PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What Merrill Kelly Reunion Means for D-backs and Ketel Marte Trade Rumors

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Merrill Kelly is back with the Diamondbacks on a two-year, $40 million deal, filling one of Arizona’s biggest offseason needs. We break down whether Kelly combined with Michael Soroka is enough to make the D-backs’ starting rotation a true contender in 2026. Plus, we explore how Kelly’s return impacts the chances of a potential Ketel Marte trade, answer your Mailbag Monday questions, and weigh whether Lourdes Gurriel Jr. could actually be back in time for Opening Day.JOIN 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/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY 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/Aura Frames: Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PHNX. Promo Code PHNXPhoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — 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/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Merrill Kelly is back. And of course, that means that his best friend Cateel Marte isn't going anywhere, right? We're going to talk about the reunion with Kelly and what it means for a potential Marte trade, as well as answer your questions on another edition of Mailbag Monday. Don't you go anywhere? We're starting in 30 seconds.

And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHNX occasionally known here with all of my toys. I'm thrilled to see you guys on a Monday morning. I am not alone. I got the leche to my cafe. It's the one the only name,

comparable Damon Farrell, aka Damon Dogg on the ones and twos. And as always, this show is brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Download that GameTime app, create an account today. Use our code of PHNX to get $20 off your first already low ticket purchase on those last

ticket deals terms do apply. Great to see you guys here. Happy Monday to you all. If you may have missed the news, if you had missed our emergency podcast on Sunday, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in fact bringing Merrill Kelly back on a two-year deal. And not to take victory laps because you know we don't do that on this program. But we told you so. We told you so.

We knew it. Once we saw him at a son's game with Miggie, once we found out about his house, once we knew there was mutual interest, we knew this was only a match. of time until these two sides reunited and that is what reportedly is happening according to sources not sources but steve gilbert from mlb.com and some other reporters as well so this is great news i mean overall uh i feel like the the thought process was if the diamondbacks could bring maryl kelly back for less than 40 million dollars and less than you know two years or less then I think everybody was going to be pretty happy with him returning.

And that's exactly what has happened here. I think if you would have seen a contract for more than 40 million for a 37-year-old, that is something that maybe some people would have questioned or not really wanted. In fact, there are some people that are already questioning that, talking about his age, talking about why would we bring this guy back? Merrill Kelly was excellent for the Diamondbacks, not only last season, but in his entire career. but I said this on yesterday's episode.

I mean, if we throw up these stats for Merrill Kelly from 2025, but we remove his identity from the stats, you would be all in on a guy with a 3.22 ERA and a 3.58 whip in 2 thirds innings from last year. 100%. And if I told you this guy cost you $20 million a year, you would say sign me up, right? As long as I kept the 37-year-old part out of the equation.

But this deal keeps him here in Arizona through that dreadful 2027 season that we have no idea what's going to happen. And, I mean, it does show I feel like something beyond just a financial commitment to Merrill Kelly and giving him not only what he was projected to make, but more than that. I feel like this says something to this team, right? I think this says something to the rest of the players, much like the contracts that, contract extensions that were getting. given out to Geraldo Perdomo and Corbyn Carroll and Justin Martinez and Brandon Fott. Like this is something that once again shows these guys that the team is committed to these players that have become staples of this team. Merrill Kelly has become a staple of this team.

He's a known commodity in the organization, in the clubhouse, the coaching staff, everybody understands the worth of Merrill Kelly. And I think that there is no place that he has appreciated and his worth is higher. than here in Arizona. He has consistently provided this team with quality innings, consistency, not to be redundant there, and professionalism, right, the way that he just in general conducts himself

and goes about his business. Merrill is fiery. Merrill will tell you the truth and not really hold back, but Merrill is a professional in the clubhouse and on the mound. And then every once in a while he lets loose and we get to watch him seewalk. So there's nothing bad about this deal. The bad side about this deal, if we're being honest, is that it, like I have said several times in the past, it doesn't excite the fan base in the way bringing in a new free agent is going to do.

We have news this morning that the Phillies have added Adoles Garcia to their lineup, right? Like, that's a weird thing that Phillies fans are kind of digesting and overall trying to process, but still feels like they are, you know, much more. it's a thing to get excited about, right? I mean, we would be excited about signing a guy with a cannon of an arm like that, even if he's one of our worst enemies. Now, can you imagine facing that Phillies team? Oh, we can hate them so much with Adola Garcia on that team. But, yeah, I mean, just keep adding all of our enemies.

All of the villains. All of our enemies to your, yeah, that's fine. They can be the ops. I mean, the Dodgers are already are impossibly hard to beat Big Brothers. So we need ops as well here in Philadelphia. but I mean, you know, you're talking about a guy who whose history is in Arizona. You're talking about a guy whose blood is here, signed by the Diamondbacks of 2019 after pitching in Korea, becoming a key rotation piece, you know, giving this team consistency and

honestly a, you know, higher, I don't know, like always over, over-performing, over-delivering. I mean, he just always is the guy that even when, things are not going well when say Zach Gowan has a bad performance when you least expect it against like a pirates team and then Merrill just goes out there and he gets the job done every time it seems like he's the stabilizer of this team he's the mainstay and he got that nickname for good reason he provides that did you come up with that stability I did not come up with the mainstay but just take credit for it I will give you people will give you credit I mean I could I'll challenge that sounds like a pH and X D backs brainchild I'll challenge I'll challenge

to anyone that wants me or wants to believe I didn't come up with that nickname to a fistfight is what I'm saying. Wow. I mean, and that's how you challenge somebody right there. You step up. Seriously. Step up. But yeah, no, I think speaking of stepping up, Merrill is the guy to do that for this team, right? I think Merrill, you know, kind of is the leader. I mean, it's him, right? Like there is leadership now. There's veteran leadership that I think everybody in the starting rotation respects, everybody on this team respects, and, you know, again, just plays a vastly different role than anybody else you could have brought here as a free agent. Anybody else that you're going to bring here is going to kind of be hanging in the back. Like, but I think of Corbyn Burns. Corbyn Burns has so much knowledge and Corbyn Burns is such a leader,

but he was new to this team. And he has so much to offer, yet he does kind of. kind of quietly like just hang back and then out of nowhere says something to like the effect of hey you guys need a catcher you should look under james mccann he used to be a badass and the next thing you know you know here james mccann is part of our family here with his gigantic arms but um merrill again it's just it it was it was such a heist completed here by the diamondbacks and merrill was the inside man the idea that the diamondbacks traded merrill kelly at the trade deadline for what are now three of their highest ranked pitching prospects in their farm system, only for the Rangers to win the exact number of postseason games that the Diamondbacks did

and participate in the same number of postseason games, right? And only for Merrill to now come back here. It feels so good for us to do this to another team. We joked about this. There were speculation. I mean, I think Merrill didn't even like try to shut it down. Merrill was asked about coming back several times and made it kind of publicly known, even if it seemed like he was joking that he was very open to the idea of coming back.

Then we hear these reports that there's mutual interest on both sides. And now the J.O.B. is done. We got the job done. We went in there. We heisted three of their top pitchers in their minor league system. Cole Drake, Mitch Bratt, David Hagamon. Thank you very much. And now we get Merrill Kelly back.

