PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Would Adding Pete Alonso Make the D-backs UNSTOPPABLE in 2026?

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4In a recent article on ESPN, Jeff Passan named Pete Alonso as the “perfect” free-agent target for the Diamondbacks. But does he really fit? Jesse Friedman from Snakes Territory joins the show to break down why Alonso IS NOT the right move. We also dive into the Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards and highlight which D-backs rookie could shine in 2026. Plus, we weigh in on the Atlanta Braves hiring a new “Freeze” and why it’s a position you definitely can’t just post on LinkedIn.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesCrown Royal: Visit crownroyal.com/PurpleBagProject to learn more!Chicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website www.access-insurance.com.Visit https://www.macu.com/accounts/checking/mystyle-checking?cid=ea-PHNX-AZ-mystyleAugust2025-checking to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch: Use Monarch to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff Passon seems to think that the best fit for the Arizona Diamondbacks this offseason is Pete Alonzo? We're going to talk about it with our guy Jesse Friedman from Snake's territory. We're also going to chat about Toy Lavallo getting a National League manager of the year to third place boat this year. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. Tuesday to you all, it's another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle. Okay, it is I, your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. thrilled to have you guys here. Happy Veterans Day to all of you that have served, all of you who are family members of service members.

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You'll get $20 off your first purchase on those all. already low last minute ticket prices. Of course, it is another addition of debacks after dark. Well, we're bouncing all over the place. And of course, we're happy to do so to make sure that our guy, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman can be on the show. Of course, I'm joined also by the one, the only, the incomparable Damon Dog on the ones and twos,

bark, bark to him and bark bark to you guys, to all of you. We have so much to talk about. And let's get our guy Jesse Friedman in here. This man has been exposed to a lot of people, a lot of germs. It's a school year. So he is a little under the weather. But Jesse, thank you for still giving us some time tonight. I know you're not feeling great.

But we appreciate you still being here to talk some Diamondbacks baseball. Well, I don't know what's worse, Derek. My voice are the Diamondbacks chances of signing Pete Alonzo. Oh, wow. You've had that one stored in the chamber all day long. Yeah, we're going to talk about that. And again, that was Jeff Passon article from ESPN, and it wasn't necessarily who he thinks these teams are going to add.

It was more like if you could add any free agent to a team to make that team better, who would you add? And for some reason, Jeff Passon's answer was Pete Alonzo. But we will get to that shortly because we do have some breaking news here, Jesse, just a little bit. The Manager of the Year awards are being determined right now as we speak. the American League manager of the year should be announced any moment if it hasn't already been announced. We know that is three really good candidates over there for AL Manager of the Year.

But we do know that we have a back-to-back winner also with manager of the year, just like we have with the World Series winner, yuck, with Pat Murphy here, winning his second back-to-back manager of the year award. And I mean, again, we've talked quite a bit about payroll. we've talked about, you know, where the Brewers stand as far as money spent on that roster. And you can't help but applaud Pat Murphy for what he did with that young group of players up there in Milwaukee and how he led them to have the best record in all of baseball. Yeah, I was I was really convinced that coming into this season, this was going to be the year where the Brewers actually didn't go and just do the thing and win 90 something odd games. just because that's what they do.

But I was mistaken. Once again, the Brewers did the thing. I mean, they had the best record in the National League with 97 wins, actually the best record in all of baseball. And the fact that coming into the year, people like me were looking at the Brewers and seeing, you know, somewhere in the low 80s maybe for their win total. That's kind of what I saw when I looked at that roster entering the season.

I mean, it's remarkable how good of a team that was. And that's really what this award tends to come. down to is just how does your team perform relative to expectations? The brewers were far, far away better than what people expected of them. I think this is pretty, pretty well deserved for Pat Murphy. And again, you're, you're right. It's the, it's the fact that at the end of 2023, essentially in the end of 2024, the brewers had some of their best players leave their team.

And it just didn't really feel like they did much in free agency, weren't very active to go out and replace those guys. You lose one of the best closers in the league. You lose one of the best pitchers in the league. And they just found a way to find other guys that stepped up. Other guys that were already very good, just got better like Freddie Peralta. And just overall, the brew crew basically, you know, exceeded expectations by far like what you said. I also think that, again, Pat Murphy is a delight.

He is a sun devil. So we give him lots of love for that. but he's also the inventor of Murphy's pocket pancakes. And I still don't understand that whole thing. But when I break it down, it's just silly enough to make me realize how balanced of a manager, Pat Murphy is. Right. Like we know he has the years of experience. I have heard that he is very analytical.

So he's not like a fuddy-duddy stuck in old ways of man. managing. He's very much accepted, you know, analytics and, and the newer, newer way of coaching. But he's also doing silly crap, like having pancakes in his pocket, right? And I mean, again, there's like, there is a certain need for that over the course of a 162 game season. And a manager kind of needs to understand that. I think it's one of the things, quite frankly, that Tori Lavallo does well. We see them randomly do funny stuff for things to kind of lighten, you know, the mood or, you know, when they're on road trips, they'll take little departures and go on little group trips together and stuff.

I know it's not as silly as pocket pancakes. But again, it's keeping that levity throughout the season, I think is very important for a manager. And I think it's one of the things that Pat Murphy does exceptionally well. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I had a chance to cover Pat Murphy for a couple games in spring training. And he's kind of different from everybody else. And I would say different in a good way.

