Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 1945: We Wish Carlos the Best

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley break down every incredible angle of the biggest twist of the MLB offseason: free agent Carlos Correa’s overnight pivot from a 13-year agreement with the San Francisco Giants to a 12-year deal with the New York Mets. After their incredulous Correa reactions, they close with a few thoughts on the […]

You're a stunned one, squinting to the morning sun, and hoping that it doesn't burn your eyes away. You're from the old God, but praying to the new God, and hoping for a thunderbolt to take the pain away Hello and welcome to episode 1945 of Effectively Wild, a Fangraphs baseball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Rowley of Fangraphs and I am joined as always by Ben Lindberg of The Ringer. Ben, what a, what a day. This is a barn burner of a topic we've got to talk about today. Wow. Wow.

Wow. So much to discuss. So much to discuss. This is one of those rare times, not so rare, but probably should be rare, when I am happy that I am awake at all hours because I can experience just the wildest baseball news from time to time in real time. Yeah. So 2.38. You're talking about Williams-Estadillo signing, right? Well, yeah.

That was the first news. Did I step on your joke? I was, of course, going to mention it at some point. But yeah, Heyman broke the Williams-Estadillo signing with the South Bank Hawks news immediately after, or not immediately, but it was the first non-Carlos Correa news that he had broken. I guess technically that had broken before because I had mentioned it on a previous podcast. I guess he had the terms or it was final. Maybe Williams-Estudio's deal was pending a physical.

Who knows? Who knows? That's done. And so is, or almost, I guess we still can't say that it's completely done because we're we're recording on Wednesday afternoon and we're a little bit giddy due to lack of sleep and newsiness of what is happening here but 2 38 a.m eastern time here I was just sitting at my computer unsuspectingly not expecting enormous news to break and then john hayman good old john hayman the comeback kid yeah what this is this is really a john hayman

redemption story that's what the whole carl's career saga is i'm so happy for john for restoring his journalistic reputation here when you stumble fall back on what has worked for you before, which is reporting news about Scott Boris clients. So 2.38 a.m. Eastern, John Heyman logs on and lobs a bomb. Just an absolute like, sir, this is a Wendy's. Just like it's the middle of the night. What are we doing here? Breaking. Carlos Correa and the Mets have a deal. $315 million, 12 years. Just out of nowhere. And then he just let that news simmer for 20 minutes or so. He just showed up, woke us all up, and then dropped this giant bombshell and just waited for a while. Just, you know,

just made us stew and wonder what was happening and did he get hacked? And is this another arson judge situation before he finally followed up with additional details about what was happening here? But that 20 minutes, I think that probably beat the whatever many minutes it was that he tweeted that Arsha Judge was heading to the Giants. So this was just a spectacular news cycle that is still ongoing here. What a turn of events. Carlos Correa, not a Giant, but a New York Met, pending physical, which I guess we should say. you know i think that it takes a lot for everyone who tracks baseball professionally and and you know for fun to be genuinely shocked right like we play at all i I think, a lot because Twitter in particular is a place for hyperbole. I don't know if you know this, but people aren't always completely sincere in their

phrasing on there. That's fine. That's fine. It's fine to have a little sass, a little shock and awe on the side. But rarely are we all like, wait, what? And like genuinely, genuinely mean it, like genuinely just stopped in your tracks, you know? Yes. Here are some of the messages from Fangraph Slack.

What the actual hell? What the f***? Same. Holy s***. Like, I... fan graph slack what the actual hell what the same holy like i yeah there's been a lot of big news this off season there have been a lot of big surprising signings the mets have made many of them sure yes even so even though we were primed for big news to happen and big mets news to happen this just took us all completely by surprise. A seasoned veterans and people who are accustomed to baseball breaking news.

This was just gobsmacking. Yeah. And when you, you were, your message to me about recording, because to let everyone know, like we had planned, we had planned to record onursday and i woke up and one of the first messages i saw on my phone was you saying i guess we should record wednesday and i was like what could have possibly happened like all of the all of the big guys are off the board you know yeah there's nothing we're not doing an emergency pod for nathan evalby apologies to nathan but or you know and I don't mean to disrespect one of the patron states of the pod, but we're not doing that for Williams Astadio either. Not even Williams. Not even Williams Astadio. I was like, you know, if it was Rich Hill, we can still talk about that on Thursday, Ben. You know, 22 of our top 25 free agents have signed, you know? So I was like, what could it possibly be?

And then my second thought was, oh, no, maybe something like really grim happened. Or maybe something grave was revealed by this, you know, medical concern with gray. I was like, are we going to find out that there's something wrong or life-threatening? Is this about to be a really sad thing? Then I flipped up my notifications, and I started seeing all the ones coming from the fan graph slack. Finally, within that was a notification that previewed the tweet

from Susan Sluster confirming Correa to the Mets. I was just like, I'm sorry, I'm going to do yet another show. I was like, what in the actual is going on? Yeah, it was amazing. And I was working on another baseball piece at the time, which is why I was up. I guess I'm usually up. But much like the Giants pivoting from Aaron Judge to Carlos Correa and then from Carlos Correa to no one, I pivoted from one baseball block to another and finished a Correa article as everyone woke up and went, what?

And that was one of the joys of being awake throughout this process was just seeing the successive time zones coming online and each just greeting this news with complete consternation. Just totally flubbuxed. Oh, yeah. was just really kind of incredible and then like every like you said every successive like detail that has come out has just made you go this is shocking all over again like so i didn't read i hadn't read this piece i didn't read it yet i hadn't read it yet i can't even talk tom farducci wrote about what inside carlos crea's chaotic flip from the giants to the mets ben he was dressed for the press conference he was dressed he was ready to go he was walking out the door he had picked out i mean this part i don't think is in there but you imagine carlos crea like standing in a hotel room in san francisco and he's like looking amongst you know it was probably convenient for him in some ways that he was going to the giants and now to the mets this all works but he was probably like i have

orange ties right i used to play for the astros so like i still have some orange ties did i pack my orange ties which of the orange ties should i you know know, should I use here? Which one is going to give the best impression? Which one is the most giant-y, right? Like, what is the most giant-y orange tie that I have? And then he probably looked at his phone, and I bet he also went, oh, what the f***? Again, this is me, like, writing a little play. I don't know if he was looking amongst orange ties, but that's what I imagined. But he had, he was there.

He was, like, in the jurisdiction, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have, I guess. No, this was very much a remember where you were when you found out this news. I guess that's where Carlos Correa was. I was sitting at my computer, which I guess is where I'm usually sitting when I find out about things, which is not all that exciting, but it was still exciting in the moment.

