Laika

No matter how you f*** the chicken here, the Dodgers are winning.

Where did you read that? It can be an interest bearing escrow account. $68M compounded 5% annually for 10 years is like $111M haha.

It's the same thing though. The non-monetary factors are part of the bid.

It's all added revenue though. Are they incurring more expenses because Ohtani is on the team? Maybe, but they would be negligible. Anyway, you are generally right. The point was just to illustrate the absurdity of the whole thing. I am sure the hardcore math more or less tells you that $700M deferred is about the same as a reasonable contract today. Say, the Harper deal.

It's honestly a f***ing stupid deal for Ohtani UNLESS the income tax savings he can get are massive (which they very well may be...) For the Dodgers, it's amazing. They will make $25M annually in added marketing for the first few years, almost guaranteed, regardless of what happens on the field. So they are net +$23M or so in 2024. What is 23M compounded by like 8% annually, for a decade? Like $54M? The first year of marketing money basically pays for the first year of deferred payment in 2034. The contract ALMOST pays for itself. And I am sure "Guggenheim Partners" people think they can do better than 8 points when the prime rate is like 6%. Ohtani would probably have been better off, financially, just taking a straight 10/$400 deal from a team. Then investing the money. Big caveat there being the income tax implications which, I dunno. But I cannot imagine that Japan is a "tax haven" for income tax.... California certainly isn't... Ohtani is not moving to Florida or Dubai. Unless he does. Who knows. I am sure he left significant money on the table from the Blue Jays. If he rejected 10/$600M which was mostly NOT deferred, then he left hundreds of millions on the table, right.

Dodgers ownership group is basically a hedge fund, right? Guggenheim

Yeah good point Milk sponsorship money while playing them get the income once retired

Hoskins absolutely cannot play 3B

I don't think Jays fans could stomach Varsho and Adames. That's a lot of the same kind of flawed hitter.

that is literally the Fangraphs contract prediction they have been pretty close on everything else, except for Ohtani

I hate all of this except for Yamamoto I am signing: OF --- Jung-Hoo Lee (4/$60) or Brantley (1/$10) DH/1B --- Belt (1/$8) or JDM (1/$12) or Pederson (1/$12) SP --- Paxton (1/$10) or Montas (1/$8) IF --- some 1 year geezer like Longoria or Urshela or Tim Anderson Schneider is my 2B. I'd sign someone like Tony Kemp to be the 2B/OF guy on the bench. 1 WAR projection. Basically, just patch all the holes with the best 1 year commitment you can find. Work the trade table hard all offseason for better players.

7/$259M or so remaining for Mike Trout. I guess he's just retiring as an Angel

SFG is horrible for every hitter. I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about Chapman and SFG. Apparently Marco Luciano is going to be their SS so having a GG 3B would be huge for them. But think about Chapman's battel ball profile in that park...

Not many candidates to take on from those 5 teams. I can't see taking Correa, Bogaerts, Machado, Cronenworth, or Yelich as reasonable decisions. Can't see Cleveland trading Ramirez or Gimenez, or SDP trading Tatis. Actually, Yelich vs. Bellinger is funny. Yelich has 5/$130M left and is 32. Bellinger probably wants 8/$200 or so and is 28. Both coming off a 4.1 fWAR year.

Which teams are affected by the TV contract thing? I know of the Padres and Twins. Who else?

Not even sure if those guys are

The Yankees are acquiring left-handed reliever Victor Gonzalez and minor league infield prospect Jorbit Vivas from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Trey Sweeney, reports Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the Yankees were acquiring a pair of 40-man players from the Dodgers in exchange for a prospect not on New York’s 40-man. Sweeney was in their top 10 prospects. Really surprising trade.

Actually, this is f***ing hilarious. Maybe they SHOULD just lock in Bo Bichette. I wanted to put together a short list of possible "franchise" players who could hit FA in the next 3 offseasons. Went to the Fangraphs top 50 trade values list. Other than Soto and Kyle Tucker, there is very little. Juan Soto - after 2024 Kyle Tucker - after 2025 Will Smith - after 2025 Bichette - after 2025 Vlad - after 2025 Framber Valdez - after 2025 Zac Gallen - after 2025 Arozarena - after 2026 Kirk - after 2026 Mullins - after 2025 Soto is on his own. Bo, Tucker, and Will Smith are all very, very similar. I like Tucker more long term because of the walk rate and contact, but Bo has his pros (a better hit tool and better position). Nobody else on the list is very attractive to me, at big money. A cute Kirk extension RIGHT NOW buying a couple FA years might actually be wise though. Gerrit Cole has an opt out after 2024 but the Yankees can void out by tacking one one extra year for him. The top of the FA pile next year has some good players but they are all older. Goldschmidt, Wheeler, Altuve, Bregman, Scherzer. Of course there may be a giant from overseas. It will be interesting to see what they do. Maybe they absorb salary in a trade and it does end up being Luis Robert. Maybe every team in baseball sees the same warts on Cody Bellinger and his final contract ends up being palatable, like a Springer deal.

Something funny happened but I'm not upset about it It's just disappointing that there aren't several marquee free agents to turn to, right now Dick Pole is right about the big picture, the fact that Toronto was in it to the end is amazing. They just need to be patient and keep this fun money in reserve for a true franchise player. Don't get tunnel vision on Bo Bichette. It might even take a few years for the right player to be available and signable. So be it.

The annoying thing is that unless it's Yamamoto I don't even really WANT them to spend "this money" on free agents because they are all landmines. Like, doing a bunch of boring s*** is very justifiable.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/blue-jays-made-competitive-offer-to-shohei-ohtani.html Sigh

Okay my assumption there is Morosi burned himself

Tough to see it any other way tbh Camp Ohtani might have sewered that Hoonstra guy's entire career...

Probably a good chance Their calculator brains won't care about it but on a human level they have to feel the same urge as all of us If they are human...

Okay now you get to neg Robert to be objective Gets hurt a lot, strikes out too much, doesn't have MVP or even superstar projections because of that Through some sort of lens he's similar to Varsho, who was obtained for one high end prospect