The Rangers are falling apart. The Rangers are falling apart. They're trying to trade Corey Seeger. I know Garcia sucked, but Adolas Garcia out the door. Meryl traded for Meryl Kelly gave us three of our top 15 organizational farm system pieces in the process. But it does feel like they're building something new. And I think that is one of the areas that Diamondbacks fans have not. really ever had to experience yet maybe at times we wanted to i mean you know what i mean like

well some debacks fans certainly do some debacks do yeah yeah he's not here right now we're not not going to talk about we don't have to talk about he who shall not be named right now but i'm saying right like skip shoemaker over there um they have you know they have a change of regime they they are kind of shedding a lot of their payroll because they had a lot they had a lot of injured money last year. And again, that team definitely fell short of expectations and has fallen off in the same way. You know, again, the Diamondbacks and the Rangers here are two teams that were completely lost two years before being in the World Series, both made the World Series. And now here, you know, two years later, neither team is in the postseason. And one is considerably in shambles more than the

other. At least it's not us, right? But I'd take that World Series championship if it required us to rebuild right now. And I would do it happily. I would happily take that championship back. But Kelly will be ages 37 and 38 during the years of these contracts. And again, you could say that there's a risk there for age and of any kind. That's an older pitcher in Major League Baseball. There's the risk of, you know, obviously things ticking down or not being as good as they've been.

But Merrill was never like a really overpowering type of. a pitcher. He was just always a smart pitcher. He was a guy that knew how to get out. Very similar to, as I was discussing with the Ph.LY Phillies podcast this morning, Ranger Suarez, right? Ranger Suarez is just better at it, but you could say both of these guys, velocity, you know, fastball velocity is definitely not their strong point. This is a thing where Merrill has learned over the years how to be a very effective pitcher. And again, he does it without having the flashiest stuff, right? This is less about upside because you know what you're getting back in Merrill Kelly. In fact, what you're hoping is Merrill Kelly is able to come here and post a sub 3-5 ERA like he did last year.

But it's more about that, right? It's less about upside and more about certainty, right? The Diamondbacks have prioritized leadership innings. And, you know, in a way, Merrill's track record with this team, more they prioritize that, more than going after another free agent starting pitcher. They didn't have the money to really go after another free agent starting pitcher. So overall, getting Kelly here on a $20 million per year deal is a good thing and probably the best this team could have done.

I told you on previous podcast that when you take a look at this free agent starting pitcher list, things drop off considerably after one Merrill Kelly. There's the unknowns and a guy like Tatsuya. Amai, which that's the one thing, another thing that breaks my heart. And this kind of seals the deal that Tzu Yamai will not be a diamondback. But it also might increase the likelihood that we do not see a Cattel Marte trade, which we're going to talk about here in a moment. But when it comes to Merrill Kelly, like I was saying, you had Zach Galland and Merrill

Kelly there kind of at the bottom of the, I don't know, top 10 starting pitchers and baseball that were available via free agency. and you know with with dylan sees off the market you have one guy less that kind of increased the overall price for starting pitch you're pitching there but again after after merrill kelly you start getting into the justin verlander options the patrick corbin options eric fettie as an option zach ethlin uh miles meekyllis nestor cortez like the i'm not this is no disrespect to these starting pitchers i'm just saying as far as like when you get down to merrill kelly it's slim pickings.

And even in that top 10, there's guys like Chris Bassett and Nick Martinez, which are both also older, like Merrill Kelly. And again, guys that are putting up similar numbers, but most likely at the end of the day, are going to cost far more than $20 million per year. I love the deal. I love bringing Merrill back. I just know that at the end of the day, this doesn't,

I don't know what this does for this team being competitive, this starting rotation being competitive. with Merrill Kelly and Michael Soroka joining Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryan Nelson, and Brandon Fought. We have competent pieces. We have living, breathing human beings that will go out there every five days. But outside of that, I cannot honestly tell you what to expect out of any of these guys besides maybe Merrill Kelly. Michael Soroka, a complete question. As you could say about Brandon Fought and Eduardo Rodriguez,

The only thing you feel confidently about here is Merrill Kelly and Ryan Nelson being your one, two. And then the quality really drops off after that. Maybe not quality, maybe not sealing, but consistency drops off after that. And that's where I don't feel like guys like Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez can't turn things around and have a much better season in 26 than they did in 25. I just can't confidently say they will, right? We thought Brandon fought after the 23 season, especially with the adjustments he made at the end of the year, was on an upward trajectory.

And yet last season, he just flat out struggled at times, despite the fact that he looked also very, very good in so many outings. So consistency is what they need out of Erod and Brandon fought. But, you know, when you start to really ask the question, looking at those five guys in the starting rotation without the, without, you know, Corbyn Byrude,

on the horizon as the future that is coming and is hopefully closer than we think, the question has to be asked, is this starting rotation competitive? At a baseline level, yes, this starting rotation can win games, but without a true front line ace, without Burns, and especially if Burns is delayed, if his recovery is delayed, or without a breakout from, one of those other two guys, right? Like, we need Erod to pitch like Erod has been capable of pitching in the past for other organizations. We need Brandon Fott to pitch like he did at the end of that 23 season, right?

There's a lot of ifs in there. But if those guys pitch like we know that they are capable of pitching, then yes, there's a difference there. But there's also a difference between being competitive and being a contender. And it's hard to cross over into any kind of contender territory with this starting rotation. It really is. It's difficult. But at the end of the day, Merrill Kelly is back. He's reliable. He's going to be hopefully durable and he's going to give you a lot of innings this year and also know that he's stepping up into that leadership role. You also add Michael Soroka, who's an experienced starter.

And if he can stay healthy, he has a lot of potential upside and a very high ceiling as well. And he's still a young man. Like Michael Soroka could be the sneaky off-season science. of the year if he somehow returns to the form that he once had with the Atlanta Braves. So there's a lot of questions about this team, but the ability is there. The potential is there. It's just a matter of these guys delivering for us. So we'll see what happens. But on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about how adding Merrill Kelly

impacts the chances that the Diamondbacks will still trade, Ketel Marte. We're going to do that. Don't you go anywhere? you're watching the pH next diamond back show well rally house is your go-to spot if you want to look as good as damon and i do every single day in our wares we don't just get dressed like this for game day we get dressed like this for mondays and you can too by going to rally house because they have everything you need jersey shirts hats it doesn't matter no matter who is actually having a good season and doing well

