PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Who Gets the FINAL SPOT in the D-backs Rotation When Everyone’s Healthy?

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Arizona Diamondbacks are near the end of Spring Training and closing in on opening day in the desert! Who is looking good and who's posed to start this season for the D-backs? What's going on with the MLB and their business moves and you're telling me I can buy World Baseball Classic game used items online?? Join Derek Montilla for this Friday episode of the PHNX Diamondbacks Show! Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/   Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.   Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.   Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did Michael Soroka just make the Diamondbacks decision much more difficult with his outing against the White Sox? We're going to be talking about who is in the rotation once Merrill Kelly comes back and who is out. We're doing that right now. Don't you go anywhere? Well, ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast. It's Friday. It's March Madness. And nobody cares that this baseball podcast is happening.

Noah's given up on even giving me an extended runway with the theme song and Danes, Damon's not even here today because, you know, it's March madness. This is March. But anyway, thrilled to have you guys here. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Got my guy, Noah on the ones and twos today. Skibbili D there back there, Noah, to you, sir.

And of course, we got some stuff to talk about here. We are less than a week away from opening day. and it's good to have my guy Killer Rex here saying that he cares. I love that you're here. Hello to you, Deborah. Hello to everybody else. We got ourselves some interesting things here happening with the Diamondbacks, including Michael Soroka having himself a really nice outing yesterday against the Chicago White Sox.

I did get a very funny text message from my friend Jared, who is currently in Japan. He arrived in Tokyo this morning, and he was getting in a cab at the airport. apparently, you know, to go to his hotel. The driver asked him where he was from. My friend responds by saying Arizona, to which the driver said, Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson. And I tell you, I love that. I love that so much.

It's pretty great. But Diamondbacks yesterday, of course, without Randy Johnson, they lost to the White Sox by a score of four to two. In the good news department, Gabrielle Moreno made his first start at designated hitter, since he was a scratch late last Friday with inflammation in his right elbow. He went 0 for one, but with three walks and a strikeout, so not a terrible day, especially shit still showing off that Gabby Moreno knows the strike zone better than most people know the strike zone. We got Pave and Smith came in.

This is for Michael Rokickey. I know he's thrilled about that. He played first base, so he has overcome his, I believe it was left forearm tightness for Payvon Smith there. And he accounted for most of the offense yesterday. He went one for four with an RBI and a run scored on a day where the Diamondbacks did not score very many runs. Also notable here was Jonathan Lois Sega. He threw a fastball 99.6 miles per hour. So he is a name that is vying for one of those spots in the bullpen.

And again, that competition looks like it's going to come down to the wire. We continue to hear roster moves that the Diamondbacks are making. and obviously that adds, you know, every time we see some names removed there, the way we saw Dre Jameson being optioned to AAA Reno, we kind of have a, you know, a better idea of who is looking like they're going to be the names that the Diamondbacks look to, at least to start the season in the bullpen. There is most likely going to be a lot of change throughout the year. But one area that I am still very concerned about is Brandon Garcia

and what the Diamondbacks are going to do about a left-handed option in their pen. Garcia once again had another not great outing. In relief of Soroka, he struggled yet again. He struggled to fill up the strike zone. He struggled to get anything in the zone and land strikes. He only landed nine of his 22 pitches for strikes. He walked two batters, allowed a base hit, and exited with two outs with the bases loaded. And his line does not look good at all, and it's another outing where Brandon Garcia,

who is a name that the Diamondbacks kind of were counting on and looking to be a left-handed option for them in their pen is looking more and more like he might not be the Diamondbacks option that they go to this season. So it's unfortunate because he has looked quite brilliant at times during spring training as well. But he goes two-thirds of an inning's pitch to give up the one hit, three runs, none of them earned, but he did walk two,

and his ERA now is up to 13.5 this spring training. Killer X is suggesting that he's injured, and I mean, I still think there's something lingering from that outing where they said it was due to illness. So you might not be wrong about that. I also don't think that when it comes to one of their young arms, that the Diamondbacks would be taking any chances with putting it out there when he was injured.

There is something that does seem wrong, and as we get closer and closer to opening day here, it appears more and more like Brandon Garcia might not be on the Major League roster when the regular season begins. That's unfortunate because their only other option right now is Philip Abner. And even though Philip Abner was, you know, very good for this team at times last year, his stuff just still isn't, you know, Brandon Garcia's stuff. It's just still, you know, he's not throwing a fastball 92 miles an hour. It's just much different.

So, again, it's one of those situations where you feel like you would love to see some more options there. And obviously, the Diamondbacks have those options returning from injury, not too long from now. But, you know, what are you going to do between now and then? What are you going to do against the Dodgers? What are you going to do in some of these other instances? So, again, a lot of questions there. Abner in the chat says, Pave-in still trash at defense at first base, though. I mean, I'll say that I feel like Pays,

Haven has been working really hard on that, but there is a stark difference between him and Carlos Santana. I think Santana, due to his experience and everything that he has done in Major League Baseball, I mean, the Diamondbacks brought him over because of his defense. And when you see him there at first base, he is, it's rather effortless for him, you know, for sure. So I do think that we're going to see obviously a platoon over there at first base, but, you know, we are going to see. But, you know, we are going to see probably a lot more Carlos Santana than we're going to see Paveen Smith. But again, Paveen most likely is going to be an option for the Diamondbacks at DH. Lourdes might be an option for the debacks at DH here early on, but I also would predict that he is not going to be available, at least on opening day.

