PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Dodgers could make $1 billion on Shohei Ohtani deal, proving we live in darkest possible timeline

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

The love for the Arizona Diamondbacks is spreading across the nation, so of course the Los Angeles Dodgers needed to do everything in their power to squash it with their signing of Shohei Ohtani. We discuss the positive economic impact the superstar’s contract could have on the already wealthy Dodgers, which starting pitcher the Diamondbacks could pursue to aid them in the NL West, and a new potential streaming deal brewing between Diamond Sports and Amazon.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montiya. Of course, I am occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX, this man next to me, occasionally known as my vice mayor, always known as your thunderstick. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman. And Jesse is the love for the Arizona Diamondback starting to spread? Are we starting to finally get the recognition that we are looking for? It seems to be the case.

Yes. Montana. Yeah. Yes. Hello, Montana. Hello and welcome to Montana. All of the most populous U.S. states there love your Arizona diamond. Hey, we're winning over a decent section of the country, right?

If this was risk and United States was the world map, we would have a pretty decent strategy splitting the United States from, you know, the Midwest and the West Coast. But of course, what we are referencing is baseball references map of how things have changed in regards to page visits on their site for teams based on the state. We have a little graphic here we're going to put up that should show. Got that. There you go. That's what that's what it used to look like up there at the top.

That's 22's results. The bottom results there are 2023 results. As we can see, nobody cared about viewing the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball reference page in the United States at all, including people here in Arizona in 2022. too. That's an Astros. Residual Astros hate, perhaps? I mean, the Astros did win the World Series last year.

That's part of it. Yeah, that helps. And I'm sure the trip to the World Series helps win over New Mexico there in parts of Utah, right? But still, this is a nice sight to see when it comes to an Arizona Diamondbacks team that is fun, is young, and should be exciting to watch for a number of years. Yeah. I mean, again, the states where the Diamondbacks were the most search team, not exactly the most populous states. It's Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming. But yeah, I mean, something is certainly better than nothing, Derek.

And when you find your way all the way to the World Series, some of those states that don't have a baseball team, maybe they jumped on the bandwagon. Maybe there's some diehard Diamondbacks fans out there in some of these states. We want some new people over, Jesse. Yeah, I think that seems likely, yeah. Well, that's not the only most viewed reference page we're going to take a look at because here is the 2023's most viewed player pages by state. And of course, in a landslide, it's Shohei Otani everywhere, except here in Arizona, where it's Corby and Carol Time all the time. Yeah, I mean, I actually think this is. is sort of impressive.

Yeah. It feels like it shouldn't be that your star player, you know, that plays for the team in that state is the most viewed player page in that state. But yes, Shohei Otani is literally the most viewed player page in a whole bunch of states that do have baseball teams. Like the state of Texas, it is still Shohei Otani. And they have multiple baseball teams. They're good ones.

In fact, one that won the World Series, if I remember correctly, right? Yes. Yeah, I mean, Washington has a lock up there on Julio, got Ronald Acuna Jr. You know, there's a couple of places where the stars here are kind of the big name. I love Louisa Rise being so big up in the north. Well, you just know that Twins fans haven't let go, you know. And they never will. Of all of the people keeping track of Louisa Rise, you know, the road to a 400 batting average,

twins fans are all over that. That's for sure. Because they, I mean, Pablo Lopez was fantastic. this year. But like, you know, when your former player, you know, is potentially about to hit 400, that's kind of a big deal. Of course, it didn't wind up happening. But the big thing here with Corby and Carroll in the state of Arizona, I think, is the fact that, like you said, you don't typically see like the star player, but he's new to a lot of people this year. He was, you know, something that kind of caught the baseball world by storm. And, and of course, there are a lot of people in Arizona

that didn't track his journey, weren't really aware of who Corby and Carol was prior to this season. So it makes sense that his page was viewed a lot by fans here in the state. But this is very exciting, at least to see as far as the love for Arizona is concerned. And of course, the undying love for Shohei Otani. We are going to talk about the business that is Shohei Otani and the amount of money that that man may inevitably bring to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which might make you as sick as it makes me.

But before that, we do have some Arizona Diamondbacks news. Per Kylie McDaniel from ESPN, the Diamondbacks have signed Ronaldo Hernandez to a minor league deal with a spring training invite. And Hernandez is a 26-year-old catcher in the minor league system that at one point was a top prospect in baseball. Not just part of the Tampa Bay Ray system, but one of the best prospects overall in baseball. And then was acquired by the Boston Red Sox and just kind of struggled in their system. to ever find his way back to a major league kind of playing time. When you're a highly ranked prospect, or at least recently a highly ranked prospect and the Tampa Bay Rays decide to deal you elsewhere, that's probably not a good sign.

