PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - VIBE CHECK: Reigning NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks prepare to report to spring training

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

With pitchers and catchers reporting in one day, we have a stacked show to get you ready for spring training. We are joined by Diamondbacks reliever Ryan Thompson to discuss joining the team last season before their postseason run, the impact Byung-Hyun Kim had on him, and more! We also joined by Theo Mackie from the Arizona Republic to get his thoughts on the the D-backs offseason moves, the Giants signing of Jorge Soler, and the projections for the 2024 season.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Arizona Lottery: Visit AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!NASCAR Weekend at Phoenix Raceway: March 8-10! Find more information at https://www.phoenixraceway.com/spring/ on the Shriners Children's 500, and be on the lookout for racing content from PHNX!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Let Someburros cater your next meal big or small! Order online or find one near you by visiting someburros.comWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of this joint. We still have terrible internet at the office, so here we are. I'm very excited to be joined by a few guests today, but of course, the guy that I'm always excited to be joined by is your vice mayor and my Thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And Jesse, we have a loaded show today.

We just can't wait to get to baseball. We have an absolutely packed show today. Pitchers and catchers tomorrow, Derek. It's getting real. Cannot wait. But, of course, we are so excited that we needed to have a pitcher on this show. So, of course, we're calling in a reliever. And we have one and only tea time, Ryan Thompson.

I don't know if anybody else calls you that but us, but we have lovingly nicknamed you tea time. Thank you so much for joining us, man. And we are thrilled to have you on. And it was an absolute blast to watch you guys last year, watch you join the team and have the success you had with the Diamondbacks, the tail end of last season. Obviously, 2023 was quite a year for you.

You went from being kind of an up and down guy with the raise to pitching high leverage innings for the Diamondbacks in the playoffs and making it to the World Series. How do you view that season now looking back on it now that you're kind of moved on? Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Can you give me a little like how the tea time thing start? Okay. So there is a, first of all, one of our host is no longer with us, Sean DePauze. He is a huge fan of yours. And he's also a huge fan of, I think it's Travis Scott, who has a song called Meltdown. And it starts saying tea time, tea time, tea time over and over again. And actually, I'm sure he'll be here in the chat today to implore you to change your like walkout music to that.

I doubt, I do not doubt that at all. But that's kind of where it started. And yeah, I mean, mostly it was just watching you. We had so much fun watching you last year, come over to this team and help this bullpen go kind of from a weakness like it was at one point to just being a true strength for this team. Yeah, I'm not sure if I could go so far as to make that my walkout. I don't know if you guys read my arbitration thread last year,

but meltdowns was a fangraph stat that the raise used against me last year. Oh, no. I don't know if I can go meltdowns. Well, okay, we can't do that then. Sorry, Sean, we're shooting that down. But, but yeah, last year was a ride. It was a crazy ride for me. It was like as high as a high to about as low as it gets to getting all the way to the World Series.

It was pretty crazy. You know, I was a, you know, one of the things that I'm very passionate about is clubhouse dynamic. and I was one of the key contributors to that clubhouse dynamic in Tampa Bay. And, you know, we had that 13 and no start last year. And, you know, it felt like the rays were going to be the team that was going to end up in the World Series from the American League. Yeah. We were, we were clicking on all cylinders. You know, life was as good as you can imagine. And all of a sudden, it just felt like I hit a wall.

All of a sudden, I got out of favor. I lost, they lost faith in me. and, you know, I had one bad game with Tampa Bay, really. I had five runs against the Yankees. You know, we always talk about, you know, oh, you had a six ERA with Tampa. You take away that one game and I had like a three. So, you know, that's how it is with relievers. You know, you have one bad game.

It takes you months to get over that. So I had that one bad game and I never got over that. And I was kind of up and down, like you said. and it just kind of got to the point where I kind of accepted my fate. You know, I was going to be in AAA for who knows how long. You know, the raise had control over me, and they didn't really see me as a, as somebody that they wanted in the major league. So I kind of accepted that.

And my agent and I talked a lot about asking for my release. And we just didn't really feel like that they would do that. So it would have been just kind of a waste to even ask for it. And five, six weeks. later I get the call where I get released and it was the most bittersweet call I've ever had my life and called my agent right away and we're celebrating it was funny like I get I get fired and we're celebrating yeah and then coming over to Arizona it was a dream come true you know I felt like all the things that maybe I didn't connect with with Tampa Bay was I was connecting with over here and it just

seemed like, you know, it was like I was a long-lost son that was meant to be found. I was a prodigal son that had left and come back, you know, that's what it felt like to me. It was just like people were just open arms. Like, look, we've been scouting you for years. We've been wanting you for years. This is this dream come true for us. It was just a mutual thing where I was so excited to be here with Arizona. They were excited to have me.

They kind of pumped my tires a little bit. You know, my first outing with Arizona. They put me in a safe situation. they had a lot of faith in me right off the bat where last place I was, you could tell the way they were using me in the last year I was with them, that they were trying to get me in games where I, you know, they felt like I wouldn't,

I wouldn't blow the game up. I was pitching with big leads. I was no longer as big of a leverage. That's something in my career that I've, that I've had really good is a high leverage index. And so coming over here and being put in those situations, it felt like home again. And, man,

what a ride to get to the World Series and what a group of guys to do it with. You know, that's special in this game and in professional sports to not only accomplish such amazing feeds, but to do it around people who are just amazing human beings that you love and you are willing to jump on a grenade for them because they're just such awesome people. Yeah. Well, and Ryan, I'm not pandering to you at all, but I just wanted to bring up. We have discussed that time and time again from the time you joined this team, that

looking back at your numbers last year, we often. said like really there was one bad outing that kind of balloon that ERA and and Jesse is a not a big believer in ERA for that exact reason. He looks at peripherals and we you know we talked about how big of an asset we thought you would be but it really did feel like the addition of you and a few of the other guys Paul Seawald really were really what really was the thing that got this team from you know potentially missing the playoffs to getting as far as they did. Yeah I think I think it's a lot of things. You know, I think, you know, I've said this a bunch. I think myself, Ginkle and Seawald have been getting a lot of the credit. You know, I think we did a really

good job in the roles that were given to us. But, you know, I think that whole bullpen and not just the camaraderie that we shared, but the way that, you know, the conversations that we'd have before the games and the way that we'd work together before games and catch play and the other guys that would get the ball to me to get the ball to Ginkled, like not only were we pitching good, but the entire bullpen was pitching good around when I got there. So I think that's another reason why people give me a lot of credit. They call me the stabilizer of the bullpen. But really, it's everybody saw that we were in need of that playoff push.

