PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ryan Waldschmidt’s CALL UP Helps D-backs BOUNCE BACK With Gritty Series Win over Mets

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ starting rotation answered the challenge from manager Torey Lovullo in a big way, with Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez delivering dominant starts to help the D-backs secure their first home series win over the Mets since 2019. But the biggest spark may have come from top prospect Ryan Waldschmidt, who made an immediate impact with a three-RBI performance on Sunday to help Arizona clinch the season series over New York. We break down the rotation’s recent turnaround, how Waldy helped wake up the offense, and preview the 2023 World Series rematch with the Texas Rangers. Plus, we answer your Mailbag Monday questions! Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is no post-game show, but the Diamondbacks did get their first series win at home against the Mets since 2019. And I think that deserves turning on the Cactus Light. We are talking about pitching, shoving, and Waldschmidt making a dream impact in his debut. All of it right now. Don't go anywhere. Into another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, Lodi-O-K, presented by our friends in Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Monk. to you.

thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be able to use this little beauty again. Look, I don't know when I'll get to turn it on again next. So I'm going to take every opportunity I can to power this bad boy up. And I'm not alone. This is the PHNX Diamond Back show. But, you know, we're all about the dogs around here. He's your dog. He's my dog.

It's Damon Dog on the ones and twos today. Bark, bark to you, Damon. I know you're pumped more than anybody, but this show. This is the Ph.NXD Back podcast brought to you by our friends of Bet365. We're winning is everything. Download the app today and use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download that GameTime app.

Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. And of course it's Monday. So you know GameTime is the proud, proud sponsor of Mailbag Monday every single Monday. But before we get to the mail, we have a lot to talk about, including the Diamondbacks, finally getting things back on track. this series at home versus the Mets. They went on Saturday by a score of 2 to 1

and another very, very low scoring affair and another tight game, but still pitching got the job done in both games and the Diamondbacks win that game on Saturday, 2 to 1, thanks to I Marl Marl Vargas's 2 RBI single, which was good enough for a very good Merrill Kelly to secure a win. Kelly looks like it was old self,

even if it's against a bad Mets team. And I guess I'll say that a couple of times during this, but I'm not going to dwell on it because this Mets team has kind of turned things around a little bit. They got, things going. However, you know, it just feels good to get a series win here. In fact, this series win is their first home series win against the Mets since May 31st through June 2nd, 2019.

It has been nearly seven years since the Arizona D.A. Diamondbacks won a home series against the New York Mets at Chase Field? What? It doesn't seem right. That doesn't make very much sense. But meanwhile, they did secure that series win on Sunday with a 5 to 1 victory that was powered by one Ryan Waldschmidt having his big breakout game as a major leaguer,

scoring 3 RBI. And I mean, this weekend was all about Walshman, right? Like we had the news on Friday, it was unfortunate considering that it involved Alec Thomas being designated for assignment. We all, and that's pretty much it. We were all clamoring for Waldie to get called up. And I think most people, even those on this show, were suggesting that Alec Thomas should probably be sent down, considering had a minor league option left.

Barrosa, also a candidate to be sent down. However, no minor league option. for Barrosa. So it just made sense that AT would be the one that the Diamondbacks would maybe send down to give Walshmet an opportunity. Unfortunately, for Alec Thomas and for those of us that are fans of AT, he did get DFAed. We're still waiting for news in regards to that. But Walshmit, meanwhile, came into the game on Friday in a pinch hit situation, got his first major league hit on Friday. On Saturday, had his first chance to get skunked as a major leaguer, making his first start. and he went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts.

That's going to happen. It's going to happen to the best of them, right? But he did record eight outfield putouts in his first career outfield start. So still making some great plays defensively both on Saturday. And then he made an incredible play on Sunday that I don't think anybody playing left field would have made for this team. But on top of that, he was the primary driving force behind the offense on Sunday going two for four with three RBI and a run scored, essentially responsible for four of the Diamondbacks five runs scored. And I think that that's important to sit here and think about.

Mike Hazen just said on Friday that Walschman was not coming up to be the savior of this team. You sure about that? Are you sure? Because I don't know. Waldie looked like the savior on Sunday, considering that he was responsible or was, took part in, scoring four of the Diamondbacks five runs. He was the only player with a multi-hit game on Sunday. So Savior, maybe not.

Maybe that's too strong. Maybe that's too much pressure to put on this young man. I will say, though, that this is the spark that the Diamondbacks needed. The same kind of spark provided by Jose Fernandez, the same kind of spark provided by lots of young players at times when they've joined the Major League roster for the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is different, though. This feels like Waldschmidt is.

is just, I mean, a major leaguer that's going to stick from day one. He just feels like an all-star. He feels like a superstar. Once again, that is probably the agenda that we've been pushing on this show since spring training, talking a little bit, as well as the fact that I am an excitable boy when it comes to, see, I made that happen with my brain, when it comes to the Diamondbacks getting a new young stud, right?

The Diamondbacks needed this. And when it came to their outfield, you know, there's some things coming together here. We were very excited about the play of Jordan Lawler. That started to cause some questions about the roster. And that was long before Walschman was considered to be a factor here. Now with the return of Loller kind of imminent here, it's looking like the Diamondbacks could have a very dynamic outfield going forward once he returns of Walshman and left Lawler and center and Corbyn Carroll out there and right.

It feels like not only did our defense take a huge kind of step forward with those guys out there, and that's no disrespect to Alec Thomas, who's been an incredible defender in center field for the Diamondbacks, but it just feels like, you know, athleticism and, you know, as far as the kind of blue-chip nature of the guys that are going to be out there, this outfield could be very good both offensively and defensively once Lawler returns. That's going to also still cause some roster crunch issues, including with Barrosa, and Lordus Gurriel Jr. And we have questions about this in the mailbag that we'll get to, so I won't get too ahead of myself.

I need to talk about the starting pitching from this series and what the starting pitching has done. Outside of one start by Zach Gallen, every single start from the Arizona Diamondbacks rotation since Tori Lavallo had his little secret, not secret, but little starting pitchers meeting in his office, has been a quality start, every single start except one. Tori doesn't want to take credit for it.

And the Tory haters will hate this that I'm going to say, but this man deserves credit for whatever he said to these guys. Whatever the dad disappointment that came out in his voice and his words to these guys resonated. Because the Diamondbacks starting pitchers now have three straight starts of six innings or more pitched with three or fewer hits and one or fewer runs allowed. That is tied for the longest streak. in franchise history. That's nuts.

And I mean, that streak wasn't even set by guys named Randy Johnson and Kurt Schilling. Believe Robbie Ray was a factor in one of those streaks, you know, but maybe Brandon Webb. But as far as those streaks are concerned, that's an impressive stretch. And like I said, the quality starts, the Diamondbacks

have been getting from their starters, has been incredible. It's been really, really, really, really good. And, I mean, considering that we were just complaining one week ago about how bad starting pitching has been for this team. It's a remarkable turnaround. The first stretch was Robbie Ray, Alex Young, and then Robbie Ray again back in 2019. And then the other stretch of three games was Dan Herron, Brandon Webb, and Micah Owings doing it in 2008.

God, I thought that was, we had the best trio in baseball. Oh, my God. That was those were good times. I thought we did too, brother. I thought we did too. To be fair, I was like eight. Yeah. Oh, you know, the eight-year-old sue him because he thinks his team's really good.

But now I feel attacked because I definitely was not eight. But I agree with Groundhog Mama. Groundhog Mama says, Kintori called Kattel, Corbett and Domo to his office for The Talk, too. I said get the whole entire starting, you know, lineup in there. Fit all nine guys in there. Make a point. Make it uncomfortable.

Make it uncomfortable both with your words and the amount of space that's available in set office. Because it's work for the Diamondback starting pitchers. Merrill Kelly on Saturday goes seven innings, three hits allowed, one earned run, three walks, 6K. He's back! Has he ever been more back? Has a player ever been more back? Have you ever been more out on a player and then had him be more back than what Merrill Kelly did?

And again, it's the Mets. I know they suck. I'm not going to sit here and get too excited about it. It's the same reason why we got pumped back in April about the stretch against the Phillies and the Mets that they won those series. These teams suck. The Mets suck. I'm not going to take anything away from the Diamondbacks winning.