They tend to keep those. They tend to, they just seem to be very good at figuring out which guys are going to stick and which guys won't. And yeah, he was a top 100 prospect back in 2019. If you look at the prospect rankings in 2019, a lot of people who are very high. on Ronaldo Hernandez. He was, I went back and looked at the MLB pipeline, top 30 rankings for the raise entering the 2019 season.

He was their sixth ranked prospect, pretty high on their list. And you look at the scouting grades across the board from back then, a 50 hit tool, 55 power, 40 run, which of course is excusable for a catcher, 60 arm, 50 field. He was projected to be a, you know, a pretty darn good major league player.

And yeah, as you said, hasn't really worked out for him with the Boston Red Sox. He did, I believe, make a couple of appearances on their Major League roster, but he never actually got into an actual game. So he has no Major League experience at this point. But he did put up, you know, decent numbers in AAA this past year in the Red Sox system, a 242 average 336 on base 445 slugging percentage. Not great numbers, but okay, 17 homer, 70 RBIs down there in AAA.

and he's been in AAA now for the last three seasons. That's where he spent the majority, or I guess in 2021, he spent the majority of his time in AA, made an appearance in AAA. And then the last two seasons, it's all been AAA for Ronaldo Hernandez. So, yeah,

kind of a depth piece here for the Diamondbacks, not someone who I'm necessarily expecting to make the opening day roster or anything, but we know the Diamondbacks wanted to add some depth in this regard. And I'm not sure that this necessarily checks that box entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another move coming in that regard. But, you know, I mean, I guess it's more interesting to take a flyer on a guy like this who is at one point viewed as a, you know, a very well regarded prospect than, you know, some other guy who's, you know, where the ceiling maybe isn't as high. I'm not sure if people really still think the ceiling is all that high with Ronaldo Hernandez.

But, you know, you never know what can happen with a change of scenery. So basically you're saying he is not the answer to back up Gabby Moreno at. Probably not. Hopefully not. Probably not. I don't think he is a major league quality catcher. That seems to be one of the primary criticisms there. So defensively, you're not getting a ton of value there.

At least that's what the report seemed to say. And in AAA, those numbers I mentioned were good, but he had a 93 WRC plus. So when you factor in the run producing environment there, he actually grades out as a slightly below average hitter. So below average hitter in AAA. poor defensive skills. Not exactly a guy I would expect to make the opening day roster. Quick ski to Connor, ski to you all,

ski, of course, to sexy red more than anybody else. But glad to see you guys all here in the chat right now. We've been talking about potential targets for the Arizona Diamondbacks when it comes to free agency. We've also bounced around some ideas as far as trade candidates that the Diamondbacks could pursue. So I guess on the opposite end of the spectrum from

Ronaldo Hernandez as far as big names. Fromber Valdez is suddenly a name that is popping up from the Houston Astros that apparently the Astros are taking calls on him. I know before we even get into this that he is going to cost entirely too much for the Arizona Diamondbacks to probably be in on. You would even say that the cost might be astronomical. Wow. I had to do it.

But should Mike Hazen pick up the phone and see what a deal for Fromber might take. Let's take a look at his numbers from 2023 because he was very, very good. I guess I'm more confused here as to why the Houston Astros are taking calls on Framber Valdez. And obviously they don't have to entertain any of the trade, you know, any of the trade, potential trades. But I mean, wouldn't this kind of make a superstar kind of upset that the team's kind of shopping you around and stuff if this information, I mean, this information has become public. So obviously, we got back to Frommer, right? Right, but his numbers last year very good.

1,198 innings pitched, a 3.45 ERA, a 1.126 whip, a 24.8% strikeout rate or K rate of 7.1% walk rate and a 3.50 FIP. What are your thoughts, Jesse? This is the equivalent of the Diamondback shopping around Zach Gallen. Right. Just so we're all clear on what's happening here. Right. With two years left on his deal? Yeah, he's 30 years old.

So their ERAs, their innings pitched, a lot of their numbers were out were actually very similar in 2023. They're both excellent starting pitchers. The Diamondback certainly are not looking to trade Zach Allen. And I don't know that the Astros really are looking to trade for Amber Valdez either. This seems like I heard Ken Rosenthal earlier this week saying that the Astro, there was speculation that they might be interested in listening on trade offers for Valdez. But it doesn't sound like there's a whole lot there.

I don't expect it to happen. I guess they're just sort of trying to get out in front of, you know, two years left on the deal. If we're not planning on bringing him back, then, you know, maybe you'd want to trade him now and acquire an asset that would be with you for a longer period of time that would be more affordable. I'm assuming that's the line of thinking here. But yeah, Framber Valdez was really freaking good in 2023. He's been really good for a while. I guess this was a bit of a down year for him with the 345 ERA.

He had a 282 in 2022. He also had an expected ERA this year of 4.33, which also kind of mirrors Zach Gallen. Zach Gallen's expected ERA on Stackass was in the low fours, which is kind of an interesting side note. But I don't expect this to happen. Seems like kind of a crazy thing for a team like the Astros to do, especially after, you know, seeing the Texas Rangers do what they did in 2023. It seems like an odd time for the asteris who moving on from arguably their best starting pitcher. So how does news like that come out if they're not actively shopping him?

