Samson: Mets Still Need More To Beat The Dodgers

This contract that initially we heard 600 mil now we're hearing maybe upwards of 800 million dollars biggest contract ever did you think things would get this high? Well I think it's the perfect storm when you've got the New York Yankees and the New York Mets going after the same player you have an opportunity as an agent like Scott Boris to really maximize the value plus you've got a player who's 26 years old who's already a World Series champion a pennant winner an on-base machine and you've got age on your side and he changes your lineup and you have an owner in Steve Cohn who would not be denied and you have an owner in house time renter who didn't want to be denied and when you've got those things working for you you can see how the numbers got to where they got to. Well David we know that the New York Mets still have some spots to fill with their rotation we know that the New York Yankees now have to spread that money around being with pitching in some depth what do you foresee for both of these teams in the short term and the long term? Let's start with the Mets bringing Juan Soto onto your team that really got to the NLCS but you look at their team they brought in Clay Holmes and you think to yourself is it enough and the answer is no they really if they're going to go all in which they really are and that's an expression that's overused but when you look at Juan Soto's prime you're not looking at 15 years you're looking at the next six years where you really want to see if you can get yourself a title or two and I think to do that they're going to need to improve their pitching if you look at their lineup of course it's improved having Lindor and a perennial MVP candidate and Soto together but you see that even with Judge and Soto you get to the World Series and then lose in five games and a lot had to go right for the Yankees so I think that the Mets are likely not done and I'll tell you for the Yankees I know people are despondent and angry but if the Yankees reallocate that money and they fill a bunch of holes we've learned and look no further than the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles they had two of the best five players in the game in Trout and Otani and they never made the playoffs they never made it to 500 frankly and so you do need to build a good team and one player does not do that so we'll see what the Yankees do but I would expect them to put their resources to work to get that team the ring that house time renters so desperately wants. Oh David you're back you okay?

You got me sorry about that. All good I don't know hey you are you giving away too many state secrets now they're killing off our connection is that what's going on? Boy I'll tell you with that crackling you'd think that people were interested and they are because this is such an interesting time in baseball especially in New York and what goes on in the next you know couple of days couple weeks couple months is going to be so fascinating to me because in New York you've got two behemoths you've got Steinrenner and Cohen you've got New York and New York and what Steve Cohen's trying to do is what Steve Ballmer has tried to do in Los Angeles and that was make the Clippers no longer sort of second fiddle in LA and that's what Steve Cohen wants and to do it you're gonna have to win and you're gonna have to win consistently and you're gonna have to fill your your ballpark and then you can really try to to improve your position in New York this signing helps of course but it's not the last step. Oh David that's what I was asking you right before we got cut off if we go ahead and look towards Los Angeles are we really just looking at the the Mets and the Dodgers and maybe the Yankees just throwing around money for the next few years while everybody else watches? Well you know that's the narrative right now but think about this postseason where you have the Guardians the Royals the Orioles with payrolls that were not high at all I think there's always going to be a premium on intelligence and on good decisions and think about last offseason when the Royals signed Seth Lugo for three years 15 a year and he really he was a finalist for Cy Young there are good signings to be done by smart front offices you don't need to be a genius to give Juan Soto 765 million you don't need David Stearns as your president of baseball ops you can get the man on the street to do that or the woman on the street anybody to do that so really what happens at the margins is where you see the difference between winning and losing. And David Sampson is here with us the chair our sport re-show I had mentioned the the I want to call them the Sacramento A's I don't know what the hell they're calling themselves last year their payroll was 60 mil flat and now we have Soto who's going to make 50-51 are we going to hear anything about this from some of the ownership groups later on or do they not care? No I think they do whenever somebody signs like this it owners sort of prop up and they say to themselves is this fair and then the commissioner's office gives you a bunch of stats that shows that the team with the highest payroll doesn't often win it's hard for a team to repeat nobody's done it since the Yankees in 98 to 2000 and there are teams with low payrolls who are highly efficient with great young players who can be very successful so I think that you've got a lot of owners who root against the Mets Yankees and Dodgers and I understand why because it feels badly when you know that