Chapter 1: What are the implications of Kyle Tucker's massive contract with the Dodgers?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. Good Friday morning, a feel-good football Friday. We will make this a feel-good football Friday, even though we got news last night that Mets fans do not like, and that is Kyle Tucker getting this huge deal, $60 million a year from the L.A. Dodgers, who continue to build, continue to take what seems like every single free agent contract.
So now the Mets have lost Edwin Diaz to the Dodgers and they wanted to bring in Kyle Tucker. He goes to the Dodgers and they made a big legitimate offer at $55 million a year. So I don't want to hear anybody complaining that Steve Cohen and David Stearns don't want to spend the money and they're only concerned with the casino. They made an offer to Kyle Tucker that was absurd. And the L.A.
Dodgers made a more absurd offer, and he's out there because they win and the weather's better and they make deferments to make them not pay as many taxes. Boomer's been telling you that for years. Good morning, Boomer. How are you?
Flabbergasted, actually. And the reason I am is because this is why Major League Baseball is going to have a lockout. I mean, it's ridiculous. Now, I'm not going to sit here and complain that the Dodgers are spending money because I wanted my owner to spend money. 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.
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Chapter 2: How does ownership spending influence the potential for a lockout 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 aren't the owner, and I know you don't like the guy, but I 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.
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Chapter 3: What are Jim Bowden's views on the need for a salary cap and floor in baseball?
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, you 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.
Chapter 4: How does Sam Darnold's injury impact the upcoming games?
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. And then you have the Dodgers who don't give two craps about it.
But here's the thing, you know, the Mets can sit here and say we offered him $50 million. 55. All right, up to 55. At the end of the day, you have to try to match the contract that the Dodgers gave and do exactly what the Dodgers did if you wanted them. And that's the only way you're going to get them.
But I don't even think the Dodgers would have stopped. I think if you matched what the Dodgers did, they would have gone further. And even if they didn't go further, Kyle Tucker probably would have chosen them over the Mets anyway. Because the Dodgers are just... I mean, at some point, someone's going to stop. And Steve Cohen stopped at 55, and the Dodgers went up to 60.
I mean, I'm sure it started... It is... Let me tell you something. 60 million for Kyle Tucker? Yeah, but God bless Kyle Tucker. I mean, I'm all for it.
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Chapter 5: What are the offseason's biggest winners and losers in baseball?
I'm like... And the other thing the Yankees have, their best player and the best player in baseball, or second best player, depending on how you view Shohei Otani and his contribution to the Dodgers and to Major League Baseball, is Aaron Judge, and he's only making $36 million a year. So it's almost like they have an internal stop. They're not paying Kyle Tucker more money than they're paying
Aaron Judge. It's just not going to happen.
Well, the Mets offered, at least for AAV, more for Kyle Tucker than they did for Juan Soto.
But the years. The years is different. And the total is different. So Juan Soto is still making three times what Kyle Tucker is making.
Sure.
But the fact is that they went up to $60 million. And what is it? $200 million deferred? Yeah. Something like that? I mean, it's crazy. And you take a look at some of these numbers. I mean, it's just...
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Chapter 6: Why are teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates struggling to compete?
It just blows you away. But I understand why a lockout is looming. I totally understand it. And again, it has really nothing to do with the players. I mean, the lockout will just be to force the players to the bargaining table to try to get a new CBA that's going to have to somehow, some way, the players are going to have to agree to some sort of
I guess, salary or some sort of thing to balance the league out even more so than what they have now. And I don't... Look, if I'm the players, I'm not saying anything. My guys are getting paid.
Well, yeah, but don't you think, though, that... If they limit teams like the Dodgers, the Mets, and I don't even know if you can put the Yankees in there anymore, but the Dodgers and the Mets, the players are going to balk at that because if there's a salary cap, you can't go over.
Like the competitive balance act is a soft cap, but if it's a salary cap, you can't go over, then Kyle Tucker's not getting that money. If Juan Soto, there's a salary cap, you can't go over, maybe Juan Soto isn't getting that money. So if I'm the players and I'm thinking, you have a hard cap, then these contracts are going to go away. I know, but that's my point.
The players are not going to agree to this. Yeah, but you said they're not really involved. It's not about them.
Well, but they have to agree to a new CBA. If the owners want to be able to put something in to control costs somehow and give them cost certainty...
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Chapter 7: What are the potential effects of a salary cap on player contracts?
The players have to agree to it. I'm just telling you, it's looming now. I will say that if I were a player and I were making $60 million a year, I would not want to be a part of a lockout. I don't want to lose my salary. I don't want to lose the amount of money that I now have guaranteed. This is a Deshaun Watson contract. It's nuts. Four years, $240 million?
Yeah.
That is insane. I mean, but good for him. I mean, good for him. But I still say bad for baseball. And I heard Evan, I think, yesterday talking about, and he made a very good point. He goes, you know, the Dodgers barely won the World Series. You know, Toronto should have probably won the World Series. But my point back to that would be, but the Dodgers were in the World Series.
Right, and they also won the previous year.
Exactly, and they're probably going to make it again this year.
Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't, that's a funny argument to me.
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Chapter 8: How does the perception of the Mets affect their ability to attract players?
Like, I'd love to barely win a World Series. Like, what are you talking about?
I know, but he was just, all he was saying is that, and by the way, the Blue Jays are a big money, big spending team too. So you had two of your big money spending teams. I mean, give me the year when the Dodgers have to play the Rays. You know, give me the year when they play the White Sox. Give me the year when they play, I don't know.
Yeah, so this is where I look at who really needs to fix baseball. And to me, it's Major League Baseball itself. Because a lot of these owners are okay with making money because of these tax bills. And they're not putting it on the team. Some of them are pissed off because they can't compete financially.
And they want to have players and they want to be able to sign players and trying to build from within is tougher than doing what the Dodgers are doing. But I think a lot of them are okay with just pocketing this money if these teams are going to overspend. The players, we just detailed how it's great for them because there's no real salary cap and these contracts are astronomical.
Here's where I think that this is a huge problem is for Rob Manfred and baseball because the more that you...
have all these markets and all these teams that are out of it year in and year out that's when the fans die because this is a regional sport and we see it we saw hockey become a huge deal in Las Vegas in Nashville because their team was winning Seattle in Tampa Bay because their team was winning like when when your team wins yes you're in and that's a regional sport as well in the NHL so
That's what baseball needs, and that's why I never really complain about expanding the playoffs because you get more markets in. And when more markets are in, more fans are in, and then you grow more fans too because your team is good. But if it's the same teams every single year and your team isn't one of them...
I mean, I was in Pittsburgh when they actually went to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years, but I also saw prior to that and after that. I mean, and that is a team that's one World Series. That is a team that's got a deep history. I mean, they're just dead.
It doesn't even feel like a major league team. Let me ask you something. The Detroit Tigers made a little bit of a move last year. They were relevant. They were decent. And, of course, Scruble was one of their better pitchers. And then, of course, you have Paul Skeens out in Pittsburgh. Do you think either one of those players want to be on the teams that they're on right now?
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