Did The Blue Jays Actually Win The Daulton Varsho Trade? | Snakes Territory

Did The Blue Jays Actually Win The Daulton Varsho Trade? | Snakes Territory

Hello and welcome to another episode of Snakes Territory. I am Jesse Freriedman and uh Jack, there have been riots in the streets in downtown Phoenix because you haven’t been on an episode of Snakes Territory in a full week at this point. So good to have you back, sir. Welcome back to the show. I missed you and I missed everybody else. It’s great to be back. The one and only Jack Summers, ladies and gentlemen, back with us here on this edition of Snakes Territory. Uh, and of course, Snakes Territory is presented by Fox One. Before we get into some Diamondbacks related stuff, we wanted to talk a little bit about this World Series matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and the air and not the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m apparently living in some sort of a fantasy land here in my head. Uh and uh of course, Jack, this brings back memories of the trade that the Diamondbacks made with the Toronto Blue Jays a few years ago. Dalton Vo is still a member of the Blue Jays. He’s had uh he was hurt for a good portion of the season, but he went on and to put up pretty good numbers while he was healthy. And in the postseason, he’s been a pretty big part of uh of the Blue Jays having the success that they’ve had. And I’m really happy to see Dalton doing really well. He’s a he’s a really good guy. Um very humble, very straightforward, very honest person. Um and uh you know, he was always really nice to talk to. I wrote some stories about him when he made the transition to the outfield. Um, you know, he was struggling defensively as a catcher as a younger guy and then he flipped into the outfield and almost was elite from almost the very beginning. Um, and so I had some really great conversations. Wrote a long article about that at one point back on Diamondbacks on SI. Uh, and it was really fascinating to just listen to him talk about the people that helped him figure it out. Not the least of which was his father, Gary Vo, who was a major league outfielder. Now, of course, as I as I mentioned, Jack, we can’t help but think about Dalton Vo and not think about the big trade that the Diamondbacks made with Toronto several years ago in December. Of course, it was Vare going to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Gabriel Moreno, who’s still a member of the Diamondbacks along with Lordis Gerel Jr. Uh, who wouldn’t have been a member of the Diamondbacks at this point had the Dbacks not signed him to an additional contract. So, Guriel, uh, his tenure with Arizona continues. Obviously, he’s hurt going into going into next year, unfortunately. Uh, but yeah, this was a fascinating trade at the time, Jack. I was I thought it made a lot of sense for the Diamondbacks at the time. And I think if you would ask people in the more immediate aftermath of the deal, I guess, and going into that 2023 season afterward, I think the consensus, at least here locally in Arizona, was that the Diamondbacks made a pretty good trade for themselves. Gabriel Moreno was a huge part of the team success in 2023. He was hitting third for them, you know, in the World Series. I mean, through a a big portion of that postseason run, he was right in the middle of their lineup doing big things. Uh, but on the flip side, this that was not at all to say that Daltton Vo has been a bad player for the Blue Jays. I mean, especially you look at the numbers he’s put up the past couple years when healthy. He’s been one of the most valuable outfielders in all of baseball. In large part because, as you said, he’s just an unbelievable defender. Yeah, it’s really interesting to look back at these types of things. Um, you know, in my mind, I look at this as a win-win trade. Clearly, the Diamondbacks, you know, hit a home run as far as what they needed. They had no catching depth in the organization, and they got a gold glove catcher out of it immediately in 2023. Uh, Gabby’s defense hasn’t quite been up to that standard the last couple of years, but his bat keeps getting better. Um, and hopefully the pitch calling and all of that comes around a little quicker uh over the next, you know, 12- 18 months as well. Um, but Gabriel Marino has been a tremendous asset for this team and he’s just he’s had some really big moments and really big hits. In 2023, Lordis Guriel Jr., you know, was all-star caliber outfielder. He actually had his best defensive season of his life and, you know, he was a key member of the team. Um, now when I compare these guys numerically, I don’t include Lordis after 23 because there’s a separate deal that brought him back on free agency after he was, you know, free to go explore free agency for a month and a half, two months, and then he finally signed back with the Diamondbacks, but that’s a completely separate deal. So, you know, if you look at the big picture, um, numerically, it’s actually been pretty even. Uh if I look at Lordis’s uh you know war production in 23 as well as Gabriel Marino’s uh war production from 23 to 25 and total those up it comes out to 11.4. And if you look at Dalton Varo’s war value from 23 to 25 it comes out to 11.3. So it’s virtually the same value in as far as the head-to-head players. Um what’s interesting to look at in the table that’s on your screen is how much of the value has been derived from defense on both ends. Yeah. So with Marshall 65 R fielding runs that’s based on baseball information solutions that’s up at baseball reference is just a phenomenal number. He also avoids double plays and runs the bases well. Um because of uh despite his power be because of low batting average and OBP, his