I’m not upset with Tucker. But, it sucks for the sport when a couple of teams have an unlimited budget. MLB needs a hard cap to level the playing field.
This is going to kill the middle class. Guys like Jake Meyers and Steven Okert who are in the middle tier of MLB players will not be able to get FA contracts. There will be top 10% superstars making $50+M per year and a bunch of pre-arb and early year arbitration players. Once a non-star hits 2nd or 3rd yr arbitration and projects for over $5M per they will be non-tendered in favor of minimum salary guys so teams can afford stars
I don’t think the modern day Billionaires have been brought up on baseball. Most don’t even give a crap about sports, much less baseball.
The Astros picked their direction years ago. The Dodgers picked theirs. It’s that simple. And the results were predictable.
We? Astros not winning it all the next 10 years? It appears to me we are gonna rock n roll and curb stomp our opponents with all the players we are putting together. Hunter Brown and Yordan and the Japanese pitcher will open up massive Japanese markets for us? Send me some shreds of excitement to be, C Crew. Please!
Nah, I don’t think this is true. Other teams aren’t handing out deals like the Dodgers just did outside of maybe the Mets. Jorge Polanco just got paid $22M a year.
Was never a big fan of Tucker. Superstar-caliber talent, but came across lackadaisical a bit too often for my liking. Seems like many Cubs fans got the same sentiment with him last season as he got booed in some of their games at Wrigley. I got the impression several years ago that he was just biding his time for his big payday. The Dodgers are Evil Empire 2.0 now. And this whole exorbitant salary mess in MLB seems unsustainable long term. A lockout in 2027 now appears more likely to occur.
MLB is just notoriously bad at allowing a long developing problem to get out of control before even acknowledging it and then over-correcting...PEDs, sign stealing with tech...outrageous payroll discrepancies have been a problem for decades, but now it's elevated to more than just outspending everyone else, the Dodgers are outspending by buying players ON CREDIT. Shut the league down, I really don't give a f*** anymore.
Perfect exampke! I don't see that deal happening in the future. Let's turn this into an Astros hypothetical. Astros want to extend Jeremy Pena He's willing but it is now $300M instead of $200M because of the Tucker deal (and others) In order to recoup some of that expense, they trade away Isaac Paredes and Jake Meyers for prospects to save $13M this year and replace them with Shay Whitcomb and Brice Matthews on the 26 man roster. Then 1 year later Meyers is up for arbitration at about $5.5M but his new team has a 27 yr old who has been good in AAA for 3 years in a row so they non-tender Jake, bring that guy up so they have an extra $5M that is needed towards the $75M per year Skubal is commanding
I never want to hear some mlb affilate or fan be outraged with the astros scandal again; that they shouldn't be allowed to play, that they should be banned, that they stole a ring. You got Hinch in Detroit who is beloved now, Bregman, Tucker, Correa all signed with multiple teams after they left the astros, and Cora still is in Boston. Bunch of fake outrage and saying "this was the worst scandal in baseball ever!"
The Astros simply won't sign Pena in that case. Having 1 superstar and 24 replacement level players is not a way to win, so franchises won't do it. Pena will either go to the Dodgers and their billion dollar payroll or he'll settle for less. This is one FA deal. Like Josh Reddick's opinions, it's not determinative of the future of baseball.
This doesn't make any sense because there are only a few teams that will be willing to give Skubal a huge contract. Those teams aren't going to be worried about bringing up a AAA guy to save $5M a year. Further, if your hypothetical becomes true, why would you want to move on from Isaac Paredes and Jake Meyers to save $13M to sign Pena to a ridiculous contract? If anything, Paredes and Meyers are now more valuable because of their reasonable salaries. Even in free agency, in regard to the deal you don't see happening in the future, I'd rather pay Polanco 2/$44M than Tucker $4/$260M. Tucker has never even had a 5 fWAR season. This deal is an extreme overpay and IMO shouldn't be used to value future players.
Pena will be a Dodger soon. They need depth at SS and will happily give Pena that 300m. Who is stopping them?