But, you know, again, this was a series that it's against the team that's struggling and the Diamondbacks needed this win. And the pitching delivered. Both Merrill Kelly on Saturday with that performance on a day where the Diamondbacks were only able to get two runs themselves off an Ildemarovar Vargas single. But then on Sunday, Sunday looked a bit more like a complete game, including Eduardo Roder. almost actually pitching a complete game. Duarte Rodriguez took his one earned run into the ninth inning yesterday. Into the ninth inning, Damon, you hear that? You want me to make it louder for you?

I know some of you were celebrating Mother's Day and were too busy watching people maybe eat brunch or open presents to watch Eduardo Rodriguez shove. But he shoved. He shoved so well. He went five and a third no-hit innings. It was his longest since April 23, 2003, 23rd, against the Orioles when he was with the Tigers and the third longest no-hit bid of his career.

Then he went all the way into the ninth going eight and a third innings pitch, giving up four hits, one earn run, three walks, and 4K. He was so efficient that my inbox is filled with emails from the Diamondbacks talking about how his, you know, 23 pitches through this inning or whatever is, let's see here. Eduardo's 46 pitches are the fewest through five innings. is the fewest by a starting pitcher since Barry Enright did it back in 2010.

He's the first Dback starter with 50 pitchers or fewer through five innings since Brandon fought did it back in 2024. The last MLB starter with 46 pitchers or fewer through the first five innings was Matthew Boyd last year on June 4th of 2025. Eduardo Rodriguez accomplished something in MLB that hasn't been done for nearly a year. That's wild. That's wild with how efficient he was. Again, that goes back to this change of philosophy that the Diamondback starting pitching staff was supposed to have at the beginning of the year.

That kind of seemed to fizzle away there for a stretch causing some of those bad starts and a lot of short starts. That's what's been most impressive about this. In 243 or excuse me, 242 career starts, Eduardo Rodriguez had not tossed a 8 and a 30. innings, had not tossed that many innings ever in his career. It is the most he's ever gone in his career going eight and a third innings. The previous high was he pitched eight innings and he's done that five times in his career. He's never gone eight in a third and he's never had a complete game. And I know people were, people were mad that they pulled Errod out of the game. But he was at over 100 pitches and honestly, it's really not worth it. It's really, I mean,

know a complete game is an accomplishment, but I assure you it's truly not worth it over the course of a season to really like make Erod go out there and throw 120 pitches just to get to a complete game, you know. But I was with you. I wanted to see him do it. But the bullpen has been outstanding for this team. In fact, this is how good the Diamondbacks bullpen has been.

You ready for this one? You're not ready for this one. I'm going to tell you right now that you're not ready for this one. So strap on, maybe put on an extra pair of socks, because I'm going to knock one of them off. The debacks are 14 and 4 when leading after 5 innings. The Arizona Diamondbacks are 14 and 4 when leading after 5 innings, including 9 and 1 at home.

Ladies and gentlemen, the mother effing bullpen. Taylor Clark on Sunday an inning pitched, he tossed his fifth straight scoreless outing. Paul Seawald came in for the save in a two-due. one game. He went one inning, two strikeouts, and Seawald recorded his eighth save going eight for eight in a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts, like I said. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Eduardo Rodriguez didn't really need that help, but Juan Morillo came in and cleaned things up. Juan Murillo, two thirds of an innings pitched, one walk. Got another stat that'll knock your

stock off here. Morillo's 17-game home scoreless streak since June 30th of last year, is the longest active streak in Major League Baseball. He is 1-0 with an opponent batting average of 143, an opponent OPS of 387, a 0.68 whip, three walks, and 17K over that stretch of 17 scoreless games. 14 and 2 3rds innings pitched. He's a stud and a G, and a certified G and a bona fide stud, and you can't teach that, as I've told you guys several times.

on the show. But man, it's just nice to see this team respond to the slump that they went through. And most importantly, it's nice to see the starting pitching staff respond to Tori going in there and, you know, saying whatever the hell he needed to say. Again, we, we asked Tori, he almost made it sound, he's like, all this meeting is getting all, everybody's talking about this meeting. How can you not talk about a meeting? I'm kind of with Tori. I got to be honest. What's that? I'm kind of with Tori.

Well, that it's not on him. It has little to nothing to do with Tori. I know, but you also, does the pitching staff respond like this if he doesn't call that meeting? Probably is my guess. But that's unprovable. We would never be able to have a answer to this crazy hypothetical. It's a timeline we don't live in. It's an alternate world that we'll never know.

I think Tori has a good feeling of how to handle the personalities in his clubhouse. I've stayed very true to that. I think that's what his best attribute as a manager is, is he's likable. His players want to play for him. And, you know, he's very consistent about his feelings and attitudes towards players. But I think that these guys like, I mean, I don't want to say that like water just found its level because we are still 25th in starting pitcher ERA. But it feels like, you know, like they weren't the worst starting pitching group in baseball. And yeah, they had the worst ERA. But I really just feel like that this is more of a situation. of guys just kind of figuring some stuff out and then errod continuing to play you know his best baseball maybe of his entire career so far this season erod wasn't the one that needed the wake-up

no any stretch of everybody else right yeah but gallon merrill and and ryan i agree with scotty mac here he said a little uh a little verbal abuse never heard anybody that's why i scream at derrick after every show about what he needs to improve upon yeah and i i i i will say it does vice versa we Yeah, we actually just have dueling, screaming matches at each other. It's pretty healthy. I mean, we say the phrase, well, you know what? A lot to each other. And then curse words fly out of our mouth, right?

I will say, though, speaking as someone that's heard Tori effectively curse in person, he's good at it. It works. It works. And I think that, you know, again, sometimes just a stern talking to is, you know, is what you need. just at least to motivate you, just at least to have you realize, you know, that you are not as bad as the results are currently showing and the way things are going, right? So I don't know, man. I will say I agree with you.

I don't think that athletes need motivational speeches or whatever, right? But they're still young men. You know what I mean? There's still guys that at some time need somebody to fire them up. and I think that at least doing nothing is not going to you know what I mean that that that's that complacency maybe maybe it did help but I think it's as Tori said like it's like one percent like it's it's a minimal difference but like maybe it's just a little bit more of like hey man I know that you guys know it's been a struggle but I'm here to tell you that it needs to be figured out in some capacity because this is unacceptable right what we're what's going on right now and just make it a little bit more high stakes for the upcoming, you know, series and games that you guys have. But really, I think that it's just more to do with these pitchers, you know, Ryan Nelson, I think, has been, he's been damn good for a year and a half.

Yes. For him to struggle like this early on it, you know, like that doesn't feel like that was going to continue all season long, right? And then he puts the other two really good performances. You know, I, and listen, I want to credit Tori and rile up the haters as much as anybody, Derek. But truthfully, I don't think that he had that. much to do with with this situation i'm gonna say i'm gonna say one thing and then we'll move on to break he's called a manager for a reason not a coach manager this is actually derrick i i i'm not even

kidding with you chelsea's manager did that exact spiel on with a microphone in front of his face in a press conference and said that i'm here to age men that is literally the title of my job uh you know regardless to say he got fired within four months he's is one of the worst managers. Let's not put that out there. But what I will say, though, we all have jobs, right? We all can relate. Most of the time, you have a good relationship with your manager at work, your supervisor at work, you joke with them, you laugh, you have personal conversations, whatever. And then every once in a while, every once in a while, that manager has to pull you into the office with four other employees and give you a stern talking to about

you guys not taking care of business, right? And I'm saying that from that perspective, I think we we can all relate to the way that it feels after that. You know what I mean? Like sometimes that wake up call is enough for you to be like, damn, man, I'm got to get my, I got to get my shit together. You know, that kind of thing. So maybe it is.

But again, like you said, wasn't Erod that needed to do it. However, even he has found a way to kind of reach that next level, right? E. E. God. EGOD was reaching, he was doing plenty.

But, you know, the one thing that he wasn't giving the team was this, was this kind of length. This kind of length is a game changer right now, especially considering one, how good the bullpen has been, but two, how taxed the bullpen has been. It's going to get to a point where that impact of the starting pitching only going four or five innings constantly

is going to cause that bullpen to start unraveling. That bullpen that is close to being out of the bottom 10 of baseball. Right now they're 20th in baseball with ERA. In fact, the diamond back starting ERA, you just said it, 25th. Like just less than a week ago, they were dead last. So it just goes to show how good they've been over this week to raise, you know, to improve by five positions simply by having this kind of quality start out of them.