batting runs are actually negative negative8. And on the other side, you know, you look at Lordis and Gabriel Marino, there are 14 for Lordis, which is a phenomenal number, and 28 for Gabby, 20 of which came in 2023. So they’ve totaled 42. So, both ends of the deal have held up extremely well on defense. And then the last thing to look at is the money. Um, you know, what the Dbacks have paid so far to date on this is about 8 million, whereas the Blue Jays have paid 17 million. So, it’s not a huge difference, but certainly an advantage. Diamondbacks, where the advantage gets bigger is going forward because Daltton Vos only has one more year left uh in arbitration. he’s projected to make 11 million and then he’s a free agent. Whereas Moreno has three years of free agency of arbitration and he’s projected to make 2.1 million uh coming up in 2.1 or 2.4 depending on your source coming up in 2026. So I look at this as a win-win situation. I mean, if you just want to look at a value calculator, the DBACK should come out ahead um both in total war and in dollar value or you know, value above uh replacement uh from a dollar standpoint, but it’s not not a huge margin. Yeah. And one the last thing I’ll say on this is like the one big thing that people have always pointed to is hey, you know, Gabby and Lordis helped get the Dbacks to a World Series. Well, now Varial’s done the same thing for Toronto, so that kind of evens things up a little bit, too. So, anyway, uh, you know, not saying that Blue Jays won the trade or anything like that. Um, this is a classic win-win trade. Uh, you know, Toronto was dealing from a position of strength. They had Kirk, Alejandra Kirk, and Danny Jansen. Um, you know, and they’ve done fine. Kirk has been equally valuable as Moreno over the last three years, maybe even more so if you include all the framing that you show over at Fangraphs. So, you know, I think that Toronto got what they needed out of it, dealing from their strength. The Dbacks dealt from their outfield depth and they got what they needed out of it. And every trade should work out this good. It is interesting that now I mean the Diamondbacks could really use Daltton Vo now. uh the the traffic jam that was in the outfield is not really there anymore. I mean, obviously Corbin Carroll is firmly planted in an outfield spot for a long time, but as we’ve already discussed, Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy, those guys struggled this past year. It wouldn’t does doesn’t seem all that unlikely that one or both of those guys could be moved in the off season. Also, with Lordis Guriel now being hurt, that opens up a spot in left field. So, the Dbacks could use a Daltton Marshall at this point, Jack. But they also can use a Gabrielle Moreno. I mean, if he was not on this roster going into 2026, then that would be a really big question that we would be having year in and year out is how are the Diamondbacks going to solve the catching position? And it feels in general that finding a long-term solution at catcher, maybe that has a little more value than finding a long-term solution in the outfield. Outfielders, I think, in general, are just sort of easier to find. It’s easier to plug a hole in the outfield than it is at your frontline catcher spot. But at the same time, I mean, Daltton Bar Jack, he’s more than just plugging a hole. I mean, he has really emerged as when healthy, a really, really good player. I’m looking at his 2026, Jack, and wondering if he could go out and have like a six war season. I mean, I you and I were chatting before we hopped on the air. You you called him like a war cheat code where he puts up absurd war numbers because of his crazy defense. If he were able to combine that with decent offense, which I think there’s some decent offense in there. I mean, he had 20 home runs in 71 games this year. If he can get the on base percentage up 20 or 30 points going into next year, he could have a six or seven worse season. And then I’d be fascinated to know what the offers for him would look like next winter. I mean, that is a really, really valuable player. Yeah. You know, the one thing I’m surprised that Vsho, he was a really good bunter. And I always thought that one thing that was going to help him was his ability to get down a bunt and drag a bunt and go run up the first baseline because he’s fast. Um, you know, and and keep his batting average and OBP from sliding when he’s slumping. U, but he hasn’t really done that much. you know, the teams just no swing for the fence. I think personally I I’ and I’ve talked to players about this. They can’t help it. They look up at the board and they know their numbers. They know their batting average and it puts pressure on them. And I’ve always believed this like these fast guys that could lay one down, stretch out a hit, get on base, contribute that way. It just takes so much pressure off them when they’re in the middle of a slump to actually do something positive like that for the team and with their numbers. And I always thought that that’s something he could and should utilize more. Yeah. Well, for those of you wanting us to declare a firm winner, Dbacks or Blue Jays in this trade, I think we’re going to leave you disappointed. I think Jack and I both kind of land on the win-win as being the final conclusion here. I will say uh in agreement with what you said earlier though, Jack, that there is still more time. I mean, Dalton Vo has one more season. Gabriel Moreno has three more with the Diamondbacks. You figure maybe the Dbacks take a take a lead on paper if Moreno goes out and has three great years. Certainly that could happen, but as of right now, this seems like a great trade for both teams. And hey, both teams get a World Series