So Diamondbacks are going to have some guys, get some opportunities. And one of those guys obviously is going to be Michael Soroka, who is going to be in the starting rotation to start the year after we. We got the news from Merrill himself that he most likely, for all intents and purposes, is going to start the year on the injured list. So Michael Soroka making his first start since returning from WBC play yesterday with Team Canada. His third spring start overall looked outstanding. He looked outstanding yesterday. Michael Soroka looked like a guy who was competing for a job. and he also looked like a guy who was very much a return to form what he was years and years ago.

Now, I know Rex wants me to tell you guys that this is spring training, so none of it matters and it's not real baseball. So there's that. It's also the Chicago White So take it for what it's worth, right? But as far as impressing, Soroka did that yesterday. And it's hard not to look at what he did and now kind of start thinking about what the Diamondbacks are going to do. here with their starting rotation once they do get a healthy Merrill Kelly back. Eight strikeouts yesterday for Soroka, 13 whiffs.

His fastball velocity reached 95.9 miles per hour. And again, he actually on his, what was it, his third to last pitch of the night, hit 95.8. He ended up going five innings, giving up one hit, zero earned runs, one walk, and eight strikeouts. He only allowed two batted balls hit north of 95 miles per hour, and both were ground outs. Again, this is a very, you know, so it's one outing. However, considering what the Diamondbacks paid Soroka and considering what, you know, what the expectations are, this is a fairly outstanding outing for a guy who, again, is kind of just like quickly figured to be the Diamondbacks

odd man out once Kelly returns from this IEL stint. And I would argue maybe not so fast. I would also say that, like, I don't think any of this is guaranteed. I do think that, like, Soroka is definitely in a difficult position as far as what he needs to do in order to earn himself a spot in the rotation in a very short amount of time. And we're going to go over that here shortly. We're going to talk about the Diamondbacks pitching rotation and what what exactly would need to happen for him to find his way in.

We're also going to talk about the Major League Baseball, by the way, overall, kind of getting, I don't know if you want to call it, into bed. I like to say into bed, but kind of getting this new deal with polymarket and the predictive markets, which seems a bit unethical. We're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk here about an amazing auction going on right now with some World Baseball Classic Relics,

by the way. So I'm excited to talk about that. But just in regards to spring training, again, the Diamondbacks lost that game four to two. Nothing super exciting about it. But Jorge Barrosa is a guy who, you know, a lot of fans have kind of written off, I think, a bit. And a lot of fans would see in the outfield as potentially a failure by this team. Like if there's a starting lineup on opening day that comes out that features Jorge Brosa on it, there are going to be a lot of fans that grown about that decision being made. And what I will say is, Barrosa so far has been playing his ass off this spring. I mean, he's been solid defensively in the outfield. He went two for three yesterday with a walk

and a run scored. He went two for three the day before with a home run and two RBI in the win over the Cubs. And he's currently hitting 324 with a 1.066 OPS. Again, the Diamondbacks are starting to have lots of options with the addition of Jordan Lawler in the outfield, with Corbyn Carroll returning from injury and hitting his first dinger already, with Lordus Gurriel being on the horizon and, you know, kind of the pieces that they have in place. So it once again feels like this team is doing or the competition on this team is bringing out the best in a lot of guys. And I mean, that's what the intention of the, this is. But again, I think that baseball is one of those sports that it's kind of amazing when a guy

struggles and then you see him figure out a way to put it together in the way that Barrosa has or the way that Lawler has. And, you know, again, even if they come back down to Earth, what we are seeing is at least both of those guys have much more success at the plate than we were seeing last year. And let's see. Robert's asking, does he have options left or is he still, is he out of Reno options? Berosa. I think Barrosa might have options. left, but that's something I can look up real fast, and I will do that. Also, again, there's, the options thing is going to play heavily potentially into the decision for the starting rotation, right? So there, there is a good chance that, you know, the decisions might come

down, not necessarily to who the best man is, if guys are kind of pulling up even, but more of what makes sense for the organization as far as keeping guys and putting guys somewhere for them to stay stretched out and stay available pitching. or again, start every day like the Diamondbacks want these young, exciting players to do. They don't want a Waldschmidt or one of these other guys riding the bench and only getting playing time every so often. They want these guys playing and developing and getting better every day so that they can soon become the future of this team.

But, yeah, I mean, as far as that goes, there's going to be a lot of, a lot of the options, things, and younger guys are going to play into these decisions that are made by this team. But I will again, I'll take a look at that for you. I did want to let everybody know once again that it's very hot in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if you guys can see this. There's a beat of sweat running down my face. I foolishly am in a long sleeve shirt, but that's because you have no idea what temperature it's going to be in this office.

