PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Why Reunion Between Zac Gallen & D-backs Suddenly Makes Sense

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

A seemingly harmless Instagram post from Zac Gallen showing off a new golf glove sent us spiraling into reckless speculation about a potential reunion between the Milk Man and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Is the idea completely ridiculous, or does it actually make sense for both sides? We also dive into the growing impact the conflict in Venezuela is having on baseball, and why several MLB teams are understandably trying to get their players back to the United States as quickly as possible. Plus, Jesse Friedman of Snakes Territory joins the show to break down whether the D-backs’ starting rotation is truly one injury away from another disaster, and which players we’ve talked ourselves into the D-backs needing to add because it’s January and there are basically no good options left.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/Phoenix 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/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 visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: 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.

There are a few things in life that can truly bring us together. A few things that can lift us to our feet and bring us to our knees. A few things that can be analyzed, internalized, socialized, even spiritualized. It gives us identity. It gives us purpose. It makes us believe there's nothing better. To the sickos. the diehards, the supporters, the hooligans, to the rowdiest, the most obsessed, the fans.

For us and all those like us, it will always be sports over everything. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX, D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX, and this is a special day for us around here because we are introducing. our brand new slogan, our brand new way of life around here, which is sports over everything. Welcome in, you guys. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And now we are all about the sports over everything around here.

It means something different to each and every one of us, but I think that this is what so many of us can relate to, what so many of us have grown up our entire lives kind of feeling that sports is just such an important part of our lives. And honestly, I have made some of the best friends ever because of sports. I have been part of some of the most memorable moments in my life because of sports. And I'm here achieving this dream, living this dream every day of getting to talk to all of you about the Arizona Diamondbacks. And of course, that's what this is all about, sports over everything.

I'll tell you, I also love everything. that we're doing. I love our community so much. And I think that that is representative of what we are here at PH&X and what we are here at all city. And we're focusing just now on what brings us all together. Our teams, our sports, our city. And again, I mean, I got Damon Dogg. A. Damon Farrell on the ones and twos today. He's a very quiet Damon dog. We're here in Studio A. And apparently they don't give their producers in this studio a headset, but he's here. And again, If you come for Geraldo Perdomo, he will come for you. So don't forget that.

But that's what it's all about, is this sports over everything. We're also introducing our new all-city.rcithel umbrella initiative for all of our charity initiatives. So it's including our work with the fine folks over at Big Brothers, Big Sisters. And we're very proud, of course, of bringing this sports world into charity, doing everything we can for these wonderful charities that are part of our communities that help so many. people around the valley here and everywhere that all city is. So of course, again, like I said, as far as I am concerned what sports over everything means moments like this one that didn't make it into that video, but should have been the entire video. Damon, if you don't mind, let's relive 2023 one more time. There was a lot of cursing that was about to happen in that

video. And again, that's what it's all about, man, sports over everything. Damon and I seeking each other out. There was a crowd of people celebrating, but it was really just about Damon and locking hands or locking eyes and embracing. But again, we love you guys so much. We thank you guys for being here. And this is a whole new era around here at PHNX. And of course, a big part of those moments in 2023 and so many moments on the show is our guy, the thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And he's joining us today. Jesse, we know we've shared a lot of incredible moments, especially during that 2023 run. But I mean, as a guy that at one time gained a little bit of notoriety

for an incredible Greg Schulte impression, he did as a child, I think you kind of can relate to this as well, that like sports have just been such a huge part of our lives. And, you know, here we are still getting to talk about this sport that we love in baseball. I think sometimes it is difficult to admit to yourself how big. a part of your life sports really are i don't know about you derrick but i i definitely feel that like is this healthy uh but there's definitely a real element of the way that sports brings people together it's not just about the sports at the end of the day it's about a lot of people coming together

around the same thing and in a society where it feels like people are increasingly being drawn away from each other sports is something that that really brings brings everyone back together. Incredibly well said. I mean, I don't want to ever act like you and I wouldn't be friends, but we don't exactly share much common ground, you and I, and yet we are so close because of our love of baseball and because of our love of this Diamondbacks team. So, you know, again, that's what it's about. I think it does. It allows us to bond and have a connection. But at the end of the day, it's about relationships with people in our lives and getting to have, especially like events for just the reason of a game being on right like just getting together uh for a playoff

game getting together on sunday to watch some some football getting together to watch this fun sun's team do what they're doing right now but uh jessie we try to keep it light around here so of course the first topic on today's show happens to do with the conflict in venezuela and that's where we're going with but uh this is this this as much as i laugh about this is actually something that uh has it really impacted baseball in Venezuela. As we know, we've had a lot of players from Venezuela be a part of this Diamondbacks franchise. There are, you know, you have Gabriel Moreno and Eduardo Rodriguez right now who are Venezuelan. You also had El El Mardro Vargas. Plus, historically, we've had, you know, a lot of guys like David Peralta and others, right? So it's basically in this situation, there was an article written by Andy McCullough over at the athletic, basically discussing how the conflict in Venezuela. has brought baseball to a standstill over there. And there's a lot of concerns here in regards to how this impacts, you know, Major League Baseball and the safety of some of the players who are in Venezuela,

who have families in Venezuela, who play Winterball there. In fact, Winterball was, there was a layoff, a four-day layoff after this situation that developed where the United States went into Venezuela and took the president Nicholas Maduro in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday. And again, officials across Major League Baseball, according to this article from Annie McCullough, have scrambled to check on the safety of players, coaches, and scouts throughout the country

while trying to understand how the raid in its aftermath might affect the upcoming baseball season and the World Baseball Classic. As we said also, there were players participating in the Venezuelan Winter League Baseball, and again, there seems to be just a lot of uncertainty about what is going on there right now. There's no getting around the fact that Venezuela is a really important country when it comes to Major League Baseball.