out of it, which is really the the ultimate goal at the end of the day. Uh we’ve got a whole lot more to get to in this show. Jack, was there anything you wanted to to add on that? I just want to say that um you know if if you asked either GM, either team whether they would do that trade over again, they both say yes. Yeah. Yeah, that is a that is a great point. And I mean that’s maybe that’s the best judge for whether a team has sort of won a trade or won their end of a trade is would they want to do it again? And I think the both front offices, both fan bases, I think would totally agree. Yeah, you would do that trade again. There’s no way the Diamondbacks make it to the World Series in 2023 without Gabriel Moreno doing what he did. And and I imagine Blue Jays fans maybe feel similarly about Daltton Varo this year. Even though he was uh he was hurt for a good portion of the season, he’s been great in the postseason. And certainly as the as the World Series uh approaches, we’re just about 24 hours away. I imagine Dbacks fans will not have a hard time deciding who to cheer for in this World Series. It is probably going to be uh uh every everyone we are all Canadian uh for for the for the next the next few uh week or two as this series plays out. So uh and and obviously Daltton Bar Show, former Diamondback that gives everybody a player to be to be rooting for along the way. Somebody that people around here are familiar with. So uh so yeah, certainly wish Daltton Varo all the best. Hope to see him do some big things here in the World Series coming up. Uh, we have a whole lot more to get to in this episode, Jack. I know you wrote recently about some big offseason dates. Uh, there’s a a roster crunch looming in the not too distant future. We’ll dive into that as well, but before we do that, it is time for our DraftKings player spotlight. Well, Jack, here in uh in just the past few days, the Diamondbacks had several players named Silver Slugger finalists. Uh nei none of these were surprising on my end at all whatsoever. Corbin Carroll in the outfield, Catel Marte at second base, Heraldo Purdomo at shortstop, and I know you’ve uh done some digging on each of their cases, Jack, and it seems like all three guys should be in a in a pretty good spot. Yeah, I mean, if if if everybody’s got it right, I think that all three Diamondbacks should respectively win the Silver Slugger. Uh there should be three of them when they do the presentation next year at Chase Field. Yeah. And the Dbacks also were uh received a nomination for the offensive team of the year for the National League. That is also something they’re doing. They’re one of three finalists there. Uh Jack, I feel a little bit less confident about their their ability to win that team team-based award. Yeah, I mean they might have had a shot, you know, had they not made the moves that they made at the trade deadline. They team overall was better. Um, the defense was better, the pitching was better, but the offense was more middle of the pack from August on than it was in the top three or two as it had been all year. Um, so, you know, I don’t think that they really have a shot there, but it just speaks to how good the offense was up through the first two, four months of the season. Yeah, very, very well said. We’ll see what happens with all of these awards, but certainly impressive for any team to have three individual players finish as finalists for the silver slugger. Pretty impressive stuff there. We’ll uh Yeah. Again, we’ll see. We’ll see how this turns out. Where where were we going to talk about those numbers I sent you? Yeah. Yeah. If I don’t have I don’t have graphics to show here, but we can we can uh we can walk through those real quick. Yeah. So, you know, they the the criteria they look at OPS, OPS plus, home runs, things like that. And then the managers also uh vote on it. But, you know, for me, what I look at um is war batting runs, right? So, that’s linear weights based, the value of a single, a double, a triple, a home run, and a walk in all of those events along with their strikeouts and outs and double plays. And so one of the things that I found really interesting and I’m just going to read off a few numbers for you guys here. So if you look first at shortstop, this is war batting runs. Heraldo Padomo 32.4, Francisco Lindor 25, Trey Turner 18.8. Those are sizable differences. Um you know I I mean I if you look at the total package of what Heraldo Padomo bought. Yes. Lindor had more home runs. Yes, Turner had a higher batting average. But if you look at the total package and the total balance along with, you know, getting on base, getting all the base hits, driving in runs, RBI’s, I don’t see how anyone but Purdomo can win it. It should be an easy choice. It may not be. There’s big market teams involved. There’s a guy with a big homer total involved. Um, you know, it is called the silver slugger award. So, you know, I’m not ignoring that. But I do believe that Predomo should be the easy choice there. Then you go over to um the outfield. Juan Sto clearly, you know, 47.4. Number two is Corbin Carroll 297. And then you have Tatis Jr. and Tucker essentially the same at 256 and 255. And then James Wood who’s one of the finalist at 223. So I think that you know Carol should be a pretty easy number two in there. And then they just got to figure out who they want to go for number three. Um, and then when you get to second base, again, it’s not even close. Catel 9.8, Bryce Tang 18.4, Nicoer 7.2. I mean, you know, this that should be a landslide. So, Debb’s a case to have all three guys take home the silver slugger. Yeah, it feels like Gel Marte could take home quite a few silver sluggers when all is said and done at second base in the National League. I I just don’t think there’s anybody who really compares. Obviously, he won the the award last year as well. Uh maybe there’s a nice run of second base Silver Slugger awards to be had for him. Pretty impressive again, Jack, to have all these guys finish as finalists and as you said, each of them has a pretty darn good case to win. We’ll see what happens on that front. Uh well, if you’ve never bet on baseball before, you can do so with our friends over at DraftKings Sportsbook. The 2025 baseball season, of course, is down to what matters most. Lifting the trophy. New customers, this one is for you. Bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get paid out $300 in bonus bets instantly. This is what October Baseball is all about. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code foul. That’s code foul to turn five bucks into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. But before we get to the disclaimer, which I’ll play here in a second, uh we have a pick that we want to share with all of you as well as the World Series uh comes into play. What do you What do you got here, Jack? Um I like Will Smith for the one plus home run at plus 660. Um, you know, he’s he hits right-handed pitching really well. He hit over 300 with plenty of power. I think 13 home runs against right-handed pitching. Trey Savage is actually a flyball pitcher. You wouldn’t know that by looking at his 14 major league innings this year um in the regular season. Um, but if you look at his minor league track record and then he’s reverted back to being a flyball pitcher in the postseason. And Will Smith is one of the best Dodger hitters against flyball pitchers. So that combination of factors and Will Smith, he’s doing okay. You know, his batting average and on base in the postseason is really good. He hasn’t hit for power yet. Um, you know, so I think he’s due to pop one. Look, everyone’s going to pick, you know, Otani, but you’re not going to make anything on it. Yeah. You know, whereas in this case, I think Will Will Smith’s a good dark horse to kind of break out, hit a home run in this first game. There’s some things that line up for him. So, I like the bet at plus 660. There you go. Well, as I said earlier, uh this is what October baseball is all about. And you can use code foul to turn five bucks into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1800 gambler. In New York, call 8778 openwire or text hope 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. on behalf of Bootill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Pass through of per wager tax may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkg.co/audio. Limited time offer. We are back here on Snakes territory. Jack, I know you’ve been hard at work as usual, uh, cooking some stuff up over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI trying to keep people engaged as we walk through the off season. And something that I always find very helpful that you write every single year is a story about some of the key offseason dates, uh, an offseason transaction calendar that people can be aware of. And there’s a whole lot of dates in here that are pretty important that I’m not sure people really know about. So on the front end, I’d love to have you just kind of walk through and hit some of the highlights. Yeah. You know, from my time working in the front office, I got very much in tune with the with the calendar and the sequence of events and the things that you need to focus on as they come one by one down the pike. Um, so it’s just an area where I’ve always been really interested in to line it out and help crystallize thought processes. So, one day after the World Series, 9:00 a.m. after the conclusion of the World Series, the earliest that might be is October 29th, um the latest it would be would be November 2nd is when free agency starts. So, eligible free agents under rule XXB or 20B in CBA uh is players those players with six or more years of service time are now free agents. Um and then the first five days after that uh are what they call the quiet period. So those free agents may only sign with their current organizations. After 5 days, free agents may then begin negotiations and sign with any team. So Dbacks have three free agents. Zach Gallon, James McCann, Jaylen Beaks. Those guys are all going to be free agents at 9:00 a.m. the day after the World Series is over. Um the trade market officially opens one day after the World Series is over as well. So then you go to day five and up through uh there are three t options, qualifying offers and opt out decisions deadline so that by day five those decisions need to be made. In the past the Diamondbacks had lots of players with player options, club options, mutual options. They don’t have that this year actually. Um it’s pretty clean as far as that concerned. Uh the qualifying offer, the Dbacks, if they’re going to make their qualifying offer to Zack Gallon, which they almost surely will, that must be done by the end of the day five, which is the end of the quiet period. Um and then going forward from there, um you also have opt outs. Now, had Lordis not gotten hurt, um he may have been a consider he may may have been considering opting out of his contract. An opt out and a player option is a different thing. Um, and but he probably will not exercise his opt out. And then finally, and this is important, and we’re going to circle back to this, teams must reinstate all players on the 60-day injured list to the 40man roster. I think a lot of you are probably aware that, you know, in order to open up space, sometimes on the 40man roster, a guy will be transferred to the 60-day IIL. Well, all those guys, Dbacks of nine of them, need to be put back