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Will Tarik Skubal remain in Dodger Blue, or will the looming MLB CBA lockout force a massive change across baseball free agency?
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00:00And in the free agency, I guess, signing window for Major League Baseball, and we are approaching a potential lockout
00:09with these CBA conversations and negotiations starting to heat up.
00:15And we got another little snid bit yesterday. And what we got is that Major League Baseball is proposing a
00:24salary cap of two hundred and fifty eight point two million dollars with a salary floor of one hundred and
00:32eighty point two million dollars.
00:35So when you look at this and the current landscape of what teams yearly payroll is right now, there are
00:47six teams currently over that cap.
00:52You have the Mets, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Blue Jays and the Braves, but you have 16
01:03teams that are below that floor, which that right there is the major issue because more than half of the
01:13league has a lower payroll than you are proposing there to be a cap floor.
01:21So with all of this conversation around the top six teams that you think are overpaying, the focus and the
01:31real conversation needs to be around how majority of this league and majority of these owners are not paying enough
01:41to put together what you think is a fair team.
01:44And you have four teams that were just in the playoffs in that bottom 16 is most notably the two
01:51teams that were just in the World Series.
01:54You have Milwaukee, who's that 19th spending 100 just over one hundred forty six million.
02:00And you have Tampa Bay at 28th, not even at one hundred million sitting at ninety five.
02:05And that's the biggest takeaway from here is ownership keeps providing a higher floor.
02:15And while the the takeaway from there is, oh, don't you want to take advantage of the minor league guys?
02:21Don't you want to to to to make sure that the road to being a superstar is smoother than the
02:29one that you had to take?
02:30Like, isn't it so selfish of Shohei to sign a seven hundred million dollar deal when there's a minor league
02:36guy who has to stay in a motel and all these things?
02:38And that's that's the angle that they're going to take when really it's what you just brought up of.
02:44So you could have been spending more money this entire time.
02:49Yeah.
02:49You're just choosing not to.
02:50And that's where the argument from ownership kind of falls on itself, because they're sitting there saying.
02:58The the the unfairness is because we can't spend the amount that other teams are spending.
03:07But then your proposal says, oh, we can definitely spend the amount that other teams are spending.
03:12Because half of the league, half of the owners would have to spend some double, a significant amount more to
03:22actually qualify in what this new proposal would be.
03:26There is a as a fan, you you pay for parking and special television packages so that you can make
03:35sure you could see every single game and hot dogs and jerseys and all these things.
03:39There is an unspoken agreement of I'm willing to spend this money to support the team because I know you
03:47guys are trying to win.
03:49Which is why Dodger games are packed even on a Monday or a Tuesday.
03:54Like there is an expectation of if I'm going to pay these overinflated prices, you are going to try to
04:01win games.
04:02And that's the agreement of our relationship.
04:05But what we're seeing right now is the bottom half of baseball is not trying to win.
04:12They're trying to make money.
04:14Every professional organization, every business is is trying to make money in the sports world.
04:20But they're not holding down their part of that unspoken agreement with the fan.
04:26And I hope that fans of these teams from 16 to 30, actually just a fan of any team that
04:34that wants there to be a salary cap because it thinks it's going to improve their odds.
04:39I would point back to this as proof that winning is not the priority of these owners.
04:45It is the profit margin.
04:47Can I just say there's like eight or nine that would actually fall into this right now?
04:51Is that right?
04:52That's it.
04:52The Cubs, the Padres, the Red Sox, the Tigers, the Giants, the D-backs and the Rangers.
05:00Eight.
05:01Eight of the 30.
05:03Wow.
05:03Yeah.
05:03That would fall into like what they're looking to propose right now.
05:06But let's use the champs for an example here.
05:09The Brewers.
05:10Right.
05:10Because you were saying it comes down to ownership wanting to make money.
05:17And the Brewers, like they had the worst fall from grace leading into the World Series in terms of letting
05:24their fans down.
05:25What they did was it like 10 years ago they put out these golden tickets where fans could pay $1
05:31,000 for this golden ticket to be used at any time.
05:35So these are like they put out a what was it a thousand of them a thousand for a thousand
05:40dollars.
05:41So a quick mill is what the Brewers made off of that with no guarantee of like when would this
05:47ever be cashed in?
05:48Nobody knows.
05:49So once they made it to the World Series, everyone tried to cash in.
05:53And what did they do?
05:55Gave them nosebleeds.
05:57Ten years ago, these fans gave you a thousand dollars.
06:00It's just burned a thousand dollars because they love this team, not like really knowing if that thousand dollars would
06:08ever, I mean, pay off in the end.
06:11And when it did, Brewers ownership basically slapped them in the face and was like, yeah, no, no, no, you
06:17can get one of the tickets up here.