Yeah. It's great, but it needs to keep going. And they definitely need to keep it rolling against a Texas Rangers team that has some very good pitching as well, including one of the best, if not the best bullpins currently in all of them will be. We're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next time. show. I tried to warn you guys about the heat. I said it was coming. I said you can't do anything to

stop it. And look, it's here now. It's here. It's banging on our door and it wants to come in and ruin our day. It's like Thanos. It's inevitable. It's like 107 degrees out today. It's awful. And of course, we can all use some help managing our energy bills during times like this, especially as these days become more common. Luckily, it's going to drop down a little bit next week. But soon enough, these hundred plus days are going to be here every day. And as those temperatures start to rise, we want to do everything we can to save some money. APS has several ways to help us do just that.

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Well, speaking of game time, it is almost game time. The Diamondbacks will be taking on the Texas Rangers in a three-game set starting tonight, and we have a look here at the Rangers at a glance. Of course, they are our nemesis.

I hate them so much. I hate this team. I hate the logo. I hate the look of their job. Jersey. They make me sick. Like, they really do. And the thing is, is I know that it does.

This is not a reciprocal type of situation. They don't think about us at all. No. Which is a total downgrapy. And I think that's the part that hurts the most. Because I, like, I want rivalries to feel like a rivalry, not just a one-sided, like, big bro, little bro situation. And the, I don't, the Rangers, I mean, I guess they kind of own us. You can't have that when you don't play each other regularly in big situations.

right like we'll never be able to like recreate that unless we somehow get them in the world series again which is the only thing during the chances are slim to none the regular season maybe there's a late season matchup where a series loss to the diamondbacks cost them the playoffs i mean that would be electric i would take derrick i would take that i would take that i would take what i could get yeah uh they're not doing great offensively they are 19 and 21 this season with a minus three run differential diamondbacks also not great in that department right now uh they are five and five in their last 10 games. Their team OPS is 686, which is tied for 24th in Major League Baseball. They're starting ERA, not great, but it's getting better like the Diamondbacks. It's currently 4.22, which is 18th,

but like you said, Nathan Evaldi had a slow start. The Diamondbacks will be facing him in this series, and he has really started to put things together lately. He looks very, very good. Their bullpen, meanwhile, best in baseball. 2.80 ERA, number one in all of Major League Baseball. And then last but not least, they're out above average as a team. It's minus three, which is tied for 20th. Not a terrible team, but a team the Diamondbacks definitely have to be careful about. I think that it's a good sign that their pitching is rolling the way it is as they go into this series against a team that's kind of struggling offensively. Hopefully they can continue to put low-scoring numbers up on the board, two runs or less.

And hopefully the Diamondbacks offense can maybe get to the Rangers pitching staff before they get in that bullpen because that, bullpen has been fairly outstanding. Let's take a look here at the probable pictures presented by 1AZ credit union. Make sure check out 1AZ. They are always taking care of Arizona. And let's see how these probable pictures stack up for this series. Michael Soroka are Randy Johnson slash Kurt Schilling, depending on how you want to view them. I know it's a lefty-righty thing.

I'm not going to get into that. But Michael Soroka goes in game one. And again, Damon, there's just something comforting now about the way the matchups, keep occurring because based on the pitchers that are in there, in this case Soroka and Ryan Nelson, it makes you feel pretty good about the possibility of the Diamondbacks winning this series.

You have Michael Soroka 4 and 2 this season with a 4.14 ERA, much better than that ERA basically says he is, with 42 strikeouts going up against Nathan Eibaldi, who's in the exact same boat. Both of these pitchers are very similar in the aspect that they both have a 4.14.4.15

ERA, but both pitchers are much better than that ERA would allude to. Eivaldi has 47 strikeouts this season. Game two, you got Zach Gallen going up against McKenzie Gore. McKenzie, again, McKenzie Gore, 5.18 ERA, 48 strikeouts, Zach Gallen, 4.70 ERA, 25 strikeouts. Don't love the lefty matchup there in game two, along with Zach Gallin on the mound. So, I mean, honestly, in this one, the best hope is that the Diamondbacks can kind of sneak out with game one and game three here, they somehow find a way to win all three, then we'll start

overreacting accordingly. But last but not least, we got Ryan Nelson going up against Kumar Rocker. Nellie with a 5.680RA, he is 1 in 3 this season with 35 strikeouts. Rocker, meanwhile, 1 and 4 with a 5.01, ERA, 27 strikeouts. The one thing you can take away from this starting pitching matchup, and these probable pitchers is none of them are very good right now, at least statistics. and as far as as far as these two teams go this is kind of fascinating because both teams are struggling offensively both teams starting pitchers are a complete mystery as far as what you're going to get out of them and let's be honest we know how good the diamondbacks bullpen has been even though

the once again the stats would not back it up i put i put with the way they're performing lately right up there with the er a of the rangers bullpen at 2.80 uh and and uh i think that it's a push late. You're going to get some solid performances. You're going to get these games held once these pens come into the game. But I think the difference is going to be is what can these two struggling offenses do right now against these six guys you see on your screen? And Damon, I know you have Eivaldi on your fantasy team. What are your thoughts overall about, you know, what he's been doing lately? Yeah. So he had a really rough start this season. And that's actually why I was able to pick him up, Derek, and I picked him up off of waivers.

And since that pickup, he's at 15 innings pitched, seven hits allowed, one earned run, 15 strikeouts. So don't love that for the Diamondbacks at least. That's his last two. Love it for your fantasy team. Yes, but his last two games, he's been really damn good. So I think it just bears noting on Evaldi that, you know, this could be a situation where the Diamondbacks are getting him at the wrong time. He had a 173 ERA last season.

So the start to the year was pretty surprising. He's honestly a lot better than what that ERA would indicate that he is. I think that, you know, with McKenzie Gore has always been like a, his stuff is better than his numbers guy as well. So, you know, you wouldn't necessarily. Lefty on this lineup. You wouldn't look at the 518 ERA and necessarily just like scoff at it. And then Kumar Rocker, I think, has struggled in his career. So that game three feels like a game we have to take advantage of.

but I'm honestly a little bit nervous for this one tonight with the Evaldi. Yeah, that makes sense. And Books, Bucs Journey says Eivaldi with a 1.17 whip. I mean, it's not that bad for what his ERA. Yeah, not bad for his ERA,

definitely. Katie says that I wish Kelly was pitching against him. Great point. Merrill Kelly owns the Rangers. Yeah, he really does. And then he pulled off the greatest heist of the century with us. We all collectively pulled off the greatest heist.

Yeah, he owns the Rangers. He owns them in the World Series. He owns him. Mitch Bratt and throw him in the game. Mitch Brat's been killing it. Why not? That would really sting the Ranger, wouldn't it?

Appreciate it. That would be so good. But again, beyond this series with the Rangers has been that stretch that Damon and I have discussed quite a bit over the last few weeks. One second. Wait. Before we get off this, I do have one thing that I need to add here, Derek, before we move on. This just popped in my head.

I forgot about this. The Rangers happened to have, when we're looking at this team preview, what sticks out to you when you look at it? Mostly, the bullpen ERA was very surprising to me that they have the best bullpener. The bullpen eras is number one in the league. I think that's easily what you got to look at. One of their three most important bullpen pitchers, Jalen Beaks, who's pitched 17 innings this year, Derek, and has a 265 ERA, a 1.06 whip, has accumulated 0.4 war already. three holds, two saves.

Jalen Beeks is really good. Oh, brother. Well, I just thought that that was interesting. Did you think that was interesting? Yeah, I thought it was kind of interesting too. So should all the people that wanted Jalen Beeks DFA last season. They should all think it's interesting too. Anyway, beyond the Rangers, we got three games with the Rockies in Colorado.

Then we come back home for three games against the Giants. then we have the Rockies come here for four games, then we go to San Francisco for three games. That stretch, that stretch is going to be very important. And then they close the month out against Seattle. And Seattle hasn't been playing great baseball. So, you know, the rest of May, including this Rangers series, is very winnable and should put the Diamondbacks back in a position to be above 500 going into June. That's when they start getting AJ puck back.

and that's when they start facing, you know, some difficult matchups in the month of June. I mean, they don't have a lot, but, you know, they start off the month with a four-game set against the Dodgers. There's a four-game set in there with the St. Louis Cardinals, who may have been very right about having a fire sale with their team, considering how good and how surprising they've been this year. And then they finish up June with a three-game set against the race. So, I mean, I don't know, man, between now and July, there's, There's a lot of winnable series. It's just, it really just feels like it comes down to what can this offense do to get clicking and to start manufacturing runs, creating some runs, creating some offense, you know.