I mean, there are a lot of star-level Major League players who are from Venezuela, you know, Jose Al-Tuvae, Ronald Acuna Jr., I believe Jackson Churio had like just hit a game winning home run in a Venezuelan Winter League game right before this happened. So and yeah, as you were saying, like a lot of guys participate in that Venezuelan Winter League. over the off season as well. So it sounds like reading, reading some different stories that are out there, including the one by Andy McCullough that you referenced, it sounds like it's a pretty regular practice for teams to be checking in on their guys

when they're in Venezuela over the offseason, as a lot of players do, just because frankly, the United States and Venezuela have had an interesting relationship for a while now. But it got a whole lot more interesting with what's happened here in the last week. Fortunately, it sounds like everyone as it pertains to Major League Baseball is okay, but it's complicated.

I mean, what does it look like for Team Venezuela to come and play in the World Baseball Classic in the United States like two months from now? I don't know. It seems a little awkward to me. It is. And I mean, I know that the representation there wants to proudly represent their country, right? But like you said, this is a strange conflict where the. United States went in and captured a world leader here. And also, like you said, even before the current conflict, MLB had already scaled back

baseball academies in Venezuela due to safety and economic concerns. And again, just this conflict now further threatens scouting and development pipelines coming out of Venezuela. MLB, very important to that country due to the amount of stars that they have created. It's become, you know, kind of that pipeline to living the dream, right, of being able to get out of a country that has a lot of economic and civil unrest. And, you know, again, just participating in Major League Baseball. But again, this has a lot, a big impact on the Caribbean and Latin American baseball bodies.

This has a big impact on if they'll participate in the WBC for now, according to Annie McCullough, it sounds like they are expected to still take part in the WBC in March. There's the signing day for Amager prospects coming up here in nine days or eight days from today, Jesse. So like there's a lot of things. And again, the Venezuelan professional baseball league suspended play amid safety concerns following the conflict. So just overall, a lot of baseball, a lot of baseball ballparks were brought to a standstill. And again, just a lot of uncertainty. Plus, I mean, the internet and communications there.

the internet went down. Starlink had to go there and set up internet. So communicating with your stars is kind of difficult right now. It's causing some teams understandably to want to pull their players out of Venezuela and bring them to the United States as soon as possible just due to the fact that their concerns about travel and reliability of being able to fly out of the country at any given time. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think this all just brings to light for me. me, an aspect of Major League Baseball that we don't think about very often. The reality is a lot of players who come over and are enormously successful in Major League Baseball, like their lives growing up were probably very, very different from their lives once they're star-level players.

And of course, it makes sense that those players are going to go back to their native countries and, you know, hang out with friends and family just as we all love to do, right? But from an MLB teams perspective, I imagine that, you know, I mean, just the logistics of that are particularly complicated with a country like Venezuela. And, you know, certainly Venezuela is not the only, the only country that a lot of players come from, the Dominican Republic, maybe being the other, the other big one alongside some others. So, yeah, it's, it just brings to light, like, this is the day-to-day reality for MLB teams that we don't often think about. But now, I mean, what a, just what a, what a messy situation.

I had no idea how players feel about the whole situation. There's that. They're going to say. But it is, it is interesting. Like if it becomes an ongoing conflict and if there becomes a war or if some sort of, you know, fighting breaks out, there has to be concerns. And obviously a lot of players, like I said earlier, have families there. They're not going to exactly be in a.

great place to, you know, play, start the baseball season here in February if this conflict grows. Hopefully it doesn't. That's the hope here. But again, there's so much uncertainty that even the there have been changes to the Caribbean series, which is played in, originally set to take place in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico all withdrew from the 2026 Caribbean series due to the military escalation and just instability of the situation. So, I mean, you didn't have a lot of Major League baseball teams making public. statements about it, but you did have the Giants and the brewers both publicly expressing concern about their Venezuelan players safety, again, the communications and access to flights

home. So I don't fault any team for wanting to do this. In fact, I mean, we've had the discussion here a little bit more on more than one occasion about like letting players play in the Winter League, letting players take part in the World Baseball Classic. Like this is shaping up to be the greatest world baseball classic of all time. Like just one all-star team after the next. And again, a big part of that is that teams seem to feel more comfortable allowing their stars to go and play in this tournament where, you know, years back, that wasn't necessarily the case, right?

Like teams didn't want their stars, not only exposing themselves to potential injury, but just putting extra miles on their body when it wasn't for the team that was paying them millions and millions of dollars. right? It's unfortunate that this now does bring, like you said, some awkwardness to this world baseball classic because it was shaping up to be, again, one of the most amazing baseball events, I think, that has ever taken place, one of the most amazing baseball tournaments to ever take place. Yeah, I mean, I guess another name that comes to mind for me here is Eh, Eugenio Suarez, who is from Venezuela and won the home run derby in Venezuela just a little bit less than a year ago,

I think. So there's a lot of ties to the region for a lot of players. I think Salvador Perez was signed up once again to be the team captain in 2026. Altuvae and Acuna, I think, had expressed some interest in participating. I'm not sure if that's final at this point. But Venezuela is it, I mean, it's totally going to be a competitive team. At least that's what you would expect. And you hope that this doesn't cause an obstacle for players, you know,

maybe they're less willing as a result of this situation to participate. Certainly hope that's not the case. You feel like this is becoming like politically charged. You know what I mean? Like you, you do want participation carrying as events like this are occurring a symbolic weight, right? You want to, you would like to think that players, especially players from Venezuela, will want to go out there and participate even more now to represent their country.

