or 8%, something like that. So you think the highest likelihood there, is J.D. Martinez. Yeah, I think the highest is J.D. Martinez, all that to say. I think, I think I would agree with that. That's probably the order I would put them in and whatever ridiculous percentages I made you do there. Whatever. That's one of the most outrageous

things that there's like the question did not ask that. That was all on you. I know. I know. Hey, I could put my own spin on things. That's what that's what hosting gets me. I can't really be wrong though. Like like there's no way to there's no way to disprove a percentage, right? Like if I say something at a 7% chance of happening. If it happens, then I'm not wrong. And if it doesn't happen, then I'm also not wrong. So I guess it's, I guess it's pretty safe. Ethan says the lime green came from Gabby's Instagram.

Did Gabby dyed his hair, lime green? Is that I need to find out. I'm not doing my job as an investigative. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure he did. I think that's what it was. All right. All right.

I, yeah. Then the answer is yes. Then the answer is yes. I may have gotten chemical burns on my scalp last time, but that's a whole other story. I have very sensitive skin, so we'll see. But you also had a shout out for a former Arizona Diamondback Special Assistant Scouting Director that you might have bumped into there.

Yeah, at some point we need to give a shout out to all of the Diamondbacks have hired and lost a number of people for a number of different roles here over the last few days. They have a new farm director in Sean Larkin. We haven't really gotten a chance to dive into his background and why that hire made sense for the debacks and whatnot. So we'll have to catch up on those things soon. But I did run into Derek Ladner today, who is the former Diamondbacks scouting director, a long-time scouting director for the debacks, moved into a special assistant role more

recently as Ian Rebin moved into the full-time scouting director role for the debacks. But Derek Ladner was just hired by the Houston Astros to become their scouting director. and it's funny because the Houston Astros pick directly in front of the Diamondbacks in the 24 draft. So you've got Derek Ladner heading up the Astros picking and then immediately after him is Ian Rebin, who I wrote a story about them last year. Those two are very, very close. Derek Ladner was sort of a mentor, big time mentor figure for Ian Rebin in his young career. So then picking back to back in the draft is pretty funny. But yeah, Derek is a great guy.

and ran into him today and congrats to him and best of luck in Houston. That's incredible. Well, hopefully we will have more news for you tomorrow from day two. Hopefully, well, is it, is it day two or day three? Where are we at on the actual day? I don't know. Yeah, I think when I filmed the short today,

I'm pretty sure I said day one, which I had kind of an existential crisis after that because I was like, well, I don't know, like Sunday. I don't know, like I checked in on Sunday. I got my badge. I think maybe some of the GMs were here. So today felt like day one. Tuesday feels like day two.

So I guess we can, I guess we can roll with that. That's what we're going with. So hopefully we have some more information for you on day two. We'll be back at this same time tomorrow night at 7.30 p.m. And then on Wednesday, got a little bit of Rule 5 draft happening. So we are still TBD on when Jesse is going to be available based on Mike Hazen's meat availability. But we will keep you guys posted on that. In the meantime, a great gift.

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My voice is kind of shot at this time of night. I go to bed right now. This is usually when Jesse starts writing. This is when Jesse actually starts working. a working process, and this is when I get my beauty sleep. So that's where we are two completely different people, as if we didn't already have enough differences between us. There's another one for you.

But we will be back, like I said, tomorrow night at 730. You can make sure to follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with the K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Damon is here, believe it or not, whether you can see them or not. And we are still Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, bark. All right.

And you can follow Damon at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. of course our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when something actually happens at the winter meetings.