Full Transcript for D-backs Miss Playoffs for Third Straight Year After Losing Game 162

it was the worst possible scenario for the Diamondbacks. I mean, the Phillies being able to start earlier, going up against a pitcher that they seldom are able to hit. And, you know, they weren't able to hit until he got out of the game, basically. They did fight. They did try to get back in the game, even knowing that they had no chance. They still Did their best. They tied up the game, you know, after being down. But ultimately they fell short in this game. And maybe that's a microcosm for how the season worked out in general. 00:03:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think very much so. 00:03:40 Speaker 2: Right. 00:03:41 Speaker 1: I mean, this Diamondbacks team has shown a lot of fight over the course of the year. Certainly they showed some fight over the past week and the fact that they even made it to game 162. But yeah, at the same time, I'm not sure that's much consolation for this fan base right now. The Diamondbacks, as we said earlier, they've now missed the playoffs three years in a row, going back to that World Series run in 2023. And man, it sure felt similar the past few years, Jack. For three consecutive seasons, the Diamondbacks have had a chance to make the playoffs, entering an end-of-season series against the San Diego Padres. And in each of the last three years, they have lost that series, including this one. They ultimately lose two out of three here to the Padres. And you mentioned Randy Vasquez earlier. He tossed six scoreless innings back in 2024 in that that must win game on that Saturday. Diamondbacks lose that one five to nothing. And Vasquez was the starting pitcher in that game. He was the starting pitcher again. And this one was six innings of one run ball. 00:04:45 Speaker 2: So. 00:04:46 Speaker 1: Certainly, it wasn't like the D-backs had a great chance to make the postseason entering this weekend series. I think this year versus 2024, definitely a different feel there. But yeah, also kind of bizarre to see the Diamondbacks season end in such a similar way for three straight years now. 00:05:05 Speaker 2: Well, baby steps, right? I mean, last year they came in here and they needed to sweep to get in and they were done by Friday. This year they made it to Sunday. So Maybe next year. 00:05:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess that's one way of viewing it. The other pre-game event that had a big impact on at least the feel of this game was that Gabriel Moreno was scratched before this game even began. We talked about this in our post-game show last night, that the Diamondbacks were at least planning to start Gabby Moreno in this game. That's what Tori Lavello said last at the conclusion of last night's game, even after he wasn't able to take his last at bat in that one. But it wasn't all that shocking, Jack, to see Gabby Moreno scratched in this one. And I guess on the positive side, it did sort of clinch his batting title, which we'll talk about later in the show. But there's no question, that's not the way that Gabby Moreno wanted that

batting title to be won. 00:06:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, when I walked into the clubhouse, I mean, I kind of walked past the trainer's room, saw him lying on the table getting treatment. You know, after that, I saw him walking down the hallway with somewhat of a stiff legged limp. And, you know, those long strip type supports that you get on your legs. And he motioned to the training staff and said, I'm going to go into the cage and try to hit now. This was after he'd already been in the lineup and we just kind of looked at each other. you know, and said, this doesn't look great. Kind of had a feeling that, that there was a good chance that he could be scratched. And sure enough, that's the way that went down. He simply couldn't turn on that leg and you know, Torrey had to take him out of the lineup. He was pretty dejected about the whole thing. Obviously we talked to him, you know, after the game felt really bad that, you know, he wasn't able to go and contribute to his team. But that's, you know, he, He said he was proud of the batting title, but at the same time, you know, it doesn't mean as much right now because they didn't make the playoffs. But he was happy to do it for the organization and for his family. And he understands what it means. It's just kind of shades of Geno hitting four homers in a game they lost. Kind of a little bit of that kind of feel to it. 00:07:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you guys talked to Nolan Arnauto about this one as well. And he was asked, of course, more questions about the incredible season that he put together. And it was remarkable. I mean, Nolan Arnauto finishes the season with an OPS over 800, a batting average of, I think it was 255 when all was said and done. You know, the 30 home runs, he hit a double in this game as well. But it also seemed like Nolan was pretty intense pregame. I know you saw him in the clubhouse before this game. It was clear that he had a very business-like mindset, more so than usual even. coming into this one. And, uh, unfortunately it, it didn't work out. 00:08:10 Speaker 2: Yeah. He had his game face on. I mean, he did have a double in the game, but, uh, you know, it just, he was totally locked in, uh, wasn't in the mood to even look up and smile. He was just tunnel vision. Sure. You know, I was glad to see, right. I mean, that's what you want to see. Um, I think, um, also important to talk a little bit about some of the discussions