I mean, Pat Murphy is the guy who at the start of the playoffs, his first press conference, I believe, took forever because he had every single member of the media introduced themselves. Of course, he didn't really know any of them yet. And so, yeah, I mean, he just does things differently from really everybody else. You know, you have silly things like the pocket pancake. You know, I know going into the world or going into the NLCS, some people were critical. It seemed like he was leaning maybe a little bit too heavily into the. the narrative of, you know, the Dodgers, they don't even know who our guy's names are or whatever. You know, he was really, really moving into that. Obviously, things didn't go too well for the

Brewers in that series. But yeah, I mean, Pat Murphy is great. He's one of the most universally well-liked managers that I recall in recent years. And going back to back is, you know, not an easy thing to do. We'll see if he does it again. I mean, again, it's always relative to expectations. Maybe people like me are finally done. outing the brewers and we'll actually expect them to be good next year. We'll see what happens. Well, I mean, again, we talked about in one of our episodes, Jesse, basically constructing the Diamondbacks like the Brewers and taking a look at what they've done

and trying to emulate it here, considering that that's a team that you would say has had long term success, you know, in the NL Central. And quite frankly, the other end of that is that they really haven't finished the job. So as much as it's like, yeah, they make the playoffs every year. that's great and all. They were able to win their division,

but it seems like they just always come up short once the postseason arrives. And again, I don't know what to say about that. I mean, I know you in the past have talked about the difference of constructing a team for the regular season versus what pieces you have to have in order to succeed in the postseason. And maybe that's it.

Maybe they're too well-rounded of a team overall where it's like a good above-average team, but without that killer, you know, starting pitcher that's elite. and without that, you know, killer bat in the lineup. I mean, I know Jackson Turyo is really kind of turning into that, but, I mean, it really feels like that that might be what this team was missing in the postseason. However, they didn't, like, they didn't have any problem putting up runs against the Cubs in huge amount.

So, I mean, I think you just got to give credit where credit is due as much as it makes me once a good and go to the Dodgers for just how good their starting pitching was in the postseason because they were, they were incredible. Their starting pitchers were, right? but speaking of the Dodgers, one name you won't see on this list, Jesse, Dave Roberts for manager of the year.

He did not receive one award, but look who snuck in. Look who snuck in there at the bottom, Jesse, with one third place boat for manager of the year, along with Mike Schilt from the Padres, was Tori Lavello from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Clayton McCullough got 22 boats.

He deserves a lot of credit with what he did with the worst payroll and all of baseball and how dangerous that Marlins team was, how big of an impact, quite frankly, that Marlins team had on the playoffs down the stretch with how they beat so many of the teams that were in the playoffs. They're a big reason why the Mets didn't make the playoffs. And then Craig Counsel there for the Cubs,

those are all kind of the outsiders. But surprised at all that Tori Lovelo ends up getting that one third place boat. I mean, I don't want to undermine it here. We could also say that, you know you you could give credit here a little bit for tory for what he did with this roster down the stretch and how how limited and stretched it was and how many games they were able to win to stay in that wildcard race yeah i mean again it's all like relative to expectations the way that people think about these awards and from that standpoint i mean the fact that debacks were able to stick in this thing for as long as they were is is pretty impressive i mean i think troy levello certainly his job security uh you know That certainly increased in the final weeks of the season. And it's because, yeah, I mean, this was a roster that on paper really didn't have all that much talent and was playing well above that for several weeks and really important games.

So at the end of the day, manager of the year is always going to be a tough award. I think in some ways, you know, as much as I don't want to discredit the people who receive those awards, Stephen Vote on the American League side, certainly deserving as well. But the reality is that we as media members, we don't have a seat at the table during all of these conversations with players and fellow coaches that happen throughout the season. It's really hard for us to get a good picture, an accurate picture of how much impact each manager has. At the end of the day, we're really just looking at their win-loss record compared to what we expected it would be. and that certainly worked out well for both Pat Murphy and for Stephen Vote. Stephen Vote. Yeah, that news just came out that Stephen Vote has won the American League

manager of the year. Another connection here to the Valley, former Arizona Diamondback. And of course, you know, the Guardians had a lot to deal with. We discussed yesterday, Jesse, the loss of Emmanuel Claucet, the loss of Luis Ortiz for some very, very stupid things. Like you talk about what we went through with injuries. Like imagine losing some of your elite pitchers like that due to something as dumb as a, you know, being involved with a gambling bribery scandal, right? So that team still managed to overcome a lot of off-field distractions because that investigation started, you know, mid-season, basically. And again, they were able to overcome quite a bit to still, you know, go on and, you know,

exceed expectations like you said right neither team uh had a really i guess great playoff run but you know i think it was more about what they did during the regular season and again uh vote another back to back winner right he he won it last year as well so uh just really impressive on on what he's able to do and what kind of manager he became so quickly jesse i mean this might make me feel old this might make even you feel hold. Like, think about like, we were covering this team with Stephen vote on it like not too long ago. And now here he is winning back to back manager of the year awards. And it was a it was a gutsy hire like, you know, the guardians brought him in when he didn't have any managing experience in the miners or anywhere. You know, we don't, we don't see

those kinds of moves very often. And Stephen Vote is a really good example, but that that can work. I mean, he stepped in and clearly won over that clubhouse. He also, I got a chance to cover him for a few games in spring training. He's a delight to be around, you know, just a really great guy all the way around. And how that Guardians team managed to overtake the Detroit Tigers for first place in the AL Central. I mean, that will forever blow my mind, the fact that they ended up in first place. The fact that they won 88 games with that roster is also really mind-blowing. Yeah, yeah.