I do feel like it was there yesterday, but again, a big driving force was Ryan Walshman. Look at how important he's been. Just think about instead of those four runs scoring on Sunday that Walshment was involved in, just think about those being four outs created by Allerickman. Thomas or three outs two outs two two four he was two for four it's two more outs but you know you get it you know what I mean don't make me explain myself too much uh it just feels like he already has had a huge impact on this team and it just goes to show what kind of impact a a player that you bring up and you place a struggling player with could have i mean even even you know on saturday he was over three with three strikeouts so it's not like you know his performance on

Saturday was this huge game changer. As a rookie, just making his debut, he's going to probably have a few more games like that, but it just feels like we've already gotten way more out of him than we got out of Alec Thomas all season long. So it feels like the right move was made, and we will see more about AT

as this week rolls on. But we are going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We are going to do what we do every single Monday and have since the dawn of time. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next Diamondback show. got to do your research if you are ever in an accident or serious injury because the lawyer you

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required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost registration activation, terms, conditions and exclusions do apply. Well, Damon, I know that, uh, we have been down on this team this year. And I know we've also been up on this team at times this year. But regardless of your feelings on where this team is at, remember on this show, on this podcast, on the PH&X network, every year is our year. Every year is the year of the snake. It is never the year of the stupid horse, which is the Texas Rangers mascot. Screw that guy. And yeah, forget him. Forget all horses, right? It's the year of the snake. Every single month on this podcast is Black History Month. Every single

month on this podcast is Women's History Month and every single month on this podcast is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day because Damon recycles. I don't. I stopped recycling. But on Mondays we go to the mailbag.

Damon, let's go to the mailbag. The mafia runs all recycling centers. It's a sham. Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? Yeah, our mailbag, of course, sponsored by our friends over at GameTime. Head on over to GameTime.com or download the free app, use promo code PHNX and get $20 off. Your first purchase, again, over at Game Time. First question comes from our guy, Travis Moore, as always.

And Travis said, sorry to be that guy, but I got to push back on my concern with Perdomo last week. And I want to double down. My question is, are my expectations too high? and then goes on to give his take. I feel like if the stances he's turning it around, you're expecting him to be an okay player, gets on base and plays decent defense. After last year,

I had expectations for him to continue being a superstar. I'm still not seeing it. His slugg continues to go down and he isn't making great contact. If all we expect is an OPP guy, that's fine, but then he can't be in the same breath as what is Marte and Carol, he goes on to say. I also told Travis, he's our guy,

but I need these in one tweet moving forward. For graphic purposes. Yeah, no, it's not. That goes for everybody. That's not a Travis only rule. Yeah, yeah. That's just a Travis example. We need to get this condensed.

And Michael Rokiki, he stops sending us gifts. We can't put gifts on the mailbag thing either. Gives don't go on the mail bag. Yeah. We need the fans of the pod to fix up a little bit. Right, yeah. We'll put the rules. We'll post the rules up on the board.

It's been a little bit all over the place. Guys, let's get back in line. Let's do things the right way, you know? Damon, he's been bad in May. And I want him to not be bad. but he's slashed 176, 282, 324 in May with a 606 OPS. He has a 179 batting average on balls in play. And I mean, two, and one home run, two doubles.

So three extra base hits so far, five RBI. I, look, I'm getting where Travis is going with this. And I think that is the thing we are still waiting to see in regards to Perdomo is what is he? You know, what is he? Like, flea ball says Jerry's war is third best on the team, not bad, right? And I'm not saying that this team is the same team without Perdomo on it. But it is a fair question to ask.

Is he a good player that had a great season last year? Or is he a good player that became a great player last year and is still the great player? We won't know until 2026 is all said and done. right but we also know that at times we've questioned players on this team as to why they were slumping or why they had a slow start or why they struggled and then they instantly turned things around in a manner that made us completely forget about that and only reference it kind of as a i guess like a almost like a joke like a laughing a thing to laugh about like hey remember when he was only hitting 176 now that he's hitting 318 and he's been named the july player of the month you know like that's that's that's baseball Corbyn Carroll notoriously had one of the biggest mid-season turnarounds that any player of this team has ever had. And his end of the season stats look like all-star stats, right? So I will say that defensively, he's still the best option out there at shortstop. And I mean, you might be right.

Maybe he is just a good player that had a great season last year. Maybe he's not necessarily an all-star caliber player every single year. But I still feel like Prodomo is going to regress to the means positively, and I'm sure we'll still see him bat somewhere around 260 to 270 by the end of the year and still be one of the Diamondbacks most productive players. That's just because I believe in Perdomo. I believe in his ability in the box. I just think his confidence level might be down right now.

And much like so many players on this team is Chase is just through the roof. everybody in this starting lineup is chasing. In fact, it was nice to see over the last two games, three games, that chase go down a little bit, but we still saw it on Friday, and we've still seen it all year long. The Diamondbacks right now are one of the worst offensive teams at chase rate. So I don't know how to fix that. It's like Tori said. You can't just tell them to stop chasing. Apparently, that does not do the trick. So they have to figure something out. But Perdomo again, you know he's he's really struggled he's really struggled in fact so far this month he only has what um six hits in the month one two three four five six hits you know uh and that's that's not

great so can i just say though like if we're going to do this with jerry which is fine and you know he deserves criticism for how he's played because it's been bad but if we're doing month of may and how perdomo's played let's get let's do corbin carroll's month of may yeah 14 37, 211, 265, 475 OPS, and 34 at bats. Let's do Cotele May. 30ABs, 133, 161, 300 slug, 461 OPS. I mean, Perdomo has better stats. Yeah.

Yeah. Than both of those guys. So that's, I guess, where I'm at, like, where it's like, I feel, it's not just prodomo. It's, it's the three of them. I feel like, yes, it is the three of them. Absolutely. It's, it's all of them that are letting you down.

me personally, and this is a little bit of my perspective as obviously Perdomo super fan of like, I'm going to ride for my guy, admittedly. But like I feel like. You're not wearing the chain. So I mean there's that. And you know what? I meant to grab the chain and I forgot. And I realized it in this moment that I wasn't wearing the chain because it would have been great for the podcast.

But I, I guess I feel like there's a little bit of like a feeling of like, well, Perdomo's last year was a fluke. Whereas Catell and Corbin are, are not bad. So so everyone is on edge about Perdomo being like is it over is he done Whereas with Corbin and Cattel despite their struggles you sit there and you go they're fine I mean Corbin stats on the season look great like I'm not saying that he's been bad It's that that's based it feels like there's a little bit more of like leeway for those guys Yeah span base than there is with Perdom because if you do it two seasons then it's confirmed and you're just a stud that's a two time all star though like that's and it was better in 24 than he was in 23 when he made the all star

game. Correct. So it's like he's had three seasons now where he's been a positive winning player for this team. And yeah, has it been a bad start? Absolutely. He'd be the first guy to be like, this is not my level. This is not what I consider to be acceptable baseball. But I also like think that he's maybe being a little bit unfairly targeted in this conversation. Yeah. But again, it's about it's about the fact that. The expectations are high because everyone believes in him because they want, they think that he's such a good player. So in part, it's the pressure that comes with the expectations of being a really, really high level.

Let me ask you this. Do you think Elamara Vargas is really what he is or what he has been up to this point? No, but I do think he's going to have like, I think his, I think in totality his season will be very good. I agree with that. And I still think he's still very good. In fact, I'd still argue he's the one of the best, if not the best offensive player right now on this team. Yeah, I don't know if there's any question about that. But the point being is that there's no matter, no matter what, how good.

good his stats are no matter what kind of all-star season he put up, the body of work that he's had up to this point will suggest that what he did this season is a fluke. Is it? No, it's not a fluke. He did it. And he's been like we're always talking about, you know, Vargas being like a journeyman and blah, blah, blah, blah. He played three solid seasons for the Washington Nationals before returning here to the Diamondback. So, I mean, he has not been this inconsistent player. When he got playing time like he did with Washington, he put up really good numbers, still like not 300, not hitting over 300, but like he hit 289 one season with like plenty of plate appearances. So it's not like it was, that was a fluke either. This guy's a good player. Yeah. But this is an amazing season for him.