on, right? And again, that’s a whole topic that we’re going to get into that that they need to be put back onto the roster. Um, and of course, the roster can’t exceed 40 players. So, there’s a lot that goes into that. Then after that, November 10th starts a general manager meeting in Las Vegas. There’s an owners meeting in uh November 18th to the 20th in New York. And that’s going to be a pretty important date because this year, you know, how committed the owners are to holding the line on a lockout if they don’t get what they want in terms of a salary cap. You know, we may have a little bit more indication of just how dug in they are there. I think don’t be surprised. Yeah. Um, November 18th is the deadline for the players to either accept or reject their qualifying offer. And it’s also a very important date from the team’s uh standpoint uh because that’s the deadline to add players to the 40man roster who they want to protect from the rule five draft. Okay, so that’s another consideration on the 40man. So, if there’s players that are rule five eligible, minor league players that are not on the 40man that the team doesn’t want to leave unprotected in the rule five draft, they got to put them on the roster by November 18th. Then November 21 is the tender deadline. So, all those guys that are there’s 11 players that are arbitration eligible, they all need to be tendered or contract by November 21. If anyone’s non-tendered, that means they’ll become a free agent. So, in other words, if there was a player that the Diamondbacks decided they don’t want to pay him arbitration wages, they don’t think they’re worth it, um they’re going to non-tender them and allow that player to go into free agency. Then there’s the winter meetings December 8th to 11th in Orlando, Florida. Um and what among interest the rule five draft takes place uh during the winter meetings as does the MLB draft lottery. Then the last couple of items, December 15th, the international signing period closes. So for 2025, so if teams still had any budget aotment remaining and there was an international player they wanted to sign, they got to get that done before December 15th. Then the the uh teams and arbitration eligible players that have not yet reached agreement will then exchange arbitration figures on January 8th. Okay. So, something to keep in mind there, the Dbacks have a uh uh you know, file and trial type mentality. If they don’t make a deal before that deadline and they decide to file for arbitration, they very seldom go back in and make an agreement before the trial. Uh but they can make an agreement right up until the start of the hearing. Um then finally January 25th uh is the uh start of the new international signing period and March 2nd through 11th team may renew contracts of unsigned major league players under rule 10. So, if you have a pre-arbitration player and they think that they deserve a pretty hefty raise anyway and the team doesn’t want to give it to them, um the team can make the decision to just pay them league minimum or marginally above league minimum. That’s what they’re referring to as renewing a contract. So, that’s the the the quick run through. You can find all of this information in an article I wrote. Um, I published it on October 19th. Diamondback’s guide to 202526 offseason transaction calendar. You can find that on Arizona Diamondbacks on SI si.commlbdiamondbacks. So go there, find that article and bookmark it. And then you’ll, you know, or put those dates into your phone calendar and you’ll be able to follow along with everybody what’s going on during the offseason. You won’t be surprised by developments. There you go. Good stuff. Uh yeah, I mean we’ll we’ll certainly have more conversations about some of these things along the way. Uh obviously the winter meetings, we’ll be having all sorts of conversations about what we’re what uh the rumors are that are circulating there. And then once we get closer to a couple of the deadlines you mentioned, Jack, the rule five draft, we’ll have a more in-depth conversation about who the debucks might want to protect there. I think there are some names. And then as far as the tender deadline, they have a couple of guys that you could argue um you know are non-tender candidates. So we’ll have we’ll have those discussions coming up here soon. But I want to narrow in, Jack, on what you referenced earlier, which is the fact that they have a roster crunch coming not too far away. Right. This is day five after the World Series, the end of the quiet period where the Diamondbacks have to add all of those guys, all nine of them that you mentioned that they put on the 60-day IIL. All those guys have to come back to the 40man roster, which means that they’re going to have to they’re going to have to remove some guys who are currently on the 40man roster as part of that process. Uh so, Jack, yeah. Yeah. What uh what were you gonna say there? So, simple math, right? You have 39 guys currently on the 40man roster. You drop three when they become free agents. Zack Allen, McCann, and Jaylen Beak. So that’s 36. You add nine, that gets you to 45, right? So at the very least, by the end of the five-day choir period, they will have need to callull down five players off the 40man roster. Now, later on, they’re going to have to go even further than that if they want to add anybody for the rule five to protect from the rule five draft, but we’re not there yet. That’s a little further down the road. Um, so what we what I looked at here was, you know, okay, of those nine once those nine guys who are Corbin Burns, Kevin Ginkle, Tommy Henry, Justin Martinez, Christian Mena, Christian Montes, Dioa, AJ Puck, Blake Walston, and Paven Smith. Those are the nine guys that have to