Really, really amazing. And gosh, we can break down all aspects of this or at least all aspects of it that we know. But this just kind of came out of nowhere because generally when a free agent signed somewhere and this was more than a week ago that he had signed that deal or that it had been reported that they had come to terms. And generally, like, yeah, come to terms. It doesn't mean that the contract is finalized. It doesn't mean that it's necessarily been officially announced. Sometimes there's a delay. Everyone always says pending physical. Sure. That's a routine part of the process, so routine that you kind of take it for granted that when all the big news breakers break that news and they say, came to terms or they've agreed on a contract or it's pending physical, no one really says, oh, a pending

physical, uh-oh, this might not happen. Very, very rarely does that screw things up. Occasionally it has. Occasionally. Yeah. There have been several examples of that happening, but nowhere near the order of Carlos Correa, arguably the most appealing free agent on the market, just an absolute superstar. Someone who could make or break the Giants offseason and their complete plan for their team in 2022. That kind of deal gets done when it's said to be done. When you get past the arson judges heading to the Giants or whatever stage, like when Passan and Rosenthal and all the rest roll in and confirm. Right. The I's are not dotted. The T's are not crossed.

But very rarely do they not get dotted and crossed. And so no one had conceived of anything like this happening prior to Tuesday morning. Well, and sorry, I'm going to interrupt you. And particularly when this guy just signed a free agent contract last year, right? Yeah, that too. Last offseason. Like he has just been through and stuff happens in the course of the season right you know like he he was on the injured list for a little

while because he got hit in his little fingy in addition to the covid stuff so like you know something could have happened but he had he he passed muster like a year ago and then proceeded to have a healthy a relatively healthy mostly healthy season right and so yeah you're right we normally sit there and say it's gonna get done to the point that like we don't generally even write pending physical into copy because it's like it's just gonna get done yeah and then it didn't he was dressed yeah no physicals can be a concern for mere mortals, but for 28-year-old elite athletes who've been playing at an extremely high level and whose team, their previous employer, wanted to bring him back, right? Right. The twins offered him a 10-year contract, right?

Right. Yeah. Also a good point. So that allayed any concerns that anyone would have had. And so, yeah, I guess the fact that the deal had not been announced and a week had gone by, I mean, maybe someone was wondering why that was, but it didn't even occur to me that there was anything to be concerned about until Tuesday morning when the Giants sent out this very terse notification that the press conference to

introduce Correa would not be taking place with no explanation. And then there were some very vague reporting, as reporting often is about medical issues, as it must be and should be, frankly. And very vague reports came out about how there was some kind of concern that had surfaced in the medical and the giants were waiting for a test of some sort and no one was completely clear on what the issue was, though it seemed not to be the back problems that had plagued him some years ago. So we were all completely in the dark. And even when that was going on, I didn't really think there was any real reason to suppose that Carlos Correa would not be a giant. I mean, maybe there would be some kind of renegotiation, although Scott Boris doesn't

like to do that, or they would eventually come to terms or it would turn out to be just some small thing that wasn't a big issue and they would put it behind them. Or I guess if it had completely fallen apart, that that would have been sort of a slow motion train wreck, which I guess it was in retrospect. It just it wasn't taking place in the public eye, but that we would have some indication that things were completely falling apart. And really, we didn't, other than the Giants kind of keeping mum about things until Heyman comes along in the middle of the night on the East Coast. Come back in. Informs us. Yeah, it's really a redemption arc for Heyman, who has restored his reputation after the arson judge debacle. I mean, I will admit, though, Ben, that one of my great regrets

about the timing of when this happened compared to when I found out was that I could not immediately quote tweet him and say, was ar judge there so you know i'm sure someone did oh i'm sure many many people did yeah i imagine so man hayman's really done a number on giants fans this winter because first yeah they might be entitled to compensation yeah he gives them the false hope that they're landing erin judge and then he dashes their dreams about getting Carlos Correa. In one case, erroneously, in another case, accurately, but still quite a roller coaster for Giants fans following John Heyman. Anyway, so the Mets, who had already been the big spenders of the offseason and blown by every kind of tax threshold and easily exceeded everyone else's payroll.

I mean, we talked on our last episode about the fact that they still seem to be adding at the margins and, hey, they're bringing in Omar Narvaez and they're resigning Adam Adovino. And I think we alluded to the fact that, hey, you never know, they might not be done. At no point did it cross my mind that they would be that far from done if they were about to sign Carlos Correa? Literally Carlos Correa. Literally Carlos Correa. And not a different Carlos Correa.

That Carlos Correa. Not as far as we know, unless that was the issue in the medical, that this is an imposter. That would be very fun. So all we know about what actually happened here, and the Giants cannot disclose what it was that their concern was or what they saw or thought they saw. And so all they said, just a very concise statement from Farhan Zaidi, while we are prohibited from disclosing confidential medical information, as Scott Boris stated publicly, there was a difference of opinion over the results of Carlos's physical examination. We wish Carlos the best. Wow. What a kiss off there. I don't know whether there's any bitterness in the wishing Carlos the best or Like, just like it's like this is what we have to say, but we are not happy. I mean, we'll talk about we'll talk about this part. But what a disaster this season has proven to be for the Giants.

So essentially, we're getting one side of the story and not even the full side of that story. So Scott Boris has talked to various reporters, I suppose Tom Fertucci and Susan Slessor and others. And so here's his side. This is Susan's tweets from Wednesday morning. Scott Boris tells me that after the Giants canceled their press conference yesterday, they indicated they still wanted to negotiate about Correa. But he, that is Boris, didn't hear anything more from them. Twelve hours later, the Mets deal got worked out. And Susan continues, it sounds as if there was a very old Correa injury pre-MLB that was raised as a potential issue. It has not cropped up again.

None of Correa's other physical issues have required medical intervention or ongoing treatment. If this was a true medical concern, it sounds a little tenuous. And if it was a matter of cold feet, that's usually ownership, not the front office. We won't know what happened from their viewpoint unless or until the Giants discuss this if they do. So I don't know whether Susan knows more than she can say or whether she's completely speculating here. But she's obviously an extremely reputable reporter who has been covering baseball in that area for decades.

And so even the fact that she's entertaining the idea that there just might have been cold feet here, that it could have been just sort of an excuse to get out of the deal. I mean, she didn't say that, but you could suggest that maybe there's some kind of implication there that, again, like usually you don't say no backsies when you come to terms, I guess. But there aren't usually backsies. And so I don't know. Like I can't think of a reason why the Giants wouldn't want Carlos Correa, the player, I mean, putting aside any medical concerns after missing out on Judge and other free agent targets. concerns after missing out on Judge and other free agent targets. And then while Carlos Correa was ostensibly a giant, like Dansby Swanson signed and pretty

much everyone else is off the board. So by the time this completely crumbled, they knew that there wasn't some other $300 million man out there that they could just switch to. They knew that if they lost Correa, that this would really sink their offseason. switch to. They knew that if they lost Correa, that this would really sink their offseason. And from the sound of it, maybe they didn't completely realize that they were on the brink. Maybe they thought they had more time. Maybe this was kind of a communication issue. It sounds like Boris and Correa kind of got fed up at a certain point with just waiting and told them, hey, tell us by a certain time, right?

The Verducci article says, in agreeing to give the Giants more time for a medical review, Boris says he asked the Giants to decide by around 1 or 1.30 p.m. local time. He says he told the club, if you were not prepared to execute the letter of agreement by then, let us know because we then will need to engage with other teams. They said, fine, Boris says. By about 1 p.m. Pacific, the Giants informed Boris they were not prepared to execute the letter of agreement,

effectively putting Correa back on the free agent market. And that's when Boris began contacting other clubs. And then four or five hours later, Carlos Correa is a Met. And Steve Cohen, at least, was in Hawaii.