I mean. I mean, I'm not the one of her. Don't blame me for the news there. I want to blame you for this. You're the investigative reporter here. But no, I'm serious. Like, obviously, I don't, I'm not saying that they are necessarily looking to part ways with him. But it doesn't feel like this kind of story doesn't become.

a story without there being something to it, right? And so obviously, I'm sure that anonymously, maybe some GMs have said, you know, told some journalists that, hey, we did talk to the Houston Astros about Framber von Baldes, right? So like then that becomes kind of a story due to the fact that he isn't the guy you would think that the Houston Astros would move. And it does peak your curiosity a bit as to what Houston might be doing if that is a possibility, if that move is something that they could be pursuing. And if it is, like I said, I know that the cost is going to be entirely too much. And I don't even know if I would want the Diamondbacks to consider it.

But at this point, that's such an insane level of talent to add to the starting rotation that it would be hard not to consider it. It would be hard not to start looking at some of your trade assets and wondering exactly what it would take to get somebody like Baldess. Valdez in 2023, this is interesting. he had a 9 ERA in the postseason. He was 0 and 3 with a 9 ERA in the playoffs. So, you know, maybe the Astros just kind of see him regressing a little bit moving forward

and they'd just rather have that happen with another team. Looking at the reporting that's been done here, though, yeah, I still don't really see anything super concrete that the Astros are making, are looking to make a move here. With the Diamondbacks, it would be a fascinating choice because a fascinating decision. If they did go all in on Framber Valdez, because they already have two other very good starting pitchers who are slated to become free agents in two seasons.

So that would make the 2025, 2025, 26 offseason, especially gut-wrenching if you're a D-Bags fan. You're losing Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and Framber Valdez in one off-season. I don't know if an organization would want to put themselves in position to have that much talent, you know, slated to leave all in the same year. Not to say, I guess the D-backs could bring

maybe one of those guys back. If they bring two World Series titles home in that time, I think we'll overlook it. That's kind of what you'd be banking on. That's what you'd be hoping for. It would be the, out of all of the moves you could imagine, that would be like,

let's go all in on the diamond backs over the next two seasons. Like trading the farm for Framber Valdez. That's about as high on the list as I could possibly imagine. Well, I did have on the rundown here that I was next going to throw shade at people that did last minute,

holiday shopping, but it mysteriously disappeared off of the rundown. I don't know. I don't know how that happened, Jesse. Can you explain yourself when it comes to that? The music's still there. We're still throwing shade. Four days, Friedman. You got four shopping days left. And people like this,

they want you to believe they care. They don't care. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He loves this. The adrenaline rush he gets from waiting to the last minute is absolutely absurd. It's absurd that he plays with our emotions when it comes to the gifts he's going to give us to show us the love that he has for us over the last year.

And instead, he's just playing games with us. He's just using it as an adrenaline junkie thing that he has going on to go to the mall on Christmas Eve, like a crazy person. I don't know who does this, but I will say this. An easy fix to this would be stopping by Shady Ray's because they do have an in-town location right here in Carolyn Commons and getting your loved ones Shady Race. That would be a well-thought-out gift, even if you're buying. it last minute. You know what's not well thought out? What's that? Is you throwing shade without

wearing your shade? No, you're right. That's why this wasn't a full. This wasn't, yeah, I wasn't fully committed to the bid here because you removed it. You removed it from the rundown very cleverly. He's a smart line. I mean, let's be real here, Derek. I take enough flack on the show as it is. Yeah. For my procrastination when it comes to Christmas shopping. It's in every ad read. It's a it didn't, yeah. It's part of our scheduled programming on this show. That's true. Maybe I didn't feel it was necessary. That's fine. But, you know, I'll give you a tip though. Shady rays. That's what I want. I want more Shady Ray's. That's what you can go give me. You can get that for your whole family. And again, if you don't, if they don't love the shady rays you get them, they can exchange them for free within 30 days. They can also get their money back. So they'll just get money from you. But they can also if they break them or lose them, even on day one of you giving them out, they will get a brand new pair of Shady Raise. No questions asked. That's what makes it the best lost and broken replacement plan in all of Iowa. exclusively for our listeners, Shadyrays is giving out the best deal of the season.

Go to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. You might not get them in time for Christmas, but Three Kings Day. Hey, that's in January. You have time for that. It's a shop for that. We also have some Arizona lottery tickets that could help make this shopping season a little bit easier on us because not only do they make great gifts and great stocking suffers,

but I'm going to scratch one right now and I could win up to $20,000. So that'll definitely make my holiday shopping. Could win up to $20,000. He keeps doing that. Yeah, this is split. And I will tell you guys. Who are you? It's not Jake.

