Should D-backs SPEND BIG on Ranger Suárez or Double Down on Zac Gallen Reunion?

Should D-backs SPEND BIG on Ranger Suárez or Double Down on Zac Gallen Reunion?

It’s the Toronto Blue Jays versus the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. And if the Blue Jays happen to find a way to win, I’m going to drink this entire thing of maple syrup on air. I might even uh give myself a haircut. Not give myself a haircut, but give myself a mullet. Uh just to be as Canadian as possible. We’re talking about the World Series and the Diamondbacks pitching options in free agency in 30 seconds. Don’t go anywhere. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Ski and happy Tuesday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX DBags podcast live from Studio K presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of the great white north, occasionally known as I I don’t know, Derek Kuck is what I’m going with. And we got uh we got Damon Pooch on the ones and twos today. Trying my best to use as many Canadian terms. We got some wonderful Canadian wares here on the table, including this Toronto Blue Jays hat on our boy Jesse Jr. because we do not want any Dodgers fans that stop by this podcast to get it twisted. We are in fact a Blue Jays podcast. Now we’re pivoting from the Mariners as much as it hurts our feelings and very much hurt Shane’s feelings. But welcome in to you all. Glad to have you guys here. This is the PHNX Diamondback show and we will be talking Diamondback stuff as well. But welcome in to this show presented by our friends at Bet 365 and Game Time. Make sure to use that code of PHNX365. When you sign up over there, get yourself some bonus bets for following a few easy steps. Over at Game Time, make sure to use our code of PHNX. you’ll get $20 off those already low last minute ticket deals. Uh, glad to have you guys here. Uh, not not thrilled to be saying goodbye to our Seattle Mariners. That one is still heartbreaking to us. Uh, and and the ripple effects can be felt across this office for sure, but like I said, we are Canucks now. Uh, the Toronto Blue Jays will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series after beating our Sea Snakes in game seven by a score of four to three. Uh, and here we are. We’re down to those those final two teams. Uh we are ready to rock and roll and uh it still hurts. Uh there’s a lot of things that still hurt from this. I mean, obviously we were fully on board uh with with the Mariners. Not only did they have a lot of former Diamondbacks players on there, but like I said last night, uh when you proceed to uh you know, root for a new team, you you now you you now take on loving that team, right? Like I was doing it for the show purposes. I was doing it just to support our head of production here, Shane, and and and our guy, Zach, from our sales department as well. But um with time I found myself now adoring the Seattle Mariners team, becoming a Julio Rodriguez fan. It’s already it’s easy to be a Julio Rodriguez fan, right Damon? Like that’s not a guy that’s hard to root against. It’s team honestly. It it it it’s the reason why and I said it before. I said it when it came to the Dodgers and it’s the reason why Damon labeled me as a Dodgers fan originally and understandably so. But I had said that that Dodgers team, this Dodgers team is is a very hard team to hate simply because the guys that are there aren’t really hateable baseball players. The Mookie Bets, the Freddy Freeman criminals, the crim the potential criminals. That’s that’s how you feel for sure. Alleged criminals for sure. But uh with time with time success will make me hate you. That’s the way it is. Uh I consider myself to be a mildly successful person in life. I mean, I do get to do this show for a living and it is a dream come true. I won’t lie about that. But there are people that are far more successful than me than I hate for no other reason simply because of how successful they are. Uh 100%. And and and and the Dodgers are definitely in that category. Now, should the Dodgers go on to win consecutive World Series, then it’s easily a hatable team from the top of the roster to the bottom of the roster. But uh I’m still heartbroken over what happened to the Mariners team. And I don’t think anything expresses that heartbreak as much as this clip during the postgame show that has been going around on the internet where Brian Woo was giving a postgame uh you know doing doing a postgame wrap-up uh trying to be a professional and answer questions from the reporters and in the background uh you hear this. Damon, if you don’t mind, can we play that clip? Having gone further than any other team in franchise history. That legacy is that was Julio Rodriguez screaming in the clubhouse after that loss. And like is there anything more painful than that? No. No. Like it’s blood curdling. It’s terrifying. It’s heartbreaking. It’s it saddens me. It brings tears to my eyes because you can hear the pain, the anguish in that scream. of, you know, of how much this meant to this Mariners team, how much this meant to this Mariners fan base. Say what you will, make the jokes about them never making the world, you know, making the World Series and kind of being born into this life of disappointment, similar to what we live here in Arizona, right? But that’s a different level of disappointment. Not to mention the fact that after all of this time, never having made the World Series to come that close, one game short. one game short after winning the first two games of the ALCS is utterly heartbreaking for that team and for that fan base, right? Uh and and I I I can’t express that enough. I think it sucks. And as someone like I said earlier that’s kind of grown attached to this team, rooting for them during this playoff run, that breaks my heart hearing uh that scream from Julio for sure. I think it does show again once once again it shows how much it means to these players. We tend to think athletes don’t care that much or that they could essentially get over it because they’ll get on a private plane. Yeah. Yeah. They’re getting paid millions and they’ll get on a private plane and they’ll do whatever. that the scream personifies how that clubhouse feels after this loss and and not making the World Series and how much that clubhouse cared about making the World Series and ending this drought for the Mariners franchise. So, that’s that’s just the the I guess the the victory the the thrill of victory and the the agony of defeat right there. But on the thrill of victory side, you have that George Springer home run, which Damon, will that go down as one of the most iconic home runs in Major League Baseball history? Like we don’t have a lot of decisive on what happens next, right? Sure. Sure. That’s very good point. Right. Uh it’s as I said about the Reds making the playoffs, right? Do you even remember the Reds made the playoffs? No one ever will. No. Not even Reds fans. No. And and as much as we wanted to be that team, I fear we would have suffered a similar fate. As I’ve said before, Damon doubts me. Damon tells me I’m the loser talk and then I hate you. He hates me, right? That rightfully so. You should all hate me for saying that. But it’s the reality of the situation and I am a man of science. So I can’t was going to turn into Barry Bonds in the playoffs and everyone. Let’s calm down. Let’s calm down a little bit. All right. But I will say I will say we have no idea what would happen. And that’s an alternate reality that we can’t even peak