Kyle Tucker & Bo Bichette show the way to a MLB salary cap & salary floor - Ep. 644 1.19.26

I'm stunned. Okay, so here we go. We're recording here on Friday, a couple days before we normally do this drops Monday morning. And you know, we thought we were going to talk about Kyle Tucker today, which we will. And honestly, really realistically, I thought of all of the signings that was going to happen for Kyle Tucker, it was going to be maybe a 10 minute discussion about like, okay, what does he do for that team? The signing of Kyle Tucker is that when entire topic onto its own because

It's going to bring the salary cap. There's no way after that signing there's not going to be a salary cap. But then apparently I'm behind on the news because apparently there's even more breaking baseball news. I was entirely unaware of as I sat here unbeknownst to me this morning. And it's not won't be as sexy when this drops on Monday, but that if it's happening to us in real time and you didn't know and I literally it just happened that the Mets, the New York Mets, those Mets. It's not Cody Bellinger.

It's Beau Bichette, three years to the Mets. Looks like they want him to play third base. And the initial report is that they're thinking about playing Beatty in left field, which if there's ever been a smokescreen about trading a player, there is that right there? Goodbye, Brett Beatty. Oops. mean, the all-infielders team didn't really work for the Padres, but maybe it'll work for the Mets.

Well, and so I guess this was the fallback position. And I think we should spend more time talking about how Kyle Tucker and the Dodgers have broken baseball, ha ha. I think that is the bigger signing because this 100 % feels like a hard pivot from the Mets through the Kyle Tucker thing.

So let's start there. start with Kyle Tucker as Kyle Tucker went to the team. Everybody just assumed it wasn't good aside. They weren't going to have enough money. And then the Dodgers was like, yeah, apparently money is simply not a real thing to us as they fork out the absolutely ludicrous contract. It feels like it's a stupid. It's a bad contract. Frankly. Well,

Almost Cooperstown (02:13.134)
It's a bad contract when you look at the future prediction of what you think Tucker's going to be except that they're only paying him only for four years and so what they did is is and maybe this is the way baseball is heading right they're gonna pay him now and then he can go get his second half of his eight-year deal and a four-year deal and maybe by the time that comes around four years from now it won't seem so bad to give a guy 35 40 million bucks

since we've got guys making 60 and there'll be other guys that do that. And if you add it up, he'll average $50 million a year for the eight years. like that. Right, but the issue is that from the perspective of it is a four year, $240 million deal, which is $60 million a year. Kyle Tucker, in order to equal the value of this contract, would need to put up about eight war season. He's never done that in his career. He's been through.

He's not even come close. don't think he's had above a five more season. wait, I just had a five more season. Al you perspective. It's a bad deal in a lot of ways. The best part about this deal for the Los Angeles Dodgers is that for the next four years, no other team in baseball has Kyle Tucker on their team. Well, and here's a couple of thoughts, right? So Tucker got the second highest AAV deal ever. Only his teammate, Shohei Otani got more.

Even with the deferrals to 46 million, Shohei's deal was 70 million. And you know, on the Dodgers, Kyle Tucker is just another guy.

And when you look at the payrolls in baseball now, the Mets have somewhat tipped this because I think this gets them back above the Blue Jays now. I'm not 100 % sure. With Bichette where it falls because they're both close. But the Mets and the Blue Jays are the only teams in baseball in which the Los Angeles Dodgers payroll does not double it.

Almost Cooperstown (04:08.45)
The only team. Yeah, there's only two teams in baseball that the Los Angeles Dodgers payroll is not double on. And there's a bunch of teams where it's like one times the amount of basically they are the amount their payroll is compared to some of the other teams. It is kind of laughable. is everything we complained about with the Yankees in the 90s, but worse. And so we'll get deeper into this. You started this talking about a salary cap and I dropped an article today.

