Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Blake Snell signs 5-year $182 million deal with Los Angeles Dodgers

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Shop the hottest bats at the lowest prices this Black Friday and Cyber Monday and save up to 80% off with free shipping and free returns on every order: https://bit.ly/justbatsxtalkinbaseball Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code TALKIN Grab Your Mountain Dew today: https://lets.shop/2141/dothedew/ Use code TALKIN10 for 10% off tickets on SeatGeek. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN10 *Up to $25 off Watch Blitzball Battle 5 NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@WarehouseGames  Blake Snell signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers! Jake and Trevor talk about what the Dodgers rotation is going to look like in 2025, what he adds to the clubhouse, what this means for other free agent pitchers, other teams and what the heck is going on in Tampa Bay with Tropicana Field? 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 to Talking Baseball. Blake Snell Snell Silla signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Oh, boy. Let's talk. Oh, pick off. Run the hands up. Hello and welcome to Talkin Baseball. Presented to you by Seeky Code Talkin' 10.

Blake Snell signs with the Dodgers. Big Boy Contract, the Defending World Series champs, two-time, Young winner. What does it mean for them? What does it mean for Blake? What does it mean for the pitching market? What does it mean for the NL and the NL West? We're going to talk about it all. And it's all thanks to Seat Geek. Make sure you guys download the Seatgeek app today or any time over this little holiday. Maybe go see something. Get the family out. I think there's going to be some movie talk today. I don't know if that's Seat Geek's strength, but they have everything else. Concerts, events, sports, whatever has seats, and the geeks can tell you which way to go.

Code Talking 10 is going to save you 10% off at Seek. Download it now. Use it whenever you want. Talk in 10. Save yourself 10%. Trevor, Rob Seraco on the call today. Trev, this is kind of our guy. This is breaking news.

How you doing? I'm doing great. I mean, kind of a shock last night to hear this. But definitely it makes a lot of sense. You know, when you really break it down, Blake Snell, you know, a young father, got a young family from the West Coast. You figured that was going to be factored into the equation.

But again, for agency, you know, a lot of things can happen. But I think it's, I don't want to use the word brilliant of the Dodgers to throw six years 182 million dollars and call it. Or five years, $102 million and call that brilliant. but to go after a guy early to give him what he wants to get the job done, I think, and we'll get into it a little more about why I think why they did that, but it's exactly what I said needed to happen. If you're a team that needs something, go get it now, and they did that with Blake's I. Well, I'm going to talk about where I am in the world. You know, let's get some of the

Snell stuff down. I'm in upstate New York right now with the wife's family getting Thanksgiving going. Last night it breaks out. I get the news. Well, A, this is how much of a baseball loser I truly am. I'm on Instagram and I just see Snell posting from his personal account him in a Photoshop Dodgers outfit, which again, knowing Snell, so this is 100% true. I click on Snell's Instagram because I'm like knowing Snell and he's kind of a silly guy, I'm wondering if he just posted like eight different teams because we also had the Juan Soto like fake announcement. So I'm like, oh, Snell probably posted like eight teams that he's talking to and he's just messing with people on social media. I open it and it's only Dodgers. And I'm like, okay, that. Blake Snell wouldn't

just do that. So he signs with the Dodgers five years 182, like you said. I think the other thing that that I think is an important note, and maybe I should have saved it, but, you know, the big Boris free agents and that crazy free agency, with his one year last year, Snell ends up getting a sick,

if you combine them, six years, 214. Now, that 214, yeah, not bad, right? That 214 gets a little tricky

with signing bonus and deferred money. That's right. We're back in the deferred money game. I guess, before we do all that, what do we even need to do with the Dodgers? Like, it's Snell kind of slots in as their one. I don't know if he's their one. I mean, he's one C, one B, one A.

They have a bunch of ones on this team. There is actually so much to break down in all of this. You know, the structure of the contract people are going crazy about because there is, we don't know the exact amount, but there is deferred money. They're saying $52 to $60 million in a signing bonus. I haven't really got the specific number on that. Plus there's deferred money.

And that's causing people to say, this is cheating. And it's like, no, well, any team can do this. You've got to be able to convince guys to do it because whenever you defer money, it's worth less to you when you get it. We had that talk before the show. Yes, economics. I had to straighten you out a little bit, but yes, we got there. You did, didn't you?

So the Dodgers are, they're all in, man. I think that's the biggest thing here is they, for a couple of reasons, I think they have the ability, for a lot of reasons, they have the ability to be all in. Number one, yes, they have a TV deal that not many other teams have. Around the league teams are struggling with that right now. The Dodgers are not. You know, they have a significant TV package that allows them to do that.