06:18Like that right there shows that you don't care and understand what these fans are doing and sacrificing for you
06:27and for this team.
06:29I don't like how the ownership that are on the side of pushing for this salary cap are are trying
06:38to pin themselves as as the victims instead of looking at the fans as the victims.
06:44Like as a fan, the ownership of the team that you root for is outwardly saying we are not interested
06:50in winning.
06:50We just want to run this like a standard business.
06:54Like this isn't a restaurant.
06:56I don't root for restaurants.
06:58I don't root for for a store that sells office chairs.
07:02Like I'm rooting for a sports team and the competitors out there are trying as hard as they can.
07:07But you're putting a cap on their ability to win if you are not going to invest in the team.
07:12No one is forcing you to own a sports franchise.
07:16You chose to own it.
07:18And if you want to run your team that way and not be interested in actually winning, that is your
07:25right.
07:25But you don't get to point at the teams who want to make money and also win and say that
07:30they're the bad guys just for putting in more capital, more, more, more effort into winning than you're willing to
07:38put forward.
07:39Like the whole thing is backwards and I go back to the point of the higher that the ownership raises
07:46the proposed salary floor, the more they are admitting that they have not been interested in actually winning.
07:52I just think there should be a floor like I'm just like there just needs to be a salary floor
07:58like baseball has always been like the no cap league and it's what makes it so different.
08:05And it's what it's always been. I don't see the players agreeing to any sort of salary cap and they
08:13shouldn't.
08:13It's just tough because when when you have hundreds, thousands of players that aren't going to be getting paid for
08:23X amount of time, then you have billionaires who are going to be just fine, even if they're losing money
08:27like they probably have other businesses that they have income from.
08:30This isn't their soul. This isn't their soul income. I mean, most sports franchises are like tax write offs because
08:38you write them off as a loss until you actually sell the team and make your millions and billions of
08:42dollars.
08:43It's just my heart goes out to the the lower paid, the minor league, like all the guys that are
08:52just literally getting by mainly the minor league, like check to check on everything that's going by, like with this
08:59CBA and however long the lockouts going to be.
09:02But like the floor, like it just needs there just needs to be a floor. But do you see a
09:07world where we actually get a floor without a cap?
09:09No, because they're not going to offer one without the other. And I just I just don't know how this
09:18is going to to come to pass because both sides are are firmly entrenched in where they stand and ownership
09:25keeps sweetening the pot saying, is this better?
09:29Is this better? Is this better? Is this better? And the player side is saying, we don't care what you
09:35put in the pot.
09:36It's the pot itself that we don't like. So stop. Stop trying to fill the pot. Our issue is the
09:41pot.
09:41So I'll stick with the idea that there is going to be half of a season of baseball.
09:48There's a ton of complications that come with that.
09:50I just don't I just don't see a a resolution appearing anytime soon.
09:57So there was a part of the conversation we didn't get to.
10:02And I want to on the other side of this fan check. Jake, did you have something?
10:05Yeah, I kind of wanted to ask if you guys think that if from a player's perspective, do you feel
10:11like if they were, you know, sacrificing?
10:14Maybe you're not going to have your huge Albert Pujols, 10, 12 year contracts in negotiations, but you don't get
10:20a salary cap.
10:21Is that a win from a negotiation standpoint?
10:23In terms of like you just you're not going to have the longevity of a contract.
10:27Yeah. So like instead, if they go, all right, MLB owners don't want to pay these guys 10 year, 12
10:31year contracts because their contracts never age well.
10:34No. So if in the negotiations they go, OK, fine, no salary cap.
10:38But instead, maximum of like six year deals, five year deals.
10:42Interesting.
10:42I could see that being a quality resolution because from from a player standpoint, what you want is the ability
10:50to to control how many years you play.
10:53Yeah. And yeah. Signing a 12 year deal is inherently kind of ridiculous, but it has become the norm.
11:00And there's an agreement of baseball of it took you forever to get here.
11:04So we're going to give you a bunch of money on the back end that we should have been giving
11:08you on the front end.
11:10But I do see that as as a possible resolution.
11:14But again, as as a player, you just want the ability to go out there and play and say, as
11:18long as I'm playing at a high level, I will continue to get paid.
11:21The average the average the average MLB career, the average professional baseball career.
11:27Now, let me not don't let me specify to MLB is four years.
11:32So for those who are good enough to make it past that four years, they will continue to get rewarded,
11:38even if it is shorter contracts.
11:40And it would be more likely that that 30 million dollars that you make a year will be spread across
11:46the five or six teams that you play for instead of the two or three teams that you play for.
11:52Jake, that's a that's a great point.
