Halford & Brough in the Morning - Shi Davidi Talks Vladdy’s Payday

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

In hour one, Mike and Jason look ahead to the Canucks' matchup with the Dallas Stars and break down what makes Dallas such a tough opponent. The guys also go around the NHL scoreboard, then welcome Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi to talk Vladdy’s new deal, Bo Bichette’s future, and the Jays’ playoff hopes. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- He can't, one second! And it's on! Schlarer is back on top of the college basketball world! Wah had it and dropped it! And Detroit scores first! Patrick Wah just got caught hot-dogging. Believe me, he was going to give it the hell do you do when he dropped the puck. Good morning, Vancouver 601, on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. This is Alfred in his bra. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful

Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Elon, good morning. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred in bra for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews visit them online at sans-trustee.com We are in hour one of the program hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star Metal Recycling they recycle you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintex footwear and orthotics working together

with you in step. Poor A-Dog, he's got a cold. He's not feeling well, he tried to gut it out. He had that dog in him yesterday. Not today though. He's got the kennel cough. He's got the kennel cough. Comes back and back.

I don't think we got him vaccinated. We got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. Just five of these left this year, Jason. Canucks game day. Just five of them left. Canucks are in action tonight. Thank God. All right, five o'clock from Dallas.

Our guest list today begins at 6.30. Shai Davidi's gonna join us. We're gonna do some baseball talk with Sportsnet's chief baseball columnist, the Blue Jays and Vladie Guerrero, as you heard on our show yesterday, agreed to the second richest contract in MLB history. Yesterday the Jays celebrated it with a big win over the Red Sox in Boston, so we'll

talk to Shia about all things Blue Jays at 6.30. Seven o'clock Owen Newkirk is going to join us from DLLS Dallas Sports. He's a podcast host for the Dallas Stars. The Canucks are in Dallas, as we we mentioned to take on the Stars tonight. 5 PM puck drop pregame show starts at four o'clock right here on Sportsnet 650. Uh, Owen will be joining us for the Dallas Stars side of the preview. Landon Ferraro is going to join us at eight for the Canucks side of the preview. The Canucks had a travel day yesterday to Dallas, so no practice, no skate.

They're going to hit the ice in Dallas this morning at 930 our time so you will find out everything you need to know for tonight's game Canucks Stars 5 o'clock from Dallas so working in reverse real quick on the guest list 8 o'clock it's Landon Ferraro 7 o'clock it's Owen Newkirk 630 it's Shia Davidi that's what's happening on the program today laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened? Is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Canucks will travel to Dallas tonight, or they already traveled. They will play the Dallas Stars tonight in Dallas. And I guess it's time, Jason, for us to start focusing on the other teams. By that I mean the playoff-bound teams like the Dallas Stars, who for the second consecutive year have won 50 games and are back on their way to the postseason unlike their opponent tonight the Vancouver Canucks. We love the Dallas Stars. We love them so much. Love the Dallas Stars.

I guess the big story from the Stars perspective and we'll talk about all of this with Owen Newkirk in the second hour is when they'll get high skin and back. It sounds like he can miss the entire first round and that's a pretty big deal because that could be a tough round for the Stars against Colorado who, you know, if I had to make a cup pick, I'd probably take Colorado and maybe the fact that Heisken may not be available to the Dallas Stars contributes to that cup pick. I was looking at the star stats and it's crazy that Matt Duchenne is their leading scorer, but you got to hand it to the guy. He was becoming an afterthought in the league, especially after getting bought out by Colorado. He's 34 years old now. He's the leading scorer on a Stanley Cup contender. And I was thinking the stars are a bit like the Jets in that they don't have any super flashy superstars, you know, super, they've got some very good players and so do the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets have Hellebuck in goal, but I'm talking about the guys like

the skaters, defensemen or forward too, like, oh, Unbelievable. Mm-hmm. But they're solid everywhere, including in goal with Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith. He's having an unbelievable year, by the way. The latter of whom, DeSmith, actually has superior numbers to Oettinger, his safe percentage is something like 921, albeit with half the workload of Oettinger. We can talk about that with Owen.

I also want to talk about Wyatt Johnston. So I saw this list on the athletic. I think Pierre Lebrun wrote it. And it was five guys who didn't make Team Canada at Four Nations, but could make the Olympic team. And Wyatt Johnston was one of them. And then I was looking at it and I was like, oh my God, this guy's only 21. Yep. 31 goals, 68 points, 21 years old. They get crazy depth of forward. Do you think he was maybe overlooked a little bit because that was the COVID years where he was drafted

and everyone kind of was like, I don't know these guys haven't played enough games. I mean, that's just a theory, but by the way, the other guys on that list, I'm gonna try and remember them right now. It was obviously Nick Suzuki was one. Yep, that makes sense. Robert Thomas, who's playing unbelievable for the blues lately, and it

is a big part of the fact that they've had that winning streak, although that was stopped by the Jets yesterday. I think Tom Wilson was on it. I can't remember. There's one more guy. Mark Shifely. Mark Shifely, yeah. Yeah. The Dallas Stars, despite us saying that they're not interesting, they actually are kind of interesting from a pure hockey.