Their ownership comes in. The wealth is spread around. there's, they have money to spend, but a lot of owners have money to spend. But I think the thing that they've tapped into is they convince Shohei to come here and convince them to defer the money. They've created so much new cash flow with the Shoah brand. Like they spent money to make money. And now they're able to kind of spread it around the team.

Oh yeah, winning the World Series helps with being able to. pay. So they're saying, hey, they had the, I don't know if I want to call it the foresight, but like they had the balls, man, to go give out this $700 million deal. Yeah, defer the money, push it down the road. But understanding that once they sign Shohei, like they were going to cash in on that, whether it's sponsorship deals, whether it's stuff like winning the World Series. And now they're, they're saying, let's do it again. Let's just continue to do this. Jake, I don't think they're I don't think they're done spending

this off season and we talked about this a little before this this Snell contract present day value will bring them into the last tax threshold so anyone they sign they're paying 110% tax

on them meaning if they sign a guy for three years 75 they're really signing him to three years like $160, $170 million. That's what they're going to have to pay on as far as the tax for tax purposes. Crazy. The rest of the Dodgers offseason is going to be very interesting.

And the tweet that actually shook me to my core was our guy Max Manus being like, wait, is Rokey still going to go there? Which I think we can get there in a little bit because that's again an elite starting. That would be starting pitcher number one E for them. like if that were to happen. But first with Snell, A, he gets the fullback. I know we did a little bit of that, but like this guy earned it, man. I was getting pretty frustrated the past couple years because he walks guys.

And it's like, well, if he does everything else great, do I really care? And I don't. And seeing that the Dodgers, like kind of the most respected team in the sport right now, they just won the World Series, they're doing everything that we wish are. teams would be doing. The fact that they went out and got Snell, like if Snell signed with Anaheim, let's be honest, we would have done like, I don't know, Anaheim, they got to figure their stuff out. He signs with the Dodgers and I think every other team got a pit in their stomach like, oh wait, they just signed one of the most talented, if not the most talented, left-handed

starting pitcher in the game. Who, the other thing that I try to hit over the head, because in baseball, there's numbers all over the place. Whatever ball player you are, Trev, you probably had some great aprils. You probably had bad Aprils. You probably had good Septembers. You had bad Septembers. Blake Snell has got better every second half of every season he's pitched in.

Every one. And what do the Dodgers care about? The second half of the, the third half of the season. So it's a perfect, I'm glad Blake got the bag. I'm glad the Dodgers get one of the. best pitchers in the game. And I'm glad the Dodgers are setting the tone of, okay, you won the World Series. They could have kind of sat on their hands. We knew they weren't, but they could have and had a really damn good team next year, the favorite to win the West. Instead, they signed Blake

Snell and I don't think they're done. What's funny about Blake Snell is, and we've championed this guy. You know, we understand, you know, just what he can do on the hill. I think baseball, especially nowadays, you know, they tend to look at stats differently. Like, you know, let's different guys get to a certain place that you need them to get to in different ways.

I was just, I actually just started the Red Sox Netflix thing last night. I took a gummy and started watching that. That was fun. That brings me back to Fort Myers when I used to see Johnny Damon and run the round. Yeah. So, you know,

in that they're talking about, hey, like there's all these undervalued guys. You know, he may not have all these tools, but he gets on base. Like, people are so focused on one stat that Blake's now, you know, does poorly in,

his walk rate. But guess what? He has the most strikeouts per nine of any pitcher in major league history. So, like, how did everyone miss this last year? Was it the qualifying offer? Like,

is that what scared people off? Like, I don't, I don't know. but it seems to me like these front offices who now analyze the data and think differently they screwed this one up dude like why were they so scared of the walk rate

when the strikeout rate was so good I remember Blake's now talking about that I don't know where it was because like it seems to work like the numbers work like yeah I might do it a little bit differently than everybody else but I get the job done and then another thing to the Dodgers I think had the foresight on is they want to give this guy a regular offseason, dude.

They want to give him a full spring training. Last year didn't have a full spring training. I remember talking to him, you know, one of his first starts with the Giants. He was down in L.A. I went and saw him. And he was like, dude, like I never got to face major league hitters before pitching in the big leagues. I faced college guys. I faced minor league guys. He's like, let me tell you some of these minor league guys, like they don't have approaches anymore. He goes, the big leagues are the big leagues, man.

Like you need to be able to face big league hitters to get ready for the season. He didn't have that last year. So he struggled and had some injuries early on. Second half after getting acclimated, getting his arm back in shape, he dominated. So I think that's a major reason why the Dodgers were like, let's go get this guy now, let him get his family set up. And, dude, they're... He's going to pitch so well for the next year. He's going to, he fits perfectly in that clubhouse.