So this was more convenient for him time zone wise than it was for a lot of other people. So that's nice, I guess. But man, so I don't know whether the Giants fully realized that they him. And so they were just able to pick up that thread again. But I mean, man, he had changed his Twitter header to Oracle Park. It's as close to official as it can get. So maybe they just didn't realize that it would happen so fast or maybe they were willing to live with that. But I just I don't know whether this was just sort of a stated reason and they actually had other reasons for wanting to get out of this or agreeing to it or whether they saw something that just legitimately concerned them. I mean, if, as Susan saying, it was some sort of pre MLB ailment, it's it's hard to imagine how that could be this kind of contract because he's had like half a Hall of Fame career since then. And he's been fairly healthy for the past few seasons.

Obviously, you have to do your due diligence when you're committing to someone for 13 years. So it's possible that something that hasn't cropped up could once you get into your 30s and that that would be relevant. So I don't want to discount the idea that there was something that was a legitimate cause for concern but man you better be sure that it's really a problem if you're gonna let this kind of thing fall apart yeah i i yeah i oh my gosh right because Right, because the thing of it is they needed an impact signing. They needed that by their own admission, right? It's not like, and they haven't backtracked on that, so I don't want to imply that they have, but like they said, we want to upgrade this lineup and we want to do that in a way, no disrespect to Mitch Hanegar, but it is more substantial and certainly longer term right no concerns with mitch hanniger's medical somehow yeah i i know that people have made that joke and i get it but also like he's not going to be a giant when we're middle-aged so that is true you know in fairness there so there's there's like that piece of it that i just think is very like

it's just disaster it's calamitousitous, right? Because if they had known that they were going to miss out on Correa, if they had known, in fact, going in, that they were going to miss out on Judge and Correa, I would imagine that the rest of their offseason proceeds differently than it did, which doesn't mean that all of a sudden, like, Carlos Rodon isn't a Yankee, right?

But I imagine they would have tried to sort of push their chips in financially it did, which doesn't mean that all of a sudden, like Carlos Rodon isn't a Yankee, right? But I imagine they would have tried to sort of push their chips in financially other places. And it's not like the rest of the division stood still. And even if you're discounting the Dodgers relative to last year, which I think is appropriate to do given their departures and the lack of sort of one-to-one replacements that they've made like the dodgers are still good and the padres got a lot better right maybe the padres have like a spare metal infielder that they want to just ship almost certainly they do yeah and and you know ben clemens made this point when he wrote this up for us today after he and i got done exchanging

shocking wow and slack for like 20 minutes but you, you know, this deal with Correa was made with an eye toward more than just 2023. And we can't evaluate at this moment in time how losing him and sort of effectively having a sort of whatever team in 2023, you know, what that is going to end up meaning for 2024 and beyond, we don't know yet because there's a whole other offseason that will occur between this season and that. And maybe they'll make big impact signings. Maybe we're all going to be sitting here a year from now being like, it really sucked at the time, but I'm sure they're really glad that like they have Shoei Ohtani now, right? Like there are ways in which a year from now, this can read differently for the,

you know, 2024 and beyond picture when it comes to the Giants, but they still aren't going to have Carlos Correa, which is a bummer, even with whatever medical concerns they might have about him. And they aren't assured those signings, right? Whereas this one was like a bird in the hand, you know, and a really good bird, right? It was a good bird. And now there's one fewer good bird. So it's kind of calamitous for them. I don't want to necessarily be in the blame assigning part of that

because I think you're right that there is a scenario here reading the coverage that we've gotten so far where they maybe did not appreciate in a way that isn't negligent the sort of jeopardy that they were in, right? That they did not have an accurate understanding of the precarity of their situation. And, you know, because there historically has not been a Steve Cohen to contend with,

and that these deals, even when there are issues, tend to like, you can work it out, right? You can find your way to something, particularly when it's not even, you know, it's not even Christmas yet. Like it's not like opening days tomorrow or anything like that, but it does make this off season

really read differently. It's one thing when you have anchored your free agency period with one of the, if not the best guys. And then you have signed complementary pieces around that, you know, particularly on the pitching side where you're good at maximizing guys. Right now, like they have a roster where if they do everything, you have to feel like the ceiling on it is 90 wins

right like even if they get the very most out of every possible piece like yeah everything would have to go right I think everything would have to go right yeah even with Correa I don't think a lot had to go right yeah they wouldn't have been a division favorite but they would have been

a much more solid wild card contender right without Cor, I don't know that I even see that happening necessarily. This is probably, I guess, good news for, say, the Cubs or teams like that who are trying to aim maybe for that third wildcard and maybe won't have to worry about the Giants as much. They're not better than the Padres. they're not better than they're not better than the Padres they're not better than the Dodgers they're not better than the Cubs they're not better than the Brewers they're not better than the Cardinals they're not better than the Phillies they're not better than the Braves they're not better than the Mets that's enough teams where they're not better than that they're

just sitting at home in October yeah yeah you know I can't believe that this happened i know it's amazing it's amazing and and it opens the door it open i it opens the door for the mets to do even more like this feels to me to me like it actually increases the odds of them say acquiring liam hendrix because here can i really bust your brain with this one so it's like okay now you have carlos correa famously a third baseman yeah we haven't even talked about that part yet i know where it's like carlos is just a third baseman right now which is that's. That's San Francisco Lindor. They had one of the best shortstops in baseball. Already? Amazing, right?

Okay, so now they get to do all kinds of fun stuff because they have Correa at third, which means that they get to use Escobar in a utility role because Lindor is just going to play shortstop. I can't believe this team. McNeil stays where he is. They have versatility with him into the outfield. And now they can look around and they go, well, what else do we want to just continue to build this super team?

And they're in a position where if they wanted to, and I'm not saying that they will do this, but if they wanted to, they could say, okay, we got Brett Beatty, we got Mark Vientos, and we have Ronnie Mauricio. Which of those guys do we like the best that we want to keep around from a depth perception and the ones that we don't they're highly regarded prospects they might be able to be leveraged into other pieces like say liam hendricks who the mets have apparently expressed interest in i'm not saying that that's what they're going to do, but it's just like... Remember when they also signed Adam Adovino?

Yeah, that happened. That happened. We had to write that up. And then it was the least interesting Mets move of the whole day. Yes. Which is not a knock on it. It's fine.

That's good depth to have in the bullpen. It is possible that they're finally done or even that they will trade some guys. Like they could keep Escobar. They could also trade Escobar. They could trade Carrasco or they could trade some of the other players who are arguably expendable like James McCann maybe. I mean, they acquired Omar Narvaez. I guess you could say that catcher is still sort of their weak point at least from the lineup perspective. So I don't know how that all shakes out.

Yeah, we'll have to see what they, you know, they do have a Francisco Alvarez, right? They do, yes. And we have not gotten to see him in much major league action yet. And he, you know, I know that like what we did see of him was like 14 plate appearances. And then I don't, I don't remember, Ben, you tell me, because I can't actually remember. Did he hit well in the postseason? No, he did not. But he had one plate appearance, so that doesn't count.

