PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Fernando Tatis Jr. and Carlos Rodon still be part of the NL West in 2023? We hope not

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

The Diamondbacks have emerged as a frontrunner for Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami. Also, we are shipping All-Star caliber free agents out of the NL West. What are the San Diego Padres going to do with Fernando Tatis Jr? And will the San Francisco Giants be able to resign Carlos Rodon?BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX: Join us at the Inaugural PHNX Tee Party at Dobson Ranch Golf Course!We are renting out the entire driving range! Come hang with Big Drive Energy, the PHNX crew and fellow Diehards for a night of golf, food, drinks, contests, prizes, and more. Our PHNX Suns crew will be hosting a watch party for the Suns vs. Timberwolves. Check out https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-tee-party-at-dobson-ranch-tickets-481918139127 to reserve your spot right now! And for our Diehards, check Discord for your special link where you’ll save 20% on this awesome event!DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Underdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Four Peaks: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: Use code “PHNXBADBIRDIE15” for 15% off your next order https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Save up to 50% all through the holidays! Check out https://morfurniture.comLiquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. And this guy's back. Look at him in the flesh. Giant blurry Jesse, right? No one giant blurry is that Jesse. It's white, hot Jesse in real life. It's the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman.

It's good to be back, Derek. It's good to be back. Yeah. Yeah. The ocean was great. Was it? There came a point when I just wanted to be back here and not relying on internet for everything. So, you know, being back in person has its perks.

So here we are you still cold? It's like 55 degrees today. Come on now. This is Phoenix. This is Phoenix. It's probably colder here than it was in San Diego, if anything. Yeah. I love it.

Anyway, welcome you guys in. Thank you guys for being here in the chat. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's top rated sports book app. And of course, we are going to be talking about shipping some guys out of the NL West that probably won't happen. But first, let's talk about who we might be bringing into the NL West. The debacks have somehow emerged as the frontrunner to land 28-year-old Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who actually at one point was compared to Shohay Otani, at least on the pitching side.

Is he also a dual threat with a badger hand? No, I looked at his career offensive stats, and he's hitting like 100 with a whole bunch of strikeout. So, yeah, not the two-way threat that Joey Otani is. But, yeah, it's been a while since they've been compared. So I don't want to make it sound like the diamondbacks to the frontrunners to land Joey Otani 2.0. Right, yeah, he's definitely changed his career numbers have gone down quite a bit. These answer rough patches, but could still be a viable right-handed arm for the diamondbacks out of the bullpen. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, they were compared, like, back in high school and Fujinami's 28 years old now. So, you know, I mean, that was kind of a long time ago. Fujimmy though, I mean, he's had, he's shown flashes of throwing 100 miles an hour. This past year, it sounds like he sat in mid-90s, but did touch, you know, triple digits, apparently a few times at least. It's also probably worth mentioning, and I didn't put this out there when I originally tweeted about this for my personal account. Fujimami actually spent some time in the Japanese equivalent of the minor leagues this past season as well. So he's not, you know, it's not Shohei Otani, right? I mean, this guy, this guy has struggled with command in a pretty big way over the last few years.

But this year, when he was back up in the NPB and sort of the major league equivalent that they have in Japan, he put up pretty good numbers. He had an ERA of 3.38, 66 and 2 thirds inning, 65 strikeouts, 21 walks. So his walk rate was actually reasonably low. So I think there's a lot of reason to believe that he's taken some steps forward. and I think that's why the Diamondbacks would be interested in him. I think that he also fits the mold a bit about what the Diamondbacks are looking for. Somebody that has shown some incredible promise at one point in his career and even achieved success. Maybe he's had some down years in between there and now,

but maybe they feel like pairing them with the coaching staff and the infrastructure that they have in place within the organization could maybe bring some of that out of him. Also, he was a starting pitcher, so now maybe in a bullpen role that he might be able to have a similar level of production. He also throws those triple digits. So putting triple digits up on the board is a requirement right now for the diamond back as far as their bullpen goes. Yeah, if you've never thrown 100 miles an hour, the bodybacks probably don't care about you.

No, yeah, there are still some people out there, I think, who could maybe see Fujinami emerging as a starter at some point. But I don't think, I would be surprised if that's the way the diamond backs view him. It seems like, you know, maybe he's kind of a fringe starter in the NPB, but coming over to the major leagues, he probably. fits in better as a back end reliever, which again is exactly what the diamond backs are looking for, right? They want guys who have big time stuff. It's a fastball and a splitter, which Mike Hazen sort of raved about Justin Martinez's splitter as being a guy who played in the AFL that we've talked a lot about. There aren't that many splitters in baseball anymore. It's a pitch that not that many guys throw. And so I think that might be another point of appeal here is like, hey, this guy,

his main out pitch is a pitch that major league hitters aren't really used to seeing, and that could also work in the D-BAC's favor here. So nothing is done officially, I believe he has until January 15th to sign. That's the posting deadline. This article, which was written in a language that I do not speak, although it was fun putting it in Google Translate and trying to kind of, yeah, trying to kind of piece together what it was saying. But it appears to talk about $2 million or more as being.

the average annual value, it doesn't make any indication about how many years a potential contract would be. And it doesn't necessarily sound like anything is super close, but it does point to the Diamondbacks as being the team that is most likely to sign Fujinami. So we'll just kind of have to wait and see, wait and see what happens. There's also like a posting fee, which as long as the contract stays below 25 million. Yeah, which it seems like it. Yeah, 20% up to 25 million. I don't see any scenario where this contract winds up being more than that. So yeah, whatever the contract is add 20% to it and that's what the diamondbacks are actually having to pay in order to in order to get Fujinami. Do you know why he can't see that?

