PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The 5 BIGGEST Questions the D-backs MUST ANSWER This Offseason

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ 2026 season is officially in the rearview mirror, and there are A LOT of questions that need to be answered this offseason. Today, we tackle the FIVE biggest questions facing the D-backs heading into 2027. Plus, D-backs pregame host Steve Zinsmeister joins the show to look back at the 2026 season, discuss what went wrong and get his perspective on where this team goes from here. We’ll also check in on the MLB Wild Card round, break down the biggest performances from Tuesday’s playoff action and do some spying on our exes to see how some former D-backs are doing in October, including Christian Walker, Randal Grichuk, Carson Kelly and Jhoan Duran.0:00 - Intro4:00 - Steve Zinsmeister Joins The Show!29:00 - 5 Biggest Questions For The Offseason!47:40 - The Wildcard is Upon Us...BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/joinJOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/coll...ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ACE HVAC: If you are having an AC, Plumbing or electrical issue, call our friends over at ACE: [phone] , tell them PHNX sent you, they’ll take great care of you!Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?ut...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!New DraftKings customers sign up with code PHNX, spend just five bucks, and get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That’s code PHNX. In partnership with DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred NEXT STEP. Twenty-one plus. Arizona only. Eligibility restrictions apply. Fifty dollars in non-withdrawable Bonus Bets issued every seven days via click-to-claim for twenty-one days. Bonus Bets expire seven days after issuance. 1 football Boost per customer. Maximum bet limits and restrictions apply. Tokens expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered. Terms at d k n g dot c o slash offer.  Limited time offer.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.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a lot of questions to answer this offseason, but we are going to talk about the five biggest questions that they have on their radar that they must answer. We're joined by D-BAC's pre-game host, Steve Zinsmeister, to talk about their 2026 season and what 2027 could hold. And we're doing all of that right now. Don't you go anywhere. To another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, love from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. it is your mayor of the off season,

occasionally known as Derek Montia, here to talk a little Diamondbacks baseball and more importantly, what went wrong and what they need to fix and all of that stuff. We're still not over this team, not making the postseason around here. But thrilled to have you guys here in the chat,

thrilled to have my guy Erriton on the ones and twos today. That coward Damon, once again, took another Wednesday off because you can't stand talking about this team getting bounced from the postseason. We brought in some reinforcements here, so don't worry about that. But this show, of course, as always, is brought to you by the fine folks at GameTime. Go download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off. Your first purchase, terms do apply.

And yes, like I said, I'm not alone today. I got you wonderful people in the chat. I got Erriton here with me. But we are also joined by the DeBax Radio pregame and postgame host. And my former co-host and friend, former friend, former co-host. host and friend. You can take that however you want, but it's the one and only Steve Zenzmeister. And Steve, I'm not doing any more name quizzes when you come on this show. So I'm going to have to veto that if that's what you're coming here to do. I have not prepared any sort of quizzes for you

in anticipation that you would likely fail them anyway. That's a good point. I mean, there's no reason of prove further what we've already proved. But I would like to begin by reminding everyone that I have never once cast a ballot with your name on it. So how you get to continue to call yourself mayor still baffles me. I mean, that's the way votes go sometimes. Sometimes you don't win those votes. Sometimes your ballot was, you know, it existed, but it didn't really go towards the winning candidate in my case. But don't judge me. I'm not here to be judged. Judge the diamond backs, all right? Because this is the team that disappointed us. This is the team that once again came so close to the post-season, but I'm not going to dwell on that today. I am just going to ask you

this. What do you think the debacks learned about this roster this season that they absolutely have to carry kind of forward into the offseason? Like I know we could sit here and talk about the bad, but what what is the good that they kind of have to like build around going forward this off season? I think the good news is that the bone. and the foundation of the roster are really in place. And when you think about it, there's not a whole lot of significant holes. I mean,

you've got a rotation where you're returning five guys. Rodriguez fought Nelson, Kelly, and what's the one I'm missing that I just- Burns? Burns, of course. So you've got five guys in the rotation theoretically. So you don't need to make significant additions there, barring any sort of trade or whatever.

The bullpen, you've certainly found three guys that can be your back-end high leverage relievers. So you don't have to make high dollar value additions to the bullpen. You just got to fill it out with really good options, which they've been good at doing the past few years. And as far as position players go, really first base is the only position on the diamond that doesn't have a starter right now. I mean, you can always go and make upgrades and additions to this team.

But right now, they don't have a ton of holes. But what they do have is going into next year, they need a lot of these guys to step up. Obviously, they had down years from some of their star players. So getting them to turn things around would be a significant boost for this team. And then finding ways to optimize guys, put them in good positions to succeed. I think back to what the Diamondbacks did in 2024 with the designated hitter position, where they went out and found guys, it's like, okay, you face lefties, you face righties. And we're just going to go out there.

and the combination of that platoon is going to be very valuable to us. And I don't just mean that for the designated hitter position, but you could see a platoon in left field the way that we did down the stretch. You could see them do that in a couple of different spots. So the truth is the foundation is there for a really good Diamondbacks team of the future. And we saw a lot of those future guys throughout the course of this season. How many guys got a taste of the big leagues that are going to play a significant role moving forward, whether it's Lawler, Waldschmidt, Tommy Troy, Lou James Groover, possibly, Jose Fernandez.