Like we were, when I got there, I think we were like six games out of playoffs. And everybody just kind of, we didn't really feel the pressure. You know, we were excited to make something happen when no one else believed in us. And, you know, it was just there was an energy in the. clubhouse. It was pretty special. And our bullpen, we really showed out from top to bottom. You know, Castro, Kyle Nelson, Saul Frank came in. Holy crap. That guy was lightning in a bottle. McGuff, when he was pitching Mantipli, he pitched some huge innings for us down the stretch. I mean, he's a stud. He's a former All-Star. I mean, our bullpen is stacked, absolutely stacked.

And that was easy for me to step in and to kind of have a role. You know, with Tampa Bay, no relievers had roles. You know, we for the first time last year since I've been there, Pete Fairbanks became the closer, but we'd never even had a closer. You know, everyone would be like, you have four saves, you have three saves, you have four saves, you have two saves. And so like I pitched, I pitch a second inning. I've opened. We used to do like double opener. Fairbanks would throw the first inning out there, the second inning. You know, I've gotten saves when I was with Tampa. So it's just like I never had a set role and it's not easy to get comfortable and stuff like that. And so over here, you know, everybody had a decent idea of when they were going to pitch.

And we always made sure we were prepared. And Fet down there in the pen, our bullpen coach, he's bar none. He's unbelievable. He gets us prepared. And I never go into the game, not knowing what to expect. I know you had thoracic outlet surgery a few years back, which is certainly no small task going through that as a pitcher. Merrill Kelly went through that a few years ago, you know, certainly he's come back from it and been phenomenal. But I'm curious for you, what was kind of that process like? I know that thoracic outlet has a reputation of being maybe even more risky than Tommy John's surgery.

And some guys have really struggled to come back from that. I imagine that was a bit of a journey for you. Yeah, I'm with thoracic outlet surgery, I don't know how I feel about it. I've like the way that I am is I don't do anything without going down the rabbit hole like you can call me a conspiracy theorist you can call me whatever but it's like I know everything about every detail about stuff that I involved myself in and that was something that I felt like I lacked in this surgery I just kind of went and did it you know it was a long process it was probably five months of me trying to rehab maybe not quite that much three to five months of me trying to rehab and It was shoulder pain that I had. You know, a lot of people that have this syndrome, Thrascalate syndrome, right? They have like cold hands.

They have like unbearably. It's like tingling, numb. Some people like have like purple arms. They just, they can't even sleep. It hurts so bad. Like I never had any of that. I never had tingling numbness.

Nothing that is common with thoracic outlet. I just had shoulder pain. But the thing was is I, I tried to rehab it multiple times. times. I had I had CT scans. I had MRIs. I had x-rays. I had I saw I had like nerve stuff done, nerve blocks. I had everything you can imagine and everything was coming back, not just, not just clean, but like where the doctors are like, dude, this is the best picture shoulder I've ever seen. This is the cleanest. You know, it's like stuff where it's like, well, then why does it

hurt? Yeah. What are we doing here? Yeah. And so it was like thoracic outlet syndrome is dangerous. because it's a diagnosis by exclusion in most cases. So very rarely in baseball, specifically, do you go see a doctor and they say, oh, yep, you failed these tests, you have Thrascalate syndrome. Most of the time it's, well, we can't figure out what's wrong with you. So it's most likely Thrasic Allet syndrome. And to me, that's dangerous because Thrasic outlet surgery is removing body parts. You know, I'm now missing a first rib. I no longer have a peck minor, and I no longer have my anterior or my middle scaling.

So I'm missing four body parts now. And like coming back from that, you know, I, to be honest with you guys, I'm not sure I needed that surgery. I'm really not. And I came back in 2022 still feeling shoulder pain. And I kind of just pretended like I didn't feel it, you know, because I'm just like, well, I got this crazy surgery. and it didn't work. So it's either I'm going to retire or I'm just going to pitch through it. And I just kept pitching through it.

And I just was working with pitching coaches and whatnot and just kind of like not really telling them that I'm hurting, but like really trying to have them help me with mechanics. And sure enough, in June of 2022, I figured something out. As simple as the way I was pulling my hand out of my glove that was pre-tensioning my anterior shoulder in my anterior deltoid that was causing that pain. And so I figured that out with my hand and I no longer had the shoulder pain. So I do have a history of nerves symptoms. And I think that the surgery that I had did help that.

So I don't think it was a completely lost cause. But like I'm always careful. Like when I have teammates or friends that are talking about thoracic outlet surgery, you know, I try to educate them on, okay, think about what this surgery is, right? it's thoracic outlet you have a thoracic outlet space in here like that's what it's all about there's a there's a your body has a suspension system that's supposed to suspend your shoulder to where nerves and arteries and all that can go through and not get pinched so when you have these symptoms or you may potentially have this the syndrome that's because this space is collapsing right

you have something in a spot that's not supposed to be there or you have a tight muscle that's causing tension and pinching against these arteries or nerves. So if you had, let's just say kneecap pain and it's because your quad is tight, you're not going to remove your quad or remove your kneecap. I hope not. I mean, it's common sense. You just treat the quad, right? You roll out the quad, but it's like this space is so understudied that it's a new thing

in the last 10 years or so where people don't really know. know how to treat this area, how to get a chiropractor to reset the first rib, how to treat the peck minor and these scaling muscles and get them to calm down and get everything back to where it's supposed to be. So really, thraskolet syndrome is tight muscles because bones don't move on their own. That first rib doesn't just go into that space. You have tight muscles that pull the first rib into that space. So really we should be treating these like before I had my surgery, I never had any of that stuff. I never had my first rib manipulated by a chiropractor. I never had, I didn't

do any of that stuff. It was just like, okay, your MRIs are clean. All the rehab we're doing on your shoulders not helping. So let's go get the surgery. So I'm a little bit passionate about TOS, as you guys can probably tell. Well, no, that's fascinating, though. And I understand because from your perspective, you are left wondering like, yes, there were things that improved because of it. But could you have possibly improved those things in a different way without having that particular surgery?

And in some cases, we kind of do leave this up to doctors and such to decide. And I mean, it does feel like we're a little bit powerless when they tell us that we need to have a surgery that requires us to, as you said, remove body parts from inside of us that we will not get back. Like you're not replacing those with other things. I have to ask, Ryan, did they offer you the rib after it was removed? and did you accept it? I asked Merrill that question too. He said he was a little bit tempted to take it home, but he didn't. Okay, so I'm trying to think where it's at.