And this was before Tucker signed, right? And my take was, you know, when Kershaw came out last weekend was really against the salary cap saying, how can these owners, you know, complain about not having enough money when the value of their franchise? This is what we always talk about, right? Is going up, up, up. And they're making multiples on their investment. And how can they complain about that? And you know what? There's a point, a good point there. But the point isn't that the reason for the salary cap has nothing to do with that. Here's the reason for the salary cap.

fans are going to start checking out because think about how many fans are already sitting here thinking this year. If you're a national league fan this year, what's the point? Like, yes, okay, obviously you watch play the season. got to this season freely. You're going to really tell me you're going to beat the Dodgers.

Like that's how everybody basically feels as a fan. Everybody has to get injured on the team for them to know. Right. You have to come up with a reason why they're not going to win. So that immediately depresses fan interest because unlike in the NFL where unless you're the New York Jets, every team has a chance to win every year. That's really not the case in baseball. You're like, OK, well, maybe we have the chance to lose to the Dodgers in a playoff series. I think how

98 % of teams feel right now. Maybe the Mets, the Phillies and the Braves don't feel that way in the country. I don't think the Mets feel that way right now. don't think any team feels that way. You look at that lineup, you look at that rotation. What is your argument for? Yeah, this is our angle to beat them in a series. And that's why you're going to have a salary cap because all of a sudden fan interest is going to dwindle because who cares about watching your team when they can't win?

Almost Cooperstown (06:17.342)
Our friend Jeff Cohen from the baseball and BBQ Park podcast you know wait and i'm saying you know interesting idea but as long as you have the word salary cap the MLBPA will never agree to that so we need to call it something else.

Call it some other baloney term. Which is weird because you could argue that the MLBPA is one of like, it's probably the weakest players unions of all of the pro player unions in terms of what they're able to do and push the owners into doing. The owners basically do whatever they want 99 % of the time. if they're, are they really going to be able to stop them from putting in a salary cap if they want to? I don't know. think if, and wouldn't you be able to spend getting a salary cap and a salary floor as a good thing for the league?

that now all of a sudden all of these teams that never spend any money are now forced into spending money and yet maybe that comes at the expense of the top end of the guys getting absolutely stupid contracts. look at the NBA. That's why Kershaw has to defend that, right? Because he's one of those top guys going, I don't want to, he can't come out and say, know, well, we should really do this for the rank and file when he just got paid a huge amount of money for his whole career.

But look at basketball basketball didn't have the cap. It wouldn't be fun because then you would just have all the best teams by all of the best players and you know, Kyle Tucker basically signed the equivalent of an NBA supermax deal. That's a good point. I think it's right. And I think the you know, the idea that you know, the there's no way that the players association could ever accept the salary cap is that's old thinking. And I think why they're sticking to this.

It's just that of tradition and there's like 20 guys in Major League Baseball who really benefit from that the most. But there's a lot of guys who are making the MLB minimum, which was 760 this year, 760,000. So the moment you have a salary cap and a salary floor in there, that floor at 760, that minimum salary is going to go up. Right, because all of a sudden the team suddenly, now the Marlins can't get away with paying a bunch of guys the Major League minimum. They have to spend money on some guy.

Almost Cooperstown (08:25.986)
So even if they're not the best players are going to have to suddenly the majorly minimum has to go up. So all of a sudden everybody's making more money because you as a team can't cheap out and benefit from the Dodgers making an ungodly amount of money basically. And you said it right. So if you look at you know the other teams that are in the nationally vying with the Dodgers you know to do that you want to include the Padres the Phillies the Mets the Braves and all that.

What happened yesterday makes them think, well, what are we even bothering trying to do that? We're still we thought we gained some ground, but we've actually lost more than we gained. Right, right, right. The Dodgers are the same team as they were last year, except they've added Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz. Yeah, the best closer in baseball or arguably the best closer in baseball and one of the best offensive position player, free agent. And by the way.