we have with Tori post game. Yeah. Um, look, everyone wants to know what's going to happen with Tory Lovello, and we don't know. He didn't say. As of this moment, you know, his contract has not been picked up for next year. That's all we know. His contract runs to the end of this year. This year's over. I think it's important to note also that he has decisions to make, and he alluded to that as well. You know, he didn't want to get into, you know, what his thought processes were, but You know, from what I understand, he's looking for a multi-year deal. I don't think, you know, he's all, you know, he wants to stay here. He said very clearly that he loves Arizona. This is where he wants to be. He loves this organization. He loves the people he works with. But, you know, behind the scenes, my understanding is that he wants a multi-year deal. And there's a lot of people out there hearing that saying like, what? But this is, you know, where we're at right now. you know, the organization has a big decision to make. Do they want to try to go in another direction? Does Mike Hazen believe that that's the best thing for this organization to do? That's the key point. I mean, like we've talked about this before. If Mike Hazen believes that Tory Lovello is the best option at manager to help get this team to where they want to go, then Tory is probably going to remain the manager unless ownership overrules him, which we've talked about again before. We don't know how that would play out. So we'll just have to kind of see what happens over the next couple days and weeks. Typically, we get to speak with management a couple days after the season's over. Tomorrow, we'll see some more of the players a little bit as they're cleaning out their lockers in the clubhouse. And then on Tuesday, probably, but it's not confirmed yet, we should get a chance to speak with Mike Hazen and or Tory Lovello. So, you know, if Tory's at that meeting, I think there's also a pretty good chance that he may be around for a while. Or I should say, if Tory's at that meeting, it would be a good indication that nothing is imminent. Sure. 00:10:40 Speaker 1: I guess a complicating factor there that I think is at least worth mentioning is that It's probably harder to have significant turnover at important positions in the middle of a lockout. Like, I think that would be at least a more difficult situation to walk into. Maybe somewhat less so for a manager. I'm not entirely sure what the rules are about the interactions between a manager and a team during a lockout. Like, is that something that MLB really has off limits? But I'm sure there's some level of restrictions there. And if the Diamondbacks not necessarily expecting this, but if they were to go a different a different direction in the baseball ops department, it would be a really bizarre year for a new regime to come in, you know, given that you're not going to be able to make any trades or sign any free agents for possibly several months over the course of the offseason. So I don't know if those if those factors are weighing into their decisions at all. But it's at least something worth mentioning as we head into an imminent lockout on December 1st. 00:11:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's probably less than 1% chance that there's going to be a change in the baseball operations leadership. Sure. I find that very difficult to believe. So really, the only question is, does Torrey return or not? You know, he said all the right things about wanting to return. But

I think it also has to do with under what circumstances for him. So, you know, I just really want to emphasize that The decision points here are mutual. It's not only does the team want to bring him back, but does he want to come back, or will the circumstances or the terms be what he wants to come back? There are many people that may or may not agree with this, but there's probably little doubt that Torrey could get another job as a manager for the 2027 season. So I think he'd rather be here. I truly believe that. But I do feel... from everything I've heard kind of behind the scenes that a one-year deal and being another lame duck season isn't what he's looking after, especially heading into a lockout. Yeah. 00:12:52 Speaker 1: And I think that's, I think that's fair from his perspective. I know that there are questions to be, to be asked about Torrey, the job that Torrey has done as a manager, but regardless of how anyone feels about the job he's done, like, at a certain point, you can understand him not wanting to be a lame duck manager, something that he's done for, I think, basically half of his tenure as the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. So the exact quote from Torrey after this one was, I just want to be wanted. And I'll leave it at that. He didn't want to go too much into detail on kind of what the decisions were like from his standpoint. And he did say all the right things about wanting to return to Arizona and whatnot. But We'll see what happens on that front here in the next couple of days. I guess going back to the Diamondbacks as a team and the way this season ended, there's been a narrative in recent years that the Diamondbacks melt down in September, that when it really comes time to win games at the end, they're not able to do that. Based on what we saw the last week, I think we can all cast that narrative aside and say, yes, even though they did lose the final two games of the year, The Diamondbacks still went 13-10 in September. And if you look at their second half of the season as a whole, I tweeted this out earlier, the Diamondbacks went 37-29 after the All-Star break, second only to the Padres among these NL wildcard contenders. The Padres went 43-23. They played at a 106-win pace in the second half of the season. The Diamondbacks at 37-29 played at a 91-win pace, which is still pretty good. The Cubs were 35-31 in the second half. The Phillies were 34-30. So this is not the narrative of a Diamondbacks team that was well-positioned to make the playoffs and fumbled the bag at the end. Frankly, they were never in great position to make the playoffs, and they did play really well at the end. But some of these other NL wildcard teams also played really well at the end, especially the San Diego Padres. 