11:54Yeah, that is a good point. I want to continue this conversation.
11:56We got to get to the fan check real quick.
11:57We'll continue it. And I want to I want to get into what does this mean for the top free
12:02agents, especially like right now with the CBA ending December.
12:07Is it December 1st? 1st. Yeah. Yeah. OK, we'll be right back.
12:11We're talking for free. This has been your fan check. I'm Lindsay Bayatis.
12:15Back to Brock and Alex on the new 97.1 The Fan, the voice of L.A. sports.
12:31What's up, L.A.? Welcome back to Brock and Alex on the new 97.1 The Fan, the voice of
12:35L.A. sports.
12:36I'm Alex Curry here with former NFL DB Brock Vereen. Thank you for spending your midday in L.A.
12:41with us. Whether you're tuning in on the radio, the Odyssey app or watching us live on YouTube, we appreciate
12:45you being here.
12:46Now, we just spent the last segment talking about the new MLB proposed salary cap and salary floor with the
12:55cap being at 258.2 million
12:57and the floor being at 180.2 million. Now, there are currently six teams over what that proposed cap would
13:05be and half, if not more than half of the league that is under the floor that they propose.
13:13So, what does this mean when the CBA, the current CBA, expires on December 1st?
13:21What does that mean for the free agents right now that are looking for a new home?
13:25And Dodger fans, specifically, Tarek Skubal.
13:28The rental that we got at the trade deadline, who, by the end and towards the playoffs, we finally started
13:36to see the Tarek Skubal that won the two Cy Youngs.
13:41You have to remember his season was coming off of that same loose body's elbow surgery that Blake Snell and
13:48we also saw Edwin Diaz get for the Dodgers.
13:52So, we didn't get a fully healthy Skubal in that little window that we have. Healthy, but like not full
14:01potential.
14:02But he is going into this, currently in this offseason of free agency, as the top free agent.
14:10Now, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan, he will be making his decision by December 1st, before the CBA expires, which
14:20I've been saying this from the get-go.
14:22He should, because if he's projected to make between $300 and $400 million, who can actually pay that when you
14:32look at who's willing to spend money, who has the money?
14:35And if he signs with a team before this new CBA, then you kind of get grandfathered in, because you
14:44can have the excuse of, well, we had this contract before, whatever the new rules end up being, whenever it
14:50gets decided.
14:52But when you look at that kind of money, the $300 to $400 million contract, who can actually pay that?
15:01And I think there's maybe a handful of teams that can do it.
15:06And you got to look at the two teams at the top who have the most, which is the Mets
15:10and the Dodgers.
15:12I know the Cubs were really interested in him, but are they willing to pay that money?
15:17I think an outlier to keep an eye on, just because of new ownership, is going to be the Angels
15:24and Stan Kroenke, who is now, once the sale officially goes through,
15:29he will be the richest owner in Major League Baseball.
15:33And you know he's going to come in swinging, wanting to make a big impact.
15:36But again, still waiting to see or hear when that officially goes through, what this new CBA is going to
15:44look like.
15:45And then also what Tarek wants, because you can go for who's going to give you the most money, but
15:54also what's going to be the best fit.
15:57And this is the debate that we have around athletes across all sports, is it's up to the athlete.
16:04Do they want to get their bag and just get the most money that they can?
16:07Or do they want to go to a team where they can still get paid, but maybe not top dollar,
16:13but have an opportunity to win championships?
16:16Perfectly put, I would add to that, by signing Tarek Skubal to a $350-plus million contract, which is what
16:29is expected,
16:30as an owner, you are exiting the conversation of, we should have a salary cap.
16:38Now the Dodgers, while on the side of ownership, because they are all going to have loyalty toward one another
16:44at the end of the day,
16:46while the Dodgers are firmly on, the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets are firmly on the side of,
16:50you guys are just mad because you don't have money like us.
16:53Yeah.
16:53If it is one of the non-Dodgers or New York teams, how do you give Tarek Skubal that big
17:01of a contract
17:02and then turn around and say we need to have a salary cap, right?
17:04So that's why I do see this as a risk.
17:08Scott Boris is obviously the man and a very rich man for a lot of reasons because he is able
17:14to anticipate and predict
17:16and he's made a lot of clients happy.
17:19But I want to like just, I remember Blake Snell, it was like right after he left the Padres
17:24and right after he won a Cy Young and Boris is his agent, like he wasn't signed until like weeks
17:31before the season started.
17:33It was very quiet.
17:34It was.
17:34Because he was holding out.
17:36And that's the risk that they've run into.
17:40It's, you, the, if there was, if they weren't heading to a lockout, then your free agency begins with all
17:4830 teams.
17:48Yes.
17:49Knowing that only 10 of them are actually going to give offers worth listening to.