And by the way, when you look at what the free agent availability is, we still have Framber and Bellinger to go this year. Next year's free agent class, it's all time terrible. I want to say it was Passan that lit somebody up, but he was like, when you look at it, he's like, Jeremy Pena is the best free agent hitter next season. And it's like, okay, that's actually kind of disrespectful for Jeremy Pena. Because if you look at his advanced stats directly, he's really good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But.

That's in terms of name value. He's the best hitter available. You've got nobody big coming up with a with almost for sure to be lockout now. There's just no way you're not going to have some kind of issue going into this offseason. Well, and so I think and that's if the you I am falling harder and harder. And even though I think the salary cap and salary for this, I kept a stupid that the owners can't control themselves. We need to have some artificial.

head but you know what don't think it's about controlling themselves I think the Dodgers like we have the money what are you going to do about it and you know what if you did you watch the NFL playoff games last weekend okay you talk about a league where the salary cap has benefited most of those games except for the last two were really fun to watch and MLB NFL has a salary cap the the hockey National Hockey League has a salary cap

Almost Cooperstown (10:26.602)
NBA has a salary cap. It thinks it's looking pretty well there. So why don't know we can't ever have it. That's our legacy that we have a salad. What the hell is that? Yes, exactly. And when you look at it, it is truly now at the point where even if the Cincinnati Reds owners spent like all of their money, they have it. They wouldn't be able to compete. They don't have enough money.

Nor do they have enough players to go and buy because the Dodgers bought them all. Right, right. It's gotten to the point now with the Dodgers that other teams, it's not like, okay, they're not spending in the case. It's the Dodgers that are spending to the magnitude that other teams literally cannot spend the money the Dodgers are spending. And I don't, here's the, this is going to sound, I don't blame Edgard Friedman and the Dodgers. I don't blame them know?

And for all the other teams that didn't go, yeah, we could give Kyle Tucker an absolutely stupid contract and still make money because you're right. The Tucker deal on its own value is like, that's crazy. gave him a stupid contract. I would have been kind of annoyed if the Mets had signed him to that contract because it's a ludicrous contract. the Dodgers won, you only send the Dodgers to then look at that with their current roster is constructed already with the amount of salary. And they'll okay, yeah, we'll just give them like one of the highest AAV value deals ever.

he has and Tucker to the Dodgers in an offseason to the tooling. It's like you can't say David Sterns didn't spend money when that was what he lost it to and the Mets offered, you know, would you have been okay with the Mets offering him 55 million a year for four years with no deferred money and a 75 million dollars? I know I don't care about a signing bonus. that's after year two and three. Yeah. They gave him everything he wanted. The Dodgers just literally offered more money. They offered more money and they offered him cover.

He is gonna, you know, so there's Mookie Betts and there's Freddie Freeman and Joey O'Tonny and all these other guys. No one's gonna be looking at Kyle Tucker the way they'd look at him if he were on the Mets. He kind of seems like a guy he was looking for that. Yep. He does not seem like a big limelight kind of guy. I think he's totally gonna be happy being in LA, not being needing to be a big thing. He's just another guy on that team. He gets to just show up and play baseball and he doesn't have to worry about doing all the stuff that Shohei and Mookie have to do.

Almost Cooperstown (12:41.3)
And I guess I'm one side. I'm glad that at least somebody wanted to come to the Mets in Bichette because it started to look like going, guess nobody wants to play with these guys. It's what it started to look like. The Bichette deal, it's three years. So OK, that makes perfect sense if you're the Mets to sign them to this deal because it's like, OK, you're in field set for the next three years. they had moving into third base makes sense because he was not a great defensive shortstop. And now, OK.

