Arizona Diamondbacks become ‘surprise entrant’ in potential signing of 3x All-Star Alex Bregman

Arizona Diamondbacks become ‘surprise entrant’ in potential signing of 3x All-Star Alex Bregman

It's not breaking news sounder worthy. Oh, but it is juicy. It is juicy. So, we'll talk about NBA trade deadline and Sun stuff in a second because this is this is much much better. Bob Nightingale, the first to mention John Haymon has doubled down on the deal. Uh, not the deal. It's not a deal. I I misspoke. Um Bob Nightingale tweeted out 13 minutes ago that the Arizona Diamondbacks have become a surprise entrance in the Alex Bregman sweep stakes and are quote kicking the tires close quote on the possibility. The Diamondbacks would certainly have the financial flexibility if they move second baseman Catel Marte in a trade and could move third baseman Jordan Lawler to second base. I would also suggest they could move Bla1 Alexander to second base if they wanted to. Maybe even Jordan Law over Jordan Lawler if they wanted to. John Haymon then said yes, the Diamondbacks have interest in Alex Bregman. It'll be interesting to see how this could affect the Catel Marte trade talks, especially with the Red Sox. Bob Nightingale first mentioned Bregman and the Arizona link. Let's go. Let's talk about it. Let's let's figure out what this means. Is this is this an agent trying to stir up the pot of chili to get Bregman the offer that he really wants somewhere else? and he's using Arizona as leverage. Is this we're trading Catel Marte? See, we had a plan all along. We were going to sign Alex Bregman to be our third baseman. We're going to be fine. Everything's all right. How do you interpret these tweets from these two respected MLB insiders? >> Can I answer all of the above and then explain why? >> Shut up, you can do whatever you want. >> So, my first instinct >> rules on this show. You can do whatever you want. And I did the classic joking, not really joking move to Lauren. Uh because her beloved Cubs are known for not spending elite levels of money. We'll put it that way. Like just Kyle Tucker, excuse me, long gone. They're not going to pay for that type of money. They've been linked to Bregman a lot coming into the off season and not so much recently in the last week or two. But whenever these types of stories come out, that's always where my brain will go first. It's like this is a leverage play. Look, the Diamondbacks have interest. We could get them. You better increase that offer by $6 million a year. in the way that we've been talking about. With that being said, >> Alex Bregman is fantastic at baseball and he is fantastic at baseball in the ways that Mike Hayes likes guys to be fantastic at baseball. [laughter] >> I like I like how you phrase that. Please explain expound on that. >> If you do the baseball savant fun of looking at his percentiles, go up and down and look at where they are. They're pretty darn good defensively and they are elite when it comes to the metrics that tell you if a guy works a good at bat or not. So, we're talking chase percentage, whiff percentage, strikeout percentage, walk percentage. All those numbers for him score off the charts recently and over the course of his career have been pretty consistent. So, whenever the Diamondbacks sign a hitter, it's one of the first things I do is look at those numbers and see how much they match up with the type of hitter that Hazen typically goes after. Bregman's numbers are there. My third part of my all of the above is don't we uh not know ahead of time though when Kendrick does this? Doesn't it come out of nowhere? >> Oh, OKAY. THIS IS NO, YOU WHAT WAS THE Whatever was the last time you filled in for Gambo? It was a week and a half ago, I think. Or or maybe it was the time before that. I don't exactly recall. We specifically talked about this, not Bregman, but this idea that, hey, Corbin Burns, out of nowhere, boom, he's a Diamondback. Hey, Jordan Montgomery out of nowhere he's a Diamondback, right? This is And so I think you even asked me something [snorts] along the lines of should we expect the unexpected from the Arizona Diamondbacks and I believe my answer was hell yes. Should always we have gotten to the point where you should expect the unexpected from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a really cool and it doesn't always work but in a really cool way. That's kind of become their mo the last couple of offseasons. Like whoa wait they did what? Huh? They signed that guy, they spent that money, they did this, they did that. So, yeah, this is the the player maybe is a little surprising, but shouldn't be, but just the concept. Oh, no. This is and I don't know if it's going to happen or not. This is the hot stove league rumors and leverage and all of that stuff. And the leverage play does make a lot of sense when you consider Kellen that on the athletics free agent big board you know which they came out with weeks ago. Alex Bregman is number three on their list behind only Kyle Tucker and Bo Bashette and ahead of Kyle Schwarber who just signed for five years $150 million. Their projection on his contract is six years $171 million. That ain't Catel Marte money folks. That's about $75 million more than Catel Marte money. That's that is that's different. >> Putting your payroll at a highest mark it's been in years. We thought that the 2023 number that it really went to after the 2023 season, excuse me. So the payroll entering the 2024 season when it was near $200 million that we were going to be closer to $140 