We saw a ton of guys make appearances this year, and now they've got that experience under their belt so that it's not going to be the first time, the next time that they contribute. Do you think not enough people take specifically that into account when they think back on this season, the fact that the Diamondbacks had, not only all of those guys make their debuts and unexpectedly, like those guys, some of them, Jose Fernandez, for instance, prior to spring training, he didn't have an ETA until like 2028, right? So it's like for him to have as good of a spring as he had and to be called up when an opportunity arose and for him to deliver like he did in the first two weeks. As we joked, we were ready to build the statue of Jose Fernandez. Right. So like there were so many rookies that were called up. And honestly, they all did a pretty good job of contributing to this team. Yet it's still difficult to have a team have the success that the Diamondbacks found at having 10 games over 5, you know, finishing 10 games over 500 and still needing to rely on multiple rookie starters in your rotation and multiple rookie position players throughout the field all season long. Like I don't, I know this season ended in disappointment and it almost feels more disappointing because of how close we got and how short we fell to making the playoffs. But again, when it comes to

thinking about how this season went, I don't think that that is, you know, kind of thought of enough about how short this team was on depth and how they needed to call guys that, you know, they weren't expecting to rely on to fill that depth. Yeah, I didn't even mention how much they had to rely on guys like Mitch Bratt, Cole Drake, and Jose Cabrera in the rotation. Right. But to your point, I mean, yeah, you have a lot of young guys who stepped in. And there wasn't a lot of continuity with the roster throughout the course of the season. There were a lot of interchangeable parts, a lot of moving parts with this roster, really from the get-go. And not just because of the guys who came into the season injured like Burns and Pock and Martinez, we knew about that.

But the fact that Carlos Santana was supposed to be a big piece. And a week into the season, you know, there was a monkey wrench thrown into that. Paving Smith's entire season got derailed. Say that again? I'm sorry to interrupt you, but his glove played a bigger role on this. team than he did. The Purple Club was legendary. I think that's fair to say, but it just kind of goes to show you how many parts, moving parts there were to this roster. Just look at first base in general. I mean, you had over 10 different players play the position for the Diamondbacks over the course of

the season, at least four of them with regularity. And I don't know that the Diamondbacks ended this season with any one player in mind that is the first baseman moving forward. So yes, great to have experience for a lot of those young guys, especially some of the up-and-coming, like, top prospect, first-round guys. Jordan Lawler getting a little bit more run, although he had a couple of injuries. Ryan Waldschmidt, getting a taste to the big leagues a couple of times and making adjustments the second time. Tommy Troy as well. So yes, very good that you get those guys in. It's just a reliance on them to stand out in their rookie year is asking a lot. And they performed well at times, but going into next year, it makes me feel really confident that they're going to have some really interesting role players.

I just feel like really, you know, it would be fine if we're talking about them relying on a couple of those guys. But when you look at that list of players that made their debut, their major league debut this season for the Diamondbacks, it's it's just hard to even imagine this team having the record that they have right now. And a lot of that was due to needs that they didn't address at all at any point. And those were needs that they had this past off season. I know that one thing you just brought up was a great point. This team is in such a better position this off season than they were last off season. Many of our conversations were about how, if they have this limited budget that they're telling us they have,

how are they going to fill up their starting rotation that needed three pitchers at the time? And how are they going to do all of this stuff that they want to do, right? Like it didn't see or they need at least at least two starting pitchers, but how are they going to fill these position old needs that they have and all of this with the limited budget that they do have? So I understand why they didn't address things like first base, but it's hard not to look back on this season and realize that the biggest thing this is the roster needed that you simply couldn't fix by someone coming back from the injury list was their first base DH situation. And that kind of plagued them all season long. Yeah, I think first base in particular, they learned after Christian Walker left. I think they realized the value of what they had for the better part of a decade, you know, from Paul Goldschmidt handing that off to Christian Walker kind of seamlessly.

I think that you realize not just offensively, but defensively as well, how valuable that position is in the modern game. But yes, you're right. Going into this offseason, there is a little bit less to accomplish in terms of there are less questions. From a rotation standpoint, you're right. Going into last off season, you know, there was no Soroka, there was no gallon, there was no Merrill Kelly. Right. So it was really Rodriguez coming off two bad years. Ryan Nelson coming off two straight years of being kind of thrown, tossed around between the rotation and the bullpen. Brandon fought had not really

emerged in probably two years since he got called up in 23. So there just wasn't a lot of confidence in the rotation. They needed to spend last off-season rebuilding the rotation. And for the most part, they did a pretty good job. Obviously, the investments in Gallin and Kelly did not turn out the way that anybody hoped, especially those guys. So they'll readdress that here this off-season as well. But there is a lot more to be confident in the potential of a healthy Corbyn-Burn season, the idea of Eduardo Rodriguez having a second follow-up season to what he just did, an all-star year. Brandon fought being the pitcher that he was in the second half of this season for the entirety of a season would be huge for the diamond backs. And then Ryan Nelson, who might have the most upside of any of their starters, but just spent a lot of time hurt in the second half of this year.

So yeah, you don't have as much to rebuild. Like I said earlier, the foundation is there. Now you just go and fix the pieces that you know from this year's team were an issue. And you should be fine. Yeah. Well, I do have to ask. and I know you and I have been covering him for a long time, going back to our Ain't No Fang days,

but how do you evaluate Tori Lavello's tenure as manager here? And what do you think the Diamondbacks as an organization have to consider when deciding whether they want him back or whether he wants to come back? I know that obviously is on both parties, right? So we don't know. But, you know, what about Tori do you think this organization kind of needs to value and think about it and decide? whether or not they have them return.

