2023 MLB Thread

[Glasser]

Yanks get Verdugo for 1 season and now Juan Soto trade looking likely.. For 1 season. I think a trade is a mistake being the Padres want some major pieces in return. I would wait and try to sign him in free agency.

[Anguyen92]

So apparently, it's official.  Shohei Ohtani has signed with the Dodgers for $700 million dollars and this contract lasts for 10 years.  That's a lot of money.  To put it to context, it's an average of $70M a year.  Fudge, the NHL's salary cap is currently at around $83.5M to spend on up to 23 players per team.  He makes around 85% of that on average now and yes, I know MLB makes more revenue than the NHL by a wide margin, but still.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39076745/shohei-ohtani-join-dodgers-10-year-700m-deal

[TAC]

$WOW$

[gmillerdrake]

Such a joke....it really is. Add that to the list of reasons I've fallen away from giving a crap about the MLB. Yeah....dude is good but he'll be lucky to be 90% of the pitcher he was before he was hurt and I'd bet anyone $50 right now he won't hit with the same success in the NL as he did in the AL. It's LA's money to do with what they please but this is just dumb. Good luck when in 4 or 5 years when he's a shell of his former glory and spending extended time on the DL

[Glasser]

The Dodgers are morons.

[lonestar]

He's gonna make more than the entire Oakland A's team 

[Glasser]

108 grand per at bat. If Ohtani shits during a game he earns 15 grand.

[lonestar]

My dad's comment- "Thankfully he's staying in California, we'll be needing that tax revenue in the face of our budget shortfall"

[T-ski]

The Brewers principal owner has a net worth of $700 million.

Seems fair.

[King Postwhore]

HOOOOLY FFUUUUUUUU.... SHHIIIIIII.....!!!!!

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Well, assuming last season wasn't an anomaly for Bellinger, the Giants should scoop him up and make a very hard push for Yamamoto.

This will be now, what, 5 years in a row where the top free agent on the market fell through the fingers of the Giants because they were massively outbid? The Giants badly need new upper management. They are a big market team spending money like the A's the last 5 years. Farhan Zaidi is kind of a joke now. And the team owners wonder why attendance has fallen and they aren't getting to the playoffs....

[gmillerdrake]

Call me crazy but I don’t see that ‘missing out’ on having to pay a player that much money is a bad thing. There’s no world where any player comes close to ‘earning’ that type of money or being worth it.

Ohtani is 29 years old. He’s got limited ‘prime’ years left and that’s after a second surgery. This is just insane that he was handed a contract like this. It SO dumb…..this is just cringeworthy

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Call me crazy but I don’t see that ‘missing out’ on having to pay a player that much money is a bad thing. There’s no world where any player comes close to ‘earning’ that type of money or being worth it.

Ohtani is 29 years old. He’s got limited ‘prime’ years left and that’s after a second surgery. This is just insane that he was handed a contract like this. It SO dumb…..this is just cringeworthy

Oh, for sure. The $700 Million contract is insane. I thought the $500 Million everyone was throwing around was crazy too, but more palatable and reasonable than what he got.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

In the end, the Giants will probably sign a bunch of castoffs again and limp to another barely .500 season. The Giants haven't signed a true superstar free agent since Barry Bonds in '92...

[pg1067]

Over/under of 3.5 years before Dodger fans view this contract as a terrible thing.

Hopefully, that's also the over/under on World Series we win in the next 10 years.

[Anguyen92]

So apparently, Ohtani is doing the Dodgers a favor in deferring $680.00M of the $700M contract where the Dodgers are only paying him $2M a year for the length of the contract.  Then, the Dodgers will pay out the $68M a year for 10 years after the contract is over?  With no interest?  I see that the Dodgers can do that, but how does that help both parties?  I get Ohtani wants to win and is willing to sacrifice getting the money now so that the Dodgers can round out their roster.  I guess paying $680M over 10 years from 2034-2043 is better than paying that money from 2024-2033 for the Dodgers?