If you're a hockey purist, you should actually look at the Dallas Stars as the model of consistency and the way to do a build throughout the organization. They have waves of players that are ready to take over from the previous iteration, and all three of them are playing right now. They still have the Ben, although Tyler Sagan is out,

but they still have the Ben and Sagan era going. Then they've got the Hintz and Robertson era, that generation of players. And then previously when they had the Stankov and he was in there as well. Now you could say it's Wyatt Johnson and Thomas Harley, for example. And it's been a model of draft and develop.

Jim Nill's done an amazing job as the general manager manager. I don't think anyone can say anything otherwise. They've got back to back 50 win seasons. They're a perennial playoff team. They do lack the national sort of pizzazz. No one's really like, no one's really excited about the Dallas Stars. I mean, the guy we have mentioned is Ranton and we should have mentioned him right off the top. I was gonna go there. They've got Rantanen now. Yeah. And we'll see what kind of impact he's gonna make.

By all accounts, he's been a better fit in Dallas than he is in Carolina. 14 points in 15 years. Yeah, yeah. So I guess, you know, someone texted in, you guys don't think Rantanen and Heiskenen are superstars? Why Johnston will be a superstar Real soon. I'm just talking about like

like high skin in You're not gonna see him on the like the highlight. He's just such a solid defenseman, you know, he's not like Quinn Hughes He's not like Kale McCarr. He's not even like Lane Hudson in Montreal. He's just a really, really good player. Do you know what I mean by that? Yeah, he's kind of been, I mean, the easiest way to do it with defensemen is just to go to the Norris voting and the Norris finishes. And Heiskenen hasn't been at the same heights that Hughes,

McCarr, you now throw Zach Rorensky because I'm assuming he's going to be a finalist this year. I did the quick look at it, and I don't think he's ever finished higher than like 10th in Norris voting in Heisken. Here's the thing with Dallas. The Rantanen deal and the Rantanen extension probably gave them the closest thing they're going to have

to a top five, top 10, depending on where you put Rantanen at the time of the deal. Talent to bring in the door. And really that's designed to put a very good team over the top. Now, whether it'll work out this year or not, they've got a lot of runway with his deal. But Dallas is very much, like,

they're a knocking on the door right now, Tim. Like you mentioned you had comparisons to them in Winnipeg. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a potential Western Conference final right there. Like you could say that those are the two teams that everyone else needs to go through. By way of the standings too,

I know Vegas is in that conversation. I know Colorado is in that conversation, but you're talking about two teams. The similarities are their depth, especially at forward. Like their ability to roll out two or three lines of guys that can put up somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 35 goals each. Like you're talking about six or seven guys on each of those teams. Now, the other part of this is that especially in Dallas, they're so talented and they're so deep,

they were able to withstand the loss of their best defenseman, Miro Heisken, for a very long time. Well, and we all got to know Thomas Harley at the Four Nations. I would imagine half the hockey world hadn't really heard of or thought of Thomas Harley before they saw him in a Team Canada jersey. And they were like, and again, not a super flashy player, but very solid. Because he plays in Dallas.

But yeah, the team that they've built is designed to be good for a long time. They've got a complete truckload of talent coming through. But as it pertains to, I don't know, say the local hockey squadron, who they're going to face tonight, one of the big issues that the Canucks face this year, especially early in the season, was when someone went down to injury,

flaws were exposed. Depth was tested, brackets, and failed. And I guess it's a good illustrative point for people to understand what it looks like for upper echelon teams when everything doesn't go right, or when injuries hit, or when your health fails you. Are you going to be able to get through those difficult times? Because this is a national hockey league. Guys get hurt all the time. Injuries happen.

Do you have the organizational depth to withstand like a Heiskenen missing as many games as he has or some of the other injuries that have hit that team? Dallas was able to deal with it. Vancouver early in the year, they weren't. And that's why I point to when Hughes and Hronik missed the amount of time that they did, what happened to this team?

They cratered in a lot of different ways. And that's when you saw guys like Noah Juleson and Eric Branstrom and Vinny DeHarnay, not NHL defensemen, playing close to 100 games combined this year. So there's a lesson to be learned there for sure. I think the other impressive thing about Thomas Harley is he wasn't one of these guys,

even though he was a first overall pick. First round. First, sorry, first round, 18th overall pick in 2019. He didn't like jump right to the NHL. He played over a hundred games for the Texas Stars in the AHL. And maybe this is something to keep in mind with Tom Willander potentially on the way. Sure.

