OverDrive - OverDrive - December 9, 2024 - Hour 1

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 1 on OverDrive! The guys discuss Juan Soto signing with the Mets and the Blue Jays' next steps for the franchise and Michael Andlauer's soft tampering comments around Brady Tkachuk and the Rangers. Former MLB Pitcher and Host of the MayDay Podcast Trevor May joins to discuss Soto landing with the Mets, the contract with the team and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s contract status with the Blue Jays.

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or visit askkelvin.ca this hour of overdrive is powered by fanduel fanduel bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score all right here we go overdrive off and running tsn 1050 on the tsn app, your home smart speaker, and up on TSN for Brian Hazio, Doug Jeff O'Neill, Jamie Noodles McLennan. What's going on? What's going on? How are we feeling this afternoon? Just starting to come around and feel better.

I went to a volleyball tournament in a dome yesterday, and the first one I went to, a dad came up to me with a little bag of earplugs he goes want some earplugs i go no i wanted to say like what are you like some kind of wimp dad fan he goes okay i went into the dome yesterday. I have to explain this. There's three separate volleyball courts with three whistles going on at the same time. And after every point, that team is screaming, I would have paid $1,000 for earplugs, man. I want to go back to that, Dad, and say, I'm sorry I kind of shrugged off the earplug recommendation because you're smart and you just wouldn't do it to do it it like my head was but all i heard was a ref's whistle all morning my head was buzzing that's terrible dude it was insane yeah but i'm ready earplug guy i'm earplug guy and i found the second most annoying conversation to have with sports fans after

john taveras probably never had a chance to make the canadian olympic team any guesses what that might be is it something to do with juan soto and the yes he was never coming here yeah idiots it has to be it has to be because you know what i'm waiting for i don't know why we haven't found this out yet what was the final offer by the blue jays because now i guarantee you they're trying to run this they're running through this course of action right now their mentality down at one blue jays way is do we leak that we offered more than the mets and then that's really embarrassing so embarrassed the only way the blue jays, if I was Ross and Mark, I would say, I'm only getting involved if you're coming up here to sign a contract.

We can talk about numbers and we can throw numbers around, but I'm not being – we already had it happen once to us where we were just sweetening the pot for the Dodgers and Otani, and that's all it is. Like, it's just – what's the, Boris was just like, well. Boris played this like a fiddle. Oh, my God. He played it like a fiddle. It started out right after the season where Soto goes,

I'll listen to any team that wants to pay me. You know what that did? That got five teams. That one comment probably got $100 million in his jeans. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to put it into perspective i saw someone point this out earlier um remember a couple years ago the nationals now a lot of this

was deferred money and it was it was kind of a goofy contract that they were presenting to him but they offered him 15 years 440 million won soda and he turned it down that was in in july of 2022 before they flipped them to the padres and i And I remember we were on the air shortly before that, after that, into the fall thinking, man, how do you turn that money down? Boris is nuts. And two years later, he signs for 15 years, $765 million. None of it's deferred or anything like that. There's actually escalators in there where you can get higher than that.

Crazy. Yeah. In two years, he made $325 million on top of what he turned down from the Nationals. That's pretty good business, I would say. I agree. I'm more worried that the Jays can't leak it and say, yeah, we got to $775 million, because Vlade will put his hand up and say, I'm half as good as him, I'm three-quarters as good as him, or whatever. And then he goes, why did you put $450 or $500 in my pocket?

To me, you cannot leak that whatsoever. Yeah, I don't think if you're the Jays you want it out. I don't know why the Yankees would want it out. I mean, maybe Boris leaked it, but everyone knows that the Yankees offered around the same money, $760 million for 16 years, and he turned them down. It would kind of suggest to me that Boris was playing the Yankees to make sure that Cohen was going to spend the most money.

And Steve Cohen, the owner of the Mets, I give him credit because this guy stepped in when he bought it and said, I'm going to spend every penny I got. I'm going to buy everything I can buy. I'm going to go out there and try to win a World Series for the Mets. And he paid Lindor. He paid Scherzer and Verlander at one point. That didn't work out. He said, you're out.

Now he's paid Juan Soto. Like 15 years is just insane to commit to anybody one point. That didn't work out. He said, you're out. Now he's paid Juan Soto. Like, 15 years is just insane to commit to anybody. Like, it's crazy. Let's not kid ourselves, Hayes. It's a massive overpay for this guy. Sorry. It's a huge contract. Like, the Dodgers are sitting there saying, we got a discount

on Otani. They gave him $700. And they're like, they get their feet up saying, we actually negotiated pretty well with that guy like 15 years 765 million is just an absurd amount of cash to give i gotta be honest like this is it's for soto and his whole brand his family it's incredible incredible for the guy for the player incredible for the guy but we've like, like, what's sports coming to? It's literally going to be the haves and have-nots where it's like,

there's teams that, and Kevin Adams, the GM of Buffalo, touched on it last week, but it's like, there's teams that just have no, they're going to have no chance. No chance. Like, zero chance of being in any kind of race. Well. Any kind of competition, and I got to be honest, because you could say draft and develop, Hayes. That's the answer.