no kidding and i mean again some little internal strife there with osay ramirez and such like but they did a great job of overcoming all of that uh meanwhile we had the rookie of the year awards come out yesterday uh not a big surprise at all in the american league in fact it's not often that you will have derrick montia saying well i apparently according to jason armstrong i say i will riot about everything so apparently i have to stop threatening to riot all the time jessey but i did say i would riot if Athletics first baseman, Nick Kurtz, didn't win the American League Rookie of the Year, and he did, and he deserved it 100%. He won it unanimously. So he is the first athletics player to win Rookie of the Year since Andrew Bailey,

won it back in 2009. That's a little bit of a gap, a little surprising, just because the athletics seem to always have good, you know, solid young players. They just don't stay there. And then he's the ninth athletics player to ever win Rookie of the Year. And again, he is the 14th American League player to win the award unanimously, second A's player. So to be behind Mark McGuire, which you guys all know that name. But meanwhile, on the NL side, Drake Baldwin wins it. Atlanta Braves catcher. That one was a little bit more, I guess, contentious.

A lot of people arguing in favor of Kate Horton and what he did, especially in the second half of the season. I think he posted like a 1.08 ERA or something crazy like that. So very good options, but again, some good young players across the league, Jesse, getting honored here in these awards. I think Nick Kurtz won his award entirely on, what was it, July 25th when he went six for six. Correct.

Correct. And RBI against the Houston Astros. That was pretty much enough right there. You don't forget that. Like, you don't forget that. That is the day that he became a household name, a thousand percent. And I mean, there's just times in a player's career where that is where you came on to everybody's radar. And from that point on, no one will ever, you know, like everything you do beyond that is going to be like, damn, this guy was a scrub.

Or he's going to be like, yeah, I knew he was going to be great when he had that game, right? Like, well, yeah, of course, the expectations are set very high on a night like that. I agree with you, though. But also it was like, I forget what his OPS Plus was off the top of my head here, but he had like a one one, one 70. 173. That's nuts. That's nuts, man. We talk about the best players on the Diamondbacks, and those guys have 130, 140, maybe OPS Plus, right?

Like, that's just crazy. But meanwhile, Drake Baldwin, again, stepped up, got a great opportunity there in Atlanta and really delivered. I got 21 of the 31st place vote. So pretty, not unanimous, but pretty much unanimous there as well for the National League sign of things. But speaking of rookies, Jesse, Major League Baseball or MLB.com has an article right now over there on one rookie of the year candidate for each team for 2026. And they named Ryan Waldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks, number one overall prospect. MLB's number 66 overall prospect as the most likely candidate to win rookie of the year. No surprises there at all, considering that he's the number one overall prospect.

But also, I do think that there's a good chance with the Diamondbacks needs and with everything going on with the spending and what's going to go on this off season. There is a really good chance we could see Ryan Walschman in the major leagues next year. Yeah, I think it's definitely possible. I mean, I think winning the rookie of the year would be tough just because we know the D-backs generally like to bring guys up to AAA and have them play a decent number of games there before they'll bring them up to big leagues. Ryan Walshman hasn't played above double. at this point, played 66 games there this past season. I imagine he'll start 2026 in AAA. So maybe if he just goes out there and totally rakes,

then they're willing to be a little more aggressive and bring him up earlier. But yeah, I mean, he is the number one prospect in the organization for a reason right now. He's put up excellent numbers at every single minor league level. So if he's able to find his way up to the majors early in the season, And I think it's at least possible. DeVax certainly have plenty of questions in the outfield right now. Maybe he could be one of the answers. Well, it's impressive that he's done all of this since returning from a torn,

I believe it was a torn ACL that he had. And again, it's like he somehow rebounded from that and became an even better baseball player. And that's something that I feel like is just a quality in a player that reminds me very much of Corbyn Carroll or, you know, one of these guys that while he was injured obviously was doing everything he could to still be active and still improved and that's and that seemed to be the case uh he slashed 289 419 477 last year with 18 home runs 29 steels and 96 walks and that's in a combined 134 games at high a and double a speaking of brian waltz smit he is going to be joining us on this very show we're going to have him on the podcast on thursday so make sure to join us for that we're going to talk to him about returning from that injury, players he emulated growing up, and so much more. So very excited to talk to the Arizona Diamondback's number one prospect on the show. Exciting to have him on. Can't not wait for that. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk about Jeff Passon's article on one player he would add from free agency to each team and why the

hell that player is Pete Alonzo. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the P.HNX Diamondback show. Rally House is your go-to spot for all of your favorite, local Arizona sports gear. Speaking of rookie of the year, I still can't. I can't get enough of that guy being rookie of the year, right? So if you want to get some amazing Arizona Diamondbacks gear like this t-shirt, make sure to check out Rally House. They have locations in Tempe, Mesa, and Glendale today.

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and how that. I will say it's kind of a nothing burger. I'm not trying to attack Bob. I do know that when there's... There's smoke, there's fire. So I feel like all of this talk about trading Catelle Marte is not warranted. Or it is warranted. I feel like there's something there, right?

But Bob's blurb was merely stating that something we've discussed already in the past, 10 and 5 rights with Catell. And that once mid-April comes around, he won't, he'll have a full no trade clause. But that still doesn't seem, I think, like reason enough to me. And I'm sure you would agree to trade Cotel simply based on that 10 and 5 right. factor coming up, that variable in his contract, right? So, but we, we do. We tend to look into stories around here.