I think that's what, to get back to the question, that's what we were trying to determine about Perdomo still. Was last year just an amazing season for him and he is still more of the player like he wasn't 23 and 24 or, you know, has he ascended and now he can kind of stay at that superstar level. We've talked about it on this show. That is the difference between good players and great players. Good players will have great seasons at times. They really will and they'll be good throughout their entire career. They might have a downseason here and there.

But great players find a way to be great every single season. And that's why great players are few and far between in baseball. It's a very difficult game for you to put together a body of work where every season you're playing at that all-star level. And when you do, then you're a great, right? Pernomo has the makeup, I feel like, to be great. I just think right now the offense is like almost collapsing on itself because of the pressure being put in. And because of the pressure, because Ketel's not holding up his side, now the pressure is harder on Perdomo's side and Corbyn's side. Same thing with Perdomo, not holding it in.

Now that pressure is harder on Kattel and Corbyn. They all just need to go out there and just try to get back to handing the baton off to the next guy and playing baseball the way that this team knows how to play baseball. And when they do that, you feel confidently like they can get the job done considering how well the guys that shouldn't be performing as well as they are, including Vargas, have been. Like Jose Fernandez, Ryan Waldschmidt, freaking, you know, Nolan Arnato, who has just been incredible for this team lately. You know, these guys all look great. And if they could have, you know, Kattel, Corbyn and Jerry, just getting back to that good level, not even the great level, this team's going to win a lot of baseball games,

especially in May and June. What else we got, Damon? Let's get to the next question. I was going to say, though, in regards to Perdomo chasing too much, he is 90th percentile right now in chase rate, according to baseball, savant. He's 98th percentile in whiff rate. His problem seems to be more that when he's making,

contact it's not getting hit hard whatsoever and and he is walking a lot so that that does back he's walking a ton right now that's why his ops looks decent while while katell and corbin can't hit and their opses recently look terrible because perdomo's at least getting on base a ton he's just not he's not he has no power right now which is unfortunate because last year i think that that might be the biggest thing is last year he he showed power chops that you didn't know that he had in his bag and you were hoping that maybe those were maybe not 20 home runs with 100 plus RBI level again, but like 15 with 80. And so far this season, he's not on pace for that at all.

So Pardomo has almost as many walks as he does hits. He has 23 walks and 27 hits this season. He's such a nut job. I love him. I'm sorry. I'll never be able to shake him. He can stink and I'd be like, he's helping the team. You've loved him since he did kind of stink.

So that's never been. That's never gone. The only 19 year old who could never develop and get better, Derek. That's what I always said about Prudomo. And someone else pointed out in the chat, we also have your domo officially signed to the team. So we're rolling in Perdomo. Yeah, yeah. Uraldo.

You're Aldo. Your Aldo. Yeah. And then next up will be Giroldo and then there will be Burraldo and Sorado and Sorado. And Sorado. And we're going to have an entire nine-man lineup of Perdomos and you guys will all see. All win in the long run. We got flea ball.

Seven per domos as the frog, frog domo thing says. What do we got? We got flea ball. We all love his purple hair, but is it time to have a serious conversation about Lordus, no home runs, negative point two war, four RBI all year. We just can't continue to live in 2023. How about Vargy to left field sometimes? And Fernandez and Pavin at first base.

I don't know why they don't like Fernandez better at first base. I don't feel like they play them there very often. And I think that's okay. but I also, you know, I've noticed that recently. I think the idea here is to have this situation right now in the outfield last as long as it needs to in order until Jordan Lawler comes back. When Jordan Lawler comes back, then flea ball, we will have to have a very serious conversation about Lordus Curiel and Jorge

Perosa, right? think that Lordus Gurriel Jr. might factor in as a DH, but do we want that? Like you said, look at his offensive production. Do we need the DH to be yet another, you know, hole in the lineup that doesn't produce? I don't know, man. I mean, we were worried about that to start the season. Damon has had his concerns all season long, all offseason long, not just about the DH, but also first base, the production that we're getting out of there. But I don't know, man. I really do think as far as the outfield is concerned, the plan is to have Waldschmidt, Lawler, and Corbyn out there,

Barrosa is a backup, and maybe Lord is factoring in as a backup. Barrosa also struggling, and again, I said this before, and I hate to throw my short king here under the bus, but his offense has been as bad as Alex. He's just been getting more extra base hits that makes his OPS look a little bit better, but his batting average is still right there around where Alex was around 180.

Maybe Barossa is the next potential candidate to be DFAed or traded or whatever. I'm not sure. I feel like one of those two guys is going to factor in as an outfielder that comes in, gives guys days off, backs up, plays. But outside of that, I mean, do they really need two backup outfielders? And if that's the case, then how do they get everybody playing time? I don't think Lordis is in the same danger of losing his spot, especially not if we're talking about, like, me and you are going to war over like this organization just respects vets. Carlos Santana is going to be on this team.

Lourdes has actually like done stuff for this franchise and just built relationships with all the coaches, Hayeson, all the guys in the front office. Of course, Lordus is back faster than he has any business being back. So I mean, I think that there's that time to let him. get back in those swing of things? They're going to ride or die with Lordus this season. Like I don't expect them to to necessarily be like, well, you're just on the bench for Walschman now. And that's not to mean that he doesn't get any, like Walshman's not getting any starts or

anything. I think he can play left and Lourdes can be H. And like you can make it, you can be flexible and make it work. But to me, like this is a team that goes down swinging with their guys. And I think Lourdes is one of their guys. And he's, we've known that he's like the most hot and cold player ever. he sucks right now but there's also going to be a portion of this season when he wins NL player of the of the week yeah he has four bombs and he hits 400 over the course of the seven days

and he wins you three baseball games by himself because of how good he is like that's what he does so I think that we just have to I guess kind of keep holding out that that time is coming it's not an easy thing to do and you know what like I've never been the biggest lordest guy in the world because of how hot and cold he is in the inconsistency but like that's that's you know i think that's what we got right now so we're rolling with it and uh you know it is what it is i i i think personally i don't think lordis isn't like super huge danger no i don't either especially because next year like with the contract situation he's got to be probably be back on the team if you look at his contract i think it's a 14 million dollar contract but with a

mutual option or a deba backs have a team option but if the debacks are to decline the team option Lordus is due $5 million. So the dimebacks essentially would be paying Lourdes five million to walk away or like... But they're going to do that anymore. Eight more million to just be on the team, which I think that they'll determine that he's worth $8 million to them and they'll keep him.

Unless they can find a trade partner. But I'm not sure that someone is going to be picking, necessarily giving up anything for him. So I think they're kind of stuck with him a little bit. I feel like they have to play in and hope he works through this kind of. I show on Spottrack that he has a club option. Yeah, I said it is either a mutual or a team.

Okay. But if the debacks decline, they owe him $5 million up front. So they would basically be, the determination would have to be that saving $8 million is worth cutting Lourdes and paying him $5 million just to walk away, which I don't think that the Diamondbacks are going to be willing to do personally. Yes, I do think they're willing to do that. Are you really paying, I mean, unless Lourdes picks up his production. you're really going to pay an additional $9 million to have Lourdes on your team for another year just because of the $5 million buyout option? I don't think that's the case personally.

I mean, yeah, Nolan Void is the worst player in baseball for the entire season. I don't think he needs to even be that. But I'm just saying, like, again, with the way that this outfield is shaping up, right? Like, you have the future of this outfield here now, you know, and still parts developing in AAA. So, like, again. You still need a DH, though. like you don't have that on the team so is lord is worth eight million for a one-year deal to be your dh nine million i guess no not really not really not if he's hitting this what's i guess i i need to know

what the alternative options would be but like to me like this year that would be like marcello zuna and like the corpse of jock peterson as as co-girlgirl puts here in the chat like i i don't yeah i don't know that you would that what like what the options would be if they were super plentiful I still feel like there's better options, though, considering, you know, I mean. Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not, again, I'm not the biggest guy in the world. Lord is really need to pick up his production in order for that to even be a consideration as far as I'm concerned. But we'll see. What else we got?