I realize I probably come from this with a perspective that is completely biased. I mean, I basically look at Tori as like a coworker. It's hard. I say the same thing. I say it on the show. Like people, people accuse all of us media of getting paid, paid off by Tori,

the big bucks so that we all say nice things about him. And in the reality of it, it's hard to be unbiased when we cover him as closely as we do. And especially you, you are around him as often. as you are and you get to discuss even, you know, you get a citatory that even the rest of us don't really get, right? So like, it's difficult because he's just, in all honesty, he's a great guy. He's a great man and he's a, not only is he an interesting person to cover

and talk to, but he's also, in my opinion, a really good baseball manager and very, very, very good at what the Diamondbacks need a manager to be, which is a guy that helps these young players come up and make their debuts and find a successful career because that's how this organization is going to have to build. I just, I'm with you 100% when it comes to like having a hard time not admitting that I'm not going to come from this from a completely unbiased perspective because I really do like Tori as the person entirely too much to try to pretend like I can separate the two. I also get the opportunity to be around Tori in a setting that's a little bit different where you know, we go back to his office and, you know, he gives me five minutes every day to ask any questions

that I want for the radio pregame show, which I'm very appreciative of. But at the same time, you know, you know, we get the opportunity to be around him as team broadcasters with other people from the organization, whether it's other coaches who pop in or front office members. And a lot of times, the interaction between him and them is really what fascinates me the most and informs me of what's going on. and the respect that you see between them and the players and the manager as well, the more I'm around the organization, the more I realize that being a major league manager is probably less than 50% of the job is the on-the-field decisions and the stuff that you see that's forward facing.

And the vast majority of it is decisions made behind the scenes that you and I are not going to be privy to, pretty much ever. And so Tori excels in those areas. He excels in culture building, relationship building, keeping the family together, the egos checked. And that is a huge portion of what a major league manager does. And I have a firm belief that the managerial decisions on the field, you know, you can criticize certain ones. You could say that he's pushed a lot of great buttons this year, which I think he has. I think that those things balance each other out over the course of 162 game series.

It's just such a large sample size that you can't really. point to one thing and say that's the thing that's going to cost them the season. Sure. I come at it like this. If you took your car into the garage because the front tire blew and you've got a blown tire and you take it in and they say, well, it seems to be the problem with your car. He's like, well, I got a flat tire. And they say, actually, we think you probably need to replace the engine.

And you're like, no, there's a flat tire. I see the problem. It's right there. Yeah. I like, don't tell me there's another problem when I see that there's no problem there. And that's kind of how I feel about Tori. Like I, I, I, everyone that knows him thinks that he's good at this and that he's going to, you know, find, he'll be just fine no matter what happens this offseason, no matter what decisions he or the organization chooses to make. So I'm not worried about that.

But I just, I don't see the problem. I think he's really good at this. And he is not the reason the Diamondbacks didn't make the postseason. Yeah. I, I agree with you on that. I have my own metaphors for Tori. I made mine about him being able to go into your. like college dorm and find two eggs and a pack of 99 cent ramen and make some sort of

amazing dinner out of that. And that's kind of what I feel like he did with this roster at times. Definitely was not given the kind of candidates, the kind of players that he needed to win. But he still has a strong core. And I think that is the bigger problem this year was the core, the superstars didn't perform at the level that this team needed them to. And the supporting cast they added around them still feels like they did a solid job when you look at how many of those guys contributed, won games, Nolan Arnato, leading this team in home runs, Ryan Walschmidt and his walk-off antics for the first time in his career, right? All of that stuff. It's hard not to say that the five or six through nine hitters did their jobs. But at the same time,

looking at the end results, it just feels like we didn't get the best out of the guys that we kind of expect to get the best out of because of how good we know them to be, right? But that's baseball, man. Not everybody's going to have like an MVP caliber season like Geraldo Perdomo did last year, you know, every year of their career, especially when you're not expecting it out of a guy like Jerry. I think specifically on Perdomo, I think he had a better year than some people realize as well, but we could dive into that. The second half was.

Yeah, definitely. especially the last week or two. But I do want to make it clear, though, like I understand the reasoning of, well, you know, sometimes change for the sake of change is good and getting a new voice and going a different direction because this isn't working. Like I understand that side of the argument as well.

And let's face it, we're all judged on performance. You know, whether it's your viewership or the amount of people listening to the radio broadcast, like we're all judged on performance in some ways. And so making the postseason in two out of ten years, if you want to make that the end all be all about why, you know, what the performance has looked like and what it should be,

