PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Winter Meetings: BIGGEST D-backs Questions As Mike Hazen & Company Head To Dallas

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

As we approach MLB’s Winter Meetings on Monday, we discuss the biggest questions Mike Hazen and his front office will have to solve for the Diamondbacks this offseason like what value will Jordan Montgomery have in the trade market and if bringing back Joc Pederson makes sense. We know one of the biggest questions is how are the D-backs going to replace Christian Walker, so we are going to Tier Rank the available options at first base. We also ponder why any player would voluntarily choose to sign the Athletics or the Rays as two players already have. Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 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/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. 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. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, thank God. This is our last episode without news from the winter meetings, which are right around the corner. We have more on if the Diamondbacks are going to choose Jock Peterson or Christian Walker to bring back or maybe neither. A lot of things are happening. We are going anywhere. Join us here in 30 seconds. We're going to talk all about it. Happy Friday. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXTVX podcast right here in Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is Derek Monti. Of course, I am occasionally known as your mayor of Friday. is this man, my vice mayor Fridays, and your Thunderstake, the one and only Jesse Friedman, who we will be sending off, shipping off to Dallas here shortly. I might send him to Dallas.

I might put him in a box and send him to Abu Dhabi like they used to do it normal on Garfield. But regardless, it will be a fun time either way. And we have a little change of schedule next week that we'll talk about. We're also going to tier rank the best replacement options for Christian Walker. Even though we have said time and time again, the best replacement for Christian Walker is, In fact, Christian Walker, we are going to go over all the guys that we've already talked about and figure out who would make the most sense and where they would rank amongst all the available options. But speaking of Christian Walker, we do have a report from John Gambadoro, A. K. Gambo. And he said, according to Gambo, that the Diamondbacks will not resign both Jock Peterson and Christian Walker.

Again, I guess no major surprise there. We kind of knew that they wouldn't probably not have the money to bring both of those. guys back, Jesse? Yeah, I mean, the money just didn't just didn't really work out, at least from the reporting we've gotten so far with the Diamondbacks intending on keeping their payroll somewhere in the same range that it was this past year in the mid-170 million range. Right now, they're somewhere in the mid-140s, maybe lower 140s, maybe upper 140s. It's a little hard to tell exactly what that internal number is right now. But yeah, that gives you about $30 million of wiggle room and the odds of being able to get both Christian Walker and Jock Peterson, you know, much less everything else that

you're trying to accomplish this offseason for $30 million, it just didn't really seem realistic. Obviously, the team could buy, get a little bit more money to spend by trading Jordan Montgomery. We've talked about that a lot. But again, even then, I don't know if, you know, that extra $10 million or whatever it is really, really gets you there. So I think this sort of went without saying, but to hear it from Gambo, you know, it makes it feel certainly all the more the case that the diamond backs are at most going to be picking between one of these guys or you know i listened to that full segment with gambo and and he didn't really express much confidence about getting either of them back right was sort of like the it sounded kind of like his default was the diamond backs bring neither of these guys back um but if they if they do manage to get one of them that that's all it's going to be it's it's not going to be both of them well nicholas right here in the chat says walker over jock all day And I don't know if it's that easy, but yeah, I guess we would love to know from you guys on the chat.

Who would you rather have? Would you rather have Jock Peterson back or Christian Walker? I feel like that's kind of going to be a one-sided question, but you also have to consider the cost in the three years that it's going to take for Christian Walker. I know Tim isn't here in the chat maybe right now, but he would bring up Walker's age and the fact that he has kind of, you know, regressed a little bit. And that's completely understandable. There's some decisions there to be made. Jock Peterson is not a young player either. So both of these guys, you know, again, if you're talking about a multi-year deal for either guy,

there is some risk there to bringing them back. And Christian Walker is going to most likely cost more than Jock Peterson, but bring more to the team, bring more value in his defense and his ability to play the field as well as be the power hitter that the Diamondbacks need him to be. Meanwhile, with Jock, in regards to Gambo's report, what Jesse is saying, I don't know if Jock Peterson is necessarily the best fit to come back, considering that he's pretty much just going to be your DH, and there's not much more versatility around him other than that.

The platoon worked well, and the platoon seemed to be kind of a Frankenstein's monster by Mike Hazen to bring both of those guys in to fulfill the DH role, and it worked really well in 2024. Let's not forget that this team did have the best offense in Major League Baseball, or at least scored a whole lot of runs. I mean, I kind of agree with what a few of you said in the chat yesterday. You know, I don't know if power is as big of a thing I'm looking for necessarily as much as like a well-rounded lineup that can score in a lot of different ways like we saw maybe more in 2023 versus 2024.

But again, you don't you don't want to lose like you were one of the top offenses in baseball. So you don't really want to lose that going forward. Yeah, I mean, you know, if if we were in a situation where Jock, Peterson and Christian Walker were getting the exact same amount of money and in years on the open market, then I think your decision is sort of a no-brainer at that point, right? You bring back Christian Walker because he's the guy who plays defense. He's the guy who faces both righties and lefties. He's an everyday player.

He's a durable everyday player. I know he had the oblique injury this year, but by and large, he's posted year after year, you know, playing pretty much every game of the season. But that's not the, that's not the case, right? we this is a scenario where jock peterson is all but certainly going to cost less than christian walker both in terms of years i think walker's going to get three years yeah at least maybe it goes to four i think it will probably be three i don't know if there's a scenario where jock peterson gets a three-year deal um and as we've said many times his his value i think is capped by the fact that he is limited as

as a platoon player as someone who's not playing defense so i like what jerry says though jerry says jock over walker cheaper and a draft pick if Walker leaves. And it's that damn draft pick. That's why I think. I feel like I don't think Walker leaving is the worst thing. That's why I have a hard time with this. I don't, I don't think it's obvious picking between these two guys. I mean, of course, it depends on exactly what these dollar values are.

But if it's 3 and 60 for Christian Walker versus 2 and 25 for Jock Peterson, that's a pretty big financial difference. And you look at the impact that these guys had in 2024. I know Jock isn't playing defense. I know he is not facing left-handed pitching, but according to baseball reference wins above replacement, Jock Peterson was the more valuable player for the Diamondbacks in 2024. He was worth 2.9 wins above replacement compared to Walker's 2.6.

Granted, it's obviously really close there. But Jock Peterson was the engine that powered one of the best D.A. situations in all of baseball. I mean, it was Otani with the Dodgers, Marcelo Zuna with the Braves. And then the Diamondbacks headlined by Jock Peterson. And losing him, like that is, I know losing Walker, that's not something you take lightly either,

but losing Jock Peterson and having, you know, like a league average bat on average in that D.H slot, that's a really big difference compared to what this team had in 2024. That's only one of the questions that the Diamondbacks have heading into the winter meetings. And again, that's multifaceted, right? because if you bring either one of those guys back, then sure, it solves your problem, but you still have other positions that you need to solve.

You have other problems. You need to solve and you need the money to fix those problems or resources via a trade, right? But they have so much other, there are so many other things that they have still up in the air. Like what does the trade market for one slightly used Jordan Montgomery look like at this point? And again, when you start to see what some of these. Slightly used. I mean, because he's dinged up. You know, he's dinged up.

That's what you got dinged up a little bit is what Tori would say. He's just a little dinged up. Here's what I'll say, Derek, is if you were on one resale platform and you used slightly used. Yeah. And then that didn't sell. Should I go to pre-owned? Well, yeah. So if that didn't sell and then you're moving over to another one.

Yeah. Like, you got to change the verbiage a little bit. So it didn't work the first time. Didn't work the second time. What are we going to do the third time? Yeah. Refurbished. Yeah.

Refurbished. Yeah. Yes. But then you might be lying. Yeah, because is he refurbished? What about what about? He might still be broken, Jesse.

What about like new? Ooh, I like like new. I like new. You know what? Like new is vague enough that when I receive it from eBay, if it is really used, like new means absolutely nothing.