00:14:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess to counterpoint to that, and I'm sure that some people in the comments or we'll bring this up as well. It's something that Nolan himself said, which is, you know, last week we didn't take care

of business at home. Yeah, 100%. Of course, looking at that Texas series and the Royals series, you know, so that was a big factor they felt in not taking care of their business. Gabby said the same thing in kind of a little bit different way. He just said, you know, a couple weeks ago we weren't playing as well as we should have and we feel like that's why we didn't make the postseason. But, At the same time, I mean, you know, they went on a six-game, an unlikely six-game winning streak here to the end, you know, before they dropped the last two. So, you know, there's a lot of different ways to look at this. Selective begin and end points can create a lot of interesting debates and arguments, and everyone can pick one to suit their narrative. Sure. You know, so have at it, guys. 00:15:58 Speaker 1: I'm sure Diamondbacks discourse will be very wholesome over the next few days as people kind of process everything that we've seen here the past 48 hours or so. And on that note, I think that even though the Diamondbacks lost this game and they technically finished two games out, it's hard not to think back to last night as really the day that things went truly downhill for the Diamondbacks. I think they could have won this game. Frankly, I think that this game has a completely different feel if if they still have a chance to match the Phillies. You know, sure, the Phillies are up for nothing. But if the D-backs have a chance to get in the playoffs just by winning this game, it has an entirely different feel. And so the fact that they came into this behind the eight ball, that they weren't able to win that game yesterday, that their bullpen game went as south as it did. That's the game that I'm thinking about. more than anything. Because yes, you can look at the games against Miami, the games against Texas last week. Absolutely, there are some games that are winnable in there. But I continue to say that for every game that it feels like the Diamondbacks should have won, there have been a lot of games that they won that they had probably no business winning. I mean, the number of comebacks that we've seen from them over the course of the year is pretty incredible. But last night is a game that you can look at and say, it feels like the way that they went about it was flawed. It wasn't just the team not delivering. It feels like the way they went about it is flawed. And I think that's really what I'm thinking about more than, more than anything right now. 00:17:34 Speaker 2: Yeah. And as many have, you can go back to Friday night. Why didn't they, you know, allow Zach Gallin to come in in a quote unquote dirty inning instead of burning Nelson on Friday night. Yeah. You know, I don't know if Cabrera was available Friday night. I'd have to back out the days to his final start in Reno. I actually saw him Friday night with a pretty big ice pack on his arm. He was doing arm care. And I think he threw like seven innings in his final start for Reno. And I just

wasn't, I never got a chance to actually look up how many days. So he might not have been available Friday night, but I never asked that question. So my bad, quite frankly, you know, look this morning, And this afternoon, there's a full house in Torrey's office, you know, with a lot of different media around. And it just really wasn't an opportune time to kind of dig into, you know, second guessing every single pitching move. Quite frankly, there's just times when it's difficult to get to those questions. You know, I'm not at the top of the pecking order in who gets to ask what questions. That's the way it is. So, you know, I had to give deference to some of the other people there. And the way things worked out, you know, we didn't really get to dig into it too much. But there is one important distinction. Anyone that follows me on Twitter kind of already knows about this. So last night, Torrey said to us that Ryan Nelson was available and Zach Gallin wasn't. After the scrum, the scrum is when all the media is together talking to us. After that scrum, he did circle back and speak with one or two other members of the media one-on-one and said, oh, I need to clarify that Ryan Nelson was available in emergency use only for extra innings. And Zach Gallin also, if needed. 00:19:31 Speaker 1: So Gallin was available. 