The old you have questions at first base still but you know you can you can handle that and now it's like okay the shed. The Shetland door simian is a much much better in field than what you had at second but between what you the rotating doors you had second and third last year. I guess that I guess that you know my friend Steve was saying that in his eyes.

this is might be an upgrade at third base over Beatty and I hadn't really thought about that way because I tend to think of Brady as a as Beatty as an up-and-coming good fielder but maybe he's right you know maybe it's not a downgrade it's even if it's neutral well right purely for like like like this jet in terms of he plays average defense and is he's the same offensive player as he was last year he's just better than Brent Bates like Brady

being he would have like, like, that's kind of as simple as it is. So he would have to be actively very bad at defense at third base. And a lot of the things that made him not a great shortstop are mitigated at third base with his like he wasn't the fastest guy at shortstop. That doesn't matter nearly as much at third base. So in terms of what's left out there in the in the free agent cupboard, there's not much right. You've got Framber and you've got Bellinger. Those are the two probably highest level free agents.

And I was so when I was writing my notes, I thought, you know, I guess Zach Galen must have done something really bad to people because he doesn't even get talked about. Well, I think I think Cody Bellinger, this signing makes it clear to me, Cody Bellinger is going to the Yankees. It seems that way. They haven't done anything. They haven't done anything. They've got to spend the money. He profiles perfectly. He fits that team better than going anywhere else. And I think he kind of knows that. So it's sort of like they're just going to wait each other out at this point. And they're going to go frame.

Almost Cooperstown (14:56.614)
don't know where he's going go down because you could argue that he was a good fit for the Mets, but I don't think they're going to want to give him a big contract right after they give this contract to the shed. Now, I think because especially for this contract from the shed is the exact type of deal the Mets wanted to give somebody this offseason. They were like, we only want to give somebody a big like short-term deal. That was exactly what they were able to do with the shed. I think they're going to be happy with that. And I'm happy with that. I'm going to like watching him be our third baseman next year. Frame.

I don't know what the market is for him now. Who's going to spend the money on him? The Dodgers? Why not? Why not? Why wouldn't it be the Dodgers? Would you think that this sort of signals from the Mets perspective that they have been sitting on a trade all winter that they haven't been able to make and they needed all this smoke to clear and now they can do whatever it is that was the master plan because I can't believe the master plan was Bechet for three years.

Here's why the Phillies had a seven year, $200 million offer into the shed and they thought they were going to sign him and then met swooped in at the last minute after Tucker signed and gave him the three year one 26 deal and they signed him away from the Phillies at like the last second. That doesn't really make a lot of sense that he got a little more. I got higher AAV obviously, but seven years at Bichette's age. That's weird. Almost like he didn't want to be a Philly. I don't know if I can say that.

But yeah, they were going to they thought they were going to get him until the Mets swooped in with that deal. It's a much bigger AAV deal because he's getting less than 30 a year on that deal. Right. And with a seven year deal at his age, he's probably not getting another big deal. So he might look at that and go, you know, I could probably get a better deal three years from now and make more money overall by not taking that deal. He's he's only got to make 20 million. You got to make.

20 million a year in the next four years after this deal. You're exactly right. And that's what I thought about Pete Alonso when he left going, the way you get there, you shouldn't worry about if you're trying to get an average over a longer period of time, it could be front loaded and then you get less on the back end. But by the time you get to the back end, that less is more because inflation and prices have gone up. So it's going to be, you know, what, 30 million today is going to be 24 years.

Almost Cooperstown (17:15.786)
Really as a player, what you have to be asking yourself is what is the likelihood in my mind that like, you know, natural fall off, like how honest can you be with yourself? What is my natural fall off likely to be like in the next three to four seasons? Where am I going to be what I'm going to be looking to sign that next term deal because

For some players, like for Beau Bichette, like let's say all of a sudden he falls off a cliff on this deal with him. That's totally possible. You have to consider that. You have to live in that world. If that happens, he's not getting another big deal. And then he's in trouble now because, he signed this deal and got a ton of money. But now nobody wants to sign him and he's older and it's going to be really rough.

So that's sort of like the balancing act that you're taking as a player. Whereas, you know, if he had gone with the Phillies, think what the shed is saying with this deal is I'm still going to be good enough three to four years for now that I'm going to be able to sign another big long-term deal. So he's betting on himself to stay healthy and play well during this contract. And, know, certainly from the standpoint of looking at the Mets as they are right now, I agree with you that.