I know, but as soon as the guy gets good, he's saying, get me out of here. So what the hell are they supposed to do? Florida. Yes, I mean, here is the conundrum. With the Blue Jays, the Blue Jays are upper middle class in baseball. They have money, they're a big market, but they're never going to be. The Yankees, the Dodgers, probably the Mets now.

At times, the Angels. I know people scoff at that, but they've signed monsters. No kid grew up saying, I couldn't wait to put the Blue Jays hat on, unless they're Canadian. Unfortunately, that's true, and they don't have the history, and they're a Canadian market. There's just certain things that they can't compete with, with the Yankees, with the Dodgers in particular.

You might throw the Sox in there if they have an owner that actually wants to spend. They have the history and they've got a great baseball market, all that kind of stuff. The Cubs maybe, again, based on their history in the market. But there's five or six teams that are at the top, that are in the penthouse. And I would argue, historically, it's been the Yankees

kind of on their own, Then maybe the Dodgers. Now the Mets are clearly in there because it's New York and Cohen and he's got so much money. And he's the new George Steinbrenner and he's willing to spend. The Jays are the next level. But what that means is you have to draft and develop. You have to be shrewd with scouting. And where you can overspend, and I'd like to see if this is going to happen in the next month, is on the next level of free agents.

You're never getting Soto. You're never getting Otani. It's just a complete waste of time. And I don't believe there's a Blue Jay fan on earth that thought Soto was coming here. This is totally different. The Otani thing was different. The report that he was in Dunedin and then the report that he was on the plane. Hook, line, and sinker. People finally

bought in and said, well, I actually think this is going to happen. And it didn't. This was totally different. Soto was never coming here. No Blue Jay fan in their right mind thought this guy was coming here. Dallas Braden said it best, Hayes. He said Soto was the stripper and the Blue Jays were the paying customer. That's throwing change up in the air.

That is tough. But that's sadly. No, you just thought you were like, oh, maybe she likes me. Maybe she likes me. How about one more song? She doesn't, yeah, she's coming home with me. Like, literally, they'll spend a fortune, and at the end of the night, the girl just walks away. You could go from the floor to the champagne room.

Oh, yeah, one more song. How about that? Oh, my God, what an analogy. What an analogy. That one stings. Oh, my God, that hurts. That one that? You want to stick around? What an analogy. What an analogy. That one stings. That one hurts. That one stings. But yet it really rings true.

It really, really rings true. And that's where, again, you get to this next wave. Maybe it's Corbin Burns. Maybe it's a Max Freed. Maybe it's Pete Alonzo. I don't know. Dude, forget that haze. What the hell are they going to do with Vladdy?

Vladdy's got them over a barrel right now because he's going to say, this is what he's going to say, well, that guy's worth $765. I'm at least half, like more than half. Well, that would be my assumption is his thought is that. Like clearly Soto's a better player and a more marketable player, although maybe not in this town because Vladi is a big ticket here. Like he's a homegrown talent that everyone loves. He's going to say, oh, Tani got $600, this guy got $765.

I guess I'm $455. That's where it starts. I would think that's what he's going to do. He thinks, at a minimum, if he gets the free agency, someone might pay him that, whether it's the Blue Jays or not. And that is kind of what came out of last night. Not that Soto was ever coming here. Don't express it like, oh, the Jays, they almost had him. No, they didn't.

And if Ross and Mark actually were sitting there thinking that they did, that is asinine. And I don't believe that they actually would have been thinking that way. But the Vladdy conversation is what really sticks out now. If you look at it, Soto's making $51 million per season.

That's the number for me. The total dollars it's going to be based on, is it a 10-year deal, a 12, a 15? That can be skewed. But per season, it's almost like a cap hit. You think Vladdy thinks he deserves 20 million less a season than Soto? I don't. I don't think he'd sign up for 31 million per right now on a 10-year deal.

That's 310 million. I don't think he'd take that. I think he'd probably say, he's probably thinking he can get $310 million. I don't think he'd take that. I think he'd probably say, he's probably thinking he can get $40 million a year. I don't know if he can. I don't know if that's reasonable. But he might be thinking, I can get $40 million a year.

What if they said, we don't want to give you $40 million, and $30 million is your basement. What if they said $35 million over 10 years? I mean, if I'm Vladdy, I don't know how I would turn that down. i don't know how i would turn that down like i don't know how you would turn that down like to me that that seems like a really significant investment and makes a lot of sense and takes pressure off you from having to perform in your platform season

so here here's the thing though who's i i who's vladdy's agent Because if I'm him, I'm calling Scott Boris. And I'm saying, because you know what Boris works the system, man. All I can think of, and I don't know, and this is just me being crazy, I'm like, he wants $500 million. Vladdy wants $500 million. I wouldn't be surprised. But that's my point. Because he's going to be 26.

He's just like Soto. He's in his mid-20s. He's hit free agency at a young age. And let's say he gambles and bets on himself. I don't even know if the Jays are really talking to him about a contract extension. That's another thing. I don't even know if they're even talking.

Vladdy might be standing by the phone saying, give me a call, let's chat. And they may not even be entertaining that idea. But let's say he goes out and hits 40 home runs, has a 320 batting average, a slash line where he's putting up a 920, 950 OPS, plays every day, that guy's going to make a fortune next year.