No, am I right? Like, I even feel like it was colder in the viewing area than it is my office. And then in here, it's a sauna. Yeah. I don't know what to wear in this office anymore. It's like it's room by room. So there's that. The studios hold the heat well.

Yeah, the studios hold the heat very well. You're right about that. We also have this archaic light that's shining down upon me that is probably older than most of the people in this office. And it generates a tremendous amount of heat. But what's generating more heat than anything is the goddamn sun outside, which is bearing down on us and making spring feel like summer. It's caused today's game to move from 110 to 610. And yeah, there's that. You also have Zach Gallen on the mound today against the Mizz for the Brewer.

So that's going to be an exciting, fun game. And I do believe that Cotel Marte is going to be back in the lineup. I haven't seen the lineup yet due to the move. We'll see that in a little bit. So hopefully we'll have some updates on that. But again, I did, what's that? What do you got? killer X says to roll your sleeves up I say one step further take the shirt off just pop the shirt up

look the last time a producer encouraged me to take my shirt off I did but I was very drunk on champagne when that happened so I think we'll hold off on popping the shirt off for now but maybe you guys will see me pop the shirt off at our opening day watch party which we are going to do uh less than a week from today and I'm so excited for it Thursday next week for big opening day out in Los Angeles we are going to be out of cry baby make sure to join us for that. We're going to have a blast out there. We're going to watch the Diamondbacks take on the Dodgers together as a family. We're going to have a little pre-game pre-show going on.

Pre-game pre-show going on there. You also have some fun. We're going to have some food, some drinks available for purchase. Huge TVs to watch the game. Doors open at 5 p.m. Game starts at 5.30. Make sure to join us. Crybaby is at 818 North First Street.

Almost at Avenue. That can be very confusing in this part of town. 818 North First Street in downtown Phoenix right across the street from the Churchill. So make sure join us for that. We're going to have a great time. We're also going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk about the Diamondback starting rotation and exactly who is in, who is out, and what is going to happen when Merrill Kelly returns from injury.

We're going to do that in two minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Well, there's no better feeling than getting to leave work early, especially during March madness or maybe even calling out. But I'll tell you whether it's work, a boring party or a boring work party, you name it and you can get out of it early. With the early payout offer from Bet365 cutting out early just reinforces one of life's true joys. And Bet365 is running their exclusive early payout offer where if your team in the college basketball tournament goes up by

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Well, I got that update for you, by the way. I believe it was Robert who was asking about Jorge Brosa. Jorge Brosa actually does not have any minor league options left, which is surprising and interesting when you think about how he is going to factor into this team and what his role exactly is going to be. Meanwhile, starting pitching, there's some interesting things when it comes to that. including the options that Brandon fought and Ryan Nelson both have. I bring that up because obviously what we have here with the Diamondbacks is a positive situation.

You want to look at this positively. The Diamondbacks have too much starting pitching, which is something that is fairly unbelievable considering where we thought this team was going to be at the end of last year. Right? We knew we didn't have Merrill Kelly. We were hoping that the fix was in and we were going. going to get him back. We knew Zach Gallen wasn't returning. And we did not know where the dimebacks were going to find the money in order to not only have this be a full five-man

starting rotation without calling anybody up from the minor league system, but also what they were going to do about their other positional needs that they had. But when it comes to the starting rotation, again, they did an excellent job of bringing back their, you know, two guys that have been studs for them over the past few years in Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen. And they also bring back Michael or bring over Michael Soroka on a very cheap. deal. Now, this only really comes up because it feels like it's a foregone conclusion that now if Merrill Kelly is going to go on the IL, once he returns, that the odd man out is going to be Soroka. But I would argue that perhaps that's not the case. And I would say that, you know,

there might have to be a lot of things that happen here in a very short amount of time in order for Soroka to end up in the starting rotation, but what he will have is opportunities to pitch in the regular season, as will the rest of the pitchers. What you have right now is obviously Zach Gallen coming in as the opening day starter and pretty much a lock in the rotation. But outside of that, you could argue that nobody is particularly safe. Eduardo Rodriguez, based on what the Diamondbacks are paying him

and how important they are to this team, how important he is to this team, is definitely probably a lock as well, even though most people would want to write Erod off as a guy that maybe the dynamback should put in the bullpen or just simply move on from because of how frustrated everybody has been with Rodriguez's time with the D-backs.

The other day, I kind of broke down, though, how much of his time has been, you know, impacted by injury and how good he has looked at times when he was at 100% health, which in the two years, he's been here is a very small percentage of his active time as a member of the roster. Now he's coming off of one of his most impressive outings in the last two years in the World Baseball Classic Championship game. And, you know, it's hard not to feel very positive about his, you know, his potential for

2026 and where he's going to factor in. However, Erod is also a $20 million man as far as the starting rotation goes. So there's not a high likelihood that he would end up being the odd man out, be in the bullpen due to how much he's getting paid. I would argue, though, that the Diamondbacks don't have a problem doing that. They've done that in the past when it came to Jordan Walker and his, you know, struggles.