But I have it, and I got a necklace made with it. Oh, my God, let's go. Yeah, so it's like that's incredible. And at the end, I got the first rib. It's probably like this big, and it just dangles down right here. Well, then the survey was worth it, right? Yeah, for some jewelry. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's,

That's a good, that's a good keepsake. Well, it does feel a little bit like you were always destined to be a part of the Arizona Diamondbacks because, for my understanding, you were a big fan of Bian, Young Kim, when you were younger. And I just have to ask, how does that happen? How did you become a fan of his? And then eventually actually start to model your throwing style after it. So when I was a little kid, I was obsessed with baseball, obsessed.

like I don't have an addictive personality, but I have an obsessive personality. Like when I like something, I like it. And like I'm like I used to be ranked like number three in the country in James Bond trivia. Like that's how obsessive I get in things. That's the most random thing to be ranked number three in the country. That's incredible. Dude, you're telling me. But it's like I get obsessed with things, you know.

And so with baseball, when I was a young kid, I was obsessed with baseball. And I collected these MLB Showdown cards. I had everybody's card, all the video games and whatnot. But I used to play Wiffleball in my backyard with all my neighbors. And the way that we did it is we like invented our own, we called it Major League Wiffleball, our own league. And we wrote down all of the rosters. We had like a folder. And we wrote down all the rosters of the current teams.

There's like 2000, 2001, 2002 around then. And we, from the, usually from the video game and just watching on TV, we've like learned all of the pitching mechanics and all of the hitting stances or batting stances for all the players in the league, every single one. And so when we would play with a ball, we'd say, okay, what team are you going to be today? And you'd be like, oh, I'll be the angels. And I'll be like, and I love to be the dimebacks just because of the roster. and because I liked some of the stances and I liked some of the pitching mechanics.

Yeah. And so I was like, okay, I'll be the dimebacks. And so we'd pull out the sheet from the folder and we'd be like, okay, this is the lineup I'm using today and be like, okay, got Luis Gonzalez at the plate, you know, or whatever. And so I would be, you know, Randy Johnson or something pitching. And then when it's not working anymore, just like real life, I guess, I would bring in Bung-Hung Kim. and so then I would start throwing submarine and like I learned how to throw strikes just by doing that and just like knuckle scraping you know and my neighbors can never hit it. So I always wanted to be like Bung Hung Kim. And but I also always wanted to be like El Duket, Orlando Hernandez.

Yeah. Yeah. With that high knee kick. And so when I was in high school and college and all the way until. low-way baseball in Quad Cities, I had the L-Dukee Lake kick, and then I would come submarine like Bung-Hun-Kim. That's a lot.

That is a lot. You've got to find some videos. I mean, pitching in college, because it's fun. I have to ask, did you have a favorite batting stance to do when you were doing, when you were playing wiffle ball in the backyard? Gary Sheffield, of course.

Oh, yeah. Sure. We all did. It's a given. If you didn't do Gary Sheffield, you didn't watch baseball. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I did have to ask, when you came in the clubhouse last year, was there someone you connected with immediately?

Like you said you're a big clubhouse guy. And obviously, I'm sure you kind of introduced yourself around. But was there someone that you kind of befriended you or you kind of connected with right away? Yeah, that's a good question because that was something that I thought was really amazing about this team was, I felt like I was connecting with everybody. Like, it was kind of wild. Like I was connecting on deep levels with everybody. And that's, you know, it was crazy because I'd only known Nick Ahmed for like a week before he got released.

But it felt like my brother died. Like that's how much of a connection I built with him in a week. You know, like I was like crying when he got released. And I was only there for a week. So it's like that's to tell you like how just just how like connected that clubhouse is. but something that, you know, I've learned throughout my big league career is how dangerous a connected team is. And I've seen it with Tampa Bay, how, you know, we've been in stages where we're really,

really connected and how we dominate. And the team's potentially even better at phases where we're just kind of like maybe we got issues or maybe there's a guy that gets brought in that you could say as a cancer or whatever, whatever you would say. but when the clubhouse is not vibing as much, I guess is what I would say. We just don't play very well. And it's like it's lost in baseball, I think sometimes because it's such a, you know, pitchers got the ball, batter's got the stick, you know.

So it seems like it's just a one-on-one thing. You lose the team aspect a little bit. But man, and I can't explain it, but that stuff matters. And so when I came in here, I wanted to kind of bring in some of the stuff that I had learned. and that's the American Latino connection, and that's the veteran to rookie connection. And so one of the things that I wanted to do is I wanted to be as close and as good of friends as I could be with the Latinos on our team, and to be as good of friends and as close as I could be with some of the rookies on our team. And so that was something that I kind of put myself out there to kind of get to know those guys a little bit stronger.

And so I really felt like I was connecting with Jarvis and Fatt, and Saul Frank and Cass, I would probably say my two best friends on the team last year were Castro and Free Us. We hung out every day. Our lockers were by each other. And I played Castro as my catch partner. And it's just like we were tight.

You know, we called our little group of three, the Oreo as well. It was just like we were super tight, you know, but it's like, like I say that just because it's unexpected, you know. A lot of times in the big league, Latinos just kind of hang out with the Latinos and the American guys hang out to American guys.

Sure. And so with us, it was just like we were so integrated. And our bullpen were so tight and staff and player, like there was no, there's no like, I don't know, it's like, I feel like from what I've heard throughout a lot of different organizations, just kind of staff kind of stays themselves and players are their own little thing.

But it's like here, it's just like, man, like I'm tight with pretty much everybody that's a staff member here as well so yeah yeah I did realize that I stole Tori's line perfect though we got a shirt it's great yeah last last thing for me Ryan I know you're in seminary school right now what what is it like balancing being a seminary school student with also being a pitcher in in the major leagues I imagine that's a that's a bit a it challenging. It's a huge challenge. I knew it would be a challenge, but that's why I did it. You know, I, you know, why I was trying to figure out what my next step would be in my faith. And, you know, I really, I really kind of looked at myself in the mirror last year or two years ago

and just kind of like, man, the stuff that I preach in the clubhouse, because that's something that I care about a lot is clubhouse evangelism because like we live such a fast-paced life where we don't really get a chance to like slow down and contemplate the big questions about life. It's just we're so go, go, go. You know, it's like, do we ever really sit down and have quiet time and think about what's the purpose of life? Why I'm here? Like was I created or was I did I evolve from evolution or is there a purpose?