million than $200 million with the payroll number this year. That's what I thought at least. this would not be that giving a guy 20 to $30 million a year. In fact, we went so far as to say yesterday and we both agreed that the that the Diamondbacks are probably done signing a guy to not even a lucrative contract, but like $10 million a year or more. Like they're probably just going around the margins in free for agency. This is not the margins at all. It it doesn't pass the sniff test for me ultimately because again, the Kendrick moves come out of nowhere. that this would not be out of nowhere because we kind of know about the interest now and the agent thing kind of makes sense to me as well with how many teams are interested in Bregman because again if you're not familiar with the guy he's one of the best third baseman of his generation like one of the best infielders of this generation he he's a fantastic ball player >> here and here's I mean just some of the other reasons to be a little bit skeptical of this and again this is not to bismerch the reporting of two of the best in the business and John Haymon and and Bob Nightingale but but Ken Kendrick has been on record as saying the payroll is probably going down. And if you guys could, we don't need it here, but the next time we talk about that, if you could find me the Ken Kendrick cut when he was on with us about payroll going down. Tory Lavell just three days ago was wondering whether they could afford Zack Gallon or Mel Kelly. Like like they just they might be getting to a price point beyond what we've got. I mean, everybody on the record has talked about how yeah, payroll is probably not going to be what it was a year ago. It's probably going down. Was that all just a ruse? Was that all just a Was that all just a haha gotcha? Ho ho here we come out of nowhere because if it wasn't then you they just they don't have the money for Alex Bregman if we're to believe everything they've told us. You got it for me please. >> We will not be spending at the same level the the real number this year. You know you can go look it up on C's contracts. Our you know we we don't just pay the 26 guys that are on the active roster. We have a 40man roster and the amount of money we spent on our uh roster this year and it's public data is $220 million. Okay, that's a that's a lot more than the number you used and the number that people think. Will we spend 220 next year? I don't think that we will. Uh will we have a a a very very significant payroll who allow us to compete and be in the playoffs? I I think we will. >> Now, but follow me here. >> Mhm. >> Trade Catel to the Boston Red Sox for a package of prospects to to do exactly the thing that we said we didn't that I didn't want them to do. Uh I I won't speak for you. I'll speak for me. Fill out your prospect package a little bit. Fill out your your system a little bit with with more high-end pitching prospects that are closer to becoming major league prospects. on the gallon level when you traded for gallon basically >> on the gallon level when you traded for trade Cel for that. >> Take the $15 million that you're not spending on Catel Marte anymore and even though that's a drop in the bucket compared to what it's probably going to take to sign Alex Bregman, sign Alex Bregman with that and you've so your rotation while not perfect, okay, you've at least you've bolstered it with Mel Kelly and now you've got prospects who might be closish to making it better. You've replaced Catel Marte's bat in the lineup. You've kind of solved the second base problem by shuttling either Jordan Lawler or Bla1 Alexander over to that spot and you've maintained that overall kind of production you have in your lineup. It solves a lot of problems. It's just the money question is still out there and hanging out there. >> And something that we talked about a lot when Corbin Burn signed here and he brought up himself. Would you guess where Alex Bregman resides in the offseason? You might be listening to the show right now for all >> here. Shout out Cam Cox from 12 News pointing that out on Twitter. >> Are you shaking what's what's what's wrong with us bringing that up? What's >> Nothing's wrong with it. It just like wrongly makes me optimistic andor gives me hope. [laughter] >> That doesn't sound like you at all. >> It really It really doesn't sound like >> His family's based in Albuquerque for what it's worth. >> Breman. >> Not too far. >> Oh, >> just a six-hour drive. jaunt down the 40, you know, with a little detour through Flagstaff. >> They been Skilligan fans. [laughter] >> I wonder I wonder if they are. Look, it's it's I love the hot stove. I love speculating on stuff like this. Who knows whether any of it comes to pass. >> There you go, buddy. You got your little itch, not the full itch. >> Yeah, you didn't didn't get the full itch, but I'm >> It was fun. I had fun. >> Thanks for watching Burns and Gambo. Click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona Sports.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have interest in three-time All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman, according to multiple reports. Dave Burns and guest host Kellan Olson talk about what the potential signing means for the organization and how it impacts the possibility of trading Ketel Marte.

Diamondbacks have interest in free agent Alex Bregman, per multiple reports: https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/alex-bregman/3605813/

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