• last week
Transcript
00:00So, Jack, the Soto News was this. Juan Soto signing with the New York Mets for the richest
00:09and largest contract we have seen in the history of professional sports. Fifteen years, seven
00:16hundred and sixty-five million dollars with escalators that could make this deal more
00:22than 800 mil in a player option for Juan Soto after five of those fifteen years. Let me
00:30ask you the question like this, Jack, to get your initial reaction. Were you more surprised
00:35by the team, the New York Mets that Juan Soto signed with or the amount of money, seven
00:41hundred and sixty-five million dollars that Juan Soto signed for?
00:47Not surprised by the team one bit. I'll be totally honest there, because I think if we
00:51got into a bidding war, the New York Mets were going to win the bidding war. And I think
00:56what the reported final figure from the Yankees was was 16 for seven sixty and the Mets were
01:0315 for seven sixty five. It's five more million dollars in total value. It's also, you know,
01:08one less year. So a higher average annual value on the contract. The Mets won the bidding
01:13war clearly. Soto wanted to be in New York. I think anybody could understand that from
01:19the outset of this season, to be totally honest. I mean, he seemed to love New York.
01:23The question was, which borough does he want to be in? And I think the answer might have
01:28been total money and might have been average annual value. So we got that answer. It was
01:33the Mets. I was not surprised by the team. I was surprised by the money. And I'll tell
01:37you why. This is an asinine amount of money to give to somebody that isn't Shohei Ohtani.
01:44And the reason I say that and I've sounded like a hater on a lot of outlets over the
01:48last couple of days, but the reason I say that is Shohei Ohtani transcends baseball
01:53with what he does. He is a top three hitter on the planet and he can throw one hundred
01:59and seventy five innings at a Cy Young caliber level. And he grabs an entire continent's
02:04marketing strategy and he throws it at the L.A. Dodgers. There's so much more about the
02:09global phenomenon than just a really good hitter and a league average defender. And
02:14Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, made three hundred and sixty five million dollars for 12 years.
02:20Aside from Mike Trout, that was the largest contract ever given to a position player.
02:24Juan Soto made four hundred million dollars more. It's more than double Mookie Betts'
02:31contract. But Jack, inflation. It was like five years ago that this happened. This is
02:38an insane amount of money. And I don't think any non Ohtani player is worth even close
02:44to seven hundred million dollars.

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