00:19:34 Speaker 2: If it went to extra innings. Interesting. So that's what Torrey said last night. And he kind of reiterated that this morning. And so, you know, A lot of people can take that a lot of different ways. You know how that communication came about. I can just report what was said. Okay. I have my thoughts and opinions on it. I think it still just boils down to, it was a mistake to have to lean on Cabrera that heavily. There were other options. I think it was a mistake that as you pointed out, not to, go higher leverage earlier in the game when you had that 4-3 lead, see if you can build it and then maybe coast out a little bit. Maybe the whole tenor of the game would have felt different. Sure. Look, nobody could have, would have, should have. We can drive ourselves crazy with all this. But I don't think anyone's going to disagree with the fact that Jose Cabrera should not, for whatever reason, they got there. whether it was because of lack of options, because of roster moves that preceded it, or the way they managed things on Friday night, or just any number of ways to second-guess this, they're all legitimate. It all landed on Jose Cabrera pitching the fourth inning, and that was not a good choice in a one-run game. I don't think anybody could argue that. And so the knock-on effect there, like Jesse said, we probably would have won. today if they were, you know, and it wouldn't have mattered that Philly won going away. You know, I think this game today goes a lot differently. Um, if, uh, if they win yesterday. 00:21:18 Speaker 1: Just the fact that you, that you allowed this season to, to slip away at the hands of, you know,

and certainly nothing against Jose Cabrera. I mean, he did his best out there. He's given the Diamondbacks, I think a good effort when he's been up in the big leagues, but That's just a really big spot to go to a guy in that situation. And the fact that Brandon Garcia, yes, he did pitch today, but Brandon Garcia never pitched in a meaningful moment in this series. And he was an unbelievable relief pitcher for this team. I'm not going to say Brandon Garcia is Mason Miller. But, you know, could you imagine, for example, like if this had been the Padres, you know, would the Padres have allowed their season to slip away without you know, or a hone or Mason Miller being part of it. Like absolutely not. 00:22:03 Speaker 2: Right. 00:22:04 Speaker 1: And I know Juan Murillo did get a couple of outs yesterday. You know, he, he did pitch in that game when it was still somewhat relevant, but it was already after the diamond backs lead had slipped away. So I know it's, I know it's challenging and, and yes, you know, Garcia and Murillo can't pitch the entire game there. There's a lot of strategy that goes into that, but it's really hard for me to believe that 29 other teams are, in what was truly a must-win game for this Diamondbacks team, that you let it slip away without any of your best arms actually being a factor. It's really, really brutal to look back on and realize that. And I think D-backs fans will maybe be chewing on that one for a little while. 00:22:43 Speaker 2: As will Torrey and Mike and Jeremy Bleich and the whole crew, Mike Fitzgerald, Brian Kaplan. They're all going to be chewing on those decisions. And look, they're the ones on the front lines They're the ones doing it and they feel it more than any of us. Right. This is their life. This is their livelihood. These are their jobs. And, you know, they they are more as much as we as followers of the team and podcasters and writers and fans. Nobody's more invested than those guys. 00:23:15 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:23:16 Speaker 2: And, you know, so, I mean, I do do want to say they are very dedicated people. They work around the clock. You know, baseball's. especially for the front office. It's a 365-day job. So don't think that they're just half-assing it and don't care. They're spilling their guts on the table trying to make this work, whether they did the right things or the wrong things. And we're sitting here second-guessing what they did. But I would be very remiss to not emphasize and acknowledge that these guys put their heart and soul into this all the time, 100%. 00:23:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's and it's especially important to emphasize that Torrey Lovello is not the only one making those decisions. So, you know, the pitching situation yesterday, at least I don't really know exactly who is ultimately responsible for that. But it's not you know, it's not just Torrey Lovello making that decision all by himself. 00:24:14 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, he it the buck stops

at his desk. Right. I mean, he has to sign off on it. you know, he can pound the table and insist, no, I don't agree with this plan. I'm not doing that. He has the right to do that. Sure. You know, that's as a manager. And if he takes it to that level, you know, I think that for the most part, he's going to win that argument, you know, but that's not his style. He's more collaborative, you know, and then at once, and Troy himself said, once the game starts, you know, it's in his court to go through with that plan or to make adjustments to it. And I think last night was a perfect opportunity to make some adjustments and he didn't make the right adjustments. Yeah. And he knows it. Yeah. 00:24:58 Speaker 1: I think that is totally fair. Well, we, Hey, we appreciate all of you who are in the chat with us right now. We're going to talk a little bit more about this game, some storylines from this 2026 season. We'll hit some positive things as well before we get out of here. But Hey, if you're here joining us in the chat, be sure to drop a like on this video. It's a great way to support the show. While you're at it, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell icon as well for notifications so that you never miss an episode of the show. I