Yes. But they do have like a 60 future value guy at catcher just like hanging out in the system. So there's that. Yeah. And if they do trade anyone, it will probably be because they just don't have roster spots or roles for them more so than they want to lower the payroll a little bit at this point

because that just clearly does not matter. The Steve Cohen quote was, in the end, what the heck's the difference? Heck was in parentheses, so I assume he did not say heck. If you're trying to make a move, you make the move. If it's a few percent more, what's the difference? Which, say what you will about Steveve cohen and we have said plenty but i think every fan of every team would want their owner to think if it's a few percent more

what's the difference if you're trying to make a move you make the move so it doesn't sound like they're going to be making any moves to cut costs here now maybe they will make booze because they're redundant spots on the roster. They want to get some prospects. Like, I don't know that Steve Cohen wants to be paying several hundred million dollars for his baseball team every year, even if he can't afford it. When he said he wanted the Mets to be the Dodgers East, he probably meant that he wanted it to be kind of a player development powerhouse, too. Right. And so I don't know that long-term the Mets will be blowing everyone out of the water payroll-wise. They would probably like to develop some players and have some players who are cost-controlled. But right now, the way to win with this somewhat aged, in many respects,

veteran team is to just supplement and to go get elite superstars, which is something that the Dodgers have historically done when they spend, when they break the bank. It's for talents like a Carlos Correa. And so it's really – you look at this lineup and I think a lot of the moves the Mets made this offseason were sort of lateral or replacing or resigning guys, right? So like, yeah, they spent a lot of money. They brought back Brandon Nimmo, but Brandon Nimmo was already on the team. And you could say the same about some of the other guys that they resigned like out of, you know, right. And then other guys they signed maybe to replace someone who was kind of an equivalent or even like Verlander. Well, Jacob

deGrom left and then they went and got Justin Verlander. So really exciting that they got Verlander, but tempered somewhat by the fact that they lost an ace. And they go get Kodai Senga and they get Jose Quintana and that's great, but they also lost Chris Bassett and they lost Tyjuan Walker, right? So some of those moves, it wasn't like they were taking their 101 win team from last year and just adding to it without subtracting anything, they were replacing some newly created holes as well. But this move, this is just adding to what was already a strength. Yeah, we had talked about Cohen viewing the financial might he had as a resource, as a tool that he could deploy to improve the roster

and being able to use that to so much greater effect, or at least with a willingness to use it to so much greater effect than anyone else, like it just puts him in a position to pounce on this stuff. I think you're right that they probably don't want to pay this much for a team every single year, but it seems very clear that they want a World Series, he wants a World Series, and he's willing to put the resources behind it to do it. I've seen, of course, when stuff like this happens,

even more than when we originally talked about it, there are people who are worried about what it means what does it mean ben like what does it say about the game when you buy a championship and i guess to that i would say like if them using their money isn't part of the bargain then why do we let billionaires own baseball teams right if they're not gonna do this part of it make it a public trust we maybe want to do that anyway. But like, it seems backward to me. It seems to be a bad bargain for fans. If the only people to reap financial reward from billionaires owning teams are billionaires,

right? Let the fans reap those rewards. I wish they were maybe distributed more evenly. Sure. I wish other teams would would be in a position where he has a harder time swooping in and doing this because there are four other front offices that are like, we too don't care about the fourth luxury tax threshold. And then it's more of a fight, but that's not where we are. So I'm going to be fine with this one that we have

because I don't think that it actually is a problem. So that's what I have to say about that. And I think at the time he said something along the lines of, you know, I'll play nice or like at least for a while I won't just spend an enormous amount of money. But it was clear that he could if he decided to at some point and that the Steve Cohen tax was not going to restrain him. And so all the owners who make noises about not being able to compete or just wanted to kind of keep things as they were with no one sort of resetting the scale here. Probably not completely pleased with Steve Cohen. And we will see whether they pony up and try to keep pace because he's just daring the rest of the sport now to keep up with him. He's like, OK, I've laid down the gauntlet and a lot of you are billionaires, too. You might not have as many billions, but you got a lot of billions. Yeah.

So you could afford to spend more too. Are you willing to ante up here? Right. And really like the numbers now. So if for competitive balance tax purposes, the Mets are close to 400 million before you even factor in the taxes and the overage charges. By John Becker's calculation, their projected 2023 CBT payroll prior to signing Correa. So prior to signing Correa, allow me to say that again, prior to signing Correa was $362.2 million, right?

So that's just the CBT payroll. That doesn't include the tax piece of it, which I know you're about to pay for being in the highest bracket. I've seen different figures. I've seen $111 million. I've seen $115 million. But basically in the vicinity of $500 million will be the total outlay as things stand right now pending any further moves. $500 million. So almost $100 million above the second place Yankees before you even factor in the taxes. More than that after you factor in the taxes.

So he's just he's blowing everyone out of the water. He's just he's saying money is no object. Francisco Lindor is no object. Like, we're just going to go get whoever we can get to get better at baseball. And it's exciting. And there may be Mets fans. We've gotten emails like, is this kosher? Like, is this, are we buying a championship? Like, is this the way to win?

Like, should I feel like we're hacking the system or something? And I do understand that, especially after years of Wilpon austerity. It's got to be a shock to the system. Like, it is to all of our systems. I've seen people describe this as a stunning turn of events, and it is, but that's such a rote phrase. It's just, it's completely bonkers what is happening here.

And so I think there are probably some people who are thinking, oh, they're just buying a pennant here. Well, first of all, you can't really in baseball. You can maybe buy a playoff purse. I mean, you can, but then it's a big scandal. Right. Yeah. And how much is just a pennant worth?

Anyone can have a pennant. We can all have pennants on our walls if we want one. But you can't buy the one that counts and the achievement that garners that pennant. And so I think, first of all, baseball is set up in such a way that you can't, at least now, maybe you never could, but you could more so than you can now where there's such a big playoff field and there's so many rounds. And even if you're the greatest team, one of the best teams ever, like the Dodgers last year, you can maybe only go so far. It's a small sample and even Steve Cohen can't spend his way out of playoff randomness.

But beyond that, I don't know that the Mets are a super team necessarily. I asked Dan Saborski how the NLE standings look now, the projected win totals for the Mets and the Braves, and the last time I asked him for an update, the Braves were still ahead. Now he has the Mets at 97.2 wins and the Braves at 96.8 wins. And they do not actually award fractional wins when they play the game. So these both round to 97. So even after this, at least from a projections and schedule, et cetera, standpoint, Dan and Zips have those teams neck and neck. And if you look

at other metrics, like I guess if you look at the fan graphs depth charts, the Mets have the highest projected war. And I don't know if that even includes Senga, who maybe isn't on the depth charts yet. Yeah, that might be true. Even so, like they're fractions of a win ahead of, say, the Yankees and just a fraction of a win ahead of the Padres. And then the Braves aren't that far behind. You know, it's like the separation in payroll doesn't necessarily reflect the separation in talent. It's like it's a it's an excellent team. I think you can make a case that they're the favorites, certainly in the NL East and probably for the NL pennant at this point. Yeah. And I guess you could even make a case that they're the favorites, certainly in the NL East and probably for the NL pennant

at this point. And I guess you could even make a case that they're the best team in baseball. It's certainly reasonable. But if they are, it's barely, right? So they're way outspending everyone. They're not necessarily way outwarring or outwinning everyone. They've just had to spend to get to this point. So it's not like when the season

starts and we see the Mets in action, we'll go like, oh my gosh, this is what money can buy. This is like a completely different order of baseball team. It's just a very good baseball team. The rotation is excellent, but also very old and there's a risk factor there. Sure. Look, there's some other nitpicks you could make and weaknesses pending any further additions. It's just, it's a really good team. And the lineup is just fearsome. I mean, other than catcher, I guess, just like top to bottom, this is really, and even catcher could turn out to be just fine. So this could be the best hitting team in baseball. The Mets are moving the right field fence in slightly at Citi Field this coming season. So between that and this lineup, it's going to be fireworks all season. This was already a good lineup. And now adding what they've added to it, it's going to be fun to watch this team.

