Zack Scott

president when we signed jd and i think that was very hard for him we used to joke that we got to tie dave down before so he doesn't just give him more money because it's hard to be patient especially when you're really excited about an impact player um it is hard and you are playing a game of chicken because there is risk that it goes away and then what do you do when you know if everyone else is signed and so sometimes you gotta you gotta pivot earlier and use your resources to maybe take

you plan B because you're not willing to take the risk of that waiting out plan A. So going back to the JD situation,

Well, we made that decision in December, probably.

I remember being at the winter meetings and outlining the different scenarios.

And it was, okay, we could... There's Hosmer as a free agent, Carlos Santana, Mitch Moreland.

It was like, okay, we could...

We think JD is the best, most impactful player here, but we understand it's going to be a long process.

Do we sign, you know, Carlos Santana for 60 million over three years?

Do we get in on Hosmer?

because that may happen sooner.

Or do we go with a budget solution at first base in Mitch Moreland and wait out JD?

And that's like a very, you're kind of locking in on that decision when we obviously decided to do that.

And now it's like, okay, it's JD or bust.

And there were some people that were opposed to doing that, but more people that felt like this was the right way to go because he was just so much more impactful than any of those other players.

And we felt like we needed to go for the most impact.

And so it worked out, but it could have very easily not because we were making a decision in December that didn't get resolved until February.

So it's hard.

What I do remember in terms of competition, you know, we didn't, you know, typically those kinds of players, it's probably a lot like what Alonzo has gone through the last couple of years where it's like, you know, looking for $200 million.

And, you know, we felt like the way the market had been, you know,

for especially for pure dh is how we saw him and we felt like the industry saw him we didn't we were confident that he wouldn't get that and then it becomes well what you know how much off of that is it going to be and you know we we valued him really where around where we paid him um probably like paid him a little bit more um just to to get the deal done but