I get that. I mean, take the last homestand, for example. I'm in the radio booth and I look to my left and in the TV booth next door is Joe Girardi, who of course is now a broadcaster for the Yankees games. And I think back on his tenure and how it ended in New York,

or at least my recollection of it is he just couldn't win the big game. right yeah he was a great manager he was a good manager everybody knew that but he couldn't get the yankees over that hump they were trying to get over which was to win the world series right and that in my view was the biggest reason why they moved off of him and it got me thinking a little bit about this organization in the situation they find themselves and now obviously it's a different standard right like the yankees and their fans and their organization their standard is win the world series every year and i get that that's somewhat unrealistic for every organization but you know the diamond backs want to win they want to be in postseason play they want to be competitive

every single year and so like if that's the bar i can understand wanting to change just to try to set a different standard but um i do come back to ultimately i think tori lavelle is a very good manager if not one of the best in in all baseball i would rather address the flaws that i see that are like right there they're uh imminent like i would rather fix those problems with the car, then try to, you know, have some other issue pop up while I'm replacing the engine. Get the whole engine and then have them not put in the new spark plugs in the old spark plugs. And that happened to a friend of mine. And that's, that could be what this team is. That's a good. We're getting this, this metaphor is great. I do have to say, though,

if you're sitting in Mike Hazen's chair this morning is the first thing you address Tori? Are you letting Tori have his time? Are you, focusing more on the roster? Like what would be your first thing you addressed as GM of this team? Well, I think that at some point they're going to have to address this managerial situation.

I don't know that it's their move to make necessarily. Yeah, Tori is basically like a free agent. My understanding, and again, I don't have background info on this, but my understanding is that Tori's contract is coming to an end and that he will essentially be a free agent manager. So it's up to them,

whether or not they want to make an offer, I suppose. And then it's up to him whether or not he wants to accept that offer or go look for one elsewhere. So, I mean, I hate to- But it changes a lot, right? Like, if he's not manager, I mean, that could perhaps impact when they make roster moves. Obviously, roster moves are way down. And with the lockout coming, there's a nightmare when it comes to that.

But let's just pretend 2027 is a normal season, right? Like, you have to address the managerial stuff before you can even consider starting to make changes to the roster or build whatever you're trying to build for 2027, right? So there's nothing more important. I mean, finding a first baseman, yeah, that's probably like one of the biggest things on your checklist this offseason. But like, is that above finding a manager or figuring out if your manager's coming back? Like, no, absolutely not. And think about the, ramifications and the trickle down effect, right? Like if the manager were to be a different person, that's not Tori Lavello, now all of a sudden the question arises.

of the, what about the coaching staff underneath them? What about Joe Mather and the hitting coaches? What about Brian Kaplan and the pitching staff? What about some of the, you know, front office potentially changing? What about Dave McKay? What about Dave McKay? We all worry about Dave McKay all the time. Dave McKay was an absolute staple in this organization.

I mean, it's a relevant question, right? And, you know, those people may not want to be here if it's somebody else, you know, running the ship. The new person running the ship deserves the right to fill the staff with people that they trust and that they want. So, I mean, it goes both ways, right? But nothing this offseason matters more than checking that first box, which is who is steering the ship. And, you know, Tori is a free agent, essentially. So make the first move, I guess.

Yeah. And again, that's something we also discussed is like Jeff Bannister seems to come up as a possible potential replacement and someone that people are in favor of. but Tori is a guy that leans on his coaching staff heavily and appreciates and takes into consideration all of their advice, all of their thoughts, all of their game plans. If you want something different than Tori, if that's what the end result is, that you feel like you need a different, you know, regime in there,

I don't know if you can continue with the same coaching staff at all or just bring in a Jeff Bannister simply because that's, he's been a huge part of this team and coaching this team. as it stands. So it just doesn't really feel like, you know, just changing Tori, as you said, is going to be the thing that fixes the problem or addresses the problem with this team right now, you know, but we appreciate you. Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, frankly, I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know if Tori is going to be back or not. I don't know if there will be a new manager for the Diamondbacks or not. We'll wait and see. But as far as the coaching staff goes,

I will say this too. I've seen over the last couple of years, them do some pretty remarkable things. Joe Mather and his group had a top six offense in all of baseball in 24 and 25. I think that's significant and worth mentioning, even though some of their players took steps back this year. I think that the pitching side of things got a lot better this year. And some of that is personnel, but I think Brian Kaplan and his crew found a way to unlock Eduardo Rodriguez. He found a way to unlock Brandon fought when he went down to the minors this year. Blyche, I give him credit considering, you know, what what he did with Pittsburgh. Absolutely. Jeremy deserves a ton of credit. And he just came over last off season. So like his impact has

been felt very, very quickly. And I know that there's a trust level between the pitching staff, like the players and Jeremy as well. So like there's been a lot of good behind the scenes the past year or two or three. So I want that to be to be on the record first and foremost before we talk about any sort of significant changes, which, again, we'll see what the Diamondbacks choose to do here in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, they have a lot to address. And we're going to talk about those questions. And we have no answers to those questions yet, but we have the five biggest questions

on their radar this offseason coming up here. But we appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time, Steve. And I got to ask you, give me one team in the wild card round that you think could go all the way. One team in the wild card round? probably Atlanta, I would say, is the best bet. New York, I would say if I knew when Aaron Judge was coming back.

Clearly, their lineup is potent without him, but with him, that kind of sets them apart. So I'll say Atlanta for right now, and, you know, they got the job done in game one. I haven't checked the score. They were tied last I looked. But Atlanta is probably the team in the wild card round. I like the most, hoping that the White Sox get it done in the wild card round, because I like sharing for an underdog. That's a fun team to root for right now, man. That's kind of our go-to.

But, hey, man, again, we appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time. And we'll chat again here about the Diamondbacks off-season soon. All right, Derek. Thanks for the invite, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you, brother.