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

So apparently, Ohtani is doing the Dodgers a favor in deferring $680.00M of the $700M contract where the Dodgers are only paying him $2M a year for the length of the contract.  Then, the Dodgers will pay out the $68M a year for 10 years after the contract is over?  With no interest?  I see that the Dodgers can do that, but how does that help both parties?  I get Ohtani wants to win and is willing to sacrifice getting the money now so that the Dodgers can round out their roster.  I guess paying $680M over 10 years from 2034-2043 is better than paying that money from 2024-2033 for the Dodgers?

This smells like a Bobby Bonilla situation 

[TAC]

So apparently, Ohtani is doing the Dodgers a favor in deferring $680.00M of the $700M contract where the Dodgers are only paying him $2M a year for the length of the contract.  Then, the Dodgers will pay out the $68M a year for 10 years after the contract is over?  With no interest?  I see that the Dodgers can do that, but how does that help both parties?  I get Ohtani wants to win and is willing to sacrifice getting the money now so that the Dodgers can round out their roster.  I guess paying $680M over 10 years from 2034-2043 is better than paying that money from 2024-2033 for the Dodgers?

But he'll still count against their luxury tax after the 10 years, right?

[Anguyen92]

I have no idea, since i have no idea how payroll works in the MLB, but I find these details fascinating to read.

[pg1067]

He went to J.G. Wentworth and sang, "I HAVE A DEFERRED SALARY CONTRACT, BUT I NEED CASH NOW!!"

The "cap hit" for luxury tax purposes for 2024-33 is $46M, and I suspect that's the present value of $70M per year 10 years from now.  If that's correct, then the interest is built in already.  I also suspect that, without the deferrals, it'd have been a much lower annual number.

[Glasser]

He went to J.G. Wentworth and sang, "I HAVE A DEFERRED SALARY CONTRACT, BUT I NEED CASH NOW!!"

The "cap hit" for luxury tax purposes for 2024-33 is $46M, and I suspect that's the present value of $70M per year 10 years from now.  If that's correct, then the interest is built in already.  I also suspect that, without the deferrals, it'd have been a much lower annual number.

 

[lordxizor]

This is kind of genius on Ohtani's part. The Dodgers will have plenty of money to pay other players while he's a Dodger, increasing their chances of multiple WS runs. Once his contract is done, the Dodger get slammed with huge payments that will make it difficult for them to pay other marquee free agents.

[Samsara]

Baseball has been treading in dangerous territory for a while now. I am wondering if the Ohtani contract seal's the sports fate. Not right away, but the contract that sends the game spiraling.

I'm sorry, but MLB needs a cap. A hard cap. I'm a Yankees fan. We're just as guilty as anyone of spending like mad. But it isn't right. There needs to be a hard cap (with exceptions for homegrown talent) and a hard basement. (So teams like the ones the Ohtani contract's AAV is more than their entire payroll actually are forced to spend money.)

There comes a point where the business of a game just ruins it all. This sucks. Yes, Ohtani is compared to Ruth (he's not, not by long shot). But where does this spending end?

I don't know. I just think it's out of control. Good for him and his family to secure their financial futures for generations to come. But at what cost?

[pg1067]

I'm sorry, but MLB needs a cap. A hard cap. I'm a Yankees fan. We're just as guilty as anyone of spending like mad. But it isn't right. There needs to be a hard cap (with exceptions for homegrown talent) and a hard basement. (So teams like the ones the Ohtani contract's AAV is more than their entire payroll actually are forced to spend money.)

I could not agree more.

Yes, Ohtani is compared to Ruth (he's not, not by long shot).

Well...Ruth was a full-time starting pitcher only from 1915-19.  During those years, he started 140 games (more than half of which were in 1916 and 1917) and put up an 87-45 record and a 2.16 ERA.  He was elite in 1916, but he was otherwise unremarkable by the standards of the day.  The thing is that he wasn't an elite hitter yet.  He didn't start hitting home runs until 1918, when he led MLB with 11.  He did the same with 29 in 1919.  During those two seasons, he pitched half and less than half as many innings (116.1 and 113.1) as he had in 1916 and 1917 (323.2 and 326.1).  Ruth pitched THEN hit, while Ohtani is doing both, at an elite level, at the same time.  The big concern for me is that he'll have more arm problems and eventually stop pitching, which means the Dodgers will be paying shitloads of money for a DH.  Both players were/are mega-celebrities, but Ohtani's international standing dwarfs what Ruth was.  At least one publication estimated Ohtani's annual net economic impact for the Dodgers to be in excess of $400M.