It's not going to come in and want some of my money. I want to split the money that I won. What money did you win? Oh, well, that's too bad. You don't want to split it. Oh, see, he's holding me ransom with this mystery ticket that he has over there. I have no idea if he's bluffing. I'll tell you.

It's anywhere between $3 and $20,000. Oh, my God. That's how much you can win on these. I don't like it. But of course, I do like having them and I like scratching them. Jesse thinks this one's too much work because of all the fun that they put together of you scratching off the letters on the crosswords. Not enough work, I say.

I enjoy scratching these. And your friends will too, your family members will too. Scratchers start at just $1. And top prizes can top out at half a million dollars. So make sure you give them to somebody like. Go out and buy your holiday scratchers today. find a retailer like our friends at Circle K near you at Arizona Lottery.com.

You must be 21 or older to play. And of course, we thank you guys for being here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows to go live. And if you're listening on the audio podcasting side,

leave us a review over there. We appreciate those five-star reviews. Make sure you're subscribed there as well. And leave us a like here, by the way. We always appreciate those thumbs up. the out of boys. We can use it because the esteem levels around here are low after the Shohei Otani

deal. It's another case of the rich getting richer, I guess. And I hate that I have to do this because you know I don't ever like admitting he's right. But Jesse was right. Jesse was right. Maybe the Otani deal should have been $1 billion because that is potentially what

it could make the Los Angeles Dodgers. You heard me right. The Otani deal could make the Dodgers won up to one billion with a B, $1 billion, according to a Yahoo sports article from Jack Harris. The Dodgers could make an estimated $800 million to $1 billion gain over a decade in additional marketing and advertising revenue due to the addition

of Shohay Otani. I think a lot of that is just looking at this article. A lot of it is from investing the deferred money as well. Also it. Yep, the $46 million, which is the minimum. They could, technically, they could invest more money than the $46 million. That's just the minimum of what they have to invest in order to set aside for his deferred payments. But there's no one way that they can set it aside. There's numerous ways that they could set it aside where they will make a lot of money and interest on that money being in certain kinds of accounts.

But there's also just the fact that Shohayotani is who Shoha Yotani is. the Dodgers are already a marketing and advertising machine. So they're a team and a franchise that know how to take advantage of something like this. This just adds to their international resume, the world renowned resume of someone like Shohei Otani. I mean, we talked about at one point during the World Baseball Classic the immense interest from Japanese households in watching the World Baseball Classic. And now, in a way, a lot of that, a lot, there's a lot of new fans that have been made, a lot of new companies with a lot of money that are going to want to advertise with the Dodgers. And there's just the star factor.

I found this to be really interesting from this article. Pepperdine Law Professor Maureen, or Iriano Weston, who is the director of the school's entertainment media and sports dispute resolution project, said that Dion Sanders paid for his contract at Colorado in the first couple of games, just due to the revenue increases driven by his celebrity. There may be a similar effects that can, there may be some. similar effects that can happen here. That's crazy that Dion Sanders alone,

but it makes sense, right? Because literally at one point, you know, you had college game day there in Boulder. You had the rock. You had Pat McAfee. You had all these like stars descending upon Colorado just because of Dion Sanders and the excitement he brought around that college football program. Right.

I mean, this is basically the most popular player in the entire world going to one of the most popular teams. It's literally the final infinity stone it feels like for the Dodgers for them to now be able to snap and turn at least half of us into dust. Yeah, there's a, he didn't get that reference at all. He hasn't seen that movie. No, I didn't know I do. Damn it. God, I thought that one was broad enough. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, there's there's obviously just a ton of earning potential here for the Dodgers. And I know Jeff Passon said that every single big market team should have made this move. You could make a case that even some of the more mid-market type teams probably should have

done this too. Every team in baseball should have tried to make this move. I mean, honestly. Yeah, I'm sure that some teams are probably hesitant to bank on money that's not in their pockets, like the, you know, the potential of earning money from Otani. I imagine the Dodgers are particularly well positioned to capitalize on this, just given the big brand that they already are. They can also take on the risk, too, because of,

it doesn't work out, they're not going to be ruined as a franchise in the same way that that could ruin like the diamond bags. Right. That's a, yeah, that's a great point. I mean, that's, that's ultimately what having that kind of money does for you is it just allows you to take these, these kinds of, these kinds of risks. But also, the more you look at this, the more you're like, it doesn't seem to be all that much risk here. Like in the grand scheme of things, it's hard to imagine showy O's honi not earning the Dodgers copious amounts of money throughout the course of of this contract. So, yeah, it's, you know, it continues to be baffling to me that this is the deal that was

ultimately agreed upon. I said it at the time, $700 million over 10 years. When you first saw the figure, it was like, man, this is crazy. That's $70 million per year. And then you find out about the deferrals. And it quickly becomes clear that this was a below market evaluation of Shohei Otani. it sounds like there was a bit of a bidding war happening where teams involved in the in the otani sweepstakes were you know talking about 500 million talking about 600 million of actual money that

was not deferred or at least not deferred into this extent and otani's camp came back to all of the teams and said that you know this is what we want to do we want to do 700 million but we want to defer over 97 percent of it which Andrew Friedman of the Dodgers said that he would never have had the guts to ask this of anyone. No. This was not his idea. No. This was, this was Otani's idea.