Yeah. I think that you're right that it's not like we will watch, in all likelihood, we won't watch the Mets and be like, whoa, this is a different category, right? Yeah. where when you watch them on not even a good day, but just like an average day, and they are playing a bad team, you're like, oh, this is a different kind of thing. They're doing a different sort of thing. And they aren't the only team you feel that with, right? Like sometimes you feel that way watching the Astros.

Sometimes you feel that way watching the Dodgers. Sometimes you feel that way watching the Padres, right? There are days when other teams sometimes you feel that way when you're watching the Atlanta Braves. It's okay Braves fans. I didn't forget you. I was just getting to you. I was just kind of, you know, sometimes you feel that way watching the Yankees, right?

If your team is good, like actually really very good, I probably felt that way. I didn't feel that way about like the central teams necessarily. So sorry, guys. I'm excluding you. But like, you know, there are other teams where you're like, well, this is a, you know, I'm watching one of the best teams in baseball.

And you have that experience. I don't know on a day-to-day basis that it's going to feel appreciably different than it would watching, you know, one of those teams that I just named. But I think that it will, it will be apparent that it is one of the better clubs in the game. So there's, there's that piece of it. The buying a championship thing continues to stick in my craw because it's like buying isn't the right word. But like, if you have a team that is, that is built on a bunch of like pre-ARP or ARP guys being really good and really cheap, and you use those savings to bring in a veteran,

like you're kind of buying a team that way too, right? You're using savings on the roster and you're putting, you know, like I just think we all need to help people back away from that. And I think that the way we talk about it not you and i i think we do a pretty good job of this stuff we're not alone in doing a good job but i think we do a reasonable job but i think it's important for media folks to be mindful of this stuff because like it's really fascinating to me the areas of a team being good where we are willing to grant that it is like admirable and the areas where we find it distasteful.

And I think some of that is like a genuine respect for skill either in the players or in like player dev or scouting or analytics. But some of it I think is just mistaking cheapness for virtue. of just watching a team coalesce in the way that, say, a drafted and developed kind of team does, where you're following these players as they're drafted and as they come up through the system and you get to see them blossom and mature and they do it in your team's uniform and they do it as a unit and they have relationships, right? And you get to follow the narrative arc of that team and of that championship core. So there is a certain satisfaction to that that I think is a bit different from if you feel like and I'm not saying the Mets are this, but if you feel like, oh, we just we signed a bunch of mercenaries who have no attachment to this team or the city. And yeah, they were good at baseball. Like you win the same trophy and the same rings either way. Right. And you're probably deliriously happy either way as a fan.

There's something to be said for, I don't want to say like doing it the right way or the wrong way. It's just a different way. Right. I think like all else being equal as a fan for the fan experience, I guess I'd enjoy just like the long haul experience of seeing it kind of come together, not just at the free agent bargaining table, but also just like through the long slog of the bus trips and minor league promotions and the prospect type and all of that. But ultimately, I think you still feel a thrill when you win and the players still feel an accomplishment when you win and you get many of the same benefits of that victory. So, yeah, I don't know. We can distinguish between them, but I don't know that we necessarily need to denigrate one or the other.

And also, I just I don't think it's actually possible to buy a championship. It's just the system is rigged in such a way that you can't do that, whether for good or for ill. And if you're Steve Cohen, you could say one way to replicate that experience is to sign these guys until you're literally going to be middle-aged. Yeah, sure. You're going to look back and be like, Carlos Correa was a what before? I mean, I don't think anyone will forget what Carlos Correa was before. How could you forget the twins face? That's probably not the one you were referring to. But yeah, yes. And really, like, I don't know how many teams he would have wanted to move to third

four. It probably wasn't his preference. Like he's a quite a capable shortstop. And so probably there are not many other shortstops he would have deferred to and moved for other than Francisco Lindor, who's maybe the best defensive shortstop in baseball and also someone he has a relationship with. And obviously, I'm sure they're psyched to get to play together. So that has probably part of the appeal as well. And I'm sure he'll be a great third baseman. He literally, I don't think, has played a professional inning at third base. He has one game played at third base in AA in 2015, but no innings associated with it. So I don't know that he's actually played third base, but no reason to think that he can't,

given his athleticism and his arm. And baseball savant Stackcast says that he's been much better going to his right than to his left, which maybe would make you think, oh, well, maybe he's not as well suited to be a third baseman because you can't really go to your right all that much unless they move the foul line or they position you way over or something. Right. So I don't really put that much stock in that. I think it'll be fine. Yeah, there seems to be some bias toward just like all short stops across the board being graded as better going to their right than to their left. But beyond that, like it's just it's probably kind of an artifact of positioning. And now he'll be a third baseman instead of a short stop. And he'll know that he's got to go to his left.

And having seen him move and just how sure handed he is, I don't anticipate that he'll know that he's got to go to his left. And having seen him move and just how sure-handed he is, I don't anticipate that he'll have any problems. There might be a slight adjustment period, as there is when anyone changes positions, but he certainly has the physical tools. He might have moved to third base eventually anyway, but probably not for years because he just turned 28 three months ago, which is part of what made him so appealing is that he was a year or a year and a half or in Aaron Judge's case, like two and a half years younger than the other marquee free agents. So that was really what made him cash in even more than the other tap shortstops did. And so he had to settle for one year less and I guess a slightly lower AAV and a different slightly lower number that starts with a three. And that's probably just fine for him, I think. So I don't know whether it was any kind of reflection of, oh, the Giants were spooked by something. Well, I don't know. Or whether that was just kind of what the Mets were comfortable going to.