He said like new and I fell for it. It's really on me. But yes, no, I mean, with the market for starting pitching going in the direction, it is going.

it is feeling more and more likely that the Diamondbacks will find somebody that is willing and interested in taking George Montgomery. We've heard from reports that they are already receiving calls on that. And it is seeming more and more likely that the Diamondbacks might not have to like eat half of the contract any longer in order to get out of it in 2025. Yeah. And if the Diamondbacks do make a move at the winter meetings, which again, as much as we would love to say, that's a sure thing, it's not. The winter meetings very well could come and go and we're just still sitting here. waiting for something to happen. But please don't let that happen, Mike.

Please, Mike. I mean, I know that you guys won't welcome me back from from Dallas. Oh, absolutely not. No, Jesse does not get to come back from Dallas until news happens. I don't care if it's news with a Z. If news happens, we're here to cover it. We're having a breaking pod. So if something does happen for the Diamondbacks in this next week,

it feels like the most likely move or certainly one of the most likely things that could happen is that Jordan Montgomery trade, where the Diamondback saves some money, or maybe it's a Cody Bellinger-esque situation where they're taking back a big contract. Mike Hazen has said that that would be, you know, something he'd consider as well. That's something that it feels like could happen soon because as we discussed on the show yesterday, you'd like to have that additional money to spend sooner than later so that you don't miss out on some of these free agents that you might be targeting.

Right. And I mean, we don't know. We can see where the market is going for starting pitching, but we have no idea what the market is going to be like for some of the. these first baseman because we haven't really seen some, you know, major splashes and signing yet. Right. You don't know, you know, what a high-end reliever or I should say a back-end reliever or closer is going to cost.

We also don't know what Jock Peterson is going to be receiving on the open market and how that's going to impact a lot of things. So there's a lot of things out there that, I guess, you know, once some of these deals start to happen for other teams or once players start to get offers and start to sign, then maybe some of these will be a bit more clear even without the die. Evan Beck's making any moves. However, it's just like, again, what, what are they looking for for their bullpen? Are they just looking for one arm?

Are they trying to upgrade with multiple arms in the bullpen? You know, and where, you know, what do they want to do there? When it comes to Jordan Montgomery trade, is he the only one that they're hearing offers on? Are they getting offers on of Merrill Kelly? Are they getting offers on Zach Gallen at this point? Yeah. What are those offers like? And I mean, obviously those talks are going to expand and they're going to get deeper with the

winter meetings despite the fact that these GMs will not. be talking to each other face to face. They'll be in hotel rooms right next to each other. Just texting each other like maniacs, like absolute maniacs. What happened to decorum in this society, Jesse? What happened to picking up a phone and being like, hey, Mike, let's get a deal done for Jordan. And like just getting it banged out right there on that call. I mean, you and I sit in this same office all the time in like, you know, maybe 20 feet away from each other.

And we still do text like fairly often when we're in the building. Jesse doesn't know I'm at the table in the building. back just right around the corner and he'll text me and ask me where I am. And I'm like, I'm at the office. And he'll say, that's preposterous. I'm at the office. And then an argument ensues. But that's what texting does.

I just think that, again, it's funny because we were talking about the winter meetings and what actually goes on at the winter meetings, Jesse. Like, yeah, yeah, winter meetings, it's not an event, right? It's not something, as Shane over here alluded to. All right, guys. That's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do. I'm starting a poll in the chat.

Shane thinks mascots go to the winter meetings. Starting a poll in the chat. Chat, I'm not saying that it's going to be some Comic-Con-esque event where there are hundreds of mascots everywhere. All I'm saying is I wouldn't be shocked if there was a mascot or two at the winter meetings. This is a big event for the MLB. I wouldn't be shocked if you see Mr. Met around or, you know, bastard. Do you think Mr. Met is making the trip?

He could. Oh, man. He could. You know who's going to be there? Captain, the rain from the Rangers, the horse, he might be there. Could? He might be there just for Shane, just to entertain Jane.

You know, he should be there is grimace. Yeah. Grimmis should be there. I bet he is. I bet Jesse sees grimace and then he'll text me and say, Shane, I'm so sorry. What you said wasn't that ridiculous. No.

I'm sorry for making the thing. No, there's no chance of that happening. There will be, there will be no apology. We ridiculed Shane for this idea. There would be no apology. There could be an entire, like, mascot team picture. taken and Jesse would just lie about it and never say that's what I'm saying as the one member of this company is going to be on the ground there if there are if there are significant there are other baseball people here that's true in the network that's fair yeah he's going to go reach out the CHGO or whatever the one scenario where I could see some mascots showing up he's already damage controlling well I I I'm just I think the one scenario where this happens is I will say the winner meeting

serve as a job interview site for a lot of people who are interested in working in baseball. And I have to wonder if, you know, maybe some of those people are applying for, for mascot jobs, right? And so maybe, maybe I don't see, maybe I don't see, you know, the Mr. Met. Maybe I see a bunch of Mr. Met roaming around, like trying to, trying to do their best Mr. Mey. And their homemate costumes, right? Like trying to try to pretend like they could be the next Mr. Met. Um, also I, I don't, I don't know.

I like Cam's idea here. He says, I'd like to imagine there's some pretty sweet slumber parties going down at the winter meetings. Like I would, I would love to think that like when you got up in like the middle of the night, like 10 p.m. You're like, I want to go get some water. I don't have any in my room. I'm going to go down the lobby. You see if they have balls water. And when you do, you see like GMs for Major League baseball running around and like putty, footie pajamas playing tag.

You know, like flashlight tag or something, just having the best time ever. That would be great. I will say this is my first year where I will be staying at the hotel itself, like at the hotel where the meetings are actually happening rather than somewhere off-site. So become a PHNX diehard because I'm going to be dropping all of the fun little nuggets that I see along the way. He'll be sending you pictures of mascots. By the way, Jesse, 75% to 25% right now is a yes. What?

That there will be mascots. No, no, not that there will be mascots that Jesse will see a mascot at the winter meeting. Well, we'll see. We'll see, won't we? I'm still skeptical. I'm still very skeptical. I knew you guys were Shane Knights. This will be my, this will be my third year attending the winter meetings and I have yet to see a mascot.

I just don't think you've been looking hard. How can you influence what the Diamondbacks do? And if there aren't mascots, how can you influence that the mascots return or come next year, right? Like, I mean, I feel like it has to be a conversation, right? You could maybe propose some stupid rule like they did with the gold net bat thing about mascots. Right. That's true. That would get a banana ball rule.

Yeah, we have to propose something that will get the entire mascot community up in arms. Yeah. They'll show up to defend themselves. Let's pilot in minor league baseball, a system where in the eighth inning, if you're down by two runs that your mascot gets an at bat and it's a free at bat. And it's a free at, no. Like if it gets out, it's out, but it doesn't count. It's just a free. But if he hits a home run and then it completely counts.

It has to be something that outrages the mascots if you want them to show up. They won't show up for something that's. Oh, yeah. You got to be like if, like every time you call out call for your closer, the mascot has to give him a piggyback ride. Yes, yes, yes. We're like so far off topic at this point, but did you see Ryan Thompson's response to the golden and bad idea?

Oh, it's fantastic. It's fantastic. This is on Twitter. Ryan Thompson quote tweeted, tweet from MLB on Fox, basically explaining the golden and bat idea that we discussed on the show the other day. And Ryan Thompson, Damandbacks reliever said, as long as pitchers get one take backsies per game a take back so it seems like a fair trade

Derek I think that's a reasonable that's a reasonable demand and once per game you get to hit a ball with a fungo bat yeah yeah I won't understand why what the problem is here if it's just once per game we can make anything happen we really good as long as it's just once per game like it glove ready says mascot pinch runner mascot pinch runner yes yes oh that's I'm down I'm Is it the Braves that do the, what, fast guy? The freeze? Yeah. Yeah, the freeze.