be reinstated. Yeah. So once you reinstate those nine, that brings you to 45. So, who are the players most likely to have to be removed? Um, you know, this is speculation on my part. I do not have inside information. This is just my guessing or using an informed guess if you want to say. Uh, but don’t anyone mistake this for insidefo um because it’s not. Um, but higher probability outright candidates might be Elvin Rodriguez, Gus Varland, um, unfortunately Kyle Nelson, who just had a really rough season, and, uh, infielder Connor Kaiser, who was brought up and then never played. Um, so that’s four right there that I think are pretty high likelihoods. And then at least one more player from the following list is likely to be removed. John Curtis, Casey Kelly, Tommy Henry, Austin Pope, and Taylor Rashi along with infielder Ilmar Vargas. By the way, there’s a lot of confusion about Vargas. He is under team control for one more year. If they want him, he’s arbitration eligible. So, you know, Nelson, Kyle Nelson, John Curtis, and Vargas are all arbitration eligible players, and they’re going to earn more than the league minimum. So that could be something that they factor in when making these decisions. Uh because they are also under a dollar crunch as we’ve discussed before. They’re cutting payroll. So that’s that’s kind of the the first things, you know, if we look at the first things that are going to happen immediately after the World Series is over. You got three guys turning free agents and then within five days you have to add nine guys. Now, the process for all of this is they put the guys on waivers and if they clear waivers, then they outwrite them. So, that’s why they call it outright waivers. And there’s a whole segment of another article over on our website that explains that full uh procedure and how that works. So, but outright waivers is the process that is used to uh clear players through waivers and then allow them to outright them to the minor leagues. So, yeah. So, just to be super clear, if the Dbacks were to do that with one of these guys, it doesn’t guarantee that they are out of the organization. Correct? It just means that if they if they if they don’t clear, then they would be out of the organization. But if they clear, then you would have the opportunity to outwite them to to the minors, then they could continue to be in the organization. Right now, I mean, you know, players with more than five years major league service time could reject the assignment. Sure. And um players with more than three years of major league service time who have or who have previously been outrighted may reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency in le of the assignment. So you know there’s some complicating factors there. Again this is all kind of explained on the website. Um you know that might result in it. So, we don’t know exactly how all of the, you know, the money factors, uh, who’s been outrighted before, who the Diamondbacks really want to keep no matter what, um, who they’re more willing to let go of. We don’t, you know, I’m not sitting in their offices listening to them go through all of these factors. Uh, so there’s a long list of players. Um, some may be no longer with the organization or some may be outrighted off the 40man roster and remain in the organization with the Reno Aces. The last thing I’ll I’ll say about this, Jack, is I think just big picture, you know, I mean, this is something the Dbacks do every year. It’s not specific to this off seasonason, although it’s a little more interesting this off season because they have so many guys on the 60-day that they have to add to the 40man. I think big picture, Jack, the depth on this 40man roster is frankly not awesome. And so these decisions that the Dbacks are having to make, they’re going to be tough decisions. And I mean, these are all real human beings, right? I mean, I don’t want to belittle um the impact that these kinds of decisions would would have for all those people, but big picture, the Diamondbacks are are there. I think there are going to be other teams with harder decisions to make. You know, players that you really wouldn’t want to lose that maybe you have to. I’m not sure the Dbacks are in a position where, you know, there’s all sorts of guys that you’d love to be able to keep around as depth that you don’t have the ability to. Unfortunately, that was an issue in the organization that was very much exposed throughout this past season. They didn’t have the depth that they needed when those frontline guys got hurt. And uh and so yeah, I mean that unfortunately that’s I don’t think these decisions are are going to be what maybe you would have liked them to be if you were in a in a better spot. Yeah. Well, unfortunately a lot of a lot of the second line got hurt too. Yeah. Right. Especially, you know, in the bullpen side. But uh but yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, the fact that they have so many guys coming in off the 60-day is one thing. That’s a long list. the fact that there’s a fairly long list of players that they could or will consider removing from the roster uh without feeling like they’re, you know, giving up the the farm is also quite telling. Yeah. Yeah. Very fair. Well, again, that’s just day five after the World Series ends, so we’re not all that far away from these decisions coming down the pipeline. So, uh, you can certainly count on us here at Snakes Territory to break all of them down once we, uh, once we know a little bit more on that front. We have one more topic to get to on this show, Amile Sadday. Uh, some news relating to the DVAC assistant general manager. We will get to that on the other side of this break. Well, as we’ve been talking about