What am I supposed to do? like is is there is there reasons why things align the way they do we don't really have a chance to like think about those things so for me like when i'm coming in the clubhouse and i'm challenging people by asking them these questions and preaching to them the bible and the gospel it's like it's a pretty pretty like intense things that i'm saying like i'm telling you that there's a heaven and a hell and there's a way to go to heaven and if you don't do these things then you'll go to hell. Like I'm telling you these things. That's pretty intense. Yeah. And so if I'm saying these things like number one, I should be 100% convicted in what I believe, which I do.

But then two, it should be that I should know all the questions that you may have. I should be able to know the nuances of these things. But then the third thing, which is why I went to seminary, was if I believe these things that Jesus Christ is, the only way to get into eternal life and I'm saying that anybody can have it. Like, I should be dedicating my life to this thing that I claim I believe. And if I'm not dedicating my life to it, like, I just don't really feel like you should take my word for it, right? Sure.

Like, if I'm saying that this is available to everybody, but I'm just kind of taking it lightly, like, I don't really know if I was on the other side, if I would really be. really take my word for it. So I felt like I needed to dive into this even more and to just give the Lord more of my time. And it's it's been phenomenal. I've been learning things that I didn't even think that like the way I'm reading scripture is completely different now. It's it's been a phenomenal undertaking for me. But it has been a challenge. Last term, I took too many classes. And I mean, I was, I took two classes my first term and I, I just crushed it. And so I'm like, oh, I got this.

I'll take another class. And so I was in AAA, just rotting in AAA. And I'll take another class. I'm going to be done in the middle of September anyways. I'll be home on my couch. Like, I got this. I'll take another class. And then the series of events that happened.

And I get come over there, Arizona dimebacks. and we play for an extra month, extra five weeks. And I'm just drowning in the schoolwork. Like we're like, we're like getting ready to go out to the national anthem. I'm like, guys, wait for me. I got to submit this paper, you know. And I'll see. And I'm like, guys, almost done.

Almost done. They're like, dude, get out here. Doing homework in the bullpen. That's another level of commitment. I appreciate that. All right. Well, before we let you go, but these two questions couldn't represent. present me and Jesse more than that, but I'll let you get out of here. I do need to get your

explanation on one controversial opinion you have, and that was when you said that the rock is the right choice to face Roman Raines at WrestleMania, and I need to know why. I need to know why the rock is the right choice. So are you a W.W.D.B. fan? I'm a Cody Crybaby, if you would, but on a deeper level of knowing Cody personally, but I also am a huge rock fan. So I'm very conflicted here. I just needed to get your take on the rock being the chosen choice. If that's the direction that they went. Yeah, I think that the way they're actually doing it right now is pretty good.

The way they turned the rock heel. The press conference was great. The press conference was incredible. That was the best thing I've seen in a long time. It was awesome. But I think that the rock's the right choice because that family died. I mean, the whole bloodline saga, the whole tribal chief dynamic, and you have the rock who's the most famous person on planet Earth, come back. It's like, that's the next, like they always say, like Paul Heyman uses their, they talk about their stories and innings, right?

And it's like, that's the next inning of the story is the rock coming back and saying, okay, like, you claim you're the tribal chief? like I let he could be like I left wrestling to make 10 times more money than you make to where I can feed the family that you're over here just not even showing up to work and you're making a 10th of what I'm making and so much you're making too much sense you're doing you're doing so me it's just like Cody's going to be around for a while like yeah like you know you make him not finishing his story now is just like rocky too like he can he you can stretch it out longer you know and and this might be once in a lifetime to do rock versus roman so that's kind of my take but but the the Cody thing is phenomenal and um i just think that are the way that we're designed

in today's world is we want what we want right now and i think i think the long-term storytelling is even better if we can wait the longer you can dangle in front of us the more we want it and it'll be that much more satisfying when it happens. So that, that's a good case for that. You take the, you take the belt off of Roman. You can't, you can't put it back on them to to break Hogan's record. So yeah, you only have one chance at that right now. I don't know if they'll ever do it again. We're going to talk about this, uh, for hours at Salt River Fields at some point. But I appreciate you stop by today, man. We thank you so much. And we are very excited, uh, to see you guys out at Salt River Fields tomorrow. Yeah, man. Thanks, thanks for having me on guys.

All right, man. Talk to you later. I appreciate it. That was a fantastic. All right. Well, Gabriel, Gabriel says in the chat, just smile and wave, Jesse. And that's about it. I mean, that's not all I have to add to that last piece of the conversation there. But it's okay. I'm glad you had your fun, Derek. I had

do. And I knew he was going to go off, but I didn't expect that and that I appreciate very much. He's fantastic. And that's going to be a blast to see all those guys out there at Salt Riverfields tomorrow. Of course, it's great to see all of you guys here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel right now. Of course, if you

haven't subscribed to the channel yet make sure to do so now sign up for notifications that we don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go live leave us a review we always appreciate that feedback and of course if you're listening on the audio podcasting side we appreciate you subscribing there as well leave us a five-star review we appreciate those we very very much need those circle k by the way i had to stop on my way home on my very very quick drive home to get gas and i was very tempted to run inside jesse because i needed a drink i needed snacks i needed lots of stuff all of a sudden we once again had to pivot and lose our internet connection. But Circle K, they got me out of their fast with cheap gas.

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Visit CircleK.com for detail. else. Also, for more than 84 years here in the Valley, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted credit union. They got me started on my home ownership journey, which I am currently in, thankfully, safe here doing the show. And of course, they can get you started on your home ownership journey as well. You can look to Desert Financial for mortgages, checking in savings accounts, loans, credit cards, and so much more, including investment options. Make sure join a credit union that is committed to giving back to the community and giving back to its members. Make sure you join a credit union that has your financial interest in mind. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Jesse, we're not done with the guests. You know, we're not in studio, so we just invited everybody to the party, and I'm very excited to be joined by one of our friends from the Diamondbacks Beat,

from Arizona Republic and aziescentral.com. Teo Mackey is here. Teo. How you doing, sir? Welcome here. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. I got a lot to live up to.

Ryan was a heck of an interview. Yeah, you have to talk to us a lot about pro wrestling. That's for sure. That's the first five questions I have on my list over here. I'll be able to give you two seconds of confidence. I couldn't even do that, Teo. Yeah, I appreciate. I appreciate at least that much.