He's going to make a fortune. And now what you have is spurned teams within the division. This is what's terrifying, too. If you're a Blue Jay fan, maybe the Red Sox actually are back in the dance of spending money. What if they say we'll give you $400 million? And not only does he leave, he goes to Fenway. What if the Yankees

are like, okay, we had a down year. We missed out on Soto. We're getting crushed here. And I know Vladdy said publicly, he'll never sign with the Yankees. That may be true. But what if they offer him $500 million? Then will he sign with the Yankees? Maybe. What if Steve Cohen calls up and goes, I'll give you the $450 to come

play with your boy? Why not? You and Soto are buddies. I'm all in. I mean, why not? Maybe they'll, again, and you can argue overpayment, overpayment, overpayment. You are what someone's willing to pay you. Agreed.

And if the Jays are going to nickel and dime and say, well, we think this, that, or the other, and he gets to the market and gets paid more elsewhere and he leaves, great, you got your nickels and dimes. What's that worth? what's that chance that he could be pissed off at the whole song and dance and he wants to go to free agency anyway exactly well they could get to that point where he's like you haven't even been talking to me well he might look at ron soto and say i want everybody fawning over me and i want that kind of treatment you got that one shot that one time in your career i want to experience that so ross and mark sorry but i'm not even answering your call so don't even bother right here's the one thing

he has to do though he has to perform yes because it was 48 his first year and we were like this guy is an absolute rock star then it went to 32 26 and 30 so he? Like you said, if he hits 40, he's only done it once. Now he can do it because he's shown that he can do it. But in a year where it's a contract year, a lot of pressure on you, all of that, if he steps up, great. If he doesn't, what if he is a 30? Yeah, well, how many bombs did Juan Soto hit this year? I don't think it would.

No, listen, he wasn't hitting 50-plus like Otani or like Judge. No. I mean, he's just a great clutch hitter across the board. He hits for average. He hits for power. Well, Soto hit 41. He had 35 last year, I believe. Yeah.

So, you know, again. So that's what Vladdy's got to be thinking. If I can hit 35, 40 home runs, then somebody's just going to be drooling over me. You're not getting this contract, but let's say you get half of it. That's still an absurd amount of money. It is. You're still looking at a massive commitment and an absurd amount of money. Now, Soto's an outfielder, and Vlade may be a DH sooner than later.

Who knows? But by the end of this, Soto will be DHing, too. I mean, within five or six years, that guy's-aging you know maybe a little bit longer than that but it's just it's a crazy amount of money it's a crazy deal i honestly didn't think it would get there i didn't i i thought he'd sign you know five six hundred i never thought i'd see 700 plus again back-to-back years like we did with otani but he blew past that that's where the economics is heading just incredible amount of money. All I've thought about, too, though,

I guarantee you there's probably a line on this, a betting line somewhere. How many years did they leave on the table at the end of this contract? He's going to be... Will he play the last four or five years? Who knows? That's the thing.

Like 15 years. I thought about it last night. I called a game Ottawa, New York Islanders. New York Islanders are still playing Rick DiPietro. DiPietro's a trendsetter in New York. Till 2029, they're paying him $1.5 million a year. What a gig. You forget about that.

It's insane. Who's the guy that the bets pay on the first every year bobby bonilla bobby bonilla forever gets a million dollars on july 1st or whatever isn't that till 2038 it's something absurd man it was like a 25 year buyout or something like that and just every year old bobby runs down to the post office or whatever and collects a check. And it is crazy. It is crazy. There's multiple ways to look at it when you look at other leagues too.

The per year is $51 million. That's insane. In the NBA, there's a bunch of guys making that money. That's jump change for the stars in the NBA. Yet they cap out. They only sign four or five-year deals. And I was trying to think about that. What other league, what other athlete can you think of

where you would be comfortable giving someone 15 years? Would you give McDavid a 15-year deal right now? Yes. At $15 million a year? Yes. You would sign it right now? At the end of the contract, we know we've seen cap dramastics, LTIR situation.

What is he, 27 now? Yeah. Well, not at 27. At 22, I would. But that's what I'm saying right now, though. That's what I'm saying. And I'm saying, yes, and you're going to have to chew on the last three to five years of that deal if he doesn't play until he's 38, 39.

Okay, then I'd do it. If there was an understanding where that's what it had to be for me to get the next five or six amazing years out of him, that I was going to have to chew on the bad years, which I do think is insane, then yes, if I had a gun to my head, I would do it. Well, the complicating thing is in the NHL, there's a salary cap. So that cap hit's going to apply.

In New York, with Major League Baseball, this can just be a rounding error for Cone. Pay him 50, he stinks, he doesn't play anymore, who cares? You know what I mean? We're still going to have a $400 million payroll, and we'll just subtract his 50 and he's the mascot and good old Juan Soto out there. But you need to win before you get to that point. That's the amazing thing about this money is there should be immense pressure

on Juan Soto, more so than anybody in sports to have to win. Yet in baseball, it's like, you can't have one guy win everything for you. It's not like in the NBA where if LeBron signed a deal like this in his prime, it'd be like, you better win. You have to win quarterback my home signs his deal you better win you have to win juan soto it's like yes you know get your 600 at bats or whatever and see what happens and the rest of the team sinks no one's gonna hold you to account you know like mike trout forever it's like yeah you're the best player you make so much money but everyone else thinks not your problem it's just amazing the economics and how it applies to that league

compared to others. But, yeah, listen, the rich get richer, and it's interesting that it kind of coincides with the story of the Senators and the Rangers and the Brady-Kachuk League and Michael Anlauer, the owner of the Ottawa Senators, who I guess is complaining to the league and publicly speaking on it that he's not happy with what he's calling soft pampering. I guess he's pissed off, but it seems like even bringing it up

just kind of keeps it out there in the universe, and it's like, just let it die, man. I thought the same thing. Why bring this up? Yes, just make a private call to Dolan and to Drury and talk about it amongst yourselves, because once it comes out into the media, it's like it just keeps circulating.