And I don't know whether the way that his free agency played out last year had any bearing on them wanting to get this done. I mean, probably everyone wants to have some certainty, but just not wanting to be strung along by the Giants as they were doing whatever reviews they were doing. strung along by the Giants as they were doing whatever reviews they were doing. You know, last offseason, he had to wait out the whole lockout and not know where he was going to play and not get the Giant deal that he wanted to get, the Giant long-term deal, although ultimately things worked out just fine. But having gone through that experience and uncertainty, he's probably like, hey, you know, stop jerking me around, you know, just like, do you want me or not? And I don't know. I just, I don't know. Like reading other Boris quotes, they advised us,

they still had questions. They still wanted to talk to other people, other doctors go through it, et cetera, et cetera. You're talking about a player who has played eight major league seasons. There are things in his medical record that happened decades ago. These are all speculative dynamics. Every team has a right to go through these things and evaluate things. The key thing is we gave the Giants medical Grant Balfour deal that everyone has cited where he failed his physical with the Orioles and they had concerns reason to regret not signing him or even the Kumar Rocker situation involving Scott Boris and Steve Cohen and the New York Mets. Just last year, the Mets drafted Kumar Rocker and then they didn't like what they saw and they decided not to make him an offer. And I guess it worked out OK for Kumar Rocker and that he pitched indie ball and then he got drafted third overall by the Rangers. But I think it's safe to say that his stock has fallen and that there are concerns about his arm perhaps the Mets will see that thing too. We still don't know. If the Mets do the physical and they decide everything is fine, then that's another data point that we can take into account here. I want to completely condemn the Giants because we just don't know. We haven't seen the medicals. I say that as if

I saw the medicals, I would understand and be able to interpret them. I mean, I have not heard the expert opinions of people who have seen the medicals. So we're all kind of just in the fog of free agency here and fumbling around and trying to draw conclusions from imperfect information. All we know is that the Giants really, really needed Carlos Correa and they're way worse off without Carlos Correa. And they're way worse off without Carlos Crea. And so like it better have been something legitimately concerning in order to make them say no or at least just not be very proactive or diligent about this too. Especially if they were just like if they thought they were going to continue to negotiate and that they still were interested but just like weren't in communication. And again, this is all coming from Boris. But if they just did not make the interest clear enough or were not in kind of constant communication enough that Boris and Correa felt like this was still going to come together and that they wouldn't need to start talking to other teams.

I mean, either they dropped the ball or they were prescient and they escaped some sort of commitment for a player who ultimately would have not produced the way they wanted them to be. And it'll be years and years before we know which it was if we ever know. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think that the tricky thing about assessing that is going to be that because we aren't going to know the particulars of, you know, I know that Boris seems to have indicated this like prior to long past issue as the one that kind of came to the fore but you know because of the nature of injuries and the lack of insight we have at this juncture like even if something

happens with correa in this season or a future season our ability to sort of one-to-one it to what caused them to have concerns in san francisco is pretty limited right because we're not it seems unlikely that we're going to get a lot more detail around this stuff and what detail we will get will be kind of one-sided right it's going to come from his camp in all likelihood and so it's going to be hard for us to really have a satisfactory answer there, I think. Yeah. They got close enough to schedule the press conference. He was dressed. Yeah. And still haven't scheduled the day of. So it's not like, unless this is one of those situations where you get yourself into some situation where you just get deeper and deeper into it. And at every point you're like,

I could get out of this still, but then you realize it's too late. And then you end up with like a runaway groom or bride situation where it's like, I probably should have said something before now, before I'm leaving someone at the altar and all the guests are here. So like, I don't know. I don't know whether the concerns surfaced at the last second and that's why they called it off or whether they were kind of thinking these things all along, but hoping or believing that their concerns would be allayed in time to introduce their new prize acquisition. It's just it's very cryptic. So it's just could not be a more sensational time for something like this to happen. How much of this all happening is just a result of the proximity of his opening presser to the week between Christmas and New Year's, right? Because I know that they want to get these deals finalized. Because you got to move on with your off season and you want

to start planning and you want the nice picture right and you want to put the jerseys in the pro shop oh man emma bachelorette had a tweet that is just gonna haunt me for the rest of my days ben which is a terrible thing to say about a tweet, but she tweeted about an hour before we started recording, move over, baby shoes. There's a new saddest short story in town. Korea Giants jersey never worn. Oh, yeah.

I hope that they get like, that they have like a jersey buyback program or something. Anyway. Yeah, I don't know if he had a number, right? Right. Like maybe they didn't start anyway yeah i don't know if he had a number right right like maybe they didn't start selling i don't know but you know it's like they do this they do this deal and i'm curious like did the medical and this i maybe this detail has been reported and i've just missed it because there have been so many stories and like this day has been very busy but was this sort of the typical amount of time it takes for a medical to get done?

Like, I'm curious if they, not that they rushed the medical, but that they were like, okay, we're going to do the medical. And then we really got to get the press conference in before everybody breaks for the holiday. We don't want to do it the Friday before Christmas. So we'll do it the Wednesday to really take advantage of the news cycle. Whereas if he had signed like two weeks earlier or had signed right after the new year, did they find something in the medical

and they're like, hey, we just got to get this looked at real quick. Don't worry about it. And he doesn't fly out there. And then he's still just a giant. Yeah. Is it the fault of Christmas? Yeah.

Maybe the Grinch stole Cororea i don't know and the timing also just in terms of like the battle for attention in new york i'm sure this was of course completely coincidental but the fact that this broke on the day that the yankees were introducing aaron Judge or reintroducing Aaron Judge. Like, oh, Aaron Judge was officially named captain. Gee, that's great. Pat the Yankees on the heads. Nice news you got there.

The Mets just swooped in and stole Carlos Correa away from the Giants. Like, that's the bigger headline. You're sort of someone who has been accustomed to the Mets playing second fiddle to the Yankees, whether spending wise or results wise or just attention wise in a major media market. That is no longer the case because they are just stealing the Yankees lunch money now. I mean, like the Yankees in any other city, any other year, like bringing back Judge, signing Carlos Redon, re-signing Anthony Rizzo, this would be like, hey, all right, great offseason. You guys spent a lot. You got some superstars or kept some superstars. That's exciting too. But they just happened to do it in an offseason when the Mets have spent $800 million and

counting in future payroll commitments and are bringing Carlos Correa when everyone wondered whether they were done. So that becomes the biggest news of the offseason, not the biggest player who signed, literally. I mean, like, yeah. And literally, that's true, right? How many times have we made some variation of that joke this offseason? I mean, it's just, you it's it's ripe for the picking can i say can i say something about the judge captain thing and i wanna so like i am famously not a yankees fan and i don't want to disrespect the particular customs of an of a group of people to which i am not a member and i understand this is like a sacred thing but i don't understand it it is a it is a

it is a custom that is that is foreign to me i mean like i understand what a captain is and i understand that like judah was the captain and then there was a long period a captainless period where interregnum an inter captain i don't know. Yeah, where the ship was just being steered by who knows. Yeah, rhetoric, roster. Yeah, but I want to be happy for all of you who find this gratifying. And I also, I don't get it particularly, but that's fine because it's not my team. It's not my favorite group of guys. But the solemnity with which it was treated.

Yeah, it's pretty silly. As a former Yankees fan, I can speak just from some experience. It's like, look, if you're a lifelong Yankee or likely to be, and you are someone who is both a superstar and also seen as sort of an unobjectionable role model and someone who is not going to say anything inflammatory to the press and you're a leader, then you're the captain. It's a purely ceremonial position, of course, and maybe it confers some kind of extra clubhouse credibility. But when you're Aaron Judge, you probably have all the clubhouse credibility you need,

whether you're officially technically captain or not. So in hockey, there's like an actual rules related function for captains. In baseball, not so much. It's just sort of a vestigial thing that is kind of left over maybe from the formative days of baseball. And I guess it's just a nice little honor you can confer on someone if you feel like it. Yeah, and it's a nice thing. And I don't mean to say it's not a nice thing. It is just some of why I think it strikes me is I'm like, I don't. It's because there's like there's the gravity of it, right?