How was your off season, sir? I know it wasn't very long this time. Yeah, short off season, right? But no, it was good. Got some rest and ready to be back out there at Salt River tomorrow. Yeah, exciting. Exciting. You were out at the... Oh, go ahead, Jesse. You're going to ask about the Phoenix Open? I was. I was going to ask about being out of the Phoenix Open. Yeah. All we really, we don't really want to talk to you about baseball, Teo. We just want to talk to you about your experience covering the Phoenix Open and the ruckus that that was. I personally have never been. So, so fill me in on what I missed out out there.

No, I figured you guys were going to ask me about that. Yesterday I got a call from this woman from some sports podcast in Australia who wanted to have me on to talk about the Phoenix Open. That's how much of headlines, like worldwide headlines this thing was making. It was, it was crazy. I, on Saturday, I was trying to go catch up with a golfer who was on the 14th hole. So I was walking from like the clubhouse to the 14th hole. It probably took me 45 minutes to walk three holes. It was a zoo.

I was actually like during the peak of the craziness on Saturday when they had to shut down the course and the alcohol sales and everything, I was inside writing a story, which was the worst timing ever because I missed the peak craziness, but it might have been good to be inside. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what they had two years ago is zero arrests. This year, it was 64 arrests. So I think when you're talking about things going off the rails, you can see what people are talking about. I heard that they actually just shut down the beer stands because of like the traffic flow was the big problem. And where people had to like all walk through one walkway versus it actually being drunken people causing them to have to have to rethink their alcohol policy. Yeah, I think it was crowding.

It was the normally so much of the course people are standing on grass hills and whatnot. And all of that had turned to mud because of the rain. So people had to condense into like the few concrete. walkways that there are. And so, like, people were shoulder to shoulder completely not able to move. And at one point, they were letting people in without scanning tickets because there was like a crush at the gates and they had the less people in. And then they stopped letting people in because the course got too crowded.

And it was just, I don't know what the solution is. I mean, I'm sure they're going to figure something out. Whether they sell fewer tickets next year or limit alcohol sales or whatnot. But, yeah, I think there's two things. I think there was the crowding was over the top. And then I think the, you know, debauchery. I mean, obviously, that's the fun of the Phoenix Open. Like, you're not going there to be completely sober and golf clap at a few nice shots.

Right, right. But there's a line, right? It got out of control. It felt like, I mean, I saw a lot of, like, TikToks and stuff of golfers yelling at people to shut up and just things like that, like general decorum kind of things. And, like, it's understandable, especially on 16, you're not going to get, you're going to get a rowdy crowd over there. But it did feel like things kind of crossed a lot. line and maybe it was just the fact that people were kind of just stuck, like, walking around in these long lines and long crowds. But you had a hilarious exchange with Zach Johnson.

And how did that go? No, I didn't think that Zach was, you know, to, you know, confrontational or anything I saw. You know, a lot of the replies when people were getting annoyed at him. I don't know. I think the line that a lot of people picked up on is when he asked who I work for. And I think that was like, honestly, he just, you know, I don't cover the PGA tour every week. He doesn't know who I am. And so he's like, okay, are you, are you legit? Like, do I want to give you a real answer? And then I said, I worked for the Republican. You didn't give me a real answer. So, you know, fair, fair enough. But I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously people were criticizing him for

being a little bit, a little bit harsh and, you know, saying, I, this has been over the top for 21 years and just kind of like, I don't know, criticizing the tournament without also complimenting it for for for its strengths whereas i talked to billy horshull too who's another guy who as you said was on a video yelling at fans and billy was like yeah i love this tournament like it's one of my favorite events on tour but there's a line you know i don't want people to die i don't want uh you know i don't want people to get hurt i i think there has to be kind of a line that we walk where people are having fun and that goes over way better with the general public when you're saying yeah this is a great tournament but we have to find the right balance and i think you know i think people are

obviously kind of latched on to Zach saying, no, I don't like this tournament at all. And people are like, okay, then why do you come? But I do. I mean, I thought Billy's comments were insightful where he was saying, look, there's just a line. And when he got mad was because a fan was yelling in the back swing of this guy who was in his first ever. It's actually ASU guy. He was in his first ever PGA tour event. And so fans yelling in his back swing, messing him up.

Like, this is a life-changing week for that guy. So Billy's point is, you know, you're messing with these guys' livelihood. And I can understand. Oh, he was 100% right in my opinion, by the way. When I saw that video, I was like, he's spot on here. And I mean, sometimes that's in sports, we have to get that, right? Like we have fans that cross a line. We've had fans across the line with Tommy Fam.

And, you know, we had that last season. We've had all sorts of instances where players do kind of have to snap back. And I think, you know, golfers get kind of a reputation of being a certain way. But like, yeah, they have to clap back too. they have to let fans know that they're kind of, you know, like, again, ruining a fun time, you know, it's a fun event. But again, when you get so drunk that you're falling down in the mud and you're screaming why golfers are taking a swing, you've, you've gone too far.

You forgot where you're at. How about the guy sitting on a stool like peeing himself? Yes. That was a pretty brutal one. Like there's a, you know, a guy who's sliding down a mud pile, you know, that's fun. But a guy who's so drunk that he's peeing himself on a full close. a stool. Right.

We've gone too far. Yeah, maybe you, maybe you don't want to see that. All right. All right. We're actually going to talk about some baseball now. I insist. Fine. So,

so Teo slides in Salt River Fields. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So baseball prospectus, as of right now, Teo has the diamondbacks at 85.7 projected wins for 2024,

which I believe is the highest in the National League outside of, of course, the Dodgers and the Braves who are. far and away above everyone else. Do you feel like 85.7 is fair? Does that strike you is too high, too low? Where do you stand on that number? That sounds right, honestly. I think the projections are pretty fair.

I think the nature of these projections, and Dan Zimborski is always going at people on Twitter on this, is like the fans of good teams always think that their projections are going to be too bad. And then you look at a bad team, and you're like, why are these projections so hot? And it just, that's the nature of projections, right? They're going to be compressed.

You're not going to project a team to win 105 games, even though there is probably going to be a team somewhere that wins 105 games this year. You just, you know, you can't predict who it's going to be. So, yeah. So you're when you're a good team like the Diamondbacks and you see that number 85.7, you're like, man, they went to the World Series last year. It can be frustrating. But I think that's fair, right?