It's because the diamondbacks don't have blank checks that they're just given out to their general manager to buy whoever they want. Unlike several other national league teams. Yeah, right. Yeah. Let's specify National League West team at this point, too. What are the San Diego Padres going to do with Fernando Tatis Jr., Jesse? I know you brought up in the past that what you could, you see happening with the Padres in the future,

is him returning to the outfield, which is very possible, very, very viable. It makes that lineup just this murderer's row of hitters. It really is a murder. Trade rumors are swirling a bit about maybe the Padres dealing Fernando Tatis Jr. to the only team that could possibly take on a contract that, like, six years is going to be $36 million every single season.

I wouldn't rule out the Texas Rangers. Oh, yeah, that's right. You know they're always down for a $300 million. They're trying to hit a billion dollars is what the Rangers are trying to do for sure. But what are your thoughts on these rumors? Do you think it's just kind of like, again, speculation based on the fact that now they have technically three short stops and they're paying them all a shit ton of money. And it kind of makes sense for them after what Tatis has kind of put the team through based

on his choices, his decisions, his knack for riding motorcycles. All of that has led to maybe him kind of. wearing out his welcome in San Diego a bit. Yeah, I don't really see there being anything to this at the end of the day. I'm not sure if the rumors really came from a credible source, but there was somebody coming out and saying that the Yankees were interested in Fernando Tatis. I don't see that happening. It sounds like there's not really much to this, frankly.

I think the Padres are looking forward to having him back next year and trying to get his career off on the right track, right? I mean, when he's been on the field, Fernando Tatis has consistently been one of the best players in baseball, you know, from the age of 21 or whatever it was when he first came into the big league. So I don't know if his trade value is necessarily at a peak right now either, just given all of the things that have gone down in the last year. So, yeah, I don't view the relationship between Tatis and the Padres as being fractured enough that it's like you have to make a move. And I think that's the only scenario where the Padres actually. would consider moving him. In other news for the NL. West, I really dug the fact that John Heyman sent out a tweet

talking about a mystery team emerging for Carlos Rodon and then in the tweet, he announces it's the Cardinals. So not much of a mystery there, but St. Louis Cardinals are in on Rodon, which could honestly make them a National League favorite for World Series if they're not already considered in the top, you know, five teams. but I can't, with how they performed last year, the additions they've already made, and Carlos Rodon is part of their rotation, I can't see the St. Louis Cardinals not being at least one of the top teams as far as a favor goes.

But on the other side of this, is this a gigantic disaster for the Giants at this point. Like, not only were they trying to get better, they were going after the biggest names and free agency. They haven't been able to acquire any of them, but now here they might be losing their very own big name free agent. Yeah, it's interesting. The St. Louis Cardinals and Carlos Rodan. I think Carlos Rodon is probably going to get more years than he should.

This is a guy who's had major shoulder problems and shoulder issues are things that generally teams don't mess around with. That's a pretty significant thing. But yeah, I mean, the St. Louis Cardinals are a team that has emerged in a pretty big way, I think over the offseason, getting Wilson Contreras from, you know, their biggest rival in the Chicago Cubs. That was obviously a huge thing. I don't know if I would necessarily put the Cardinals in the category of like the favorites to land Rodon at this point. I think I'd still be a little bit surprised if that happened.

But yeah, to what you were talking about with the Giants, I mean, they haven't really landed like the big fish yet, right? I mean, they have Mitch Hanigur, which I think was a fair move, a good move for them. I agree. But it's not going to move the needle very much, most likely. So if you're the Giants, losing Carlos Rodon would be a really rough start to your offseason in some ways. And I mean, not only would you have to find a way to get that value back, but hopefully add in addition to that, which is really their ultimate goal this offseason.

So I still think the Giants are probably going to make a big move when it's all set and done. And whether it's, you know, Rodon or Carlos Corre or whatever it looks like, there's a lot of different routes that they could go. If they don't, it could end up an office. These are very much like the Red Sox, right? Where their name was out there. They had their own priorities as far as free agents that they needed to bring back. Yeah.

And they did not check any of their boxes on the list. The Red Sox are losing talent that they've developed for years and years, right? Yeah. And I know the Giants, I guess, are at risk of losing Rodon, but Rodon was a short-term. Yeah, he was a short-term asset for them, had a great year. But there's so many health questions with him that I could understand if the Giants were like, no, we'd rather go a different direction, which he would be hard to replace. But I think that might be something that's on the table for them.

But yeah, I mean, the Red Sox, what they've done is they've let Moogie Betts become one of the best players in the game and they gave him away essentially, right? They did not get good value in that trade. And now was Xander Bogartz. They're letting him walk, right? The Red Sox have been a big market baseball team, one of the most recognizable franchises in the sport for years and years and years. And for them to be the team that's like trying to Tampa Bay Ray their way into the postseason just doesn't make sense, right?

Like hold on to your own talent. Hold on to the guys that have made your franchise what it's been over the last decade. And they haven't done that. So I know prices have been driven up and I know that, you know, these guys haven't been cheap. But there's a reason Red Sox fans are as angry as they are right now. We got some breaking news in the comments in the chat. According to Jeff Passon, Jeff Murphy has been traded to. the Atlanta Braves.