So, did I say Jordan Walker? Excuse me. He shall not be named. Okay. So, but anyway, Jordan Montgomery. But the Diamondbacks overall here is they have three guys that, you know, are essentially pitching and performing for two positions. Michael Soroka, five innings, eight strikeouts, looked really good. Unfortunately for Soroka, he's going to almost have to pitch like that. I feel the rest of his outings in order for the Diamondbacks to make that decision to leave him in the starting rotation.

But that's just me speculating. they may have a different plan and part of that plan might involve their two younger pitchers who still do have options left. Now Ryan Nelson of course has not been perfect this spring. He was a guy that we were trying to kind of make an argument on the behalf of

that he deserved to at least be considered for the opening day start, especially if Zach Allen wasn't going to be stretched out by that by opening day. But Ryan Nelson has struggled this spring a little bit himself and hasn't looked perfect. He has taken a step forward However, it feels like Nelly is always kind of that odd man out. It feels like to this organization, Nelson always is the guy that they are willing to, you know, move around, put in the minor leagues, put into the pen.

It does feel like whoever the Diamondbacks don't have in the starting rotation is most likely not going to go into the bullpen any longer, especially with the gap kind of right now between guys who are ready and guys that they need for major league depth versus who the next man up would be after that. considering Christian Manah got shut down. The next guy up, you know, as we've discussed, we were discussing with Alex Dagestino yesterday. Could be Bryce Jarvis making essentially like a bullpen kind of start. Or it could be Gilbert Diaz. But the options aren't great once you get past the first six guys. So it really does feel like Soroka, Nelson,

fought, whoever like essentially wouldn't be in the starting rotation, would be a candidate to be sent down to Reno just to stay stretched out as the next man up once an injury or once that's needed, right? But again, the Diamondbacks feel and have viewed Ryan Nelson now as a starter, a long-term starter, and no longer have viewed him as that guy that they're switching in between being a long reliever and a starter. But I still don't think that he's completely safe

due to the fact that Ryan Nelson has two minor league options left still. And that's what I feel like this decision may come down to if all of these guys are performing okay, but not really standing out above, you know, each other, right? And if Michael Soroka obviously continues to pitch as well as he did here yesterday's game, then he could easily find himself in the rotation with one of these two young guys out. Because Brandon fought again also has the two minor league options left his way. well. He still seems somewhat volatile. You still don't know what you're necessarily going to get on any given inning from Brandon Fopp, but still has high upside. Still has looked really good for this

team. He's looked good this spring. And he's, you know, developing his secondary pitches very well. So it feels like his arsenal is getting bigger. And again, he's young. He's controllable. And he could be, again, that guy that is at least for a while. put out. I don't really see this necessarily as being a demotion, but it's hard not to look at that when you're not on the major league roster or even if you're put to the bullpen and you're not in the starting rotation, right? But again, it doesn't feel like Eduardo Rodriguez is going to be that guy. And if he is, then the Diamondbacks still not only have to deal with this season, but another season of Erod that they're paying him $20 million. So do you really want to do something

to impact his confidence where essentially now he's your highest paid release? or just not very much used to you at all, and you're just waiting to run the clock out on yet another starting pitcher's contract the way that you did with Madison Bumgarner? I mean, I'm doubtful of that, and I still am very encouraged by how Erod pitched in the WBC, right?

But Michael Soroka, again, his contract, is, you know, kind of being the last man in, if you want to call it that, even though Zach Gallen technically was. There's a lot of things about it that instantly seemed to point to him as being the candidate for, you know, for the dimebacks to move, right? But again, Michael Soroka doesn't have minor league options.

So you're going to have to put him into the bullpen or you're going to have to DFAM or cut them from the team. And again, financially, that's not that big of a hit, not nearly as big as like an Erod or other guys on this team. He also isn't necessarily a huge part of your future plan. So again, all signs point to that being an easier decision than one of the other more difficult decisions this team may need to make. But that's where it comes down to Soroka. Like Soroka needs to be the guy that makes the decision difficult. And if he does, and the Diamondbacks have, you know, again, four guys that are all pitching extremely well in their starting rotation, you know, that they have to decide which ones or five guys. and then Merrill Kelly comes back, this is a very good problem to have and a very good, difficult

decision to have to make. Considering where this team was at with their starting pitching and their bullpen last year, it would be a godsend for this to be the scenario, for everybody to be so good that they have a tough decision on exactly what they're going to do and who they're going to do it too and what they're going to, you know, how they're going to balance it. I'm sure they have a plan already somewhat in place, and that's the reason why I believe that it feels very likely like Soroka is probably they're figuring out something that they're going to do with him once Kelly comes back. But I honestly hope he makes it very hard on them.