You know, let's not freak out if he's not on the team next season. And let's not worry too much. Now, Thomas Harley came right out of the OHL. So we take a little bit of different past than Tom Willander, who's already played two years of college, but I Just think it's really important with a guy like Tom Willander that you might need to send him down to the AHL for a while You know, it's it's not it's not a big deal Well see now you just have to develop them the right way and Dallas had the luxury To do that because they didn't need to rush them.

I think they can actually have the luxury to do that right now. Tom Willender. I think they do. I think with the way their defense is, they've got Hronik, they've got Tyler Myers on the right side, they've got, if you want to put Mancini in there, that's fine. You know, you can move some guys over to the right side. They need to develop Tom Willender the right way, unless they trade him for a center. Yeah. Or maybe you just rush a center to the

National Hockey League level. That could be the way to go. No, you go and get one that's already been playing and you give a first round pick and Tom Willander for him. No problem, right? Yep. That's easy. That's the Canuck way. I will say too, if you want to take another thing that Dallas has done extremely well, being able to find real value in the back half of the first round. Cause they haven't drafted high in a long time. They're finishing at or near the top of the standings.

So you go back, like Johnson was the 23rd overall pick. You mentioned Harley, I think went 18th or something like that. Stankoven who since got traded was a second round pick. Maverick Borg was a 30th pick So they've done a nice job finding guys there. Okay, and I'll fill the Dallas Stars We'll talk to Owen Newkirk about all this coming up in the second hour of the program We do need to go through some of the scores last night and the st

Louis Blues reign of terror is now finally over lost to the Jets 3-1 last night ending their 12 Game winning streak in the process the Jets just keep doing the business. Crazy stat from that game. They held the St. Louis Blues to under 30 shots. They have done that in 36 of their last 39 games, including 17 in a row now with the St. Louis Blues. So I know that the goaltending has been excellent in Winnipeg, but you gotta admit,

a large part of that is because of the style that they play in front of both those goals, especially Connor Hellebuck. Like, I don't know where everyone's gonna put the Jets right now in terms of their contenders in the West. Theoretically, they should be number one. They're the best team in the West. They're that much closer to winning the President's Trophy,

which could be a curse, but I think everyone wants to pick somebody else in the West just because Winnipeg has zero history of getting it done in the postseason. Like if you were to pick a team in the West right now, you'd take Colorado. I think so, yeah. If I was picking a team in the West right now,

I'd take Vegas. I mean, but that's kind of the point here is I think I'd take Colorado. I think I'd take Vegas. I don't know about LA and I don't know about Dallas, but I would also put them in the conversation with Winnipeg. God, there's some good teams, eh? I know. The West is going to be a meat grinder. It really is. Do you think if you were to take a consensus pick, like you ask a hundred people who do you think is gonna win out of the West, where would the Oilers fall?

That's a great question. Because a lot of people would still pick them. I wouldn't. I think that... Just because of just because they got McDavid and they got Dry Settle. I think last year screwed them up. Just like fatigue wise. I think so... Mentally? Yeah, well okay both. I think. I think the four nations didn't help either. Everything that I've read was the Edmonton Oilers were exhausted going into the Stanley Cup final against the Panthers and then I think it was sort of evident after falling behind three nothing that the exhaustion

was real and then Connor McDavid had this sort of otherworldly transcendent performance to scratch and claw and drag them back into the series. And then when the series was done, he was physically and mentally exhausted. You get the short summer because you've gone deep into the playoffs. You come back. And then this year, and this is probably Stan Bowman's biggest failing in his first year in the job in general manager Didn't add enough to take the pressure off of two guys specifically McDavid and dry saddle and he lost yeah a lost bro Berg and have you seen the concern in st. Louis know that Dylan

Holloway is hurt. Yep Dylan I didn't see that man. Dylan Holloway was a very good play out performer for the Oilers last year. Didn't see that coming, right? Like Dylan Holloway is hurt and the team is in trouble, but it's not the Edmonton Oilers, it's the St. Louis Blues. So you go into this season, you're Edmonton,

and you're thinking maybe we can lighten the load on McDavid and Dreisaitl just a little bit because they're exhausted from the year prior. And it's that it's the exact opposite. They're leaned on heavily, heavily. And then you mentioned the four names as well. They look old and slow, man. They do.