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but it feels like we're just trying to extend the Cotel Marte rumors. Right, Damon? I'm seeing these reports. I'm seeing people talk about it. And for the most part, what they have to say is that the addition of Merrill Kelly and essentially the starting rotation, having five starters in it,

does not indicate that the Diamondbacks will not trade Cotel Marte. I think my friend Jack Summers had that. I believe others have reported that as well. And I say, you're all a bunch of liars. No, I'm not saying that really. But what I am suggesting is I think the likelihood of Cotel Marte being traded has gone down substantially. And I think it is because the Diamondbacks have the five starters that they need

and they were able to get two through free agency that cost them $27.5 million next year. I think that overall, Mike Hazen is pretty honest and forthright about the, you know, Catele-Marté stuff. And, you know, he's tried overall to, you know, to squash those rumors. But like I said the other day, he at no point has really done anything to actually say, we are not trading Cotel-Marté. He continues to say, we're listening to trades and we've heard stuff. We talked about his comments the last time he was interviewed there by Mike Faron. And those comments were essentially to the tune of, I don't know. why this is a different different than any other year. Like people call us on Cotel every year. But

the reasons add up. And again, the fact that at no time when asked about this, Mike Hason has flat out said, we are not trading Cotel Marte, then, you know, again, it's hard for the speculation to end. Overall, we knew it was going to take a haul. We still know it'll take a haul to get Cotel Marte in a trade. But according to an interview with Steve Gilbert over at MLB.com, right after the winter meetings ended, Hazen said the following in regards to their starting pitching. He said, we're working on other avenues and other markets, Hazen said, and we'll see if we can push anything across the finish line that might change the direction we go in. And according to Steve Gilbert in this article, he wrote following that paragraph, or following that quote,

if the Diamondbacks are able to land a front-line starter without trading Marte, then the likelihood of him staying in Arizona would grow exponentially. The reason for that being, the return for Coutel Marte needed to involve starting pitching. Now, the Diamondbacks have added some, I don't want to call Michael Soroka a veteran. He's still 28 years old, but bringing, you know, bringing Merrill Kelly back definitely isn't the future. And neither one of these guys were technically what Mike Hazen said he wanted. to add this offseason. We knew that was going to be difficult.

He said he wanted to add young pitchers who had years of control left. Now, I think when he was saying that, that was in reference to what he would be trading Cattell Marte for. I don't believe that Mike Hazen really expected with the budget he had to go out there and find a young pitcher

that would sign to a multi-year deal and have it be affordable for this team. And when you're looking at the starting pitching free agents, there's not exactly a lot of young guys left on the market. Most of the time it would require, you know, this to, uh, this to be a trade, right? The only way you're going to get young controllable pitching typically is via trade. But overall, uh, Mike sounded a bit exasperated this last time when it came to the Ketel stuff with Mike Faron. And he just sounded like, again, he's, he's tried to be honest.

He's tried to tell people what's going on. But, you know, that still gets, kind of changed through a telephone, a game of telephone, into Mike, from the Diamondbacks are, you know, listening to trade offers for Cotel Marte to the Diamondbacks are shopping Cotel Marte around, right? So that part of it is how the media has changed things for this situation and maybe has taken the situation and tried to sensationalize it.

And also, many fan bases want Ctele Marte. what they don't really want to do is give up a lot for Catele Marte. They seem to think the Diamondbacks are going to take Cotel Marte or trade for Cotel Marte for a prospects package of some sort. I do not think that is going to be the case. And I don't think that, again, the Diamondbacks are really right now in a position to want to trade Cotel Marte for position players or relievers from the bullpen. So I just overall feel like this merit.

Carol Kelly thing kind of, as I said Sunday, puts the Catele Marte rumors to bed for Christmas. Like, it's Christmas Eve, we're putting the rumors in bed. We know they're going to get up and try to peek and get a look at Santa, but they will try to put them to bed for now. What's funny is, is Ken Rosenthal today listed Cotel Marte's No Trade Clause teams. And here is the official Cotel Marte No Trade List. New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Athletics. First of all, stellar list could tell. Mostly because there's like no rhyme or reason to it other than.

Exactly. Other than I completely understand not wanting to play for the Pirates or the Oakland Athletics. Or excuse me, I'm not allowed to call them that anymore. The Sacramento Athletics. St. Louis, fine organization, but they're rebuilding. Dead organization. Dead to us. Well, we were talking about it with Kevin, of course, former producer of this show before the podcast.

And this really feels like truly like the death of the Cardinals as a premier organization in the sport. Yeah. Being put on no trade clause list. It's unbelievable. Well, what about the two ones at the top, Damon? What about these two? What about the Yankees and the San Francisco Giants? He clearly doesn't like the Giants.

And then the Yankees is like probably like a past, you know, doesn't like the Yankees thing grew up, not like in the Yankees. That's my guess. I like I know those are both big cities that a lot of people travel to and a lot of people live in, but I would not want to live in either one of those cities, if I'm being honest. Neither would I. Those are the two most expensive cities in this country. Exactly. I mean, me being a normal person, I can't even fathom living in those cities. Getting taxed up the ass. New York City in San Francisco.

Right. Also, not having Colorado on there is crazy, Killer X. That's for sure. there's a lot of teams I would expect to see on there but what I expect to see at the end of the day is Cotelle Marte not to be traded. That's what I expect to see. I just think that again, this is a situation where it's grown kind of out of control from a series of factors

and hopefully once we kind of move on from the Diamondbacks getting the players they need that this will go away. Hopefully we'll see an addition. Pete Fairbanks would be lovely a first base edition would be great. Former friend of the of the podcast here, Josh Bell was reportedly signed to a deal by the twins.

Not that I wanted Josh Bell to be back. I just find it hilarious that he went to a team where his dark blue sleeve will finally match the colors of set teams. So he's won. He finally, Josh Bell finally won. But anyway, yeah, I would love to see this team finish this off with addition of a reliever like Fairbanks. If that's the case, like a first baseman,

bringing back Paul Goldchmidt would still be great, but I don't believe, you know, I don't know. I don't believe that that's going to get done, nor do I really have huge concerns about it not getting done. Also, I know that we still need an outfielder, but maybe we don't because we're going to talk on Mailback Monday about Lordaiguel's rehab and what we just saw, and we like what we saw.

Before we move on, though, I did see a comment there from Lando, I believe, Damon. Lando had said players do not typically, like, announce that they're going to be for a WBC team, I think is what he had said, meaning Cotel Marte, you know, made the announcement that he will be playing alongside of Heraldo Pardomo on the Dominican Republic World Baseball Classic team. And Lando says players don't usually commit to the WBC before they, know they are getting traded or signed. Well, I mean, really at the end of the day,

this might not be about Cotel Marte knowing he's getting traded. However, it doesn't mean that the Diamondbacks have not maybe reassured him that he's not. Things can change, though. Hopefully that's not the case. I still think Ctele Marte, despite the one blemish against him, has so many in the positive column,

you know, so many marks in favor of him being a good player, a good teammate, including taking the team friendly deal that he's currently on that everybody's talking about that allowed this team financial flexibility to build around him. So I want Marte to stay and I want him to retire as an Arizona Diamondback. Hopefully we get to see that. But we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. You know what we do on Mondays. You know what we do around here, specifically when Mondays arrive. We're going to do that. So don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next time and back show. If you're an Arizona sports fan,

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And every single goddamn month on this podcast is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day because Damon and I recycle. But on Mondays we answer questions. That's what we do. Damon, let's go to the mailbag. Spent entirely too much time with that man yesterday, hanging out at Trill and listening to his Grammy-nominated music.

Oh, don't you do that like every weekend? No, I try. I know. No, no, no. He's traveling quite a bit. The life of a Grammy nominated artist involves a lot of, um, may oral work, which I can understand. A lot of shaking hands, kissing babies, that kind of thing.

He was nominated for a Grammy? Yeah, I don't know. I haven't, I haven't, I haven't, uh, yeah, I don't really talk about it a lot on this show. It's crazy. It's crazy, but you never know. Once again, congrats, buddy. All right.