I hope he makes it hard. And again, I think Merrill Kelly overall is still dealing with that back injury, but I don't think he's going to be gone for very long. So the opportunity to make that impression and to make that decision difficult is going to come to. down to maybe two starts, three starts at the most. And, you know, at least, at the very least, Soroka returning from Team Canada and the WBC has already made a very, very positive impression with the way that he pitched yesterday in the White Sox game. That's all he can do. It's something that you will hear from baseball players, and I'm sure that would be his exact answer. There's nothing he can do besides go out there during these spring training games and pitch his ass off the way he did

yesterday in order to try to secure his position and starting rotation. So, but again, we, we should be very thankful. We should be incredibly thankful for the Diamondbacks are having this problem instead of us panicking about who the fifth man in the starting rotation is going to be right now with Merrill Kelly down and no other option besides E.rod, Soroka, Brandon Fott, and Ryan Nelson. So glad, glad that Zach Gallen is here. But again, the, the, I guess the, the, the, I guess the, difficult part, the difficult role here or the difficult task is on Soroka, who basically for the time being looks like a temporary piece and not a core piece. And it's up to him to change that

definition of himself, right? He's already shifted from the bullpen to the rotation. So it's not, you know, it's not the end of the world. But again, team flexibility here is going to be a big part of this. And again, the diamondbacks most likely are going to need another starter. before the end of this season. Fingers crossed, we don't. Let's hope that's another good problem that they have. But again, there's a good chance that, you know, the Diamondbacks here are probably going to need whoever they move out of the rotation.

Again, that's why it could come down to one of the young guys that has minor league options left. But they do have other stupid ideas they could do. They could go with a six-man rotation when Kelly comes back. Probably not going to. but I mean they could piggyback starts a little bit or give guys extra you know rest early in the season as they're getting ramped up. I just I don't even know if that's a good idea any longer. I don't know if the Diamondbacks know if that's a good idea any longer. So it feels like the locks here for the rotation once again are Gallin, Kelly, probably Erod and probably Ryan Nelson.

And then it seems like Brandon Fott would be favored a little bit there over Soroka for that final spot. But overall, again, we need the depth. And hopefully the Diamondbacks will make whatever decision helps this team win baseball games. The beginning of their season is very difficult. And, you know, having bullpen starts or Bryce Jarvis come in and give them like three innings would have really put them in a bad position early with overusage of their bullpen, which already isn't great. And it doesn't, you know, doesn't look like it's solid once again.

But hopefully this starting pitching can get things together. By the way, one thing I've noted is that Andrew Hoffman has been coming in fairly late for the Diamondbacks quite a bit. So that's interesting because I know it's spring training and I know it's really not high leverage innings. But it's just been interesting to see Hoffman kind of be a late inning guy for Tori Lovelo so far. And I'm interested to see if that continues once the regular season. starts. He is a guy that I've kind of had on the bubble of the of the bullpen and the diamondbacks make some sort of crazy decision to not have a left hander in their pen at all, then I feel like it's leaning in the in the in the direction of it being a lock that we see our guys super bad,

Andrew Hoffman in the bullpen. Let's see. Candice says I would use one of my third wishes on having no pitcher injuries ever. Oh God. Please give me a monkey paw. or a genie in a bottle. I need something to make sure. It would just be nice to see the Diamondbacks, again, have a season where injuries don't make a huge impact. But, I mean, what team ever goes through that? Like, injuries are just such a big part of the game

when you talk about 162 game season and guys sliding into each other cleats out all the time. It's a recipe for disaster is really what it is. But my prediction here, honestly, is that, again, as crazy as it is, I feel like Brandon Fott might be the guy that gets optioned to Reno or put in the bullpen. That's just my feeling. But it feels like Michael Siroka probably a bullpen move or if they decide to keep whoever stretched out, then it might be Nelly or Brandon Fought that get optioned to Reno.

So we'll see how that goes. And, of course, we'll have more, a little bit better idea. once this weekend comes and goes. Next week, we've talked about it, but we have no show on Wednesday. We'll be bringing you another episode of Mailbag Monday on Tuesday. We'll have a Monday. We'll have a little season preview on Tuesday. And then we will be having our opening day watch party with our pregame and postgame show on Thursday.

We'll also be bringing you postgame shows for that entire series. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we will be here giving you postgame shows for the D-Backs versus the Dodgers. And man, I can't wait. I can't wait to talk about really. real regular season baseball. It's exciting. But have the, has MLB already messed things up with their new ad partnership? They just, they can't seem to ever get these things right. And I don't know why they're so bad at this. But we're going to talk about, uh, MLB getting into the predictive markets market and why. I think this is another terrible idea. Don't you go anywhere?