It's like Kachok and Rangers and Kachok and Rangers, man. I would have never done anything publicly with that. I hope, but my only problem is when we brought it up on, was it Friday? Didn't Larry Brooks, was it one of them? Larry Brooks is the one that reported it. It's irresponsible if there is anything to that because that is tampering. And I look at it as like, you know, if somebody wants to mess with your player

who's under a long-term deal, that's literally like saying, you know, GM called or you're back-channeling on Matthews, McDavid. Like that, Brady Kachuk is their guy. He's their captain. Jamie, what the hell is Larry Brooks doing the Rangers' favor? Why is he the guy putting that out there? Larry Brooks is not a guy who just makes things up. Like, I don't think he has a – like, there's people that dislike him

and whatever the way that he goes about reporting and conducts himself. He's a reputable guy. Like, he's not a guy that just pulls, you know, throws spaghetti at the wall. So for him, like, I just... Well, then somebody's lying. He said all this. That's what I'm saying. Somebody's lying.

Like, there is something to it somewhere, or maybe it was a comment made, but he made it public. And to me, I would be pissed. Like, I would be pissed if anybody was talking about my player who's on a long-term deal not just uh hey i could understand a guy who's a pending unrestricted free agent what was uh our buddy jimmy benning ah we're talking we're looking at pk that was in the off season and although i guess pk was under contract yeah that was a trade scenario he got fined for that but that's him saying it publicly. Like if Drury said it on the record,

obviously the league has to address that and hammer a guy like that. This is a report, Larry Brooks reporting it, that their whole plan of turning their whole system around in New York is to acquire Brady Kachuk, which again is aggravating, but I don't know what the league is supposed

to do about that. How do you investigate whether or not someone leaked that to Larry Brooks or not? And furthermore, are you not allowed to have plans and ambitions of trying to acquire someone or plan for the future? I don't know how you police that if you're the league. I get where I was going. A fan on a podcast could say it would be great in a couple years if they could acquire Brady Kachuk.

Yeah. You don't have it like mainstream media. Let's even bring it closer. McDavid doesn't have a deal in, what, a year, right? If the Oilers go out early somehow in the playoffs and all of that, what's the noise? It's going to be McDavid. Of course it will be.

Right? It's going to be noisy. There Of course it will be. Right? It's going to be noisy. There's lots of noise at the Rangers. I thought that one was weird on Friday, but I can understand an owner being pissed about it. You're right. What do you do about it? You can't call Larry Brooks and go, who's your source?

Right. He's not going to tell you. He's not going to say anything. Yeah. And listen, I appreciate Ann Lauer playing to his market, which Ottawa is in the shadows of Toronto and away New York, and there's an element of arrogance that comes from this with the Rangers. We'll just go get that guy now.

And that would drive you nuts if you're in Ottawa, if you're in Buffalo, if you're in Minnesota. Smaller markets that are like, oh, really? The Leafs are just going to go get this guy or the Rangers or whatever it is. That's just the way they operate. And I think if you're Ann Lauer, I get why you're thinking, okay, my fan base is sensitive to that. I got to fight for them.

I understand it. Sure. But it's also a scenario where there's a large portion of your fan base that probably never knew about that report because they're not online. So now they know about it because it's being reported on. And furthermore, I think it also shines a light, and this is probably something Anleier wasn't thinking of, is part of the Rangers' pursuit, if it is accurate,

which I could see why it would be, is arrogance. We're in New York, and why wouldn't you want to play here? I'm speaking of Kachug. But another part of it, I think, is them looking at it saying, well, we're banking on Brady looking around and saying, I don't want to do this anymore in Ottawa. And what this also shines a light on is start winning more games

and probably teams won't think they can pluck your players. Like if Ottawa is in first place in the division right now, does New York think they can get them? Probably not. But they're probably reading the tea leaves accurately or inaccurately and saying, man, Ottawa's doing it again. They're out of the playoffs. It's December.

Maybe we can bank on Brady finally being fed up with that. And that's kind of what comes out of this as well for me, is Ann Lauer is kind of putting more of a spotlight on why other teams might feel they can get them. Because the team's out of the playoffs again. And we're in December. Hayes, I just want to tell you this if some guy from arizona was saying matthew's in a whopper out to arizona me and you would be on a

lloyd christmas mobile out to that guy's house to have a word with that guy that's not true we would be harry dunn and lloyd on the on the moped out to the guy's house to have a word with him fate you would be going nuts. No, it's not true because the roles are reversed. In Toronto, you'd be like, you think he's leaving the Maple Leafs to do that? Like the Rangers are banking on New York, Broadway. The Rangers are the arrogant side.