What else we got? Our first question is from Travis Moore, who says, simple question. Who's tossing the pill on opening day? My heart says Nellie, my logic says Kelly, barring another starter being added, that's an obvious choice over both of them. Right. I mean, there's, uh,

there, there has to be Meryl Kelly. It's going to be Meryl Kelly. It was Zach Gowan over Corbyn Burns. It's going to be Meryl Kelly, whether or not Ryan Nelson deserves it or not. Right. Ryan Nelson could go out during spring training and not allow a single earned run.

And they still would start Merrill Kelly on over. Ryan Nelson is very well, possibly the best pitcher on this. roster. But this team puts a lot in the way of respect and, you know, like just trying to like, you know, show that kind of, you know, what's the, what's the word? Like, uh, it starts with the P as, as like, it's like a religious term. I'm lost on your word as well, but no, well, I will say this about Ryan Nelson is, is that actually Merrill Kelly just put up slightly better numbers last year. I know we don't remember that. And I know Nellie's numbers are over the course of the full season versus just comparing, you know, Merrill Kelly to last year. Piety. What's that? Piety. Piety. It was what I was thinking. Yeah, no, you were going to get that out of me. You could have given me a billion guesses. I wasn't going to get that. But no, I mean, yeah, you're not wrong. I mean, it's, it's very close, but I don't think it's like an egregious choice to go with Merrill Kelly over Ryan Nelson. I just think that, again, we,

We're going to see Ryan Nelson be asked to step into a bigger role, right? Like, Nelson is, Nellie's going to be the number two starter. I don't doubt it one bit. And then it'll probably be Erod and then Brandon fought and then Michael Soroka. I don't think anything's written in stone and I don't really think it matters a lot once you get past the first two weeks of the season. It does typically mean, though, you're matching up with that same pitcher on the other side from that opposing team, or from the opposing team.

But even then, schedules get muddied, days off. change things and then next thing you know you have no idea how the starting rotations are you know matching up so uh i just think that overall the diamondbacks now have two guys as their one and two starter that last season had a sub three four era and again there is the complete wild card that is michael saroka here uh and what he could do for this team is he going to be what he was last year still not terrible right still even if you post the four three er a four five er a it's not going to be the worst thing in the world. Still probably a better option than other options the Diamondbacks would have if they

didn't go after him. And most likely will still be better than an option that you were going to pay less than $10 million for. But yeah, no, at the end of the day, I still think it's going to be Merrill Kelly starting on opening day. I agree with you. I agree with you, Derek. Let's get into our next question here from Geraldo Perdomo's biggest fan who actually has something for me at the end of this one, Derek. Yeah.

I'm curious what you guys think of the Steve Gilbert report about. about how signing Merrill doesn't change the chances of a Marte trade one way or another, and they could change what they look for. Also tell Damon, I'm willing to share the title of Perdomo's biggest fan. Well, what I will say, first of all, that's crazy. Sharing is caring. That's crazy for him to say he's going, like, it's more about Damon sharing it with you than it is about. Well, I would argue that Perdomo, no one exemplifies the power of friendship more than Geraldo Perdomo.

So in this moment, I think to myself, WWJPD. What would Geraldo Perdomo do? And I think he would say, okay, we can both be the biggest fan here. This is a thing we can share together. All right. Well, that's sweet.

I kind of like that. Yeah, no, this is the kind of rumors I was talking about earlier. Steve Gilbert reported this. Others reported this at the Diamondbacks. My still trade could tell Marte, regardless of the fact that now they got the starting pitcher that they were looking for.

Look, I'm not saying that this really does change anything. A team really could still blow the Diamondbacks away with a trade offer, but I think the reason why it might not change anything is because the chances of him getting traded weren't very high in the first place. And the trade package that a team was going to have to give up was going to be one that was going to make that organization question if Cotel Marte is worth all of that. That's really what it comes down to. Mike Hazen is not just agreeing to anything.

He is going to agree to something that is so outlandishly one-sided, at least from our perspective, that we wouldn't even be upset that they're trading could tell because of what another team is giving us. We talked the other day about the Hunter Green Matt McLean trade potential, and a lot of people were on board with just that, right? So if a team's willing to somehow offer the Diamondbacks a player of that caliber, Hunter Green,

his history, the year after year consistency, plus the time left on the contract, then yeah, I think there's definitely some thought that should be given to it. I don't even think now that just because the Diamondbacks technically have five living bodies of starting pitchers that they shouldn't still try to seek out something that's going to truly make them a contender

against the juggernaut that is the Dodgers in this division. So some teams are willing to give up, way too much for a player of Marte's caliber thinking that, you know, again, he is going to be their franchise player like he is for us. The Diamondbacks are just in a position where they are, you know, trying to keep up with the rest of these teams that are spending so much money. And, I mean, again, trading a player like you tell Marte isn't necessarily the dumbest thing if the hall makes the other team look absurd for offering it up, you know, or forget. giving that up. So we would have to see what the hall is before we would ever be able to assess a Cotel Marte trade being, you know, actually something that, you know, was, was something that I'm back should consider or do, right? But anyway, moving on. What else we got, Damon?

Our next question here comes from Ed Holinsky, and Ed wants to know what should be on the diamondbacks list for Santa this Christmas, Derek. Okay. Well, first, one of these belts. for the dugout and one of the players should wear it after they hit a ball so far that it goes over one of the outfield walls and scores one or multiple runs that's just my first thought um cool bro's not wrong health health can we ask for some sort of immunity against season ending injuries in twenty 26 that's something uh i would definitely uh like for sure um If you're talking about free agency, Damon, what is still left on your list? I think the biggest thing would be probably reliever.

Late ending, closer. No doubt. Closer, period. Yeah, relief pitchers. We need about three of them, I would argue. And then I would say potentially a DH option as well, a power hitter. If we were to take like Alex's list of prioritizing them, would you, would two relievers be at the top of your list? Or would you stagger it and be more like a close?

Closer, outfield, right-hitting outfielder, first baseman. How would you, how would you prioritize? Obviously, closers at the top. There's no doubt about it. Man, yeah, that's tough. I might do, yeah, I mean, it's definitely closer at the top, high-leverage relief arm at the top. And then it's a debate for me,

another high-leverage kind of relief arm, set up man-type arm versus a power hitter. But I think I'd rather have the right-handed hitting power hitter personally. And you don't care where, what position he plays, first base, outfield, D. Not really. Not really. A guy that's relevant. I mean, I think Goldschmidt kind of falls into that category, but might be a little

on the low scale of what I would be hoping for. So maybe Goldschmidt and somebody else who's kind of also on that level that's maybe a little bit lower. So maybe like two guys that are a little cheaper than one put together. But yeah, I don't know. Something like that, I think. You need a right-handed bat that can put 20 bombs over the fence. Yeah.

No, you're not wrong about that. Mighty in the chat says if we get another round of many arm injuries, we should investigate Kaplan. If the Diamondbacks get another round of many arm injuries, I'm going to contact the FBI to arrest Brian Kaplan. I think I'm going to call the FBI to put in a whistleblower complaint. What did you make? Lando puts it here in the chat, and I wanted to ask you about this, Derek. Yeah. So we obviously reported the Kyle Fairbanks stuff.