You're projecting them to win two more games than they did a year ago. They improved their team from last year. their third base should be a 180 from where it was a year ago. The rotation should be better. Those are two huge, huge holes that they really addressed. DH should be better too. So I definitely think you're going in with a little bit more optimism, but you also have to look at last year and think maybe there was a little bit of overperformance in that first half.

They were fairly healthy. you know, they had some guys in the first half get some good batted ball luck. So, you know, if you're saying, oh, last year, maybe it was an 82 win team. If you're, you know, ignoring some of the outlier things, then you're projecting a four-win improvement. Like, that seems pretty fair to me. Overall, this team changed a lot throughout the course of last year. And I felt like they went from not really knowing who their identity was at the beginning of the year to kind of not being afraid to make, Some of those big moves we saw them make parting ways with guys that have been part of the team for a while.

We know we, you know, parted ways with Madison Bumgardner. And that was a difficult decision financially, especially. But like it feels like this team kind of has a bit more of a running start this year, that they kind of know who their identity is and know who their core is. And now, like you said, they went out and they added the pieces this offseason. That kind of, you know, maybe addresses a lot of their weaknesses and shortcomings during, you know, know the offseason. Does that, does that give you a kind of a feeling that, I mean, obviously, with the Dodgers being what they are, it's not like, does that give you a chance at the NL West?

It really still doesn't feel like that, but it does give you a feeling that this team has a good chance to make the postseason and kind of continue some of this success that we saw in the postseason more than it being kind of a fluke. Yeah, I mean, it's baseball, right? I'm not going to rule out them winning the NL West. Obviously, no one's predicting that. And it would be almost crazy to predict anyone other than the Dodgers. Sure. But who knows? Like, would you have projected that, you know, at the beginning of July last year, the Debacks would be leading that in the West?

So, so, so who knows? But no, I mean, I think that point about this team being prepared to hit the ground running more than last years is a good one. Like last year, if you remember at the beginning of spring training, Hazen was asked about the expectations. He said, we want to be in contention in September. If you ask, if we ask Hazen this week what his expectation, are his answer is not going to be we want to be in contention at the beginning of

September. We want to be playing meaningful baseball games in September. Yeah, that's not going to be the answer. That is not no longer the goal. And when that's your goal and you're kind of in that in between spot, like, okay, maybe we're turning a corner, maybe we're not, you know, hopefully, hopefully, you know, you're competitive. That's when you have guys like Madison Bumgarner and your rotation.

That's when you make an off-season move to fill a rotation hall. No disrespect to Zach Davies. but who had a good year in 2022. But, you know, that's not a splashy move to fill a rotation hole, bringing back Zach Davies on a cheap contract. Going out and getting Eduardo Rodriguez, that's a move that you make when you're expecting to contend and you're expecting to, you know,

and the same thing at third base. Like they got last year, you know, they thought, okay, maybe Rojas won't, you know, maybe we want to compliment Rojas. So we're going to go out and get Evan Longoria, you know, cheap, low risk, move. move, good clubhouse presence. Longoria had some great moments for them last year,

but you go out and trade for a Eugenio Suarez, and that's a completely different ballgame. And those are the type of moves that showcase an intent. This is a team that wants to be back in October and deep into October. And you're making the moves to not have any weaknesses on your roster, rather than entering and saying, well, I hope this works out. So I think that's the difference compared to last year. Teo, I'm curious, spring training pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, of course.

We have to be there entirely too early in the morning. We've discussed this offline. It gets earlier every year, I swear. But biggest spring training storyline for you. Obviously, there's a number of them. There's a few different competitions that are going to be happening. But what is sort of at the top of your list in terms of things to be watching this spring? I mean, I think the number one thing that you're going to be looking for is that fifth starter spot.

Like that is obviously completely up in the air. I think if you surveyed 100 Diamondbacks fans, you might get 50 Tommy Henry predictions and 50 Ryan Nelson predictions. So that'll be interesting to see how that breaks down. Like this team has a lot of confidence in Ryan Nelson. And last year he didn't perform well, like straight up. He just he couldn't strike anybody out. He did not have a pitch. to go to to get guys to strike out.

That's something, you know, they sent him down for like three starts to Reno to try to, in August to try to get him to figure it out. It didn't work. But with a whole offseason, it'll be interesting to see if, you know, if Ryan comes in and shows some of that ability that that he showed in 2022 and in the minors to get more swing and miss. And I think he, he probably, you know, you would, you would probably say he has a higher ceiling than Tommy Henry.

Tommy Henry maybe has a higher floor. So that'll be, that'll be interesting to watch for. another thing that I think is less obvious to watch for, I'm really curious to see what Alec Thomas's swing looks like. This is a guy that has so much potential that, you know, obviously he's a great defensive center fielder. He's got pop. We saw some of those flashes in the playoffs.

We've seen for six weeks stretches what Alex Thomas can be, but the last two years, the fact is his OPS Plus has been 75 each of those two years. And he kind of has this swing where he pulls off towards first base. and they've said, you know, they don't want to, it's hard to change something like that dramatically during the middle of the season, but he's had three and a half months to work on it. Like, you know, when Alec Thomas is out there, you taking cuts next week when, you know, hitters report, is he still going to be pulling off towards first base? You know, with that kind of awkward swing, are we going to see a little bit of a more controlled

motion? And I think if he is able to retool a swing, I mean, and elevate himself to kind of that next tier of center fielder that could be a really big storyline from spring training the giant signed horace saler to a three-year forty two million dollar deal it was kind of close to what the diamondbacks signed lordis gurellico yeah three and three and identical exactly the same what do you do you think that that was well out of the diamondbacks price range as far as what they were seeking for a dh prior to signing jock peterson and and what do you thought what are your thoughts on on that deal with the with the giants do you think the diamond backs maybe should have pursued so lair instead of gorye i think it's a good deal i think so lair's a good hitter i you know

obviously brings a lot of pop and jesse and i had actually talked like in in november i think we'd you know been discussing would so lair be a fit for the diamond backs just over text i remember having those conversations and i think maybe if they don't bring lord is gorye all back then then the equation, you know, you're viewing Solar is more of a DH, but in terms of the lineup, okay, then you, then you're missing that big right-handed power bat and going out and getting a guy on a three-year deal probably makes a little bit more sense. Once you go and get that three-year deal for a right-handed power bat, and it's like, okay, now you're going to go out and spend another $42 million on, you know, a guy who is, you know, has a, you know, a fairly similar

comp in your lineup. So I think it made a, a lot of sense for the dimebacks to then say, okay, we added a right-handed third baseman. We brought back a right-handed left-fielder. Our lineup is significantly more right-handed than it was six months ago. We're going to switch that up. We're going to bring in a left-eat DH on a one-year deal. And that gives them flexibility too, right? You know, now they can see, okay, if next year, Jake McCarthy really figures, you know,

figures things out and you're going into 2025, and Jake is pencil. into your starting outfield, well, then there's that spot for Garell. If you get a three-year deal for Gouriel and a three-year deal for Solair, then, you know, what happens if Jake McCarthy is, you know, breaks out? He's not the only one, you know, other guys in the system. You just kind of cut off your avenues a little bit when you're signing two guys in their 30s who play outfield slash DH to, you know, both right-handed power hitters to similar deal.