You're watching the pH next time in Beck Show. Well, Circle K is Derek's third stop. It's Noah's Thir Stop and it should be your Thir Stop because it is America's Thurstop. It's a million degrees outside here in the Valley. So make sure to stop by Circle K, get yourself something cold to drink. Stay hydrated, folks. You got to. And of course, you could save money on that by joining the Inner Circle for free right now. Then you just have to go ahead and type in your phone number and you'll save on all sorts of stuff,

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We got Killer Rex. We are agreeing entirely too much today. Killer Rex says it's all about greed, Derek, greed. There's a lot of greed going on right now. I feel like we are almost back in the 80s where like greed is good. Right? Not really. It's not. And nor has it ever been really in sports. What's really weird is we are getting to a point where major sports leagues like MLB are entering partnerships in uncharted territories that it almost feels like they have no business partnering with. Right. We've seen this in the past. And I almost feel like, you know, all sport leagues are kind of guilty of this, considering it. It comes down to advertising dollars and who has money to advertise with these sports, which can be very expensive. But, like, this is another case of Major League Baseball, probably doing the wrong thing.

They are entering the prediction market space with a pair of deals that Commissioner Rob Manfred said are aimed at combating threats to the sports integrity, which is hilarious. Okay, so for those of you that might not understand, a prediction market is, an exchange-based, you know, website, application, platform, bless you, Noah, bless you, sweet, sweet baby, where participants can buy and sell options tied to the outcome of future events, right? So it's basically sports betting, but on everything. You can bet on elections. You can bet on if Noah was going to sneeze during the show. an over under on sneezes for Noah during the show.

Not really an over under because they try with these prediction sites and market, you know, they try to make it not be gambling. They try to make it not be sports gambling. And that's what kind of the problem is. The problem is is that, you know, there are states like Arizona that have approved sports gambling. There are other states that approve sports gambling, but with different rules. Like what I was telling you guys when I was in Washington, D.C., and I had to be within a certain number of feet of a sports venue in order for me to use my sports gambling app.

So there's, I mean, there's, there's, like, rules and such tie to it. There's things voted in. There's states that do allow it legally and don't. And what's weird is the prediction market space seems to kind of circumvent that. It's prediction market, so it's not sports gambling, so it doesn't have. to abide by the same rules. And that's why it's really weird that Major League Baseball on Thursday named Polymarket as the league's official prediction market exchange. It just doesn't feel like something that baseball should be doing. Right. And Rob Manfred in the past has made some weird

decisions when it comes to these kind of partnerships and such. They announced that there's an information sharing agreement with the commodity futures trading. Commission, which is the federal body that oversees the prediction markets. And Polly Market now gains the right to use MLB marks and logos on its platform, as well as official data from sport radar to help resolve markets while the league gets more visibility and input on the rules governing the billions of dollars that is expected to be traded on baseball this season. What I feel like this does, though, is legitimizes a prediction market like Polly Market.

Like this is and I mean again prediction markets have kind of exploded in popularity because of the fact that they kind of just are like a yes or no proposition situation right where it's like is this thing going to happen yes or no and you can see percentages of people that bet yes percentages of people that bet no and that impacts just like sports gambling how much you know you're going to essentially make by taking a stake in one side or the other. And that's what states have a problem with with this. States argue that this prediction market is just sports betting. And again, this is no different than them prohibiting sports gambling in their state for other apps and for other things. But this, like, circumvents the rules. Major League Baseball has a weird history of, like, kind of just jumping into things too early. The prediction market thing really did explode over the last year. but it's just kind of uncharted territory

in the same way that like cryptocurrency is still a weird and new and uncharted territory. Remember when cryptocurrency was sponsoring everything? In fact, Major League Baseball had a deal with a cryptocurrency company called FDX where they put their goddamn logo on umpires uniforms, which I had a huge problem with ethically. Umpires are supposed to be the officials of the game.

and I think that with all of the space that you have in baseball, whether it's jerseys, outfield walls, the field itself, commercial breaks, anywhere else that you want to put it, the, you know, commentators reading ads live during the show or during the game, excuse me, I'm used to doing the show when I do ad reads. All of that, right? And you still felt the need to put this company's logo in an, again, in an uncharted market that really you were just getting into like partnership deals with for the very first time in league history. And what happened with that? FTX ended up being a huge Ponzi scheme. It was a huge

debacle. FTX investors sued the cryptocurrency exchange, sued FDX, and they also sued Major League Baseball. They sued FDX's celebrity promoters for allegedly helping facilitate the 11 billion dollar fraud scheme. And those celebrity exchanges or promoters included being Major League Baseball, Formula One Racing, and the Mercedes-Benz group AG's racing team.

And there's all sorts of stupid stuff historically. Usually it's club-based, right? Like, back in 2001, there was a company called Webvan that had its logo on all the cup holders at San Francisco Giants Pacific Bell Park at the time. The company went bankrupt. I think

before they even, like, day before the season, like even started. And they just left the branded cups behind, just kind of reinforcing what a huge failure that was. We had Enron. Remember when Enron was the naming partner to the Houston Astros field? Oh, my God. Which only lasted two seasons before the company went bankrupt, by the way. And then we also had that the Nationals, speaking of Washington, D.C. The Nationals had this sponsor called the Terra Club.

they paid for a sponsorship deal. It turns out they were a ghost advertiser. It was a stable coin that crashed, once again, erasing billions of dollars in market value. And again, all sorts of lawsuits and things going on with this stuff. So it just is ridiculous that Major League Baseball continues to make these same mistakes when it comes to jumping into partnerships. And really, again, I hate how much Killer X and I agree today, especially when it came to him talking about me

mugging the ASU frat leader. But what I will say is I completely agree with him when it comes down to greed. There's no ethical decisions being made here by Rob Manfred and his particular staff, his group running baseball. Instead, it's just about who can pay them the most money without a thought of how Major League Baseball

partnering with these companies legitimizes them when they themselves don't know if it's a legitimate company, right? If I come in here and introduce everybody to a friend of mine and like, hey, I'm bringing my friend in here and he's here to hang out. And that man starts stealing from everybody in the office, guess what?