guess it's worth telling the people that we are still here in the offseason as we sort of enter this new phase of the baseball calendar. We are still here with two episodes every week. We'll, of course, have an episode coming in the next day or two after those postseason press conferences that that you were talking about earlier. So there's a whole lot more to come from us. We really appreciate you being here with us. And if you're joining us on an audio only platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or even if you don't listen on those channels regularly, it also really helps us out if you would hop on over there and leave us a rating and review. So thank you to all of you for being here throughout this season, not only today, but all season long. We really appreciate your support. And on that note, we do have a super chat from at NYGamer18, who says, appreciate the hard work this season, guys. Lifelong D-backs fan from New York City. Another disappointing ending, but we'll always support the Snakes. Hashtag go D-backs. We appreciate that. And hey, Jack, you've got a fellow New Yorker out there in the chat. 00:26:34 Speaker 2: Rock and roll, man. 00:26:36 Speaker 1: I guess sticking with the positive vibes, at least for a moment here, Gabriel Moreno, as unfortunate as today was, he does win the batting title. He becomes the first member of the Diamondbacks ever to win the batting title. He's the first catcher since Buster Posey back in 2012, finishes the year with a 311 batting average. And as you talked about the other day, it's not just batting average. It's not like Gabby was just hitting singles all year long. He was really far more valuable than his batting average might lead you to believe. But that in and of itself is

an enormous accomplishment and a sign of really a huge step forward that Gabby took in 2026. 00:27:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, a catcher winning the batting title is extremely rare. Yeah. You know, it happens once in a while, but not often. And, you know, boy, you know, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right? I mean, and really seeing Gabby blossom into the player that we all knew he could be, you know, unfortunately, rather ironically, his season ends with an injury. But, you know, for the most part, this was his healthiest professional season of his career. And boy, did he take advantage of it. I mean, he really got going and he talked about it. Look, you know, it's just about pitch recognition, choosing the right pitches to swing at, you know, and then just his process, staying with the work and doing the work every day in the batting cages and, you know, out on the field. And he worked his butt off and to maximize his talents and abilities. I mean, we all knew it was in there. We saw flashes of it or stretches of it. But this was, you know, four months of like top shelf offense. And so congrats to him. 00:28:19 Speaker 1: You pulled this graphic from Stathead, one of our favorite websites, just comparing not just the batting average, but all these different numbers, Gabby Moreno versus Louisa Rise. And as you talked about the other day, Jack, suffice it to say that The batting average is really just the very beginning of the conversation of like how much more valuable Gabby Moreno has been for the Diamondbacks than Luis Uribe for those other teams. Not to say that Luis Uribe is a bad player, but certainly we're not saying that. But Gabby Moreno was not just the NL leader in batting average. He was one of the most valuable players in the National League. 00:28:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, here we get into a whole philosophical discussion about, how do you determine or measure what is a good quote unquote hitter? Yeah. Um, and you know, for me, I prefer not to use buggy whip era metrics as my go-to metrics to really tell me who's the better hitter. Right now, you know, the difference between three 11 and three 10 does not tell you who's the better hitter. Sure. If Louisa rise had hit three 20 and Gabby hit three Oh five, Luis Uribe is still not a better hitter than Gabriel Moreno. Because avoiding making outs, not making outs at the plate and doing damage when you hit, not just hitting singles, but getting extra base hits, that makes you a better hitter. So all of these other measures on base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS plus with some park adjustments, Those are all far, far better measures of who's the better hitter. But at the same time, look, batting average is batting average. It's a legacy statistic, and it's something that Gabby's very proud of, and no one's ever going to be able to take that batting title away from him. 00:30:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, just to read off all these numbers for people joining on audio, Gabriel Moreno