Yeah, that's what the freeze. The Braves would have a bit of an advantage with the mascot pitch around. Baxter's reasonably fast. Baxter's reasonably fast. He runs around the stadium a lot. There are certain teams that would be at a bit of a disadvantage here. Like the Philly fanatic, I haven't paid a ton of attention to the sprint speed situation there. You want to put up?

Garrett Stubbs Baseball Swamp page, please. We'll take a look at this. You really need to drop the Garrett Stubbs. I will never. I will never. All right.

But anyway, we have more stuff to talk about when Jesse does return from the winter meetings and it's definitely going to be mascot talk. But also a lot. You're again,

you're not allowed to come home until you figure out a way for the Diamondbacks to make some of these deals. Or see a mascot. Yeah, or see a mascot. Or trade Jordan Montgomery. One of those three things

has to happen before you can come back home. Well, as I've said in the past, Eric, if me staying there means that I just get like free vacation days basically and you're just here running the show by yourself, then. You always find a way to turn it around on and me doing the show by myself. And it's kind of masterful. I respect it. But you do have to check out Justy's roster projection story that you can get over at go phtonx.com. You want to give them a little preview of that.

Yeah, yeah. Basically, just taking a look at where the Diamondbacks stand heading into the winter meetings. I've done this for a number of years where I release several stories leading up to opening day, where I try to project the opening day roster. In the past, I haven't been quite this bullish, admittedly doing it on December 6th. I'm not sure how accurate this roster projection is ultimately going to be, but I still figured it would be helpful as just kind of a starting point. Like if the Diamondbacks did nothing this offseason, what would their roster actually look like today? and there were certain decisions I had to make that were like, okay,

clearly the roster not being complete is forcing me to be in a weird spot. Like I wound up having the Diamondbacks with three catchers on opening day because I think Adrian Del Castillo would probably make the team if the season started today. And it would just sort of make sense to have all three of those guys on the roster. But yeah, it's helpful as a starting point just kind of setting the table for what we hope will be a busy week, a busy month here coming up. Cam says Jesse stays in Dallas

and Derek stays at the movie theater so our deal's going to happen. So I'm just going to watch Wicked on loop until you guys do that. I'll do the show. I'll just have the camera pointed out on an empty desk and I will have a producer camera and I'll just talk Mariners ball. Did you know that the Mariners inquired

about some trades today? Oh, did they? Inquired about some. No, I didn't. That's big news. I inquired about some players being available today. Any specifics on players Cody Bellinger. Oh.

They're asking about him. Oh, well, good luck with that, Shane. Good luck with everything that team has going on. Speaking of team, we thank you guys for being part of our team. We thank those of you that joined us with our wonderful diehard deal that we had this week. We had so many new diehards come on board, and it's very thrilling to have so many new faces, part of our Discord, and part of our family. So we thank you guys. We welcome you guys.

If you're here on the PHNXports YouTube channel right now, make sure you subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications. Of course, hit that like button. We love it when you do. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe over there as well. And of course, leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback.

On the other side of this break, we are going to tier rank all of the options to replace Christian Walker at first base with the caveat that the best replacement for Christian Walker is Christian Walker, but we're going to look at the other options out there and decide which ones are the best one and maybe hurt some feelings.

So, of course, don't you go anywhere. We'll be right back. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial Credit Union has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions that help make lives better. And I know during this time of the year, it's not exactly easy to save money. Of course, Desert Financial can get you started, though, on your financial goals. Not only can they help you out here at the end of the year, but they can get you set right for 2025 and get you on the right track going forward. The Desert Financial team are financial experts who are committed to their members and the community offering financial solutions tailored to helping real people.

achieve those financial goals and dreams. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. When you open a free checking account online, get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. And Jesse, it's a fun time here in the Valley because it is almost fiesta bowl time. We got that fiesta bowl parade right around the corner and it's the best parade. Like go out and check out.

parade i got the thrill of being in this parade last year and let me tell you i'll never forget it i even wore my mayoral sash as i should but it's a new era in the valley of the sun and as we merge tradition and history with all of that innovation pageantry and fun uh we it leads up to the 50th anniversary annual uh vrbo fiesta parade presented by learner and row this event is completely free to the public and family friendly it's a great time to bring the family out especially during this holiday season weather is beautiful out there on central And you can see all the beautiful, colorful floats, balloons, community groups, and marching bands, which will march through Central Phoenix on December 16th. Plus, you'll see a big name that most of you Sun Devils very much know.

ASU and Mesa wrestling champion Anthony Robles, subject of the upcoming movie Unstoppable. So, of course, join us in person on Saturday, December 28th at 10 a.m. Or watch it all happen live on AZ Family 3 TV for the parade route and more information. Check piescible.com. uh, org slash parade. All right. Well, Jesse, we got some tier ranking to do and we know it makes us sad to do so because it involves replacing Christian Walker, but we decided potentially.

Potentially. Christian Walker is on the list. Christian Walker is on the list. And as we've said, Christian Walker is the best replacement for Christian Walker. But does that make him an S tier candidate for first base for the Diamondbacks in 2025, Jesse? I don't know. I mean, I, I think, uh, when, When we've used the S tier in the past doing these kinds of things, generally reserve it for, you know, the elite players in the sport.

And for as good as Christian Walker has been for as solid as he has been for the last several years, I'm not sure that he necessarily belongs in like the superstar level category, which is sort of how I view the S tier. So. Okay. Well, let's get to it. Let's start. I think we will start with. Should we start with Christian Walker? Should we end with Christian Walker?

What do you want to do here, pal? Can we just go, should just go left to right? Yeah, we can go left to right. We got Josh Bell down there is the number one, number one pick. We're going to start with Josh Bell. We're really going to start with Josh Bell. I guess, I guess we're starting with Josh Bell. All right.

We're just going to hurt feelings right away. I actually love Josh Bell. I thought that he did a great job coming into this team in the situation that he did and contributing, especially right away. You know, we were surprised about how well he did. but if you're talking about him being the primary option at first base next year, I don't love that. Yeah.

I don't love that. Yeah, Josh Bell, I mean, he was great after the trade. And, you know, as we think about who could replace Christian Walker, like, only one guy on this list has actually replaced Christian Walker. And it is Josh Bell. And he's a pretty darn good job in that role. I do have some questions. I mean, looking at his numbers overall in 2024, he wasn't so great before the trade with

Miami. He was a below replacement level player because his defense is. isn't so good and he also had a 97 OPS plus for the season. So it was a below average, below league average hitter and a well below average defender. So for as good as he was in the second half and as much as I think the Diamondbacks enjoyed having him around in the clubhouse and whatnot, based on the numbers, Derek, it's going to be hard for me to go any higher than probably a C here. I can't, I can't allow that, Jesse. The Navy blue sleeve. The Navy blue sleeve.

it leaves him in D. Does he have a new sleeve yet? I thought you were going to put him in health here. No, for the Navy. No, he doesn't deserve that just for the Navy sleeve, but for wearing the Navy sleeve and never actually changing it,

I think he belongs in the D tier. In the D tier, okay. Based on the numbers for, again, as good as he was in the second half, it was just kind of a small sample. 97 OPS plus minus 0.06 war. Yeah, the numbers overall for the season were pretty rough. Not a terrible pickup as sort of an insurance officer.

option. Yeah. But, but yeah, if he's, if he's kind of your main move at first base, I think you probably could have done better. Real quick,

we have breaking news. What? Jesse's poll, 80% say that he will see a mascot. Oh my God. At the weather meetings, it just ended. Okay.

Okay. So, yeah, thanks for the update. You're welcome. We really needed that. Big breaking news. Cody Bellinger.

Up next, a guy that obviously still has a lot left in the tank, not a bad player. Does he have a lot left in the tank, Derek? He's 29 years old, Jesse. He's 29 years old. He has a lot left in the tank. It does.