They're the ones that make the big one. The roles are reversed. I'm just saying, if some guy out there, we would be on the Lloyd Christmas mobile. I understand why Sens fans are not happy, but I totally get that. I'm just saying you keep it alive and you go at it, and I don't even know how you're going to possibly police the media reporting stuff, whether it's bogus or not.

Here's what I would say. If there is, again, a reputable reporter saying something, I think even if this happened behind the scenes, now it's been reported, but if Anlauer made that call to the league or to Drury and said, this is what a reporter from New York is talking about, you better not be doing that because that is tampering. I don't know, did Anlauer make a public statement or did he make more of a, it got reported that he was pissed about it?

Well, the Board of Governors is ongoing. Right, so it's more reporters leaking that he didn't like what was going on, and he talked to the league about it. To me, my first phone call would be to the league or to Chris Drury. If I'm Steve Stales, I call Chris Drury and go, Larry Brooks just said that. Any truth to this? Because we've got a problem here. Yes, that I can reason with. And then you work backwards said that. Any truth to this? Because we've got a problem here. That I can reason with. And then you work backwards from that.

I agree with you. Why make it a bigger story if there's nothing to it? Why don't we get Larry Brooks on tomorrow and ask the guy himself, what the hell are you talking about? He's not going to say it. Larry's not going to tell us, though, that James Dolan called me the other night. Chris Drury was at the Christmas party. He's got sources.

And, again, whether you like Larry or not, he's a connected guy. He's a connected guy in New York. He's a connected guy with the Rangers. And if he puts something out there, I believe Ottawa and the owner and everybody there probably should stamp it out. But if you did it behind closed doors, somehow it's gotten out again, right? Yeah, well, I mean, again, if it's being labeled, quote-unquote, soft tampering, what I also find somewhat rich,

and this is an Ann Lauer in particular's problem, is there is hardcore tampering all the time in the league. Oh, my God. It's outrageous. Yeah, like, you know, everyone knows where guys are signing well before they're allowed to speak on it or talk about it or free agents moving around. Hey, we're going to draft your player. And by the way, in the summer, we want to give your guy $10 million a year.

Yeah. I know. I mean, that kind of stuff is actually out there happening. I think the word is back-channeling. There's a lot of back-channeling. Yeah. A lot of back-ch yeah a lot of back channeling hey you know it is a it's a it is a spicy meatball but you know that's something that like the

rangers got to get their house in order and and you know like you said the sen's got to continue to try and get up to standing so that they don't have their players that's the the bigger and that doesn't mean brady's going anywhere i mean it's been well reported on he's he's committed he's there he's there for years he's their captain yeah he's not going he's's going anywhere. I mean, it's been well reported on. He's committed. He's there. He's there for years. He's their captain. He's not going anywhere. But again, I think if they were off to a better start, it would have a different

tone. I think there's an element of sensitivity in the market because the fact that the team continues to be in the situation they're in. They needed that win yesterday and they would have been within two points of a playoff spot. Like, that's where, you know, you got goalied.

I mean, the shots were, what, 32 to 12? Yeah, they seemed to play well, and Travis was pretty supportive of their play, I think, as he probably should have been. But, again, that's a little battle within the market because, you know, there's no more moral victories when you haven't made the playoffs in six years. And every game you're waiting, you've got to get going. You know, they had a chance to win three in a row, and they got goalie. Yeah, exactly.

Like, the thing is, it's a big game against Anaheim. Then they go out on the road. But I'm looking at, like, look at these standings. They're just clumped up. Like, Pittsburgh was long gone. They've been much better. All of a sudden, Pittsburgh's back. Yeah. You know, Sid was flying the other night.

I was watching Sid. They've started winning some games. The Leafs have now lost two in a row. They're in Jersey tomorrow. It's not going to get easier tomorrow night. Jersey's waiting for them. It sounds like Max Domi may return tomorrow. We'll get into their

weekend. Obviously, on Friday, I think Berube said it. Like, Washington was better. That Washington team is impressive, man. They won the next night, too. Washington went into, where is it, Montreal or whatever. Montreal, yeah. Man, they're a good team.

They're impressive. And the Leafs against Pittsburgh. And there's always got to be the one thing, right? There's got to be the one thing. And it's the five-on-five scoring, even strength scoring, and them relying on their big guys to do it every single time. And it's legitimate based on the stats. Like the Leafs, they are having issues scoring five-on-five.

I didn't think Matthews looked great over the weekend. I question how close he is to actually being 100%. And is this going to be a storyline all year? We'll see. We'll get into that more as the afternoon goes on. More on the Soto deal, what it means for Vladi, what it means for the Jays. More on the Monday night or tonight where

Hazenbro had themselves a great day yesterday. Timo and Wilson on the clock. This is a weird game tonight. Bengals-Cowboys. Bengals laying a big number on the road. We'll see what you guys have in store. You get the pick and we'll get Luke's take on what he saw in the NFL yesterday.