And one of those stories is this interesting article dropped from Jeff Passon, where he basically added a single free agent from the available pool to every single team he felt like would be out there adding free agents. I don't think he covered all 30 teams. But, Jesse, he was not redundant in his free agents. He did not add Pete Alonzo to three teams. free agent that was available was used for one team and it was a very well thought out very thorough article as Jeff Pass intends to do over there but he said in his article as much as the instinct

is to target pitching and we know that there is no question that the diamondbacks need more of that putting a bopper behind perdomo martay and carol to take advantage of the trio's excellent on-base skills would give Arizona one of the scariest lineups in the nL seeing as one particular bobper can play first base or DH two areas of need for the Diamondbacks, that the fit feels strong. Now, you just claim this as a perfect move, not a likely move. This wasn't Jeff trying to suggest that the Diamondbacks are pursuing Pete Alonzo. He's just saying if he was MLB God, this is where he would put people, right? But again, it's surprising because again, with all of the Diamondbacks needs and everything that they have going on, and I guess in this scenario, money really isn't a factor,

and that probably would be the biggest thing preventing the Diamondbacks from going after a Pete Alonzo. It was interesting to me that this is the fit that Jeff Passon saw for the Diamondbacks, right? And it's not to say Pete Alonzo is not a good baseball player, but we know he opted out of that deal with the Mets because he plans on getting paid and getting paid big, not just a short-term deal.

Like I think the Diamondbacks are looking to offer kind of anybody at this point. Yeah, I mean, on paper it would it would be great right i mean he's not wrong if you were to add pd alonzo to the middle of this lineup it would be an outrageously good top five i mean you know among the best and all of baseball but yeah as you were talking about like the resources aren't unlimited for this team we've we've heard both the CEO of the organization as well as ken kendrick himself talk about payroll being lower next year and if that's the case i mean the debacks probably only

have, you know, 30 million to spend, maybe somehow it gets up to 40. But based on the season Pete Alonzo just had, I just don't see the diamond backs investing the vast majority of that money into an offensive player when, as, as, you know, Jeff himself admitted, the debacks need pitching more than they need offense. I also think Alonzo's a particularly difficult player to evaluate because, you know, he had an awesome season just now he had you know it was 30 38 homers 126 rbi and 871 ops one of the best seasons he's ever had if not the best and yet if you look at his wins above replacement he was worth 3.4 war on baseball reference he was at 3.6 on fan graphs yeah those are good numbers but

they're not out of this world good you know he's not a 567 war player at his best. At his best, he's like a three or four war player. And I don't even know if Pete, like Pete Alonzo made $30 million in 2025, you could argue that even though he had an excellent season, you know, just kind of doing the math, just kind of the dollars per war calculation, according to fan graphs, he actually was not worth $30 million this year. He was worth just shy of that. And of course, moving forward if it's a long-term contract you're going to expect that with age you know he's he's maybe going to regress a little bit so as as great of a season as it was as much as it was proof that peter alonzo is still a good player and you know probably should have done better in free agency last year than

he did i still don't know if if you're like sign me up let's give this guy five years of 150 million uh i imagine that's what he's going to be looking for after the season he just had well And you're right, Jesse. I mean, again, he didn't get that much in free agency before, and that's why, you know, he came back to the Mets. But his numbers here don't, like, blow you away. I mean, they're very good slashing 272, 347, a 524 slug. But again, an 871 OPS overall due to his on-base percentage being 347, right?

And then 871 OPS, 38 home runs, 126 RBI. Like, that's all great. And I don't disagree. I don't disagree that you add him to that lineup. It's very intimidating. I don't disagree that Alonzo brings star power to the team, right? There's not a lot of signings the Diamondbacks can make that would wow people this offseason, right? Pitchers, even if we went out and got Framber Valdez or Dylan Cese, wouldn't we all be terrified?

Like, if the Diamondbacks went out and once again for the third offseason in a row added arguably the best available starting pitcher on the market, wouldn't we all hide under our desks and get into the fetal position just to hope that it doesn't happen again right like that i don't know that would i don't know if that would like feel as good but again you bring in a position player that's a home run hitter that's a household name like pitalonzo and people are going to be with it right and i think that you know there's benefits there obviously you also have the fact that he played jesse all 162 games seasons yes for two seasons in a row that's impressive. I remember be blown away by that with Gino as well, the season that the Diamondbacks, for the season prior to him coming to the Diamondbacks, was that he had played all 162 games.

Now, part of that is very easy when you can still have off days and just DH, obviously, and that's something that the Diamondbacks need. That's two needs. Their DH situation is not good, and their first base situation is not good, you know? However, it really comes down to the limited resources, right? I mean, again, $27 to $30 million a year is what he is worth, not necessarily what he would command or is looking for, right? And then he's also 30 years old, and I'm not going to ever age shame on this broadcast, as you know, Jesse. I'm very sensitive to that, but I will say that, you know, again, if you're talking about a power hitter, a power bat, he's now entering the years where you start to see some regression. You also start to see injuries pop up, and you just feel like, yeah, of course, it would happen when he's, with the Diamondbacks after him being one of the healthiest, you know, players in all the baseball that, you know, coming here would be when all of a sudden his, he'd have back problems or oblique problems or something like that. But it just, it comes down to like this being more of a no, no, money not being involved. And even if money isn't involved, taking that factor out, you're giving me the freedom to add one person to the team. Pete Alonzo might not even be in my top 10, Jesse.