Jeff Murphy? Sean Murphy. That was a combination of those two things. Yeah, Sean Murphy, who we have talked about quite a bit, has been traded to the Atlanta Braves. That kind of sucks. But I'm also glad that the Diamondbacks didn't do anything drastic in order to acquire him, right? Yeah. That's one thing that we were a bit worried about.

And obviously, we'll talk about that here in a second. But in regards to the Red Sox, Chain Bloom, who is the Red Sox GM, does not have a good resume. And like you said, NBC Sports Boston piled up a lot of factors here, including letting Bogarts go while gaining nothing in return, trading bets for Verdugo, Downs and Wong, trading Ben and Tandy for Cordero. Yeah, Ben and Tandy's the other guy. Prospects. Didn't re-sign Kyle Schwarber, signed Trevor Story to a six-year $140 million deal for a guy that hit 238 with 16-0 runs and 66 RBI. Not good. So yeah, not a good resume as far as that goes.

But hey, at least it's not us. That's all I can say, Arizona Diamondbacks fans. It could be worse. We could be the Red Sox. So anyway, before we move on, we want to make sure everybody knows Jesse is back. I am back. I am back. Over at go phtonx.com.

If you haven't gotten yourself a diehard membership, go get the best membership in sports. Of course, we give you that free merchandise every year, 20% off over at the PHNX Locker.com. Not to mention the diehard's only newsletter. from our very own vice mayor, the white hot Jesse Friedman. We also have our invites to our events. And when we talk about invites to events,

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Oh my gosh. Come out and get beat by Saul and pickleball. Come get beat by me and Cornhole. We'll have some contest entries including longish drive. Saul will beat you in pickleball. He will. And he just learned the game. He just learned the game.

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We probably should talk about this. But of course, right now, before we get on to that, you're right now on the PHNXPort YouTube channel, we thank you guys for being here, subscribe, we're breaking some news, sign up for notifications, that way you don't miss when any of the other shows go live. If you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a review. We thank you guys so much for doing that.

Yes, we have to talk about this because Sean Murphy no longer an option for the Arizona Diamondbacks. I mean, what if the, you know, the Braves could just flip them to the, no, that's not going to happen. These are, it's not eBay, Jesse. It's not eBay, but. Trying to flip them and make a profit. Yeah, right.

Just a quick flip. Maybe maybe the Oakland A's didn't ask enough. What, what, do we have any details about this trade? We don't have any details, at least not that I'm aware of. But yeah, this is a big, this is a big fish to come off the board if you're, if you're the Arizona Diamondbacks. We know, as, as we've talked about in the past, that the diamondbacks, um, have discussed Sean Murphy with the Oakland A's.

And it seems like, right, goes without. saying the Braves sort of won this battle were able to offer a package that was more enticed to Oakland than the Diamondbacks were. And frankly, that's not all that surprising to me. After we saw what the St. Louis Cardinals were asked for from the A's in a potential Sean Murphy trade, right? It was both Brendan Donovan and it was Lars Neupar plus one of the Cardinals' young pitchers. It was a very, very high price tag. And like we talked about on that day, the equivalent of asking for that from the Cardinals would be asking the Diamondbacks

for both Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy essentially, a move that they never ever would have considered, right? So maybe the Atlanta Braves just have a little bit more depth in certain areas that the A's are enticed by. It seems like the Braves have maybe the ability to trade some guys

that aren't, you know, a part of like their everyday roster, like their everyday lineup, the guys who are really, you know, doing the heavy lifting in the lineup and on the pitching staff for the Atlanta Braves. So yeah, I think the Braves roster just probably lined up better with the Oakland A's when it was all set and done. But yeah, this is big for the debacks. I mean,

you're not getting Sean Murphy right now as of right now. And also the Toronto Blue Jays, an interesting development there is that they got Kevin Kiermeyer, right? The Blue Jays signed Kevin Keirmeier as a free agent. So that door might have also closed as far as a potential trade matchup for the debacks. And, you know, we talked about Gabby Moreno, their young catcher is a possible target. So if you're, if you're the debacks and you're trying to get a catcher, right, in exchange for one of your outfielder. Things are closing fast.

Things are not. Options are disappearing quickly. Things are not looking good. Yeah. Things are not looking good. And I do think that's, that is unfortunate because what I've been saying this whole time is that if you want to move the needle the most going into next year, you probably get a catcher because catchers are so few and far between.

There are so few catchers in the league. that have the kind of value that Moreno and Sean Murphy do. You have one of them. It's just a huge advantage over other teams. Whereas if you have Carson Kelly, you're going to be fine, right? You're going to get by. But you're not really necessarily going to move the needle much compared to other teams. So there are still other moves the debacks could make.

I'm sure there was like a third of the league had checked in on the Diamondbacks outfielder. So there's still trade suitors out there. But getting a catcher is going to be really hard for them at this point. And the Brett Johnson in the comment says that they're Jake from talking baseball sources. It says three teams are involved with them in trade with Milwaukee being the third team with that. Right. So that's very interesting. And also what about Lil D?

Travis Darno. You know, like the Atlanta Braves didn't have a catcher in their system. The guy hit 375 in the playoffs for them this season. So I'm sure he's probably involved in the trade. because you're not going to carry both of those guys. So very, very interesting. And of course, like Jesse said, once again, the options for the diamondbacks are closing. It feels a bit like the options for the diamondbacks are closing just in general very quickly.