in just for fun. Uh but again, that that is part of the problem here with with playoffs. Uh Espo and I were just talking about it. And when the Suns were a team that made the playoffs, for instance, often, but didn’t really like make it as a high seed or didn’t really stand a chance once that first round came along, you tend to feel like you you stopped caring that they make the playoffs, right? Like there was a point in time in my life where if my team uh like in a in an eightseated playoff bracket was like the six seed or lower, I didn’t even care that they made the playoffs. And typically I was right to do so because typically they would just get bounced in the first round. When when your team does make the playoffs often then the the expectations and the demands from the fans change, right? That’s what we were talking about last week with the Brewers where, you know, they have a good game plan to consistently make the postseason, but when you always come up short and you can’t even make it to the World Series, does it even matter that you have success in in the regular season and had the best record in the National League? Not really. You might It’s a footnote. It’s it’s something that will be discussed. Who had the best record in the National League in 2025? Outside of that and and outside of, you know, flying an L flag against the Cubs and then immediately being swept, there’s not much about, you know, the Brewers playoff run that’s really going to be remembered, right? So, uh, that that tends to be the case. And you are absolutely right, George, that George Springer home run does become iconic should the Toronto Blue Jays go on to defeat the, uh, Dodgers here in the World Series. This is not going to be an easy, you know, an easy feat, but I will say that the Blue Jays are one of the teams that it does feel like when you look at their numbers from the 2025 season, they have a chance to beat the Dodgers. Uh, and the World Series is set to begin this Friday on October 24th. Uh, this marks the Blue Jays first World Series appearance since their back-to-back championships back in 92 and 93, while the Dodgers are aiming for their second consecutive title and fifth in nine years. and second that doesn’t have a little asterisk next to it. But uh game one is on Friday, game two on Saturday. Uh then game three and four come back to Dodger Stadium. Those first two games are at Roger Stadium in Toronto. Uh games three and four come back to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. That is on Monday and Tuesday uh and Wednesday if game five is necessary, if the Blue Jays haven’t swept the Dodgers by then. Uh and then game six will take place on Halloween, something we very much remember from 2023. And then uh if necessary, game seven will take place on Saturday, November 1st uh again in Toronto. Those two two games. What do you like the I know it makes sense travel-wise. Uh obviously, but uh do you like the two three format that baseball uses, Damon, or like does it make it a bit more fair to have the two two one11 format? Yeah, I mean honestly that’s always an interesting discussion. I really have no idea like what I on if I feel like if I if you’re the if you’re down 20 and you’re the road team, you you almost prefer the three games in a row. Right. Right. Right. And that’s the reason why I just think it’s weird because essentially going up if every team wins their home game, it’s almost a disadvantage really for for the team with the better record because they’ll have two games and they go three back at the opponent’s home and now the opponent just has to win one game of the final two theoretically to to you know win the series, right? So like and then there’s the Phillies. And then there’s the Phillies. Got them. They weren’t even they weren’t even doing anything. They were just innocently standing there and they you just got them anyway. Good job. I mean like I guess in that series that’s a good kind of way to look at it, right? Because I mean the the Diamondbacks were down 2. They clawed back 2-2 and then they lost game five, right? 3-2. Yeah. Uh and it felt like it was over because the Phillies just had to win one more game in Philadelphia, right? But some teams are mentally tougher than that and built to win on the road in the playoffs. And unfortunately the Dodgers I don’t think have lost a road playoff game yet, right? So I mean maybe they’re that team, but uh yeah, it’s it’s going to be an electric World Series. The home environments for both crowds should be insane. They definitely should be. Um the Dodgers at le their their electricity will start around the fourth inning though. Um whereas things should start right away in the Rogers Center. Uh, I would I would still I I could only imagine staying in that hotel during the World Series to be able to get to watch a World Series game from your room. Those prices have to be astronomical. We need to look into that before the end of this week. Let’s see if we can make a reservation. I’m going to doubt it. Uh, but looking at these two teams, like I said earlier, they are uh they they are fairly well. It’s it’s a fairly good matchup between these two teams. They are pretty close on a lot of categories. If we take a look at the Blue Jays at a glance, you’ll see here their record. This is their numbers from the regular season. Same thing with the Dodgers. Uh Blue Jays had a 94 and 68 record. Uh they finish one game better than the Dodgers, giving them home field advantage in this series. Their OPS is with this season during the regular season was 760, which was third. Starting pitching erra this season, not great. 4.34, which was 20th in Major League Baseball. their bullpen 3.98 which was 16th in Major League Baseball and their outs above average 16 uh which finished ninth interestingly enough just ahead of the Dodgers there defensively. Damon, this is another situation. I know we usually do these at a glances during the season, but man, with the 20th best starting pitching RA in baseball and the 16th best relief pitching in baseball, the Blue Jays managed to have essentially the second best record in in the entire league. Uh, and it just once again reiterates to me how different the Diamondbacks season was if their erra for their bullpen could have managed to be there right there around 15 16th in the league. just middle of the road, we would be talking about them not only being in the playoffs, but my opinion probably would have changed drastically about their chances against the Dodgers. But speaking of the Dodgers, let’s take a look at their season at a glance. Dodgers were 93 and 69 in 2025. Like I said, finishing just one game below the Blue Jays. Their run differential was plus 142, which goes to show that this Dodgers offense is a powerhouse. And really, we haven’t seen this this sleeping dragon that is the Dodgers offense uh wake up much here during the postseason. Their starting pitching has absolutely dominated uh this this postseason and that is a big reason why they are where they are at. But also that man Show aka Parlay Otani uh he is definitely a man that uh had himself a huge game there in the finale against the Brewers hitting three home runs and striking out 10. The Dodgers OPS this year was 768 as a team which was second in all of Major League Baseball. They had a 3.69 starting pitching RA which was very very good fifth in all major leagues. Bullpen meanwhile a lot of questions there and have been all season long but they have been performing much better here in the postseason. They had a 4.27 27 RA this season which was tied for 20th and outs above average was 12th for the Dodgers defense there finishing 10th again just below the Toronto Blue Jays in Major League Baseball. But uh obviously Ot Otani the reigning World Series MVP is going to be a dual threat. Don’t speak of that on on my podcast, Derek. I’m going to pull the My Podcast card. Yeah. No, you should. You should for sure. Uh we’ll just move on. on Yoshinobu Yamamoto uh had has had an incredible postseason in 2025. 