Bellinger is just not, if he were to come to the Mets, which I don't think is gonna happen anymore than you do, I think he played center field probably and not first base. I mean, you can't really be, unless you're really convinced that Carson Benj and Taylor are gonna be able to man center field. Right, you have to think they're doing is right now the Mets starting outfield is Juan Soto, Yungay, Hyron Taylor and Jared Young.

And I know, don't think I don't know. No, no, you're you're over. You're overstating right now on the roster. That is the projecting started left fielder because he isn't on the roster. So obviously that's not going to be the case. But I think the same way that you can't really go, oh, yeah, Brett Beatty is going to be the left fielder of the future. I mean, maybe. But that was likely not a plan that you ever had before. Probably. Let's see what maybe 45 minutes ago, literally.

Almost Cooperstown (19:14.486)
because it's 1245 and you signed Bo Bichette at about noon East on Friday today. So there's no way you've been working Brett Vady out in left field preparing for this eventuality. I saw pictures this week, video this week from I don't know where they were in Texas. It was Semian.

Brett Beatty, know, and Lindor working out together and Beatty at third base throwing the ball going, yeah, he is not going to go to left field. I actually do believe he's going to be traded and I think it's going to be to the Marlins and I maybe because I'm hoping it's going to be Sandy Alcontra and there's going to be other assets that are going go with him. Could be a Luis. I kind of hope we can get so I don't know if I love that deal for the best perspective. You have to trade more just from a salary perspective in that thing. I think that that would make that a little hard. Who knows?

Maybe the Mets think they have a Tatties Jr. situation on their hands. You moved Tatties Jr. to the outfield and he immediately became a gold glove right fielder. Maybe the Mets know something we don't with Brett Beatty. I don't think that's the case, but who knows? We have precedent. Last Met thing, because we could go on forever as everybody knows. Vientos is your first baseman? Right now?

I don't think so. The Mechs don't even talk about that being really a possibility. They don't seem to be anything like it unless they're just like, unless it's such a foregone conclusion for them that they're just not talking about it. But like, I don't know. doesn't feel like, I think it's all more about Perdomo at first base than Vientos. I no, Polanco. Polanco, Polanco, sorry. Yeah, yeah. I think they envision him being DH, Polanco and sort of fill in different places.

And if they slotted it that way, you could see a team where Bayes your left fielder, Benjen, Taylor, Scherzander, Soto and Wright, Bichette, Lindor, Semien, Vientos and Alvarez. That's not a bad hitting team. I thought we saw David Stearns was saying, well, I want defense, defense, defense. I'm not feeling that there. Right, right. You have some really scary possibilities in terms of you could have a very weak left and right field defensively.

Almost Cooperstown (21:27.586)
You could have a very weak first base defensive. That sounds like last year. Kind of sounds like now. Now you probably improved overall back at you've improved at second. Yep, you have improved at second no matter what you thought about, you know, you know worse than third. It's not better. Right, right, maybe a little worse at third, but I don't think a significant amount of worse. I don't know. I don't know how to evaluate the shed at third, right? And then in terms of left field memo.

Ooh, Nemo did not have a good year defensively. That's why putting Beatty out there, could it be that much worse than the Nemo wasn't left here? Right, think Met fans don't love acknowledging that. yeah, Nemo had a rough year defensively. And I think that's a lot of the reason why they were willing to move on from him. Because it was like, OK, it was already getting bad defensively and it wasn't going to get better. And you don't have a DH spot for him. And he didn't really want a DH. And I kept seeing it as the last Met thing. So let's say you would have kept Nemo.