It was then cooperated by some other very reputable reporters, no big deal. BHNXD backs, your sourced information. Goldschmidt has been long talked about by a lot of people. But there are some Luis Arias, you know, rumors swirling on the Twitter streets this over, I think it was yesterday. And it was from an unsubstantiated report where basically it was a projection. and then it was kind of relayed as a offer. Yeah. But it was someone being like,

I like a rise to the Diamondbacks. And then it somehow became a ritual. Does that interest you at all, though? It was what I was going to ask. I know he's a very polarizing player across baseball. His defense is terrible. His defense is terrible. His defense is terrible.

He's one of the worst power hitters in the entire sport. He has like three batting titles, however. Yeah. He's probably better than, everywhere he goes. He's probably better than Pavin Smith. Yeah. If we're keeping it a buck, like even though he doesn't have any power and he's bad at defense,

I think he's probably still an upgrade on what the debacks have right now. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But what was Landau's thing again? I don't hate that. I don't hate that at all. Fairbanks, Goldie, or Rye is Brad Keller.

Yeah. So two relief arms, a DH, a first base option. And then you ride with Walt Schmidt, I guess, in left field until maybe one Lorda Scuriel comes back. More later. Well, yeah, we'll get to that here soon. More later. Yeah, no, I don't hate that. I think that that's being a bit ambitious.

I think you have to still realistically look at the amount of money the Diamondbacks had to spend. How much realistically do you think that that is, though? Well, Fairbanks is going to cost you $10 million. $10 million, yeah. Goldie will say that. If Fairbanks cost you $10 million and the Diamondbacks are being honest and truthful that they do not plan on spending more money on payroll next year than they did this year, then you almost can't get anybody else if you add at pittvermanks that's it because goldsmith's probably going to cost you in the neighborhood of eight million a rise 10 million

yeah right in again like it's like these aren't even super high cost players but you see the reason why the diamondbacks are in the predicament that they're in i mean somebody in the chat i missed their name but somebody in the chat said that um this is why it's the msb 430 right there. We need a lot of, we need a lot with no cash. Catelle is getting moved for sure. I think, again, this is the mindset that adds to the Cotel, Marte rumors. Like when people that are journalists that cover baseball, take a look at the Diamondbacks, they're like, man, I don't really know what they're doing. But in order for them to try to turn things around, they're, going to need a huge trade because they don't have the financial flexibility to go out there.

there and add the pieces they need via free agency. Quite frankly, Mike Hazen did a masterful job here of not only adding to the farm system with those additions to the Merrill Kelly trade, but bringing Merrill back and signing Michael Soroka on a deal less than $8 million. That does take care of the starting rotation. But as we address here, you start doing, and even Paul Goldschmidt isn't like one of the top available first baseman that are free agents, but he's still going to cost you more money than you really have to spend at this point if you do plan on adding those relievers there's the possibility that any of these guys could still sign in a multi-year deal and any of these guys could be just so benevolent and kind enough to structure it in a

weird way where they're only getting paid like three million this year and then they get paid a higher amount in future seasons so that ability to structure a contract in that way is there I mean, I don't know if we, since it's not official, we don't know what Merrill Kelly is making. We just, I've heard from reports that it's 40 million. Maybe Merrill is making 17 this year and more next year, right? So, and 23 next year. I could see that. Right?

Like, if that's the case, then it gives the Diamondbacks more wiggle room this season for them to add some of these other pieces. Not only that, but deferred payments as well. I could see Merrill Kelly's contract with, you know, this kind of being probably the last big contract. he'll ever get and to him coming home to Arizona and wanting to be here obviously. Like I could see it being a situation where 10 million of it is deferred until 20, you know, 40 or something, 235 or something like that. Yeah. Just to help out this organization a little bit, give him money in his pocket in the future.

But, yeah, I mean, I definitely think that you're going to have to get creative with the, with the, how you structure these contracts here in the near future because, yeah, you got a lot of holes to fill still and I don't know I I'm starting to get a bad feeling Derek about the kettle stuff like yeah when when when you start doing the math on the on on on how much things are going to cost right like you totally but it's it's more than that like I'm starting to see like other like I'm looking at a Red Sox potential trade package that they put together a fan page Derek and they I believe it was something to the effect of uh Duran who they're trying to off load. Petent Toll. Tristan Kossis, no, no, sir. Tristan Kossis, who is not a very good MLB player.

He had potential, but he's not really, he's not really doing anything for you in a Ketel package. And then they're number seven and number 15 prospect in all the comments where Red Sox fans being like, oh my God, we say no. And I was like, that doesn't get anywhere close to the offer that will. You say no. Yeah, that doesn't get anywhere close to an offer that is good enough for me. Click. exactly. So like I want toll Duran who they're trying to offload again I'll say it again Duran they're trying to get rid of Duran so it's not like he holds that much value. I want told Duran and I want Marcelo Meyer.

That's what it costs. That's the price. Yeah. And then if that's the price then I would be willing to like do a trade like that. But if it's not something on that level, get lost. Yeah. Lose this number. Cool bro asks that the Dodgers can defer money.

Why can't we? It's not about the Dodgers being. able to and us not being able to. It's about getting a player on board to accept that offer. The one thing that the Dodgers have their grubby little hands in a little bit more than most teams do is like the ability for you to get endorsement deals and sponsorships. I know that's more of, obviously, that's more of the agents responsibility and not the teams, but the endorsement deals for Dodgers players are there in spades. So again, there is a way for you to make money now because you become a Dodger off of said endorsement deals like show Aotani is doing, and that amount of money is probably going to be far in a way enough for you to live off of for the foreseeable future.

But the deferred payments then just secure your true future, which any baseball player knows that their future could be done tomorrow. Their future could be done next week. They could be done forever playing the sport if they suffer a catastrophic injury or something happens. So again, there's a sense of financial security. that having those deferred payments and that long-term money gives these athletes. It's just a matter of how can they make the money that they need to make now to live. And if you listen to O'Dell Beckham Jr., it's like $8 million, totally not enough money to live off of per year. So these poor athletes, they've got to figure out how to make more.

What else we got, Damon? We got one more in the mailbag before I tell everybody about our newest supporters club member, my friend Scott Mondellie. I do believe so. Derek Flea Balls asks, should the debacks consider adjusting Chase's outfield to make it more standard and help their outfields. The constant unpredictable bounces just hurt. I love it. I will go on record and say, I hate Chase Fields outfield so much.

I hate everything about the dimensions of Chase Field. But when you realistically talk about the outfield, I hate it. I hate it so much. I don't understand why we have a porch that overhangs. I don't understand so much of it. And again, I know that some of it is just the addition. to make the ballpark have more seating and more unique seating experiences. If you've ever sat on that porch as a fan, you know how awesome it is.

I just don't think in the grand scheme of things, it's like something that's cool and iconic for a ballpark. Having those pool and right field, that's cool. That's iconic. But nobody thinks of the Chase Field porch and the outfield dimensions as being something that's like, oh, that's so quirky and unique in baseball. Like, no, that's not how it is. It just sucks.