so I think it made a lot of sense for them to kind of switch that up, do a one-year deal for jock, you know, get that left-handed bat in there. Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like I definitely see what you're coming from on the part of just the length of the deal. Signing two players to three-year contracts who were both right-handed hitters. You know, maybe there comes a day in a couple years when Lourdes is no longer, you know,

great defensively. And you'd like to have the D.H slot open for him from time to time, having both of those guys, it would make it difficult. I do have to say, though, my initial reaction to seeing the move was 3 and 42 seemed a lot lower than what I expected Solair to get. I mean, coming off the season he had, being an all-star hitting, you know, 36 home runs. And the price tag between him and Jock Peterson, at least on an annual basis is not very big. I mean, I know I think the Giants gave him some big signing bonus or something. What were you expecting on Solair?

I think I had it closer to 50, like 3 and 50, something like that, maybe maybe, maybe, slightly north of of 50 he was just a really good hitter last season i mean a you know a mid 850 or 850 ops something like that um you know if the diamondbacks could have horace salair instead of jock peterson for about two million dollars more at least in the first year that's interesting to me like that's it's closer than i think i expected it to be um but i i see where you're coming from you know maybe signing two guys to three your contracts it kind of limits your options down the road. So yeah, I understand where you're coming from for sure. I mean, the other thing I'll all say is like, I think there's a little bit of, for

Jock, I think there's a little bit of recency bias that was hurting his market. Like two years ago, he was a really, really good hitter. And his batted ball numbers this year were no different than they were two years ago. And he hasn't mentioned that in the press conference after announcing that signing. is like, you know, we expect this guy to be back closer to what he was in, in 2022. I just pulled up his baseball reference page. He had an 874 OPS, you know, two years ago. He's really good.

If you get that for the price tag, I mean, that's a steal. You're looking at last year, Soler is better. If you're looking at the last two years, Solera is a 798 OPS. Jock has an 821. So you're getting the better guy over the last two years. I'm not saying that that means he's going to be better in 2024. But if you flip the order of 2022 and 2023, you know, and Solair had been had been worse this year than Jock, then, you know, how different would the contracts be? That's a great point.

And I think, yes, Gabriel ripped to the Solair power merchandise. We're going to have to scrap that entire line that I had ready to go. I will say, though, that like there's something about Jock in that first, you know, availability that he had that felt very determined. You know, I mean, I think we've all kind of decided that, you know, he's going to be a DH and a situational DH. And instead, you know, he brought up wanting to work with Dave McKay and wanting to get better both defensively and, you know, in different hitting situations. And I like that. Even if it doesn't really come to fruition, I do like that he does seem very motivated to contribute to this team as much as possible. And, you know, you take that and you add in what you just brought up about the last two seasons.

and all of a sudden it's a much more appealing, you know, situation. And I can't wait to see what Jock can do. I'm very interested to see how this team all comes together. But I'm also very interested to see if you are going to continue to be Steve Gilbert's translator when it comes to lingo for the young people, like slang. Are you going to keep teaching him about different things that the young people are saying these days? Well, I'm 24 now, so I'm losing touch with. If the, you know, if I go on TikTok these days, there are things that I'm that are over my head.

So I can't. There's got to be someone new in the press box to. I can't, I can't get Jesse to teach me. Jesse doesn't know any of the slang. So he doesn't help me. It's not going to be. It's not good. It's the other kids in the office.

It's the interns that keep me up to date. But I try. I try my best. But we appreciate you. When we were finalizing, I just have to say real quick, when we were, I was sending Tay out of the link and whatnot to join us. He said, I bet that was his response. And I was like.

I think I know what that means, but I'm not like totally sure. I don't really, I don't think it warrants the response. So I guess it doesn't really matter one way or another. But yeah, if someone else is going to help Steve, it's, it's certainly not, it's not going to be me. I guess maybe compared to you, I still sound, uh, sound hip and with the times. There you go. Absolutely. The shoes, Kay.

It's a young forever. Got to get some of your kicks before spring training. That is, that's high on the, high on the list. Jesse, Jesse had matching kicks with our producer Emma the other day. And it was probably the coolest moment for Jesse and possibly the nerdiest moment for Emma. I'm not sure how it worked out. They're genuinely cool shoes. I will probably wear them at spring training tomorrow.

But not the caveat. Now that you've hyped them up like that, I mean, you've set a high bar for yourself. What if they don't clear the water? I'm telling you they're nice shoes. But the not so cool part of it is that both me and that producer, we both got them from our moms for Christmas, which is like it kind of takes away from this actor a little bit. Tomorrow, how cool these shoes are. All right, man. Well, thank you again for joining us.

And we're looking forward to being out there watching some baseball tomorrow. Yep. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it. See you guys tomorrow. All right, buddy. Yeah, you bright and early. Oh, man.

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Of course, thanks to those of you that aren't a diehard for joining us. But if you aren't a diehard, make sure to check out our wonderful membership options over at go phtonx.com. Jesse does not put out paywall journalism often. But when he does, you want to make sure you don't miss it. You know it's going to be good. So don't miss out on anything. When I do, I get people on Twitter yelling at me for it. Yeah, that's right.

That's correct. You and Gerald and everybody else. We have to make our money some way, people. Most of what Jesse writes is free. So if you're interested in reading Jesse's articles, just check out go phynx.com. No membership required. Usually it's what, one article a month that Jesse puts out, maybe two, maybe more. I don't know.

If you keep complaining about it, we'll lock them all up. That's the way that that works. I'm joking. But what we do. implore you to do is go out and get a diehard membership. You'll get yourself a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com, some discounts from our partners. You'll get some discounts to our events, which all of that kind of pays for the membership in itself. You also get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan.