finishes with 6.3 baseball reference for 16 homers, 83 RBI. The 311 batting average, he slugged 486, an 874 OPS, a 142 OPS plus. It was a full-on breakout season. And I think, at least for me, it is really going to shift how I view Gabby Moreno going into 2027. No guarantees he repeats this exact season, but you feel like he is a part of the middle of this lineup. He's not just a complimentary piece. He has the ability to be a star and to bat third for you every day and be really, really darn good doing it. So unbelievable year for Gabby Moreno, even though it ended in an unfortunate fashion. And there are other guys too who had good seasons. I know Michael Soroka didn't have his best stuff today necessarily. The Diamondbacks clipped him pretty short. I think on a normal day, Soroka probably stays in the game and Frankly, I think he probably would go six innings, two runs. I think he was looking pretty good. 00:31:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought he looked fine. 00:31:27 Speaker 1: D-backs went to the, Torrey was very aggressive using the bullpen. You can at least understand him wanting to play those high leverage bullpen pieces, play those cards in this game. Didn't really work out. But another, a really, really good season overall for Michael Soroka, at least when he was healthy. Nolan Arenado, we already talked about there. There are positives from this 2026 season that we will continue to chew on in the coming days. Yeah, was there something? 00:31:54 Speaker 2: So we got to talk to Soroka a little bit down in the clubhouse. And, you know, of course, his goal is to make 32 starts. I mean, he wants to be a 32-star pitcher. That's still what he's driving towards. You know, so it was enormously frustrating for him to have the types of injuries that he had this year that kept him out. But fortunately, there weren't arm injuries. And he was excellent when he did pitch. And, you know, when he signed here, you know, he said he heard really great things about the organization and the coaching staff and the players in the clubhouse. And he feels like this environment and this organization all lived up to it. Obviously, he told his family members, like, don't ask me about, you know, free agency and what's next. I want to focus on what I'm doing here. But, you know, he would like to come back. He indicated very strong preference to be able to come back. but he hasn't spoken to his agent. And, you know, we, I did some crowdsourcing on him on Twitter. Yeah. And it was really interesting. I mean, like I saw some really low numbers that were wholly unrealistic people thinking that they could maybe get him for two years, 20 million or 25 million. I mean, it's $ 11 million mutual option. You know, and he wouldn't accept that. The D-backs would pick up their end. The team always has to go first. by the way, when there's a mutual option. So the D-backs are certainly going to indicate to Michael Soroka that they would like to pick up his $ 11 million option, and Michael Soroka most certainly will have to turn that down. And the question becomes how much are the D-backs willing to pay for a guy that has injury risk, but the quality of the innings that he put up this year, and he was very proud of that. We talked about that in the clubhouse, and he just said, look, the work I've been doing the last couple of years, the changes I made to my arsenal, You know, it all kind of came together, the things I worked on in the offseason. And he had a really good season. I mean, he gave the team 115 really quality innings. Yeah. So I think, you know, it would be great to see him come back. I saw some people, you know, suggest. But the consensus I got from those in the know that it's probably going to have to be something like two years, $ 40 million with some kind of third year option or, if it's less than a $ 20 million average annual, there's going to have to be some pretty hefty incentives at a very reachable level. Sure. You know, you can't say, okay, you got to qualify for the ERA title to get this incentive. I mean, you know, it's going to be 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130 for every 10 innings, it goes up a million or something like that. If it's, you know, significantly less than 20 average annual, but I think Michael Soroka is probably going to get close to 240 with, you know, some kind of, third-year option or vesting option, something along those lines. Vesting option means if you reach a certain amount of innings pitched, then the option vests and becomes locked in. 00:34:48 Speaker 1: He's definitely a unique situation being 29 years old and yet having the injury track record that he does. So there's not a whole lot of great comps for a guy like that. But I guess that's a great segue, Jack, into looking ahead at 2027 and the Diamondbacks' payroll commitments Obviously, we've got weeks and months ahead to dive further into this conversation, so we're not going to go too deep into it today, but we did think we would show this payroll snapshot that Jack put together. It shows the Diamondbacks with about $ 129 million in guaranteed money on the books for 2027, and then you've got $ 21 million in there for arbitration-eligible players, and then some money for pre-arb guys, injury replacements, and so forth. And the number comes out to $ 168. 43 million. It's about $ 30- ish million shy of where the team was in 2026. So we have no idea how much the D-backs will spend next year. Those are conversations that haven't happened yet. But looking at this, it definitely looks like there's some wiggle room. Maybe it's about $ 30 million if the payroll is similar to this season. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less. 00:36:04 Speaker 2: We'll see. Yeah. I mean, the number on the screen is 168.43 as total. Actually, just as we were talking about Gabby and I was thinking about how much I have in there for him for an arbitration estimate, it's probably a little low. I think you can just round this up to 170. I mean, that's going to

