Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Kyle Tucker has made a decision. He is signing with the Dodgers. I don't have the years. I don't have the money. So I can't tell you whether or not he took less money to go there. We are awaiting the contract details as soon as we have it. If it happens before I'm off the air at midnight, we will give it to you, and then I will give my reaction to that.
First thing, I am not going to complain about what the Dodgers are doing. Good for them. Their star player deferred most of his contract. They have a lot of money. They spend that money. They go the extra mile. They are not bad for baseball. If you sit there and want to complain about them, what I would say is don't complain. Beat them. Dethrone them. That's what I want the Mets to do.
If I was a Yankee fan, I would say I want the Yankees to dethrone them. Let them sign every single player because it'll make it even sweeter when you beat them. They are playing within the rules for now. They are signing all these players.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of Kyle Tucker signing with the Dodgers?
They have created an environment which is helped by the fact that it's L.A., the weather... It's a nice spot to be, plus the winning. That is very attractive for free agents. So we have breaking news as far as the details of the contract.
So we have the contract details. Robert Murray of Fansided reports that it's four years, $240 million, and includes an opt-out after year two.
Opt-out after year two. So do the quick math for me, Connor, while you're there. How many... how much money that is per year. And I'll continue to rant here. So I don't care.
$60 million a year.
60 mil. So they went more than what the Mets were because the Mets were going to be around 50. So the Mets, if they wanted to, so it's not like he took less to go to the Dodgers. Dodgers offered more. And I think this is a lesson that the Dodgers are going to do this. They don't have any limits. And I'm not going to complain about it.
I'm not going to say they're bad for baseball or all the rules need to be changed or why bother even watching. No, they are clearly the villains. They are clearly the, and I give Tiki credit for this, they are the new evil empire. That makes me even more motivated as a fan for my team to dethrone them, to beat them. And I'm not going to just sit back and say, oh, it's over.
The Dodgers won another championship. And I'm not going to say that they're ruining baseball. Because... They are in a situation where they have the funds, they have a star player that deferred his contract, and they are taking advantage of it. So if anything, you applaud what they're doing, and you take that and say, you know what? Let's beat them. Let's beat them. Now... Two angles here.
We'll take them both. The Mets. Obviously, they were interested in Kyle Tucker. Based on reports, they were willing to go a fourth year. They were willing to go $50 million a year. Tucker ended up taking $60 million a year from the Dodgers. Now I would shift my focus to Cody Bellinger from the Mets. You have an outfielder that you know can handle New York. He is a plus defender.
He's everything that David Stearns looks for in a free agent acquisition. He's athletic. He's versatile. He's a great defensive player. He knows the market. He excelled in the market. He can play center. He can play the corner positions. He can play right field when Juan Soto wants a DH. He can play first base. Cody Bellinger is now number one target for me if I'm David Stearns and Steve Cohen.
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Chapter 3: How does the Mets' signing of Bo Bichette impact their lineup?
To me, Cody Bellinger now has to be the most sought-after free agent by both of these franchises. Both of them. I can't, like, imagine the Yankees without Bellinger. And then if the Mets don't get Bellinger, now you have to start to think, all right, they have two outfield positions. Do they trade? Do they give Williams and Benj both starting jobs here?
So Bellinger right now has to be giddy because Mets, Yankees, full-fledged, full-court press for his services, in my opinion.
Well, I want you, how about the deferred? I'm sure it's deferred. I mean, a lot of, you know, all their players, they sign a deferred contract. So is it really worth $60 million? I mean, that's another thing you got to look at.
You're asking from the Dodgers perspective or another time? The Dodgers do not care about any of that stuff. See, that's the thing that L.A. is not focused on. They are the person in that fantasy football league or fantasy baseball league that you're in that give zero Fs. They'll trade all their first round picks. They'll trade all their third round picks.
They'll text you at three in the morning. They don't care. Their focus and their main goal is winning. Doesn't matter if the money's deferred. Doesn't matter if it's 60 million a year. Doesn't matter three years, four years, five years. They will go the extra mile. And this is where Steve Cohen is in a situation where, okay, we felt confident we were going to get Tucker.