[Glasser]

It took 100 years for Babe Ruth comparisons. There will be more "Ohtani's" in a lot less time. Ohtani is special but lets see how long that lasts.

[TAC]

It took 100 years for Babe Ruth comparisons. There will be more "Ohtani's" in a lot less time. Ohtani is special but lets see how long that lasts.

So, apparently the Yankees didn't sign Ohtani? 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

OK, that's cool. The Giants signed Jung Hoo Lee. Glad they didn't take the Bellinger bait. I'm not convinced he won't revert back to his crappy seasons with the Dodgers, especially when you look at his hard hit rate from last year being near the bottom of the league.

Now they just need to sign Yamamoto.

[Glasser]

It took 100 years for Babe Ruth comparisons. There will be more "Ohtani's" in a lot less time. Ohtani is special but lets see how long that lasts.

So, apparently the Yankees didn't sign Ohtani? 

Haha! He was never coming to the East Coast and he made that clear.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Looks like the Dodgers will be getting Glasnow. Seems they are trying to build an unstoppable dynasty in one offseason. There's also talk that the Dodgers are the frontrunner to land Yamamoto....

Meanwhile, the Giants sit on their hands and do practically nothing. If the Giants don't take out all the stops to land Yamamoto, I'm disowning this team until they kick Zaidi and his lackeys to the curb.

[Cool Chris]

Samsara, I remember these grumblings back when ARod signed that contract with the Rangers, which I believe was $252M. That was big news up here obviously. They said these contracts weren't sustainable. They said the fans wouldn't come back after the 1994 strike (which was caused in part by the owners demand for a salary cap). And here we are now. The NFL has taken over as the #1 sport in America. But MLB is still here, and apparently doing well enough to offer $800M contracts to players.

[pg1067]

Looks like the Dodgers will be getting Glasnow. Seems they are trying to build an unstoppable dynasty in one offseason.

I don't get this one.  Glasnow has been in the bigs for parts of 8 seasons.  Only once has he started more than 14 games.  Only twice has he pitched more than 100 innings.  His career is a mediocre 3.89.  He's had 6 seasons with an ERA greater than 4.00.  Never an all-star.  Never got votes for any awards.  So...he's not very good and doesn't eat innings.  And for that, we gave up a top-flight prospect like Ryan Pepiot?

[TAC]

Looks like the Dodgers will be getting Glasnow. Seems they are trying to build an unstoppable dynasty in one offseason.

I don't get this one.  Glasnow has been in the bigs for parts of 8 seasons.  Only once has he started more than 14 games.  Only twice has he pitched more than 100 innings.  His career is a mediocre 3.89.  He's had 6 seasons with an ERA greater than 4.00.  Never an all-star.  Never got votes for any awards.  So...he's not very good and doesn't eat innings.  And for that, we gave up a top-flight prospect like Ryan Pepiot?

Gee, I really feel bad for you..

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Looks like the Dodgers will be getting Glasnow. Seems they are trying to build an unstoppable dynasty in one offseason.

I don't get this one.  Glasnow has been in the bigs for parts of 8 seasons.  Only once has he started more than 14 games.  Only twice has he pitched more than 100 innings.  His career is a mediocre 3.89.  He's had 6 seasons with an ERA greater than 4.00.  Never an all-star.  Never got votes for any awards.  So...he's not very good and doesn't eat innings.  And for that, we gave up a top-flight prospect like Ryan Pepiot?

Glasnow can be a top of the line starter if he can just stay healthy. Granted his past seems to indicate that may not go well for the Dodgers.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Wow. Yamamoto signs with the Dodgers....good grief.

[Glasser]

Wow. Yamamoto signs with the Dodgers....good grief.

I was really confident the Yankees would get him. They need another starter badly.