And that is no knock to Pete Alonzo. That is more of a knocka as to what the Diamondbacks need to make this team competitive in 2026. And I don't believe that spending the majority of your budget on a, you know, power hitting first baseman is the answer. The offense is still very good with the pieces that they have. I would love a first baseman. But like you said, his war isn't about his offense. It's more about his defense and him not being like the most solid first baseman over there. you know and and that's not what we need you know the diamondbacks need you know younger they need

you know they need defense almost as a priority over a first basement that's going to add offense to this team and most importantly they need to not spend that kind of money that they don't really have right they could have it everybody always says that like oh ken kendrick could you know sells baseball card collection and you could have it or whatever people want to say but realistically we've discussed this time and time again the diamondbacks are one of the best teams about reinvesting what they make off of the team back into the team. But there comes to a point where, you know, escalating contracts that are increasing in value, arbitration, just everything is going to impact this team's spending. Plus, they've committed quite a bit of money to refurbishing

Chase Field that does have to come out of like, I know it's not the payroll, but has come from somewhere. Doesn't come from nowhere. And again, like, they've agreed to pony up a considerable amount of money on their end in this deal that they made with the county. So, So there's just so many things that don't make sense about bringing Pete Alonzo. And I don't like the trash Jeff Passon ever. But this might be one he really missed on, Jesse. This might just be one he missed on. I'm glad you brought up the defense part of things too,

because I think that's and that's clearly an area that the devax want to shore up going in next year. They want to have a stronger defensive identity. And Josh Naylor wasn't great at first base. I think Pete Alonzo might be worse. I mean, you look at his numbers over a baseball savant. He was at minus nine outs above average this past year. That's in the second percentile among all MLB players. So not only is it a guy who doesn't play a premium position,

but he is theoretically one of the worst in the league at that non-premium position. It's just two one-dimensional of a profile, at least for the debacks in particular, to want to take on that kind of risk. Yeah, he needs to go to a team that will primarily use him as a D-A. I feel like, right? And that's not a luxury the Diamondbacks have, quite frankly. They do not have the luxury to spend that much money on a guy that's basically going to play DH for the most of the majority of the season. No matter how good he is.

Like even if you're talking about his numbers going up from what he hit in 2025, I will politely decline considering the financial bind that the Diamondbacks are in. But and that's, again, I'm not, I don't ever want Jeff Passing to think. ever disrespected him because he'll come from me and he'll eviscerate me. So I'm terrified of that man and I don't want to say. I just think like yeah, there are a lot of things about that. And I think the biggest thing offensively is he's right. Like you start looking at the Arizona Diamondbacks differently with Pete Alonzo right there behind those three guys, right? The three guys that just all won Silver Slugger Awards. That just changes the dynamic of this offense. But everything else

that comes with it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Another guy, though, that the Diamondbacks are hoping, turns things around. We don't know if he's going to or not is Jordan Lawler. He is no longer playing outfield in the Dominican Winter League, and we're going to talk about how things are going for him on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the Ph.NX Diamondback show. Well, for more than 15 years,

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We know that you, again, haven't been feeling great. But before we go, before we let you go, we talked a little bit about Jordan Lawler converting to a center field out there in the Lidome for the Tigres de Alise. And while it was an interesting development for the, the time being, it would appear that his time playing in center field is over. Might have just been a short-lived experiment, might have been due to need. We don't really know why, but he is no longer playing centerfield in the Dominican Winter League. He played three games in center field. His last time playing the position was on November 2nd.

Since then, though, he has played seven games at shortstop and one game at third base. Now, you know I love to speculate, and I just can't help but notice. is that this man is playing a lot of shortstop, and I can't really figure out why. I might be looking too deep in this. This is just the Dominican Winter League. It might be as simple as, like, hey, he just wants to play shortstop, and they're like, yeah, we need a shortstop and move them over.

Maybe he's more comfortable there, since that was the position that he kind of naturally came up playing, right? But I don't know. I don't know if I should put too much stock in the fact that here during the off season, he's playing shortstop a lot. instead of playing other positions that we see him having an actual route to playing, like the third base or the outfield, am I looking too deep into this? It's hard to say.

I mean, yeah, I think it's kind of all speculation at this point until we get some, some sort of reporting out of the Dominican on why exactly that's happened. I do think it's worth noting that, like, transitioning to center field is not an easy thing to do even if you are really athletic. I mean, it's it's something that I think would probably take time for anybody. It's not common to do what, you know, like Jackson Merrill did for the Padres a couple years ago where they just moved into center field and he was really good at it basically overnight. That's definitely, look at how badly it worked out for Cotel Marte, right? Sorry to cut you off. But I mean, that's the first person I think of that was a failed experiment as

far as moving someone that was very athletic to the outfield and suddenly not only were they bad at it but injuries just wrecked him you know so it seemed like it was just bad all around yeah it's it's a really tricky thing it's it's definitely a tall ask especially as jordan lawler is still so early in his career and and still very much finding his footing offensively in the majors to also ask him to learn an entirely new position is is a really tall ask obviously they you know they're they've shown interest in this anyway. It was, it was widely reported that he was going to play some center field in the Dominican and he has done that. But yeah, I don't know if they just didn't like what they saw after three games and we're like, you know, we're just going to pull back on this and have

Jordan Lawler be a shortstop or at least stick on the left side of the infield next year. Hopefully we get, we get a little more clarity on that as, as the Dominican Winter League continues. Well, and he hasn't been doing great at the dish, Jesse. In fact, he has gone one for 25 in his last seven games with zero walks and 11 strikeouts. He's currently slashing this season in Lidom, 167, 217, 214, with a 432 OPS. Yikes. Yikes. The thing I really hate, he has zero walks this season.