Here come the Dodgers, $60 million a year. Mets, it was more like $50 million a year. If this situation, because remember, this kind of happened with Yamamoto, and maybe money was never going to be a factor, and he was always going to go to the Dodgers. But it happened with Yamamoto, too, where... You have to see what L.A. does, and you want to go $70 million a year.
Or maybe Tucker was comfortable with $60 million. Remember, it's a four-year deal. I don't know when the opt-out is. Connor will get that to me, but apparently there's opt-outs in it.
So this could be a situation where Tucker said, you know what, I'll play two years in L.A., I'll make $60 million a year, I'll get to hang out in Los Angeles, and then after that I'll make a decision on what I want to do for the rest of my 30s. So now if you're the Yankees, if you're the Mets, you have to figure out how to beat and to throw in the Dodgers.
Because again, everybody is in competition with them. Everybody, not just the National League, everyone. And that includes the Yankees and all the American League teams. So you could go down one road, which is to complain about it, or you could figure out a way to beat them.
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Chapter 4: What are the potential trades involving Brett Beatty?
Exactly. So I'm not going to complain about that. But what I'm trying to get to is I'm trying to get to this is the huge problem in Major League Baseball. There are literally about seven or eight teams that are the haves and the rest are the have-nots. And the players are happy and giddy. They love this. They're in a good situation. They make a lot of money.
The Dodgers are spending money like crazy. They're deferring a ton of this money to stay away from some of those local income taxes. But the... What's happening here is that if you are the owner, and I know you don't like the guy, but you always use that as an example because it's a small market team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, you're sitting there going, we have no shot.
Yeah, but hold on, though. Guys like that. I heard Al and Jerry talking about this, like how do the Minnesota Twins survive? How do the Pirates survive? Because the L.A. Dodgers spent last year CBT tax, competitive balance tax, $169 million. And it's going to be more next year. And it goes to all the other teams.
So these owners, they don't have a shot, but they don't care because they're taking that money, putting it in their pocket, and not reinvesting it because there's no salary for it.
But the problem is that Kyle Tucker's not going to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's not going to play for the Kansas City Royals. He's not going to play for the Cincinnati Reds. he's going to one of the big three, if you will. And the same thing with Cody Bellinger. He's not going to the Reds. He's not going to Tampa Bay. He's just not.
And they're not going to make offers because they know that that's not where they want to go. They want to go where they believe they have a chance to win a championship. And right now, number one, that is the Dodgers. That's obvious to all of us. And this is why there's going to be a lockout. And again, remember, the lockout has nothing to do with the players.
It has nothing to do with the players. It has everything to do with the split in ownership in Major League Baseball, in my eyes.
Yeah, well, the players are going to say, do not cap the salaries that we get because salary cap are the two words that they don't want to hear. So they'll be fighting back on that. But the competitive balance tax has served as somewhat of a salary cap to other teams. Like the New York Yankees, that's a salary cap for them. They've done nothing. They continue to do nothing.
And when they went to get Trent Grisham and they had to pay him $22 million, that basically took up every cent that they were going to have to spend. And Hal said, and Brian Cash has told us this how many times, Hal told him this is the number we have to stick at. So it's essentially like a salary cap. But then you have Steve Cohen to one degree going over that CBT tax.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the Kyle Tucker signing for the Mets?
That's not the panic move because they were offering Kyle Tucker $60 million. So the Mets are clearly okay and comfortable with what I like to call the short-term contract tax, which is we're going to pay a certain amount of money on a shorter-term deal. They were going to spend $60, so we're going to spend a portion of that anyways.
And it's different than just saying Juan Soto makes $50, Aaron Judge makes this. Dude, they signed long-term deals. You're paying a premium to get a guy on a short-term deal. So that's BS. That's not the panic. The panic... to me, and I'm okay with it, is agreeing to an opt-out after the first year.
Because what you're agreeing to do is not only give up the draft pick compensation associated with signing a free agent who rejected the qualifying offer, but you're okay giving that up and also losing the player after one year. So you're essentially, it's like a trade at the trade deadline, you're trading two potentially good prospects for a rental. And I don't think, knowing David Stearns,
Chapter 6: Why is the opt-out clause considered a panic move?