From a 43-year-old man, it absolutely means that, all right? And I'm going to say, he has plenty left in the tank. The man slash 266, 325, 4, 26 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI. He's not a terrible baseball player by any stretch of the imagination. He had a down year and it's exasperated by the contract. It's made to look worse. Right. And that's the case with a lot of baseball players is when their contract is,

huge and they end up being an average player. It makes you regret signing them to that deal because there's a lot of guys you could bring in that is going to slash 266, 325, 426 with 18 home runs that aren't going to cost you what Cody Bellinger costs you. In this case, though, it could be interesting if we do some sort of bad contract swap just based on the needs, right? Diamondbacks have a surplus of, you know, starting pitching. Cody Bellinger would be a perfect fit for the Diamondbacks here to play first base.

And I think you would do a good job at it. It's just, again, the contract. It makes it hard to put him above a B, I feel like, and it's not based on performance as much as it's the combination of the two things. Yeah, but how the DeBacks inquired about him. I'm kidding. I'm sorry. Jesse's how like Mr. Burns right there. All right.

Where are you putting Bellinger? So, I mean, I guess we have to decide, like, how much are we letting the potential, challenges with acquiring the player to play into this? Are we solely evaluating these guys based on how good a first baseman they are? Or are we taking into account contract and with guys you'd have to trade for, like how much you'd have to give up and all about that? That's a good question. I mean, I do feel like you have to maybe not consider how hard it would be to get them

or how likely it would be to get them. But I feel like you would have to take into consideration if you're trading for them or even if you're picking them up as a free agent, what the cost of that individual is going to be. Sure. So maybe we don't like base it solely off that, but it's kind of a factor that we consider. So, yeah, I mean, Bellinger, he was a decent player in 2024, no doubt. But at the same time, he's been very inconsistent.

I mean, you look at his last three years, 2022, total disaster, 2023. He was excellent, but the underlying stats weren't there. And that's why he had to sign this smaller deal with the Cubs. And then 2024, he was solid, but it just, again, the underlying numbers were not there. So I'm feeling C on Cody Bellinger, I think. Okay. I agree with that. Like I said, I couldn't go higher than B based on a lot of things.

But yeah, when you take a look at his three years, those last three years, 112 OPS plus, 6.2 war. Not great. It's not great. It's not great. Not for someone, once again, making the amount of money that Cody Bellinger is. And that has to be a factor here when you're talking. talking about the Diamondbacks going out, the replacing Christian Walker. Because cost is a factor in bringing Christian Walker back.

Yeah. It's like this next guy, Alec Bohm. Not, we could sit here and judge him as a defender or as an infielder. I think he's a great infielder. It's just, what are they going to do with him? Are they really going to bring him over to the Diamondbacks for him to play first base when his defense is kind of one of the reasons why you would bring him over? Right. What do you do here?

Like, again, he's not a first baseman. So despite the fact that there might be interest or, that the Phillies might be interested in trading him. How good of a fit is he for the Diamondbacks? Yeah, the fit we discussed the other day. It's not ideal, I don't think, just given that I think the Phillies are probably setting a fairly high asking price. And as you said, the Diamondbacks are set at third base this year. He would probably be a first baseman for them.

And then maybe you're looking at moving him to third next year. Or maybe you're not because they sort of have openings at both first and third for the foreseeable future theoretically. B feels feels right to me. Yeah. He was a good player. He, out of everyone we have on our list,

by baseball reference war, Alec Bohm is, had the highest, the highest baseball reference war total. I would put him in A. Really? Well, no,

here's what I'll say. I'll put him in A, but again, all the complications that we talked about, right? Like, I would put him in A if we're just talking about him as a player

in acquiring him, but the need isn't there for him to play third base and you're going to have to shuffle some things around. You're not going to play like a split of Boehm and Gino, especially if Gino's hitting the way anywhere close to the way he did in the second half of last season, right? So, yeah, B feels right. B feels right for Boehm. Next guy, guy we're really familiar with, Christian Walker. I want to put him right away in S-tier, but Christian Walker is not a perfect

player. And the situation isn't exactly perfect based on how much the Diamondbacks have to commit in order to bring him back. So, I mean, I've said it before, and this is probably going to contradict it. But Christian Walker is an A-tier player for me, just not an S-tier. I think that's pretty reasonable. I think I agree with you there. Walker is the best defender out of the group. And offensively, you could make a case that you'd rather have some of these other guys than Walker,

but I don't think it's all that convincing. Like, you could also talk yourself into Walker being the most reliable offensive player on this list. Some of these guys have had better seasons, but Walker's been. above average every single year, I think about as reliable as is anyone on this list, even as he ages a little bit. So, yeah, I think, I think A is, I think A is fair. All right. Who else we got next on the list? We got Yandy Diaz. Yandi Diaz is next. Yondi Diaz. Again, real good player, probably another one of these guys that would be, in my opinion,

one of the top additions to this team. Yeah. You look at his numbers from last year, 281, 341, 414, 414. 14 home runs, 65 RBI, right? So not the power necessarily that you want over there at first base, but still a guy that can get it done, 116 OPS plus, 1.6 war. The tough thing with Diaz is that his defense is unspectacular. If he's 33 years old, he's also getting up there in age.

And he has, his athleticism has certainly not aged the way that Christian Walker's has. But offensively, man, the ceiling with Yanni Diaz is, probably higher than anyone else on this list. Diaz, as we discussed on our show the other day, he won the American League batting title just one year ago in 2023. He had an awesome season. He was sixth an MVP voting. He can't be lower than B based on that ceiling.

And even this year, in what was really a down year, he was still a 116 OPS Plus, which is only a few points off of Christian Walker. It doesn't have Walker's power, but his hit tool is definitely better than Walker at this stage. So it's between a or B for me. I'm a little bit torn between the two.

I mean, Alec Bohm is right there at the same similar numbers, 15 home run, you know, more RBI, 779 OPS versus Yandis 755 OPS. So they feel fairly comparable to me. And then like you said, his defense isn't great. There's no doubt in my mind, Alec Bone wouldn't be a great, great first basement, right? Like, yeah, you'd be changing positions. Sure. It's just kind of like what we've said about a few guys that would be kind of a

waste of his talent to have him play first base, right? Right. Yeah, you're paying a bit of a premium for Alec Bone because of his ability of third base. Yeah, I think because of the defense and the fact that Diaz is getting a little older, the offense is maybe shakier at this point. I think, I think B tier probably makes sense. You want him above or below bone? Oh, we're getting, we're getting very specific.

He's the first baseman. He's the first baseman. I'm putting him above. And he has, his track record of success is definitely more compelling than Alec Bone. I would also say. So I think having him above makes sense. Well, we are just getting started and we are going to continue ranking the rest of these guys.

Mark Cana. I don't know what the hell you're doing in here, but we, I'm going to find, I'm going to find a place for you. But don't you guys go anywhere? We'll be right back after this brief break. Of course, branded Bills as a company we love, it's a great time of the year to check out Brandenbills.com because they have some great items for you to purchase as gifts. You can also bring some attention to your brand with some custom gear from branded Bills.

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We got new snacks coming today. Are they bringing, are they bringing the polar pop machine? No polar pop machine yet? I don't know if that's a minute. pipe dream of mine but one day one day we'll have a polar pop machine i got to max max max has to pick it up before being honest yeah yeah yeah that's for true yeah you guys say well like this studio should look like a circle k is really what it should and if it did it would have all the snacks i need and it would make sure that my belly was full which is something that i'm very bad at at keeping track of so you go

stop by circle k sign up for the inner circle today by downloading the circle k app it's absolutely free terms and conditions apply participating locations you can visit circle k dot com for details but when you do You'll save 25 cents off a gallon per gallon on your first five Phillips. You'll also save three cents per gallon every day after that. Your first five polar pops are free. They will not give you a machine to take home with you as we've figured out. But maybe one day if you keep pressing them, you'll see what happened.