Zero walks. And I don't obviously care about his plate discipline in the Dominican Winter League, but zero walks like that just seems kind of crazy and I've watched lead home I know that at times it's very aggressive very fast you know it just it can move a lot faster than major league baseball even with the pitch clock right but I don't know two two extra base hits this season three rbi 18 strikeouts zero walks the entire season just seems bad seems bad doesn't really seem like he's progressing in the right direction his numbers last season and the Lidolm were much better offensively and they still weren't great.

But compared to what he's putting up this year, they were much better. The 18 strikeouts definitely stands out. I mean, 18 strikeouts in 46 played appearances, that would be an extremely high strikeout rate in the majors, certainly all the more out in the Dominican Winter League. So I don't know exactly what the story is there. Hopefully Jordan Lawler can get things back on track. We've certainly talked about it over on our show, like Jordan Lawler as a trade candidate, it certainly makes at least some sense.

Yeah. There's been reporting that the debacks are willing to trade some prospects, some of their better young players in order to acquire pitching. Jordan Lawler, technically not a prospect at this point, but I think he probably does still have some value. He's not all that far removed from being one of the top prospects and all of baseball. He's prospect adjacent. Like, yes, he's not being evaluated any longer as a prospect,

but I do feel what you're saying. Despite the negative results, people still could see him as a developing prospect. And he could also be a bust. I don't want to put that evil out there. I don't want to put that on him. I myself have said time and time again, I really truly like Jordan Lawler.

I think he's a very talented player when I see him out there, like pregame, you know, doing, taking grounders and stuff. She looks sharp. He looks great. I personally like him a lot. I think he's an amazing guy and he has a great attitude. He's always very friendly with us. and always, you know, great with the media and answering questions and such, right?

So I have a lot of reasons personally I like him and I'm rooting for him. But I also think that like there is a fine amount of time for you to hold on to a guy until teams will start to believe that he is a bust, that he is not going to be a good player to major level, that he's going to be league average at best, if not worse than that. And they will stop giving you those offers on that player. The Diamondbacks might already have made the decision. on that as far as Jordan Lawler is concerned. And again, it's taking quite a bit of leap here.

It's much like a leap that like, you know, the Bob Nightingale piece about why the Diamondbacks would trade Catell Marte, it's because of a contract. It feels like just taking a leap here that having him play shortstop might just be getting him back to a position where he is far more attractive to another team that would use him at shortstop and then he could potentially be traded as such. And they could they could chalk up his lack of success up to this point as the Diamondbacks needing to change his position due to their, you know, do the organization's needs and not due to any fault of his own. Yeah, I mean, I think at this point, as you said, like the sample size is still pretty small in the majors. He did look better in the final few weeks this past season.

And the debacks have put him in some tough spots. I mean, they've had him moving around at a variety of positions. They called him up a couple years ago when pretty clearly he just wasn't ready for a big league opportunity at that point. But you make a pretty good point that, you know, at this point, Jordan Lawler probably does still have some teams out there who regard him pretty highly. If he goes out next year and really struggles again in the majors, then at a certain point, he just might not have much value on the trade market. So this is a time where, you know, if the debacks have an opportunity to get. get something really meaningful for him in a trade, it's something you'd probably have to take a look at. I also think the biggest problem is how good Blaze Alexander has been.

Blaze has looked at times head and shoulders above Jordan Lawler. And since they're both, I mean, Blaze is a little ahead of Jordan, obviously, in his years in baseball and his development and everything like that, but not by much. And so again, if you have a young Geraldo Perdomo over there, shortstop and perhaps you look at Blaze Alexander as your third basement of the future, then where and when does Jordan Lawler play? And are you really going to make him into some sort of like utility infielder that just kind of fills in at second shortstop and third whenever those guys need a day off? And that does not seem like a route to success for him. And that doesn't seem like, you know, it's going to give the Diamondbacks the most out of him. But again,

a team that could need a shortstop and a young shortstop that's going to be there with years of control and as deemed viewed as being major league ready, he could really be attractive to a team that wants to take a chance on him. And quite frankly, Jesse, he could go on to that team and be amazing and make us all very sad that, you know, we let one of our top prospects go for whatever we get in return. But that's to be, again, I just like to be a little suspicious of things I see, especially in the Dominican Winter League. I don't trust anything going on over there, Jesse.

But I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for stopping by. Make sure to check out Snake's Territory. It's just more of this. It's more Diamondbacks talk, but you get Jack instead of me. And that's probably for the best. I don't know. But hey, you guys do a great job over there.

So do not miss out on everything they got going on. And you can follow Jesse at Jesse N. Friedman on Twitter, as well as Snake's Territory at Snake's Territory. Get that wherever you get your podcast. Jesse, thank you for giving me some time and go get some sleep, bud. Stay away from those kids. Wear a mask. I know it's not the pandemic anymore, but just wear a mask.

Yeah, I mean, I truly feel much better than I sound, but I feel bad for everybody over the last 45 minutes who's had to put up with this my tough of your voice. No, no. Appreciate you all for tuning. Dylkey, smooth as ever. Appreciate you, brother. We will see you next time.

Thank you so much for stopping by. The sweet, sweet acoustics of Jesse for you. There you go. All right. See you guys. All right, brother. Feel better. Well, of course, we thank you guys all for being here.