And more importantly, to give the people in Venezuela something to like, you know, just be happy about amid all of this like stress and all of this concern about the stability of their country. Right. So, I mean, there's two ways you could look at it. You could look at it as a player that you don't really want to participate in this considering this is a real world thing that's happening. And there's a lot of speculation over the true reasons why the United States even did. that that we're not going to get into on this show because that's definitely not my bag. All right. I'm not responsible enough to handle that.

But I will say that overall, depending on your point of view here, you could see it as a player representing your country at a time when you might feel like they need it or you might not want to have anything to do with this over just, you know, like how quickly this kind of situation seem to spin out of control. But I will say, Jesse, that I, like my, my heart, my thoughts go out to Gabriel Moreno, to Eduardo Rodriguez, to Ehue Anio Suarez, to all the players who might still have family there and have a lot of, you know, concerns on their end about their safety and, again, just the uncertainty of this whole situation.

I think another thing that I think about is, just the youth in Venezuela and hoping that we continue to cultivate major league baseball as a goal for a lot of people who are growing up there because it has the country just has such a rich baseball culture. And I know that some of the complicated political relationship stuff between the United States and Venezuela has been an obstacle a little bit for youth camps and those those kinds of things. I thought it was interesting in Andy McCullough's piece, he wrote about how the process to admit Venezuela into the Little League World Series was pretty complicated. It required team officials

to travel to Columbia for visa interviews, and then it required assistance from Senator David McCormick from Pennsylvania, as well as a personal sign-off from the Secretary of State himself, Marco Rubio. What? So, I mean, we're talking about the Little League World Series. series. Yeah, we're talking about kids participating in a world tournament. Yeah, you, you wouldn't think it would be this complicated for, you know, these kids to just travel to Pennsylvania to participate in the Little League World Series. But those kinds of events have gotten a lot more challenging and just hate

the thought of, you know, kids growing up in Venezuela not getting those kinds of opportunities or having a lot of hurdles in their way as, as they try to become the next Jackson Churio or Jose Altuve or, you know, whoever their favorite Venezuelan player might be. The hope is that this improves the relationship between these two countries. I think things are going to be rocky for a while, and I think that there's going to be a lot of accusations about the true meaning or the true reasons behind this entire thing taking place. I can't help but laugh, though, at reports that the one thing that pushed our president

over the edge was Nicholas Maduro apparently. sending him a video of him dancing. That's very funny to me. I can't get over that. But that's just, that just shows the ridiculous and pettiness over this whole situation. I mean,

like world leaders sending videos of themselves dancing and stuff like that and then having action take place. But anyway, like I said, I'm not smart enough to get into any of that kind of political stuff. We're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about Diamondback stuff.

And when we say Diamondback stuff, we mean completely recklessly overreacting to Zach Gallen posting an Instagram story about his new golf club and why I believe that this is 100% a message being sent that Gallen is coming back. Am I crazy? Probably. But we're going to talk about it on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next Diamondback show. Well, of course, our friends over, excuse me, our friends over at why am I, Heel of River Resorts and Casinos. I'm completely lost on this statement. And the reason why is because we're talking about all sorts of political strife and not what the what what fun we can

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So head on over to brand of bills.com and use code BBPHNX for 15% off your first order. Jesse Friedman, we tend to overreact a bit during the offseason. We know that Cotel Marte posted something on Instagram where he was questioning being a bad teammate. We had to speculate about that and what the true meaning was there. And anytime anything happens on Instagram, we have to like look through. We already decided that both Terrick Scoobal and Alex Brighman want to come to the Diamondbacks because they're literally right outside of Chase Field training. And that's, again, just pure speculation based on their Instagram posts.

But we have one from Zach Gallen here. It might be a bit of a stretch, Jesse. And everything here. Are we supposed to just ignore this? Zach Gallen posts a picture on Instagram of his new baseball glove, right? innocent enough to most people, but not to me and Damon. We're absolute lunatics around here. We saw this.

We were like, what is the meaning behind this? We're just supposed to ignore the colors, Jesse, in this new golf club that he posted to his IG story on Monday. We're supposed to ignore the teal stripe. We're supposed to ignore that the patch where the Velcro goes on the back of the hand is obviously a purple serpientus snake skin patch. with, I'm guessing the company's logo there, the little cute little Suaro cactus with the pink outline on top? I don't know. I don't know. I will say that most likely this is Zach Gallen preparing for the waste management open and taking part in the, you know, the celebrity pro-am aspect of it. But I want to get crazy and I want to recklessly speculate about this because

Jesse, would you go out and get a glove in the colors of your old team? that you just moved on from. I'm not saying he knows where he's going yet, but if you're having a custom golf glove made for a bigger event, big event, couldn't you just go with like a ZG on the back with like some, you know, maybe some of your favorite colors? That thing looks like it's a golf glove version of a Diamondbacks jersey. And I can't help but feel like it means something,

even though it means nothing. I mean, there's definitely no getting around the fact that it is clearly Diamondbacks themed. This is not a, this is not a mistake. It's not a, yeah, it clearly Gallin knows what, and especially for him to post it on his Instagram, I guess maybe we shouldn't read too much into that. I think he was sharing the post from Asher Golf, which is the company that made this. But I will also say, and this is something I say with about 80% confidence, I think Asher

Galsh sends Zach Gallen stuff pretty regularly. I think I've seen him post other stuff. I think he's posted a number of things over the years that Asher Gullf has sent him. It seems to be, I don't know if there's an official brand partnership or something there, but it wouldn't shock me if this is just like Asher Gulf, like they just hook him up with a lot of different things. And they just made it for him. And they made it for him.

And I think I've seen him shout them out in the past is like, oh my gosh, look at this like really cool set of whatever that I just got from Asher Golf. Sure. And it sounds like it's the sort of thing where he wasn't expecting it, that it just sort of showed up out of nowhere. So I do with that what you will. I think it is very possible that Zach Gallant didn't request this, you know, in the last three days or something.