That's a crazy ask because of the benefit to the ball club itself, right? Like that's such a, that would be viewed as such a selfish move. And I mean, my God, tomorrow is not promised to be thinking about money that you're going to get 10 years from now being the big windfall, the big payday. Like the only reason why it makes all the sense in the world to Otani is because the man, already receives a ridiculous amount of money from endorsement deals. Yeah, that that's more than enough for him to live comfortably on for the next 10 years. And now his future as a human being is secured for the rest of his life with those $68 million

deferral payments for 10 years that's going to come after that point. He can literally do whatever he wants. You know what I mean? He's going to make plenty of money off of his endorsement deals anyways. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, they're only going to go up, right? Like the endorsement deals are only going to go up being in the advantageous position. Like he's still in Los Angeles, so it's not like it's changing much.

He had the same deals. But again, it's the Dodgers. So just based on the connections the Dodgers have and their ability to market players, there's a good chance that he's going to make even more money than he's currently made. Yeah, probably. I mean, I think the estimate in this LA Times story is that he's at $50 million in an endorsement deals. And yeah, you can.

A year? A year? You can understand why from Otani's perspective, he was willing to do this because, let's face, Otani's going to be all right. He was going to be all right, whether he took 700 million or 900 million or 100 million. It doesn't really matter. Like the guy is good financially. That's clearly never going to be an issue for him throughout his life.

Not only him, but his children and his children's children and so on and so forth. But at the same time, there is still this element of it's just hard for me to believe that there wasn't more negotiations. to be had here. It sounds like every team with the exception of the angels, of course, were willing to do this deal. It wasn't that the Dodgers said yes and all the other teams said no. The Angels, the Angels did not want to do it. I imagine Otani just chose the Dodgers.

It sounds like you just chose the Dodgers over the other teams. But it seems like this negotiation process could have dragged on and, you know, potentially teams could have put in more money and required the Dodgers or whomever the ultimate destination. destination for Otani to require that team to spend a little bit more because yeah the more that I look at this the more I'm like this is just an utter steel I mean this is this is this and and again it's not that major league baseball should have stepped in and prevented this yeah Otani knowingly signed a below average contract you can't really make that illegal if you're major

league baseball he's still making 700 million dollars but I mean the the argument against it is that that it purposefully circumvents the competitive balance tax. The competitive balance tax is there for what? Competitive balance is what it's there for. And instead, they're circumventing it by deferring 97, 98% of the deal to future payments that aren't technically. I mean, I do know the $46 million is still hit against their payroll, right? But not the full $70 million a year.

If it was $2 million, if the competitive. balance hit was two million that would be a serious problem. Pitchfork in hand right now. That would be that would be yes. You need to storm into the commissioner's office and and you know make this make this right. But still the fact that they can essentially like get out of half of it content you know almost half of it. But again it's not in my mind they're not really circumventing it. Otani's just walking away from money and he's cool with it. That's what's happening here. Otani and his agent, his own agent, as Bilelo says this in this article. Okay, to be fair, I'm just, you're saying it's Otani's, that's fun, but then Otani is circumventing

the competitive balance tax, you know what I mean? But is it really circumventing if the competitive balance task is just a reflection of the present day value of the contract? Because the present day value is 460 million. Divide that by 10, the competitive balance tax hit is 46. the value of this deal is really 460 million. Although I know that is ridiculous. That's ridiculous.

That's not what's actually happening, though. You can do the estimated value. You can do the XBA. You can be the fucking goddamn, you know, slugging percentage of the deal. I don't care. The point is that they're paying him $700 million a year for a 10-year contract. And they are doing something to make it out to where they don't get hit with that full $70 million dollars per year against their competitive balance tax and in my mind that's the reason why people

have a problem with it you know what i mean that's the reason why because it that part doesn't feel fair and i understand you explaining as to why it's only 46 million and that's fine but it does make it feel like the way that this deal is structured circumvents the point of there even being a competitive balance tax it's to keep teams competitive it's to keep major league baseball competitive. And I feel like if the Dodgers got away with the structuring, you know, two more deals like this, they would just have an all-star team from the top of their lineup to the bottom with an incredible rotation. No one else. No one else is going to do this deal. No one else is going to defer this much money because no one else is, is a tonny and has $50 million coming in every year and is willing to take $2 million. So. Well, regardless of how it's structured, it is not the most important signing in Dodgers. history, Ben Verlanders.