Thank Jesse, as always, for stopping by. And of course, if you want to be as smart as Jesse, well, that's very difficult. I can't help you there. But you can be the smartest sports fan you know by signing up for the PHNX newsletter. It is absolutely free. And again, we got another, I guess, we got another brainy. baseball mind writing that one over there with Alex Dagestino now running the PH&X sports

newsletters so do not miss out on that it's completely free be the smartest sports fan you know again with getting the biggest news in Arizona sports in your inbox daily at 6 a.m. Today he had a big his his thoughts there on trading Cotell Marte and quite frankly Alex gave quite a different perspective he believes that there might be

there might be not it might not be a the worst idea to trade Catell. And I don't like that, but Alex makes some good points. So do not miss out on signing up for that. You can get that over at go phtnx.com slash newsletter. All right. Well, Damon, it might, we got maybe one more or two more.

So it's time for us to transition once again into another edition of Fall Guys. So I'm going to need some costume changing stuff here. You to take over the helm. Yeah, it seems like the. Salt River Rafters are not doing so hot. Derek will give a little bit more concrete update on that. Oh, not doing so hot, Damon? Not doing so hot?

The Arizona Fall League playoff start tomorrow. And your Arizona Salt River Rafters ride the raft finish the season and dead last. Dead last. Sixth place. So all that talking I did about not wanting the final two teams to make the playoffs. I take it all back. I take every word of it back. Our Salt River Rafters ride the raft.

They will, in fact, play the Mesa Solar Sox tomorrow at Scottsdale Stadium. That is a day game starting at 1.30 p.m. And if they should win that, they will go on to face the surprise Suarez at Salt River Fields on Thursday. So we have some action coming up. And again, this is it. Arizona Fall League. We had the home run derby and the Fall Stars game. We did win that one, not the Fall Stars game, but we won the Home Run Derby.

One Tony Blanco Jr. from the Pirates. That is a large man. Let me tell you, I've really enjoyed watching him out there because he is a giant mountain of a man and he did not let us down. He brought home the Derby Crown. He is a prospect from the Pittsburgh Pirates. So, yeah, Balls Deep says salt sinkers. Yeah, well, they sunk for sure. But lucky, lucky for the Arizona Fall League,

lucky when you're a part of the Arizona Fall League that everybody makes the playoffs. So there's that. So we will be doing some playoff coverage here next two days. Hopefully, hey, they haven't been good. We talked about how bad their week was last week. But that doesn't mean now once you reach the YOPs, that they can't win the whole damn thing. by simply winning a few games here.

It's a one-game playoff tomorrow there against, who is it against the Mesa Solar Sox? Again, Fire Logo, Damon, is that what we determined? Stupid name, Fire logo for the Mesa Solar Sox, right? Yeah, the logo does go pretty hard. It goes incredibly hard. And I think I ended up deciding that after looking at the logo, I actually like the name.

Yeah, that's still crazy. Solar Sox. You disagree with me, but. Solar Sox. The second I saw the logo. I was in. I hated. I was in.

Oh, I hate it so much. I hated so much. And again, it's, they had some mascots out there, by the way, this weekend for the Fall Stars game. Our guy Archie from the Reno Aces was out there.

Huge draw. Very popular mascot, Archie. Still can't help but wonder how much if he's actually related to Archie Bradley. They kind of resemble each other. In fact, I was looking at Archie and I just realized that even though he's just a big red blob,

that he kind of looks like he's in the formation of Archie's beard. So I think Archie might just be a strand of Archie's beard that fell off, went radioactive, and became a mascot. That's how that works. Derek, I swear to God, I was at the Honda Rodeo, at the concert portion of it on Sunday night, and they show a crowd shot. And I just, I was like, that's Archie Bradley.

Yeah. In the crowd, like, they're shirtless? Random crowd shot. No, he had overall son. And he actually had the shirt that I have of his crash landing, the crash landing shirt that I have on underneath the overalls. But I mean, he's such a, you know, like you see him and you immediately identify him. He's such an identifiable person. Yeah.

Like I just saw the beard and I went, oh, there's Archie Bradley, our friend. Yeah. Friend of the program. Yeah, friend of the program. Sean says, we ever going to see Archie again? L.O.L. is he still employed by the company? Great question, Sean. I don't have an answer to it.

I don't know. No one ever fired Archie. We didn't let him go. He just stopped coming. I don't know. I think he's just very busy. He has a lot of stuff to do. He's his contract right now.

I don't know what's going on. We're not going to make it seem like Archie didn't just stop showing up for work. I'm not saying he didn't come to work anymore. I'm just saying, yeah, yeah, apparently those things end. I don't know. I don't even know if Archie knew he was getting paid by us. I think he just was coming here for the vibes and to hang out, quite frankly. But speaking of the vibes.

Speaking of coming to hang out at a job, there is a job opening that I want to apply for just to fail at. The Atlanta Braves are hiring a new freeze? This says mascot sprinter on their posting over there at workday, but this is for the freeze. There are in-person auditions happening from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on to 6 p.m. on to 6. December 13th, they're in Atlanta. I don't think I'm going to make it out there for that, Damon. But this is just a little wild to me overall. The qualifications here, major responsibilities here as the freeze,

involve entertaining fans while performing in the racetrack, beat the freeze in-game promotion. The promotion requires the performer to sprint while racing a fan on the field must be physically able to participate in the race track. beat the freeze race during baseball home game. Must be able to participate. Must be able to run? Is it?

What are you doing? Is that even, Damon, is that something you can, can you post a job like this? Like, you're saying that anybody can do it, but don't you have to have extra ordinary skills in order for you to be the freeze? You would think, Derek. I'm like it says general knowledge of the game of baseball.