throughout much of this episode, the moment that you’ve all been waiting for, uh, has arrived. The World Series. Of course, Diamondback’s not involved, but still a big event. Uh, the two two teams take the field, but only one will leave a champion. Every swing could change the game. Every play could make history. And you can stream the World Series live over on Fox One. Uh, of course, Jack, the first game is going to be on Friday night. I believe we have pitching matchups at this point. I think I saw Yamamoto against Trey Yusich as you were you were talking about earlier. That’s correct. Yeah. I’m sorry. Blake Snell. Blake Snell’s pitching the first game. Ah, okay. So, it’s Blake Snell. Blake Snell for game one and then you’re right, then Yamamoto for game two for the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, uh, should be fun to watch. I mean, even though the Diamondbacks are not involved, the Dodgers are, and that instantly means that, again, Dbacks fans sort of know who they’re cheering for, I think, in this series. Um, I think it’ll be really interesting, Jack, to see what the Dodgers pitching looks like against the Blue Jays. Uh, I don’t want to like say the Brewers offense is terrible because it’s not, but the Blue Jays offense, I think, is considerably better. They have star power. They have George Springer. They have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and they also have a lot of depth in their lineup that the Milwaukee Brewers just did not have. So, I wonder what it could look like if the Blue Jays are able to knock out some of these Dodgers starters earlier in games and then at that point, you’re getting into that Dodgers bullpen that we really expected would be an issue in the postseason. Up to this point, it hasn’t been because their starters are all going like six or seven innings every single time. Yeah. And unfortunately for the Dodgers and especially for Alex Vessie and his family, uh just before we started recording this episode, news came out that Alex Vessia would uh not be available um because he has a family issue apparently quite a serious one um and that him and his wife have to deal with. And so I don’t know the details of what that is. Uh you know, just all the best thoughts go out to Alex Vessia. Uh you know, from a performance standpoint on the field, that’s a loss for the Dodgers bullpen and weakens them further in the area that they could least afford to be weakened. Um you know, and Roki Sasaki, I mean, he’s going to have to continue to be lights out. um you know, closing out games and finishing out games, but like you said, if the starters don’t keep going six, seven innings, um they really could be in trouble there. Um you know, the the flip side of that is is, you know, the Blue Jays pitching staff is pretty tired even though they’ve had a few days off here. Um they’re not as well rested as the Dodgers pitching staff. So, you know, the Dodgers may the bats may really have their way. They didn’t score a lot um during their, you know, their playoff runs so far. Um so I I have a sneaky feeling that Dodger bats are going to wake up here. Yeah, very uh very fair point. I guess the flip side of the argument I made earlier is that the Blue Jays pitching staff is not exactly perfect and the Dodgers offense is very very very good. Uh so maybe maybe we have some highscoring games ahead of us. Will be interesting to see what happens. Of course, you can take in all of the World Series action with our friends over at Fox One. Start your free 7-day your 7-day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox One for complete terms and conditions. Well, Jack, I mentioned it earlier. Our final topic here on this episode has to do with Amile Sad, longtime Diamondbacks assistant general manager under Mike Hazen. He reportedly is a finalist for the Rocky’s general manager job that recently opened up. Uh not the first time we’ve heard Amile Saday’s name floated out there as an option for another team. I have long suspected that eventually another organization would pry him away. Hasn’t happened up to this point. The Rocky’s job, Jack, is especially interesting because, well, the Rockies are just a bit of a different organization, uh, shall we say. They they just seem to operate a little bit differently. They’re, uh, their front office has not exactly been highly regarded in recent years. And if I’m als trying to get all the information I can about exactly what authority I would be given in this job. Uh I think that is a massive massive question for anyone thinking about being the Rocky’s GM. While I think Amile’s been mentioned as a potential GM candidate for quite a number of years, I don’t ever think he’s been a finalist for one. Yeah. And there’s only 30 of these positions. And I have to think that unless he doesn’t, you know, feel comfortable at all with the amount of autonomy he would get, he’s got to take it. I mean, there’s nowhere to go from they just lost 119 games. There’s nowhere to go but up. I mean, if you got that team back to 500 within a couple of years, you’re you’re you’re, you know, executive of the year, you know. So, I mean, really, there is there is nowhere to go but up, uh, as far as that organization’s concerned. Um, so, you know, I think it would be pretty cool. It would be tough for the Dbacks to lose him. Uh, especially to a division rival who he’ll probably make better. Then there’s always a question of who he might take with him, who the Diamondbacks would allow him to take with him. Uh, you know, there there’s all sorts of agreements, handshakes, whatever that can be made around that. I don’t know how u how much they formalize it. Obviously, the Dbacks gave him permission, gave the Rockies permission to talk to