So really quick, as a person that sticks his foot in his mouth quite a bit, myself, I'll come to Ben Burlander's defense and just say, I know sometimes we just say this stuff in the heat of the moment, not really thinking of what you're saying, not, you know, you don't really realize that you are forgetting the man, the fact that Dodgers signed the player that broke the color barrier in baseball and how that is actually the most important signing in history for the Dodgers and for Major League Baseball. So he's been getting a lot of flack for that, but I will say, I get what he's saying. Just as far as an actual player deal for improving the team, and specifically for the Los Angeles Dodgers,

this is a very important historic signing. And again, the other part of that that I will argue about him saying that, though, is we still don't know because we don't know how Otani is going to play going forward. And there is no guarantee that Otani really is going to be as good as he. was for this team he probably will be and I'm sure a lot of this is me just hoping he's not going to be but I mean again questions are are legitimate yeah and we won't know until he actually pitches in a game again which you know again a year down the road right so we won't know that until 2025 but yeah sometimes I I know how people messed up trust me like I would be very surprised if Ben Verlander didn't pretty immediately recognize like yeah I made a pretty big mistake I don't feel like we need

to continue to pour it on man. Oh, we will. Oh, we will. That's what we do around here. Of course, you know, there's a, I don't want to suggest that you go out there and bet on the Dodgers, but maybe that's not the worst thing you can do on the bet MGM sportsbook app as far as future bets and MLB goes. I'd throw your tomatoes at me now because of me saying that, I understand. But if you do download the bet MGM sportsbook app right now, you can sign up with our code of

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Use bonus code PHNX for your first bet. Place your first sportsbook wager through the sportsbook mobile application of at least $10. If that bet loses, your bonus bets will be available once your initial wager is settled. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler.

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Call 1-800 Next-Eap, Arizona. 1-800-2-7-1-1-7-1-7 for confidential help, Michigan. 1-8-1-0-0-3-Por-Ric in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit at MGM.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., New York or Ontario. Oh, man. Jacob kind of messed up our time. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, that's a good point.

You just realized you're unmuted as soon as it stops, so you can say that even if you're not on screen. I don't know. So it sounds like a U-issue. No. I want Damon back. Yeah, I do too. We're Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

No, you might never get them back. All right, well, I'll tell you, again, this time of the year, you could probably use some extra cash. I know I could. And you can get that by opening up a free checking account with our friends over a desert financial credit union. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union.

They got me started on my home ownership journey. They can get you started as well. They have checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options. investment options and more more importantly they are a trusted financial resource that not only has the community in mind but they have your best financial interests in mind as well when you join when you join now and open a free checking account online you can get $200 in bonuses get started by visiting desert financial dot com slash 200 right now uh jessey we got ourselves potentially a streaming deal happening between diamond sports and amazon which

Don't know if it eventually impact the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it won't for right now because Diamond has basically lost the rights to the Arizona Diamondbacks all together. But they never had the streaming rights. They do only have the streaming rights for five MLB teams, which is Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, and Tampa. And by the way, are you an Amazon Prime customer? I am like many Americans in that I am not, I am not per yes, correct. You're on your parents, it's fine. Me too. What are you doing with your life if you don't have access to somebody's Amazon Prime account at this point?

I mean, man, the other day I had like a bag of peanut butter M&Ms delivered to me. Why? Because I wanted them. And it was just that easy. Was I willing to wait until tomorrow to get them? Yes, I was. Were they melted? Yes, I live in Arizona.

But regardless, that's the beauty of having an Amazon. You order peanut Evan M's from Amazon? Jesse, I will literally order anything I'm in the mood for right now. As a matter of fact, I ordered my daughter a while ago a like a, you know, one of those gingerbread house kits. And I just got the notification today that it will be delivered on December 28th, which kind of misses the holiday season just a little bit. So it doesn't always work out. But yeah, this could definitely help Diamond Sports with their current bankruptcy process just as far as, I guess, getting rid of some of those final assets. It seems like this deal would need to be approved by the bankruptcy court, even if Diamond and their Amazon do reach an agreement.

But it would see Amazon invest in Diamond with a goal of eventually acquiring the streaming rights for teams completely to Amazon on those broadcasts. We know Amazon has been trying to break into the sports broadcasting game. Diamond would continue to operate the cable networks they own for those teams and the streaming rights would be transferred over to Amazon. And like I said, Amazon has already proven to be a viable. option for the NFL, even though it's a little annoying at times when you go to look for the game and you have to open up the app and go there instead of clicking into a channel. But it does make a lot of sense. And of course, it's kind of weird because it felt like the one reason Diamond Sports claimed that this whole situation wasn't working out for them, at least in regards to the