Our next question, we should probably start moving a little faster a little bit through these. We are on question three. It says, why has, why was Delcastio batting cleanup instead of Aronado? And how soon can we get rid of Tori? Well, Tori's contract is up at the end of the year. That's when you will get rid of Tori. maybe i know i know i know i know you say that but again i i feel like if this was a different situation as far as relationships were concerned tory's job would be in jeopardy like this team would

have to be you know they would have to lose the next 20 games in a row or something for them to get rid of tory so that's that's where they're at i feel like if tory's job performance is unsatisfactory what they will do is just let them walk at the end of the year when his contract Oh, yeah. This will be an end of, they're not going to fire Tori in the middle of the season. That's what I mean. Yeah, I agree with you on that. That's what I mean. Yeah, like, you would have to be embarrassingly bad for Tori to lose his job midseason. Right. I agree. And at this point, with the uncertainty of 2027, I don't think that they really want to go through a hiring process in the middle of this season that's going to determine their future. They can let all of that play out, play itself out once baseball resumes and they figure everything out. But again, getting back there, I don't think that Tori's going anywhere this year. But I do think there's a good. a chance he doesn't return after this season. So both of those things can be true. But in regards to the first part of his question, I really don't have a good answer for Del Castillo who's hitting

210 with a 623 OPS being our cleanup hitter. You know, I still think Moreno when he's in the lineup is a much better option. And I agree with you, Aronado seems to be a better option. I'll throw one out there for you. How about Ildomaro Vargas? How about that guy hitting cleanup? Maybe. Maybe the guy hitting 341 with a 937 OPS that continues to deliver for this team. I know his hitting streak is over, but it doesn't mean he stopped hitting. So why aren't we putting Vargas there in that cleanup spot instead of hitting in the five hole? I don't know. I do agree, though, that Del Castillo has gotten to the point that I do not have very much confidence in him.

And I don't believe he's done really anything at any point to show that he deserves to be there in that cleanup spot. Yeah, I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of it either. I say Waldschmidt hits cleanup. Let's put Waldie in that spot. Let's go. I feel like Tori catches a lot of blame for lineups when he doesn't have as much influence on lineups as people as people think he does. Yes, for sure. Like that's the most like, I think like, and this is no shot at the Picasso's left ear or whatever, the fellow who left this mailbag chat.

I feel like a little bit more of like the common basis. fan thing is to be like, well, we're mad at the manager because we don't like the lineups, but it's like modern baseball. This is like a Mike Hazen front office and Tori Lovolo thing. Like I'm not saying Lovolo doesn't have any say, but I'm saying that it's a collective group think conversation. It's not like one guy is sitting down and money ball style is like getting mad at Billy Bean for being like, you stay out of my manager's all.

Like that's not how it works. That's not how it works. Yeah. No, it's really not. Like Billy Bean, like maybe he changed the game, you know, because the GMs are picking the lineups for the most part. So I feel like Tori catches the flack for that when he doesn't deserve it. Lawrence in the chat. Well, Tori does.

I mean, Tori does say all the time about how like he's an idiot for sitting a guy after going five for five. I think Tori properly wears everything because he's a leader. Right. And also I think that's because he pretty like, like guess what? For our show, we have to send a schedule. And sometimes we have to send it two weeks in advance over to. Leah, and sometimes I'm a dummy, and I don't know where days off or whatever, right? Like, sometimes you do stuff so far in advance that when it comes around to doing it,

you stick to it, even though it doesn't make a lot of sense, right? Tori has gotten better about that, not necessarily giving guys the day off and sticking to the schedule that he's set forth going forward, but, you know, still, he does still factor in there, just not the primary person making those decisions, as Damon said. And Lawrence says, geez, ADC was the golden child last year. We ready to throw him out. Neither of those things are true. One, he was not the golden child last year.

No. ABC has never been the golden child on this team. And two, we're not ready to throw him out. ADC also got call up in 2024. So if he was ever the golden child, it would have been when he hit that home run in his opening series. He had two game winning home runs that year, I believe, in like the ninth inning. Yeah. No, I mean, that was magical.

That was when he was the golden child. Still not annoying. He was never like, he was never, like, he was never, what like Ryan Walschmidt became this weekend. That's for sure. Well, ABC doesn't have a real position that really. Like he's not a very good defensive catcher for a major league catcher.

So that hurts him a lot of keeping him in the lineup and giving him sustained opportunity at bats because he can't really be out there on the field or else it's hurting the team. Correct. So he's got a DH. That's what it seems to be. And this team doesn't have a D.H. So this is his opportunity to grab that spot and own it. But frankly, he hasn't done that so far. So he has the opportunity.

Let's see it. You know, no one's driven against him. I'm just saying he doesn't need to hit cleanup. He doesn't need to be costing this team opportunities when those three guys do get on base at the top of the lineup. That's all I'm saying. And until he hits better than, you know, when you're hitting fourth,

you have plenty of opportunity. You're not being, you know, you're not just coming in a pinch hit or whatever. You're not sitting riding the bench. He's been playing a lot and it hasn't really gotten better. So the Diamondbacks just need a better option as DH. And maybe Jose Fernandez could perhaps be that to get him regular playing time and get regular at-bats. But his numbers have even kind of come back down to Earth just a little bit.

All right, what else we got, Damon? Let's do one more and then we got to get to a commercial break. Did Alec Thomas clear waivers from Sal? Sal, he did not yet. And our understanding was that a decision would be made around the five-day mark in regards to the Diamondbacks possibly trading him to another team. Mike Hazen confirmed he has received calls in regards to Alec Thomas. Did not really say

what those calls were about, who they were from, anything like that, but he did get calls on, you know, Thomas. So there's a good chance that teams are going to be interested in Thomas. There's a good chance he won't clear waivers and come back to this team. And that's the part that kind of confuses me the most about him being DFA'd. It felt like a lesson was trying to be taught,

or at least a wake-up call, was trying to be delivered to Alec. And instead, it's going to result in Alec Thomas essentially no longer being part of this organization, most likely. I mean, I was re-listening to the audio this weekend, Derek. I think my interpretation is now that, like, him and Alec

got into it on the phone. You hear that, right? Like, and Mike is, like, pissed at Alec for the way that this, went down. I kind of take that away to that's what I was trying to say the other day. Yeah, and I guess I wasn't understanding what you were trying to say the other day and I'm sure you were trying to like

be a little bit colorful with the language to dance around it kind of not come out right and say it completely. He sounded upset with them. He sounded pissed at it. Right. But we were also determining we were trying to determine if that was because. It was like a dad

like I'm looking out for my, this guy who I have a lot of belief in type of vibe or if it was like arguing about what they think that his standing in major league baseball is where Alec is like, you know, I could help a team right now. And Mike's like, oh, yeah, we'll see. Because I'm going to release you. And then we're going to find out if a team even wants you or not.

Right. Right. Which to me, like, I got to be honest, Eric. And listen, I feel like on this show, I do a lot of like criticism of Mike Hazen, which, you know, like, I want to come out and say that, like, I think Mike Hazen is a great. great GM for an organization like the Diamondbacks where like he he gets a lot right he's not infallible he gets a lot wrong too but for what we've experienced I will take Mike Hayeson nine times out of 10 every day of the week twice on Sundays over like Dave Stewart I know that's

you know obviously pretty low on the totem pole but don't even start it's Stuart I I didn't really love that response from my GM of like are you really getting like you're you're like of getting petty. Like, it's not about the diamondbacks in that circumstance. It's about your personal relationship with Alec Thomas. I don't know if I love that. Look, and obviously it was fresh, like it just happened when he was talking to the media. But like, to me, like, if he really was arguing with Alec and that was his response to the media, it's like, to me, I want my GM to be above that professionally. You have that back and forth with Alec on the phone behind closed doors. you get to the media and you say we love Alec he's been such a great part of this organization we want to give him an opportunity to go help another team what what does that who does that hurt by coming out and doing that and you know just trying to maybe be on a little bit better terms versus showing that you're like upset with a guy who is a lot of people's favorite player I don't know I just thought it was kind of an odd response looking back on it I'll say this and I'm sure Jack Summers would agree with this

is that Mike Hazen was kind of beating around the bush, I guess, a little bit, or was kind of wasn't being direct. And Jack just straight up, like, asked him the question. Like, yeah, but why? Why DFA him? And it's a very, very real question when he has an option. And so, like, what I will say is, is that I think part of the anger that you hear in Mike's voice is him, like, kind of being like, all right, fine, here.

You know, like, like, cards on the table, right? This is why we did it. And this is the honest response. And it was a very honest response. But I also mixed that together with what you said. And that is my takeaway is that the meeting with Alec or the coaching with Alec has not gone well. And it's gotten to a point where they don't feel like this is a flourishing relationship between the organization and the player any longer. Like it's not compatible.