He really ideally wants to do that. In fact, screw it. He told me the one time I've had a face-to-face with him because I pushed him about Jordan Montgomery. I did. And then, obviously, I got that wrong about signing him. And he said... Do you really want to give up the draft picks attached to it for a guy who can opt out after one year? And I understood the point.
So to do this... So why would he do this then? That's where you could argue it's a little level of panic. Even though I agree. It's a little level of panic and it's appeasing the fan base in some capacity.
Chapter 7: What are the potential impacts of Bo Bichette's signing on the Mets' performance?
Because it's not the best deal for the Mets. I mean, he's a great, potentially great player, Bo Bichette. And obviously it creates... positional question marks, but he's a really good player and he has a chance to be fantastic.
But if he opts out and leaves you and let's say you win 86 games this year and don't make the playoffs or do make the playoffs and crash out after the wild card, then ultimately, was it worth it? You know what's tough about a question like that? Carlos Beltran's about to get elected to the Hall of Fame. The Mets signed him to a mega contract.
He played basically all of that contract until they traded him at the very end. They made one postseason, had multiple collapses, and he struck out in the seventh game of the NLCS. Was it a good contract, Tiki? Do you know what I'm saying? It's complicated. What was the total number of years? 7-1-10, I think. How many did he play? What was that? How many did he play? How many of the years?
Six and a half. And then he did have injuries. So that feels worth it. Because you got some real... and belief that he could be the guy. Even though the production as a team wasn't there. Well, you just did it for Bo Bichette, though. But Bo would be here for one year. Okay, so one year changes things. One year. I'm agreeing with you.
If they win 86 games this year, go to the postseason, get knocked out immediately, and then ultimately he leaves... And you've lost picks. You paid $57 million now because of the five-year bonus, which I still don't understand. Was it worth it? Yeah, well, I still would have made this move. I just think that that's the level of panic you could at least accuse David Stearns of.
But I still think it's worth it because I think he improves the team and it gives you a better chance to win. I don't see what happens. And by the way, I'll throw this at you because I do not know. And I don't know if this coincides because he may have to opt out prior to the lockout. But who knows what a new CBA does to impact that decision. Oh, right.
If he sees it coming, he's not going to sit in free agency and not be paid.
He may say to himself, you know what, I'm going to opt in a year or two. Let me see what the CBA is, and then I'll decide on a year three.
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Chapter 8: How do the Mets' and Yankees' offseasons compare?
So there's a lot of elements to it that are unpredictable. I am just pointing out that if you're going to accuse the Mets of panic, don't do it based on money. I would do it more based on, wow, you're willing to let them leave after a year while giving up the compensation. That's my only point. Forgive me if you said this, and I missed this.
John Heyman is saying the Mets see Brett Beatty playing multiple positions this season, including third base. Yeah, I think they may trade him. That's where I'm kind of leaning. Well, that's what you say when you want to make someone feel valuable. Yeah. He can play everywhere. He's trained at first, third, left field. And that could happen. And it could.
But if they get a trade, if it's Freddie Peralta. It just makes it more valuable, right? Yeah. Jaron Duran. Like, there are names where I think I'd be more willing today to move him than I was an hour ago based on this move.
Let's get to your reaction, more of it, Met fans' perspective and Yankee fans' perspective, because obviously this does impact Toronto, and maybe they're bidding on Cody Bellinger. Spencer is in Wantall. What's up, Spencer?
What's going on, boys?
Good afternoon.
First, I just want to say it's great to always rip a guy out of the arms of a Philadelphia team. Yes, yes. But, Ev, I think you make a great point about the CBA having Bichette, you know, feel out the market, see what it's looking like next year. Teague, I think you're wrong about Stern's appeasing Mets fans.
I think he has proven to us time and time again he does not give up about appeasing Mets fans.
I think what he wants to do is put a good team on the field every year, but give himself flexibility the year after and every year that comes after that. But I don't think Brett Beatty is going to get traded
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