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00:00We welcome you to our number two live right here on this Tuesday on the early line on sports grid.
00:06I am Ben Stevens. You know the German area is here, but let's not bury the lead to start this
00:10second hour. So too is our guy Jack McMullen joining us live right here on this Tuesday
00:18as the hot stove is starting to heat up in Major League Baseball with the biggest move of the
00:24winter already compete, complete I should say, the Juan Soto sweepstakes going the way of the
00:32New York Mets. We'll talk about Soto, the Mets, the outlook for the Amazons, and the rest of the
00:38moves we have already seen and expect to see the rest of this winter with Jack McMullen here over
00:45the next few segments to start this second hour. Jack, as always, we appreciate the time. Thanks
00:50for being here. I appreciate you having me. It was really nice that Soto didn't make us wait
00:56until what 2 a.m., 3 a.m. on Sunday night, Monday morning, because that's usually when we get the
01:01huge news like this. It was nice. It was before my bedtime, so I could, you know, take it in.
01:07I could understand it, and then I could go to bed, and I could get by eight hours.
01:11Listen, the hatch didn't even have to work overtime for you. I got the Soto news even
01:16before I went to bed on Sunday night. So, Jack, the Soto news was this. Juan Soto signing with
01:24the New York Mets for the richest and largest contract we have seen in the history of professional
01:30sports. 15 years, $765 million with escalators that could make this deal more than 800 mil
01:40in a player option for Juan Soto after five of those 15 years. Let me ask you the question like
01:48this, Jack, to get your initial reaction. Were you more surprised by the team, the New York Mets,
01:53that Juan Soto signed with, or the amount of money, $765 million that Juan Soto signed for?
02:04Not surprised by the team one bit. I'll be totally honest there, because I think if we got
02:08into a bidding war, the New York Mets were going to win the bidding war. And I think
02:12what the reported final figure from the Yankees was was 16 for 760, and the Mets were 15 for 765.
02:21It's $500 million in total value. It's also one less year, so a higher average annual value
02:28on the contract. The Mets won the bidding war clearly. Soto wanted to be in New York. I think
02:34anybody could understand that from the outset of this season, to be totally honest. I mean,
02:38he seemed to love New York. The question was, which borough does he want to be in? And I think
02:44the answer might have been total money and might have been average annual value. So we got that
02:49answer. It was the Mets. I was not surprised by the team. I was surprised by the money,
02:53and I'll tell you why. This is an asinine amount of money to give to somebody that isn't Shohei
03:00Ohtani. And the reason I say that, and I've sounded like a hater on a lot of outlets over
03:05the last couple days, but the reason I say that is Shohei Ohtani transcends baseball with what
03:10he does. He is a top three hitter on the planet, and he can throw 175 innings at a Cy Young caliber
03:17level. And he grabs an entire continent's marketing strategy, and he throws it at the
03:24LA Dodgers. There's so much more about the global phenomenon than just a really good hitter in a
03:29league average defender in Juan Soto. Mookie Betts made $365 million for 12 years. Aside
03:37from Mike Trout, that was the largest contract ever given to a position player. Juan Soto made
03:42$400 million more. It's more than double Mookie Betts' contract. But Jack, inflation. It was like
03:51five years ago that this happened. This is an insane amount of money, and I don't think any
03:58non-Ohtani player is worth even close to $700 million. So a lot of the rumors that we're
04:07hearing is, A, the Yankees had an opportunity to match the Mets bid, but they declined to,
04:13and why would you want to get into a bidding war with Cohen? We get that. But two, there was some
04:19thought that the reason he chose the Mets is because he didn't want to sit in judges' shadow.
04:24Judge is always going to be Mr. Yankee. Soto wasn't. Do you buy those reports that he wanted
04:31to be the face of a franchise, and the Mets were more than happy to give it to him?
04:36So my initial reaction, Joe, is like, I don't know. That doesn't matter. You can be the best
04:40one to punch the baseball scene since Ruth and Gehrig if you're there with Judge for a while,
04:46and the next five years could be special because we saw 2024 be special. But I mean, he said yes
04:51to five more million dollars. So maybe there is some validity to that. So I'm not sure if it's a
04:59Batman versus Robin thing. I don't think that Juan Soto was going to be Robin if he was wearing
05:03pinstripes next year. I think they can very well be co-Batman, and I think that Aaron Judge is
05:09willing to be co-Batman with Juan Soto. But the Mets are Soto's team. And my apologies to Francisco
05:16Lindor, because I think Francisco Lindor is awesome. And I think that after the NLCS, he
05:21could have very well run for mayor in New York City. I know that they were having some oral
05:25issues at the time, so he probably could have gotten it done. Yeah, sorry about that. But
05:32I will say, you know, like Soto usurps Lindor's star power tenfold. So he does get his wish to be
05:41the face of a franchise. So, Jack, let's dive into Juan Soto. You mentioned that maybe anybody
05:48not named Shohei Otani might not be worth the sticker shock that is three quarters of a billion
05:54dollars. But Juan Soto is still a very good baseball player. He has already been in the
06:00bigs for seven seasons and yet is just 26 years old. He has been an all-star for consecutive years.
