00:00So let's talk about what has been a wild 24 hours in the baseball world. Let's start with the big,
00:06big, big signing of the offseason, as Kyle Tucker is on his way to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a
00:12gigantic contract that has sent the baseball world all over the place.
00:18So, Major League Baseball's evil empire now resides in Los Angeles. After that was the
00:33nickname of the Yankees for a long time, the Dodgers have one-upped what the Bronx Bombers
00:38of that era were doing with the signing of Kyle Tucker, a $60 million contract that when you
00:44luxury tax and everything will cost the Dodgers $126 million. And there are a lot of different ways
00:52you can go and look at this one. Let's start with what it means for the Dodgers. And obviously,
00:58the World Series champions get better. And from a baseball standpoint, I think there's a reason why
01:04this aspect of it hasn't been discussed as much. And that's because we already were talking about
01:12the best team in baseball. And now it's just, it is tough to comprehend when you have a top of the
01:18lineup of Otani, Betts, Freeman. Now you're adding Kyle Tucker to it with then Muncy behind and Teoscar
01:27Hernandez and Will Smith, one of the best catchers in the sport. This is the juggernaut, the likes of
01:36which we have not seen in a really long time. And look, like the Dodgers, obviously, back-to-back
01:42World Series championships. They won this year not playing their best. This was not their best season.
01:49And they got pushed to the limit by the Blue Jays in a series that, when you look back on it,
01:55Toronto probably should have won. When we're talking about different decisions that could have been made
01:59in the 18 inning game, when you're looking at the ball that gets wedged in the outfield. And just a
02:07couple, we don't have to go back over it, but the Blue Jays had a lot of opportunities to beat the
02:11Dodgers. And LA still comes out on top in a season where they weren't their best, in a season where they
02:18had a team that felt like a team of destiny going up against them. And now, like, Sasaki is only going
02:27to get better. And then you add in, um, you add in Diaz at the back of that bullpen, which was the
02:33only, like, flaw that this team had. And now, instead of, okay, well, let's just make a bit of
02:39a tweak here in the outfield. You go get the best free agent in the sport, then it just, it feels very
02:45juggernaut-ish to me. So, for the Dodgers, like, I don't, I don't begrudge the Dodgers for what they
02:51are doing here. This is the system that they are in, and I think more teams should be like this.
02:56Instead of, okay, well, we have this hole. Well, we can plug it with this guy. It's like, okay,
02:59we have this hole. Let's get the best player available for that. Um, so, like, credit to
03:06them. I wish more teams were as aggressive. And the Blue Jays have been aggressive, but, um, it just,
03:11it has fallen short a number of different times. I was saying with the Bregman contract that it's
03:18tough for me to analyze contracts in baseball because it's just, it, there's no salary cap. Just pay them.
03:23If you can afford it, pay them. And all these teams can afford it, so just, just do it. I, like, I had a
03:27tough time saying, okay, well, this guy's overpaid. Well, this guy's overpaid. Like, well, look at what
03:31the Blue Jays just did. They made a hundred million dollars for their owners with their run to the
03:38postseason and within a run of the World Series. A hundred million dollars. So, that pays for any
03:44investment you want to make in any player. And so, I was saying, like, man, I don't, like, it's, it's tough
03:49to say there's a bad contract in baseball. These, these have come close. Um, like, this is an absurd
03:55amount of money to be paying what is probably seventh most important player on your baseball
04:02team. Um, like, just, just an insane, insane, insane amount of money. A $60 million contract
04:11for Kyle Tucker. I just, like, when I saw the news, I was really frustrated by it. And then you see the
04:18contract, it's like, I can't even, you can't even get upset at the Blue Jays not doing that. Or, uh,
04:22the Mets or the Yankees or whoever. Like, that's just, that is absurd to, to sign that guy. And for
04:28Tucker, I don't begrudge going out and getting paid because that's a lot of money, right? Like, that's,
04:36that absurd amount of money. I would like to be the one on the receiving end of a sort of, uh,
04:40absurd amount of money at some point in my life. Um, that being said, some of the reasoning in the
04:46reporting behind it feels borderline cowardly when it's like, well, he didn't really want to go to
04:52Toronto and he didn't want to be like the face of the franchise type of a guy. So he thought he
04:57could go to the Dodgers, still be competitive, still be a big part of it, but not have to be
05:01the guy. And it's like, man, that's, that just kind of goes against a lot of what you would want
05:06someone making that amount of money to be. So I, I, I joked about it. We did a Twitch stream,
05:11um, when the, the news, uh, when the Bo news broke, uh, talking about a different, a few
05:16different things. And I, I joked, but it's not entirely inaccurate. If, if Tucker would have
05:23signed with the Blue Jays, there are some things that obviously we'd be overlooking. And now that
05:26he hasn't, they all of a sudden become main character plots for him. But you did hear some
05:32stuff about how he's not awesome in the locker room. And now to have that come out and say like,
05:38he didn't want to be the one kind of carrying everything, but still be paid like someone
05:42carrying everything. Um, it just, there are a couple of red flags that are popping up around
05:47this guy that maybe make it feel like this is not the worst player that you missed out on talent wise.