You also get like a little punch card on your app where you buy five and get a six to one free of all sorts of circle K product. So again, right now is a great time to download that app, join the inner circle and stop by America's third stop over there at Circle K. All right, Jesse. We got to get back to your ranking. And again, Mark Kana, I do not know what you're doing here, but I don't want you here. He played first base in 2024, Derek. What do you mean? I don't know.

I just like to attack him. Did not put up great numbers. I guess something's probably very close to one Geraldo Perdomo, as we discussed. Not a lot of power there, though. And I mean, I don't know, Jesse. If you're talking about corner infielders, I feel like you want a guy that hit more than seven home runs. in 2024. Yeah, it is a bit of a tough sell just because Markana is not hitting for much power at

this stage in his career. He is still a pretty good on base guy, a 344 on base percentage this past season against lefties. I think it was in the 380 range, something like that. So he's sort of Randall Gritchick-esque in that he is valuable in a specific role. I'm not sure you want him facing righties and lefties and like in the lineup every day. He does have some positional utility as well as we discussed the other day. He can play a corner.

can play a corner outfield spot for you as well. I'm feeling healthier would feel, would feel pretty mean. I think he's probably in the C or D range for me, leaning toward D, I think. Put him in hell, Shane. Put him in hell. No, I'm just joking.

Put him in D. That's fine. Jesse's too mean to put any of these guys in hell. Yeah, I don't know if we're going to, I don't think we're going to have an S tier or a hell tier. I mean, if we're, I'm going to disagree with that. I got one S-tier.

I would argue for one guy on here. And that's this next guy. It's Paul Goldschmidt. Jesse S-tier, despite everything I've said, I need to battle my way back. I need to win the people back over. Let's go S-Tier with Paul Goldschmidt. No, I'm...

S-tier with Paul Goldschmidt is outrageous. Well, there is a lot of reasons to like Paul Goldschmidt coming back to the Arizona Diamondbacks, though. Not there. No, definitely not there. The choice is between S-tier and healthier, Derek. Yeah, that's it. Especially for me.

No, I mean, first, like, there was an article on MLB.com today about the perfect reunions and Paul Goldschmidt coming back to the debacks was one of them, right? The vibes are good. We've said this from the beginning. The vibes are good. I don't think you feel as good about him as Yanni Diaz or Alec Boe at this stage in his career. You might not even feel as good about him as a Cody Bellinger, but. I disagree. But this is a guy who also in 2022, like, went out and won the NL MVP. So that top end talent, I mean, it feels kind of unrealistic. He reaches that level at this stage in his career, but he's not all that far removed from it either.

So when you're looking at OPS Plus over the last three years for any of the guys we're talking about, Paul Goldschmidt has the highest at 12.3B war. He has 131 OPS plus over the last three years. And last year had a 98 OPS plus. Feels like C to me. I'm going to argue for B. And I'm going to argue for B because much like I talked about with the contract situation with other with its other guys, we know bringing Paul Goldschmidt brings the vibes. But we also know it's an potentially inexpensive option for the Diamondbacks to bring someone back. I think the fit would be good.

I think we would see an elevated level of play of Goldschmidt returning to the valley. And I just, I think it's a B fit. I think it's a B because of the other factors here beyond just the number. that you're going over. I know it's very hard for you. What are people in the chat saying, Shane? Can we see what the chat says right now? People,

people weighing in on this? Goldie is a tier. Goldie goggles. I only see S tier because of nostalgia. Yeah. Yeah. You're wrong. I think it's got to be seen.

I think it's got to be Ced, Derek. Because Alec Bohm just had a three war season. And Yondi Diaz is like not a not a great year that he's coming off, but a better year than Goldie. And I think you just feel better about his bat at this point. I mean, it's 116 OPS plus compared to Goldie at 98 this past year. I know the underlying numbers are better than that. I'll let you have it.

If you want, if you feel passionate, Derek, then, you know. I just want people to remember which the last one of the two of us to say something bad about I get it. You're just, you're trying to make up for all of the negative things you've said about Golly in the past. No, honestly, I do feel like Paul Goldschmidt is the only. guy when you're talking about this list besides maybe one other guy that could really make people feel okay with Christian Walker leaving and and you know that's true maybe maybe the vibes boost

get moves him up moves him up a grade I'm not asking him to be on the same level of Christian Walker because he's not that right but I am saying that I feel like Paul Golchman already a first baseman is better than the diamond backs figuring out what the hell to do with two third baseman and which one they're going to convert to a first baseman with Alec bone coming over I'm just saying at the very least it's comparable. All right. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. I don't want to argue with you like that ever again. Next we got Justin Turner. Seattle Mariners, Justin Turner. Seattle Mariners, Justin Turner, Hakey and Gritty. Who does have a second job as a mascot, so it's very relevant to our discussion today. But he also wasn't a very great baseball player. It was pretty good, though, for the Boston Red Sox, right?

Or what, Seattle Mariners, sorry. Is it Seattle Mariners? you disgust me he was pretty decent for the Mariners after that trade he's about the only the only person their lineup who is hidden in the second half thanks for tuning in guys

I appreciate everything we will see you guys remember kids but you're not wrong you told no lies Justin Justin Turner feels like C tier to me yep 259 354 383

11 home runs and 55 RBI PC Yoshi in the chat says Shane I apologize for slandering but Justin Turner isn't held here. Yeah. That's harsh. Justin Turner out of 3.54 OBP in 2024, a 114 OPS plus, which is better than a lot of guys on this list.

He gets on base, Derek. He gets on base. Below future Mariner, Cody? Yes. I would probably put him below Cody. I mean, like the Justin Turner contract situation granted is going to be a lot nicer than the Cody Bellinger contract situation. but Bellinger is a more valuable player at this stage.

Next up we got Nathaniel Lowe, who the Diamondbacks would have to trade the Rangers for. Low, hit 265, 361, 401, 16 home runs, 69 RBI, 762 OPS, 120 OPS plus, and a 2.7 war. I'm sorry, before we move on to Lowe, people in the chat hate the idea of Justin Turner on the D-backs. Oh, really? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah.

Cam says Turner is D at best. This isn't a retirement home. We're trying to contend. Big Blue Brow. We're not going to take all of them. We're not taking all of the retired guys. Big Blue Brough says, no Turner, please God.

I'm just saying it makes a little bit of sense. Roster-wise, if you're looking for a platoon partner for Pavin Smith at first base, this is a guy who can. And then you could have a ginger duo, which is something that you don't see a lot. That's true. That's true.

Well, Nathaniel Lowe was pretty. pretty good at first base for the Rangers, Jesse. Yes. And he has been over the last three years. And I mean, again, another guy that's younger fits the mold pretty well here. And is someone that the Rangers have made known as might be available this offseason. It would be a trade. So I feel like based on his age and the numbers that he put up that Nathaniel Lowe is B at lowest and maybe A right next to Christian Walker.

Yeah, that's a, that's a tough one. I'm with you there. Nathaniel Lowe is probably the best defender, not named Christian Walker, on this list. He just won a gold glove. Last year with the Rangers was a gold glove finalist at first base this year. So that is positive. And also you look at his numbers over the last three seasons. He has a 124 OPS plus over the last three years.

And only Paul Goldschmidt, of course, is very much boosted by that 2022 season. Very much so. Only Goldschmidt and Yanni Diaz, who's very much boosted by that 20, 23 season are higher than Nathaniel Lowe. He is higher than Christian Walker. He is higher than everyone else on this list. I'm putting him at A behind Christian Walker. Yeah, I think that's reasonable because you feel confident about both sides of the

ball with Nathaniel Lowe. Yeah. This was really a down year for him and he still had a 361 on base percentage and a 120 OPS plus and was worth slightly more Winsboe of replacement than Walker. So I think I think A behind Walker makes sense. We we have another update on the Justin Turner in the chat versus chat. Yeah. Okay.