06:07And Jack, it's really hard to argue that given his patience at the plate and the fact that
06:13annually basically he leads Major League Baseball or at least top three, top five in terms of
06:18drawing walks, he is one of the hardest bats in the sport to get out. Where do you rank Juan Soto
06:27perhaps in terms of the five, ten best players in Major League Baseball? I think he's in the
06:34conversation for three. I think Shohei Otani is the clear-cut number one. I think Aaron Judge
06:39has proven to this point over the last, you know, three, four years that he is the clear-cut number
06:44two. And then I think Soto falls in with Bobby Wood Jr., with Gunnar Henderson. I'm leaving a
06:50couple people off the top of my head right now. But I do think that Soto is a top three to five
06:55player in Major League Baseball. Now, that's my gripe. I don't think a top three to five player
07:00in Major League Baseball should be making $765 million. I think Juan Soto should have been a
07:05500, $550 million player because Mike Trout had signed the largest contract in the history of
07:12baseball before Shohei Otani last year. That was 426. Why can't Soto, who said no to 400, by the
07:19way, from Washington when he was still a Washington national, why can't he say yes to 550? Well,
07:26the market pushed it to a place that was $765 million. I think aggressively we can call him
07:33the third best player in Major League Baseball and the second or third best hitter in Major League
07:38Baseball. He is doing things that are unprecedented, right? He hit free agency with a level of success
07:46and a pedigree that was essentially unprecedented in baseball. He was a free agent at 26,
07:52and he has all of these accolades. He's won five silver sluggers by 26 years old. I understand that
07:58he's going to sign the richest contract in the history of a position player, but $765 million
08:05for a guy that is a league average defender in a corner outfield spot and could be a DH in six
08:09years? Really? Yeah. So, Jack, I mean, the question is that they're still the third best team in the
08:17National League East. Who are we kidding? How many World Series titles do you have to win, Jack,
08:22to make it, to make this worth the investment here? I'm just curious. I have no idea. Is it
08:29World Series titles? Is it jersey sales? Is it TV market rating? I don't know how you quantify value,
08:37and I don't know how the Dodgers quantified value for Shohei Otani. All I know is that they made a
08:41lot of money and more than $70 million, which is what the average price tag is for Shohei Otani
08:47over the course of a given deal. So, however they make money, it can probably be worth it.
08:52In terms of World Series titles, you'd like to see him win two. You'd like to see him win three.
08:58And it's clear that Steve Cohen has no issue spending money to complement Juan Soto and
09:04Francisco Lindor, the Clay Holmes deal. Apparently, they're in the Garrett Crochet
09:08conversation, which would be prospect capital. The Mets are not done.
09:12They will not be, and we'll look at that. We'll look at Jack McMullin, not done here yet,
09:17either next. We continue to look at the impact of Juan Soto signing with the New York Mets live
09:23right here on a Tuesday on the early line on SportsGrid, then to the rest of the hot stove
09:30that is now officially at a simmer. Jack McMullin joins us for yet another segment. Jack, are you
09:37repping the brand right now? Is that a just baseball mic flag that you have? That is beautiful.
09:43Look at that. I've got the SportsGrid on the actual mic itself. You can see it there.
09:53Joe, what do you have?
09:57I basically, I have a can and it's right in front of me and you can't see it. So that's
10:03basically it's a can and a long string right now to the studio. That's what we're working with here.
10:10If we go full to Joe and Harry right now, you'll see some images behind him that look like maybe
10:16some familiar faces at SportsGrid. But anyway, we'll save that for another time. Jack, we're
10:22debating Juan Soto, what he means to the New York Mets. And Joe mentioned it, right? Kind of the
10:28tongue-in-cheek joke of this all is does Juan Soto actually make the Mets a favorite to win the
10:34National League pennant? Does he even make them a favorite to win the National League East year
10:40after year? The odds makers right now, Jack, would tell you no. Yes, he did affect the pennant price,
10:47but the Mets are still behind both the Dodgers and the Braves to win the National League crown.
10:53They are still behind Atlanta by about 30 cents to win the NL East divisional title.
11:01So Jack, what impact does Juan Soto directly have on the New York Mets? Do you agree with
11:07the odds that the Mets are still the third best team in the NL as a whole? Yeah, I mean,
11:14it's clearly a net positive. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh yeah, Juan Soto's a net neutral.