05:54There's no question about it. And he's going to be amazing with the Dodgers and everything like
05:59that. But it's just, yeah, there's a couple of things that have popped up that make it a little
06:03bit like, Hmm, maybe, maybe an unanswered prayers sort of a situation happening. Uh, but again,
06:08if he signed with the Blue Jays, I would not be talking about, Hey, you know, a couple of red
06:11flags. Um, so I, I'm, I'm in fully admitting some bias on this on the Blue Jays front. I said this
06:17again on the Twitch stream, this I think needs to signal to Toronto that a strategic shift has to
06:26happen now. And they got to within again, a heartbeat of the world series a few times. So what they did
06:32worked last season, but this whole go out, make a big presentation, a big splash for the big name
06:40free agents and hope that, um, hope that it works and have it stall out for a while. And then, Oh,
06:46it didn't work. What are we going to do? This has been three off seasons in a row. And now Toronto,
06:50this off season got their work done early, at least so they could afford to just kind of sit back
06:55and wait. But if they were maybe that aggressive in the bow market, maybe our next segment was going
07:01to be about Bobachette sticking with Toronto, right? Like it, it was obvious who the apple of
07:05their eye was. And it is feeling more and more obvious that the Blue Jays are being strung along
07:12in these to boost up the, the value of these contracts rather than a real legitimate thing.
07:20Cause there's, there is never going to be a better time to recruit players to Toronto than now. When you
07:26hear all the stuff about the clubhouse, all the stuff about how this team was amazing for
07:30families to be with and all of that. And then to add onto it, they gave the Dodgers an incredible
07:37scare. This was the time that they were going to be able to recruit someone big, like a Kyle Tucker
07:42to be able to come in and really just put that team away. And they didn't do it. And so now I think you
07:48have to accept those guys aren't coming to Toronto, whether it's because of Canada, whether it's because
07:52of this, that, and the other thing, who knows, but they're not, they're not coming here. They don't want
07:57to have to get their passport out every time they come home from a road trip, which seems like the
08:01most pampered ass shit you could think of. But that apparently is where these players are coming
08:06from. So whatever, I think you now have to pivot and try to own the second tier of free agents and
08:13try to, okay, we, we, we have our star in Vlad. We had a secondary one in Bowen, that's one, but you have
08:20your star in Vlad. Now let's build around it with like the second tier of guys and really own that
08:25area and continue to improve the draft develop system that they have going on. That there were
08:32quite a few success stories from this minor league system over the last 18 months. I think there need
08:37to be more of them now. Like this just, this isn't working now. It's not, it's three strikes and you're
08:42out. I think you have to pivot now strategically if you are the Blue Jays. And we'll, we'll talk more
08:49about what they have missed out on with Bow here. Like, obviously that's the, the next thing that
08:53we're going to be talking about, but for them, this is still a good off season. Like it is still
09:00a successful one. And this is still a team that is better than the one that exited the world series.
09:06But that is because of the pitching. Now the offense is not for a 162 game season. It's not like
09:13they, they made a great run in the playoffs without Boba Shett, but I don't think they get to the
09:17playoffs without him. And that's like the guy who led the league, almost led the league in hits
09:23with missing the last month of the season. And they really missed him in that last month of the
09:29season before they were able to turn it around, excuse me, after Kirk got thrown out at first
09:34base from right field. So this is, this is obviously a hit for Toronto to not get one of these two guys
09:42would have made them the stone cold walk favorite out of the American league. And there's still time.
09:48I think there is probably still a move coming for this blue Jays team, but they're going to have to
09:52get a little bit more creative in everything that they are doing. So, um, that's the, the thoughts kind
09:58of from the Tucker, uh, side from him, the Dodgers and the blue Jays. What do you guys think?
10:03Have I been unfair in any of my assessments of this? Let me know in the comments and we can chat about it
10:10down there. And while you're at it, share this with some of your baseball fan friends, whether it is
10:14sharing in the misery of Tucker joining with the Dodgers or another free agent that got away for the
10:19blue Jays. Let me, um, let, let, let your baseball friends know that we're thinking about them and we
10:24can keep that conversation going with all of them.
Comments