Perfectly. Like, perfectly. And it, so, you know, my, my analytics department kicking in again, the more star players you have, the better. But where I was going to get to that was like, just the pressures differently. Like the Baltimore Orioles, Red Sox and Yankees were rumored to be in on Snell. I've wanted him to the Orioles since going back to last year. I was like, wait, they got that massive left field. You had him in the trade, the trade draft or the free agent draft.

I just thought he would be the one because we talked everything we just said about teams finding like guys being slightly undervalued. Snell's being slightly, maybe significantly undervalued because of the walk thing that I thought the Orioles would be like, yep, here's our guy. We can get him for cheaper than Burns and we might get a better output. That doesn't happen. He goes to the Dodgers where, hey, if he's, on the Orioles and he's your one and you know he has a couple of those tough walk games early and whatever on the Dodgers

they're gonna shrug hey bounce that slider until people start swinging over it because they have every year you know what we all need more of getting off our ass with bold flavors and a refreshing citrus kick

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Grab your friends, grab an ice cold Mountain Dew, wherever refreshing beverages are sold, and go do the do. Click the link in the description. If you don't know where to find Mountain Dew, come on, come on everyone. But click the link. Thank you, Mountain Dew. And yeah, I mean, for the Dodgers, if they get Roki, which again, I'm interested to see how that sorts out because it's just a wild card of the offseason. and we don't money matters and doesn't matter it's kind of where does he want to land the dodgers have a full rotation now um but a very full rotation dude they have a very full rotation but like you know

show hay's coming off injury and they've got to be careful with them they have a few guys coming off injury um but snell yamamoto glass no otani gonsolin may um and that's before you get to the bobby millers Landon Nax that what do you think they're gonna do I know that's did he he got a

Tommy John I believe okay okay um they and yeah I mean they have another through of Emmett she and Gavin Sone like they have layers to their pitching staff

do you think they're gonna bring in another arm I wouldn't put it past them because I do believe Rose and I talked about this a little bit last night I think that they they are ahead of people in the way they're thinking about pitching around the league.

Injuries are up or you can kind of just like, you can just, you understand people are going to get hurt, dude. Like the days of guys throwing 200 innings are pretty much over. So you have to adjust your view. You can't just have, hey, let's get five work horses out there. It doesn't work that way. You know, they're willing to take chances on guys who have elite stuff and said, give us 130 this year and we'll have enough to get by.

Like they are thinking that way as opposed to just trying to hold on to this notion that starting pitchers can give you 200 innings apiece. They just can't. It just doesn't work that way anymore. The way guys are training, the way they're throwing, you know, how hard they're the velocity is. It just hasn't allowed them.

So I think the Dodgers have seen this. And they've been doing this for a while now where they have a bunch of guys lined up, understand that they need depth to get through the season. and then whatever is available to them at the postseason, here we go. Let's get it done. I do think that they want to do a six-man rotation next year.

I've been hearing rumblings about that a little bit with Shohei. So right now you can name him Yamamoto, Shohei, Snell, Glass Now, Gonsolin, Bobby Miller. Dustin May. Is he back back for spring training? I think he should be. I'm not sure. So it would not surprise me,

especially if Roki comes over on, you know, the pre-ar deal. But maybe he's like business savvy and he's like, no, I don't want deferred money Dodgers. Let me get mine all up front. And hey, maybe this is the Dodgers one minor punishment is if you're Roki Sasaki coming over, you're like, no, I want to go to the Padres

and be there to starter. But do you? That's the thing. Also, I think what's so attractive about the Dodgers is right now, that if Snell was to go to the Red Sox or the Birds or the Yankees, maybe not the Yankees, but maybe the Yankees, like he's meant to be the peace to get them to the promised land. Snell goes to the Dodgers, he's just got to be himself. He doesn't have to work. There's no pressure on snow. Or, I mean, very minimal pressure for that type of contract.

He just goes there and he's just a piece of the puzzle. man, and I don't think that's true for every organization. Like, this is, L.A. is, they have the leg up on pretty much every single team right now to sign guys because of, I think that's a big reason of it, man. Like, hey, dude, like, first of all, you get to go play with Shohay Otani. I think that's a draw, dude.

Like, what we're going to probably consider the greatest player of all time. Plus, you're going to have a chance to win a championship every freaking single year. The perks to come with playing in L.A., it's they're running circles around people right now. Hey, we're going to pay you up front and on the back end, I guess.

I still, I'm not great with it. I did. There was a tweet that got me that said, Snell's signing bonus would be the third largest contract, the guardians have given out. Think about that. Like,

we're kind of not playing in the fairest pool right now. I'm not complaining. I mean, my Yankees are the one that blew this. They used to do that. They were the only team. That's how they became the hated Yankees. That I have some jealousy.

