Juan Soto turns down $440M Contract

[JJ_PR]

To be honest, $29 per year is actually somewhat insulting. I'm not surprised he turned it down.

[Michael Lucky]

Cant wait to see what ohtani will get.he's due for a massive pay raise next year. Mlb needs to do something about these lengths on these contacts. Someone has got to help keep angel's ownership stupidity in check.

[gorz]

Ohtani is maybe or maybe not the best player in baseball..but there is no question he is the most transcendent talent baseball has ever seen. He is more impressive than Babe Ruth

[Cactus Jack]

Had no idea MLB is that popular to hand out these contracts. Wow, ok.

MLB makes more than the NBA in revenue. Part of that is due to the amount of games played (160 vs. 82). But yes, only the NFL is more profitable.

Another thing is there isn't a salary cap in Baseball. Only a luxury tax. No limits on contracts. So the gap between big market teams (LA, NY) & everyone else is wide. So therefore teams like the L.A. Dodgers & N.Y. Yankees can afford to hand them out.

Baseball isn't as popular as it once was. At one time it was considered more popular than Basketball in America. The NBA's popularity has risen in the last 40 or so years. Perhaps even surpassing MLB.

[Cactus Jack]

Cant wait to see what ohtani will get.he's due for a massive pay raise next year. Mlb needs to do something about these lengths on these contacts. Someone has got to help keep angel's ownership stupidity in check.

The Angels remind me of the Griffey, A-Rod, Randy Johnson Mariners of the 90's. They had great players. But couldn't win because management was too incompetent & hamstrung to put a good team around them.

The Angels should have hung onto Dipoto.

[Pharmcat]

For 15 years. He can get way more per year with a couple of shorter contracts.

For sure. It's just another Tatis Jr style contract.

with tatis shoulders issues , the contract is not off to a good start

[Tor_Raps]

I'd just sign that contract and get fat afterwards loll

[Frank Dux]

These teams need to start refusing to trade their star players to the Dodgers.

Mariners farm system is stacked… Would be interesting there.

I'm not the biggest baseball watcher, but I do notice every season or every season the Dodgers trade for top players or rent them for a year. How are they able to do this, like where do they continue to get the assets?

The Dodgers mainly built their success by having an incredible farm system, and also have the best player development in the league. Most of the Dodgers best players are from the farm system or were found on the scrap heap.

[Hipster Doofus]

Which NBA team does he play for?

[BoatsNZones]

Trout and ohanti are def not the two best players in baseball

Trout definitely was the best player of the 2010s.

True, but not anymore

There is no consensus #1 (only recent one was Trout), but you can’t have that conversation without them both being in the first sentence. Yes, they both have a case. Ohtani will rightfully be the b2b MVP this season.

[Shock Defeat]

These teams need to start refusing to trade their star players to the Dodgers.

Mariners farm system is stacked… Would be interesting there.

I'm not the biggest baseball watcher, but I do notice every season or every season the Dodgers trade for top players or rent them for a year. How are they able to do this, like where do they continue to get the assets?

The Dodgers mainly built their success by having an incredible farm system, and also have the best player development in the league. Most of the Dodgers best players are from the farm system or were found on the scrap heap.

They have a $310 million payroll. They can afford to keep their players as well as acquire players from other teams that can’t afford to pay them. “They built the team from the farm” is BS.

Imagine what the Rays would look like if they had a $300 million payroll.

[wco81]

For all that the Dodgers have one WS, the one season they played 60 games instead of 162.

So it's like the MLB version of the Bubble title for the Lakers.

[slicedbread2]

These teams need to start refusing to trade their star players to the Dodgers.

Mariners farm system is stacked… Would be interesting there.

I'm not the biggest baseball watcher, but I do notice every season or every season the Dodgers trade for top players or rent them for a year. How are they able to do this, like where do they continue to get the assets?

It's quite simple: The Dodgers brought in Andrew Friedman, one of the best executives in baseball. This guy was a former college baseball player at Tulane who got injured, but continued as an analyst at various wall street firms(Bear Stearns and MidMark capital). He begun his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays(now Rays) and he essentially turned them from a losing franchise into a team that went to it's 1st WS appearance in 2008.

After 11 years, the Dodgers who were now owned by a huge ownership group with Magic Johnson in it gave Friedman everything he wanted: a budget. In Tampa Bay, he was forced to pull miracles out of his behind while on a shoestring budget whereas in LA he'd have the opportunity to use small market tactics with a big market budget and even though people will chastise the Dodgers for winning a World Series title in a shortened season(don't care a title's a title) Andrew has done the following things pretty damn well:

1) Reinvesting into the international market. Previous Dodgers ownership screwed this up and Andrew realized the best way was to rebuild all the academies in Latin America from the bottom up while investing additional scouts in east Asia(Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). You can always find great talent there.
2) Investing more into scouting, R&D into the farm systems. Your not gonna nail every pick, but the Dodgers have one of the best farm systems in the majors and even though they've given up quite a bit to nab some of their current stars, they're able to pump new and bright faces like an assembly line which is impressive.

From the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the final 4 teams in the playoffs in those years had executives who learned under Friedman before venturing off on their own. Not gonna say that it's Pop/Riley like but it's pretty impressive.

As for Juan Soto, He can definitely get a better deal than what the Nationals are offering and most likely he'll be going somewhere else and the Nationals will get a major haul for a guy who's about to be 25 soon.

[Quake Griffin]

These teams need to start refusing to trade their star players to the Dodgers.

Mariners farm system is stacked… Would be interesting there.