A lot to get into today as we move forward, including a pretty big announcement for us. We've got something cooking this week. Tomorrow night in particular, a little tease. We'll announce what we're going to get up to tomorrow. We'll do that a little bit later this afternoon. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. It's a brand new year. Time to review last year's financial decisions and set new priorities for 2025. Kelvin the Money Guy suggests

the three-step approach. One, clearly define your goals for the new year. Two, create a plan tailored to your needs and ambitions. And three, make sure your portfolio is designed to serve that plan. Goal, plan, portfolio. Contact Kelvin the Money Guy and set your plans in motion. Call 416-457-PLAN or visit askkelvin.ca. All right, Overdrive continues. Brought to you by FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.

Luke Wilson coming up. Sheldon Keefe on the show in an hour. Sheldon will join us. Teeing up the game tomorrow night. Leafs-Devils tomorrow night. And Juan Soto has signed 15 years, $765 million. Wow. Leaving the Yankees to go to the Mets.

And I saw John Heyman, I guess, was on ESPN Radio in New York and said that he's heard the Jays offered $760 million. That's what he's heard, that they were in that ballpark. Wow. So if that's the case, that's a ton of money. I mean, it's just like with Otani. I think they probably offered around the same as what the Dodgers were willing to pay.

And again, does that mean Boris used them, used the Yankees to get the Mets deal? Possibly. I get the impression Cohen just wasn't going to lose here. He would have paid $800, $850, $9. Whatever it was going to be, he was going to pay. It's crazy. We're joined now by former Met, former MLB pitcher and host of the Mayday podcast, Trevor May. Trevor, you're a former player.

You were making money in your time. What do you think of 15 years, $765 million? Paul, let's handle that first number first. First of all, thanks for having me on, guys. I always love coming on. 15 years is so long. I can't even wrap my head around. Most guys are like, I just want to get to 10

years in the big league so that i can say i did it and uh yeah that's that's a long time to long long commitment for anything honestly uh but when when it comes to the tune of 600 or 765 million dollars none of which that is deferred which is maybe the craziest part about this contract. I think that anyone would sign on the dotted line for a 15-year commitment for that kind of money. So, yeah, blown away. Blown away that it got to that number because in my mind and in a lot of people's, I think to this point, there's still going to be a little bit of like you just, you can't, you cannot compare values to Otani, and he just blew past him in dollar value.

Just because of the Japanese market, just because of the pitching and the hitting, just because of all the things that Shohei brings to the table that Juan simply cannot because of who he is and where he was born. And it's just crazy. It's a, I guess, benchmark-setting historic change here in how markets are going to be discovered. The next 19-year-old we have come up who's a phenom,

it's going to be really fun projecting what they're going to get. Can you take us behind the curtain like how did boros and soto use other teams here because blue jays fans they don't want to hear but they realistically had no shot at this guy so what did the agent and the player do to kind of get the number continuing to rise well uh getting steve cohen involved is always a good option um uh i i think that so why is that because he just says yeah okay i'll pay you whatever you want yes he yes that and he has that reputation so even if you don't hear anything you assume that whatever the number thrown out is he can beat it uh which which makes negotiations or sweetening the deal in any way, shape, or form.

Like, if you have something special, you know, in your area, your team, your city that you want to offer, it's hard to know how to differentiate yourself when you know that money, you're not going to be able to beat money. Probably matching is the best you can hope for. And it just so happens that there was a bunch of room over there in terms of payroll to use as well. It's kind of a perfect storm. So that's a big thing. Here's a little peek behind the curtain in terms of just free agency in general. I mean, I went through it twice and I was a reliever. So there was a little bit of we on purpose were trying to get a number out there,

what offers may have been involved and who, not exactly who, but how many teams might be involved, just so that we could get two teams interested in kind of working against each other. That's kind of the way it is. That's kind of how negotiations work. Very rarely one team, there's only one team interested in another negotiations between those two parties, the player and the team. That's not how free agency works in baseball because of the way that control set up, six years of control. So free agency has to be the time um and so kind of not having that feeling

is the point because so many guys don't even get to it so uh so i i don't but i know that juan also kind of wanted to be under uh under wraps a little bit so it is interesting in this case that secrecy might have been the thing that drove it, that nobody actually knows might have actually created this bidding war because Steve Cohen was involved. And the one thing we did know is you couldn't outbid him. So I think that's kind of what happened. So, Trevor, how big of a dagger is it that he goes within the city just to the other team?

I mean, from a fan base standpoint from from everything like organizational is it uh is it an extra twist of the knife uh it's hard i think it's hard to ignore that fact yeah um it's a tough day for yankees fans i i think that one thing uh one bit of credit and i don't know if uh blue jays fans would be too too willing to this, but I'll do it. You know, I've got to give them a little bit of credit for understanding, you know, that Juan Soto, they just saw for a year, they had him, he was an amazing, his best year, one of his best, if not his best year, and they still came up short for the World Series. They knew they needed more than that, right? So they weren't resting all of their hopes on him.

So maybe that helps a little bit, but it is a little bit of slap in the face, especially when you've been a long time Yankees fan. You're supposed to be the evil empire. No one's supposed to be able to outbid you. But frankly, Hal Steinbrenner is not George. And it would have been interesting, honestly, if we had prime, we had 90s George Steinbrenner bidding against Steve Cohen

and how that would have gone down. I'm sure it would have been a very fun reality show to follow. But the teams run a little bit differently now and that's not the way they operate. I think that the Dodgers probably are there and now the Mets are in that conversation as well. They've kind of

taken it up. So yeah, looking across over at the other borough and seeing that they got the player that you wanted to keep and that was supposed to be yours probably seems quite a bit. Yeah, uncharted territory, really. I mean, it never happens. The Yankees always own that type of market. Now the Mets are there with them.