They do. They've lost, to put it in Drantz terms, a guy like Dylan Holloway gives you some juice. Yes. And I don't know. I don't know if the Oilers, I'm kind of with you. I don't know if they've got the juice. Now that probably means they're gonna win the Stanley Cup, but I think it just goes to show that

there are a lot of teams in the West, I mean, and the East, that could easily get to the Stanley Cup final. I'll tell you who doesn't have any juice right now. The New York Rangers. New York Rangers lost five-one last night to the Tampa Bay Lightning. If they weren't already dead in the Eastern Conference Playoff chase, last night might have done it. 5-1,

maybe a bit, maybe a bit of a deceiving score because Andrei Vasilevsky was awesome in that for the bolts last night, 38 saves. But still, a 5-1 loss when you're fighting for your playoff lives is a 5-1 loss. I'm gonna play some audio from a guy that I think knows what's coming when the end of the regular season happens. What's coming? That's New York Rangers head coach Peter LaVeolette laddie. I think he knows and everybody else knows

what's gonna happen when the 82 games are up and done and the New York Rangers miss the playoffs. Here is a very dejected Peter LaVeolette following a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night I don't have a message right now. I don't go into the locker room after the game So we needed to win a game tonight We didn't win So there's been a lot of that through the course of the year the last eight or nine minutes of the first period or where we?

Where we lost the game tonight? Then we snapped out of it and we played better in the second the or where we lost the game tonight. Then we snapped out of it and we played better in the second and the third. I thought we generated a lot of chances defensively. We were tight in the second, generated a lot. Weren't able to score. We scored one. I needed that second one, I thought, in the second period just to get it to three to two and make that push towards the third period, but that never came soon. There is no easier guarantee to make than to say that Peter Lavielette is gonna get fired. I'm not laughing at a guy, by the way,

I'm not laughing at a guy losing his job. No, don't like anyone losing their job. Can you imagine though, there's like, we're coming back with Lavie. Yeah, it's, you can't. No chance. He's done, he knows he's done. Yeah, the question really is,

who else is gonna go from the the Rangers and is the general manager? Does he have the support of Mr. Dolan there in New York? Yeah, okay, some people aren't going to like this. Some people aren't going to like this. Some people aren't going to like this. But I do think that it's not good that Pedersen and Miller had their rift this season. But I do think there could be a silver lining to it all by getting out of that contract with JT Miller. I thought you were going to go much more- No, no, no. The way- Implementary.

No, no, no. The way there's a lot of JT Miller fans. Yeah. And I was one when he was playing his best, but when that contract was signed by the Canucks, I thought to myself, well, they better make hay with this right now because that contract is not going to age well. Yep. Just my opinion on that and the way the Canucks are right now doesn't feel like they're going to

contend for anything next year or even maybe, I don't know, hopefully the year after and who knows, who knows with the Canucks. But I'm glad that the potential for that Miller contract to turn into an anchor is now with the New York Rangers and not with the Canucks. Yeah, I know what the Rangers were trying to accomplish when they acquired him. I absolutely get it.

But they took on a big risk, picking him up for years, essentially, three through seven of a contract. They're an old team now. Yeah. They're an old team. And they're relying on a guy who is- Didn't they just rebuild?

Yeah, but they're relying on a guy who's 32 to be the emotional leader and the spirit of the team. He was supposed to snap them out of this. By the way, on the subject of La Violette, there is a fairly decently sized section of Rangers fans who think that this season could have been turned around if in conjunction with the JT Miller trade, they made a coaching change. Because they're gonna miss the playoffs by a handful of points.

Now, here's the thing. I wonder if they kept Laviolette because they wanted to make sure that they exercised all their options in terms of like what he brought to the table or what he didn't. And not to get a false sense of what this group is about by getting the new coach bump, you know what I mean? They wanted to see this group warts and all,

even with Miller added to the lineup. And he's been good, there's no question. But yeah, he wasn't enough to snap them out of their funk. I would still like to see the alternate universe where Drury doesn't make it so public that he wants to trade Truba and he's willing to trade Crider. Because I wonder, I don't know anything, but I do wonder if half the Rangers, I think they have an attitude problem, I think there's something

going on there. A collective attitude problem. How much of it was an FU to management? I think there was a large part of it. That was a tight group that had been together for a long time. The veteran guys were probably rankled. When Truba went and Kreider's name was out there. I think Kreider's name being out there was a big deal. I'm sure Zabinajad's looking, he's like, whoa, like am I next in this firing squad that's gonna go down? And Jury was like, hmm, we wish.