look a little bit different than what you might see on some of the public websites because, for example, I know for a fact that the Diamondbacks budget in injury replacements when they set up their seasonal budget. And those are never listed when you go to the roster resources spot track. But I have $ 4 million for that because when a guy goes on the IL for 15 days, he's still getting paid. And at the very least, you have to pull up a minor league player and pay him, you know, whatever the league minimum is for two weeks, four weeks, however long the guy's on the injured list. Somebody's in that spot. And so as you cycle through all the injury days, And you convert those injury days into minor league minimum replacements. It used to be $ 2 million figure. Now it's four. 00:37:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's an important consideration. And we'll see. I guess Ken Kendrick will probably speak to the media at some point here in the coming weeks. Maybe we'll get a sense of where the payroll is headed. And Diamondbacks have a whole lot of questions to answer after this season. More than usual. They've had some questions answered the last couple of years, too. But from the Tori Lavello decision to any other changes they might want to make personnel-wise to Cattell Marte's status going into 2027, do the Diamondbacks feel the need to trade him after another rough stretch, shall we say, here in 2026 where he was not with the team and then eventually rejoined the team? Cattell hit several balls really hard today, by the way. only one of them fell for a hit. He was one of the few D-backs who was impacting the baseball consistently in this game, but it obviously wasn't a great season for Cattell overall, even when he was on the field. 00:38:11 Speaker 2: It seemed kind of fitting that his season ended with a line out right at the right fielder. Yes, yes. 00:38:19 Speaker 1: That was sort of a microcosm of, I guess not the whole season for Cattell. I think there was a stretch in there where he genuinely just wasn't making hard contact regularly, but Certainly that was the case early in the season and at times throughout the year. Not a not a banner season for Cattell Marte by any means. But yeah, this Diamondbacks team has a whole lot of questions to think about this offseason. And I think maybe the biggest one in my head is just how does this team kind of get out of this muck of being in the middle? just sort of stuck as like the number seven team in the National League year after year after year. Eventually, they're going to have to win like 90 or 95 games. Like they're going to have to find a way to get into that range so they don't have to deal with this, you know, season ending series against the Padres every year that doesn't ever seem to go their way. You'd like to you'd like to clinch before the final weekend at some point. And that's something the Diamondbacks have done one time in the entire tenure of Tori Lovello in my case. And in 2017, they won

93 games. They had a great year. They haven't won 90 games in any season since. And I don't know what the path is to to put together a year like that. But that's what this team has to be driving for. Like, how do we find a way to get into, you know, winning the NOS is always going to be difficult. But How do we get into a place where we have solid footing, at least in the wildcard race, and we're not, you know, trying to play for our lives the final weekend? 00:39:57 Speaker 2: It still comes down to roster and roster construction. Look, they came into the season projected on paper to be an 81-82 win team. I think that's kind of where most of the projection systems and Vegas and all of that, you know, just give or take 82. And so, you know, they outperformed that. by five wins. And if, as we've talked about ad nauseum, you know, they won more games than their runs scored and expected runs scored and their runs allowed and expected runs allowed would suggest they should have won by about four or five games. You know, their actual play on the field most of the time was about what was expected to be in a different shape than we expected. I think we expected the offense to be a little bit better. I think we expected the pitching to be a little bit worse, you know, and it kind of, the offense was worse than expected and the pitching was better than expected, obviously, especially out of the bullpen up until the last 48 hours. And so, you know, there's a lot to break down there. I mean, they have, you know, quite a number of free agents, especially coming out of that bullpen. They have some question marks with their young players. Are they good enough to actually step up and be everyday players? Yes, they gave, a lot of playing time to young first, second and third year players, but really none of them stepped up and said, I'm an everyday starter. I mean, ironically, the one that's probably had the best number is Jordan Lawler couldn't get in the lineup last week. So, you know, that kind of says a lot, right. And by the way, I didn't agree with that. I felt like Lawler should have been playing. But, you know, at the same time, Pavin Smith had a thousand OPS for September. So, you know, the team has an argument there for why they, you know, put Pavin in first base and DH, uh, Lars Neupahr's left-handed bat at the top of the order was important. Um, you know, he did a pretty good job. I mean, the reality is in September, Lars Neupahr and Pavin Smith from the left-hand side were positives for this team, but still, it just didn't seem right to not get Jordan Lawler in there more than they did. Uh, just the way it felt, the way it looked, um, And what are they going to do next year? I mean, are they going to let him be an everyday player and just say, you're an everyday player no matter what? I mean, Lars Neupahr is here next year. We don't know what Pavin Smith is, but he's arbitration eligible. 00:42:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Diamondbacks have to do