And your team should too. The TV thing is going to become, I mean, increasingly interesting over the next couple of years. I mean, today's probably not the day for us to dive into it. But with the regional networks and some of the rumblings we heard from MLB, like that that's going to be interesting to see in upcoming CBAs and how teams work. For the Dodgers right now, it's a dream. And I don't know. I guess I'm going to be interested. If you're a starting pitcher, you, I mean, who do you're kicking, I guess you can kick

Gonsland out of the rotation and you can say, hey, May, like, when we need you, we need you. It's an embarrassment of riches and they're not done. And hopefully the biggest learning for me from around the league, the best way to make money as a pro sports team. This is my new thesis project. This is great. The best way to make money

as a pro sports team, win. Yeah. Dude, you think the Kansas City Chiefs are doing bad in their financials? You think the Golden State Warriors used to be like one of the lowest five, three NBA teams, and then they became a dynasty.

There's some Bay Area stuff. You can't use that for Kansas City. like winning does it the money will find you if you win god dude the Dodgers they've run the West for 30 years and they're going to do it for another 30 I don't know you kind of just took a little side shot at the my Minnesota peeps the Timberwolves had two draft picks wrapped around Steph Curry there's always those shirts bro it's like Ricky

Rubio and somebody else step three right in the middle Yeah, a guy from Syracuse, Johnny Flynn, I think. It's tough. No, I agree. I agree with you. Yeah, win. So like that, but a lot of it has nothing to do with money when it comes to that stuff. Like, you've got to be better at developing players and drafting and scouting.

And the Dodgers are that. And they're a model organization for a lot of different things. Every guy we talk to who's played for them in multiple organizations will tell you that. So, like, they really have kind of figured out. You know who was kind of at the forefront of changing a lot of stuff they did in the minor leagues? My guy, Gabe Kapler. Wow. He was.

I know. He was. He's not going to get credit for that. But he started the nutritional stuff in the minor leagues. He started, like, you know, helping out with the player development and hirings there. And they've just absolutely ran with it, man. The Dodgers are there's something else, Jake. Here's my thought on the money thing.

too. First of all, the share revenue is there. Your team is making money, okay? Like from the Dodgers deals, the big, the yes network and all these, like, they're sharing this revenue with your team. If your team's not spending money, they should be. But if they can't, and this business is not for them, you know what they could do at any moment? Sell the team.

Sure. At any moment. They can sell the team and make massive profits. on it. And there's no shortage right now. There's no shortage of people that want to be in the pro sports business. People have big all pocketbooks. So

I just can't get behind them, man. If you can't keep up with the Joneses, don't keep up with the Joneses. Get out the game. Take your check and allow somebody to come in and like kind of treat this the way that it should be treated. Beautiful, Trev.

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There's a link in the description. Thank you, JustBats. it over to the general free agent market and the other teams because the other news that your team needs to know for this free agency, Snell was projected for less than this. I mean, we talked about it how, again, if a good team signed Snell, we would have been like, yep, hole in the market, they figured it out. Bad team signed Snell, we would have been like, ooh, they're going to take that risk, which is a dumb angle on our end. But the projection and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus

because it's where projections are a brutal ass because if one team is in or if you're doing signing bonuses and deferred money, things get crazy. But Snell was projected to get four years 120. So maybe the years is the more important thing. Snell gets five years. He's 32 years old.

That Corbyn Burns is 30. Somehow he's younger than Max Fried, which that's just such a beard effect kicking in. Corbyn Burns is younger than freed? Yeah, Max is a baby face. I mean, Max has a super baby face, and Burns has like the brawny man. Like, I'm going to chop down your trees face.

Hey, for this starting pitching class and market, this is good news for the players. Yeah, I think the Dodgers were willing to go maybe an extra year that other teams weren't. The current day value we said was, what, 160? So five years 160 current day? That's not too far off from that. from that projection.

But yeah, I mean, that's the thing. If you look around the league and you're talking about teams that missed out on snow, there's still a plethora of, you know, frontline starters available to you. So, you know, it's, I think it's great that the Dodgers did this early. I think it does put a little bit of panic in teams mind saying, shoot, do we need to go do that? And I think they should because you want to give guys a full. spring training, especially pitchers. I think that is a huge thing. But, you know, the teams that really

are looking at starting pitchers and really in on guys like the Red Sox and the Phillies and maybe even your Yanks, like, there's still guys out there. Like, like I said, frontline starters that are there. So this is the first, you know, big guy to go. And maybe it'll cause everything to happen quickly now. But, you know, Rose asked me last night. Like, do you think other teams should be worried? Like, are, are they, have they hit the panic button? I don't think so.