I'm not the biggest baseball watcher, but I do notice every season or every season the Dodgers trade for top players or rent them for a year. How are they able to do this, like where do they continue to get the assets?

It's quite simple: The Dodgers brought in Andrew Friedman, one of the best executives in baseball. This guy was a former college baseball player at Tulane who got injured, but continued as an analyst at various wall street firms(Bear Stearns and MidMark capital). He begun his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays(now Rays) and he essentially turned them from a losing franchise into a team that went to it's 1st WS appearance in 2008.

After 11 years, the Dodgers who were now owned by a huge ownership group with Magic Johnson in it gave Friedman everything he wanted: a budget. In Tampa Bay, he was forced to pull miracles out of his behind while on a shoestring budget whereas in LA he'd have the opportunity to use small market tactics with a big market budget and even though people will chastise the Dodgers for winning a World Series title in a shortened season(don't care a title's a title) Andrew has done the following things pretty damn well:

1) Reinvesting into the international market. Previous Dodgers ownership screwed this up and Andrew realized the best way was to rebuild all the academies in Latin America from the bottom up while investing additional scouts in east Asia(Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). You can always find great talent there.
2) Investing more into scouting, R&D into the farm systems. Your not gonna nail every pick, but the Dodgers have one of the best farm systems in the majors and even though they've given up quite a bit to nab some of their current stars, they're able to pump new and bright faces like an assembly line which is impressive.

From the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the final 4 teams in the playoffs in those years had executives who learned under Friedman before venturing off on their own. Not gonna say that it's Pop/Riley like but it's pretty impressive.

As for Juan Soto, He can definitely get a better deal than what the Nationals are offering and most likely he'll be going somewhere else and the Nationals will get a major haul for a guy who's about to be 25 soon.

He stays trolling the league for bullpen arms. No team does it quite like him.

They also are great at assessing risks and taking swings in the draft.
Buehler. 24th pick 2015.
Lux. 20th pick 2016.
Will Smith. 32nd pick 2016.
Tony Gonsolin. 9th round 2016.

2019 Michael Busch? Top prospect.
2020 Bobby Miller? Top prospect.

The money is great but what these guys do finding the pen arms and drafting (particularly late in the 1st round) is their best work and most important in my opinion. There is no team to attract Freddie a freeman or Mookie without it.

Never thought the money was the biggest deal. It’s pretty evident to me that it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great but I never saw it as what makes a team win. They clearly don’t win it every year and neither do the Yankees.

1 WS between the 2 top paying franchises since the the 2009 WS.

[wco81]

Highest payrolls may not have produced the most titles but how many wins in the regular season if their payrolls was 1/3 to 1/2 less?

How many starters would they have let go over the years if they didn’t have the highest payrolls?

Imagine if MLB had the kind of luxury taxes the NBA imposes for keeping good players. But in the NBA, pretty much all the contenders have the highest payrolls.

A lot of it comes down to the nature of the sport. A baseball team with an inferior lineup can win championships with one dominant starter and a good bullpen, beating teams with superior overall roster in a playoffs series. Or with one or two batters getting red hot.

Braves were middle of the pack in payroll last year when they got hot in the latter part of the season and playoffs to win the title, beating teams with much higher payrolls along the way.

In the NBA, it’s much harder for an underdog to upset a team in a single game, let alone a playoffs series or all of the playoffs. Not impossible but much harder than baseball. A weaker team could start a game hit, build a 20 point lead in the first half but it’s hard for them to outplay or keep that lead the whole game against better teams.

[Mr Swagtastic]

Had a conversation with a friend of mine. He thinks Soto would get the biggest haul out of any player whose played from 1990-present. I think a prime Ken Griffey Jr would get more than Soto.

I read that both New York teams said they will not give up their top four prospects

[Cactus Jack]

Had a conversation with a friend of mine. He thinks Soto would get the biggest haul out of any player whose played from 1990-present. I think a prime Ken Griffey Jr would get more than Soto.

Griffey, Bonds, A-Rod. A young Mike Trout would be a huge haul. I'm not even sure what someone like Ohtani could get you? But it's likely a ton.

[wco81]

Angels have two top 5 players in Trout and Ohtani and they're 14 games under .500.

Although Trout is coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons.

So a guy on a monster superstar contract doesn't translate to success for the team. May help sell a lot of tickets for the first couple of seasons but if the team doesn't contend for all those WC slots they have now, attendance is going to flag.

Though Angels are #10 in attendance this year.

[bluejerseyjinx]

I think he would look nice in a Cardinal uniform hitting between Goldschmit and Arenado !!!!!

[HDMAVS760CA]

I will never understand why MLB teams give these contracts.

Has it ever worked? The impact of star players in baseball isn't that much higher than "normal" all-star level players or even solid starters.

The Angels have Mike Trout and Ohtani (who is insane) and they're still average as can be. And have been for a decade, they had Trout and Pujols for a while too and still sucked.

Look at the Braves. They let Freeman leave, signed a cheaper replacement (Olson) and Acuna has missed half the season (highest paid player), Mike Soroka has missed the whole season (best pitcher) and Albies has been out for a while... and they have been better than they did last season. They won 13? Games in a row recently.

For an even more extreme example, look at the Orioles. They have around a 30m dollar payroll TOTAL and are in the playoff hunt. The Mariners too, they've won 13 in a row.

I feel that mlb should stop the double digit 10+ year contracts to players. They never done any good for the team. Farts in church end well better than 10 year contracts. A-Rod's 10 year contract with the rangers & the 10 year contract with the yankees. The yankees even tried to get him off the team before the contract ended. Pujols didn't finish his 10 year contract with the angels. There might be others that had failed double digit year contracts.