Like they might have, you know, drug their feet a bit too much. Or maybe it's a case that they didn't get back in return what they wanted for some of their young guys. The diamondbacks were not in a position to need to panic and move one of these outfielders. So I know we're going to have lots of questions about that. And I mean, there's no reason not to get to those right now. So, you know what we do. Every day is our day. Every week of Shark Week.

And every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Let's go. I'm going to get to everything in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go out. All right. Our first question is a pretty good one about our outfielders. It comes from Brian Abdallah at Young Focus BA on Twitter.

And he asks, this question is out of left field. Ha, ha, ha. Not actually what's going. on with all these outfielders? Why are they still, why are they all still here? That's the question. And that's a great question. That is a great question. I think they're all here because the Arizona Diamondbacks again still need a DH, still need to rotate outfielders, and it aren't really in a position to panic to get rid of them. None of them are in a need to move kind of spot. I think it was just more of the, you know, the market, especially for centerfielders, was very, very scarce.

there was not a lot of guys available free agency-wise, and the Diamondbacks have a surplus. So it was worthwhile to kind of, you know, make some phone calls, see what teams were offering. But in the end, I imagine that they didn't get what they wanted. Yeah. And I mean, there's still, I'm sure there's still trade discussions that are happening there, right? I mean, this doesn't close the door.

But I do think that with every, you know, name that comes off the board or every potential trade partner that comes off the board, like the Oakland A sort of are in this situation. The chance of making a move probably does get a little bit less likely every time, right? And I think the Diamondbacks are okay with that. They've said repeatedly, like you were just talking about, they don't have to make a move, right? They could come back next year and bring back all the outfielders and, you know, finagle playing time with the DH spot. These situations have a way of working themselves out with injuries and whatnot, right?

Like the chance of going a full 162 with too many outfielders that are available and ready to play and playing well is not that likely. So I do think the debacks have a route where they don't have to make a move. But on the flip side, Mike Hazen has also said that like the debacks have like this, they have this value, right? They have this thing that other teams need. And when you're in that position, man, you got you got to capitalize, right? At least it feels like you should capitalize in that situation. And so, you know, I don't know what the offers look like that the diamondbacks are getting. Maybe these offers just aren't worth it.

And if that's the case, I don't think there's anything wrong with standing by and going into next year with a whole bunch of left-handed hitting outfielders. And frankly, I think a lot of D-backs fans are okay with that. Like, I've seen a lot of people say, like, we don't want to see Jake McCarthy, you know, raking for some other team next year, stealing 50 bases for some other team next year. Like, if you deal one of these guys, you have to be ready for one of them to come out next year, with their new team and become a stud, right? Embarrass you for dealing them away and make you regret. Yeah.

And I mean, maybe, you know, you're going to get someone back that has some significant value as well. But you have to be willing, you have to be ready to stomach some pretty difficult things if you move one of these guys. And in some ways, that's not a bad thing, right? Kind of scooting around that and at least kicking the can, you know, from this offseason. Maybe it's something the team could revisit down the road. we have experienced this before obviously but as jesse will point out to you even though it seems frequently that that the diamondbacks let go of somebody that goes on to be great elsewhere it's really not as frequent as as i think we believe it to be right it's like there there are some cases

there are some max shirzers out there's going to be your occasional guy that you absolutely regret but for the most part the diamondbacks absolutely uh haven't had as many as it feels like they've had. And our next question is already outdated, but we're going to go with it anyway. This one comes from Edward Shore. Oh, no. And Edward up, sure, says,

who are you comfortable giving up into Sean Murphy trade? Nobody now, Edward. But I like the second part of this question for sure. It says, and couldn't you argue the window should open now with gallon under control for only three season? And that are miserly ownership sucks to eggs. Yeah, good shot at the ownership.

But I will talk about the three years. I think it's important for that. to be of like at the forefront of the debacks mine the forefront of the front office gallon might resign here and we will all rejoice and it'll be fantastic and he'll get the money he deserves and the diamondbacks will open up their checkbook and pay that man his money we should act in the meantime like that's not going to happen and i feel like that's how they should be treating the situation is like that is not going to happen they should be approaching this as though these three years with gallon are the only three years that they're going to have this guy that

probably will go on to be one of the best pitchers in baseball throughout his career, right? It's safe to say that. So I don't think that they have as long as sometimes we talk about because we often talk about the young prospects coming up and when the Jordan Lawler years are here and when the Drew Jones years are here. But those years may not involve Zach Gallen being a part of this team once those names are part of the roster. Yeah, in a way, it's not that complicated, right?

It's you've got three more years of Zach Allen. Most likely, like you said, possibly it could resign, not something you should expect. You've got three years of Zach Gallen. Are you going to make it count, right? Are you going to try to take full advantage of having one of the best young starters in baseball over the next three seasons? And the debacks are poised to take a big enough step forward next year that you could make a case.

You should kind of start pushing the chips in, right? If the team is already projected to win about 84 games next season, you're within striking distance and you should probably be willing to put forth whatever assets are needed to try to get the team to the next level. So I think it's a great point. In some ways, it's like, yeah, these next three years for the Diamondbacks just because of Zach Gallen are very, very important for the team. Maybe that's the change of Mike Hazen's philosophy too. You know, we've heard him talk about no longer trading for prospects, trading for, you know, major league ready players or guys that are currently here at this level now. So I feel like that sense of urgency

is known within the organization, but it depends on if they make these moves. I still feel like they've been very active and they've been trying to make something happen. However, have you guys seen these contracts? Do you want any part of some of these contracts these other teams are giving out? Because I sure it's held on.