I'm kind of responsible for vouching for him. And in this case, that's kind of what Major League Baseball is doing. They vouch for these companies. They help legitimize them. And they help further, in some cases, the Ponzi schemes that are going on. here. Now, prediction markets don't seem like they're going away, but they also still seem like a very new thing for baseball to be getting involved with. And again, I don't love it. I wouldn't

be surprised to see this ending up being a huge debacle for them. It's going to continue to be a problem. States are going to be very opposed to not only these prediction markets making, you know, kind of sports gaming, sports gambling, circumventing the rules, but they're also not going to be thrilled about baseball, like helping once again. further the cause by making it the official prediction market of major league baseball right uh i i'm sure no is not going to jump on and tell you tell you or do it but you know he he made the best comment to me earlier where he said it's like it's like a bunch of guys just sitting around with cigars in the room being like yeah money money money money money money how profit margins lines money you know and like that's

that's kind of what this feels like right so um it's it's kind of crazy and uh i i guess i'm not surprised considering, you know, sports is a multi-billion-dollar, you know, thing, company, I don't even know what you call it, machine. It's a multi-billion-dollar machine. And it's not going to stop to consider the ethics on somebody that they're partnering with even for a second, it seems like. And I don't know. We'll see if that's one comes back to bite them. I bet I would predict yes. I would predict yes on Pauley Market. That's what I would go put my money on. Yes, this is going to be a huge problem for baseball, but we're going to take a quick break, and we're going to do the most important thing that we did on this show all day long,

besides distract you from March Madness Basketball. We are going to take a look at items that belong in a museum that you can buy right now for the low, low cost of $280, perhaps. Don't you go anywhere you are watching the P&C's Diamondback Show. Look, I have said it before, and I will say it again. I hope none of you need the husband and wife law team at all in your life due to a serious injury or accident. But should you experience that, you want to make sure you do your research and you want to contact Mark and Alexis Breyer first. They are the husband and wife law team.

And of course, after a serious injury, you want to hire an attorney that's focused on your best outcome and not what the law firm is going to make. That's the husband and wife law team. They bring hundreds of years of experience, combined trial experience, to you as their, customer and they have multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death. In Arizona, the certified, uh, the state bar has certified less than 1% of all lawyers in specialists in injury and wrongful death litigation. That is the reason why you can trust the husband and wife law team. Plus they actually go to trial for their clients. They are trial lawyers. If a case needs to go to trial, they are ready. They know their way around

a courtroom and what needs to be done to prevail in front of a jury. And of course, nobody can guarantee the outcome of your case, but the husband and wife law team, can guarantee you as their client a few promises, and that is that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason. You'll receive as much in your pocket as they do receive for their fee, even if they have to reduce their attorney fee to do so. And you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss. So if you've had a serious injury, contact the husband and wife law team first at 602-783-8841 or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them, P.HNX sent you.

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with the citrusy notes and the piney hops and everything you can get in that beer, but now in a wonderful THC device. So do not miss out on this collaboration or any of Pure Edibles products. Go find yourself some Pure Edibles. products from one of over 130 dispensaries across Arizona. Killer X asking the real questions. He says, do we have eyes on Otani right now, especially when it comes to what he's doing with the predictive market app

or his involvement with the predictive app? I mean, I'm not, I think we should keep an eye on him. You're not wrong. Candice is also saying that all of our finances went all out of whack because they took the pennies away. I don't know how, but that's the real problem here, through everything out of whack. You might not be wrong about that,

but we have a way to get things back. on track. By the way, Damon is out there ensuring right now that Otani is not on the Polymarket app, but Damon is also missing out on the news that we have to offer you, which is Major League Baseball is taking an opportunity to take some very, very historic items. Items you could argue belong in a museum instead, and they are auctioning off, auctioning them off for charity and for all sorts of amazing causes. And that, is when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about some World Baseball Classic relics. We took a look at this website. So for those of you that are interested, the website is at MLB.com

slash world baseball classic auctions. And we have some real gems here. Now, if we could take a look here, right now you can get, you can bid on for the low, low cost. What is that? $290. We got ourselves a game used Cotel Marte Dominican Republic batting helmet for $290.90. I mean, it's practically free. And again, the reason why I'm sad, Damon's not here is because they also have Geraldo Pardomo's batting helmet, also, or even cheaper, the low, low cost of $280. Chat, I don't know what, I don't know what we're doing here, but maybe we could put together a little collection here and surprise Damon when he returns with.