You kept Pete Alonso, you signed these guys and the Dodgers did what they did. You go, well, what did we even bother? Why did we bother doing that? And you can't be asked. Let's say you kept Diaz and the Dodgers didn't get Diaz too. Okay. So now you're looking at this. they got Tucker. You're like, okay, well maybe now we can compete. I don't know. started pitching out there. Right. With that starting pitching now. Yeah. I don't think so either. So, you know, we, we,

Go ahead. I just think it's just going to be really interesting to see what, cause, cause does this depress what happens the rest of the off season? Our team, our team's going to start scrambling like the Mets clearly did and going to sign Bichette is all of a sudden you're hanging a soar as a suddenly the only guy left on the market. That's worth signing offensively is all of a sudden some team going to back up a truck to end to being, you know what, at least it like 40 home runs for us. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

Framers will have to go somewhere. don't know where though. Maybe Baltimore, maybe this helps Baltimore because it takes two teams out of the running for him and maybe they can now offer him a deal that's a little bit more fits their, you know, actual ability to offer. Yeah. And how do you feel if you're, you know, the, Padres, Giants and Diamondbacks, you know, in the West going, okay, we kind of gave it the old school try, but now do they re-evaluate their position and go, okay, you know what?

Almost Cooperstown (23:52.174)
sell assets, we're not going to win this year, could have a lockout next year, you know. But here's the problem, and I think this is what's going to, and this is why I think you're going to get a salary for. What are you going to, how are you going to acquire enough assets to beat the Dodgers? Right. What are you going to do? How are you going to develop enough players simultaneously? You would have to somehow develop the super generation where like 18 prospects come at once.

between your pitchers and your position players that all of a sudden, like, oh, we've basically homegrown an entire team in one generation and now we're ready. And that's, I don't think ever happened. Right, The Dodgers have eight players. They're just going to pay for more players. They have eight players that have a hundred million dollar contact somewhere. Some teams don't even have a hundred million dollar play role. Right. I don't know about that.

Some well maybe there's somebody at 90 or 80. That's true. I love to have a hundred million dollar payroll. Yeah, right now. I love I've got a curious. Yeah.

And it seemed earlier this week that everybody was it wasn't this week or was it last week because we haven't had we didn't do a podcast last weekend when Bregman went to the Cubs and then they signed it Edward Cabrera. It's like hey those Cubs are serious. Well how do the Cubs feel right about now. Did they do it. I can't imagine. Great. Did they do enough. You know like oh we didn't do enough. We had Kyle Tucker last year. Wait that was our guy.

So Miami is dead last in baseball at exactly $100 million. knew it was close. So when they trade, when they trade Alan Contra to the Mets and they take back, you know, some salary, the Mets will give them, but not as much. They'll go under again. Right. And the Mets are now up to second because they they they're at 358 right now for their projected taxpayer. And that's and they're and they're finally not paying Verlander insurers or this year, right? That's right.

Almost Cooperstown (25:57.248)
Right, there's some huge contracts there, so it is very interesting. I'm really curious to see. think this is going to build. Interestingly, I think this is going to build a ton of hype for the world baseball classic because people are going to view that as almost more pure now because it's just guys on a team. It's not. It's not the Dodgers versus the world. It's anybody could win this. This is going to be more interesting. don't know who's going to win, right? What does it feel like a predetermined conclusion?

Because now, and I think you're going to run into a situation where is unless the Dodgers suddenly have a bunch of injuries, the regular season is going to really feel like it means nothing this year. You know, because even if the Dodgers aren't in first, as long as they're in the playoffs, everybody is going to feel like they're going to win. Because it's like, OK, they were a little banged up. They'll get healthy in time. Yeah, and it's hard to see that happening right now, only because.

You know, you look at the everything, every aspect of their team and they've got massive depth there. They could, they could like every year they could afford, you know, losses to the starting rotation and they can afford losses in the lineup and still be an awesome offensive team. Not that you expect that to happen, but they're built in that way. which this feels like a super, super team as we've seen in a really, really long time. The weak link is Teoscar.