Diamondbacks, was the lack of having streaming rights. And now here they are potentially giving up those streaming rights that the ones they have left to Amazon. Feels like this is just the final days of a company trying to sell off individual assets and get themselves out of the financial hole that they're currently in. Yeah, this seems like a way for Amazon to kind of get their foot in the door when there's obviously a lot of turmoil in this situation. And Diamond is not really in position to have like a ton of negotiating power. So Amazon's just sort of stepping in and like, hey, we can kind of take advantage of this

situation. It doesn't seem like this is going to really mean a whole lot in the. grand scheme of the RSN problem moving forward. As you said, there's only five teams that Diamond even has the streaming rights for in the first place. You mentioned those teams, the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers, and Rays. Not exactly the most highly sought after streaming rights out there if we're being totally honest. I didn't want to bash those teams in those markets, but yeah, you're right about that for sure. I don't think Amazon, you know, being able to stream Tigers games is suddenly going, you know, I don't really see this change.

the landscape of the situation all that much. Diamond still, you know, it sounds like there's some hope for them in broadcasting games for some teams in 2024. Diamondbacks will not be one of them. But, yeah, as of 2025, I have a hard time seeing Diamond be involved in much of anything. And I don't think Amazon is necessarily, it seems like part of a solution for a team. It doesn't seem like an entire, I don't think, you know, you're going to see one. team commit all of their rights solely to Amazon or whatever.

Yeah. I don't hate, though, the idea of baseball being available on streaming platforms that I already pay for. That seems to be like a great move. I know then that's going to lead to those streaming platforms probably eventually asking for more money or maybe a separate package to watch those or whatever. But as of right now, if I already have Amazon and I get to click on, watch a Tampa Bay game, watch a Royals game every once in a while, maybe occasionally.

here and there. I mean, there's definitely interest there for me to do so. I mean, some of the shit I watched Jesse on Hulu just because it's on live right now, sports from other countries, I can't even pronounce and stuff like that. That's, it's incredible. It's fun. And I will do the same thing with baseball. But the Diamondbacks have to figure out their TV deal. Ken Kendrick still seemed very cool and calm about it. Like he is getting plenty of offers and there's plenty of things going around for the Diamondbacks potentially. But I don't know. There's only 98 days left for them to figure it out between now and opening day. And I'm sure they would like a resolution prior to that.

But as of right now, the Diamondbacks website says in regards to where you'll be able to watch the games in 2024, we do not anticipate any changes to existing service providers for the 2024 season and we'll provide updates with potential additions prior to the start of the 2024 season. So it seems like everything will maintain as status quo or as it was this season. according to a story from ESPN today, things aren't great when it comes to television contracts and MLB teams. Yeah, this is, this was an interesting story from Alden Gonzalez over on ESPN that I think just dropped a few hours ago. Basically, there's a narrative out there, which I think is very much true, that some teams are not willing to spend this offseason because of the uncertainty with their TV deal moving forward.

And Alden spoke with a number of, you know, different sources over the course of the story. And it seems like some people have a concern that these issues are making the difference between the haves and the have-nots even greater than it was before, right? You have some teams that have these massive TV deals that are very secure. And then you have some teams that are, you know, we're not like the big market team in the first place that have a lot of uncertainty moving forward. And it's just, you know, those teams are the ones who are feeling the effects of this more than anyone else. So, yeah, I, and in a lot of ways, the diamond back to the team kind of bucking the trend here. Yeah. Like the diamond back to the team that does have some TV uncertainty moving forward, but actually is one of the top spenders.

The Kansas City Royals are another team like that. They've made a number of free agent signings, even though there's some uncertainty with them. I think they're currently slated to be with Bali in 2024 as a fair. right now. I feel like I feel like the royals have made the moves that were like every underlying low key move we wanted the diamondbacks to make. And I actually applaud what they're doing because I think you wanted hunter rent pro yes absolutely no no what I mean is is I mean that I feel like the royals are they're not spending a ton of money on one particular player but they are sure a lot of money around the league and they're acquiring themselves a lot of guys that we've said like the getting both Michael waka and

Seth Lugo, right? Like those are some pretty good moves, right? Yeah. And honestly, I think it improves their team quite a bit without those names being the big, big names that a lot of people, maybe outside of baseball fans know, but their numbers last season at least were really good. And they could definitely improve that team.

So I don't know, though. I think this proves in my mind, and I might be going too far with this, but that when Ken Kendrick says that the team really does reinvest the the money they make back into the team. When Kendrick says he doesn't really make a dime off of this team and any money they do make does go back to trying to improve it. I feel like we saw that this offseason, right?