And it arrived. But it is odd. I mean, I need it in Diamondbacks colors. I need it overnight. I need it now. I need it right away. Right.

No, you're probably right about that. And again, it's also the fact that there's, probably no ill feelings here between Zach Gallen and the Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks were a big part of his life. And again, having a glove that has a little touches of his former team, even if he's not returning, doesn't seem to be like the most egregious thing.

And you're probably right. The only reason why I disagree with you about the glove thing is like you and I have seen when they come and bring these accessories to the locker room or the clubhouse, right? They position themselves outside of the clubhouse. They put a little table there. they have samples and they have the players come out look at what they have we've seen it with the snake skin belt belts and other things right and and the players essentially get to kind of customize the thing that they get from them and pick out the colors and pick out which belt uh you know that

they like and all that so again i i you you could absolutely be on the right track there or it could have been that galen you know choosing uh to have this stuff or being okay with it at least and approving it when the company was like hey here's this custom glove you had you're probably also right that he didn't even have anything to do with the ordering process and was just sent it and was like, hey, look at my new golf club, right? But I will also say that, you know, I do think that it merits a conversation to discuss the idea as time goes on about a Zach Gallen reunion with the Diamondbacks. I know that I was kind of surprised when we tweeted this image out yesterday from our account that the, I guess the reception from fans or people at least that follow our account

seem to be fairly positive and that a lot of people would like to have gallon back. I do feel like there was kind of a sentiment that amongst the fan base that he was kind of falling off and he did have his struggles this year, but he was also a big part of their push to make the playoffs because he did, you know, get things back together in the second half overall. But I mean, I guess my first question to you is even with offering him a qualifying offer and having him turn it down, a reunion with Gallen doesn't seem that far-fetched from either side here. I know the Diamondbacks already got five starting pitchers, but as we know, you can't feel super comfortable with that.

We'll talk about that in a little bit in regards to starting pitchers and their depth that they have. But again, I feel like Gallen might just have been looking for some security, some stability, a little bit longer term of a deal. So if perhaps he's willing to accept something that's around the $20 million range that the diamond backs, you know, on an annual value basis, the diamondbacks might be willing to, you know, have that conversation with them.

There's no report about this. There's no link connecting the diamondbacks to get that gallon returning right now. So this is, again, just to make it clear speculation, especially on my part here. But it doesn't seem crazy that these two sides could work out a deal that brings them back here to the valley? I mean, I think just given the fact that diamondbacks have been so involved, involved in the Alex Bregman rumors, at least their name, their team name shows up quite a lot.

It's hard for me to rule out any free agent as being a complete no. Right. I think there's at least some chance that the Diamondbacks pursue a reunion with Zach Gallen, particularly given the history that they have with him. And I think the thought of bringing Gallen back on a six-year, you know, $170 million contractor, whatever we thought it was going to be a year ago, that's a much different conversation than bringing Zach Gallen back for, you know, three in 65 or four and 80 or whatever it winds up being. I think there's a decent chance that Gallin could outperform a contract like that.

I mean, he's really coming off a pretty brutal walkier. I imagine that getting opt-outs in his contract is something he might be looking for so that he could reenter the market, maybe next off-season, maybe the off-season after that. It's a good point. So we know the debacks like, you know, it seems to open the door for them a little more if there's some creativity involved in the contract structure. So I don't read too much into the fact that Gallin is still out there. I think we're still kind of waiting for the top of the starting pitching market to move. Like Ranger Suarez is still out there and Framberaldives is still out there. So I wouldn't say like, oh, clearly Gallin's market isn't there or his value is much less

than what we thought it was going to be. but who knows. I mean, it would be kind of funny if at the end of the day, the debacks wind up just bringing Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly back. I did not, yeah, I certainly did not see them doing that with both guys. I still don't think it's going to happen, but who knows? No, I'm with you on that. I think that Diamondbacks, again, when it comes to spending,

have much better ways to spend their money than an Alex Brighman, a Kyle Tucker, or a Zach Gallen. Right. Like that's the biggest problem here is that they have so many needs. It's the reason why the Cattel Marte trade became such a, I guess such a topic is realistically, Cotel Marte being traded for a hall could have solved, you know, a bunch of their issues by sacrificing one star player. Right. So the reason why besides the stuff during the season of him missing games and besides some of the other speculation or at least like other. like behavioral stuff that's tied to it. You feel like the main reason why is because of the 10 and 5 rights and because Marte would get back a haul from another team that could, you know, overall fix the Diamondbacks, fix this organization. But again, it's also involves losing Cotel Marte, which is one of the probably

dumbest things they could do unless they really truly did get that back. Now, Merrill Kelly coming back, I do feel like adds a little bit of an incentive for Gowan to come back. It's his best friend. He loves playing golf with Merrill Kelly. And I think that it just, it improves the situation that Merrill is back and it might make Zach that much more likely to want to come back to this team. I also think that Zach Gallen has been humbled a bit here. I think that when Gallin was not traded at the deadline and the reason why was because teams weren't offering enough for Gallin or quite frankly anything. Mike Hazen, you know, made, made his comments about it.

And Zach Gallin also made his comments about it. But Gallen, he sounded upset that he wasn't traded, not because he wanted off this team, but because he felt like his performance in the first half made it so the Diamondbacks couldn't trade him. And he wasn't able to give this organization assets in return for him as his contract was expiring at the end of the year, right? Like the things he said when it came to not being traded, I felt at least were,

I felt were very mature. And I felt like they were very much about the like kind of screwing over the franchise with him having, you know, arguably the worst half season of baseball he's had in his career right at a time when this team needed him to step up in the first half and also needed him to be good enough that they could have gotten the same type of haul that they got for him in a trade that they got for Merrill Kelly.