I don't think we've betrayed you right now the way you're playing. Yeah, okay, it's gonna be a difficult turn here as we end our end of first segment, but I did wanna pass this along now and to close out the segment, unfortunately we do have some very sad news to pass along. Yesterday evening, we learned that longtime Sportsnet broadcaster

and 14 year NHL veteran Greg Millen passed away. Millen, of course, was a goalie during his professional playing career, appearing in over 600 games with Pittsburgh, Hartford, St. Louis, Quebec, Chicago and Detroit. He retired from the National Hockey League in 1992 and then transitioned of course into broadcasting. He covered the Senators in their inaugural season. He then went on to serve as a color commentator for Hockey Night Canada and Sportsnet. You've no doubt heard Greg Millen's work throughout the last few years. He was

often synonymous with Sportsnet and hockey in this country. During his broadcasting career, Millen covered three Olympic Games, two world cups of hockey, and 12 Stanley Cup finals. On behalf of the entire show here, our deepest condolences go out to Millen's family, friends, colleagues, and fans. Greg Millen was 67 years old. You're listening to the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. ["Baseball Life Theme Song"] To have a guy like Vladimir who's gonna be here, which we would like to assume it's gonna be his whole, you know, baseball life will be unbelievable.

I firmly believe and I'm not gonna, you know, stand down for him. I believe he's gonna be hanging in the rafters and he's gonna be one of the greats. He means his number is gonna be hanging in the rafters. What are you doing up there, Vladdy? Get down. You're a $500 million dollar man. We'll take those unnecessary risks. You're listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more

interest. Visit sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Sportsnet baseball columnist Shai Davidi joins us now on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Shai, how are you? I'm alright, how's it going, guys?

We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this today. So, any time a deal of this magnitude is reached, it says more than just a financial obligation to a player. Like, yes, it's a lot of money for Vladdy, and yes, it's one of the highest and richest deals in MLB history, but it's not just about the player. You know, oftentimes deals of this magnitude, it talks about a bigger picture.

So with that in mind, I ask you, what are sort of the wider reaching implications? What does this deal say about the Blue Jays ambitions moving forward, both from the front office and then I guess from ownership as well? Yeah, I think you can look at it and say, on a number of different levels. I mean, first off, there was a competitive window

that was on the verge of collapsing next season with the pending free agencies of Guerrero and Beaubachette as well. And I think this is a pretty clear sign that the Blue Jays are intending to push in on that and are not willing to let that stop and that they're going to continue forth on the path that they've been on as opposed to veering direction. I think from a wider lens, if you're looking at what this means from an ownership perspective, I think this fits within the ambitions

to be a bit of a sports empire. You see that building with the purchase of the Bell steak of MLSC, the recent deal with the NHL, the extension of the NHL communion national rights. And then this fits in, you know, you're going to be building sort of a sports ownership and content enterprise that you need a cornerstone piece for the baseball team. That's a big part of summer sports. And so I think this is a contract that is I think this is a contract that is really a piece that has a number of layers to it on a number of levels.

It's really a remarkable piece of business and really in Canadian sports, a historic contract beyond just the sheer numbers of it. Do you think Vladdy took all that into account when he was negotiating? Do you think he knew like, you can't let me go because of money. You can't let a guy go who says, I want to be here. Um, and let that guy go. Yeah, I think he absolutely him and his camp absolutely read the situation perfectly and that the blue Jays were in a situation where

they needed him maybe a bit more than he needed them. He wanted them, but there was going to be another team for him. We can speculate on who the possible suitors are, but there would have been another team for him because of the way that we've seen clubs compete for young talent as it's gotten into free agency. So he could have his number and hold on to it and not budge. And the Blue Jays, if they didn't get them done, well, what are you doing? And how is that impacting the rest of your window? And how is that impacting the fact that you just completed a $400 million stadium renovation and what that might mean for your customer base and all those kinds of things moving forward. So, you know, I mean, did they necessarily think about it at the high, high levels?

That I can't say, but I think the way they approached the negotiations, you can clearly see that they understood they had some leverage. They stood on their number and didn't budge. What's your confidence level that he can live up to this contract? I would be surprised that if this was not a contract that worked out very well for the Blue Jays from Guerrero's perspective. And look, I think you go into these deals, understanding the back end of it is not going to be pretty. And you need to derive the value from the contract in the first, say, you know, seven,

eight years. And if you get the value in those seven to eight years, you understand on the backside, you're paying for some of what you got in those eight years. And if you get the value in those seven to eight years, you understand on the backside, you're paying for some of what you got in those early years. And so the part of the responsibility for the Blue Jays is not thinking about this, oh, we've got 14 years to make this work. It's making the next six to eight years the best ones, because that's when Guerrero is going to be within his peak. That's when he's going to be the dominant force that he has been in the past, and needs to be in the future now. But there's no doubt that Guerrero absolutely has to execute this

on a number of different reasons. He stood his ground. He took a principled stand and good for him, but he's got to back that up now. And so the Blue Jays, the front part of that deal is the most essential part. And if they're going to, you know, really leverage this, there have to be multiple playoff appearances and some playoff success during that period of time.