that, frankly. At least as long as Jordan Lawler is healthy, which unfortunately is a big if. He's really struggled to do that. But going into 2026, I think you want to I think you want to just put Jordan Lawler out there every single day. He still has like 120 career plate appearances against righties. It's not nearly big enough of a sample to say for sure that Jordan Lawler can't hit righties and needs to be a platoon guy. He's still really young. I think he has a bright future. The Diamondbacks, I think, just kind of have to embrace that, at least to start the year and see what it looks like. And if you run him out there for a significant number of plate appearances against righties and he struggles, then Maybe at the trade deadline or something, you look at trying to set up a platoon situation. But yeah, there's a lot of questions for the Diamondbacks to answer over the course of the next several months. Unfortunately, we don't really know what the offseason calendar is going to look like. There almost certainly will not be a winter meetings this year, which is a shame. I do think we could see quite a bit of action in November that happened during the last lockout. a few years back where teams were pretty active in the month leading up to the lockout. And then of course, things were completely silent for, you know, four months, four plus months after that. So hopefully that doesn't, that doesn't completely put a damper on the MLB off season, but it very well might. That's just kind of the reality of the situation. To finish things off, Jack, I want to end on a positive note and just say that I had this moment when Brandon Garcia was on the mound and, Sung Moon Song was at the plate for the Padres and Garcia threw just an absolutely outrageous, diabolical 89 mile per hour sweeper. And Sung Moon Song looked absolutely ridiculous swinging at that pitch. And it was just a kind of a reminder for me and maybe for some other people out there that baseball is great. It is. It's the best sport. I know I'm biased. And of course, I'm going to say that being me, but it is. Clearly the best sport. And seeing what Brandon Garcia is able to do with a baseball just blows my mind. And it's not just Garcia. Of course, the Diamondbacks have other players like that. You know, even on an opposing team, like seeing Mason Miller. I know he wasn't exactly at his best yesterday, but, you know, every time I see him throw a baseball, my mind is blown. What these players are capable of doing is truly unbelievable. And it was a moment for me of just gaining some perspective and being like, This is pretty cool that we get to watch this day in and day out. And heck, I'm going to miss watching it here for the next six months. I guess we have the playoffs. That's still a thing. Certainly, I'll tune into that. But without the Diamondbacks on the field, it's going to be pretty weird. 00:45:26 Speaker 2: Arizona falling. 00:45:28 Speaker 1: There you go. Hey, unfortunately, I don't live in Arizona anymore, but Jack does. And Jack, I hope you're able to go out there a whole lot. 00:45:37 Speaker 2: I will, as many as I can. 00:45:39 Speaker 1: Demetrio Crescentes is on the Arizona Fall League roster. 00:45:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's a guy with a 47% strikeout rate, Joey Areola. We've got to go check him out and see what that's all about. 00:45:51 Speaker 1: There you go. Well, that's the beauty for people who do live in Arizona. I'm still not far away. Yeah, baseball in Arizona is about as year-round as it gets, and I don't think the lockout is going to impact the Arizona Fall League. I guess the Fall League is over before the lockout would even begin anyway. 00:46:08 Speaker 2: Right. 00:46:09 Speaker 1: For all of you out there in AZ, be sure to take advantage of that. It is still one of the best kept secrets, I suppose, in baseball. It's a really, really cool thing to go out and check out. We really appreciate all of you being here with us, not only in this episode, but throughout this entire season. We say it often. We try to say it often. We really could not do this without. 00:46:31 Speaker 2: All of you. 00:46:32 Speaker 1: You all are the reason that we do this day in and day out. I think we wound up doing six shows this week when all was said and done. We tried to capitalize on the moment and give you all as much content as we could. So thank you to all of you for being here with us. You can find us on Twitter. I am at JesseNFriedman. Jack is at ShoeWizard59. Our show is at Snake's Territory. And you can read Jack's written work over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI. I guess we should give Alex D'Agostino a shout out today as well. Alex does a great job as Jack's partner in crime over there at SI, writes a whole lot of great stuff. And all this content is going to continue on throughout the off season. So be sure to stay tuned over there. We'll be here with a couple of episodes every week as well. So still a whole lot more Diamondbacks content coming your way. Before we say goodbye, Jack, do you have any final thoughts here to tell the people? 00:47:29 Speaker 2: Well, that's a wrap. 162 games in the books. Unfortunately, we will not be here for postseason games for the Diamondbacks, but I'll be seeing you soon. 00:47:41 Speaker 1: There we go. Thank you again to all of you for being here with us. We really appreciate your time, and we'll be back once again very soon with another edition of Snakes Territory. 00:47:50 Speaker 2: Snakes Territory