So what else we got, Leah? Kyle Collins, at Kyle Collins 5 on Twitter, asks, now that the major lefty outfielders are off the market, does this raise the price for trade partners on a potential Varsho or, McCarthy trade. If so, how much? I think it does.

I don't know. What are your thoughts? Jesse? I don't know if I would say raises the price as much as just like the way that the market sorts itself out. There's kind of a natural order to things, right? Like you need certain guys to be off the market before teams will pivot and go to other options, right?

So I think in terms of timing, it's sort of like, yes, this is the Diamondbacks time. I don't know if I would necessarily say that the price is going up more than we would have already expected. I mean, there's, there's always going to be a certain driving up the price that happens, you know, once the other, once the other guys are off the market. But I will say Brian Reynolds is still out there as well from the Pittsburgh Pirates. So I think that's sort of the other, the other big name that maybe would need to come off the board before it's really like, okay, the diamond backs are like, that's the team you're going to go to if you need an outfielder. Maybe not quite there yet, but we're definitely getting closer to that point.

When you talk about a team losing its star players to other organizations, the pirates need to be the team that you feel sorry for the most. They are like major league baseball's minor league team in a way. They're like the farm system for the rest of baseball. Well, think about how many great players have at one point been a part of the pirates, especially guys right now that are big in baseball, like on several teams. So, I mean, it's just, again, the Diamondbacks at least don't have that. Garrett Cole pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates is such a distant memory. Like that feels like another lifetime at this point. Thank you.

All right. What else we got? Let's get one more in. Brett Lee Johnson asks, what is something you value but would give up in a trade to swap Steve Cohen and Ken Kendrick? Brett would give up his entire Justin Martinez collection, basically is what he's saying. I would say I'd part way with 95% of my signed memorabilia collection if I could make that happen. And they're all Justin Martinez.

They're all just every single. Justin Martinez is at least 95% of his collection. I get it. I get it here. One thing I want to stress that's important is the Diamondbacks wouldn't have a World Series without Jerry Colangelo. So ownership be damned. Whoever has been the owner of this team, it feels like, unfortunately, that winning wasn't as much of a priority sometimes as just having a baseball team. And look, this team is competitive at times.

They do try to do things to move the needle. I think that they've kind of been patient lately, and they're trying to build things. the right way, this offseason scared me, honestly. I would rather see them not make any gigantic moves or spend all of their money on another player for the time being until they really know that they're that close. I could even see this team adding at the trade deadline and improving substantially once they know that this season is going their way a bit more, right? But I just don't know about getting, you know, getting one of these big name free agents and spending all of this money is exactly the way

to get yourself out of this scenario. We've seen what the Rangers are doing and they might prove us wrong. The Rangers might end up winning a World Series in two seasons, but as far as us looking at... They're going to have to spend another half a billion dollars. That's the thing. It's like,

I get that franchise. I get they have the new building. I get what they're trying to do. I get the history there. They just don't seem to be doing things in a way that makes much sense. Again, baseball is just such a funny sport because you can literally pay a guy $20 million a year to hit $238, where you could bring up a minor leaguer that'll hit $2.39 and make $500,000 or whatever, right?

I mean, it's baseball, the difference in contracts and everything is crazy. Yeah, you very well can be in a situation where you're paying 40 times as much to get the exact same production as another player. It really is like that's just the way the sport works. Here's some things I'm willing to trade. I would trade that bat that I beat up my chair in the office for. I would give that away happily. I know how much you value that.

I love that back. I really like that bet. I spent most of my time watering my yard, the backyard. I would give up my backyard, and it would just be dirt and rock if we could do this. But I'm not giving up what someone like Gabriel, our friend Gabriel, on Twitter, is willing to give up. Because Gabriel said that he would trade his dog at this point, honestly. And then he went a step further. We talk about breaking news.

Sybil Ferreira is on the move to the New York Mets in exchange for Steve Cohen and a dog to be named later, for my understanding. You would trade Sybil? Oh my God. Sebel? Sybil? Sybil? Yeah, it's a civil. All right.

We go with Sybil. Shame this man. Look at how adorable that dog is. I don't think I would trade. I don't think I would trade my dog for much of anything, to be honest. No. Well, I don't know. I have three.

So I have a surplus, much like the Diamondbacks, too, about people. of as many dogs as the time next job. Do they all bat left-handed too? Oh, yeah, unfortunately, they do. And none of them can close a game, not a single one of them. But you can close this holiday season, by the way, over at our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company. We know the World Cup almost done,

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to enjoy. And I'm sure the folks at more furniture would love for me to trade that bad a way so that they could maybe take my name off of their list. But again, this holiday season, what, what, I know Furniture doesn't sound like a great present, but try giving it to someone and see their reaction. You get your spouse a brand new living room set and you will be the hero of the holiday season. Moore's holiday clearance events is happening right now at MooreFurniture.com and you can save up to 50% over there. All right. Well, we have some more mailbag Monday questions. We also, can I interrupt real quick? So we have we do have a little bit more information on the Sean Murphy trade. It is a three-way deal as suspected that includes the Milwaukee Brewers as the third team.