Um, I don't want to say they're a long way away from that, but they've got some work to do. What else do they need and how, and I guess the other question is like, how much more money is it going to cost the Toronto Blue Jays? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I think, look, a lot of the focus now will shift onto Beau Bichette and his future. And, you know, he and Guerrero rose through the system together, and they've been linked nearly at every step of their careers since they both joined the Blue Jays organization. And now it's his question, his future that's in question. And in talking to him yesterday,

he continues to say that he wants to, you know, be part of it to one organization his entire career and help build a culture and all that stuff, but nothing is on the table right now. He sounds like someone who's more focused on the season as opposed to wanting negotiations to take place, at least right now. And so that would certainly be one thing, but the Blue Deer still have a number of expiring contracts over the next couple of off seasons. Their farm system has a bit of a gap. They've got some young players who could be coming

beyond Alan Roden, who we've seen here in a few of the players that we saw debut last season, but they need a few to pop from there and they're going to have to continue to augment through free agency and trade. So you're right, there still is a remarkable amount of work for them to do, but you've got a foundational piece now. You've got a caring player who are incredibly difficult to acquire. And so in some ways you've done the hard part, but you still got to fill in effectively and then around that to make it work.

We're speaking to Sportsnet Baseball Analyst Shai Davidi here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. When I talked about the big picture, wider reaching implications here, I do wonder what this means for Major League Baseball. Specifically, I do wonder if other teams are going to look at this and say, we need to make sure that we extend our best and top players earlier in their careers so we don't get to this point. I'm thinking like the Braves with Acuna Jr. and then the Royals with Bobby Witt Jr. Like, don't let it, I guess for lack of a better phrasing,

don't let it get to this point. Make sure you lock them up earlier. Yeah, and I wrote about that yesterday because to me that's been the obvious trend. And you know, we can go back. I wrote about this in 2022 for the first time about how the Blue Jays have to really dive in and lock up Guerrero and Bichette then.

Otherwise, you're going to put yourself in a really dangerous spot. That obviously did not happen. All these years later, here we are. The Blue Jays ended up on the verge of, once that deal is finalized, giving Guerrero probably close to as much money as it would have taken to extend both of them earlier in their careers. So if you're a team like the Orioles who've waited on Gunnar Henderson, I don't know how you're enticing Gunnar Henderson out of the market, especially if you're not like a giant, you know, a giant market club with endless amounts of resources. And so, you know, for the pirates who have Paul Skeens or the Reds with Ellie Delacruz, you know, if you're if you're not doing this now, those players are getting that ahead of the amount

of money that's being spent and the willingness of big market clubs to spend aggressively on elite young talent when it's in the open market, I think that's been a clear, clear trend. And so, you know, Atlanta got skewered initially when they did the $100 million contract for Ronald Acuna Jr. when he had 115 games of big league experience and you know that wasn't a big deal and then the Mariners ended up giving Julio Rodriguez who was still in this rookie season a guarantee of 200 plus million dollars and people were shocked at that time but they got ahead of the market

and they could see where the trend was going. Now, you know, the Royals ended up having to give Bobby Wood Jr. a commitment of a guarantee of $288 million. That's getting in early before it gets too late, especially for teams that don't have endless amounts of financial resources. So I absolutely do think that this is going to put more pressure on teams to be more aggressive with the young players. I mean, we saw the Red Sox do it with Christian Campbell just a couple of weeks ago. The Padres with Jackson Merrill, if you're not early, you're going to be late and it's going to cost you dearly.

So what does the future hold for Bob Shett? That's a great question. And look, I think that, you know, again, when Hazel May and I spoke with him yesterday, he was pretty clear that, you know, his preference would be to remain with the Blue Jays. He doesn't wanna get into too many details. He wants to focus on the season.

You know that he wants to be baseball only right now, not business first. But the Blue Jays have the wherewithal. We've clearly seen that. He's an important foundational player for this team. Maybe they need the open market to help determine the value eventually, but one of the pieces that was going to be essential to him staying in Toronto was Guerrero being here long term. Guerrero is here long term right now and now that's in place. To me, there's a more clear pathway towards keeping bow. We're speaking to Shadi Vidi, Sportsnet Baseball Analyst here on the Haliford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. I suppose we should actually talk about the product currently

playing the game as opposed to the contractual stuff that Jay's did with me. How many homers for Vladdy? Yeah, right. Come on, buddy. Let's go. They're now one game over 500, so that's great. How does it look so far on the field? I think it's looked to some degree like we'd expected, although you certainly... The fact that Nathan Lucas has three times the number of RBIs that Anthony Santander has is not something that I would put money on at this point.