And I'm glad we have somebody like Alec Thomas that can successfully navigate all of that, successfully play good defense with all of that stuff hanging over his head. I mean, I don't know if you've ever had a chance to go out on the field, but it's very weird to be under that porch and to stand out there on the warning track of center field. So I would love to see that. I will say that, you know, after seeing what the Orioles did, anything. possible. The Diamondbacks now have additional, you know, funds secured for them to make improvements to chase field. I don't know if obviously those kind of improvements wouldn't, you know,

necessarily be changes to the ballpark in their dimensions. Like it has to still be a stadium upkeep and fixing things that are broken and making it, you know, upgrading it. But you could argue that maybe, you know, changing that, that area or doing something new might somehow fall under that, under that guideline. So I don't know, but I would not be against it because I just really hate ballpark factors and impacting games. And I think we're doing it to ourselves, considering that we had to play 81 games in that building. You know, so I don't know. But it works the other way as well, Derek. That's the other side.

No, yeah. It's definitely harder for opposing teams to come in and play there. But I'm just saying like. You need like a legit breakdown of like, of like, how. Did it actually end up hurting or helping the Diamondbacks over the course of the season? You need to watch every game tally it down. You can't just go and say it hurts the team because it could actually be helping us. No, I'm not saying it hurts the team.

Especially with Corbyn Carroll. And I know Ernesto said it. Like you got to think about what about Corbyn Carroll's modern triples record, Derek? I mean, we're striving for big goals here. I'm not talking about changing right field. I'm talking about changing center field. I thought we were talking about the entire outfield. Zabes talking about changing, adding quicksand in a ditch.

So I wasn't aware we were talking. You guys with your porch defense is oddly weird. Do you want to add like a pit with vipers in it too, Damon? That actually sounds like the most electric environment baseball. I want Blernsball from Futurama in our outfield is what I want. I want multi-bowl to randomly go on. I want the hill. Bring back the hill.

Bring back the hill. Yeah, give the hill. The hill was special. Hill up underneath the porch. Now we're talking. How about just a flagpole in the middle of a baseball stadium on the field? That's what the Astros used to do. I know.

It's insane. It's insane. Anyway. Quick standing in right field is fire. Yeah. See, Derek, I'm thinking the opposite. Make it harder. Outfield, create.

Make it an obstacle. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Left field or right field is electrified, the wall. Which one? We're not telling you. Oh, it changes. Yeah,

just changes from game to game randomly. You got to figure it out first time. Back it up against the wall. Yeah. Kobe's 100% right. This sounds like Mario Super Sluggers. Let's get quirky. I'm down with it.

I'm down with it. That's probably one of Derek's all-time favorite games. Just guessing. You're not wrong about that. Dude loves Nintendo. Love Super Mario Slugglers. He loves Mario characters. He loves baseball.

Look at me. I'm the, I'm the title character of that video. You're like Mario's cousins. Yeah. Fun fact, me and Mario were born on the same month and the same year. Wow. So March 19, March,

18, March, 1981. That's when Donkey Kong came out. That's special, Derek. I might be, in fact,

Mario, Mario, but you guys are awesome. For those of you that are already supporters club members, I got to give a shout out to my guy, Scott Bundelli. I saw he signed up today. I've told you guys this.

My friend Scott is a wonderful human being. This is the man, Damon, that sings me a happy birthday message while playing guitar through a Facebook message. And it's, I mean, my own brothers don't even say hi to me on my birthday sometimes. How sweet is that?

Scott is the best and Scott just became a member. If you want to be as sweet as Scott, make sure you sign up for our supporters club. We have exclusive content already out there and we are just trying our best to turn out as much more exclusive content, including I got Damon and the other producers playing headbands. we got to get that up asap. I got to flex my mayoral muscle around here and make sure we get that up for the people. But, of course, not only do you get access to that exclusive content,

you get the wonderful badge next to your name that comes up in the live chat, and you get access to those amazing emoticons, all of those little emojis from our bits and our shows and everything. And, of course, we just appreciated it so much. It's a fun way to support us here. This is not a paywall or essential content,

but we're going to try to give you guys extra stuff for the support. We appreciate the people who support us and keep us going. And if you already send super chats, this is a great next step. So again, thank you so much. Thank you to Scott for his wonderful voice and singing me happy birthday. And also for signing up to become a supporters club member. Love you, buddy.

All right. Thank you, Scott. What else do we got in the mailbag today, Damon? Let's go ahead and check out our next question here. This is from a diehard, Russell. And Russell wants to know, do you think the D-back sign-out? any high salary player, Derek? No.

I guess outside of Merrill Kelly. I mean, Merrill Kelly was it. And even then, like, it's funny because it's kind of like this holiday season. There's times where you find something that's on such a good deal that you're like, oh, man, this is perfect for my spouse. I'm going to buy this right now. It's 75% off. This is incredible.

This is the lowest price, this item that I know that my loved one wants is at. And it's still too much money for you. you're going to buy it and you're going to regret it and things are going to be tough and tight, but you're going to do it, right? And like the Diamondbacks kind of did this with Merrill Kelly. Like, I'm sure that at the end of the day, they did not plan on spending over $20 million a year on one of the single players that they had to pick up. But I think they also had to be very realistic that they had to get two starters this offseason.

And I don't think you can go out and add two mediocre starters. No offense to Michael Soroka, right? but two guys that posted four and a half to five ERAs and have people feeling comfortable about it just because you were able to get those two guys for less than $15 million or whatever you ended up paying them for. Right. So, but like I think here that there is, you know, this is it. This was the most that they could spend.

And even then at $20 million per year for Merrill Kelly, as I said earlier, still just puts them in a really difficult. spot to get the rest of this done. The idea of how much they have to spend is still just a decision that is made. That's really, that's really it. Like they're, they have the ability to increase the amount that they spend and it's all an internal decision by the ownership group. So these confines that we're working in on how to fix this team and how to fill all of these roles this offseason are still based on the rules that we've been given. by the ownership group, Ken Kendrick specifically, right, by our beloved Uncle Ken. Mike Hazen has even at times said that, like, they have more, you know,

they have the ability to spend more than people are giving them credit for. He's said that when it's come to like the Cattel Marte trade rumors because it feels like, oh, this is the only thing the Diamondbacks can do. So, hey, let's try to give them nothing for this, you know, guy that's an MVP candidate it and see if they'll take it, right? Like the Diamondbacks, that's why they're not in a spot of being desperate to trade Catelle Marte. There's an opportunity to potentially trade Cotel Marte, but they're not desperate to do so.

So, you know, again, it comes down to if the ownership group somehow decides that they can spend more money than they've said they're going to, then, yeah, I could definitely see this team based on their track record, the last two off seasons, shocking. us by signing a high dollar free agent. I just think the likelihood is less than the likelihood of Cotel Marte being traded. I would put to Cotel Marte trade right now around like 15% likely, and I would put the likelihood of them going after a high salary guy at like 10, maybe, maybe. So, anyway, what else do we got? Our next question here is from Gary the Cat and Gary asks, which do you think is more likely fought returning to form and proving last season's struggles or a fluke or erod turning in more consistent and effective performances we need one of the two to happen if our rotation as it currently stands has a chance at being competitive and if we need and if neither comes to fruition i think we're toast

if you're asking me which one i think is more likely right now i feel like it's erod uh and the reason why is because last year erod had a tremendous stretch that people might not remember, but it was against some of the best teams in baseball. And he had one incredible performance after the next, right? With Erod, it's not been about not seeing what he's capable of. It's just been about him not being able to replicate it in a consistent manner over the course of a season. For Brandon Fott, there's probably been more instances where I've been concerned about Fott being able to, you know, get things back on track. Like, I still very much believe in Brandon Fott. And I think that he had his share, his fair share of great performances in 2025. I just think that what Erod was able to do against some of the most, you know,