All right, guys. Well, we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk about those five biggest questions for the Diamondbacks this off-season. And then I have more questions to be answered. Like, it's questions and then layers of questions. It's like an onion, like Shrek says. So 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 in that show. Well, you know I am the biggest NASCAR in this office, and I will still be rooting on Ryan Blaney until the bitter end. You can join me in my fandom of Ryan Blaney or any driver that's currently involved in the chase for NASCAR when they come here, October 16th through the 18th to Phoenix Raceway. I was out there on the track driving my own car around the track. So you know I'm already invested in this, but the chase does return here to Phoenix Raceway October 16th through the 18th.

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We simply can't. But we have to address the five things that the Diamondbacks need to take care of while they watch all of these other teams, gallivance in play in the postseason, and they miss out. And obviously, the biggest question, as we just discussed with Steve, is is Tori Lavallo coming back? This is the first domino to fall. This is, you know, Tori's contract is up. as a free agent manager, and there have been no extension discussions before the season ended. Tori discussed wanting to be wanted.

You know, that was part of his, you know, post-game press conference comments that kind of stuck with so many of us. And, I mean, it really comes down to, do you feel like Tori Lavello is the right man for the job or not? And should the Diamondbacks change direction? I mean, no, at least as far as we know, no contract has been offered. So the Diamondbacks might not even pursue bringing Tori Lavallo back. However, that seems, that kind of seems doubtful based on Derek Hall's comments from Arizona Sports 98.7. It does feel like Derek Hall, you know, he did say that Tori didn't have to make the playoffs. The Diamondbacks didn't have to make the postseason in order for him to be back.

So I wouldn't be surprised if an offer was made. I just don't know if that offer is going to be what LaVallo is looking for. I don't know if it's going to be a multi-year deal or just a simple short-term deal. That feels likely with how uncertain the future of MLB as a whole is. It feels like maybe a two-year deal might be on the table at the most. But I could be wrong about that. Perhaps they value Tori and perhaps they really do want to bring him in on a multi-year deal and bring him back. I know that there are not a lot of fans in favor of that.

Split, I don't want to say there aren't a lot of fans. There are a lot of people that like Tori and feel like he. he's the right man for the job. But after three straight seasons without a postseason appearance, it comes down to what the organization needs to decide about Tori. And if they feel like the lack of making the postseason is on him, or if Mike Hazen as a general manager takes on the responsibility and feels like it's more on the roster that he built

and the lack of weapons that he gave Tori to use throughout the season. I mean, how much does a winning or having a season where you finish 10 games over 500 factor in? where you just kind of have to tip your cap to how good the Padres were in the month of September, how unbeatable they were and how much that even with winning, you know, this many games that they won, I mean, is it enough for you to be satisfied with the result? Does Tori deserve credit for keeping this team competitive despite the injuries? Does he deserve credit for, again, having so many rookies in the lineup?

And you also have to wonder how Tori and Mike Hazen's relationship factor in here as well. They are very close and it can definitely be one of those things where if Tori leaves, Arizona might, you know, need a completely different managerial voice. And that's something that would require replacing the whole coaching staff and finding that voice. I still kind of like the idea we discussed yesterday of, you know, I, not that I want to bring like culture or or race or anything into it, but I just do feel like a Hispanic manager with the majority of this clubhouse

being Hispanic players would perhaps get more out of guys. Perhaps that's something that could make a connection with some of the Spanish-speaking players and such. I don't really know. I don't really feel like it's the relationship between the players and Tori because I don't care what language you spoke. The players unanimously kind of love Tori.

So I don't really know when it's, comes down to that how much, you know, an Alex Corr or an Albert Poole host can make a big difference, but I did grow up in a very, very, very Hispanic household myself, even though my accent isn't there and my Spanish is terrible, terrible, terrible, as we would say in Spanish. But I will say that, really, there's certain things about our culture, Hispanic culture that is different. And again, maybe a manager like Alex Cora or Poole Hulse can get more out of this team. I don't really know. I do know that when it came to the Catele-Marté situation of him DJing the other day after the Diamondbacks lost, I definitely understood that coming from watching my father have bad days and immediately Blair, Willie Chedino, in our living room,

and tried his best to just have a good time to make those bad times go away, right? But of course, you know, Cotel Marte, he is another one of the questions that has to be answered this off-season. And what happens with Catele-Marté? This is the elephant in the room. Can the organization simply move forward with Cattel as if nothing happened? And if they do get a new manager, how much do they have to factor in that manager? Cotel Marte specifically and focus on him with how a new manager is going to impact Cetel.

What does the relationship look like? Has the relationship between the organization and Marte become toxic? Has it become one of those situations that can't be sustained? That makes you wonder, does that mean there comes a point where the debacks decide the situation is too complicated? I don't know. If they keep them, the Diamondbacks need to figure out how to get the best version of Ketel back,

and they also need to figure out a way to prevent things that have happened in the past from happening again. They've seen the impact that could have. most of us still don't even know what happens with this team if what happened in Boston never happens. Or maybe even what happens in Boston doesn't become so public

and instead the Diamondbacks keep it more in house instead of becoming the kind of embarrassing situation that it became for both Cattel and the organization. Right? There's going to be people that want to trade Cattel and I think that obviously the first question is how do you make up

you know, that offensive production and how do you realistically, how does his contract and his current value make a trade even realistic? You're going to get next to nothing for him. It's going to be like that Marvin Harrison Jr. situation where teams are like, hey, we'll give you a third round draft pick for him. Like, what are we doing? This is what? Right?