What goddamn knowledge does the freeze have to have? He doesn't get asked questions after his race. He just beats fools. What does he have to know? The dimensions of a baseball field? What are we doing? You can't just go out there and hire a new freeze. This is crazy.

This is a man that requires superhuman powers. This would be like going out and like New York City posting a, LinkedIn job opening for a new Spider-Man, must stick to walls, must be able to create web, you know, shooters or be able to, like, be tech savvy enough to fashion his own, you know, must be physically strong enough to combat villains while also delivering witty lines. Like, you can't just post a job opening for something that requires the skill level as the freeze.

Am I wrong about this statement? No, no, I'm saying, I feel like this is crazy. I mean, I feel like they're really opening it up Pandora's box in terms of, is he really just a normal guy? I thought he was, I thought he was, I thought he was him, I thought he was special. I thought he was him. I thought he was, yeah, right. I thought he was the fastest man alive. I mean, I thought they're out there recruiting like Olympic runners to do this under the guise of a mask, you know.

Well, next, next thing that you know, they're going to tell me sand is not real. Oh, Damon, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Santa's real. And they would never have a job opening for it because as you know, if Santa dies, the Santa Claus says that all you have to put on the suit, the person that puts on the suit, then becomes a new Santa.

No, I'm with you. I'm saying it. That's why I said, next thing you know, they're going to tell me that. It's ridiculous. I just, I don't feel.

Or like Baxter's not a real bobcat. Okay. We're just going to move on. I don't. Are you? No, no, nothing, Damon, nothing. Baxter is a real Bobcat, and that's, you know, he's endangered. That's the reason why they have him at Chase Field.

They want to make sure he's protected and that he doesn't get hurt. He's over there right now. Somebody goes and checks him. They changes litter box. They feed him all the time. R.A. in the chat says, I am an excellent candidate as a freeze replacement. However, I am holding out for the Bernie Brewer position. That is an electric.

hold out. That is the right call. That is the right call. He doesn't have to chase people or race them. He has to merely slide down the slide when someone hits a home run. And that sounds like a blast, quite frankly. That sounds like a blast. We do have some super chats. I think somewhere from our friend Emily, who we promised we would still do a ranking show. Emily hit us up with the Derek. We're very one's talk. Wait, what? Derek, we're very, very, one's taco for Taco Tuesday. Derek did not like my Taco pun. I didn't get your Taco Punt. Did I bring us tacos for Taco Tuesday? No. No tacos brought for Taco Tuesday. However, there is the taco spot downstairs.

I'm not supposed to give out free ads, but I feel like I'm immune to that when I'm wearing this costume, so I think it's okay. She also says, D-backs need a win theme when they hit home runs. That is a great point, Emily. And I think that no disrespect to Roger Klein or his peacemakers.

But I do think that the Diamondbacks need a new win theme. Now, the problem that I'm conflicted here with is as much as I hate the Go Cubs Go song when I was there at Wrigley Field and I was inundated with it, Damon, it kind of went hard. It kind of went hard. I was kind of walking down the street singing Govubs Go. So I don't know if we need like an older theme, like something like that. Or if we could perhaps get Grammy.

nominated artist Megaran to make us a new Diamondbacks win theme. I think that's what we need. And I think I'm going to guilt him into that every single day on this show until he finally does it. So that's where we're at. But again, we appreciate you guys time so much. Big shout out to Jesse Friedman, obviously, for joining us. Tomorrow we are going to go into more free agent candidates for this team. But instead of talking about Pete Alonzo and Pipe Dreams, we're going to talk about far more realistic candidates like pitcher Nick Martinez and perhaps Chris Bassett, who could be exactly what the Diamondbacks are looking for as far as the starting pitcher that could fill some space and then convert to an elite reliever when Corbyn Burns returns. So again, we're going

to get to all that tomorrow. Also, we will be talking to our guy, Ryan Waldschmidt. So if you have any questions for Ryan Waldschmidt and you are a diehard, make sure to send us those questions in the diehard chat, tag me in it, and I will make sure to include those in our interview with Ryan. So again, we appreciate you guys so much. We love you guys for joining us. We love you guys for being supporters club members, all of you that are supporters club members. Thank you from the bottom of my cartoonie heart. We love you and thank you for that. Of course, you can follow Damon and I on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore Cave Man with the K. Damon is constantly antagonizing people over at Damon dog with a DAWG.

We are all Damon's dogs except ASU fans. Bark, bark. Those two groups of people do not get along, Damon and ASU fans. What's funny is some of them, I disagree. Some of my, I'd say my biggest supporters are ASU fans, and they get it. That's because they get the banter. And then there are other ones that are like, I actually think the world be better off.

It was not. Damon wasn't it. Yeah. Well, you get more of Damon dog tonight, as Ernesto asks here. We've got a U of A post game. Absolutely, Ernesto. Soon, Damon's got to get out there and start watching some sports. And I got to get some food in this big old belly of mine.

So, again, we love you guys. We appreciate you guys. Make sure you follow the show at P. H&X underscore D-Backs. Again, as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. We are all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. I didn't get the bark, bark, bark in.

But, again, we thank you guys so much for your. your time. We will be back with a 12 p.m. episode tomorrow, so make sure to join us for that. And until then, we love you guys. We appreciate you for stopping by. Behave yourselves, Candice, and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you actually add realistic pieces to this team instead of an aging Piedelonzo.