1.83 erra, 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings, Damon uh in 19 and two/3 innings pitch. Just incredible. And then you also have two times Sai Young award winner Blake Snell. Uh, and it’s it’s kind of funny to see Dodgers fans just being like, “Thank God he’s on our side now.” Because they were sick of losing to Snell and he has been dominant for the Dodgers with a 3.15 erra over his 10-year career span. Uh, and it’s almost non-existent here in in in the postseason. Then you have Tyler Glass now who’s just there also having himself a fine postseason. like not as good as Snell and Yamamoto, but with the way Otani, Yamamoto, and Snell are all pitching, uh, you might not even need Glass Now in there as a starter. You might be able to stash him away or maybe have him come out of the bullpen, uh, should any of these other three guys falter for a longer relief pitching appearance. Uh, and that wouldn’t be the worst situation for them. That formidable pitching staff has a combined 1.40 erra and 81 strikeouts over 10 postseason starts. Nuts, nuts stuff from them. But meanwhile, the Blue Jays, their offense is potent. Like I said, this is the immovable object versus the unstoppable force with these two teams. Vladimir Guerrero was named uh ALS ALCS MVP after hitting .385 with three home runs and four walks in the series. George Springer, of course, delivered what I am calling an iconic three-run homer in game seven of the ALCS. Uh and then they have Bob Bashette on the horizon that is expected to return from a knee injury for the World Series. So, the Blue Jays look to be strong there, uh, at least depthwise. Dalton Nvario has also been having himself an excellent, you know, uh, postseason for sure. And they just they they have a balanced offense. They have, uh, you know, a high contact rate. They hit home runs. They they get on base and will single you to death. Um, they’ve been making hard contact all postseason long. And again, uh, the Mariners did a good job in a couple of those games at holding the the Blue Jays, especially after, you know, the layoff that the Blue Jays had a little bit longer than the Mariners, but again, the Blue Jays came roaring back and their offense looks like uh it is it is on a roll now for sure. But the Dodgers obviously do enter the series as f favorites based on their pitching and their postseason experience. But that Blue Jays offense, man, they’re resilient. They have a really good bullpen. uh not from the season as you can tell by those numbers, but in the postseason uh their bullpen has been lights out. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how the ace heavy rotation there from the Los Angeles Dodgers can, you know, uh do do battle against these dynamic Blue Jays hitters and then uh obviously it’s about what George Springer uh one of the best now best postseason hitters in in MLB history and what Vlatty Jr. uh can do here against this Dodgers pitching staff. But uh really really fun uh matchup here and like I said earlier, I just feel like this is a comparable match up between these two teams. It’s going to be uh one of the best offenses versus one of the best pitching staff. So can’t wait to see ho how this all turns. But I also am still feeling very sad for all of our Mariners fans here in the office. But uh we’ll we’ll go ahead and move on from this because we need to start fixing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, on the other side of this break, we’re going to talk about a pitcher that we started speaking about last night, Ranger Suarez, former, at least for now, former Philadelphia Philly. He is a free agent this off seasonason. We will see if going after Suarez makes sense or if just bringing back Zack Gallon is a much cheaper, comparable option there for the Diamondback. So, don’t you go anyway. You’re watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, Rally House is the go-to spot for all your favorite local Arizona team gear. I always get asked where I get my stuff from. Of course, my stuff, uh, I’m I’m I’m a connoisseur of Arizona team gear. I have to go all over the place and find it. I have to go to random websites, websites I’ve never even heard of before just to find some of this cool stuff when I could just go to Rally House and find everything in one place. They have shop locations in Tempe, Mesa, and Glendale right now. 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Bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals, players, props, futures, and more. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at Bet 365. Must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona. If you are someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1800 Nextstep, textep to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az. az.gov. On yesterday’s show, Damon and I kind of got off topic a little bit. I I don’t even think the question related to starting pitching, but we did get it was realistic free agents, so it was we were not off topic at all. We weren’t off topic, but we might have been going a little unrealistic or realistic depending on your point of view on this. Now, the the Diamondbacks have a very limited budget this off season. I’ve heard people say they’re so sick of hearing that about this team and trust me, I am sick of saying it, but it’s the reality of the situation, right? With contracts increasing, players receiving more money, um, and quite frankly, Ken Kendrick saying that this team is not going to spend as much next year as they did this year. It’s it’s a foregone conclusion that they will have a limited budget based on what they’re already committed to and what their budget was last year and deducting even a small amount from that total. Right? So, we’re still sitting in the neighborhood of the Diamondbacks having 25 to $30 million to spend this off season. Not great. Not a lot of money. Now, with that being said, it doesn’t mean that the Diamondbacks necessarily have to give someone a contract that pays them that much on an annual value just this year, right? All the time they’ve gotten creative with the way they’ve structured contracts. Hell, look at what the Dodgers did with Show Otani. Uh maybe we’re not going to be able to convince somebody to take that big of a pay cut in a deferred payment situation. However, there’s creative there’s creative ways around it, right? So, no matter what an annual uh adjusted or expected annual value is for a player’s salary. Uh the Diamondbacks can find ways to structure it depending on how much that player wants to come here and join the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, not a great situation, right? So, I I’m I’m sure that there aren’t going to be a ton of players clamoring to come join this team due to how competitive they are. However, some teams don’t care about that. Some teams want, you know, a little bit more of a centralized location thing as you’ve seen with Corbin Burns and others where living in Arizona and being part of this