It's not going to work out in the long term. They're going to put him into the minor leagues. And they're only going to call him up for an emergency situation. And if not, that's where he's going to stay. Yeah. And then he's going to get pissed and grow resentful to or the organization. And then that's going to be impact him as a person, as a player and everything like that. In this case, it truly is kind of like, I don't know.

I mean, I. It feels like that resentment was already started, though. The way that that conversation went is, I guess, where I'm at, which is like, I would like to be a little bit more amical, bold than that. And even if it's not, I would like Mike Hazen to be front facing a little bit more of a leader in that circumstance of like because i know what tory would do troy would tell you absolutely nothing about the actual feelings about alec as a baseball player and he'd come out and he'd be like Alex my you know Alex my guy and i love alec and i'll go to war

for alec for the rest of his life like i i love that dude that'll never change that type of vibe you know what i mean where it's i almost felt like it was like bleeding through that audio clip of like Mike kind of being like, clearly there's a disconnect as to what Alec believes is going on, what Mike and the D-backs believe is going on. And you can feel like the tension in his voice when he's talking about it. And it's just weird. It's a weird way for a player to get released in the middle of a season for a team that he played on for so long.

And it was like, he was like kind of such a front facing part of because everybody, you know, any people like texting me, Derek? and they're like, what the hell happened to Alec Thomas? Casual baseball people who only know the names of the players. And they're like, I thought it was Corbyn Cattell, Alec, and you're as the big three. Yeah. And you're like, what? And that's because, like, Alex was that much of like considered like a staple of this franchise.

It's kind of just weird to see it end in that regard, especially when we think that Alec is such like a good dude, too. It also makes you wonder if that pettiness has cost the Diamondbacks in a way because is what is Alex's trade value now? Would his trade value have been stronger if they just put him in the minor leagues with that final option? Yeah. And then traded him without letting it be known

that the organization was this frustrated with him. Or now are they in a position where they've kind of lost bargaining power here with Alec? The only bargaining power they have here is that there's multiple teams interested in him. That's the bargaining power that they have. But aside from that, They don't really have much bargaining power as far as...

They're going to get a ham sandwich for them, you know? Right, right. Whereas you got to feel like had they just put them in the organization or put them in the minor leagues and then traded them at some point, that would have been different. Maybe a point where some team shows that interest in them comes to you, you know, and you can just kind of play it out. I don't know, but it does feel like some animosity is there and that other factors played into this decision besides just that. But I got to agree with Scotty. Well, and that's the thing. I was going to say that too, Derek, because, like, Scott, I don't disagree with that aspect.

That is not what I'm saying at all. I am not saying Alec Thomas deserves to die a member of the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Hitting with as the worst hitter in baseball, time is up. He's been given a ton of opportunities to take that role and hammer it down. And he hasn't because he can't hit at a major league level. It's time for the Diamondbacks to move on. That doesn't erase all of the memories that we made along the way, all of those massive

moments, you know, the fact that we had so much belief in the guy and that he is a likable human being as well. I think all of that contributes to just being like, I wish that the breakup was a little bit more on better terms than what it seems to be because what it seems to be is it's nasty enough where Mike Hazen is like, he's like, I don't even care. Mask off. Let's go. Alex sucks. And you're like, oh, okay. Yeah. Interesting. Well, I mean, we had the same conversation about Mother's Day, Damon. You came to be and you were like, how was your weekend? I was like, my wife had a great Mother's Day.

And you were like, I don't know. I like where that sounds, Derek. But the thing is, it sounds the exact way it sounds, Damon. I'm not trying to sugarcoat this. It was a long side. She had a long, she had a good Mother's Day. And I was like, oh. This guy over here was cooking and cleaning from freaking sun up to sun down meanwhile, all right?

So, yeah, no, she had a good Mother's Day. But you could definitely tell there was some animosity in my voice there about what occurred on Sunday. We're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to do some more Mailbag Monday questions. Don't you go anywhere. You are watching the P.HNX Ryan Waldschmidt podcast. Well, Bet365 wants to make it more fun to watch all of these baseball games. And of course, it's time.

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What do we got in the mailbag? We got Jason here saying this isn't a question, just an apology to Erod. I apologize. I doubted you in 2025. Then you got healthy. you lost weight, you worked hard, you shined at the WBC. Yesterday you pitched into the ninth inning for the first time ever. I apologize.

Your stud. Stay shiny. I have nothing to add to that other than there is one podcaster in Arizona that has been talking about how good Erod was at the tail end of last season and implored people, implored people over the offseason to be patient with our guy because he was healthy and was going to be different this season. and you guys said, Derek, you fool, is what you said to me.

Fool, like a Fox maybe. That's not the phrase, but you get it. You get where I'm going with that. Regardless, Erod has been outstanding, and this is the version of Erod, the Diamondbacks paid all of that money for. It's great to see. Let's hope it continues.

And more importantly, let's hope that this Erod can take the Diamondbacks into the postseason, considering they have not done that yet since he's arrived here. Like, he technically, you know, You can say all the stuff about Jordan Montgomery, Corbyn Burns, all of that that they reached for. Erod was supposed to be the guy that got this team over the hump from 2023. He was supposed to be the guy that brought stability and solidified the starting rotation. And he definitely has not been that up to this point until this season.

And for a few short stretches last year, two five-game stretches. He was very, very good last year. This year, he's been able to put it together consistently. More importantly, even with how good he's been, like I said, he just received. responded incredibly well to this challenge made by Tori Lavolo, to the starting pitching staff, to go out there and give this team more length and to be better. And even though he was good, he found a way to be better than he even was. So a lot of people have some apologizing to do to Erod, not just you, but we appreciate you, Jason, as always. What else we got, Damon? And I'm sorry to Erod,

too. I've said some nasty things. Nasty things. King Corbin Walschman-Glazer says, offense has been slumping hard recently. How would you rearrange the lineup to get the offense going? Damon, I would love to hear your answer. Well, do you want to start this off? You want me to? I mean, I felt like some of the changes they already made were what we were asking them to do, right? They put Perdomo in the lead-off spot, move Cattel, down to second, Corbyn hitting third.

Like a lot of those things. Wasn't Perdomo back to hitting third yesterday? Oh, yeah. I mean, he finds a way to always, like, I don't think Tori has had like the same lineup more than three times. on a baseball game over this over this season already and yeah catell was hitting lead off yesterday carol second perdomo you know third and you're talking about martay one for three carol oh for four perdomo four two strikeouts for carol no walks no strikeouts for per domo i think right now i would probably do some iteration of cattel jerry one two corbin third fourth is tough because we don't

have like a conventional cleanup hitter. I'm putting Vargas there. I don't care. Like I don't need a home run hitter. I just need a guy that can get hits that can drive in those runners when those three guys at the top of the lineup get on base. That's what we need. We need Aronado or we need Vargas in that fourth spot, period. Yeah.

And those are the options I was thinking or maybe Jose Fernandez, although he has cooled off a little bit. But part of that is he's not getting as much consistent playing time. Correct. Give this man the bat, put him in at DH, let him work out his struggles. if he slumps, he slumps. Well, it's just crazy because most organizations in baseball, it feels like they empower their young star type players like that. And the debacks are more of like the team of like,

well, he's not hitting now. We got to take him out of the line. I don't even though for that time. Even when he was hitting, all right, man. Even when he was hitting, they were still taking him out of the lineup and being careful with them. Right?

It's almost like they want to have a soft landing for them. And they don't want to, you know, want it to be too much on them or play too regularly or whatever. When you're young, it's when you have energy to do things every day. Look it. I think somebody earlier in the chat was like, Derek looks well rested.

You're goddamn right. It's because I'm actually well rested. I got sleep this weekend instead of whatever the hell it is I do during the week most of the time when Damon and I are covering postgame shows and here in this office until 1.30 in the morning. And then I have to be back up at 5.30 to take my child to school and make her lunch. Get out of here. I never sleep. I never sleep.

Derek, I pulled over on the side of the road driving back from Tucson this morning to put out a, Arizona transfer graphic that happened while I was driving. I pulled over in Toltec Road and made myself a quick little photo shop. This job never stops. This job never stops. Never ever. All right.

I was going to say I think that I probably would go. I was thinking Vargas Arnato four, five as well. Sure. And then kind of round out, you know, Gueriel maybe sixth to give him. some power opportunities, but help you start on in left field. D.H. I guess at the moment. Okay.