some of the best lineups in baseball was, was impressive, right? So I've seen it recently. And I think that Erod was getting better. He really stepped up after. the trade deadline for this team when they really needed somebody to step up in their starting rotation to give them a chance of the playoff spot. So I still think was amazing. And Kobe says Erod was awesome in like July or August, if I remember correctly, potentially Linsanity run, but let's ride. You never know when it's a Linsanity run, right? Like it's just about, again, can they, was there something wrong? Was there a health reason? Erod's kind of had nagging injuries his entire time here, and he had made comments that, you know, he had felt better than he ever

has. So perhaps, you know, it finally was him getting over that injury hump, and perhaps we see him step up in a similar fashion knowing that this team needs him next year that we saw after the trade deadline. Baseball is really weird like that, where, again, you know, an ERA or a batting, like a batting average of 290 is incredible and a batting average of 290.7. And a batting average of 2. 60 is mediocre. ERA of 3 and a half is pretty damn good, but an ERA of 4 is awful, right? So, I mean, I do believe in everybody in this starting rotation, but I mean, they have no choice but to step up if they want to prove people wrong and be a competitive team that

is somehow considered a contender in 2026. What else we got? Our next question here, Derek, comes from Katie May, who is here in the chat, and Katie wants to know when do you guys think Lordus Gariel Jr. will be back because previously everyone said midseason, if at all, but his Instagram stories show his crazy workouts and one had a caption that said opening day. It sure did, Damon, and I got pumped about this. Katie's not the only one that wants these Instagram videos directly injected into her veins, but let's take a look here at our guy. Now, this is, this is a man returning from a surgery that was supposed to take him,

potentially over 12 months to recover from. He is working out with a trainer that very much looks like Gino Svarez. I was about to say, like when I first watched this, I literally was like, is that? Is that Gino's worse? 100%. Not only did I think that. I was like, you know what?

Even if it's not, if you were giving me the choice of which trainers to work with, like when you walk up and you're like, here's our three trainers. I'm taking the guy that looks like Gino 10 days out of seven. You know what I mean? But look at this man working. Look at the work he's putting in. Look at the way he's running. Look at the pressure he's putting on his knee.

This is in December. This is in December. Yeah, we still got four months. We still got four months until opening day. And she's right. There was a caption of another video that he captioned with opening day. And it was like a picture of him with a bat in his hand. This man is putting in the work to get back.

We have speculated on this show. time and time again that Lordus is most likely like done, done in a Diamondbacks uniform. That's what I have said. I have said that we have most likely seen this beautiful man's beautiful purple hair for the last time in a D-BACs uniform. And I don't think that's the case any longer. I appreciate how much work he's putting in here and things look like they're trending in the direction of Lourdes being back. if that's the case, then you just feel so much better about not needing to add that outfielder, that extra outfielder, and you feel like you really can ride with one less positional need this offseason, right?

It feels like now they can really focus just perhaps on that first baseman, that Goldschmidt type or somebody else that could play first base and maybe DH, share time with Tyler Locklear, perhaps share time with Payvon Smith, and also, you know, at least one reliever. at least one reliever. So again, we'll see what happens there. But Lordus definitely looks like he is on track to be back in a Diamondback's uniform sooner than we thought. Yeah, it's electric, Derek. I mean, I think it's massive. It's absolutely massive for what this team can account.

I mean, because we have so many holes to fill. Getting a Gurriel back fills one of those holes. And we're paying them no matter what. So it makes no difference whether he's sitting or whether he's, playing from a salary standpoint, we need them healthy. Mm-hmm. 100%. 100%. All right. Well, else we got. Our next question here is from Elizabeth.

And Elizabeth wants to know if Eric and Damon were in Wicked, who would be Elfaba and who would be Glinda? This is the easiest question we've ever had on this podcast. I know a lot of times that we really actually have to debate these topics, but is there no doubt that Damon is Elfabah? I mean, sweet, good-natured at one point in his life. But driven, driven to hatred, driven the madness. Yeah, that's fair.

Right? I really was a sweetheart when I was a small summer child. Cool, bro, comes in strong with that David would be Glinda? I just, I'm not, I'm not positive enough to be Glinda. Yeah, there's no way. There's no way. I am the uplifting one here, damn it. I am the one that stays cautiously optimistic at all times.

Well, at least on the show on camera. When we turn off the cameras, it might flip a little bit. Shut up, you idiot. Don't tell them about what I'm like off there. How dare you? I will kill you, Damon. When we turn off the cameras and Derek's first words every show are, I hate myself.

I mean, here's the thing. Glinda was the good witch of the South. And that definitely feels like a Tudson for Damon. That is Tucson if I've ever heard it in my entire life. So I'm conflicted now. I don't really know who I am anymore. Maybe I'm Elfabah. You know, sometimes in life you want to be the hero.

We all want to be the hero. But sometimes we are the wicked witch of the West. And I feel like... Derek is the wizard of Oz. I am the wizard. I am. There is, this is all just a facade. I'm actually in the closet right now,

getting high and pulling strings while this guy talks out here. But what else we got? We got one more, Damon. I believe we do have one more question, Derek, to end it out. And it is from our friend Ryan Hanley. who asks, how does one subscriber, how does one subscribe to never giving up, but end up giving up slash tapping out? Does hustle loyalty respect mean nothing? Derek?

John Cena needed to lose you guys. I don't know how to explain this to you. The idea of never giving up isn't the idea that you're not going to lose a match, right? Never giving up is about never giving up. But isn't tapping? Isn't tapping like inherently given up though? Oh, oh. Oh, am I supposed to die in the hands of Gunther, Damon?

Am I supposed to let this man choke the air out of my body until officials need to come in and rescue me and put me on a stretcher and taking me out of the ambulance? Or can I just smile and accept my fate like the toys did at the end of Toy Story 3 and just tap out with a little tapy tap and let Gunther know, I'm done, my career's done, you did it, I'm over. John Cena is one of the greatest pro wrestlers who has ever lived. There's no doubt about that.

But this man has had himself a ride over his final year. And he has gotten to do something that most pro wrestlers never get to do, which is leave on his own fruition, not injured, not he's alive. He's not dead. And he's not broke to where he has to like still do this thing just to try to put together some money to pay rent. Right? Now you're taking the pageantry out of the wrestling world a little bit here, Derek. We know John Sina isn't tapping because he doesn't need his wrestling career to pay the bills and keep the lights on next week.

That's not the point. That's not the point. Most people do not get to have any kind of last year in his career that he had where he got to go play the hits and do all the things that he never got a chance to do and have the final year that he had. and again this is this this was a joy pro wrestling sometimes is a gag

that we're all in on right like nobody thinks pro wrestling is real until something like this happens and then you have a bunch of dorks screaming about John Cena tapping out and stuff and one man comparing it to Kobe's last game what are we even

doing here what are we doing it's insanity but it's basically pro wrestling and I will tell you a hot take Kobe's last game sucked. Please don't. Please don't. You lost by like 20 to the jazz.

Didn't he score 60 though? Yeah, because he was literally playing unwatchable basketball. That's what they want from John Cena, an unwatchable match where he wins at the end and does nothing for the business. I will say this, pro wrestling is a business where when you are leaving it, especially on your own because you are done with it, you have to give back to that business.