Diamondbacks team is something that they desire uh and will make their lives considerably better. Uh some players very much enjoy living here. There’s players that don’t even play for the Diamondbacks and never have that have homes here simply because of spring training and because of how much they enjoy the weather. So, with that being said, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of going after these two guys, but there were two starting pitchers that are of similar age, similar statistics, uh, that the Diamondbacks could go after. One is a very familiar name as far as, uh, face on this team. The other one is a very familiar foe, and that’s who we’re going to start with today. It’s who we discussed a little bit yesterday during Mailbag Monday session. Ranger Suarez, former Philadelphia Philly. Uh Ranger Suarez is a free agent this off season. Uh and he had himself a very good 2025 which is definitely a pro for Suarez. He had a 12-8 record with a 3.20 er erra over 157 and a3 innings pitched including 151 strikeouts. His wood whips stood at 1.22. And again he was a very effective pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. We can take a look here at his career numbers and as you can see at 30 years old Ranger Suarez has had himself a pretty consistent good career. He in 762 innings pitched his ERA stands at 3.38. He has a baseball reference war of 17.8 uh 705 strikeouts and a 1.27 whip. Uh Ranger again he has been considered one of the best pitchers in baseball at times. He’s an elite pitcher. Uh he has, you know, uh again that resiliency and in high leverage situations. He’s contributed significantly to the playoff success for the Phillies. And I I feel like he doesn’t even get credit at times for being one of their best pitchers. It always feels like the Phillies have a bigger name that kind of sits at top of the rotation and kind of is that star pitcher for them. But meanwhile, Suarez has just been doing it over his entire career for the Phillies. Um and and he has been a bit you know durable. He does he has had some injuries like he experienced some reoccurring back issues uh and you know a notable back issue last season that affected his ability to perform there later in the season but uh again the Diamondbacks uh really and that could be a good reason not to want to invest so much in someone like Ranger Suarez, right? But when he’s healthy he’s been he he’s been durable and you know again those back issues seem to be in the past for him. Uh, but a bigger, I guess, con here than just his injury history is the cost for Ranger Suarez, right? We were trying to look at available free agent options yesterday, as Damon said, that were reasonable. And right now, Suarez is projected to receive a contract worth around $161 million over six years. His expected market value is $27 million per year. So again, the Diamondbacks could get very creative with a Ranger Suarez contract. And as far as what the Dbacks are going to do long term for their starting pitching staff, it would be great to have somebody that’s been as consistent in his career as Suarez locked up for the next six years. you feel like that would be a great transition as Corbin Burns uh was expected to be, you know, from from the Zack Gallon, Mel Kelly era to, you know, what would come in 2026. Unfortunately, due to injury, he won’t be that. But Ranger Suarez could be an incredible number two pitcher for the Diamondbacks behind Corbin Burns when he returns. And for the time being, quite frankly, Ranger Suarez could be the ace for this staff. But again, the $27 million theoretically, as I said earlier, uh that would be the Diamondback’s entire budget for this off seasonason. They would not be able to add much else free agencywise. And we know that there is no way that the Diamondbacks can only add one starting pitcher this off season and have that be enough to make this team competitive for 2026. pitching needs to be addressed and the Diamondbacks quite frankly right now need two starting pitchers. Wherever they get those from that’s fine, but they need two starting pitchers. Like we said with the bullpen, it’s not a great situation, but the bullpen has enough living, breathing human beings in it to start the 2026 season. Is it the best options for you? No. But you feel pretty good about some of the young pitchers in there. You feel good about Ryan Thompson being a little bit of now a veteran leader of that staff and you you feel pretty good about guys like Brandon Garcia and Philip Abner being able to come back next year and be very good potentially for this bullpen even though they’re very young, you know, arms that were called upon uh pretty quickly in their career, including Abner, who we’ve talked about going from Hillsboro to, you know, striking out Otani over the course of one season. So that was a pretty fast track progression for him. But like I said, you do feel like you have enough arms for the bullpen to play baseball to play a regular season. Meanwhile, you can’t say the same right now about starting pitching. And quite frankly, they can’t just get one starting pitcher. They need two. So, Suarez would be the entirety of your budget if you don’t figure out a way to defer payments or structure the contract inwardly where maybe he’s getting paid higher uh in 27 and 28 than he does in 26 just to allow that flexibility financially for the team. And I think players are willing to do that. I don’t think that’s the the end of the world for them. they’re still going to get paid millions of dollars for the particular season that’s going to be, you know, get paid less, but they also have the bigger payday to look forward to in future seasons. So, uh, that that that could be a way around it. However, it still feels like the cost is going to be too high. And quite frankly, I just don’t know if the Diamondbacks will be able to go after one of the elite available free agent pitching arms on the market. Right. So, Ranger Suarez though, 30 years old. Another guy that’s 30 years old, Zack Gallon. We’re going to take a look at his numbers and see how comparable he actually is to Zach to to Ranger Suarez because despite the fact that it feels like these two pitchers are in very different places um than you know that they actually are are much closer than you might think really with Suarez. It just comes to the fact that the Phillies had so many years of making the playoffs. Suarez has involved in so many winning seasons for that team and um you know again he I even remember a really rough outing against the Diamondbacks back in September of this year where he allowed six runs over four innings and you just kind of felt like uh you know again maybe maybe Ranger was washed a little bit. That’s how quickly we feel these way this way about pitchers. And Zack Allen has received that treatment for his 2025 se season. Gallen would probably be the first person to tell you that his 2025 season was absolute garbage. He would be probably the first person to tell you that he’s better than he was in 2025. The problem is is you could argue that last season was so bad for Gallon that it significantly impacted his value during the worst possible time in his career. So, did it impact it enough where Zack Gallon might be a value buy for the Diamondbacks in 2025 or excuse me in 2026? As crazy as that sounds, it’s it’s possible. But Damon, Ranger Suarez overall, what are your thoughts on him as a viable free agent? Um, and you know, again, looking at those numbers, that erra over his career, is he