Because it was a lot more money than we thought that they were going to spend. They did say they were going to spend a lot of money. It wasn't just lip service. They are the third biggest spender in free agency this off season. They've also made, you know, a savvy trade with the Mariners. They've done a couple of other things that continue to improve a team that made it all the way to the World Series last year. So it's interesting because, yeah, this story,

and I don't know if you said this part, but the high-ranking executive in baseball told ESPN Zaldine Gonzalez that these contract issues make the demarcation between the haves and the have-nots. Even greater, yeah. And like, that's the biggest problem right now, and that goes back to the Shohei Otani deal and the reason why people have an issue with the fact that they're not getting hit with the competitive

balance tax for the full amount that they're essentially paying the man is because that's that's a team that doesn't even need, you know, to maneuver around things. And they did, thus giving them that much more flexibility to improve their team, giving them that big of a greater, you know, advantage in the National League West, right? So like, it's not great. And I do applaud the Diamondbacks for even though their future being murky right now when it comes to the television deal that they're just plugging along trying to do everything they can to make this team as good as possible and win now while they have a very very talented valuable young core yeah and i think it's important to point out that like player agents and and uh people from the the players union do not buy into this uh the idea

that teams you know cannot spend money because of the uncertainty with these tv deals moving forward. I think there's a greater sense in the industry that this is a short-term problem, that there will be a greater solution and teams will be just fine in the long term here. And that 2024 is just going to be a little weird as teams try to navigate this. There's a lot of uncertainty with the Bali teams that I mentioned earlier. I think there's 11 teams that theoretically are still with Valley with Diamond Sports Group, I guess I should say, going into 2024. but yeah, there are people who are not buying into this.

You know, I think of the Seattle Mariners, the team that has TV uncertainty moving forward. They're just not, I mean, they've traded off a number of pieces, right, including Ehuenio Suarez to the Diamondbacks. That fan base is not at all happy with what is going on. Correct. And you can understand why. It very much seems like if you're the Mariners,

you just have to know that in the long term, you're going to be okay, even though there's some uncertainty right now. And you just need your ownership group to step up and kind of be willing to bridge the gap from, you know, the certainty that was once there to the certainty that, you know, will, will probably come within not all that much time. And there are a number of ownership groups that so far it appears have not been willing to do that. Well, it'll be fun to see how this plays out. And when I see fun, I mean, absolutely terrifying, especially for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But we should mention for the debacks.

They do have a lot of a lot of postseason money. Like that is a very big point of of distinction between like the debacks and a team like the Mariners, right? The debacks just made. We don't know exactly how much it is. It's probably north of $20 million just because they were in the postseason. So that is helping them. That is helping them a lot in this situation. We know how much money they had in share, player shares to give out to everybody.

And that was a lot of money. And that's nothing compared to the television revenue that the team's. split, especially the teams that made it all the way to the World Series. So good stuff for the Diamondbacks. And yeah, in regards to income, they're okay for right now. That's what's allowing them, I'm sure, to spend the way they are this offseason. Yeah. But if a TV deal isn't made in 2024 and this kind of stretches out to 2025, it could impact

the way that this team manages the roster going forward. But I will say a great way to manage your thirst, manage your manager day, is stop by, Circle K. get a great start there. Right now, they have a, gas prices are going up. Did you notice that gas prices already going up? It's still way better than it was. It still was way better than it was, but I'll give you two ways for you to combat,

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The Inner Circle app, get free snacks and free weekly entries for grand prizes. So do not miss out on that. Also, if you're looking to get a gift for the person that's hard to shop for, get them tickets to an event, a concert, or a show from our friends over at Game Time. Game Time is the place for last minute ticket deals, and it's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. Tickets make absolutely phenomenal holiday gifts. And of course, they can also be pretty cheap when you get them on Game Time. We'll help you make them even cheaper because if you snag the tickets without the stress right now at Game Time,

you can download the app, create an account, and use our code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account, redeem code P-H-N-N-X for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Get someone you love sons tickets so that they can, you know, be angered by the sons in real life. I don't know, besides just watching them on TV all the time. Before we go, we do want to give a shout out to a very, very special person. And of course, that is sexy red, because sexy red song, ski, which as many of you know is the official anthem of the Arizona Diamondbacks 2023 postseason run was named. They did have that.

That was a very prominent fixture. It was a fixture. It's a fixture of the time, the show now then and forever. Forever stuck in my head. Ski. It was named Rapsong of the year by Rolling Stone, which has infuriated a lot of people. But not us because we love you, sexy red. And we love Ski-E. So of course, that only makes that only puts the icing on the cake. That was 2023 for us. So that's a very exciting thing. And we want to give a shout out to our songstress, the one and only legend, sexy red, ski to you all. Remember, I can't get the video of Brent Strom, like waving his little like NL pennant flag with ski playing in the background. And then having sexy red quote tweet that. It'd be like,

let's go. Yes, that did happen. That absolutely did happen. All right. Well, we appreciate you guys. stopping by. We'll be back tomorrow where we are going to put our favorite Diamondbacks items from the 2023 postseason in a time capsule. Is Jesse Jr. going to make it in? Tune in to find out. It's going to be exciting to find out if we lose our snake forever. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next me is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, Father Overlord Jacob is on the ones and twos. You can follow him at Jacob underscore Franklin 4 because he is the fourth best Jacob Franklin. in known existence. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead

to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time today. We thank you for your time all the time, but especially for today. We appreciate you stopping by and remember kids. Baseball is more is fun, but it's more fun when you swerve that bends like a NASCAR ski.