You don't miss out on our game show squeeze play, a little city council action, of course, discussions with Jesse and so much more. So there's plenty of reasons for you to be a diehard member today. But if not, anything else, it's the wonderful community that we have built. tier with all of you wonderful people because I'll tell you today, we had a couple of diehards. Chris and CWP stopped by our office. And even though we had to leave abruptly due to the internet, it was wonderful to see you guys out there. It was great.

They brought us some wonderful Valentine's snacks for all of the beats. And I tell you again, we have the best fans. We have the best diehards in the world. And because of you guys, it's an incredible community for us to be a part of. So we thank you so much for helping us build this thing. And of course, speaking of that, Jesse, this weekend. they got their party over there at Chase Field for all of their advantage members. I saw that on the schedule.

I do love the fact that some of our community members who are season ticket holders, like the aforementioned Chris Melton, Queen, the Den Mom of PHNX, have been trying to help out and get people into this party, even if you're not, even if you're not a season ticket holder. So that's been very cool. I know that they've been, people are excited, man. It's time.

Baseball is back and I just can't wait to be out there. What is your favorite thing to do as a reporter when you're out at Salt River Fields during this time of the year? Because I will, I'll be honest. I mean, you kind of have to be a little self-motivated. It's not like they're all in one area, you know, they're kind of spread out.

They're kind of in different groups. You got to go watch different, you know, like different. I still love the, I still love seeing major leaguers do like minor league drill, not even minor league, little league drills. It's like they're playing football. Yes.

Yeah, since the day we started playing baseball, rolling the ball to each other on the ground, slowly, like all of that stuff that you did as a kid playing baseball, these guys still do to this day. And it starts tomorrow when they're out there doing some of those drills. That's always fascinating for me to watch.

I would just sit there a few times and be like, these are the best baseball players in the world. And they're just rolling. and the ball slowly on the ground to each other. It starts with the fundamentals. Can I, am I allowed to talk about the Jock Peterson-Hore-Solair thing again? Am I allowed to circle back to that? No.

Why? No. Well, hey, you're still stuck on. Yeah, no, please do. We were moving on to spring trading hype, but you want to talk more about us not getting Jorge Saler. I just, I have to say, I have to say one more thing about this. One distinction between John Peterson or Saler that I think is, is worth point.

pointing out that I didn't quite get to say in our last segment is that Jock Peterson is a platoon guy. The Giants were very heavily protecting him against lefties. And so, you know, Jock Peterson putting up similar or even better numbers than Hori Solaire over a two-year span. I think it's important to recognize that Hori Salaer's plan against everyone, whereas Jack Peterson is a little bit limited in that sense. I think, I mean, I still think Tail made some very valid points. And I'm not so sure if I necessarily would have, you know, gone a different direction

and signed Solair instead myself. But I do think that it will be a little weird if the Diamondbacks go out and they get a Tommy Fam or an Adam Duvall or Randall Grishik and the combined value of Peterson and whichever one of those guys they get costs more than Horace Soler does this year. Like if you had the choice...

And if Soler puts up more war than those guys combined, then that's especially problematic. Yeah, yeah. Like if you had Jock Peterson and Randall Grisd for I think Jock Peterson, he's at 12.5 million if you include the buyout for 2025, which is likely money he's going to make and wind up walking. If you combine that 12 and a half million with another few million for Tommy Fem or Adam Duval or whomever, you very well might exceed what Jorge Saler is going to be making on an annual basis.

And I have to at least ask the question. Like, wouldn't you rather have Horace Saler than have the platoon where you have to roster two guys for that spot um so yeah i i'm not saying it's like obvious or anything there there are some valid concerns like you want another three-year contract all that but that that contract was lower uh than i expected it to be and it it at least made me wonder like i want i wonder what the diamond back's thinking was in in uh in going elsewhere and uh you know signing jock peterson instead i i think it the it's going to come down i can't it's it's it's going to come down to the results, right? I mean, that's essentially what it comes down to is, is that,

uh, yeah, you know, when, when they talked about looking at the middle of their lineup, obviously, you know, we know Mike Hazen isn't going to tell us, well, we went and tried to get Solair and we couldn't, right? But when he described them going after Jock Peterson, he talked about looking at the middle of their lineup, he talked about looking at Gurriel, looking at, you know, Gino and seeing, you know, how maybe they needed to go in a different direction and go after someone like Jock instead of pursuing Jorge Salare. I don't know. I mean, it's the, the, there is something to be said about the combinations. If you do bring in another guy to platoon with Jack Peterson and just the weapons and, and, you know, obviously how you can kind of plan for the different, different arms you'll be

seeing. But, you know, if you can have just one guy in the lineup that you rely on most of the time, like Salar, instead of having to worry about, you know, starting, you know, lineup concerns like that and going lefties versus righties and such it's it could have made your life maybe a little easier i don't know i was a little disappointed myself to see what solair went for i and i knew that was going to be the case and i know i'm going to be uh probably uh inconsolable when i see what jd martine signs for i'm just going to not be on the show that day i hope it happens when i'm out at sea jesse that would probably be the absolute best case scenario if it happens sometime between july 23rd in the 26th.

But we know that's not. You mean February, you mean February. What did I say July? Oh, yeah. I'm already. Although at this rate, Derek, who the heck knows? Maybe J.D. Martinez, maybe none of the Boris clients will have signed by the end of July.

Who's to say at this point of the odd season? Form their own team. I don't know. Yeah, there you go. They just go to Portland and Boris is the owner. I don't know. But anyway, Adam Thomas says the D-Back can solve this simply by signing Jamie more. Yes, they can. Yes, does. Bring me him. And then I'm fine. But shout out to all of you guys,

of course, for joining us. We appreciate it. Shout out to T-Time. We hope you guys enjoyed T-Time Tuesday. Of course, tomorrow, we are back with actual reporting news. We will be out at Salt River Field. So we will be doing our show at 2 p.m., hopefully with a strong internet connection from P.NX.HQ. In the meantime, you can make sure to follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Mand-W-A. Jesse's at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is. is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys so much. Thank you, again, for stopping by.

Thank you to all of our guests. Teo, excellent. Tea time, Ryan Thompson. Sorry, Sean, no meltdown because for obvious reasons. I think he made a strong case to not go with meltdown for sure. Of course, we will see you guys back here at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Make sure to join us then. We thank you again for your time.

Appreciate you for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you talk about it with your friends.