Right. So, I mean, his value has taken a bit of a hit here. And I think that, again, with these starting pitchers on the, on the market that, like, the ones that are available above him, essentially, if they sit here for too much longer and we start to get into late January, early February, and these big name free agents are still available out there, starts to get scary for guys like Gallin who are a little bit further down on the list as far as interest goes. and coming off of a bad season, it could cause enough uncertainty where he feels comfortable coming back to the Diamondbacks and the finances make sense.

That's the biggest thing is it doesn't seem like the finance could make sense, but Jesse, we've been talking about Alex Brighman and Kyle Tucker this week and nothing makes sense. None of it makes sense. We had $35 million to spend in the neighborhood of that. We've almost spent all of it.

We have like, if you want to be generous, maybe $10 million in 2020. 26 left to spend on three, four positions that we still need to add to this team. And we're somehow talking about Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, and now Zach Gallen, right? Like, Zach Gallen, this is my fault. This one's my fault. But again, financially, none of this stuff seems to make sense. And I just don't seem to, I can't seem to wrap my head around it other than the reason why it doesn't make sense is because at the end of the day, the financial decisions are just that, a decision.

and a decision can be changed. And that's what we heard with the famous, no money, no money, no money, Ken got aggressive, you know, that kind of thing. So again, just like that, I mean, a situation where Zach Gallon is kind of welcomed back and the money can be found to bring Zach Gallen back is merely a decision on the organization's part

and not something that necessarily is set in stone as far as their budget constraints for 2026. I think it's also working. noting that we know that Zach Gallen liked his time in Arizona and is interested in coming back on some level. I mean, he said on the record multiple times, I would love to finish my career here. I love playing for this team. We know he's he is well established in living in Arizona, him and his wife. And so we know that I think that counts for something. I mean, does that mean, Does that mean that Galin is going to go and give the Dback to some big hometown discount?

Probably not. He should. With Scott Boris as his agent, I suspect not, but granted, Scott Boris was also Corbyn Burns agent. And we know that sometimes the personal preference of the player can really be meaningful. So George Montgomery's agent. Yeah. Yeah, there is a bit of a trend there.

Do with that. Do with that what you will. It does appear that Scott Boris has a way. of getting Ken Kendrick to spend money in ways that maybe Ken Kendrick wasn't planning to spend money. It still feels, though, despite the Kyle Tucker report that apparently is somehow a thing, it still feels like the devax adding a big time free agent is probably contingent on them trading Cotel Marte. Otherwise, it's just like, okay, you're, you know, if you sign a guy for $20, $25 million, you're already pushing up close to $200 million. And it's,

as you alluded to earlier, like this team still needs to add someone to the bullpen and, and, you know, shore up your position player group a little bit, probably a first base, DH type, maybe a corner outfielder. There are still holes for this team to fill. So it feels like you probably got a trade could tell in order for any of the higher cost options to be available to you. At least that's sort of what Gambo has made it sound like. where there's where there's no there's no possibility that the debacks could could uh keep kutel marty and sign alex bregman but i don't know i mean we've seen some pretty crazy things in the last 14 15 million dollars isn't that as annual like the annual hit by the diamondbacks on kutel marty

is somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 million dollars in change like that's just not a significant amount of money i know in the in the scheme in the in the grand scheme of things as far as the the Diamondback's payroll is concerned, it's one of the largest besides, you know, pitchers, right? So like, it's the largest contract for one of the position players. But in the grand scheme of things of MLB, it's still almost nothing. I mean, we are literally just saw Pete Fairbanks, a reliever slash closer, get close to what Cotel Marte makes, right? Just a little close.

And that's just a bullpen arm. I'm not trying to not peak fairbent, not peak Fairbanks, because I love him and I wanted him more than I wanted any other pitcher. on the market, Jesse, but I just, I just can't help but think how Kattel's contract is, is, is so such a, you know, it's, it's, it's so big that they got to get rid of that in order to sign someone else, you know, like, honestly, Katel's contract is incredibly reasonable, especially when you think of Haasong Kim getting $20 million for his season, right? Like, it's, you know, it, it, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that that is always the caveat.

The caveat is, okay, well, you can add Breggman, but you have to get rid of Catell. I'm like, no, no, I don't want that. And I, like, I get it, though, because again, it's not trading, it's not getting rid of Catell just for Bregman. It's getting rid of Cotel bringing back the hall that you're going to get from him for a team that's going to fix those other holes that they have. That's the hope. And then you add Bregman, right? But again, Bregman, the third base isn't even on my radar as far as top priorities. It's not even a top five concern for me when it comes to things the Diamondbacks need to address.

They have two third basemen. I know they're young and I know that one of them hasn't really had a lot of success offensively. But still, I feel like that is not, you know, the biggest concern, right? But getting back to Zach Gallen, the one concern I had, forget, like, because this being an imaginary scenario right now or just something we're kind of discussing. It's not like, you know, the finances are something we can get wrapped up in. But I just really at the end of the day, wonder if it's going to be exciting to this fan base to have Zach Gallen back. like the reception that we got yesterday was fairly positive and it surprised me. I thought that it was going to be a bunch of people dunking on the idea of bringing back Zach Gallen.

Instead, we got a lot of people that were like, yeah, sign me up. Give me Brighman. Give me Kyle Tucker. Give me all of this ridiculous. Give me all of it. And like, let's just let's just be the Dodgers now. And we'll defer everything and we'll figure out ways to make money later. But I do have to, you know, wonder and get your thoughts.

Do you think that Gallant coming back would be exciting? Like is it and I brought this up with the Merrill Kelly thing because Merrill Kelly is a great pitcher. He had great numbers. He's the exact kind of guy that you would hope you could get for $20 million. But since it's the same thing as last year and the Diamondbacks had such a lack of success last year is bringing Gallen back enough to make people feel like the team got better by by bringing him back. It is odd for one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball to go out. in the off season and bring back the- It's gonna run it back.