We can't just trade Ketel for peanuts because his value here, even with him being a distraction at times, is still far more valuable. than prospect package or something of the sort. We still don't even know what that trade package with the Boston Red Sox look like, but if it involved Peyton Toley, there's never going to be another package that looks anything like that. So again, why, I mean, why even consider this? But something needs to be done,

and there needs to be a way for this Diamondbacks team to once again get the best version of Ketal back. And that's huge. He ultimately finished the season as one of the biggest off-season questions for this organization. perhaps that injury did hamper his production and kept him from being the best version of himself he could be and perhaps some sort of miscommunication or disagreement

about how to handle that injury is what made that situation become what it is. But the Diamondbacks need to try to get their best out of Kutel and then if they don't want him to be a part of this organization, then trade him, right? Maybe let this whole situation die down and maybe he has a better 2027 and maybe if you feel like it's in it's an it's an it you're at an impasse and you can't proceed then you know maybe at that point you decide to trade them right but uh really i don't i don't even

know if that's one of i mean i'd put that probably at fourth or fifth on this list because there's too many other questions this team needs to figure out and again as we discuss with steve that i get i think a bigger question for this team during this off season is what does the rotation look like do you actually trust this organization or this this rotation to be the rotation for 2027 you got corbin burns edwarda rodriguez brandon fought ryan nelson and then merrill kelly and you again there's so many questions these questions have sub-layers sub-questions below them does corbin burns opt into his deal i mean he couldn't really speak on it in the final media availability but

he did say that's something that they would be dressing in the coming weeks and doesn't really feel like considering how his season ended and the uncertainty about his effectiveness going forward as a major league pitcher that another franchise could take a chance on offering him anywhere close to what he's going to be making with the diamondbacks going forward. So, and Jeff Passon kind of made that sound like that was a done deal. It sounds like he's going to opt in. But, you know, the next question then is it Burns does return. Is he the ace of the staff?

Does he get the opening day start? Is he going to be that guy, once again, that he has been for so many years in Major League Baseball for the Diamondbacks? Is Merrill Kelly going to be better than he was in 2026? Does Brandon Fought become a legitimate long-term rotation piece where we finally feel comfortable about him being our third pitcher in there? And again, then it goes from there to what do they need to add? What do they need to add to the bullpen?

What do they need to add to front line? do they need a front line starter? Do they need multiple arms? And how much depth does this organization feel comfortable with adding here after going through what they've gone through? Right. But again, the starting rotation, that still seems like it's in a better spot than it was last off-season

and the bullpen we feel far more confident about now going forward. How do they fix the offense? What does this offense need to change this off-season? because it feels like this roster needs something. It needs obviously a first baseman, needs D.H. How many of the current hitters and players do you feel are untouchable

and how many of those guys could be trade pieces? Nolan Arnato feels like he's here for next season for once again next to nothing. So I feel like at least for the time being, we have our third baseman set, Ketel Marte, Corbyn Carroll, Maraldo Perdomo, a lot of those players are set, but something needs to change about first base,

something needs to change about the DH, and if they don't do anything to address it, then I just don't know what this team is doing. Christopher in the chat says, I think rotation is fine, the offense is the problem. 100%, man. It's very difficult to, you know, really be confident about this offense,

considering the inconsistence, that we experienced this year and how many, you know, statistical categories of Diamondbacks were at the bottom end of. And that is with still having a pretty good one through nine roster. You just never had that power hitter. You can't have Nolan Arnato being your leading home run hitter with 30 home runs. That's just, I mean, that would be fine if you had three other guys that also hit 30 home runs, but you didn't have that. And you just never had that big source of power. You never had that threatening bat in your lineup that other teams had to, pitch around or take seriously every single time he was up there.

You also have to wonder if 2026 was an anomaly. Joe Mather has been good as the hitting coach. In fact, he's made this team one of the best offenses in all baseball. So how does all of a sudden the offense, you know, become so bad that many people have been calling for his job throughout this season? And I, once again, I feel like that's unfair, considering the body of work that he's had here as our hitting coach. but that's where you have to determine if 2026 wasn't anomaly or not.

And again, then all of this leads into, of course, the biggest question of them all for the offseason, and that's how aggressive Mike Hazen will be to improve this team. Are we talking about big trades? Are we talking about finally doing something that you feel like is going to change what we have going here from a good team to a great. team, can you make this team a contender? The farm system stuff was, you know, has been troublesome

a little bit considering how the Diamondbacks are in the position that they're in and they don't exactly have the best farm system. A lot of the guys, though, that were rookies that got called up this season did an excellent job at a major league level. So I don't know if, you know, I don't know if you can consider the farm system to be bad. I just know that it feels like it's coming to a point that if this team continues to utilize those pieces from the farm, they're not going to have much left. Because as it stands, when you take out of Reno those names that debuted this year, there's not a lot of, you know, guys that look like they're going to be on the horizon for 2027 to come up and join this team. So do they start trading some of those young prospects? Do they start trying to solidify and have a sense of urgency for this main roster to not miss the postseason once again in 2027?

should we have a 2027? I mean, we're going to have a 2027. The year is going to exist. I think, I hope. I don't know. I was told today that I needed to start planning Disneyland trips 11 months in advance. I don't even know if I'm going to be alive in 11 months. So, I mean, how can I even sit here and pretend like 2027 is actually going to happen?