They have changed their mind and they're in because of the ginger duo idea. Okay. Okay. I figured that's all it would. I figure that's all it would take. It's incredible. Yeah. That's incredible.

Makes sense. This might be slanderous. This might be incorrect. I might be crazy, Jesse. But the only guy on this entire list that I wanted to put in the S tier, Ryan Mount Castle. Really? Ryan Mountcastle. You just like his name.

I fucking love his name. Oh my God. I cursed on the show. I'm not allowed to. But Ryan Mount Gaslo is the best name I've ever heard in my entire life. I think that his age matches up with the core. 271, 3.8, 425, 13 home runs. He's 27 years old.

113 OPS plus last year. 2.6 war. I'm not accepting anything less than A, but I want to put him in S tier. That's up to you. You make your argument. I can't. I just can't put him in S tier because... You can't put anybody in S tier and you can't.

put anybody in healthier and I feel like that's a metaphor for you as a person. Everybody averages to the to the median right. Like isn't that the way it goes? I was a math teacher like two years ago, Derek. This is how I think. Everyone should sort of be, you know, kind of clustered together in the middle. No, I just think Ryan Mount Castle, like he only hit 13 homers this year, a 733 OPS. I will acknowledge that I think the ceiling could be quite a bit higher than that.

When we discussed Mount Castle, we talked about how the Orioles moved their fence back in left field before the 2022 season. And Mount Castle was very much hurt by that. Of course, the Orioles just reversed that decision. And now I've decided to move the fence back in. But I think that his numbers are misleading. I think Ryan Mountcastle is a better power hitter, a better overall hitter than the numbers you've seen the last few years. His underlying metrics are pretty strong. He's also one of the better defenders on this list.

is not one of gold glove, but grades out pretty well there. So if you want to put him in A, I think I can, I think I can get behind that. Behind those two guys, behind Nathaniel Lowe and Christian Walker, not above any of them. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's reasonable. We still have to like see what it looks like for him to get out of that ballpark and kind of showcase this power. Sure. But I think there could be a really good player in there.

So I'm okay putting him at A. He's also one of the younger guys on this list, only 27 years old. It's one of the reasons why I, I, it's the age it's the age and I shouldn't be discriminating against age I should be the last person doing that on this podcast but still I can't help but get excited about the idea of adding someone

that is going to be a part of the core with Corby Carroll with whatever outfielders we decide to keep with Geraldo Perdomo with Gabby Moreno right like this is part of what you're trying to build to have a winner for years it's what Baltimore is building right now with all those young guys that they have on all those, you know, absolute studs.

That's how someone like Mountcastle kind of gets lost in the shuffle a little bit because you have so many great players on that, on that Baltimore Royals team. Josh Naylor. Josh Naylor. The power's there. He's the one guy on this list who has demonstrated the Christian Walker power as recently as this past season. He just hit, yeah, 31 homers.

Defensively, he is a far cry from Christian Walker on the other hand. So I can't see him being in the A tier because of the defense limitations. Feels like he probably belongs in the B tier somewhere. Right in between Yandi Diaz and Alec Bohm. Okay. Does that is that fair? I mean, he hit 265, 361, 4. No, I'm sorry.

It's 243, 32456. I think it's fair. 31 home runs. Alec, Alec Boam is probably a much better defender if you put him at first base. So that would be the counterpoint there. Naylor is one year of control. versus two years for Boehm.

He also would probably cost less. So maybe as we're kind of thinking through what it would take to acquire these guys, it's sort of a wash in that sense. I think I feel, I mean, Yanni Diaz isn't a great defender either and Josh Neeler's been a little bit more consistent offensively than Diaz has.

I think that's fair. I think I like where he is. All right. Well, we got two guys left. And we're going to make you guys wait until the final segment in order to see where these two guys. I might even have you shuffles so that we do pave and last. But we'll be right back after this break. Of course, you guys don't go anywhere. When I say don't go anywhere, I only mean that if you're not already heading out to Heila River Resorts and Casinos,

because if you're going there, you're going to go have a fun time and no one does it better than Heel River Resorts and Casinos. You can visit any one of their four locations to experience the best of the Valley has to offer. And, of course, you can meet us for all sorts of wonderful events like our Ph.N.X. live event that we had this week with our Q&A with Archie Bradley. Again, that was an absolute blast to see so many of you guys out there. It was a blast for me and Damon to go down and do a little gambling on the roulette tables out there at Heala River Resorts and Casinos. You can go all in with their 4,500 slot machines and live table games or catch all the action at any of their sports books. And again, you do you at HeLaVriors and Casinos.

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That's at 3.30 p.m. on December 26 for the kickoff. If you have family in town, it's a great place to go for the holidays, huddle up with some friends and come on down for a great time. And you can join a football game in a major league baseball park, making it one of the most unique and fun atmosphere in sports. This man, he doesn't really like to see his baseball fields turned into football fields, but he'll allow it in Chase Field. It actually works pretty well there. I mean, they've had a couple of these bowl games there. And it's the only bowl game featuring a matchup between Big Ten and Big 12 teams. Two of the biggest are toughest football conferences in the country.

Game tickets, premium experiences, and reserve parking are all available. Get yours now at rate bowl.com. and of course Chase Field I mean if you even if you don't care about either of those teams go watch

go watch a football game and Chase Field just for just just for the vibes speaking of vibes we do have two more guys here Jesse that we have to rank

and I think we should leave Pavin for last and I think we should just go ahead and do Carlos Santana right now Carlos Santana is one of the first replacements replay oh god don't you have a

a Mariners podcast to produce somewhere. I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell the Dodgers fans in the chat. Carlos Santana hit 238 last year, 328 on base percentage, 420, slugging. He had 23 home runs, 71 RBI, has 749 OPS. One of the, a few guys on this list that had more than 20 home runs because it's not easy to hit dingers anymore in Major League Baseball. But he does a good job at it, even though he's 38 years old.

He had a 109 OPS plus and a 2.5. War again another guy who isn't going to give you the defense necessarily over there first base he gave pretty good defense oh yeah that's right he actually did carlos and santana's metrics were kind of right up there with christian let's not sleep on the old guys yeah i'm i'm just immediately writing him off because of that but yeah you're right when we took a look at some of his uh defensive metrics it was actually uh quite good uh in in two thousand 24 it's it's hard to know if that's like truly sustainable um at this stage he is 38 years old but yeah you mean he was above average offensively a 109 OPS plus 2.5 wins above replacement, which is really right up there with

basically everyone on this list. I think because of his age, I probably view him. You know, I definitely view him from the guys lesser than the guys in A tier. For me, this is probably a low B or a high C, but I could be convinced either way, I think. I mean, I almost feel like it's a push with Paul Goldschmidt, though his numbers were better than Goldie. So yeah, I would say, let's put him ahead of Paul Goldschmidt in the B tier. Okay. Yeah, both guys like similar age for both of them, but Carlos Santana was a much better player in 2024. So I think, I think that's pretty reasonable. Last but not least, Pave and Smith, Jesse. Oh. Yeah, he's, he's, he's definitely in, yeah, there we go. He's definitely

an S tier, right there. I don't think, I have no argument with that. I think that's perfect. I think we, I think we did a good job of assessing the talent here at first base. accurately, you know, ranking them. Paven is such a hard guy to evaluate genuinely because he was awesome in 2024. Like he had an 895 OPS. He had a 145 OPS plus, but it was so out of nowhere. Really feel, though. I know this is a bit.

I know this is a thing. But are you really okay with them just leaving Payvon Smith at first base by himself for the whole season in a non-platoon situation? Are you, do you, do you sleep at night with that? A non-platoon situation. I almost can't even see. the Diamondbacks doing that. I think that would, I could see them putting some faith in Pavin Smith based on, you know, those 160 played appearances and giving him a significant role where he's

in the lineup most days, you know, against righties, either at DH or first base. But I don't know if I see them giving that role to him without a platoon partner. Even this past year, his numbers against lefties, you know, weren't awesome necessarily. So I saw him hit three home runs in one game. I don't know about you. Have you saw, did you ever see that? Have you seen any? Have you seen any? of these other guys hit three-on-runs in one game? I don't know if we have. Maybe Paul Goldschmidt. You probably did see Goldie hit three-home runs.