We're gonna add Michael Soroka as a sixth guy, but we're gonna run it back with the exact same staff. Like that just doesn't seem like it would be something that would make a lot of sense considering this was a bottom five pitching staff in baseball in 2025. Now granted, Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen put together were pretty good for the diamond. I mean, those two guys were not, we're not really the problem. Granted, Gallin was part of it.

I mean, he had a, he definitely had a down. season. But I think anything that you add to the starting rotation at this point can only be viewed as a positive. I mean, even though, even though Gallen is coming off a down year, as I said, like, he's still a pretty solid innings eater type, even if the ceiling that we've seen from him in the past doesn't return. If you're thinking that Michael Soroka, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon fought, you know, Ryan Nelson and Merrill Kelly that that five is going to hold throughout the season. That's just not going to happen. You're going to need other guys to step in. And right now, I think the debacks do have some interesting options, certainly better starting

pitching depth than they've had in the past. I know we're going to talk about that here in a second. But having a little more stability never hurts when it comes to the starting rotation. And not only would Gallen offer a baseline of being able to eat some meetings for you, but you also feel like there's a non-zero chance the gallon could come out and have a great season, have the season that I kind of thought he would have in 2025 and go out and get paid a crazy amount of money. You know, maybe maybe the positive stretch that he had to finish the season was a sign of things to come and maybe 2026 could be a really big year for him. Well, a deal structured like the Tatsuya, my deal, where he has player opt-outs for every season

And in a three-year deal, that seems like the exact kind of deal that Zach Gallen would be wanting to take, right? Where he has the control. So if he has a bad year in 2026, he comes back for 2027. But if he goes out and shoves Jesse, he can opt out after 26 and then, you know, potentially get that huge payday that he's been seeking. So interesting overall, just to think about Gallen coming back. But again, probably not a reality, probably as much of a reality as this team adding Alex Brighman or Kyle Tucker, to be honest. honest, but we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk more about starting pitching. And if one single injury could be an absolute catastrophe for the Diamondbacks in 26 the way things went in 2025. We're going to do that in a couple of minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the Ph. Next Diamondback show. Now that the holidays are over, it is a perfect time to start those renovations on your home in the big 26. And a great place to do that. It's at the Window Depot where, yes, they do have windows, but they have so much more.

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I'll tell you, I do have a lot of renovations around my house that I would probably get started. or maybe I just buy a new bigger house with the multiplier scratchers from Arizona Lottery with access to over 3,500 retailers across the state you can play whenever and wherever you'd like. Jesse, I know that, again, the starting pitching situation for the debacks was so bad last year that it's almost comical.

It's almost hilarious, considering where we were at and the discussions you and I were having at the beginning of the year versus where the Diamondbacks ended. up with all of the injuries and all of the things that happened to this team, all the bad things that happened. But it does feel like with the way that they're constructed, there is perhaps a depth problem with starting pitching for this team.

Now, they did add lots of young arms via trade, and that is a good thing, right? Those trades kind of brought back the pitching prospects in the farm system, which it seemed like we were lacking before those moves were made. But without Corbyn Burns in 20, 26, until, you know, the midway point of the season, the Diamondbacks really don't have a true front line number one starter. They have Merrill Kelly who will be out there on opening day, no doubt. They have Ryan Nelson, who has put up some incredible numbers that might be worthy of being considered a number one caliber arm.

But, again, while they are reliable, both of those guys, you definitely couldn't qualify. as being like elite right like some of the number one starters across baseball so you just in general have the starting rotation of guys that can get the job done and could put up decent numbers and win games for this team but with corbin burns out until the midway point you don't have that so it feels like there is a lot of pressure that falls on the starting rotation uh over overall and then outside of that because they did need to go out and add two starters via free agency there's very little proven depth and that's where things start to get tricky for this team they're definitely in a in a better spot than they've been in recent years i think adding

what they did at the trade deadline with you know cold drake and mitch bratt now being in the fold uh christian mena is is maybe the the number six arm on your starting pitcher depth chart with brad and drake's uh sliding in behind those guys there's some some other names in the Mick Spencer Geisting and Dylan Ray, they have a decent number of arms that I think you could, you could justify bringing up, like guys who are deserving of major league opportunity, not just guys that you're forced to bring up because you don't have anyone else. There's at least a few players that I think could be in that category, especially with a strong spring training.

That said, I do think injuries are, like there's a pretty high likelihood. that there's some injury stuff that happens, right? I mean, Michael Soroka does not exactly have a pristine track record. No. You probably should only expect. He's heard everything, Jesse. He's hurt every part of his pitching mechanic, basically. You should probably expect like 100 innings from Michael.

Like, I think that's sort of the baseline. You hope you get more, but you don't really plan on getting more based on his history. And then Eduardo Rodriguez, I mean, certainly he is, he is aging. and the fact that he had a pretty significant shoulder thing happened just a couple years ago is never great. Meryl Kelly also a fairly significant shoulder injury a couple years ago, even though he's generally been pretty durable. He's also 37 years old, which doesn't help you feel great there. And then, you know, Brandon Fought and Ryan Nelson, like those are guys that have posted year after year.