I don't. Yeah. Yeah, there's still guys available to them. I, I'm interested to see, man, in the Snell example, I, I loved what you said, because sometimes we overanalyze everything. But it seems like almost every pitcher who signs kind of late struggles for a little bit period of time, whether that's, you know, snow, whether that, you know, and it could be injury. Jordan Montgomery.

Jordan Montgomery, who's on the trade block and available. That's where I was going. That I think there's a team that sees this contract and is like, oh, boy, like, hey, maybe we need to go back to the Jordan Montgomery drawing board, because to give out those five or six years at that kind of number, I can get Monty for one year, and he might have just had no spring training. Like, that could have been the fix. that I think that's good news for the Monty market.

And maybe the bigger update, and maybe this is where we're in full offseason mode, just looking for any cheese to chew on. But my Yankees were involved, okay. The Orioles were involved, that we've been wondering what their offseason was going to look like. And the Boston Red Sox, who it feels like,

it felt like for three years, Red Sox fans were craving. for any rumor about free agents. And now it feels like we're finally at the free agency where they're rumored to be in on everyone. They're given follow-up bids to Soto. They're on on Snell. It seems like the Boston Red Sox are going to walk away

with the big player of this free agency. They're my favorite team to watch this offseason because I think they have so many different avenues to go out in the choir players. They have the ability to go out and sign one of these big free agents. They have the talent pool in the minor league system and at the big league level to go out and trade for

significant packages. So I just, and they need to. I mean, 81 and 81 last year. They're looking up the Orioles passed him in the division. The Rays are always doing what they do in the Yankees or what we're in the world series. So I think, you know, they're saying we need to take the next step. And they had such an interesting season too, Jake, last year,

where it was pitching dominant first half and then their offense just absolutely exploded. So they have some work to do. Even the devers, like rumors about him moving positions has got me so intrigued about what that means for them. So yeah, they'll be in the thick of it. I believe this is the Yop season where things actually do come to fruition for them and whoever they're trying to acquire. Max Fried feels like a red sock to me. Stop that.

It does. He does. You stop that. Hey, this is kind of rude because he's your friend. If Max Fried gets offered this contract to the Dodgers in L.A., does he? I don't know. I honestly don't know what he's asking for maybe more years. I think he would ask for one to two more years.

I mean, are the teams give out seven-year deals to pitchers anymore? Like, they really try not to. Right. Does he take five years 182, a little bit of deferred massive signing bonus? I would say no. I think he's looking in the twos, but to pitch at home means something. I don't know, man. We're going to find out.

It's going to be something interesting to look back in a few weeks or a month or whenever it happens because, you know, L.A. guy, really good pitcher. probably not the high end of Snell but also without the low end of Snell at all. Yeah, much more consistent. You just wonder, and that's what we're going to see the rest of this free agency.

You mentioned the Red Sox trying to, you know, the Yanks go to the World Series this year. They finish 500 again, blah, blah, blah. Going back to the NOS for a second, what do you do if you're the Giants and the Padres and my snakes? and my rocks are really trying to figure stuff out. I know they signed Kyle Farmer,

but what do you do? Dude, you see this forming in front of your eyes. Here's the thing. Last year, it's like the Dodgers ran away with the World Series. I mean, they were challenged at every single step, except, I mean, maybe accept the World Series? Nice. Thank you. Sorry?

I don't know. Thank you. Like, so the Padres aren't too far behind. yes, adding Blake Snell means something. Getting Shohayotani back in the rotation means something, but if you hear the Dodgers talk, all they ever say about these postseason was, man, like, that was

those guys are our biggest competitor in the league right now. So I don't think that Adres are that far off. I think that they have a team that could still come and beat the Dodgers in a playoff scenario. I truly believe that. The Giants, I do not

know what the heck you do. I really don't, man, because you've signed some people. You have a pretty big marketplace there. You can spend some money, but I think it is really hard to attract a free agent hitter to go there. It's just not an easy place to hit.

Pitchers want to go there for sure. But how much do you have to do, to get back on this level? It's a lot, Jake. It's going to take a lot for them. And then the rocks and the snakes, rocks are you know rocks are rocking right now um so we can't really expect much out of them snakes in the world series two years ago i don't know what you do you're you're my snakes guy just

it seems like it's a fool's errand or you're playing for a wild card right yeah i guess i guess i guess the glaf half full attitude would be hey there's a bunch of wild card spots now like 25 years ago, we would be screwed. Where now you have some hope. And it is getting into the dance and having your top three lined up and having your lineup depth and having a couple guys go nuts. Yeah, I guess that's a positive spin for me. Like, hey, you can still go dancing. Make your team good.