Jeff Passon's first tweet on this is honestly, like, hilariously incomplete because we know that the Milwaukee Brewers are getting William Contreras. Yeah. Big, big asset, all-star, right? OPS plus of 138 this past year, 24 years old. That's a big-time asset. And then it says Oakland is getting catcher Mani Pena, who is 35 years old and hit 143 in 17 plate appearances this last year. Oh, no. Suffice it to say, I think.

the Diamondbacks could have outbidded that just a little bit. But yeah, obviously we don't have all the information here. No, there has to be more there. There's definitely, there's definitely more to come. But it's unfortunate how, you know, reporters don't necessarily get all the information right away. They get like, and you only have 280 characters to deal with. So you have to kind of release it in waves. But yeah, suffice it to say the Oakland A's are probably getting more than Manny Pena in exchange for Sean Murphy.

We'll have to see how things turn out. We have more breaking news in the chat comments. Bob Nightingale, according to Brett Johnson, reports that the debacks and the Astros are engaged in trade talk for our very own Dalton Varshow. I don't know if you've heard, but that man has all the tools. So Brett Johnson says, Bob says, the asking price remains steep, as it should.

Damn it. Should be very steep. All right, let's go to our next mailbag Monday question. What do we got, Leah? Gabriel, the now dogless Gabriel, bold as bronze on Twitter, asks, Who on the D-back stand to benefit the most and who benefits the least from the new rules such as pitch clock, etc. Well, I'd say that Corbyn Carroll, Jake McCarthy, and Alec Thomas are all going to benefit from the bigger base.

That's for sure. Yeah, I don't know if the bigger bases themselves will do that much. I think it's more of like a, it's more of protecting guys from injuries is my understanding. And there's not necessarily a ton of evidence that, you know, like decreasing the distance between first to second base by a few inches, necessarily makes a huge difference. I just think it's the surface area that they have to cover that a player can slide in for. You know what I mean? Yeah.

We've seen the Diamondbacks tagged out at times on pretty close plays. Yeah, like situations where you're like sliding past the bag and you lose the bag, those situations might be cut down. The shift restrictions are going to be huge for the debacks. And I wrote about this in this week's newsletter. The debacks will gain more than just about any other team. They'll be near the top in terms of teams that benefit from the shift restrictions because they have so many left-handed hitters, right? Dalton Varsho, who, you know, we just see this report from Bob Nightingale about him being rumored in trade discussions.

Dalton Varsho pulled the ball more than any hitter in baseball last year. His poll rate was the highest in Major League Baseball among guys who had like 450 plate appearances or something like that. So he's certainly going to benefit a fair amount. Jake McCarthy is going to benefit from that a lot as well. And yeah, I mean, go down the list, right? Alec Thomas is going to benefit from the shift no longer being available to teams as well. So there's a lot of benefit on that side of things. The other thing that I wrote about is there's going to be some drawbacks here for the diamond backs as well in terms of the shift.

And they were the best, one of the best teams in baseball at shifting this last year. They gained a ton of value from their defensive shifts. So, yeah, they're going to lose a lot, you know, on the defense side. They're going to gain a lot on the offense side. And then, yeah, as far as the base running situation goes, the fact that pitchers are now limited to two disengagement per plate appearance is going to benefit the Diamondbacks in a big way as well. And I wrote about that in last week's newsletter about how Jake McCarthy could wind up

with 60 stolen bases or something silly like that just because of how these new rules are going to put the run game more in play. And the debacks are about as well equipped as any team in baseball to take advantage of that. What about Madison Bumgarner with like the pitch clock? Do you think he'll have any problems adapting to that? I think he'll be okay. I think Bumgarner will be okay. It works relatively quickly.

He's not like a super slow. I just mean. I need to, yeah, I need to double check the numbers. Zach Gowan works very slowly with runners on base. So that will be something to watch. Zach Gallon benefited a lot from the shift. And he also worked very slowly with runners on base. So he might actually be one of the guys who will be,

I don't want to say it'll necessarily hurt him. He's going to be tested. He's going to have to, you know, quicken the pace a little bit with guys on base. And he's also going to have to find ways to, you know, get guys out without having so many advantages defensively. So there's a lot to break down there. The debacks are going to be a very different team one way or another, even if we don't know exactly how it looks just yet. All right, Leah, next question. Brett Lee Johnson again asks, which player are you most afraid of losing in the future?

and he gave us Zach Gowan, Corbyn, Carole, Dalton Varsho, or other. And this is relevant, considering Dalton Varsho is now very much in the mix here to be possibly traded. I would say Corbyn Carroll is the one I'm most

afraid of, but if I'm being honest, it's Zach Gallin, because Zach Gallen is the one I feel like is imminent. That's the one I feel like that the Diamondbacks need to address. Corbyn Carroll is going to be a part of this team for a very long time. So they have a while before they have to address that. Dalton Varshot is going to start getting more and more expensive as the years go on

from this point going forward with his arbitration years and his amazing output, like both his offensive and defensive output, he's going to be expensive. So I don't know, all three of those guys are very valuable. And I'm not a fan of losing any of them. But to be honest, I guess I would say, Zach Gallen is the one that I think of the most of this team losing. Yeah, I think with Corbyn Carroll, as much as there's so much high. and he was so good in that month last year, right? I think you still have to kind of tap the brakes there and be like, we don't really know what Corbyn Carroll is yet, right?

He's 22 years old. He played for a month. And to be fair, even though his offensive numbers were really good, like his batted ball data was actually quite far below average. He didn't actually have a high, hard hit rate. And there's some other factors there, right? I mean, being the fastest guy in baseball is certainly going to help you scoot around some of that. But I don't think we saw enough in that month.

to be like, oh, if Corbyn Carroll's not a diamond back in seven years, then the sky is falling, right? I don't think we're there yet. We could be, right? A year from now, if he wins the rookie of the year, then maybe you're at that point. But, yeah, Zach Gallen, I think, is probably the easy answer here for me. It is a matter of, you know, are the diamondbacks willing to come out and pay what it takes to bring him back?