You feel pretty good about them from an injury standpoint, but of course you never really know. So I think they're in a better spot than they have been, but as we say so often, you can never have too much starting pitching. And the Diamondbacks for as much as they might be in an improved position over last year, you still would like to add. I mean, Mike Hazen has said that he would still like to add pitching this off season. We know starting pitching could be a part of that. I am seven years older than Merrill Kelly. And the amount of pills I have to take, Jesse, to get this body moving. is incredible. And I was just telling Damon before we started, 12 hours has passed,

and I'm already starting to break down. I'm literally not able to function in society much longer if I don't get ibuprofen in me very soon. But I mean, I don't know. I just, I do think that maybe this is PTSD from last season. And we don't know Cole Drake. We don't know Mitch Brad. I'm excited about them. And I know that those guys definitely seem like they're, they're very close to being ready. I guess my concern is, is if like last year, the injuries happen early, right? Like if all of a sudden we see somebody go down, especially with the lack of depth very early in the season, and then the Diamondbacks are kind of forced to maybe look to one of those

young arms before they've had a chance to, you know, kind of get their feet wet in the organization and kind of get themselves a little bit more experience before, you know, a little bit more seasoning before coming up but i also feel like this is just kind of a just a weird overall situation where i mean the diamondbacks almost didn't have enough like money to get together starting rotation at all like go out and get to free agent pitchers i'm glad that they were able to do it for just 27.5 million like that's actually pretty incredible considering how much some of these starting pitchers cost and how much even some of these position players are going for But outside of that foundational number one and number two with Kelly and, you know, Nelson for now, I don't feel comfortable about anybody.

So it goes far beyond just the unproven guys, just the young guys. It goes beyond Christian Mena. It includes Erod and Brandon Fott and Michael Soroka. There's just so many questions for this team. When you analyze the performances that all of these guys have had at one point in their career, you could sit there. and talk yourself into like, hey, if everybody has this career numbers that they had at one point, like Erod, you know, with Detroit and, you know, Michael Soroka back in the day with the Braves, like if you could see these guys putting up performances anywhere close to some of those years

you've had, then you could start to see this team actually be good with the pieces they have. But again, in baseball, it's not about the one good year you have. It's about the consistency in doing it year in and year out. That's what defines a great player from somebody that just had a good year. And I think that, you know, again, the Diamondbacks just have too many of those guys right now that I don't, I don't feel certain about anybody. But I also feel like a single injury brings this whole thing down. I will say that Christian Mena's projection, if you look at steamer or zips, is like very, like those systems are very high on. Christian Mena in a way that kind of surprised me. We did a deep dive on the on the Zip

steamer projections on Snake's territory recently. And believe it or not, the Diamondback starting pitcher with the lowest projected R.A. in 2026 is not Ryan Nelson, is not Merrill Kelly. It is Christian Mena, which is outrageous. And maybe, you know, calls into question the reliability of which is fair but i mean these systems are you know they're they're proven they've proven to an extent over over a number of years and i think it's telling that they are so high on mena i mean his numbers in triple a in 2025 he had a 484 era which does not jump off the page but when you look at the underlying numbers and when you think about how hitter-friendly reno is that's actually really good. It's actually well above average for that level. And we saw all of six and two-thirds

innings of him in the big leagues last year, but it did look pretty good. I mean, he gave up one run in six and two-thirds innings. On the negative side with Mena, he went down with a shoulder injury at the midway point of a season. It was a right terrace major strain, which is not the history with that injury is not great. So the guy who is probably first in line if an injury happens to one of your front five that guy also has some injury questions and i don't know if it was quite as serious of an injury but cole drake also had a shoulder injury down the stretch last year we figured we might see him in september and then that didn't happen so the fact that your line of defense like the first two guys the the first two men up are

are both uh guys who are coming off shoulder injuries that that doesn't that doesn't feel great It doesn't feel great. That doesn't feel great, Jesse. But we'll see. We'll see if, and that's again, there were people questioning why we would even be talking about adding Zach Gallen. It feels like the boxes are checked for starting pitching. I will forever be haunted by the words of Corbyn Burns, who simply said at his introductory press conference, you never get through a season with just five starting pitchers.

And I was like, why? why did you have to say that? Why did you have to let those words come out of your mouth? But he's not wrong, and that's the reason why the D-backs ended up in the position they ended up in last year. So we're going to, of course, I want to do a little exercise here. But before we do that, I did want to thank all of you guys for being supporters club members that are already part of our supporters club. If you are interested in joining, you can sign up right on our YouTube channel. It's five bucks a month.

If you ever send us a super chat, go ahead and join the supporters club. We love that. We appreciate you guys being a part of that and kicking the rest of all cities ass when it comes to that. You get a badge next to your name in the live chat and in the comments. You get, of course, access to those emojis. You also get access to our supporters club only content, including these guys playing headbands and me ruining Damon's life during a game of headbands. So, again, we appreciate the people who support us and keep us going. So thank you guys so much for joining the supporters club.

And thank you for, of course, being a fans of this show. We have players that we are fans of. And I think that's just natural when you cover baseball. You're not, we're human, right? We like guys. But when the offseason kind of drags like this, they're giving some point where you start to have a little bit of offseason Stockholm syndrome, where at first you were maybe against a guy.

Maybe there was a guy you didn't even think of. Maybe there was a guy that wasn't even on your radar. Yet because of dwindling options, you talk yourself into a player because it's January and there are no better options left. I know for a fact that Damon Farrell wants no other player on this planet other than Sir Anthony Dominguez.

And we've talked about him. I think he's a good relief pitcher. But the way that Damon talks about him is that he is him, Jesse. He is a god. He is a god walking among mortals. And should we add him to our franchise? guys and our roster, it's a matter of, it's only a matter of time until we win a world series.

That's at least how Damon feels about Sir Anthony Dominguez, a player who I'm confident that he didn't even know existed before a few weeks ago. So that's where we're at. I know mine were guys that have already been scooped up. That's what makes this hard for me. I wanted Pete Fairbanks more than I wanted the check to clear on Friday, Jesse. I wanted Pete Fairbanks more than I wanted air in my lungs. And I felt the same way about Tetsuya Mai.