They won 89 games last year. Yeah. Like, no. I just the Dodgers man There's something to it There's there's something to LA There's something to those uniforms There's something to them having

Think about the sports debate world we live on If we needed an episode of talking baseball We know how good was Derek Jeter We could crank that off And you'll tell me how he's the worst defensive shortstop ever And I'll say no and well whatever Show Hey Otani Best baseball player ever

Everyone's just like, yeah, I mean, like he pitches and he hits. Nobody does that. He's also the fastest guy. Like, he's on that team with Freddie, with Mookie, with everyone. That, yeah, man, it's the NL's going to run through there for a few years. And they just, if you believe in World Series and Playoff Experience, they just fully got the monkey off their back. Like they, no, no 20, no short in season, no COVID. Like this, yeah, we just did it.

And it was the first year we signed the best baseball player ever. The NL that runs through L.A. Until the deferred money's done. Getting some holiday shopping done this weekend, sure. Why don't you pick up some touchdowns? They're on sale at the Draft King Sportsbook. Draft Kings has door buster profit boosts and bet one get one promotions on all types of touchdown bets.

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Currently, yeah. You don't consider like the Phillies, are they close? Are they the next up? Man, I don't know. No one in the AL screamed super team to me. Like not one fucking team. No, I mean, the Yankees are a step or two away. Like, if they signed Soto.

Yeah, they better bring Soto back. They don't bring Soto back. They are not. Judge Soto, Cole, Stanton. And like you have five guys there that are of their generation a certain ilk, but you need more, but never. It's never been about the numbers for me. You started with your thumb? But I don't know, man.

I'm all out of sorts. Let's do this now because I know you're interested and I wanted the people to get into the show. I'm in a bad setup right now. I'm at an Airbnb in a town called Cornwall on Hudson, which. Eddie. Feels like we're missing. I'm going to put the edge. I mean, people might, it's not a big town. And I am sitting in the chair that invented back pain. Like, this thing is great.

You look like you're in the attic. Yeah, I mean, they definitely redid it and they did a great job. But this is just between Wi-Fi, this chair, the lighting. We're holiday season grinding, man. We are grinding. Which brings us to the Thanksgiving draft. No. I'll save that for Christmas

But what else do we need Between this current free agency, Snell, the NOS, Is there anything else? Because I do want to talk about this TROP stuff a little bit Because it's kind of been blowing my mind. I hope we're not on a waiting game.

You know, the holidays are officially here, starting tomorrow. I think this is a great sign. Do you think so? Yes. I hope so. I think once

once it's cracked, it doesn't get sealed up again. I do think the Juan Soto stuff is really holding some teams back. I don't think the Dodgers were ever really in on Juan Soto, even though people are still saying. They had money for Snell. They had money for Snell. Yeah, but that's not one.

Juan Soto wants, you know, 15 freaking years, dude. Okay. I don't think they were ever really in on him. Maybe, I mean, prove me wrong. Do you think the Dodgers are in on? Tay Oscar still. I do. Okay.

So he's going to be 20 mil. So that's between him and Snow, that's 50 a year. You're like, I think they're real for Soto, and that's horrifying. No, well, I think that they decided that they'd rather go get, how we talked about it, do you want two players or do you want one Soto? I think they decided, hey, man, like, we don't, we already have kind of like, we need some starting pitching depth, we can bring to Oscar, but I think they made that decision. that's what I think.

If it did get dropped, if Soto signs for 600 mil and there's deferred money and a signing bonus and it's the Dodgers, will you then give some merit to the crowd that's like, hey, this is not fair. I think I would. I think that will push me over.

Would it you? Yeah, I think I would. Would I root against the Dodgers at that point? I don't know, man. Like, I kind of root for them now. Like, they're doing everything the right way. So that's kind of how I think about these things. Is your organization doing things the right way? Are your children Dodger fans?

No, no. My daughter is. My daughter's an L.A. fan. So she likes the Rams and she likes Freddie Freeman. She has a bobblehead of Freddie Freeman in her room. Okay. And Teddy's like the antagonist. He doesn't really want to root for the Rams,

which sometimes gets some trouble in our circle. He keeps saying one of his friends' dads played for the C-Hen I'm like, no, he didn't. I think that kid lied to you like two years ago and you just been running with it. But then he's like, I like the twins. I'm like, all right. That's cool. Okay.

That's nice, Trev. That's nice. It's nice. But like, I'm like, hey, we can go to Dodger games and have fun. He's just not interested. So, like, I think for him, it's the Padres because he plays on the SoCal Padres and on the Twins because I play it for him. Twins could have used this now.