you can't afford something even though you'd like to afford it but we all deal with that everyone's got things they can't afford and everyone is in a position where someone has more money than you and someone has less money than you and in baseball someone generally has a higher payroll than you and someone has a lower payroll than you and in terms of the apps and that's what I'll call them they're a team that's in transition as they try to figure out their move to Vegas and their temporary home in Sacramento and that signing of Severino I believe that's a far more problematic signing than the Soto signing and the reason I say that is that Severino is so badly overpaid in terms of the amount of money he got by the athletics their number one contract they've ever done in their franchise history and that tends to impact the market way more than the Soto deal which is viewed as an outlier by other GMs. Well with Soto off the board Willie Adames off the board what do you think is the next likeliest move that's going to take place? Well that's what's so amazing to watch right now is what the Yankees and Mets both do I don't say that about the Blue Jays Red Sox and Dodgers because the Dodgers are of course active and the Blue Jays and Red Sox were just sort of dipping their toes in the Soto waters but for the Yankees they've got to respond with what their plan B is and reallocating those funds and they will I don't believe the Yankees will go into spring training without having signed one of the top free agents and I think they'd be well served to try to get a front line starter I think that would be very helpful to their team and as far as the Mets are concerned they've got to put their focus on Pete Alonso and figuring out are they bringing him back because for me without Alonso in that lineup you've really just replaced Alonso with Soto who's a better player but you're only getting the increment between Alonso and Soto but if you bring Alonso back then you're truly getting the addition of Soto and that would be a far bigger difference maker for the Mets. Yeah David Sampson is here with us former exec with the Marlins now you can listen to him nothing personal with David Sampson every year we find out about another Japanese sensation this go round it's Roki Sasaki 23 years old we hear that he's being courted of course by the Dodgers potentially the Mets Blue Jays what have you what can you tell us about Roki Sasaki and I hear he's coming over on a little bit of a discount being posted huh? So here's the deal and people get confused when Yamamoto came last year to the Dodgers he was eligible as a full and regular free agent where he could sign for any number of years and any amount of money and he obviously ended up getting that huge deal with the Dodgers but Sasaki is not that he's a controllable player he's coming here the way Otani did way back when he came to the Angels where the teams post a and they make an offer and his Japanese team actually makes a choice and the funny part is the team makes the choice that the player wants but then his home team in Japan gets a percentage but the only amount of money that can be given to him is maybe up to six million dollars or so which is the international bonus slotting system where all teams are really fair and square so it's not like free agency but does that mean he'll go to Miami or Milwaukee no it does not he will very likely stay on the west coast and the my bet is either LA or San Diego as a matter of fact I'm sure it will be either LA or San Diego that's what makes the most sense to me and both teams are an equal footing in terms of the amount of money they can offer him oh man David final question as we continue on year and year and year we see what the Mets have with Steve Cohen one of the richest people walking and we see what the Dodgers have are they just going to throw money at everything every year are we building up all-star teams one on each coast well listen they only have 26 spots so they can't corner the market at every you know for all the great players that are in major league baseball but there are teams when you don't have a salary cap there's always going to be teams at the top of the salary structure it's been that way for I got into baseball 25 years ago today actually and we were having these conversations 25 years ago the differences were were smaller there's no doubt that the difference between the number one payroll and the number 30 payroll the difference is greater today than it was and that's something that will have to be addressed as we head into the next collective bargaining but I think that it's sort of normal and it's not the end of the world only because the number one payroll team doesn't win the World Series automatically every year at all now we see that we'll see what happens over the next bunch of years David always appreciate your expertise where can people listen and follow you on all of your mediums thank you you can find me at david p samson on x and on blue sky but also every day 8 a.m live nothing personal with david samson on youtube on the draftkings network and also i'm on dan lebitard show on a weekly basis sometimes daily basis so pretty much anywhere uh and listen to me talk about sports and culture entertainment baseball but any sport and it's a whole lot of fun and i'm really thankful to the audience and thankful to you for the opportunity tonight hey david always a pleasure enjoy the hot stove as things continue to heat up we'll catch you on down the line okay all right looking forward have a good night