worth that cost of $161 million roughly or $27 million per year over the next six seasons? I mean, it’s a it’s a hefty price, right? But I think that what we’ve seen is if there’s a willingness to get it done on the player side of things, I feel like Ken Kendrick is is open to being flexible with his plan. You know what I feel like he’s shown that the last two seasons? We thought the Diamondbacks were done spending after a pretty big off season and then who’ they bring in Jordan Montgomery for $20 million out of nowhere when we thought that there was no budget left, right? So, I feel that, you know, there’s a scenario where maybe Ranger Suarez is holding out for a contract that doesn’t come because we all know how weird baseball free agency is. Sure. And sure, Arizona maybe, you know, makes a couple bigger signings. You know, we’re going to talk about the DH situation. Um, but maybe they they do what what me and you have determined is the plan, which is Ryan O’Harn times Paul Goldman as the platoon, right? And maybe they maybe they bring in another pitcher, like they resign one of the one of the Dbacks guys and and so it feels like the budget’s kind of taken up, but Rangers out there and Mike Hayen comes to Ken and says, “Hey, Ken, I I feel like we got a we can get pretty good value here.” I wouldn’t be shocked if the Diamondbacks went a little bit above that threshold that you’re talking about, Derek, of that like $30 million range. So, while I do agree that I think that the expectation should be that the budget is going to take a step back this year, I do think that it’s like that that’s a good place to temper expectations, but that it’s entirely possible that the Diamondbacks go out there and make like a big signing. We didn’t think Corbin Burns was possible either. I completely agree. I completely agree. Um, and Michael Dixon asked a great question. Um, if you scroll back there, Damon, he asked about when can free agents start signing 10 days after end of series. Uh, or, uh, or is that qualifying offer? So, MLB free agents can sign with a new team beginning the day after the World Series concludes, the day after. Uh, but there’s a five-day exclusive window for teams to resign their own free agents before they can officially sign with any team. That’s the qualifying offer period that you’re talking about, Michael. So, it’s 5 days and during that period of time, only the team that just lost the player can sign them. After that exclusivity period ends, a player can sign with any team. So, that’s that’s where we’re at. And of course, interesting. That would be November 2nd, 2024. So, or 2025, excuse me. I always think it’s wild when you’re in the middle of like an NBA playoff run and two teams that didn’t make it are trading with each other and you’re like, what’s happening right now? Why are you doing this? Yeah. Why are the Hornets and the and the Jazz making a trade right now? It’s pretty insane. Sure. Uh and then let’s say uh Deborah asks, “Any chance they do not make ch changes, save money, and you have contracts ending next year, such as Tori?” They could punt on 2026. Absolutely, Deborah. I don’t think they will. I don’t think there’s a chance of that. But there’s also no chance that they can’t make any changes. They have to make changes. I mean, unless that unless by not being making making any changes, they bring back Mel Kelly and and bring back Zack Allen, right? Like the gang is back together. Yeah. They bring get the gang back together minus Gino and Naylor. Yeah. And someone else even asked about that. And I mean again, you got to realize that the Diamondbacks made those moves for those guys not because they couldn’t keep them, not because they wouldn’t resign them. Uh maybe a bit of that, especially with how hot Gino was here and and Josh Naylor perhaps gave them the impression as he did to many fans that he wasn’t happy here and didn’t want to stay here. I still don’t think that’s the truth, but I don’t know. I mean, I I can agree that after seeing Josh be as happy as he was as the Seattle Mariner, maybe there was some truth. Have you ever just thought maybe maybe Josh just likes to win and and the way that the Diamondback season was going was was as much as it was for all the fans wearing on Josh Naylor’s mental mentality in a way that is similar to us where it’s like man dude we feel like we’re winning all these games late. We blow them. We should have like a 10 game better record than what we do. Like it’s disheartening I’m sure when you’re in the moment too. It’s just some players like a Corbin Carroll are really good at, you know, pretending like it doesn’t affect them. You know what I mean? Damon, despite my sunny disposition, I am one of the sorest losers you’re going to find on the planet, right? So, like, yeah, like I remember there was a time where, believe it or not, I was playing in an indoor co-ed soccer league and I hated every single game. We were such a bad team. We were a bunch of misfits that just decided to play for fun. Meanwhile, there were former D1 athletes on the oppos opposition that were just out there to kick the ass of people like me, right? So, uh, also, girls were very mean, very mean in co-ed soccer. Very mean. Uh, and and we got beat every single game. I don’t know if we won a single game in the two seasons. Two seasons I played indoor co-ed soccer. And what I will say is is that I never got used to losing. And like I just I felt like my entire demeanor changed over that period of time where like I hated every well it was like Tuesday nights and I just I would wake up grumpy on Tuesday knowing that I had a game that night because I knew we were just going to go I was going to get a cramp in my side and we were going to run around and get beat by another team for 60 minutes is what was going to happen, right? So like yeah, that kind of stuff can impact you. Especially I’m not even used to winning as I covered earlier in in this episode. I just hate losing, right? That’s why I tend to abstain from competition. I just enjoy being on the sidelines making funny dumb comments about how you guys all are doing out there. It’s what I was gi It’s what I was put on this earth to do, commentate. But uh again, when it comes to this situation, Ranger Suarez, the price seems a little too high. The back issue concerns me. And more importantly, we are going to talk about another 30-year-old man that we are much more familiar with than Zack Gallon, who might just be the better option and might not cost this team nearly as much money as Ranger Suarez will. We’re going to do that on the other side of this break. Don’t you guys go anywhere. You’re watching the PHNX Time and back show. Well, Pure Edibles was founded in Arizona and we love them for it. We love local and of course they are available in 130 dispensaries statewide. But uh again, this company from Flagstaff, Arizona makes some incredible candies. They don’t make just gummies like a lot of companies do. They make a wide variety of gummies or candies depending on your uh pre preferences. They got hard candies, they have chews, they have uh kicks, which are their version of Starburst and so much more. They also have a wide variety of strains and of course effects. And all of those effects are clearly listed on each tin. Right now they are collaborating with one of my favorite breweries in this entire state. Also from Flagstaff, Arizona, Mother Road Brewery Brewery Brewery Brewing Company, uh that makes the amazing Tower Station IPA uh has collaborated with Pure Edibles to make the iconic Noble Road Tower Station IPA all-in-one where it’s hoppy hour all the time. This new offering captures the crisp citrus and piny hops of Arizona’s favorite IPA, but adds a smooth THC twist in an all-in-one device. So get yours right now if you’re in Arizona. Swing by select local dispensaries and grab your Tower Station all-in-one from Noble Road and go find yourself some pure edibles products from one of over 130 dispensaries across the state of Arizona. Speak speaking of traveling across Arizona. Make sure you stop in at Circle K. If you are out and about, it is America’s thirst stop. It is Arizona’s thirst stop. Right now, you can save yourself some money on gas. This Thursday, uh, October 23rd from 6:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. You can save 40 cents off per gallon. That is for inner circle members only. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the app. It’s easy to download and get enrolled. Then you just use your phone number at the pump to save on gas. You can also save on Polar Pops, which are 79 cents for our friends that are inner circle members, as well as 99 cent frosters. They have three 28 ounce Gatorades for $5. And you can also go in, get yourself uh either f spend $5 in the store or get yourself five gallons of gas and you will save 10 cents per gallon on your next fill up. So get all of this savings right now by joining the inner circle for free. Download the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for details. Um well, Mike, we have discovered Roger Bessions. Um what is this? This is this is Roger Bessons, right? Mike Shade. Uh very no one else talks about throwing the Roger Bessons uh football slider other than Roger Bessins. So I think we found his burner account, but I mean Yeah, Derek. Yeah, I mean that’s obvious here. But uh I will say this that uh nobody on this staff Love you, Roger. Yeah. No, no one on this staff should throw the football slider because I don’t think they’re qualified to do so. Uh throw it like a football stiff wrist. Roger taught Otani the football slider. Actually, I don’t know if you knew that. I heard he also taught him how to use um No, we won’t do that, but anyway, what we will do is we’ll go into Zack Allen’s numbers, like I said, because believe it or not, Zack Gallon and Ranger Suarez are very, very comparable here on their career numbers. Now, Zack Allen obviously had himself a very bad 2025 at the worst possible time quite frankly in his career. And if you look at his numbers overall, he has been trending in that direction since the Diamondbacks World Series run. Quite frankly, 2024 wasn’t great for Gallon and 2025 was even worse. But over the course of his career, Zack Allen has been fairly consistent. And that’s what makes the struggles this season so kind of mind-boggling, especially the juxtaposition of how good Gallon was at times versus how bad he was. But looking here at his career stats, Gallon had himself in 1,7 and a3 innings pitched. Uh do we have those stats, Damon? Um, Zack Gallen had a 3.58 erra uh a 20.7B war to once again compared to the uh career war of Ranger Suarez who had a 17.8 war. Uh 1,060 strikeouts in those 107 and a third innings pitched uh to the 705 by Ranger Suarez and then again a 1.159 whip for Gallon to the 1.270 270 whip for Ranger Suarez. Now, of course, Gallon did this in seven seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks to Ranger Suarez’s eight seasons for the Rangers. Ranger had a couple of really bad seasons, including uh 2020 where he did not pitch, he only pitched three games, 2018 in his rookie season, he only had three starts, but uh after that, he spent some time in the bullpen in 2019. Meanwhile, Zack Gallon kind of had had the opposite kind of career trajectory. And that’s where you could say looking at Suarez’s numbers, Suarez is is improving here over the course of his career. His ERA, you know, from 2023 was 4.18. His ERA in 2024 was 3.46 and then his ERA in 2025 was 3.20. Meanwhile, like I said, Zack Gallon’s numbers have gone in the opposite direction. 2022, Gallon had a 2.54 ERA, 23, 3.47, 24, 3.65, and now in 2025, the worst ERA of his career at 4.83, especially for a full season. Uh Gallon did have 23 starts in 2021 where he posted a uh 430 RA. But as you can see, as I said there, over the last few uh seasons, you’ve kind of seen that erra get higher over the course of his career or or over the course of his season. And now we don’t know if Zach’s proven track record is a good thing or, you know, if if quite frankly he’s washed. Washed. I like to use that phrase when I can’t think of anything better. Uh Gallon Gallon has consistently been a reliable starter over the entire course of his career. That is what Gallon is for this team. in 2025 was such an outlier for him. Uh he did end up still like still not awful at 13 and 15 with a 4.83 record. Just not Zack Gallenesque, right? Not what he had a good second half. He looked Zack Allen at the end of Exactly. Exactly. So if you want to go based on uh recency Yeah. You know, that’s that’s definitely something to consider. He did have a strong first half of his season. Uh Deborah asks, “Do we know why Gallon has struggled?” Not really. I mean, I do think that when you look at what was going on in the first half of the season, a lot of it had to do with his fast ball command. I also felt like it had to do with Zack nibbling too much instead of attacking the strike zone. Like again, you you sometimes just have to put that pressure on batters in order to, you know, to to get them to swing, you know, and and Gallon entire had too many walks. You saw him go up 02 in counts and then lose guys and walk them on a full count. Uh there was just entirely too much of that. And I don’t know if it was Gallon not believing in himself. Michael Dixon agrees with me. He says because he nibbles too much. And that’s Yeah, that’s it. Nibbling’s fine for Cosmo. Cosmo is allowed to nibble only a little bit though. I mean, he can really uh bite hard. But uh nibbling, as far as Gallon was concerned, wasn’t great. And I I felt like it was a weird lack of confidence. Right. Candace says he seems like he he seems like he was scared to pitch. The difference that James McCann made seemed to be simple. You know, James McCann, yes, there were a lot of great things we’ve covered that Macan did, right? Glue guy throwing the sunflower seeds in people’s hair. Sexy arms. Sexy arms with wraps around him that I still don’t understand. Like I if I wasn’t meant to compliment his arms, then there’s no reason why you should have had him wrapped up like he was the ultimate warrior, right? But I will say that um the one thing that someone like Macan was able to do was he was able to be like a person from the outside coming in and reminding Gallon who he was, right? And and sometimes that’s all you need is like this third party that you’re not really familiar with. You might have spoken to a couple of times or you might know them on a casual basis, but now for them to be a teammate of yours and look you in the face and be like, “Dude, you rock. You’re awesome. you are one of the toughest pitchers I face. I’m sure the language was a lot more colorful than that, but still uh dra Zack Allen has a proven track record of being a reliable starter for this team and that is something that you kind of know you’re getting out of Zack. I don’t think that his performance is going to decline. I think 2025 or 2026, you know, at 30 years years old will be one of Gallon’s