Ila's yeah go twins Ila's a little smarter she's like I'll root for LA's yeah LAVine seems fine I like what they're doing Trev let's hey we'll see if we get more more news or if this starts rolling the Roki element I still can't process through my head but that's not going to be till January

if the doctors get Willie Adomas are you mad I'm I'm not mad I'm jealous I'm jealous this is they would be following the playbook that a team i like used to run out there and i grew up thinking that was normal turns out uh it's a new normal so um i don't know i i think this is going to be good for the off season and maybe that's dumb but i think once once the dominoes start to fall you again like i think some teams saw this contract and are like oh crap we we can't get max freed we should go get monte like i

think this starts a lot of conversations. Trev, let's send everyone into Thanksgiving talking about your Tampa Bay Rays. Again, another team you played for. I didn't hear you mentioning your children becoming fans of them. And maybe I don't know how to be fans of them because we currently the roof blew off with Hurricane Milton, which, hey, we're just sad about and it's messed up and it's, I was like scary and stuff. Okay. They agreed to fix the roof and then they, reversed it. So the rays are planning on playing it George Mstineburner Field. Now

they're saying they're never going to fix the roof because why if the rays don't extend their lease or get a new stadium? Trev, this is just entered, you know, we originally were the number one labor pot in the world. This isn't

labor. What would you call this? This is it's a shit show is what it is. I mean, look, the trope is the trough really not meant to be a baseball field people have their

people feel very strongly about the trop especially players that go in there some some actually like it a lot and but most people just absolutely hate it this is it's crazy because I think Tampa does

they should have a team like it's a it's a city that's growing at a rapid pace like it's Orda's you know there's a lot of baseball players that come out of Florida, so it's still a big deal down there. They support a couple pro teams well between the hockey franchise and the football team. Like they, yes.

In Tampa. Yes. That's the biggest thing. So they had a stadium deal set, and I thought it was a done deal in Tampa. I guess none of these stadium deals are ever done. Are the A's going to Vegas? I don't know. Who knows?

That's the crazy thing here. Is that all this happened at one time, Hurricane, is it, Milton came in, Rips the roof off. Okay. That's not going to be ready. That's the first news we got. It's not going to be ready by 2025.

So they have to find a new place to play. Okay. Enter Yankees spring training facility. That's already crazy enough. Look, I've been to the Yankee spring training facility many, many times. It's all right. It's a nice spring training facility. But we're talking about having a big league club do this.

It's very reminiscent of COVID times in Toronto playing in Buffalo. So they'll have to do that. The problem is, amongst many of them, I guess the first problem is you can't really play your games during the summer in Florida with an open roof because it rains every down. Now, all these fields drain incredibly well. I played in the Florida State League where this would happen. Our BP would get rained out pretty much every single day from June through August.

And it would be like a flood. and you'd be like, there's no way we're playing. The entire dugout will be full of water, Jake. And then it'll be ready by game time. Like, these fields drain well. But I guess that's not good for fans and you want to be able to hit BP and all these things. So they've started now to trade home series with teams

and basically get them out of Florida during the summer. So like, for instance, they traded the twins got, all of a sudden now have a Fourth of July set when they didn't have that before at home and they gave the raise like a set in April, which makes a ton of sense if you're really asking me. I don't want to play Minnesota in April either. Give me the Fourth of July in Minnesota.

It's the most beautiful place in the world during the summer. So that's part of it. You know, they're trading the schedule, which is absolutely nuts when you really think about it. And then what happened? Jake, the county votes and says, actually we don't really want to fix the roof because you guys are planning to leave anyway in a couple years and it's going to cost us X amount of money and we don't want to do that.

So that happens. And then the stadium deal all of a sudden becomes in flux for why? Why did that happen? Do you know why that happened? The new stadium is not going to happen anymore because why? Because they never do because a team actually wants to relocate. I don't know. It's a freaking mess.

It never does until you see the image of people in suits wearing hard hats with the ribbon, and they dig that first dig. It doesn't count until then. And man, I, you know, I'm, well, I was going to say I'm not a, you know, the world is operated by a crew of a few people, Illuminati stuff. But the baseball Illuminati, it feels like, okay, if you're the people running the league, league and you've got two teams now that are homeless, two franchises that have been rumored to be moving, it feels like there's bigger things in play, right?

Like, whether it's Vegas, whether it's Nashville, whether, like, I don't know. I guess in my head, man, this is fight or flight for Tampa. We've done this for how long now. And it's either, hey, you guys get that stadium, get me the image of everyone digging, literally blow up the trap or they're gone and I like Trev some of these notes

we have the fact we're talking about this on a baseball show is nuts dude it is crazy and the thing is it's not about getting a new stadium necessarily it's about moving them to Tampa like getting right it's very hard to get to St. Pete dude like put him where the people

are that's business one okay okay here's okay so here's the I asked why the new stadium is not happening anymore or rumored to not be happening anymore. Local officials postpone the approval of bonds that would finance the development plan

the raise and Pinellas County had previously agreed upon that would construct a new stadium near the trop in time for the 2028 season because of the hurricane and moving to Steinbrenfield for 2025. That doesn't make any sense. Hmm.