So then no Jose Fernandez in there. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's what's really it's going to come down to is like Walschminton left, Gurriel Daching or Fernandez Daching and Loredes and left. Or you could put Waldian center for a lot guys. Guys are going to need days off, right? People can rotate around. Like I said, Gurriel could be a backup to the outfielders as well as a DH.

Fernandez can be a backup to third base and first base. Yeah. And shortstop as well as DH. I mean, there's opportunity here to get playing time for everybody, but it needs to happen in a way where you stack it so that they get regular playing time. Yeah. So like everyone's playing four out of five or something like that, you know?

Well, where are you batting Moreno when Moreno is in at catcher? Are you batting him that far down in the lineup? Are you going to bat him like six, seventh eighth? Yeah. Yeah? Like seventh. Seventh. I mean, again.

Walschmidt 8th. I almost like Walschmidt and ninth in the ninth hole because again, that's that same thing with Jerry, where you feel like you're getting a guy down there that can get on base and you're giving the guys at the top of the lineup that opportunity to bring them in.

Yeah. I mean, it's not an easy combo. Mostly you just need Corvin, Jerry, and Kattel to start giving you better production. As much as we want to like screw at the lineup and figure out how we can fix it, like if those guys are just going to hit,

you know, sub-600 slugging percentages over the, or not OPS is over the course of a month. I know. It's not going to be a very good offensive month. And right now, Perdomo, the one who we're fielding questions about being like, is he broken? He has the best OPS of the group in May so far. So we need better out of our stars. Book's journey with the hot take says Waldy 100% gets sent down when Lawler comes back by this team.

How about, how about what if I told you no to that? What if I told you fight me? What if I told you I will find you? I will hunt you down and have a conversation with you where we will have a misunderstanding in person. It's going to be about whether they want to cut Barrosa or keep Walschman on the team. So I guess it's kind of down to what their production looks like over the course of until Jordan Lawler comes back. I know you don't hate this, but I also don't think that enough people are thinking about Jose Fernandez getting sent down enough. And I think that.

Oh, he might get. I think that's Santana though, don't you? Well, the Diamondback's 40-man roster right now is at 38. So they can still add two guys to the 40-man roster at the very least without needing to make any moves. But then they have to make the moves to the 26-man roster. Yeah. Right. So I don't know, man.

I mean, I think that there's a lot of players coming back and they're going to have a lot of difficult decisions to make. I just hope they're the right ones. It feels like the Alec Thomas move is. was far more difficult than some of the other decisions they after made. That's what I keep thinking. Far more difficult. I'm like, that's such a harder thing to do for,

in my opinion, than going out and being like, you know, we're getting rid of Carlos Santana who had a cup of coffee on with this franchise. And, you know, we won't even remember playing on the debacks with his 40 year career. We're not giving him the glove back game.

And the purple glove stays on this scene. He might remember that we stole his glove, but that's a different conversation for a different day. All right, what else we got? Let's get these out of her. We've kept these people entirely too long. This is the longest episode in the history of the podcast. Possibly. Still not, still not better than game seven after the NLCS. Michael Rokickey said, now that Walschman has been called up to quote Goldberg, who's next? Who's next? Damon, I still feel like it's probably going to be a relief pitcher. That feels like the very... Cade Stroud. That's the Stroud. That's the doubt. Absolutely feels like it is.

That's the guess. That's where the smart money is going. If you were to say a position player to try to spark the offense the same way that Ryan Walshmidt has, I say Lou James Groover. Yeah. Because that man can't do any more right now at a AAA level to prove that he can hit. My God, I think he's hitting close to 400 again. Like, it's just crazy how good he is.

And when you talk about a DH, right, there's your DH. There's a guy that can come up, get on base, get lots of hits, and just be a productive part of it. of the starting lineup instead of what would be most likely an out most times. Yeah, like he could probably he probably deserves it over ADC at this point, but.

I agree. I agree. Yeah. All right. Let's get one more in and let's get out of here, Damon. Yeah, we got our last one from Karen. Not a question, but a request. Today is the queen of Brooklyn's birthday. Please wish Elizabeth, aka Zabe from Oakley, a very happy birthday. Aw. We love Elizabeth.

We love ourselves some Elizabeth. One of the best baseball fans in the entire world, one of the best Diamondbacks fans in the entire world. Very happy, happy birthday to you, Zabe. One of the best people. Yeah. I'll come out and say it. Yeah. Yeah. Just a, just a great human being. I really do love Zabe. She's a, she is a light in this community. Yeah, absolutely. She's been a like, like, a day one supporter, it feels like, right? Zab's been here since the OG days. At least since I've been here. Longer than you've been here. No, seriously. And I've been here since, you know, year right at the start of year two of the company.

So I've been here a while and Zabe Zab has me beat. Happy birthday, Elizabeth. We appreciate you so much. Thank you so much for being a part of our family. Cool Bro, 297 says same colors as U of A in reference to the Texas Rangers that. I mean, he does the throw up, but like I was part, you know, I know Coolbro is doing his thing and I appreciate the super chat. I just like it's blue and red brother. It's like if you want to be mad about those colors, you got to be mad about a lot of different franchises and teams.

we're going to have to start taking notes. We're over blue and red. We're over blue and red for sure. Also, um, actually, we're Navy, not Royal. Oh, God. He irmed you. All right, Grudy 7, what do you got? Thank you so much for your super chat.

Nicholas Grudor says, what's this going to look like when Lawler is back? Lord us to DH. And that's what we were talking about a little bit. I think Lord is to DH slash roaming outfielder. Slash, and again. Wallschmidt to the bench would be the two probably options. I feel like, Lawler is going to be given the center field spot. I feel like Lord is left field.

He always plays left field. And then they can rotate Jordan Lawler and Ryan Walschmidt, both around in center field when Lourdes is out there. Like there's a bunch of different combinations. But I do feel like Walschmidt and Lawler will be your primary center fielders. Corbyn will be a right fielder except in like emergency situations where they might have to put him in center. And they will leave Lordis over there.

and left no matter what and he'll dh and all those guys will rotate around they'll all perhaps have some dh opportunities and they'll all have days off similar with the infield right but again you're gonna get both pavement smith and carlo santana carlo santana hit a bomb yesterday for the triple a rino as i know i know and that that doesn't help damon's agenda at all when that happened derrick i like i you know that gif of the bean that i post where he crumples to the ground just face forward yeah that was me when I got the notification that Carlos Santana hit a Reno home run. Just, I know.

Well, of course, that's what we got for that. But we're excited. We're excited to see all of the combinations that this team figures out. And hopefully, again, what we really want to see is them continue to make the right moves when it comes to

who is in the lineup and who is not in the lineup. I heard it's the thing is, is Santana supposed to be like the most helpful guy in the, in the clubhouse when it comes to hitting in the cages. I'm not, I don't, I wouldn't put it off the table. Hey,

Carlos, you know, like we're going to let you get an opportunity with a different team, but if no one comes calling, we got a spot on the coaching staff. You leave that glove here. Yeah, you leave the glove here and we hire you to come teach our guys out of hit a little bit.

Cool, bro also says Saturday I felt like I was at Comic Con with photos. Oh yeah, they had the full on, uh, Gabby Bobblehead and Star Wars Night out there. They had some incredible Photoshop's for all of the photo pictures. My favorite Damon was they were putting them as action figures in Star Wars action figures

in like the packaging up on the scoreboard. That five stars, 10 out of 10, no notes. The graphics team on the on the come up. Yeah. The scoreboard obviously getting better and better. I mean, got to be excited in Debacks land if you're a fan. of that type of stuff. Katie asks before we get out of here, isn't Reno a hitter-friendly park? It absolutely is, Katie. And that's how we'll leave that home run by Carlos Santana out there.

But again, we thank you for your questions. And more importantly, we thank you guys for your time. It's your most valuable commodity. We can't tell you exactly. Can't express enough how much we enjoy that you shared your time with us. We will be back tomorrow with another postgame show after game two of the Rangers series. So until then, you can follow us on social media. I am at Kapp. underscore caveman everywhere with a K. Well, actually, Kamp underscore Caveman with a K everywhere. Anyway, he's a

dog. He's a Damon dog with a DAWG at the end, but we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. Love you. We'll see you back here tomorrow

for another post-game show. Until then, behave yourselves, Jason, and remember kids. is fun, but it's so much more fun when your starting pitchers can shove like this.