That's really the weak link. Right. Maybe Andy Paius in center field too. Maybe. Right. Right. That's their worst player. He'd be a starter on a lot of teams. I take him on the bets. Yeah, me too. Guy hit 27 home runs and plays great defense in center field. Sign me up. Right. Right. There's only a couple of teams in baseball and the Cubs might be one of the few teams that are like, we're good. We'll pass on him. Whoever gets Cody Bellinger might be the other. So the, know, let's, let's give a look as we haven't.

done anything. just want to mention, you know, any thought on Aronado leaving the Cardinals and accepting the move to the Dbacks?

Almost Cooperstown (28:00.398)
That feels like such a, like I like the move from the D backs perspective in that that's a generally a still a pretty young team and getting a veteran presence in like aeronado, especially what had to be a pretty depressed St. Louis situation. Cause now they've tumbled down to the bottom of the payroll rankings. They're not spending any money either. And I just think that like, I like that move from their perspective. I like the move from the Cardinals cause it finally feels like they're committing to the rebuild just

It took them a couple of years longer to realize that than everyone else. Like, OK, I know the time to move on from Marinado was like two, three seasons ago, but you guys didn't really want to do that. Better ballpark for him, though, to hit him for what that's worth in Arizona than it is in Saint Louis. Certainly, and he'll help them defensively because he's still a great fielder. I think that's a good move from them. I think it's a good move from the Cardinals. I don't think it's going. I don't think it's going to be a big needle mover.

But it could be the difference between like in terms of like, the Diamondbacks now have a sneaky chance to win the World Series, especially after the Kyle Tucker signing. given that they just missed the playoffs last year, that is the kind of move that could make a difference and help them make the playoffs this year. We're gonna give it the old school try. Hey, you know what? They were the team that took out the Dodgers two seasons ago. So it's possible.

I was a little harsh on the Yankees because they said they did nothing. They did sign Ryan Weathers, whose daddy pitched for the Yankees. And that's probably the most amusing part about that whole thing. Although what it tells me is that they don't expect Garrett Cole to be ready. Rodone's obviously not going to be ready to start the season. Weathers is just there to do the innings. Yes. Who was the Mets guy that got hurt last year? Canning. He's there just to sort of tie us over.

He's there to be an arm to use for the first two months of the season until your better pitchers come off of the injury. That's That's a good job. And he signs that deal because if he pitches well, maybe he's not the guy that gets demoted when Garrett Cole comes back. And somebody's got to come out of the American League to play the Dodgers in the World Series next year, Why not the Yankees? The Yankees can probably look at it say, know what, we're Garrett Cole away from being in the World Series. Let's get Garrett Cole back and we can think about this differently.

Almost Cooperstown (30:20.374)
Yeah, yeah. So we're going to record a podcast after the Hall of Fame vote on Tuesday with the Athletics Dan Brown, who actually has already posted his Hall of Fame votes. And I won't I won't spoil it, but you can go and read the athletic. You want to see who he voted for. But I think his colleague, Jason Stark, put a column and put his votes out there, you know, basically that everything is flipping a little bit because you're going to see guys that don't have career stats.

Now consider once this spate of guys gets off the ballot, you're left with Utley's and David Wright's and guys like that who were really excellent for a maybe smaller period of time and don't have career numbers, but were really fantastic baseball players that deserve consideration. Right, right. Because it gets very hard to argue for David Wright's inclusion when Alex Rodriguez is sitting there on the ballot and you're not putting him for a reason in that isn't his stats.

Because you're like, okay, well, how could you tell me that being the basis of stats, needs to be in ahead of A-Rod? And it's like, well, was A-Rod the stuff we didn't like? But yeah, it's like, he's not even close to him. Well, A-Rod's gone. So there isn't that point of comparison. And if you're gonna be looking for a guy, you have to start putting some guys in, because you can't have a run of years and put nobody in until some of the newer guys start retiring.

Cole Hamill is going to look really good like two or three years from now when there's not a lot of guys left on the ballot, you know, right? Exactly. You know, we're going to have a run here where there were there's not these crazy stuff ballots. And then we're going to have a run where there's like a bunch of guys. You know, we've got some guys that are becoming up. Pool host retired last year. right. You're going to have some guys coming, but that's only one or two. That's not like it's not like you're going to have regions of guys coming in that I'll need to get elected. I think I think there's a year where like Joey Vato and into this. But again, those that little hump.