I hope it happens. But I definitely have my doubts about it happening for baseball for sure. It just, Hazen has previously indicated, a willingness to move prospects or even trade players from the main roster, if the right opportunity presents itself while also still trying to operate within this team's payroll parameters. That is another huge looming thing. And that's not even a question for the debacks.

That's a question for baseball. How does the new CBA impact the Diamondbacks as an organization? You know, they've been kind of savvy and trying their best to spend as much money as they can without crossing into those luxury tax thresholds where now they have to be paying money back based on the amount of payroll that they have. It's one of the reasons why Damon and I discuss that we think that even going after Gino Svarez there at the trade deadline might have been too much for this team considering how close they were to that threshold. But it's just hard to know. And again, with Mike Hazen, just like Tori Lavello, there was a sense of urgency for Tori to win this

year. We felt like there was a sense of urgency for him to win and for this team to win for him in order for him to return as a manager. Mike Hazen doesn't have much time left on his contract with the Diamondback. So there could be a sense of urgency for him to build a winner here before he leaves. And maybe part of that is to have that, you know, that sense of urgency to win now versus starting to trying to rely on your draft picks down the road. But again, like I said, I just think I listed about 27 different questions in this segment. And we're going to spend the next several months answering these as we go along. Well, we aren't.

The Diamondbacks are going to answer them for us, and we're just going to talk about them. But again, we got playoff baseball happening. We're not a part of it. We are going to talk about it briefly, even though I don't want to. But more importantly, we're going to do some spying on our exes and see how some of our guys that are playing in the postseason, at least former guys of ours, are doing in the postseason. We're going to do that on the other side of this break.

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going on. There are wildcard games going on literally right now as we speak. I want to be vested in it, but I can't because it's the Phillies and the Braves. And for some reason, I just hope that both teams lose. But the Braves did take a one-game lead on the Phillies, and that kind of makes me happy. There is part of me that as foolish as it sounds, and I know we do this sometimes when our teams make it in the playoffs, but the Diamondbacks would be in the Phillies position.

So the last thing I want to see is the Phillies advance. I would like to see the Braves beat the brakes off of the Phillies. I would like to see them score 20 runs in every single one of these two games that they play against them. skunk the Phillies. So that way, I have no remorse or feeling in my heart at all that the Diamondbacks could have competed with the Braves in this opening round in any way, shape, or form. Does that bring me solace? Yes. Yes, it does. Does that make me petty? I know. Yes, that I know it also makes me petty. I don't care. I just want to feel like if the Diamondbacks

would have made it in the playoffs, that it would have been a short stint that would have just been as heartbreaking as the way their 2026 season ended. But again, the Braves won yesterday. the game is tied now. Austin Riley was one for three. And the biggest takeaway is, again, former Diamondback played a big role in that loss. We're going to talk about that here shortly. The White Sox beat the Astros, and we are all White Sox fans, as is God and the Pope. So I think we should all be rooting for that team.

Their lineup did what they did. I mean, again, Sosa, 2 for 4 with a home run, 2 RBIs, Vaughn 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs, and then you had Michael Cucer 4. co-pick giving him two innings of one-hit baseball with three strikeouts. Jordan Hicks earned the win with a one in the third inning pitch and a strikeout. And the Astros only had six hits as they dropped game one at home. Their little bullpen game thing did not work out for Houston. The Yankees skunked the Red Sox beating him nine to nothing.

Ben Rice is incredible. He was four for five with two home runs, six RBI, two runs scored. Also, Ben Rice, after completely demolishing Boston, while Schlittler delivered another amazing performance, six in the third innings pitch, two hits, 10Ks, one walk, zero earned runs. I want to bring up the fact that nothing pleases me more than seeing, and I have no idea as heritage at all, but a guy like Ben Rice speaks Spanish perfectly at the podium.

In the postgame interview, he was asked questions in Spanish, and I had no idea that this man spoke Spanish fluently, but nothing gets me as excited in life as seeing a player speak a language that looking at them, they look like they have no business speaking. But I don't know. I don't know much about Ben Rice other than he mash his home run. So as far as I'm concerned, he could be from the Dominican Republic, but I was still very impressed with his Spanish on that post-game interview.

Surprise, though. I was surprised that the Red Sox didn't put up a bigger fight. Just like I was surprised the Cubs didn't put up a better fight. and their eight to nothing loss to the San Diego Padres. That team seems unbeatable right now. Michael King, seven in the third innings pitched, one hit, eight strikeout, zero earn runs. Fernando Tatis Jr., two for three with a home run, three runs scored in an RBI, Mani Machado was two for four, Jackson Merrill was two for four,

and the Padres held the Cubs to three hits. In fact, Michael King carried a no hitter into the seventh inning, and San Diego's offense just blew out. and it does not look good for Chicago, that Chicago team. But when it comes to the best performances yesterday, obviously Ben Rice killed it, not only with his Spanish, but going four for five with the two home runs and the six RBI.