Gravity of it. And then they're like. Everything with the Yankees just has to be. Well, but this is the thing. It's like there's the gravity of it. And then there are like 100 retired numbers. Yes. You know, you guys are going to have to start putting asterisks and little wingdings on the back of the jerseys at some point here.

And a Yankees fan would tell me, well, the reason there are so many retired numbers is because of the storied history of the franchise. And so I say, you know, fair, fair counterpoint. That's a fair counterpoint to me, Meg. But also sometimes the gap in vibes is just kind of funny. But yeah, I was like, part of it too is me being removed from New York as a media market and so not being in the day-to-day of Yankees and also being tired this morning because people were like, oh, the Jeter's here.

It's going to happen. And I was like, were there managerial rumors attached to him or something? And I was like, oh, right, the captain him or something and I was like oh right the captain thing captain changing of the guard is there a patch? Jeter actually he was wearing an un-Yankee like

level of facial hair I don't know that that would have flown when he was captain like it was beyond scruff it was scruff I guess it was beyond five o'clock shadow oh so maybe it's now that he is no longer captain like judge he can really pass the this is another indication he has passed the torch right yeah because he's got he doesn't have to shave every day because the responsibility is the weighty responsibilities of being the captain

no longer lie heavy on his shoulders so if he wants to not shave today that's okay yeah oh man i am exhausted ben yeah this was really something i mean steve cohen's the captain now i guess of new york when it comes to attention in a baseball context. So, man, can't believe that that happens. It's shocking. It is a stunner, you know? And now I feel like we have to not use that word in headlines for a while, right? We need to, we're done for a stretch

with stunner and shocker and... I know, because I mentioned in my piece, like, Jeff Passan used the word staggering to describe the Mets payroll prior to Correa. Right. Again, before Carlos Correa, without Carlos Correa. So how do you go up from staggering? Well... I went with stupefying. Oh, stupefying is good.

Which I think is slightly higher on the mountain, like the hierarchy of expressing surprise. Yeah, but like at a certain point, you're like, you know, if you are crushed under a big rock, if you put another big rock on top of it, it's like, yeah, it's technically heavier, but you've already been crushed by the big rock. So it's like, again, it's a matter of degree and not category. crushed by the big rock so it's like again it's a matter of degree and not category so you know it's like uh i think it's man i can't believe it i just want to i want to say i'm gonna i don't believe in jinxing ben i'm not a jinx heavy person it's like it's very magical but i want to say the following which is that i have primed us to have to cut in with a true emergency pod like on christmas day with my what could possibly be bigger so i just want to say to jerry and aj don't get any ideas you guys okay somebody go lock those two in a closet right remind

them that they like their families somebody do something you know take their phones away don't try to top this this can't be topped it can't be topped famous last words but you might try but you don't want to trade fernando tatis jr right now aj his value is the lowest it's ever been so don't don't do that because it would be a bad time and jerry i know you keep saying it but you don't actually have that much left to trade so don't try that either you know stop. You're not getting Brian Reynolds. Yeah. No, this is the actual embodiment of the onion headline from 20 years ago about the Yankees ensuring that they win the pennant by signing every player in baseball, right? I mean, it's not quite that, but it's about as close as we're going to get. And Steve Cohen,

when he purchased the team, he said, if we don't win a World Series in the next three to five years, I'd consider that slightly disappointing. And it'll be three years come next November when the World Series wraps up. So this is the price he'll pay to avoid slight disappointment, I suppose, and to inflict large disappointment on other teams. I mean, I feel bad for the Giants fans, but this is tremendous content. Just like, I mean, Carlos Correa under cover of darkness. I would watch White Lotus season three. That's just like Steve Cohen sipping martinis and signing Carlos Correa in the middle of the night on the East coast. So just so much happened here and I guess we have discussed it. Yeah. I'm afraid to look at my phone. I know. So just so much happened here. And I guess we have discussed it.

Yeah. I'm afraid to look at my phone. I know. I'm afraid to, Ben. So here we are. Wow. Wow. Really something.

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed our enthusiasm for this subject. And the last thing I want to say, this is unrelated. I think we've exhausted our Met our our Mets Correa Cohen content it's really just the gift that keeps giving yeah I mean we already did almost a full episode on Cohen's payrolls like and the high range in the Mets versus the Orioles at the bottom and what does this mean for baseball and the long-term implications, and little did we know. Little did we know. That Carlos Correa was going to be a Met also. A New York Met. I, Ben, I said to other Ben today how sad I was that I had already used the shruggy face picture of Correa

for his piece about very long deals because it would have been perfect for this, but I'd already used it, so then I had to do him doing a thumbs up. I had to be like, thumbs up, Korea. You know? Yep. What if, Ben, you know the only other thing

that could make it wilder? You know what? And I don't think it'll happen, to be clear. I don't think it'll happen. But what if he failed his physical with the Mets? Well, yeah. What if he fails his Mets physical? At that point, yeah.

I mean, you would almost worry about Carlos Correa. But also, I think Andy Martino said that there could be a grievance if they were to back out of the deal because Cohen has already discussed it on the record. So I don't know if he's locked himself in at this point or if he'd have to pay another fine for dealings that aren't completely legal or what. Anyway, I- He might just view that as the cost of doing business. All we have to look at as precedent is his entire financial career. Yeah, there is a bit of a track record there. But yeah, hopefully this will not linger for weeks, but I'll be there if Heyman breaks any news at 238 on Thursday or Friday. We'll see.

I did just want to say, just to close it, I noted that because the Pirates do not sign players like Carlos Correa, they do such things as make hype videos for Vince Velasquez, which we covered last week. And we gave some grief to the Pirates social media folks who were probably just following instructions from on high. But another just great moments in the Pirates promoting their players and their transactions. This was brought to my attention by RJ Anderson,

who tweeted out a screenshot from the Pirates press release about signing Austin Hedges to a one-year contract. And here's what RJ wrote. Until today, I don't think I had ever seen a press release that omitted a position player's offensive statistics. Doesn't matter, of course, but it does make the Pirates innovators in a certain sense. Oh, that's great. Someone immediately responded by linking to the Vince Velasquez hype video. But I read the press release. It's true. It's all about like Austin Hedges' defensive run

saved and his framing and his catcher ERA. And we're so happy to have one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. Just you would not know that hitting is part of his job description from this. It's just he's a catcher. What else do we need to mention in this? I mean, we're talking about his catching, right? Just no indication that he has ever batted in the big leagues. That's great. That is part of his job.