No, I mean, you know what? I don't care what Jesse says. He's staying at as a tier. The chat is in. Yeah, the chat is in within the A-S tier. Perfect chef kiss. There we go, yes.

Pavin S-Tier-Smith. I unironically love Pave and Smith. Yeah. People are down for it, Jesse. People are down. I think my real answer here is probably C-tier. I think he probably belongs because, I mean, the big picture numbers are still not, not particularly good with Pavin Smith.

I mean, his numbers over the last three seasons, he's been basically replacement level and has a 98 OPS plus. So just comparing to these other guys. Is that still your favorite everybody? Is that still your favorite guy? We'll let the chat. If you want to keep him an S here for the bit, Derek, I'm willing to do that. But as the resident nerd and analyst here at the P. next stevex podcast i i can't let it happen for for any reason other than it being a bit which if you

if you want to do that then you know have at it i let's put him back in s let's go ahead and put back ass then he said he said i could do it put him back in ass right now jane that's where he belongs that is where our ginger-eared king will live in the s tier until he proves otherwise um which really could happen at any point this season so resigning christian walkers is totally a totally a waste at this point right i mean we'd lose out on pavement at first base and we'd lose out on that on that draft pick so i think that's a wrap but no no healthier options here i guess we did have there are a few guys we could have included in this tier ranking that we could have we could have put there but we chose not to we chose to be nice but we're going to be mean right now to our television

viewers because we're going to cut you guys off but we appreciate you so much for stopping by if you want to keep the conversation going with us we are still going to talk about why anyone would choose to go to the athletics or the raise. So, uh, join us over at go phnx.com for more fun. For those of you that are here, that's, that's what we have for our tier ranking. We hope you guys like it. We hope you leave us, leave us your, uh, grade of our tier ranking. What's your ranking of our ranking? We want to see that in the chat. I love that kind of feedback. Uh, it's just layers on top of layers of ranking. But, uh, there, there is some judgment to be passed around and it's not just about our tier list that we just made. There's some judgment

be passed around to any baseball player who chooses to sign with either the Sacramento athletics or whatever the hell city, the race end up in. But that is what is happening. In fact, it's happening before other teams sign their players, which is really weird. Louis Severino signs with the A's for three years, $67 million, Jesse. We touched on this briefly yesterday. But prior to the Severino signing, the A's haven't hardly ever given out this much money. In fact, you might remember a movie called Moneyball that Jesse knows every line to.

But the most money the A's had ever given a player was $66 million to former Arizona Diamondback, Eric Chavez. And that was back in 2005 before he was former Arizona Diamondback Eric Chavez. But we also have catcher Danny Jansen signing with the Tampa Bay raise on a one-year deal, Jesse, worth $8.5 million. It reportedly he had multiple deals or multiple offers. He had at least one multi-year deal on the table, and he chose to take a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay race. Why? Why?

Apparently, it was because of the opportunity that if he had taken a deal like that elsewhere, he would have been in more of a backup role, whereas the Tampa Bay Rays are promising him a bigger role, which I guess is that's a genuine advantage that a team like the A's or the Rays could have over other teams in the market is like, if you come here, you'll get to play more,

you'll get more opportunity to build up your value. Those teams are going to hold open tryouts at one point to fill a positional roles. Jesse, of course everybody's going to get to play over there. Well, the raise are, let's not put the raise and the A's in the same class in terms of like baseball competitiveness. Very true. That's a very true. It's a little bit night and day there based on recent results. But yeah, Luis Severino, you can't really use that argument because wherever Severino signed he was going to be a member of the starting rotation.

But apparently he was like down to go to Sacramento. I can make you one argument as to why the athletics paid him $67 million when they did. What do you got? Season tickets go on sale on December 9th for their new home in Sacramento. And you don't want to buy season tickets for a wayward team of gypsies that has no place to play. So they decided to stop by your town until their house in Las Vegas is done being built, right? It's a hard sell. think that you want to generate some sort of excitement, some sort of buzz in regards to your

team and, you know, doing it four days before season tickets go on sale is not the worst idea. I think it's more on why would Severino sign there? You know what I mean? Like, again, I wonder. This is the question. Why would you sign? Why would you choose to sign with either of these teams? And you're right. The race definitely have a better, they're at a different level of being competitive, but they're also going to play at George M. Steinbrenner Field next year, Jesse, and they're going to generate revenue for one of their American League rivals that already makes the most money. It's an insane situation. I wouldn't want to have any part of it. It is. The Severino thing is a little bit puzzling to me. I wonder if the A's were just willing to

offer more. Maybe they had to really beat out the other offers by a bigger than usual margin in order to get him to come there. But I don't know. Maybe guys don't care as much about playing in a minor league stadium as we think they do. It's a little hard for me to imagine that. I don't know, out of the Sacramento situation or the Tampa situation at Steinbrenner Field, like which of those do you think is more desirable? Is there a difference between the two?

I don't know. I think that the- Sacramento is hotter, but Tampa is not much better. and it's also going to rain a lot. Yeah. And you have a weird schedule where they're front-loading a lot of their games so that they don't have to play a lot of home games in like July or August, something like that is happening with Tampa.

Right. I don't know. I mean, I think overall it's just, you know, kudos to these teams for being able to, you know, attract players and figure out a way to make them feel valued enough that they would want to come to these organizations. But, man, I mean, I've even had moments like that with this team where, you know,

like the roof broke in Chase Field. And I was like feeling secondhand embarrassment for the Diamondbacks. And then there's things like that. Like, okay, now who wants to go play for a team that plays in a stadium where the roof's broken? Like that's kind of a joke. And we know it's not really broken. We know it's a safety issue. And we know all that kind of stuff.

But it's the way it gets portrayed out there. Similar to Tampa, right? Like Tampa is just more of a disaster situation because not only is their old stadium destroyed and unusable right now, it may never be used again. And the new stadium that they're trying to get built is facing all sorts of hurdles, many of which are becoming increasingly more difficult with the situation that's going on there in Florida with still so much devastation from those hurricanes. It's the last thing that the Pinellas County Board is interested in addressing is giving a baseball team a new ballpark, right?

But when you're an existing franchise in Major League Baseball, that is kind of important. You kind of do have to have a place to play your home baseball games. Right. Yeah, I'm really curious how the rest of the offseason unfolds for those two teams. You know, do the raise and the A's maybe not have as big of a as big of an issue as we thought they might.

I kind of figured that the A's would have to do their offseason work and be a trade maybe more than anything else because then the players don't have a choice but to come and play there. But yeah, I mean, Luis Severino is down. You know, I guess, I guess if you're a starting pitcher, I would probably rather be in Sacramento because there's less rainout risk and I think rainouts can really ruin your routine as a starter

These viosci's losing it over Severino going to the ace said why wouldn't he come back to us known Mets fan by the way So we have a sign we had low Luis Torrenz we had black unis and a city connect he loved and he's gonna cook alive on that field and he's not wrong It's gonna be very hot no matter where former mayor great I will say this also I mean we also have kind of firsthand experience of playing in a minor league facility and the perception that that is with our hockey team, right? I thought I was of the mindset and maybe I was just trying to be too positive about that whole situation that it would be awesome to go watch hockey in that kind of atmosphere and in a smaller venue like that where you get to see professional hockey teams.

Sure. In a way where there's no bad seat in the house and like. And it kind of was for like a few games, right? And then eventually it was like, all right, we'd rather have an actual facility. Exactly. And I think that what you're describing might be the same with these teams. Like there's a way to get people on board and make them think like, oh, man, this is going to be like, this is almost going to be like an old school baseball situation.