11:19But at the end of the day, the bottom of that lineup still features an aging Starling Marce,
11:23a guy in Brett Beatty where you have to make a decision on him at some point soon.
11:27Jeff McNeil, who really struggled. I know he was dealing with a bunch of injuries. And Tyrone
11:31Taylor is still in center field, man. There's a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be fixed in
11:37the New York Mets right now. And the good news is their farm system is getting a lot better.
11:42But you don't sign Juan Soto with the hopes that your farm system is going to be the
11:45complimentary pieces. You sign Juan Soto in hopes that the catcher, Francisco Alvarez,
11:50turns into a top five catcher in baseball, either this year or in 2026. You sign him in hopes that
11:56Francisco Lindor's MVP runner up, that kind of year is sustainable. And you sign him because
12:03you feel like the next four years of Brandon Nimmo are going to be really solid. Now, what does this
12:10mean for Pete Alonzo? What does this mean for first base production? I have no idea. But the
12:17Mets, they're not a finished product with Juan Soto now. And my concern, and I do think that
12:22the New York Mets are the only team that were exempt from this, I thought a Juan Soto contract
12:27was going to torpedo a team's ability to spend around him, find complimentary pieces. Because
12:33the price of a complimentary piece is pretty darn high in Major League Baseball right now.
12:37Steve Cohen clearly has zero issue spending on complimentary pieces. He clearly has zero issue
12:42spending on the great whale here in Juan Soto. So I do feel like he's going to spend enough to
12:50put together a World Series caliber team here. I feel like by the end of the offseason, we could
12:56be talking about the Mets as the favorite in the National League or as the second favorite in the
13:00National League. But it's really hard for me to think about a world where the Mets are in the
13:06same breath as the L.A. Dodgers. So the Yankees, Jack, have no time to feel sorry for themselves
13:13as you got the winter meetings going on. But listen, obviously you just saved $760 million
13:21so you can go out and afford a few more pieces now with that money.
13:25The question is, where do they go from here, though? And what does that farm system look like?
13:30Yeah, the question is, did they view that as reserves that they needed to tap into
13:37or did they view that as money that they were ready to deploy that they're willing to deploy now?
13:42It's like, oh, all of a sudden we have $760 million worth of funny money. Let's go do this.
13:48That could make for a hilarious Yankees offseason and the Yankees could essentially add quantity
13:55and a level of quality there that could get close to matching Juan Soto if they grab four guys that
14:03are really good, like a Christian Walker and a Teoscar Hernandez and a Max Freed. Maybe a Corbin
14:07Burns is a possibility now. That offseason might be considered better than just getting Juan Soto
14:13and working from there. The farm system is good, not great right now. I think there are a lot of
14:19names that a lot of people are aware of that were underwhelming in the minor leagues last
14:25year. Like an Oswald Peraza is a name that has been around Yankee circles for a while now.
14:31It doesn't look like he's a part of the big league future. Spencer Jones is somebody that I know a
14:36lot of Yankees fans deemed untouchable coming into this year. He's really struck in the minor leagues
14:41to this point. So I'm not sure where they go here, but I think it's going to be a lot of money
14:48given out to like five or six guys. Listen, Juan Soto being a member of the Pinstripes,
14:55of course, the most recent team that he played for was almost baked into the Yankees early
15:00offseason prices. They did move back after Soto made the trip to Queens, but the Yanks are still
15:06the favorites to win the American League. It actually moved in front of the Amazons yesterday,
15:11weirdly by a half dollar in terms of their World Series price at plus $8.50. Third best still behind
15:18the Dodgers and the Braves. So Jack, as we look elsewhere at the signings that have already
15:23happened, we'll talk more about this on the other side of the break. You mentioned some of the Mets
15:27moves they have already made to bolster up the pitching staff, Clay Holmes, Frankie Montas,
15:33and then the two big names that have already signed as well, both for $182 million. Let's
15:40start with Blake Snell in the L.A. Dodgers. What will Snell add to the starting staff in Los Angeles,
15:46the home of the reigning World Series champs? He creates the Monstars. That's what he's adding.
15:51Like, yeah, I mean, it's Snell and it's Tyler Glass now and it's Yamamoto and give Kershaw's
15:57healthy Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Otani, by the way, is back now. I mean, this could be a starting
16:04rotation in terms of sheer talent that we have not seen really ever. I'm thinking about that
16:11Philly rotation won the World Series of Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee and Roy Oswald and Cole
16:17Hamels and Joe Blanton. Like, this is kind of sort of up there in terms of star power and money.
16:24It's absolutely up there. This was a slam dunk signing for the Dodgers. The rich keep getting
16:30richer. They have won a World Series. Somehow they still have money and they have made the
16:35additions necessary. More about the hot stove with Jack up next. Live right here on The Early Line,
16:41it's the winter in Major League Baseball. The hot stove is on a simmer. Of course, the Juan Soto
16:47sweepstakes going the way of the New York Mets. Now, the other notable signings that have already
16:52occurred and the ones we expect here rather shortly. So here is what we have seen so far.