So look, I think the top of the lineup hasn't gotten going and they are where they are. And I think that's a good sign. But the one thing and maybe this is again, we're talking about an 11 game sample. So it's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions, but because this was an issue last year and the season before that, they haven't slugged with runners in scoring position. They've got five home runs so far this season, each of them a solo shot. They're not doing damage where you could put a lot of crooked numbers on the board. So they're doing a lot of scratching and clawing, but the big damage with this that hasn't been there for this

team. So that to me is one trend that's important to watch. The other is what's going to happen with this Max Scherzer spot in the rotation. And talking to Max yesterday, he's still working through some of the cortisone in his thumb. So he at least was able to resume some a little bit of catch yesterday, which is a good sign, but he's still not there yet. Easton Lucas starts in this place again tonight. And you know that that the Blue Jays are definitely patching over right now. And if Easton Lucas has some some nice has some nice stuff that he can be a useful piece, but is he going to be able to become a regular contributor?

I think that's an open question right now. So I think this is a team that still has some things to figure out. They're in a league with a lot of teams that have some things to figure out. And so I think that they have a pathway to the postseason, but a lot of it is going to depend on how their pieces end up coming together and falling into place. As a bunting aficionado, I got to ask, is what they've been doing in the early parts of the season, just sort of like early year gimmicky stuff to try and carve out some runs when the bats aren't going? Or is this something that they could act, because small ball be

back even in a small form for the bats aren't going? Or is this something that they could, because small ball be back even in a small form for the Jays this year. I wouldn't say small ball is back, but I think it's situational and reading times in the game and personnel who are in the situation. Like you're not gonna see Bo Bichette squaring up. You know what I mean? Missed opportunity, but yes, I get it, yeah.

Yeah, you're not gonna see that at different parts of the order but if you're talking about the bottom of the lineup with you know say you know like the you know Will Wagner will do it occasionally to try and surprise defenses if he sees an opportunity you know that's part of Tyler Heideman's game Nathan Nathan Lucas, Mal Straw, you know, those types of players, you know, that's a dynamic for them. But, you know, in other parts of batting order, the Blue Jays aren't going to do that. Then, you know, you play for one, oftentimes you're only going to get one, if that. And so, you know, the American League is a big boy league, you got to score runs. And then you know, the,

there's a time and a place for the bunt in certain situations, you know, late, and late in the game for trying to get across the tire, the go ahead, run against elite bullpen with the bottom of your order. Sure. But, you know, if you're talking about the top or the middle of your lineup, that's, and we're just not going to take a sudden shift there and say, Oh yeah, we're going to ask, we're going to move away from trying to do damage to play small ball I'm telling you the element of surprise of a 500 million dollar player laying down a bunt just throwing it out there for John Schneider

They might not see it come not even a sacrifice bunch has one to make Thanks for doing this today man, we really appreciate it enjoy the game It should be a good series. We'll do this again soon. Yeah, no problem, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Shia Davidi, SportsNet Baseball Analyst here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on SportsNet 650. See the Calgary. Five. I just want to $500 million.

That is a big investment and a lot to live up to. Well, if you want to go down the road of, you know, you compare all the sports and everything, baseball is now hopping on that trend that we saw hockey do, which was, remember when these guys were getting these gargantuan long-term extensions, seven and eight year deals out of their entry levels? Yeah, yeah. Baseball started doing that now, because the smaller-

Because they want to avoid- The smaller market, like, here's the thing, he'd mentioned Paul Skeens, Ellie Delacruz. Skeens is not gonna stay in Pittsburgh. No, he won't, but teams are trying to say like, maybe we got a chance if. So the sort of landmark deal was Ronald Acuna Jr. with the Braves, as he mentioned.

He got a $100 million deal after 115 games. That's worked out for them because Acuna is a star. Then you saw it with Bobby Whit Jr. in Kansas City, and then of course, Jay Rod with the Mariners. And the idea is for some of these smaller market teams, it's like, are we eventually going to lose this guy to the Yankees or the Mets or the Dodgers

or whomever else is going to buy them in free agency? What if, what if we gave them all the money right now before they've earned it, before we're 100% sure that they're gonna be a perennial all-star or everything. It's the gambling on the young players that we've seen in the NHL. And the NHL has had any sort of speculative gambling. There's been mixed reviews.

Some of the deals have worked out great. Well, look at Quinn Hughes. That's been amazing. Shoulda signed him for longer. Exactly, like his brother, right? The devils went and gave Jack Hughes a lot of money with a lot of term early, early. And I mean, that's the risk that you take. Now, that one you can say, well, the player is absolutely worth it.