Heraldo Pardomo's batting helmet. The wildest part is if we bought this for Damon, I think he would wear it on every single show for the entire 2026 season. Without a doubt. We would just become part of his thing. He'd probably mount like the headset inside of it and then not let anybody else use it.

And that's just some of, that's like some of the amazing treasures here. Those are the things that we are suspicious that Damon might be bidding on. But we have some more. more importantly we got my guy Nolan aranato from team porto rico we got his we got his game used locker tag we also have his jersey i kind of need this it's currently the bid on this one little higher it's $1,510 might be a little bit out of my price range um speaking of jerseys out of my price range speaking out of everyone's price range there's a show hey otani jersey game used

currently the bid is at $200,000. Enough money to buy a decently sized house in the Phoenix metropolitan area. But instead, you can invest it in a jersey that when you turn around to resell it years later, someone's probably going to question it's legitimacy. So good luck getting your money back on this guy. $200,000, Noah? I think, I mean, that's easy. The jump change?

Yeah, I can scrounge it up right now. See, I would do it as a joke, but then Damon would just burn it, you know? That'll, I mean, I don't even, I haven't told you guys this, but like, I don't live anywhere. So all the money I make here just goes into an account. I don't have to, I don't spend money on anything. What does that mean? Are you homeless? That's not how I would.

Put it. Okay. I don't live anywhere. Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that. We need to talk about this after this show's over because that's concerning to me, especially with the heat going on outside. I got to make sure you're taking care of.

I'm getting a good tan. These items are all great. The Otani jersey, I would argue, is not great. That's something that nobody needs to spend that much money on. But we have like some real, honestly, like some real historical items here that, like, like I feel like we actually should put a bit on to preserve and have at the PHNX HQ. One of those being the Dominican Republic home run jacket. Can you believe?

Can you believe that this thing is up for auction? How is this up for auction? And how have we not already, once again, purchased this for Damon already? Could you imagine him walking in here every single day in this with the, with the, with the Domo helmet on, that would just be his look from now on going forward. He'd be insufferable and also the coolest looking human being that we know. He'd also have to start speaking a little bit. Oh yeah.

No, yeah. He would need slang. Yeah. He would need to start calling people Primo and stuff like that. Like no more of this Ola crap. Like he's going to need to know like, it's going to have to speak like La Raza for sure. Exactly. This one also, like I don't know.

this one, all of this is for Damon, of course, who again is not here today, but we love him very much. But this one is for the office. This one is for mankind. This one's for humanity. The espresso machine from Team Italy's dugout available for sale. This thing will literally give you superhuman strength. If I promise that you're going to get a shot of one of these, you're going to go hit a home run right now. That's how impressive this is.

Not to mention the fact that this was paired with a very sweet tweet from Vinnie Pasquintino who said, just so everyone knows the proceeds from this will be going to Sark. South Autism Research and Resource Center, they provide service for children, teens, and adults with autism. This was a group decision because the center has helped some people that are a part of our team. Thank you for the support. So again, these are some wonderful items to bid on. And if you definitely have the financial ability to do so, I would just implore you to check out the website because all of the proceeds from this are going to some incredible charities like Vinnie highlighted here. So again, anything that we can do to not only preserve some of these historical items, but also help out some good causes.

I think that's fairly amazing. But I don't know. I need that Dominican Republic jacket. Damon. Damon needs that Dominican Republic. jacket but uh you guys need to be let go thank all of you so much for joining us i know that you had plenty to watch when it came to sports today in fact there's probably four basketball games going on right now as we speak so uh again i thank you for sharing some of your time with us as i've told

you time and time again it's a precious commodity make sure you uh you be careful on who you share it with but again uh thank you guys so much for being here next week is our big week let basketball have this week, but we're back next week. We got a big mailbag Monday, season preview on Tuesday, no show on Wednesday. And then we're with you Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for the regular season, the home opener next week and all of that. So make sure to join us, make sure to join us at our watch party out there at Crybaby. We're going to be having a great time. We'll be doing a live pregame show out there, having some food, having some drinks,

and watching the Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers on opening day. So make sure come by. hang out with us. Until then, you can follow us on social media. I'm at Kp underscore Caveman with a K. Noah does not want you to follow him. And in fact, if you're following him, he would like you to unfollow him right now.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It's all I got for you guys today. But again, I can't wait for real baseball be happening next week. And I can't wait for this heat to go away. It's ruining spring.

training the very least if we're going to be out there watching these games we should be able to sit under some decent weather to do so am i right go away heat we don't want you here you're not welcome yet you can come back in june but for now we need our like low 90 high 80 temps back here in the valley so until until that happens maybe next week we'll see you guys hope you all have a wonderful weekend behave yourself candis and remember kids baseball is fun but it is so much more fun when you have the money to go onto this auction and buy all of the Dominican Republic items.