him because it’s an upward move, not a lateral move. A lot of times teams will deny other clubs uh from the uh talking to one of their people if it’s a lateral move, but if it’s an upward move, they they almost always say yes, go for it. You know, they’re not going to hold him back. So, interesting times. Uh you know, we’ll see what happens with it. Uh there’s another there’s at least one other finalist. Um I think is Matt Foreman is Matt Foreman is the other finalist uh that we know of for sure. There could be others. Um, but it, you know, the thing here is they’re going outside the organization. So, I got a feeling that, you know, since they’re not promoting from within and they’re going outside the organization, they’re recognizing the need to like, you know, do it completely different than that what they’ve done before. Yeah. Yeah. And I I really am curious the dynamics with it being a a divisional team if the Dbacks were more hesitant to give permission for this if that didn’t factor in at all. I mean, Amile Sad would would make the Rockies a lot better, I think. And uh you know, a part of that is that I I do think very highly of Amade. You and I have both gotten to to interact with him a fair bit the past few years. He’s a he’s a great guy on a on a personal level. He has a long track record of being a wellrespected front office member. Uh but you know part part of my thinking on this is also that the Rockies I mean what they’ve been the past few years has just been an utter disaster. And if you go from utter disaster to a sane day I mean I think that is a pretty darn big upgrade. And I wonder if the Dbacks wouldn’t want to be helping out a team that they’re playing 13 times every season uh to that extent. But I guess on the flip side like okay if it is an amal saw day they’re you know the Rockies maybe would just get some other uh some other front office person who would also make them a lot better and maybe at that point the Dbacks are just willing to go out there and and as you said earlier give give him an opportunity since it’s an upward an upward move. Yeah. I mean basically they can’t say no to the Iraqis uh request to speak with Amu. They they can’t. what they can say no to is, you know, agreeing for like him to take anybody from the Dbacks organization for one to two to three years or whatever. Sure. So, you know, and I think it’s important to kind of remember a little bit about Amile’s background. I mean, you know, he’s very heavily enscconced in the Red Sox minor league development. Um, back when in his Red Sox days and, uh, you know, the the directors of, uh, minor league uh, organizations, they kind of report into Amile. He’s still very much heavily involved in that. Um, you know, he’s not a scout at this point. Uh but you know, I think that you look at a team like the Rockies where player development is going to be ultimately uh important. I think that Amo will definitely bring a lot to the table um from that standpoint. Of course, he understands all the, you know, transactional rules and and all of that as well. Um just extremely intelligent, like you said, a good guy. Um you know, I’ve enjoyed almost every interaction I’ve ever had with him, I think. Um he’s always been very professional and at the same time, you know, warm, friendly person. Uh so I I think he’ll do great. I think that he’s got a great reputation and uh you know, I wish him the best of luck. I hope he gets it, honestly. Well, on that note, that is everything we have for this edition of Snakes Territory. We really appreciate all of you being here with us along the way. If you haven’t already, be sure to hit that subscribe button. Make sure you uh sign up for notifications as well for our channel here if you haven’t done that already. Drop a like on this video. That really helps us out. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you thought of any of the many topics we hit on this episode. If you’re joining us over on an audio only platform, we’d also really appreciate it if you’d leave us a fivestar review over there. You can find me on Twitter, Jessef Freiedman. You can find Jack at Shoeizard59. Our show is Snakes Territory. And as we referenced throughout much of this episode as well, you can find Jack’s written work over at si.commlbdiamondbacks. Thanks again to all of you for being with us on this episode. We really appreciate it and we’ll be back with another edition of Snakes Territory very, very soon.

With Daulton Varsho playing a meaningful role for the World Series-bound Toronto Blue Jays, we revisit the trade that sent Varsho to Toronto and brought Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to the D-backs. Despite positive early returns for the D-backs, has Varsho’s surge the past couple of seasons given the Blue Jays the upper hand? We dive in to the numbers.

Next, we discuss all of the key dates that you should be aware of this offseason. Who are the most likely candidates to be left off the 40-man roster during the looming roster crunch?

Finally, we discuss Amiel Sawdaye being among the finalists for the Rockies’ GM job. Would the D-backs really allow Sawdaye to lead a divisional opponent? Join Jesse Friedman and Jack Sommers on Snakes Territory.

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code FOUL, bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins.

Presented by FOX One: Start your 7-day free trial today at https://tinyurl.com/FOXOneFreeTrial.

00:00 Intro
01:32 Daulton Varsho playing big role for World Series-bound Blue Jays
03:48 Who won the Varsho trade?
13:43 D-backs have three Silver Slugger finalists
21:02 MLB Offseason Transaction Calendar
28:56 Looming 40-man roster crunch
40:23 Amiel Sawdaye among finalists for Rockies GM job
46:20 Outro