Juan Soto Free Agency Exposes MLB's Financial Imbalance

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00:00I'm just going to say this one thing on Juan Soto.

00:06We are at the precipice of a Major League Baseball Armageddon.

00:10And again, from the ownership groups, they don't care.

00:13The Pittsburgh Pirates today, they don't care about winning anything.

00:16They just care about the bottom line, but Major League Baseball and the Players Union

00:20lets them skate by with no bottom on what the floor can be for a salary cap.

00:25The reason I say that is some of those profitable teams in baseball are not the Yankees or the

00:30Los Angeles Dodgers.

00:31It seems like the Miami Marlins and the Oakland Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds and the

00:36Pittsburgh Pirates.

00:37As we talked about teams that won't spend any money, but due to the revenue sharing

00:41of the, you know, payroll taxes that you have to pay by going over a certain threshold,

00:47they're profitable.

00:48It never should be that case.

00:50There should be no like if Major League Baseball wanted to write the ship, there'd be no revenue

00:54sharing in Major League Baseball.

00:55The top teams would make their money, the low teams would not.

00:58And if they can hang on, hang on, if they can't, no big deal.

01:02But also understand this, there are people out there with billions and billions and billions

01:06of dollars that would love to own a Major League Baseball team by that team, such as

01:10the Pittsburgh Pirates, and turn them into a powerhouse.

01:14But Bob Nutting's never going to sell that team because there's too much money in profitability

01:17at being terrible year after year and selling your best players.

01:22That's horrendous.

01:23But as I look at Juan Soto making his decision, can you imagine if it is the Los Angeles Dodgers

01:28and they get him?

01:29And I'm not even saying like we don't like the super team that you can root against.

01:32Not the case.

01:33It's proved in the ratings.

01:34We have a super team.

01:35They're going to get the lightning rod from the teams, excuse me, the fans that love that

01:39team and even more so the teams that hate that team and root for the downfall.

01:43It happens a lot.

01:45But if you are one of those teams, which I completely disagree with their thoughts and

01:49analysis on the Tampa Bay, I already named them, Tampa Bay, Miami, Oakland, the small

01:55market teams, they make their money on the luxury tax money that comes through.

02:00When you hit that payroll tax in Major League Baseball, it gets distributed amongst the

02:05teams that aren't having the high payroll, which is a crazy scenario.

02:09It never should happen.

02:10But the players union is never going to accept a pay, let's just say, I don't want to even

02:15say a deficit.

02:16It's not the right word.

02:17Like a lid on that salary cap.

02:18Like you can't go over this amount.

02:20They like the teams like the Dodgers paying that money.

02:22And yes, they still hate the teams like the Miami Marlins that won't pay it.

02:25But case in point, do you not have like four or five, six, seven, eight teams that say

02:30themselves we are not going to put up with this anymore.

02:35And it's not again that like if the Dodgers signed Juan Soto to a 10 year, $600 million

02:39contract, $60 million a year, that luxury tax is really going to kick in for the Dodgers,

02:45which is more money for the teams that don't want to spend money.

02:47I understand it's hard for people to just wrap their head around of how Major League

02:51Baseball works, but that's why it does.

02:53The Marlins getting three people in their stadium.

02:55They don't care.

02:56They're so profitable every year.

02:58It doesn't matter.

02:59Keep that payroll as bare bones as possible.

03:01Who cares who's watching on TV or who's actually in the ballpark?

03:05We're still going to be profitable.

03:06It's madness.

03:07It doesn't make sense.

03:08But if you are going to get Juan Soto and avoid the luxury tax once again on that cap

03:14by paying him $2 million a year for the next five years and backload it, that's where those

03:18teams are going to start to have an issue.

03:20And I have an issue with that as well.

03:21It'd be like in the NFL, where if let's just say we didn't, as long as it was guaranteed

03:25money, there was no salary cap ramifications where guys like Deshaun Watson would make

03:28$60 million a year.

03:30And if he stunk or got kicked out of the league in year number two, there'd be no more obligations

03:34on the salary cap for the Cleveland Browns.

03:36That's not the case.

03:37You sign the guaranteed money, that's going to be all on the salary cap each and every

03:40year.

03:41And if you cut them, it's still going to be there.

03:42It sort of keeps things in tow where you can't just go nuts otherwise, if there was no salary

03:46cap, like when Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were really good, they just bought every single

03:51good player in the NFL and won Super Bowl.

03:53The minute they put a salary cap in, Dallas hasn't sniffed the NFC championship game because

03:57they don't know how to understand what a roster takes and pick winning football players, case

04:01in point.

04:03But Major League Baseball and Juan Soto, that is a massive issue.

04:06If he goes to the Dodgers based on deferred money, it's not really in the spirit of the

04:10game.

04:11But on one hand, I hate it.

04:12On the other hand, I love it because it shoves those teams like the Rays and the Marlins

04:17and the Pirates who don't want to spend money.

04:19They don't get as much money, which is wild the way it plays out.

04:22Now, let's keep it in baseball.

04:23Juan Soto, we'll see where he signs, maybe by the end of the week.

04:27Stupid free agency period every year in Major League Baseball completely kills the momentum.

04:31The best player should go on the first or second day.

04:33End of story.

04:34Let's get ready for the baseball season.

04:40Let's get ready for the baseball season.

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