Just leave it out, you know, like, hey, maybe they won't notice that he can't hit at all. And look, I like a good catcher who can't hit at all and makes up the value by framing and other harder to quantify contributions. So I'm in favor. I'm glad we still have some Jeff Mathis type catchers out there and we will at least until RoboUps take over. But this is a strategy, you know? I mean, like maybe there's no way to catch it that doesn't sound like you were just dumping on the player you signed because his hitting was so bad. I'm sure they're not thinking that they'll fool anyone. Like, hey, we'll get everyone hyped

about this Austin Hedges, unless like some fans maybe who are not familiar with Austin Hedges' work, they might see this and think, wow, look at this guy we got, and not look up his baseball reference page or do the research necessary to evaluate the other aspects of his job performance.

Anyway, just points for creativity to the Pirates here. It's more than $100 million of just projected payroll difference between the Mets and the next highest team. I know we said it like a couple of different ways, but I just want to say it this way. More than a hundred million? Yeah. I think just purely the tax money that they will pay. Yes. That alone is higher than the projected payroll of like 10 teams at least. Yes. Yes.

Which again, like I'm not saying that's an indictment of the Mets. I'm saying it's an indictment of the teams that are not spending. But still, wow, that puts things into perspective. I hate to keep using them as a benchmark, but I'm going to keep using them as a benchmark. The projected tax bill is only $20 million less than the Mariners payroll. Ben. Yeah. And the Mariners are a pretty good team. Yeah, that is true. They could be a better team, but they are a pretty good team. You know, I think the only thing that would have been close to as funny

about the Austin Hedges thing is if they had used like, if they were like, he had a 90 WRC plus in 2018. Like if they were like, what is the best option we got here? Yeah. That one. 2018 like if they were like what is the best option we got here yeah or like uh from may 3rd to may 18th he had a 93 ops plus yes yes just the the most extreme arbitrary end points and cherry pick stats to make him look good yeah yeah anyway and and the very last thing. So this had implications that Carlos Correa's new deal, I guess, made your free agent contracts over under draft a little worse because you had the over. Oh, now it's terrible.

Yeah, you had the over on Correa and that was a huge windfall for you and now it's less of a windfall for you. I think it was over by that point anyway. Okay, well, that was unnecessarily rude. Excuse you, Ben. I'm just saying his medicals and whatever the giants say, they didn't cost you the win necessarily. Right. They just made your total look a little less respectable, but still good. What did I have as the over? I don't remember that.

I mean, I know I took the over, but what was his original projection from Trade Rumors? Do you have it handy? Yeah, it was nine years, 288. Okay. So I, okay. So yeah, at least I was directionally correct on Brandon Drury, who also signed and was slightly overshadowed in short order by Carlos Correa. But he was predicted to make $18 million over two years, and he got $17 million instead. So I barely missed. It doesn't have implications really when it comes to the draft. But I bring that up purely to say I kind of like what the angels are i know i'm curious about it we should just yeah yeah we want to i don't want to we need to talk about it though

we maybe need to talk about the aos next time not we don't need to do it this time i think yeah we need to we maybe need to have a an aos combo i. I think it's time. Yeah. Okay. Next time we'll lead with the Angels unless something else extraordinary happens in the interim. Oh, boy. He's a Met. Incredible. All right. Well, after we finished recording, the Mets made a couple more moves.

I know. Who could have seen that coming? I guess the first one actually would have surprised us. They signed another infielder, Danny Mendick, just what they needed. More predictably, and in fact, we had alluded to this possibility, they traded catcher James McCann to the Orioles. And as we said, if they traded one of these players who was newly redundant, it wouldn't be so much because they absolutely had to save money. In this case, they'll still be paying for most of McCann's contract, $19 million of the $24 million remaining.

But they thought he didn't really have a place on the team anymore. So, hey, they get $5 million and they get a player to be named later. We'll see what Mets moves the morrow brings. Another thing that happened after we finished recording is that Jacob Pomeranke sent me a pass blast, which I will share with you now. Jacob is Sabres Director of Editorial Content and Chair of the Black Sox Scandal Research Committee. And this is episode 1945, so the pass blast comes from 1945. And Jacob writes, 1945, he never had it made. The story of Jackie Robinson signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 23, 1945,

has been well documented. Less well known is the story of his future teammate, Homestead Grays pitcher John Wright, who was quietly signed by Dodgers president Branch Rickey a few weeks later. It was John Wright's signing that prompted Negro League's team owners to rise up in protest at Branch Rickey's blatant disregard of their players' contracts and what they correctly perceived as an existential threat to the future of the Black Baseball Leagues. Here's a report from the St. Louis Globe Democrat on November 13, 1945. The Negro National and American Leagues revealed today

that they had filed an official protest with Baseball Commissioner A.B. Happy Chandler on the signing of Jackie Robinson, a member of the Kansas City Monarchs, by Brooklyn President Branch Rickey for the Dodgers Montreal Farm in the International League. In a letter addressed to Chandler, the two league presidents said they wished it understood they were glad to see Negro players get the opportunities to play in white organized baseball, but were protesting the way it was done. Charging Rickey with piracy, Dr. J.B. Martin, president of the Negro American League, and Tom Wilson, National League prexy, insisted that Robinson had made a verbal agreement to play with the Monarchs in 1946, but was lured away by the Dodgers boss. but was lured away by the Dodgers boss. They also charged representatives of the Dodgers with tampering with organized Negro baseball players,

naming one, John Wright, a pitcher for the Homestead Grays, who spent last season in the armed services. Branch Rickey was not immediately available for comment. At the time he signed Robinson, Rickey said he considered Negro League baseball, quote, in the zone of a racket. Martin and Wilson said that the two Negro League circuits operate on constitutions, keep minutes of their meetings, and have player contracts just the same as any white league. They exhibited a copy of a letter from Clark Griffith, president of the Washington Senators, praising them on their stand and urging them to protect the existence of the two Negro Leagues against anyone trying to tear it down. I imagine he may have had other motives for sending that letter. Jacob concludes their protests were ignored by Commissioner Happy Chandler and Branch Rickey, who later said he didn't consider the Negro National League and

American Leagues to be real leagues at all. Rickey and other white baseball owners continued to raid the two Negro Leagues of their best players for years to come, only occasionally paying out pennies on the dollar for future stars such as Monty Irvin of the Newark Eagles, Willie Mays of the Birmingham Black Barons, and Henry Aaron of the Indianapolis Clowns. The Negro National League folded in 1948, and the Negro American League limped along until 1960. Meanwhile, John Wright was assigned to the Montreal Royals with Robinson in 1946, but he struggled to adapt to the white minor leagues and was released by the Dodgers in January 1947, three months before Robinson was called up to Brooklyn to make his historic debut. I'm glad Jacob chose to highlight this one because as much as Branch Rickey is deservedly celebrated

for being the one to give Robinson a chance, A, he did have other motivations, besides just the moral rectitude of breaking the color barrier, and B, there was a cost to that. And obviously he didn't go about it in a way that showed great respect for the teams and leagues he was poaching these players from. You can support Effectively Wild on Patreon by going to patreon.com slash effectively wild. The following five listeners have already signed up and pledged some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going.

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You can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at r slash effectively wild. Thanks to Dylan Higgins for his editing and production assistance. We will be back with one more episode before the end of the week. Talk to you then. Oh, all the words I should not know. We will be back with one more episode before the end of the week. Talk to you then. up and from their syllable won't let me get to sleep