17:53But it starts with all 30.
17:54I don't even feel it starts with all 30 because you have so many teams that are going to say,
17:59if we go get Skubal, we have no argument for the salary cap.
18:02So we're out of this conversation.
18:04And I, I know that Tarek Skubal will get the most money of any free agent this offseason.
18:12I'm, I'm just curious how the amount compares to what he would have gotten if this wasn't a CBA negotiation.
18:20Oh yeah.
18:20This is a significant risk.
18:22Well, I mean, all contracts are going to change after this.
18:24I don't think we might not be able to see those giant contracts anymore.
18:28So this is also why I think the Dodgers are still a top contender for him because they are one
18:35of the few teams that are willing to still pay while they still can.
18:39And on top of that, like he saw behind the curtain of what a championship organization looks like and operates
18:47like.
18:47And once you have that experience and connection with his teammates, like him and Blake Snell or what big brother,
18:53little brother, thick as thieves.
18:55Like Blake Snell is going to have such a big influence and recruiting power.
19:00If there is any sort of like I'm between two teams, like we're getting similar offers.
19:06Like I don't see how Tarek Skubal, once he saw what, how the Dodgers operate, how they're run in terms
19:14of the coaching staff, the preparation, the support that they get, the team camaraderie and just the overall feeling in
19:23that clubhouse of being a championship team and knowing what it takes to win.
19:26How do you not want to go back to that, especially if they are in the ballpark of what any
19:31other team is offering you?
19:32So that's the thing. I will, I will phrase it like this. I think I, I think I've been wording
19:36it poorly for negotiations for, for that number to reach 350 million plus, there have to be multiple teams who
19:46are willing to put that on the table.
19:48Yeah. Right. Multiple teams come out and say 300 and then you go back and say six teams are at
19:53300. Who's willing to go to 315? And then you rise up, rise up.
19:56And before I know it, you're at a $380 million contract. If a bunch of teams are going to exit
20:02this negotiation before it even starts, because they are expecting rules to be in place that can restrict, or by
20:12signing Tarek Skubal, you feel you are hurting your point of why there needs to be a salary cap.
20:17That can limit the number of teams who are willing to enter the negotiations at all. So if the Dodgers
20:24come out and say, we're already enemy number one, we don't care. We'll just sign Skubal for whatever.
20:29But the, the, the conversation starts at $200 million and Boris says, that's a joke. Why would we sign that?
20:36The Dodgers say, okay, go find someone else.
20:38Who, who else is going to sign him before December 1st? Now, does that sour the, the, not the market,
20:46but does that sour the relationship going forward? Maybe. I mean, this is a hypothetical, but that's what I feel
20:54when I, when I call it a risk, that's what I feel is at risk.
20:58The Dodgers have more leverage than it seems, not just amongst the other teams, but amongst Skubal specifically, because they
21:05can say, until you prove there is another team that is willing to spend the way we are heading into
21:11the CBA in pretty short notice, we're going to low ball.
21:14Uh, and you know what, the teams that are willing, the Mets, do you want to go and be on
21:21a Mets team that doesn't know what winning looks like or the angels?
21:25Do you want to take that risk to be a part of a rebuild with new ownership and Stan Kroenke?
21:30And you can ask Shohei Otani, the biggest difference between the two teams, and he will be as blunt and
21:36honest with you as possible.
21:38Or do you, yeah, do you go with what you saw as championship caliber and the best of the best?
21:44You hear it from every player or pitcher that comes through the Dodgers, even if they're only there for part
21:50of a season, a year or two, they compare it to every other team they've been with.
21:54And there's just nothing like it across the league in terms of the information that they give players, the treatment
22:00that they give players, and just the coaching staff and the development department and everything they do to help you
22:08be the best version of yourself.
22:09The argument for why to sign to the Dodgers is very strong, and he got a couple months to experience
22:16that. But like any Boris client, we have to assume it is the highest bidder, and that process is going
22:24to be very complicated.
22:25I'm shocked that even if they internally agreed with one another, we're going to sign somewhere before December 1st, I'm
22:33surprised that Boris announced it, because I do actually feel teams willing to spend that can now lowball because they
22:41know you are putting a firm deadline on it.
22:43Oh, man. Feeling spicy about this, you guys. But we're the final countdown. If it's true, the reports that we're
22:50getting, he's going to make his decision before the current CBA expires on December 1st.
22:55We are officially on Tarek Scoobo Watch this month. You guys, eyes open.
22:59Watching closely.
23:01Ears open.
23:02Ears.
23:04Ears open. All right, you guys, we've got to step away for a quick break.
23:07When we come back, class is in session. NFL Confidential with Brock. Don't go anywhere.