best because now he has a wealth of experience on the mound and he still has a heck of a lot of skill. I think he also has a lot to still prove. Like things were going in a really good way in a good good direction for Zack and then he faced a lot of adversity over the last two seasons. So again, I think that he wants as every player in baseball wants that big contract and I think that he will get it. Just depends on when he’s going to get it. Right now Gallon is expected to reject a qualifying offer from the Diamondbacks and test free agency, right? Uh, and in according to Spotrak, Gallon’s market value is that of a, get this, Damon, four-year deal worth $74.8 million. Sign me up yesterday. I’m If that’s the deal, Derek, I am all the way in on bringing Zack Allen back. $18.7 million annual value. I saw that yesterday. I I told you I think that I I think it was after our show. I told you that I think that that seems too low uh and that other teams will value Zack Gowen higher than that. We also talked about the qualifying offer aspect of it and whether or not he would probably just play for $23 million and go about his off seasonason again the next year. U but even though he’s a Boris client, which is, you know, not a usual thing that a Boris client does, Derek looks like he’s willing to add to I have a crisp $5 bill to throw on it right now as we speak. Damon, and as you know, I don’t throw around money all willy-nilly. I don’t have the money to do that. But I will give you this $ five dollar to I mean if we all throw in five dollars, right? There’s got to be enough of us Diamondbacks fans and at least that takes care of one year of his salary. I don’t know. I mean what are we like 20th in attendance? Yeah, there’s enough of us. There’s enough of us. There’s dozens of us in for sure. Um I I mean I think that that right 18.7 for you, Derek, is enough to to sign him up on a multi-year contract if that’s what it takes. like that seems very reasonable and like a a really really good contract for a elite SP2 like Zack Gallon maybe could be. Maybe he isn’t that guy anymore. Who knows? But I think that we’ve seen the flashes of that. And when Corbin Burns gets back, if your one two is Corbin Burns, Zack Gallon, you got to feel pretty good about that. Maybe he doesn’t want four years. Maybe he doesn’t Maybe Gallon doesn’t want to commit to four more years of this team. Maybe he doesn’t see, you know, that being his future. But a two-year deal, a two-year deal, like that that could help everybody. Gallon accepting the qualifying offer again is a win. It’s a win-win for the Diamondbacks in in regards to the qualifying offer, right? Because for Z Gallon, it’s going to be what, 22 million roughly. So Gallon’s going to receive more money through this qualifying offer for one year, giving him a chance to come back to this team that he’s very familiar with once again, be the ace of the staff because he will until G Corbin Burns returns. Yeah. and he and then he’s still then he’s still 1 A 1B arguably whatever the hell you want to call him whatever that’s fine but we know he’s two right two is what he is you’re number two in the starting rotation however like again that’s fine and it could just be enough for Gallon to continue the the stretch that he had on the second half of the season rebound to be the Zack Gallon that we all knew he was from 24 and 23 and 22 and then get that big contract after the 2026 season is promised for us beyond the 2026 season. Baseball may never come back. That 20 and December 2026, that might be the end of me as a person, Damon. I might fade away into the into dust in the wind. Uh when baseball goes away, I might that again, that’s the purpose that I was on this earth for is to cover baseball. But, uh, for the for the short term, it makes a lot of sense for Gallon to take an annual value that’s more than what he’s going to receive on a longer term deal, right? With the potential that after 2026, he could get even more money. And at that point, he could potentially get that 5-year deal from the Yankees or another team. Yeah. He’d probably like to work in some sort of, you know, player option potentially in a deal like that where for like a two years. Yeah. two years with like a player option for that second year of like, well, if he doesn’t have a good season, then he can go ahead and collect 20 million more dollars uh in another basically one-year deal and just gives him a little bit more security. I don’t know if that’s something that’s up Zach’s alley, but um I’m I’m all for attempting to bring him back. I’ve said that, you know, long before like Zack Allen, Mel Kelly, I want one of those guys back this this off season and hopefully we get it. Well, you know, there you you you could say again if he does reject it and doesn’t return to this team, 4.93 erra over his last 41 starts, that date that goes back to mid2024. So that just shows that Gallon for an extended period of time has been a nearly a five erra now. Yeah, he hasn’t been himself, right? And I think I I think but like you said, the second half of 2025 is a much better a much different story. uh it does factor in overall and does get that erra down below five without the way you pitched in the second half. We would probably be talking about nearly a six RA for the for the two seasons or season and a half. It’s honestly true. I mean I I think that yeah that’s that’s the that’s the only thing that for me to saving grace like if Zack Allen finished the season out pitching how he pitched in the first half I’d be I’d be sitting here being like you know what it was he was a great Diamondback. We had a lot of great memories and and Sayanara Mr. I we wish you the best. But I think that the fact that he did pick it up and it wasn’t like a short sample size. It was basically half a season of baseball that you know he was a a quality pitcher again. The guy that we remember watching even if he wasn’t his tip top again, right? But I think that that bodess well for he’s going to he was going to always positively regress back to his average, his mean, and that is a good starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. He just didn’t have enough starts left once he did turn things around to really turn the entire season around, right? It wasn’t going to be an equitable amount of games from the first half, right? Because it’s not even That’s another dumb thing about baseball. The first half isn’t even the first half. The first half is like what a hundred games or something like that. So anyway, uh but I will say that Gallon overall makes me believe in him. But Elgo is not wrong here. Uh neither is Deborah. Deborah says please hit the like button. She’s definitely not wrong. But Elgo says he could get hurt. It’s too risky for pitchers. What’s too risky? Is he saying the the I think the longer term deal. I think like for instance with Ranger Suarez, right? A six-year deal with Gallon, you know, a long-term deal, right? And I I do think that that’s something the Diamondbacks have to that’s where they have to live in a way in order for them to get guys like Corbin Burns and Jordan McGomery. Most likely it can’t be on a long-term deal because of the fact that if they do get injured, if what happens happens, it’s devastating to this franchise. We’ve talked about the Dodgers and their money and how they they they have the money to overcome mistakes that they made with certain roster decisions and not even a roster decision, right? Just having a player get injured and having that