You know, and then you'll end up a few years later with Scherzer, if he ever retires, obviously Kershaw now in Verlander. So it's right. There's enough to keep us along, but hopefully no zeros. Right. Right. Kershaw, Verlander and Scherzer will sort of tide over the starting pitching market. But the problem is they're all still playing. So you have another five years until they're eligible. I saw that Kershaw is going to pitch for the U.S. in the world baseball classic. And I scratched my head a little bit.

Almost Cooperstown (32:37.358)
going that he wants to go and hang out. I guess I mean, it must be such a fun thing to do. And of course you can be on that team and like never pitch. Kershaw's because he wants to go and hang out with his buddies, be a part of the team, be there once in a while. Maybe they need one inning from him in a meaningless game because it's some cup. It's some like it's some like round robin game in the group stage.

They're pummeling somebody and they're like, okay, yeah, we'll go get an inning out of Kershaw. We don't have to use one of our other pitchers. Cool. Skiing, save Tarek Scoobel an inning or two. You have skis and Scoobel there. So it's probably going to be okay. Right. Exactly. It's like any innings we can save them. I'm pretty sure the pirates and the tigers are going to appreciate. Do you, do you think before we sign off and I thought this when I saw the Tucker deal, but now not since the Bruchette deal that just happened literally during those podcasts. Within the last hour. Yeah.

Do you think the Mets sell the house to get Scoobble?

Almost Cooperstown (33:37.664)
instead of free agent pitcher, and does that actually make, will that make a difference considering what they'll have to give up?

Which is a lot. I don't what they would get what you're giving up isn't things that would affect your ability to win it this year. That is true. I think could they win it all if they had scoobal if it breaks all right maybe but you could say that about a lot of teams agreed and I think with scoobal I would give them more than a puncher like they need less things to break right for them than a lot of other teams completely agree. So yeah.

Right. So because it's like, okay, you have scooble at the top of that rotation. It's like, okay, yes. If all of it, McLean is the guy that we think it is. That's a one, two punch right there. And then all you need is one of the other pitchers to be a star. And now you've got a chance. You don't need all of them. You just need one of Senga, Peters and any of those guys to figure it out. And you've got to, and then you need your bullpen to be good. And you've got the line up that. So I think that-

And I think that's probably been in the back of the Mets mind all off season. I hope to Detroit would sort of not do that and try to win with Scoobl this year. the risk is too high for them to do that, it seems. Right, right. This move almost makes it like, because it's like, you're like, how are we supposed to, like, even if we keep, now I guess if you're the Tigers, a world, would the World Series appearance this year with Scoobl be worth it? Just getting there.

Say nothing about the win because even if you have school, if you put the Dodgers is like, you could lose that. And I don't know if that's going to affect you too much because it's the Dodgers this year. it be, wouldn't it be just a tease because then you'd lose them anyway next season and you would have gotten just there and you're not going to get close to down after that. you get to the world series, he'll maybe he's more willing to reside with you and run it back. would be the. As long as you roll out, you know, 60 million a year for him. Sure. No problem. Right. And I guess then the thing would be get something before.

Almost Cooperstown (35:43.586)
the Dodgers might just end up signing him. Why not? Why would they sign everybody? Right. And that's how it feels right now as a fan. And I'm sure as a Dodger fan, it feels great because you're like, cool, we're going to win the World Series. Let's talk to Dan also. I want to ask you about that. We'll ask him about his Hall of Fame votes. But let's kind of ask him, because I'm interested in his take on, you know, where are we headed here? And he's certainly a great person to talk to. So check out that episode. drops next Monday.

and well at least we have you know what at least at least thinking about Beau Bechet makes this a little bit more fun yes yes this this was way a fun podcast so you know what this week in baseball actually had stuff happen a lot of stuff