You know, with Scott Boris is the agent, there's a pretty good chance to Scott Boris is going to take Gallen to free agency, at which point it's going to be hard for the debacks to outbid everyone else. and bring him back. But I think something to keep an eye on is what does Carlos Rodon get this offseason in free agency? Rodon is also 30 years old, which is the age that Gallen will be when he hits free agency. I think they're at a similar point right now in terms of how they're perceived in the league. But Gallin doesn't have a lot of the injury issues that Rodon has had.

So if anything, Gallin's value will probably be higher than what Carlos Rodon's is. So look at what Carlos Rodon gets and know the diamond. Backs are probably going to have to pay more than that to bring Zach Gallen back in the long term. Brian in the chat says you can't lose Gallen for a draft pick though, right? And I mean, you can't. But you never know the direction the Diamondbacks are going to go. Really what it comes down to is like we saw earlier with Xander Bogart's. One of the criticisms there is that they got nothing for him in return and losing him on free agency is it's devastating to the franchise.

Like you didn't get anything in return and you lost him. You know, that that's the choice that teams make. That's the choice that the Diamondbacks took when they traded Goldschmidt instead of trying to resign them after the season. So, you know, it's just, it's unfortunate. But, you know, Gallen, I think, is a priority for this team. I really do. I know other players, you know, can come and go. Some guys you might consider overpaying for or not wanting to overpay.

That's not Gallon. Gallon is a guy that needs to remain in Arizona Diamondback. Can I say one thing with regard to the Varsho rumors that we just heard? Yeah. I just think it's important to note that when it comes to trades, which are incredibly hard to predict, one thing you can sort of grab onto is which teams have the Diamondbacks historically made the most moves with, right? Which teams do they have a history with? You think about the one trade the Diamondbacks have made this offseason, Seattle Mariners, right?

There's some history between the Diamondbacks and the Seattle Mariners. There's also some history between the Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros, right? And there's... There's a name's that Grinke we sent over there. There you go. There you go. And then I guess this kind of predates Mike Hazen, but there's a lot of history between the D-backs and the Oakland A's as well.

Of course, that didn't pan out, but we know there were some discussions happening there. So when you're thinking about what trades the Diamondbacks might make, pay a lot of attention to, like, is there history here between the Diamondbacks and this team? I think it gets you a lot farther than you might think it would because a lot of of times teams kind of like doing deals with the same teams over and over again and we might we might be seeing that here Brian abdala says fleece by houston for the zack trade I don't know about that but things aren't trending in the right direction when yeah no I wouldn't I wouldn't say fleece I wouldn't say fleece but it's not it's not turned into the big win for the debacks that a lot of people kind of viewed it as is the time it was perceived

pretty well for them getting four prospects that you know all were pretty well regarded but at this point, Seth Beer, it's kind of, it's hard to say there's much of anything there. Corbyn Martin is kind of fizzled out. J.B. Bukowski's kind of fizzled out. At this point, it's kind of the Zach Rankie for Josh Rojas trade. And Josh Ross is turned into a solid everyday regular, but not the kind of guy that you're maybe hoping to get back, you know, for a pitcher of Zach Rankie's caliber. For sure. All right, Leah, what else we got? Josh Hunt. Ooh. He asks, winter in Washington or summer in Arizona. This one's all you, Yeah, I feel like this is directed at you, isn't it? I don't know. You spent what, a couple of weeks in Washington in your life?

I would say, I would say winter in Washington, and frankly, it's not close. Summer in Arizona is just brutal. I do love me, the occasional monsoon storm. I think it's, you know, it's kind of fun when, like, there's a monsoon happening and it's pouring and the temperature finally drops down to 88 degrees. And everyone's running around outside because it's so nice out. But yeah, winter in Washington is difficult because of the lack of sunshine, the fact that it gets dark at about 4 p.m. there like this time of year. It is rough. But also, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Oh, yeah. You'll still have days in January and February where it's perfectly sunny and it's like 50 degrees. And to me, there's no, like even the potential of a day like that, you're not, you're not getting anything.

it's remotely comfortable in a Phoenix summer. So I don't, I don't think there's much of a comparison here. I get what you're saying there. And again, it's like, it's mostly the snow. Like, snow is a problem for some people. I have a friend that's lived in Seattle for his whole life and he hates snow. It doesn't, it doesn't snow. It doesn't snow in Seattle very much.

It's very rare. They have gotten, they have gotten a little bit of snow so far in the last couple of weeks, which is pretty rare. But, yeah, I mean, the average snowfall in Seattle on an annual basis is like a few inches. It's really pretty rare because you have Puget Sound right there and that basically makes it makes it very, very difficult for it to actually get cold enough to snow. So if it did snow a lot there, I would probably, I would maybe take a Phoenix summer. Like I'd take a Phoenix summer over like a Michigan winter or something because I don't want to be shoveling snow all day. I think that's why my friend in Seattle complains about the snow because he doesn't get it often enough to be like just used to it.

But when it happens, he hates it. You have a friend in Washington who complains about the snow? Yeah. Like the two days, the two days out of the year that it snows when the entire city shuts down and you don't have to go to work, you don't have to go to school. You don't have to go anywhere, but basically just sit at home because nobody knows what to do there when it snows. I find that a little bit hard to believe, but okay. I think he works from home too, so I really don't know what he's complaining about. But all right, let's go.