It's going to be like, you know, throwback to like the 70s and, you know, people are just going to really come out and enjoy. And like, again, yeah, it's good in theory until you apply it and you actually try to have a successful season playing, you know, somewhere else. Nicholas says, oh, it is, Derek. It is an amazing fan experience. And see, that's what it is. Yeah, like the people that can get past all of them. that the people in Sacramento, the people who go watch the raise at Steinbrenner Field, they're going to probably have an amazing experience and they're really going to enjoy it.

They're probably going to get access to major league baseball players that they would have never gotten otherwise in a major league ballpark. And they're going to, you know, it is going to have the feel more of a small like spring training game rather than it being a big, you know, both of these teams, either of these teams are going to want to have to worry about capacity, right? There's not enough fans for either of these teams for them to worry about needing a bigger stadium anyway. So there's that.

But good luck to anybody that makes that decision. And I mean, I really do feel like I don't know what the reason is for you personally if you're a player that decides to go play for these teams. But like it's commendable, I guess, because you're not really, you know, you could go sign with the Dodgers and have your payments deferred for the next 32 years. So there's that. Peace of Yoshi has been listing off Mets Mariners in the chat, which I'm sure Shane really appreciates. Why are we doing this? You're just feeding the troll. He's a mayor.

Mariners. And he's so full right now. He's so happy. But anyway, yeah, Kemp says Cardinals playing at Sun Devil Stadium was hot garbage. So you're not wrong about that. You were not wrong about that. The amount of times I had to go sit and watch the Cardinals play there, my God. But anyway, we got a lot of fun happening next week.

Hopefully, we'll get some answers in regards to first base and some of these questions. We actually missed the first base on the cheer list. Who did we miss? I already put up. Thai France. You want to stats. Oh my gosh. That is an awful option.

Have you seen Jesse in the box? It's not great. I watched him take BP in Chicago at an arcade. He does. You know, I wouldn't call him an elite fielder, but he does have a really good stretch. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. I could field. When I played in high school, I could field and that was all I could do. But would you say that's fine to put you in health here? I mean, you're on.

for the Arizona Diamond bag. Well, he's also, be honest. He's also a locker room cancer. Like, let's be honest. Oh, God.

They're, like, he's such a diva. Such a diva. Could you imagine having to put, like, they would not put up with it. Um,

Cam wants to know what your OBP. It's not great, Cam. It's not great. I mean, I would take, I would take my walks because I would go up there knowing that that's the only way I'm ever going to get on base.

So I would, I would take those walks. My chase rate would be elite, Derek. I would never, I would never chase out of the zone because I would just never swing at all because what would be the point of me trying to actually hit a 98 mon hour baseball or whatever. But yeah, I mean in terms of my actual baseball ability, I can't really argue with the healthier placement. No.

I view myself as more of a vibes guy who I think that I think that would push me up into at least like the D range. All this stuff. It's a lot like boom, right, a lot of bad attitude kind of stuff. All the stuff that I've seen from like Rosenthal has been like. people are trying to move off this guy because of how bad he's been in the locker room he keeps saying i don't know who who sings this song yeah i've never seen that movie they keep they keep making photoshopps of me as a green troll and we're like dude that's yoda from star wars and you're like i've never seen star i don't know what a star wars it is why do why

are star is having a war um speaking which blake trinen was asked over on our guys at uh foul territory he had a hilarious answer about the golden at that rule he was like They asked him about that and he just literally, take your base. I will intentionally walk anybody that comes up for the golden net bat roll. You're just getting on. You're just getting on for intentional walk. You're just going. I'm not putting up with facing Juan Soto twice in an inning.

I'm just not. I'm not doing that. We're not doing that here. So what if the what if the bases are loaded though? What if it's, what if it's a tie game with the base is loaded? I think he said he's walking in a run over pitching to someone like Juan Soto twice in a, in an inning like that. Game on the line.

feel the same way Blake I don't know I want to see you blow games with the Dodgers again though so where does Jesse refuses to play day games that's fair that's that's that's true that's totally true I I deal with that on the regular during the season the day the day game after a night game thing is tough I have a hard hard enough time to showing up to the ballpark much less actually putting forth any effort we already have to deal with his schedule next week because Jesse is demanding that we change the showtimes just to accommodate him how rude uh so On Monday and Tuesday, this show will be coming to you at 6 p.m. Arizona time so Jesse can be out there at the winter meetings and get all the information from Mike Hazen that he can kind of store up and bring back to us. He also has to influence a lot of people while he's out there.

So he's going to be very busy. But yeah, we will be 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday. He'll still be in Dallas on Wednesday, but we'll return to our normal one, 2 p.m. slot. 2 p.m. Just to accommodate again a little bit of a 6 o'clock Monday and Tuesday. And then, yeah, 2 p.m. on Wednesday, that's the day that things kind of die down. But we have to leave space for the Rule 5 draft, which happens that afternoon. Usually GMs talk shortly after that.

So, yeah, a bit of a different schedule next week. But we hope you all will join us. It should be a lot of fun. We'll have, yeah, we'll have the latest from, you know, what Mike Hazen said earlier in the day. I'll be in there asking a bunch of questions and whatnot. So even if we don't get any breaking news next week, we will at least get a lot more clarity, I think, on what the offseason holds for the diamond back. So yeah, and who knows, maybe, maybe if I do bump into the Philly Fanatic,

then he'll wind up on the show. You never, you never know. No, the Philly Fanatic will bump into you. You will not bump into him. He will find you. And he will harm you. This is really hard for me because you earlier, you were like, I don't want you to talk, oh, are you doing the Garrett Stubbs thing?

But here you go, bring it up a Philly Fanatic again. And I'm just like, all I can think is, are you going to kick the Philly Fanatic in his ankle for what he did to Catell Marte? And there I go with the Garrette. It's stub stuff. I just can't help myself. But we do hope you got to join us next week. What do you got?

I've always wondered what the use of his nose thing is for. Because, you know, fanatic. Yeah, because, you know, Burdo, like, can, like, do some type of suck sat slash. Burdo shoots. Yeah, and shoot stuff out of it. Shoot stuff out of it. But she can also suck through and, like, in Super Smash Bros.

Right. So I'm trying to, I'm, like, wondering, like, what is his purpose or its purpose? rather, because I don't know if it has a gender either. That's fair. Yeah. Jerry's still out on that. I think you know the answer to that. I think you're trying to get me in trouble.

I'm not allowed to say certain things on this show anymore, Jane. I'm just going to move on because that's very immature, and I'm going to get my mind out of the gutter. What? That's not of asking. You're asking what the nose horn is for, all right, pal. All right. All right. Anyway, this is EOS.

Berto mentioned. It's a Friday. The worst boss ever in a Super Mario game, by the way. All right. Well, we appreciate you guys again so much. Hope you enjoy Jesse being gone, and he'll be big, blurry Jesse, probably from Dallas. Well, actually, on Monday and Tuesday, I will be joining live from the DLS studio. That's right.

Which, if you want to see what that looks like, the ASU show is live right now previewing the Big 12 championship tomorrow from the DLS studio. Oh, my God. We're sending everybody in Dallas this weekend. Crazy. So, Jesse, are you going to put a cowboy? Cowboy hat on, Jesse. We'll see you about that. All right.

Yeah, got to join us next week to see anywhere where's a cowboy hat. That's going to be fun. Of course, like I said, we will be back on Monday at 6 p.m. So make sure to join us for that. Until then, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kep underscore Keman with the K.

This maniac next to me is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the real maniac here is the maniac behind the Mac. The one and only Shane Diff and Bach. You can get him at Shane Deef. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram. and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being Diamondbacks fans. We appreciate your time today.

We will see you next week. Until then, have a wonderful weekend, a wonderful night. Behave yourselves, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you figure out what the hell the Philly Fanatics nose horn is for.