And then when I saw Tatsui Ami at his introductory press conference and at the Houston Texans game, it only further confirmed that he would have been the greatest addition to the Diamondbacks that ever existed in the history of mankind. But is there a particular player that you could admit to that you've kind of talked yourself into? I mean, there are plenty of great options, right? There are plenty of elite free agents available on the market. We're not chopping in that bin. we're not there we don't have that money for that we got to shop in a lower tier of gift giving and players so is there anybody that with time that's remained a free agent that you're like we need to

get this guy and this is this is everything to me i mean i i think my head naturally goes to the the bullpen market because it is clear that all of the most desirable options are off the board and everyone who's left is pretty flawed in one way or other. Flod is a great way to say it. But I did not expect to be as high on Tyler Kinley as I maybe am right now. Not again that I'm saying Tyler Kinley is like, like, who needs Pete Fairbanks? Because Tyler Kinley's still out there. I do not believe that.

But Tyler Kinley was traded from the Rockies to the Bracky's. at the trade deadline. And he had an ERA under one with Atlanta down the stretch. He had a 0.72 ERA in 25 innings. And that's after having a 566 ERA in 47 and two thirds with the Rockies. I think there's always this opportunity when a pitcher finally gets out of Colorado. There's always this opportunity for that player to really show what they can do outside of that environment.

And his walk rate noticeably plummeted. He only had six walks in those 25 innings down the stretch, a rate of 2.2 walks per nine. He doesn't miss a ton of bats. He had 73 strikeouts in 72 and 2 thirds innings. So he was right at 9Ks per 9 for the season. His strikeout rate was actually a tick lower with the Braves. But I think his arsenal is interesting.

He throws a slider like 65% of the time. He has a curve ball that he started throwing more this past season as well. So he's a hardcore junk ball type of guy. He throws 95 miles an hour, but he doesn't really rely on his foreseamer at all. So I think it's a player who really seem to show something down the stretch outside of course field. And he does have some closing experience for whatever it's worth. It did come with the Rockies, and he probably should never have been. position to get closing experience, but it is something he's done before. And I imagine the

debacks would find at least some value in that. It's almost identical to the Reno situation, where it's so hard to actually judge a pitcher who has only played at a major league level in Colorado based on their performance. It's just, it's almost impossible to. It's easy to write it off. So it's easy for them to actually be bad. And that just be who they are, you know, but then when you see them traded to a team like the Braves and put up those numbers that he put up, it's hard to think that this wasn't a direct correlation with not just the altitude in Colorado, but just the dumpster fire that was the Rockies in 2025, right? Like that was just an awful franchise that set records for losing and they have all sorts

of internal, you know, problems and struggles. They're an organization that seemed to make some good hires this offseason, but but that remains to be seen if they can somehow pull that franchise out of the muck. Meanwhile, mine is not a surprise. It's a guy I've talked about time and time again. It's not a small unknown name. It's Paul Goldschmidt. But the reason why I feel like he's given me Stockholm syndrome is because as time has gone on,

I have gone from being like, I think like Goldie would be a good fit. It's a good story. You could go back and watch our episode on it and get all my opinions on it there, But I'll just say like as time has grown on, I went from being like, I think Goldschmidt would be a good veteran option to add that could not only DH and play first base, but be a good mentor over Tyler Locklear and give the Diamondbacks a few things, like some versatility as far as things they need.

I've gone from that to being like, if we don't get Goldie back here, let's just wrap this goddamn season up and call it a loss because it's all going to fall apart without that man. And he is the lynchpin in the 2026 season. And I don't know why I feel like that. But I think it's just because the Diamondbacks haven't really made a lot of moves. And when they have been discussed as far as making moves, I don't like any of the moves. I don't like trading Kutel. I don't like bringing in Alex Bregman.

I definitely don't like bringing in Kyle Tucker. I'm not even a fan of this idea that I myself floated out of here about Zach Gallin coming back. I just feel like all of those options cost you so much money when you have such a small amount to spend that if you're, are going to dig into the wallet and spend a little more than you were intending, then there's better ways to do it where you could make this team more well-rounded and complete rather than just getting excited that Alex Brickman said he likes Arizona and wants to come play here. So now we want to pay him an ungodly amount of money because of that statement or because of that sentiment, right? But like, I don't know. I think it's, again,

dwindling options, not really having a lot of financial flexibility and a one-year deal with Goldie just making so much sense to me. Again, I don't know what he would do coming back here. I don't know if he would come back and further regress than what we saw him do with the Yankees. But I feel like even if that happens, you're still investing in the team and in the fan base that's going to be excited to see him back.

And honestly, even if he struggles, there's going to be a lot of people here in the valley, Jesse, that go out and buy a ticket to watch Goldschmidt play for this team one last time. You know, so I hate the loser talk of being like, you got to get people in the door if your team sucks. But if things go bad for the team in 26, having Goldie on the team would be a nice little like reunion, like retirement tour kind of situation for him. Because who knows if he has much of a career left after 26, especially with a looming lockout in 27. So I don't know.

I've said bad things about him on this program. As you know, you were there. You were present when I did. So we're not going to revisit that, but I'm just going to say it's funny how time changes you. Jesse, I appreciate you greatly. Thank you so much for stopping by. You can check out his show with our friend Jack over at Snake's Territory on the Fowl Territory Network. You guys do an amazing job. You can get that podcast wherever you get this one. You follow them on Twitter at Snake's Territory. And you can follow Jesse at Jesse at Jesse and Friedman. I am at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. The Mikeliss Damon Dog is at Damon Dog with a DAWG. And we are all. Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX, but as always, all roads lead to

at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. We will see you tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show. Until then, behave yourselves, Killer X, and, of course, remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun

when you realize that it is sports over everything.