16:58We talked about Blake Snell to the Dodgers. 182 mil over a five-year span. 182 million, Jack,
17:07for the Dodgers' most bitter rival, the San Francisco Giants, and a seven-year deal for
17:12the shortstop who spent the last three and a half seasons in Milwaukee. Good city, by the way,
17:17Willie Adamas. The Giants have missed out on a couple of big swings, perhaps, the last few
17:23off-seasons. What are they getting in Willie Adamas? What will he mean for San Francisco this
17:28upcoming MLB campaign? Yeah, Milwaukee gets cold in February, by the way, but what's the song
17:35lyric? The coldest summer or the coldest winter I ever had was a summer in San Francisco. What
17:41they get is one of, if not the best, left side of the infield in Major League Baseball. Matt Chapman
17:47is awesome and they put their money where their mouth was with Matt Chapman. They extended him
17:52at the end of the 2024 regular season. Chapman's an $150 million player. Willie Adamas is an $180
17:58million player. And they have Chapman at third and Adamas at short for the foreseeable future.
18:04Willie Adamas is the only shortstop in Major League Baseball with 20 homers and 70 RBIs
18:11in each of the last four seasons. I think that's a health thing with Corey Seager,
18:16but what that tells you is this guy is A, always on the field and B, a power threat and can play a
18:24good shortstop. 20 homers from the shortstop position and Adamas, like, that's his low end
18:29year. His top end year is a 30 homer shortstop and a good one defensively. This guy is one of
18:36the more underrated players in Major League Baseball and I think a lot of that had to do
18:39with him playing in Milwaukee. A lot of people don't know who this is. He is an awesome, awesome
18:44player and the Giants got a lot better by getting Adamas. And I feel good for the Giants, man.
18:51They moved buster Posey into that president of baseball operations role after they fire Farhan
18:56Zaidi. They missed out on Aaron Judge or Arson Judge. They miss out on Carlos Correa. They finally
19:04get their guy in Adamas and they sold him on being on that left side with Chapman and I think it's
19:10gonna work, man. I'm really excited. So, we've got quite a few pitchers that could be wearing
19:17new uniforms. Burns, Max Freed and of course, Sazaki, the kid coming out of Japan who let the
19:25bidding begin here. What do you see with these top end pitchers? I think Burns is gonna get a lot of
19:31money and tell you what, I think Yamamoto made him feel really good. I think Garrett Cole, when he
19:37did hit the market, what, four years ago or so, five years ago, should make him feel really good.
19:42I think Corbin Burns is probably a 300 billion dollar pitcher with where the market's at right
19:46now. Max Freed, I think, is getting close to two. I'm not too sure where Freed will be but I think
19:54Freed is much like Adamas, one of the more underappreciated arms in Major League Baseball
19:59and Sazaki's a weird one. Roki Sazaki is not gonna get the Yamamoto type deal. Yamamoto got 325 but
20:06Yamamoto came over after he was allowed to be posted to Major League Baseball, which is after
20:13you turn 25 years old and six years in professional baseball in Japan. Sazaki came over before that,
20:20which is the closest thing we've seen to Shohei Otani coming over. Otani did not get 400 million
20:26dollars off the bat. The signing pool that Sazaki can pull from is what you see all of these like
20:33teenage guys in Latin America sign for, the international free agency bonus. So,
20:38Sazaki is going to make the league minimum for the next three years but he's going to, you know,
20:43sign for four and a half, five, six million dollars. It's going to be tiny compared to a
20:49lot of other guys. So, I will say, Burns, you expect the big fish to be involved, right? I
20:53think San Francisco is going to be involved. I think the Dodgers are going to be involved. I
20:56think the Yankees are going to be involved. I think the Mets are going to be involved.
20:59Similar with Freed. With Sazaki, 30 teams can get involved. He's not going to be a Rocky,
21:06but like the Padres can pay Sazaki's price. The Rangers can pay Sazaki's price. The Cubs can pay
21:13Sazaki's price. I think that's the most interesting storyline we have. I will say,
21:19he was officially posted. That pool recycles on January 15th. You'll see Sazaki sign between
21:26January 15th and January 23rd. Jack, that's why we appreciate your insight. Rilkey Sazaki,
21:33only 23 years old and a lot of teams, as Jack just alluded to, should be in the bidding for
21:40his services now here stateside. Jack McMullin, Just Baseball Media, play-by-play voice for the
21:47Indianapolis Indians, the AAA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nobody better to break down
21:52the hot stove. Jack, we appreciate it sincerely. Enjoy the rest of the winter, my friend. More
21:58The Early Line next.