And why doesn't majorly baseball step in and says, hey, we'll throw you the 30 mil, you need to fix your stadium so we can actually like look like a not a circus down there. $30 million to majorly baseball is nothing. For one of their team. Pay us back. Pay us back eventually. Pay it deferred money.

I don't know. Yeah. Let's get you on that deferred money plan. It does. It does seem shady. All of a sudden we want, but the thing is they want relocation for these two teams, but they also want expansion for two more teams. Right.

We're like running out of places. You can't like four different new locations. Can you do that? No. And that's where I, if you're a Tampa fan, I don't want you to listen to this and being, it feels like there's still a Tampa solution. It feels like the new stadium,

we saw a rendition that seemed like it got actually approved. If they start digging on that, the race, I think you can actually be like, yes, they're going to be, everything you said about the city makes sense. It's not like a dying city or anything. No. It's like location wise it makes it. Well, the stadium's location, not so much, but that's what we're working on. That like, it's, if they don't have this figured out, like, I'll give you one season. Like we, you know, between, like we did with COVID and the J's had to jump around and there were some international stuff. And it's like, okay, like, whatever.

Like sometimes that's life. If they don't have this figured out by the end of next year, the race are out of Tampa. Like, it, this is ridiculous. They shouldn't be. They shouldn't be. I agree with that. I agree with that. How many teams is Florida have if they leave?

It's only two teams, right? I don't want to like mess that up. It's the Orlando Magic, the Orlando Dreamers. Florida seems like they should have two teams, not one. The other leagues seem to make it work. I don't know, man. How are baseball's two Florida teams neglected? I don't know.

I guess football's like half been that way until Brady came through Tampa. Maybe Rokey to Tampa and that's their Brady? I don't know. We just don't know. That's a good point, Jake. Who the hell is going to sign with a Tampa Bay raise when they're like, hey, we don't even know where we're playing. It's the same with the A's. None of, you can't, if you're a free agent, you can't, you, those are gone.

Boom, boom, boom. see you later unless you're desperate like I was who wants to sign there and remember the raise have been like they tried to sign they try to trade for Juan Soto they said they talk to Soto yeah they're trying to do

there's no chance anyone that has any big league time would go to Tampa right now again unless you're desperate man I hadn't really thought about that just because Oakland has been the example but Oakland also has been like full rebuild like maybe one veteran ends up there

and it's a guy we're like yeah okay they're there about it otherwise it's a group of kids the raise should be contending next year they've gotten a full rotation back they've got dudes in their lineup oh my god like dude imagine trev peak Trevor ploof those a beautiful summer in Minnesota like you said 2014 Hey Trev The Tampa Bay

Ray's are trading for you I know Yeah they don't have a stadium You're actually gonna You're actually gonna be on the road all summer That's the thing too That's not fair to these guys man Like they have families

All of a sudden hey you're gonna be on the road For Don't we have that on our notes How many games are playing In the summertime on the road The Dalton send that on our chat I saw it somewhere man See. Okay, so some of the race schedule stuff. The raise will play 47 of their first 59 games at home.

That's pretty crazy. That's actually, what if they get off to an undefeated April again? Okay. Mike, dude. And then it's currently- But not at home, by the way, not at home. At home, not at home. At a single-A baseball stadium. Then 69 of their final 103 on the road. So- That's a lot, dude. That's a lot of hotels and, oh, man, like no home cooked meals, all that stuff. Jeez. That's a, to kind of bookend this with where the Dodgers are currently and where the

rays are currently at, man, that's insane. They need to make a state, need a state intention for their stadium by Sunday. So we're going to get some clarification on what's going on. we won't maybe that's just some fancy jargon and they'll say like yeah we intend to do this uh but they're saying by they have to declare whether they want to commit to construction of the stadium they have originally

voted on in july by sunday so we're going to get some clarification though in theory we come back from thanksgiving we're supposed to know if the raise have a home in tampa for the next 25 years Yes. We have informed the county administrator and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch

the county's failure to finalize the bonds last month ended the ability for a 2028 delivery of the ballpark. As we have made clear at every step of this process, a 29 ballpark delivery would result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone.

What? What's happened? happening in 2020. Trev. It always was a political pod. I want to wish you and your family happy Thanksgiving and everyone's

family happy Thanksgiving because I almost just swore. I almost just cussed. And there's just no need for that. There is for this maybe. Gobble, gobble, everyone. Be safe.

It sounds like Nashville's going to get a team. That's your city. Where? Nashville. Yeah. And dude, think about it. The people at MLB. Hey, where should we put our next team?

How about Nashville? Nashville Rays. Nashville. Nashville. Loofs.