We're chatting with Trevor May, former Met, former MLB pitcher and host of the Mayday podcast. So up here in Toronto, people turn the page, and now you look at Vlade, and Vlade being the prized possession of free agency possibly next year. And I don't think anyone would suggest it'll be the same sweepstakes as Otani or Soto, nor should it be. But let's say Vlade at this point goes,

don't call me, I'm going to play it out, I'm going to get to the market, I'm going to test it, and he puts up a great year. He just replicates what he did last year. Last year he was phenomenal. He had a bit of a slow start, then he was great. He has, let's say, the same year he had last year. So it goes back-to-back, really high-quality seasons.

He's 26 years old. He hits free agency. How much money do you think he's going to get? How much per year? If Soto's making $51 million per year, what is reasonable for the Vladdy camp to expect bidders to get to? Well, one thing that's interesting about Vladdy is his production is much more of a middle-of-the-line-up power. Most of it comes from his power, and that tends to age a little bit worse.

He doesn't have strikeout problems either, but you know, being 26 is just, that's the crazy thing. That's the, that's, you know, projecting the, it's common knowledge that you're, the general idea is your prime is between 28 to 33. And if you're getting all of those years, plus a couple before, like that is added value added value almost kind of hard to imagine. So if he got into the 400s, up near 500, that wouldn't surprise me at this point. I think Soto kind of blew the ceiling off. I thought Otani did, but evidently I was wrong.

So I think that it's entirely possible, but he is a first baseman. He is probably just body type and where he's playing, and he doesn't play the outfield. Like, there's some longevity there, but also guys tend to kind of slow down a little bit faster. Think Mickey Cabrera. So, I mean, if you got Mickey Cabrera, I think anyone would be happy with that.

And he is 26, but there is a little bit of a – they age a little bit worse, so probably wouldn't be 15 years. But if it was like an 11, 12, or even up there around the Stanton 13 year that he got in Miami, that wouldn't surprise me one bit. And now those $300 million deals are going to be $400 plus million deals. Just add $100 million on. So I would say he's probably somewhere between 400 and 500 uh just with all that stuff uh taking the account well it's and it's wild like a year ago um i remember jeff passan reporting he's like no first baseman get 300 million and then even jeff you know

turned back on that a few months ago or he was like, actually, Vlade's going way above that. And now you look at Soto, and like you said, 26. He's a magnetic figure. He's a big personality, fun to watch play. I don't know what his health will be like in the future, but he's healthy now. He plays every day effectively. You've got to pull him off the field, Vlade.

He's not a guy that doesn't love playing baseball. He does. And I think you're right. I think two years ago, it would have been like $250,000, $275,000. Now it feels like it's $450,000. It's crazy, the amount of money and the way we have to adjust things

in two years. The Jays have to figure it out. Do you have a feeling one way or another, Trevor, that they're going to find a way to keep Vlade and Bo Bichette? And if they don't, what do they possibly do up here in Toronto if they let Vlade walk in free agency? I think that letting Vlade walk in free agency cannot happen. I think that you either have to get something

in return at a deadline if that's the decision you make. That would sting, but you have to get something back. I think that the fans even would agree that if he's going to end up not being a Blue Jay in 2026, then let's get some players so we can continue to build a core if he's not going to be part of it. Or you need to make him the centerpiece of your franchise because he just got outbid on the last two big guys, and I don't blame anybody for that.

I mean, we're talking $700 million. That's just a really hard pill to swallow no matter who it is. So if you can't get those guys, you've got to have your centerpiece to build around. And he's 26 years old, so you've still got so much time for, for, for the great years of him. And if he's already there, you know, there might be a chance for a hometown discount or at least you, you get a year of negotiating and talking about it when nobody else can talk to him about it. And that's another advantage.

So take advantage of those things or decide that you're going to, you're going to not necessarily tear it all down because the Blue Jays are not one of those organizations they got, but pivot to, okay, we need a core. We've got to figure out where our core is going to come from. Let's see how many players we can get for these two guys because they're young and they can help a competing team right now if we're not going to. You've got to make the decision one way or the other.

But they've gone after the two big guys. So I think that they want to keep these guys in the core. So I would say focus on Paying Blighty now and maybe not wait until he's $450 million to where you have to get in this bidding war again. And God forbid Steve Cohen just decides he wants to be part of that too. Right now, if bidding wars are going to have to happen, I would avoid it with all costs with that guy floating around the league. I think that's probably a wise move.

But will it happen? I don't know. I mean, there isn't a lot of optimism in this market right now when it comes to this front office and the way they operate. He is Trevor May, former MLB pitcher, host of the Mayday podcast. Great catching up with you, Trevor. Really appreciate you doing this. Of course. Thanks for having me, guys. Really appreciate you doing this. Of course.