Michael King, another incredible performance there. Cam Schlittler, 10 strikeouts and zero earned runs and six in the third innings pitch. Austin Riley had a huge home run for the Braves. That was a three-run home run that put the Braves on top late. He had three RBI. And then Tatees, again, home run, three runs scored. two for three in the game. It's going to be a wild day of wild card games and I have a feeling that

a lot of these teams are going to be eliminated today. It doesn't really feel like besides the Braves and the Phillies series, it doesn't really feel like any of these other teams are close based on the way that yesterday win. It's going to be interesting to see how Houston does with an actual starting pitcher against the White Sox. I still think that series could go either way. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you come back from being shut out nine to nothing. when you're the Red Sox or 8 to nothing by the Cubs. So we'll see how those teams bounce back. But more importantly, it's time to do something that we do on this show quite a bit.

And you know what we do. When we especially aren't in the playoffs, we like to spy on our exes. So it is time, once again, to do a little spying on our exes. And let's do that, shall we? There are 12 Arizona Diamondbacks players in the postseason. Almost, I mean, we have enough to have a team in the postseason. And obviously the ones that immediately come to mind are Christian Walker, Randall Gritchick, Carson Kelly.

These are guys that all performed yesterday and all guys that didn't have a great day. Christian Walker was 0 for 2 yesterday. He did have a walk. He struck out once. He also had a fielding error. That's not great for Christian. And Houston, again, just had six hits and three runs. Walker also hit into a double play defensively, or he got a double play despite the error that he made. And it wasn't exactly the dream October opener for Christian Walker. He did reach the one time, but didn't contribute a hit and the Astros are down now, 1-0 in the series. Meanwhile, Randall Gritchick did what Randall Gritchick does. He started at DH. He was one for two with a hit.

And the White Sox take a 1-0 series lead. And they just need one more win to eliminate Houston there. Gritchick had quietly had a hit. Nothing big. But he has been one of the many Diamondbacks unks that have been performing well in the postseason, including one, Paul Goldschman, who played for the Yankees yesterday. but he was 0 for 3. He did walk twice and scored a run. Another big name that had a kind of a disastrous day yesterday was Yon Duran who lost the game for the Phillies. He is the Phillies closer. He was once a member of this organization. And in his two innings pitch, he gave up two hits, three earned runs, one home run. He took the loss and he also ends up blowing the save for the Phillies who are now down one game. in their three-game playoff series.

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on site. Now back to spying on some more of our exes, because again, we cannot get enough of the fact that we're not in the postseason. So we got more of our guys. Like I said, 12 guys total here. We got Christian Walker, Randall Gritchick, Carson Kelly. We got Dansby Swanson. We got Joanne Duran. We got Tommy Pham. We got Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ali Sanchez. There's a pool.

Robbie Ray, Slade Cicone, and Cole Sulcer. Now, as far as, again, players who played, we had Christian Walker and Randall Gritchick. We also talked about Paul Goldschmidt going over three with two walks and a run scored, and Duran losing the game for the Phillies. Dansby Swanson also didn't have a great day, as did many of the Cubs. I mean, they got shut out eight to nothing, so a lot of the Cubs did not have a great day. Dansby Swanson was 0 for three with a strikeout. Carson Kelly was 0 for three with a strikeout.

He started a catcher. The Cubs were completely shut down offensively managing just three hits, and the Padres continue to look unstoppable. But again, Kelly was behind the plate for a brutal eight to nothing loss, and that's never easy. That's never easy. But back to New York, we had Goldschmidt. We also had Jazz Chisholm Jr., which is on the Yankees.

He did not play yesterday. He was benched. And I think that says a lot about the way that his season has been going lately. They also do have former Diamondback for a very brief amount of time, Ali Sanchez, who was currently the backup catcher for the New York Yankees behind Wildcats, legend Austin Wells. But he was signed by the D-Backs off waivers back in 2022. He played for the Aces and then was eventually designated.

for assignment. But we do have some players that have not played yet that are still in the postseason as well. Robbie Ray for the San Diego Padres. That still feels weird that he's a part of that team. He could start possibly game three if needed or game one of the National League Division series. Remains to be seen how the Padres are going to utilize him. You also had Slade Zacconi for the Cleveland Guardians who will probably get in there for the Guardians as well. and Cole Solcer, who currently plays for the Tampa Bay Rays. So even though we can't be in it, I guess there's a number of guys for you to root for. Also, Tommy Fam is on the Chicago White Sox if you needed yet another reason to root for that team. He did not play in yesterday's game.

But overall, it's going to be an exciting day here around MLB with how many teams could still be eliminated and what is on the line here to advance. right now the Phillies and Braves are in the middle of the seventh inning. That game is tied up 1-1 with the Phillies having six hits and the Braves having five. Let's do the thing, Atlanta. Let's give into my petty need to see the Phillies get eliminated and feel like the same thing would have happened to the Diamondback. So I don't have to feel like they would have made another magical return or, you know, magical postseason run like they did in 2023.

But anyway, appreciate you guys so much. Do we have any super chats I miss? Nothing I missed, right? All right. Cool. We appreciate you guys. Love you guys so much. We thank you for your time.

As I've told you once and twice and three times before, your time is your most valuable commodity. Thank you for sharing it with us. We'll be back tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show. We'll talk about the postseason and talk more about where the diamondbacks go from here. So till then, you can follow me on social media. I'm at K-man of the K. Of course, our guy, Ayrton, is at the coolest name in the entire company. He's at Freckled Mom.

Our show is at PHNX underscore Dabaks, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again for your time. Hope to see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your team is in the postseason and you don't have to be watching other people that used to be on your team, have fun in the postseason.