And the way that you do is by losing in your final match to somebody and taking your boots off I'm leaving him in the ring. That was a concept that was foreign to me, Derek. So on Saturday night, obviously Kevin is a lot more into wrestling. And when that all went down, I was like, Kevin, how the hell is John Sina losing in his, quote, unquote, final match? I mean, we all know he'll be back eventually. But in his quote unquote final match. How are you losing in that?

And Kevin had to explain to me that apparently you go out on your sword a little bit when you do. When you're a big famous wrestler like. It's because it does nothing for you except to appease your ego that you want a match that everybody knows is predetermined. The results, right? What you want to do in a form of entertainment like pro wrestling is you want to give back to the business and you want to allow the person who essentially defeat you in your final match to now have a reputation. Have that under their belt. Hang that on, you know, their mantle that they were in fact the one to end the career of one John Cena. Well, I'll prove it to you.

I had no idea who Gunther was before he ended John Cena's career. And now I know his name and I know what he looks like. So point proven, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm a very casual wrestling fan. I only really care so I can talk with my sweet friend Derek about it. No, absolutely. And our guy, Stephen Bananas, aka Stephen's guitar covers, is here.

Thank you for your mailbag Monday super chat. You did not have to do that because I was going to pull your question. Yeah, I was what to say. I guarantee you Derek was about. to read that. I was going to read the question. I was going to get it to you, but buddy, we thank you so much for your super chat and appreciate it. This was more of the fact that it was a timing issue, and we have a lot to do in the 20 minutes before we start this show. But Stephen did ask, should we be worried that the Diamondbacks haven't done anything to address the bullpen yet?

What trade pieces and or free agents can you foreshadow and what players do you think make up the opening day bullpen roster? Well, again, it's very difficult to say that, but I will say that, again, the pieces that they really have no choice but to be in there, right? You're going to have a Ryan Thompson, you're going to have Kevin Ginkle. You're going to have guys that proved themselves last year, probably like a Philip Abner and Brandon Garcia. The one guy that we're talking about that we want is, you know, is Pete Fairbanks. We think Pete Fairbanks would be the sneaky good addition based on his numbers from last year. I don't care that his strikeout numbers have gone down.

There are things that they have said negatively about Fairbanks that, you know, for some reason, make him less desirable. but I still very much like the idea of going after Pete Fairbanks. And again, he's just a guy that kind of, you know, at his age and his current value kind of lies, kind of lies in the cut a little bit. But, I mean, again, you might also be taking a look at a reunion with potentially Luke Weaver. Or perhaps, I mean, I don't know. I mean, again, the relief options are so weird and those guys are all so close as far as their numbers and stats are from last year. realistically what we i think the diamondbacks need to focus on more than anything is the um close a closer

and fairbanks is that guy that has closing experience really when it comes to so many of these other options you know the big names have all signed when it comes to closers edwin dyes robert sweres rice lacyl iglesias ryan helsley devon williams kenley jansen uh even now tyler rogers uh the Submariner there agrees to a deal on three-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. So a lot, a lot of closers and relief options, the elite relief options have all kind of come off the board already. So again, I hope the Diamondbacks are in fact in talks with Fairbanks. And I hope that deal gets done because I think he would at least be the one that adds

some stability to that closer position. So a bullpen is typically around eight pitchers on an NMV roster, Derek, and just looking at this 40-man roster. We have Philip Abner. We have Kyle Backus, Juan Burgos. Backus was pretty good. Brandon Garcia. Kevin Ginkle makes five. Andrew Hoffman makes six. I guess Juan Maria makes seven and Andrew Salfrinck makes eight. And then you also have Ryan Thompson. So you could probably go Mario in AAA. Ryan Thompson makes eight. So I guess you technically have the sufficient numbers in-house right now. Lots of young guys who kind of got their first taste at I don't know if you want to rely on them too much, but it doesn't feel like there's,

I guess, a million holes left in that bullpen. Definitely need a back-end guy and then definitely need AJ puck back about as fast as humanly possible. Correct. 100%. And I think J-Mart hopefully should be back as well, but I worry a little bit more about J-Mart because he's so young and the debacks have him on that extension that they might slow play him being brought back because True. He's a flame thrower. You don't want to jeopardize his future. Exactly.

And I think, so I think Puck probably has a better chance of being back early, whereas J. Marvel might be slow played. Yeah. And also what Kobe is talking about there is a Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Isaiah Campbell to a minor league deal. You got to check this man's face out because as far as this mustache is concerned, Damon.

We got ourselves, what is a 60-grade mustache? Yeah, for a 98th percentile. Oh, yeah. I mean, I would say, I'd say that's like a 65 grade mustache. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So he's 28 years old. Again, signs to a minor league deal.

Thanks. He had a 21.9% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate, which was both close to average. And then he had a 47.7% grounder rate here, according to MLB Trade Rumors.com. So again, a guy that's been signed to a minor league deal, but absolutely could be that thing. This freaking team has so many opportunities for guys to step up that these young players, especially the ones that recently were traded here that are AAA level talent, should all be chomping at the bit for the opportunity to show what they can do. Because quite frankly, Tori Lavallo will give anybody an opportunity that steps up.

He really will. Like, nobody's earned anything. And you know that there's going to be players that are underperforming in that bullpen. So again, grab that brass ring. boys. Thank you also, Stephen Bananas, for your other super chat. He said, Merry Christmas, guys. Love you and Damon. And I'm blessed. I got to meet you guys at the pool this year, Go Snakes. One of my favorite pictures is the three of us in the hot tub together, Stephen. So we appreciate you, bud. Thank you so much for being a diehard and for being here. We missed you,

in fact. We haven't seen your face in a while. So we're glad to see you back here on a live show. Stephen, this is a fact right before the show started. Derek realized that you sent in a question. And he was like, I'm so sad. Stephen is our friend. And we've missed him. Yeah, we didn't, we didn't get his question in there. I got to get your question. So we were planning on getting the question no matter what, Stephen, but we appreciate you, man. We love you, brother.

Thank you. He asked whatever happened to Dre Jameson. Did we forget about Dre? Yeah, I mean, I thought we weren't supposed to forget about Dre. Dre is also, I think Dre is an option, but you can't rely on him as things currently stand. Yeah, I mean, again, I want more than anything. There are some teams in baseball looking at Dre as a potential starter. So if that was the case,

then holy crap like let's get dray out there and give him a chance uh cool bro thank you for your super chat he says philip rivers played derrick can you get to mound uh i don't know i think my mustache does entirely too much talking here for my ability to pitch on the mound so i don't think i'm i think those days are behind me but i'm glad to be here with you guys thank you again for your time as i've told you time and time again uh your time is very very precious it's a commodity in fact be careful you share it with and we appreciate you so much sharing it with us we will be back tomorrow with another 12 p m show make sure to join us then until then you can follow us on twitter i am at cap underscore caveman with a k damon is at damon dog with a da wg and we are all damon's dogs bark bark our show is at p h and x underscore dbacks but as always all roads lead to at p h and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we thank you guys so much for stopping by we will see you tomorrow until then have yourselves a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves, Stephen Bananas. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you know you have five starting pitchers.