strongly impact your team like it would any other of the 29 other fan base or or MLB teams, right? any of the other teams have a significant catastrophic injury to their best player and they are handicapped. The Dodgers could have it happen and they have three other guys waiting to step up who will probably pitch better than he did before he got injured, right? So, but when the Diamondbacks, you know, you do got to consider Suarez’s injury to his back and then Gallon’s injury with the hamstring thing, right? That seemed to be a persistent injury that started in 2024 and we saw it rear its head a little bit over the course of 2025 as well. Um, but these are things you got to take. You can’t worry about this because what happened in 2025 was such an anomaly for this team that you can’t let injuries now prevent you uh or make you gunshy on pulling the trigger on deals to bring in talent to this team to help it help it win. Yeah, I No, you absolutely cannot do that. Oh, he’s saying he’s saying one-year deals are risky for That’s kind of what I thought at first. You’re you’re right about that. I went in the other direction, but yeah, you’re right. I mean, the only reason why he could take it is once again because if the deal that they would be offered is a 4-year $18.7 million AAV deal. That’s that’s why I mean I think that that would be to your point and to our point that that would be the only reason why. And that’s why I speculated that he probably would never even take the qualifying offer. He probably would take the qualif like around that price with an added year of Yeah. Yeah. reject the qualifying offer, but sign a new deal that’s in the same ballpark as that figure, but gives them a little bit of extra financial stability of like especially a player option, not a mutual option, not a club option, but a player option. Exactly. Exactly. And and I always I saw a mutual option when I was looking at these lists yesterday and I was I started laughing thinking about what Jesse’s always said, which is like mutual options are the stupidest thing and most pointless thing in the history of baseball. Yeah, that’s not going to h that year is not going to happen. Basically, not one person. There’s never going to be a time where both team the team and the player think, “Yes, my value is exactly that. I will play for that.” There’s always going to be a disagreement on who thinks who’s valued more. Um, so hopefully we don’t ever see a mutual option this summer because we know that that just means nothing. You’re right. You’re right. But Damon, you know who I value more um than maybe not you, but maybe maybe it’s members of my family. Depends. I need to hear what who it is and then I’ll tell you. Supporters club members. Supporters club members. They mean a lot to me. Candace. Yes, of course. Candace is like our OG uh supporter club member. I feel like the minute we were like the supporter club has happened, she she hit the go button on it. And thank you to Candace like you say jump, I say how high. Yeah, that’s right. Uh but the rest of you, you can absolutely join our supporters club today. We thank you so much. We’ve been kicking ass. Uh we have the most supporters in all of Alt City. And let me tell you, we are definitely not the the strongest in numbers. Those CHGO folks came and just blew right past us with all those Chicago sports fans. But thank you. They might have more listeners in the state of Arizona than we do, Darren. They might, but people are talking about it. But but our supporters are strong and loyal and vocal and we appreciate you guys so much. You ever seen the movie 300, Dar? Yeah, exactly. That’s kind of how I feel about this is this is PHNX. Kick the guy into the endless pit. Nobody likes us and we don’t care because we got our supporters group. That’s right. But of course, you can join, get a badge, uh get access to some amazing emojis. Uh no, no offense, but we need to get ski in there. And I think the Mercury season is done. That seems mean to say, but I’m just saying. Uh Kellen, thank you so much. Appreciate you for that. Of course, uh you get access to those custom emojis to use in the chat and we get more uh the more uh supporters we add, the more emojis we get access to. So, uh this is a fun way to support us here. Uh not a payw wall, not essential content, but of course, if you already send super chats, it’s a great way for us uh to to get that support. And again, just $5 a month, uh we’re going to be bringing you some next level stuff for you Hall of Fame members as well. So you can join the Hall of Fame for 15 bucks a month to unlock some bonus content. Again, we appreciate you even if you are not part of the supporters club, especially here on this show during the offseason. We appreciate you guys for being here live. It means the world to me. It means the world to Damon. Uh and we hope you guys uh enjoy us still doing some offseason content. Uh we will be back tomorrow with another 12 PM show. Uh, but first Damon, I wanted to drop some fun facts about Toronto since this is our new adopted home. We are Canucks. You got 50 seconds, Derek. Let’s rip them. City was founded, the city of Toronto was founded in 19 or excuse me, 1793. Very old city. The population of Toronto over 2.8 million. And we welcome all of you here to this show. uh because this is now a Blue Jays podcast at least for the next uh what nine days, hopefully nine days. Uh but uh the name of Toronto, the name Toronto is believed to come from a Mohawk word meaning place where trees stand in water. Sounds like uh Vlatty Guerrero to me, right? like uh it’s it’s it’s referring to a near uh nearby portage route, but again the city of Toronto still called Toronto to this day. And again, not to not to really get involved with the Space Needle Cen Tower debate that was happening here in this office, but that was a debate that was happening. The CN Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the world. Just saying it’s a beautiful shot from inside the ballpark. But uh we are ready to go root on the Blue Jays. We will be back tomorrow with more free agency talk. We have more starting pitchers to break down and take a look at for the Arizona Diamondbacks. So, make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter at cap_caveman with a K. You can follow Damon Pooch at Damon Dog on Twitter. That’s with a D- AWG. And we are all Damon’s pooches. Bark Bark, you know, or something. I don’t know. That’s not Hey, Bark Bark. E. Uh, thank you to you guys. Of course, our shows at PHNX_DAX, but as always, all roads lead to PHNX_ports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being here. We thank you for now being Blue Jays fans. We will see you tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. Until then, have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it’s way more fun if you actively root against the Dodgers. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Now that all is said and done, we commit our fandom to the Toronto Blue Jays as they face off with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series starting on Friday. From George Springer’s home run to Julio Rodriguez’s scream of anguish, we preview the matchup and give our thought on if the Jays can take down the Blue Crew. We also dive into free agent starting pitching options for the Arizona Diamondbacks and discuss if Ranger Suarez is worth the cost or if Zac Gallen could be a much cheaper option with similar career numbers.

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