What's our next question? Last question. We should just name this final question, the Don's bread question, because it's where his questions. always end up. But who do you think on the Arizona D-backs would be best at chess boxing, Jesse? I'm currently Googling what is chess boxing. You don't know what chess boxing is? Oh my God. Chess boxing is a hybrid sport that combines two tradition. What? It's literally chess and boxing put together? Yeah. Yeah. What does that even mean? Oh, man, it's great. I'm a huge fan. Sergio Levec in the house, multiple time champion. Hey, you got to get down with some chess boxing. Basically, yes. And scientists have said that

it's proven to, like, they study it in order to find out how to, like, teach children and incorporate, like, learning into, like, physical activities and stuff. But, yes, chess boxing. It's exactly how it's sad. You play chess and you box each other. Well, you can't do that at the same time, though. You can't do that at the same time, right? That's why there are, that's why it's broken down in the segments.

You each play, like, a few rounds of chess. You each make a few moves, and then you get up and do some boxing. But, no, here's the thing, though. You can also still win by knocking the other person out. So you don't have to, like, you don't have to beat them necessarily in chess. You just have to beat them in one of the two games. So is it the first person to win at either of the two games? Victory by checkmate?

Victory by knockout? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Lost by resignation in either discipline, you know, where you just tip over, give up, give up your king. Call it a day. The point of the question is, what Diamondbacks player would be best at chess boxing? And why is it Dalton Bar Show? Dalton Varsho?

Why? Why? The man has all the tools, Jesse. Okay. That includes fighting. That includes a brain. He has all the tools. You think Dalton Varsho is a good chess player?

I think he's a better boxer. He looks stout to me. He is. Yeah, he looks hard to knock out himself, right? Low center of gravity. I'm not calling the man short. I would maybe say that Kyle Lewis, Diamondbacks, Diamondbacks newcomer. He's not making it out of the first.

first round. No. How Lewis is getting knocked out before he even has a chance to move upon, Jesse. I don't know. I don't know. He's a pretty big guy and he's, you know, cerebral. I could, I could maybe see, I can maybe see Kyle Lewis being good at chess. I don't know.

How do you judge whether a baseball player is good at chess or not? Like, Zach Gallin's good at chess because he's like the brainiest person on the team. That'd be good at both. It's not just one. It's both. I don't, I just. Mad bumps are right answer. Sean DePons is mad bum's the right answer, which I feel like we try to avoid mad bum

at this point because he's the answer to every. every single one of these questions. You're immediately just qualified for the contest if you suggest Mad Bummer Josh Robos. We know that's the answer here, of course. Yeah, of course, another crazy question from you, sir. We thank you guys so much for your questions. Thank you guys so much for being here.

Of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to sign up on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. Get yourself some free money if you're a new customer. Download the app now. Sign up with code PHNX. Place a $5 pregame money line bet on any NBA team to win their game, and you will get $150 of free bets. If they do, that's code PHNX only at Drafking Sportsbook.

Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Jesse, I broke my own rule and I bet on the suns against the pelicans for some reason. And then they came back and then they went to overtime and then they lost. So not thrilled about that. So I'm back on the stop betting on the sun's train on money line bets for a little while. So there's my advice to you guys. But of course, Jesse is still researching right now who the Astros could possibly give the Earth.

Yeah, no, we'll definitely circle back to this. Yeah, we're done with this one for sure. I will say it's interesting just at first glance. I'm on baseball trade values.com, which is, we've talked about, it's like major league baseball trade machine, basically. The only Astros player that they have as high a value as Dalton Varsho, there's actually two of them, it's Yordon Alvarez and Kyle Tucker. Those are the only few players on the Astros in the entire organization who have as much

or more value as Dalton Varsho. So this, I mean, it's interesting. Like if the Diamondbacks come to the Astros and ask for Jeremy Pena, right? Pretty big name. Did some big things in the postseason. That's not a ridiculous ask. That's actually a pretty fair. It's actually not.

It's actually like the D-backs could ask for Jeremy Pena plus something else. Like a minor leaguer. Like maybe a minor leaguer. And I think that's a pretty decent ask. I don't necessarily know that Jeremy Pena is the best fit. But just so you have a gauge of like how valuable Dalton Varsho is on the trademark. Like that that's the level that we're that we're talking about here Michael in the comment says there's going to be a major devax trade as soon as you two sign off

It's inevitable it is inevitable. Yeah if there's if there's a major trade maybe we do an emergency pot at that point Even though you're already sick of us from from the last hour. No somebody was walking their dog I think it was Spencer Ogari he said he needed more time to walk his dog Okay, cold outside so we're giving it to you we're trying to do everything we can to give you as much time For things to warm up he said just promise my dog we would go to the park after your show, but it's cold. I love the visual of like making promises to your dog. Uh-huh.

I tweeted out the other day. I actually whisper about the dog's presence in front of them when I'm talking to my wife about them. So, you know, we love our dogs. What can we say? Except for Gabriel. Well, obviously doesn't love his dog. But anyway, maybe he just loves this organization more than he loves his dog.

That's what I'm going to leave off with. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter and we can discuss this breaking trade inevitably when it happens. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a k. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again for your questions and for being here in the chat.

On behalf of Leah, Jesse and myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. If the Yankees would just take Tatis out of the NL West, please.