Thanks for having me, guys. You got it. Yeah. I think he just said it bluntly. You either sign Vlade or you're going to have to flip Vlade. Yeah. The idea of him leaving for nothing next year, again, to sign in Boston or the Yankees. Army would want to get something back then because you didn't want him to be the centerpiece

of your teams. It's proven in the last two years by your actions going after two other players. Now you're just going to defer to it and act like you can't wait to have him as your centerpiece? If you were dying to have him as your centerpiece, we wouldn't even be here at this particular point talking about this. It would have been done a couple years ago. I think they don't trust.

So then don't pay him just to pay him. Trade him then if you're not fully committed to it. Again, I don't want to speak out of turn, certainly. But doesn't it just reek that they're not 100% sure of what he is? Because if they were, they wouldn't let this guy near anything. He would be signed. They would make sure he's taken care of. But I guess it comes back to

is he the 48 dinger guy is he the 32 what is he well this is it he had a great 21 and 24 season and he had a mediocre 22 and 23 season like that that's you look at the last four years as he's grown as a player well wouldn't you want to say they just want to make sure it's something in between yeah well if they don't if they don't know that night we always say the best evaluation the most important for an organization is you know of your own players if they don't know right now that he's going to be a 35 homer 40 home run guy every year then they're nuts they're not good at their jobs if they can't predict that well that's a great point and if you if you know something the rest of the league doesn't and they're willing to trade

them trade them and make the team get yes that thinks they'll get something else and yes yes and be proactive that's again how what we talked about earlier you're going to be an upper middle class team sometimes you got to trade the guy before he's willing to get paid and make sure you get a lot for him and then turn it back over and have new pieces coming the problem is the farm system stinks right now for the jays there's some smart gms in hockey you want like you you've seen it in front of the trade guys and people like oh how'd they get rid of that guy and they go to a different team they stink the join out and everyone's like oh maybe that guy's not so stupid yeah maybe they saw something they saw something they knew it was coming but i guess that the hard part and i'll go back to my original comment is the hard part, and I'll go back to my original comment, is the hard part is what is he because he's just 26.

Like that's the thing. If this guy can play 10 more years, what is his ceiling? I'm not going to lie. His frame alone would scare me for 10 years. 10 years is a long commitment to any athlete. Again, a first baseman who's a bigger dude. Listen, I hear you. And there's also the complication of Shapiro and Atkins,

the heat that's on them, what their future is, the fact that they just spent billions to upgrade the park. There's so many different balls in the air. And Vlade also has the power to just say, guys, I'm not signing right now. So thanks for calling, but I'm not doing it. That could be a reality too. Exactly.

Luke Wilson, Sheldon Keeiestel to come. Chris Johnston from the Board of Governors. More into the Leafs weekend and the Leafs-Devil game tomorrow night as well. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. It's a brand new year. Time to review last year's financial decisions and set new priorities for 2025.

Kelvin the Money Guy suggests the three-step approach. One, clearly define your goals for the new year. Two, create a plan tailored to your needs and ambitions. And three, make sure your portfolio is designed to serve that plan. Goal, plan, portfolio. Contact Kelvin the Money Guy and set your plans in motion. Call 416-457-PLAN or visit askkelvin.ca.

I'm curious to what you guys almost like made fun of me. Why can't Larry Brooks come on the show and explain what he meant? I didn't make fun of you. Like if Jonas had some scoop, we'd be like, hey, can you come on and explain what you're talking about? Like what? Let's get Larry Brooks on. Let's get Larry on. That's a good call.

Let's get Larry Brooks on. All right, let's get Larry on. That's a good call. What I was pushing at, or I think Noodles was too, was that he's going to say, yeah, Chris Drury told me that we're going for Brady Kachuk. He's not going to reveal. Yeah, he's not going to be able to reveal anything. Okay, then forget it.

I'm not going to have someone on that's just going to say, I can't reveal that. Well, he would talk about, he would defend himself. I'm sure he would do that. Alright, let's get Larry. Reach out to old Brooksy. I guess that's what I'm telling you, Brooksy. See if we can get him on.

You ever get in a fight when you're a kid, Brooksy? We'll ask him all about torts. Keep in mind, do you remember there's the torts clip, and then there's the Dan Boyle one going, I want him out of here. Boyle hated Larry Brooks. Dude, speaking of clips, Hayes, we got to get to the clip.

The most afraid human being on earth might be a security guard with the Yankees. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God. This report, this is so greasy to me. Because I know what you're talking about. Dude, save it for the top of the five, because this guy, I swear to God, he is running for his life right now. Get that clip to Joe from the bridge, because this security guard,

the underpants cam on that guy, if he's the reason, look out. Dust. Get the clip, Joe, from the bridge's it's straight to jeans or slacks there's no underpants no it's wrangler triple corduroys to support everything joe from the bridge get the hyman report on the security guard at yankee stadium we'll come back and play it we'll get luke can comment on it because luke's probably guys are pro athlete you guys deal with that with security all the time. Oh, yeah.

He can speak to it. All right, we'll play that. We got a lot of audio out of New York, too. Like the Malik Neighbors clip. I don't know if you saw this. It is wild that this guy's a rookie and he answered the question the way he answered it. We'll play it for Luke.

We'll get his take on it, too. Sheldon, keep coming up. And we've got an announcement on what we're getting up to tomorrow night. We'll get to that in the 5 p.m. hour as well. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by FanDuel. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.