He's an elite talent, but he's also hurt all the time. Yeah. So there's risk involved with all of it, but baseball's, you see it now. And then in the case of the Jays and Guerrero, you see what happens when you wait. The cool thing about being a baseball fan is that you do have to keep in mind budgets and the amount of money, but with no salary cap, you're just kind of like, you know, like when

the Mariners signed Robinson Cano. Spend, baby, spend. But well, yeah, that's not exactly the motto of the Mariners. But hypothetically speaking, you can say. Didn't exactly work out, right? Well, but they took a shot. But it's kind of like, you don't have to worry about the salary cap. And that's what I really, you basically just, you know, like, just like, well, I hope I

have a rich owner that can deal with that. I mean, that's the rub. It's annoying too, when there's baseball fans that clearly have like hockey brain where every decision is like, and it literally, oh, the dollars per value. Exactly. That does not matter in baseball at all.

If you have a rich owner. If you have a rich owner, yeah. If you have a rich owner that's willing to like, just keep throwing money at a problem. Yeah. There are teams obviously in the Mariners are a classic example of them. They're You know that they think they're penny pinchers, right? So you get that old-school cheap owner, right which I kind of miss in the NHL, right? Like yeah We had Arizona for the last ten years. Yeah

Yeah, but that was great,, yeah. That was great. But there were some guys, like back in the day, that would just like nickel and dime everything. Now, if you have an owner that is overly willing to spend, overly impatient, that can actually get you into trouble. But that is funny though that you mentioned that Ladi because I wouldn't be surprised especially when it comes to the Blue Jays if a lot of that hockey brain enters into the conversation. People in Toronto that are like, oh, can we really afford to give that money to

Mitch Marner? And seeing it at the same level as the Guerrero deal, they're completely different systems. So, manufactured parity, right? The flip side of that is like, is it a good thing to have a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates? Is it a good thing to have them? I don't think it is. For those that are unaware, the Pirates are going on 10 years with no playoff appearances. And not only are they not making the playoffs, they're an awful regular season. Yeah.

65, 70 wins max. In a 162 win season means the ticket buying public is watching a team that wins somewhere between 30 and 40% of its games. Terrible, right? Lose way more than you win. And that's for the better part of a decade. Do you though, ever miss the idea

of a major favorite in the NHL? Like a big time favorite? I grew up, Islanders were the team, and then it was the Oilers were the team. Yeah. I'd argue during a couple of those years in the Blackhawks run, they were major favorites. Not to the point that the Oilers were,

or that the Islanders were, or the Habs before them. He's kind of talking like a first-round playoff upset, not unlike a 16-beating a one, or a 15-beating a two in March Madness, which just finished yesterday. And that is... I'm talking about... The David versus Goliath thing is...

It's kind of lame that it's gone, but it's completely gone. I'm talking about a team that is more likely to win the Cup than not. You would take, in the 80s, you would have said, if you were given the betting odds and you would have gone Oilers versus the Field, the Oilers would have been minus 140. Yeah, sure. 83, 84, they win the Cup, or sorry, 84, 85, they win the Cup, and then 86, Steve Smith puts it in his own net and they lose to Calgary.

And that was incredible. But then they still came back and won it in 87 and 88. So I'm not advocating for one system or the other. I think my nostalgia forgets all the awful games in the 80s that weren't even close because oftentimes the Oilers playing the Canucks, right? 13-0 at one point. The Canucks did not stand a chance against a team like the Oilers. But when we, you know, earlier in the segment, we were talking about all the teams that possibly could go to the Stanley Cup final just out of the Western Conference.

possibly could go to the Stanley Cup final just out of the Western Conference. And it's like, is it compelling when there isn't like a Goliath? There's no, you know, we talk about David a lot, which is the underdog, but is it as a compelling when you don't have a Goliath? Yeah. No, it's a good point because especially in the West, you look at the first wild card team, the St. Louis Blues, they just won 12 straight games and they're gonna have probably 95 points. It's not a bad team by any metric.

They're getting into the playoffs because they've earned it and they've deserved it. And whoever they play in the first round, they're gonna give them a good fight. It's not a classic underdog. Seating wise, it is. They're gonna be the wild card team. They're gonna be the ones that theoretically scratched

and clawed their way to get into the playoffs, but they're also, again, any team that wins 12 in a row and is 95 plus points is pretty good. Pretty good to get into the playoffs, but they're also, again, any team that wins 12 in a row and is 95-plus points is pretty good. Exactly. Pretty good team going into the playoffs. Okay, we're way up against it for time. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From the board room to the break room and everywhere in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces

tidy, clean, and disinfected. For a free quote, visit them online at JanPro.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts.