The ACTUAL free agency!

I don't believe that we have discussed this since the announcement, but I remember we aired it during a Best of the Adam Gold show, the Friday, was it the Friday, Thanksgiving Day, as the segment with Elliott Johnson talking about, among other things, the contemporary era ballot for baseball's Hall of Fame. And he was all team Fred McGriff getting in the Hall of Fame. And lo and behold, Fred McGriff's the only one who got in.

Did you, did you make the sign of like, you know, making a muscle with your bicep like, yeah, I did that. I got, I got crime dog in the Hall of Fame. Elliott Johnson joins us.

First answer that, and then I will do a proper introduction of you, sir. Wait, he went away. I lost Elliott for a second. Oh, there he is.

He's back. All right, before you react to Fred, to Fred McGriff, did you know that you once scared Justin Verlander out of a game just by your very presence in the on-deck circle when with Tampa back in 2012? I have a feeling that that your, your introduction there has very little to do with the realities of his pitch count at the time.

Oh, it doesn't make a difference. He saw Elliott Johnson in the on-deck circle and said, I want no part of him with first base open. Actually, first base wasn't open. It was first and second. And he just said, I'm done.

I'm done. They brought in somebody else who walked you. And then the, the Rays broke up in a tie, broke up in the game.

I can give you, I can give you that entire breakdown. That was in Detroit, correct? Yes, it was in Detroit.

Yeah. So actually the way it worked out, I think it was a one to nothing game in Detroit. Matt Joyce was who I pinch hit for. So Matt, they brought in, they brought in a lefty. Oh, I wish his dad was a quarterback in the NFL. I can't think of his name now, but Daniel Schlerit, they brought in Daniel Schlerit, who was a lineman, right?

Yeah. So they brought in Schlerit to face Joyce and then Joe pinch hit me for, for Joyce. I think he got me 0-2 and ended up walking me. And we ended up coming and sticking a no decision on Verlander.

That was so satisfying. And then another little, I learned from you that Max Scherzer has never gotten me out before. That by the way, cause I've been spreading that around town and then Schlerit has never gotten me out ever like minor leagues, big leagues, anything. I've either gotten a walk or a hit off of him every at bat. And so that was, that was actually the first time I think I faced him. And then every single at bat after that, I own him. It's fantastic.

All right. Let's talk about Justin Verlander real quick. So the Mets lose Jacob DeGrom. I mean, that's a big contract, $37 million a year average annual value. And honestly, Jacob DeGrom as a pitcher is worth every bit of $37 million a year annually.

The Mets reacted by not having Jacob DeGrom by going out and getting 40 year old Justin Verlander $86 million over two years. Elliot Johnson, is that crazy? No, he's a Cy Young award winner last year. His stuff is really good still. You know, I know he lost game one, but his stuff is still really, really good. You know, the only, the variable there is whether or not age is getting to him and his stuff still plays. He's still competitive. He still wants to win. Obviously he's still competitive because he wouldn't take a penny less than what Max Scherzer got.

And imagine if you're his agent, you were probably asking for a cost of living adjustment there. So that 43.33 and Steve went, no, this is the best you can get. And they said, thank you. So, so I appreciate it.

I respect it. He wants to win. I think a Crane over in Houston was probably trying to get him for a team friendly type of an agreement.

And he, he, it was more important to him to set a record for AAV and tie his now again, teammate, Max Scherzer. So they've got a formidable one, two punch in New York, even though DeGrom has left. I think the reason why they, they spun off DeGrom is your best abilities availability is I keep saying, Oh, and I don't think that they were comfortable with such an outlay of, you know, guaranteed money for a lengthy period of time when they're not sure if he's going to be able to last that long. Yeah. Their first offer to DeGrom was in the neighborhood of 115 million over three years.

So they were approaching 40 million a year annually. But they didn't want to go beyond that because yeah, of the availability problem. And DeGrom's press conference in Texas was, I mean, sort of delusional. I mean, I don't really care, but he basically said he's there because he wants to win a world series. I mean, what would have given you a better chance, the team that won what, 68 games last year or the team that fell apart late and won a hundred?

Well, let me, let me take it a different way. So I'm not, I'm not a Mets fan, so it didn't bother me. But the one thing I'm going to say about having Steve Cohen as an owner of baseball, specifically your Mets, is how much more fun it's been for free agents and how much more fun it's been for players to see his impact on free agency. You know, the guy's, he's very smart. He knows what he's doing.

He's got plenty of other opportunities and other things that are that are going on. And the reality is, as a fan, you know, regardless of who you root for, having, you know, the boss, George Steinbrenner as an owner makes the game better. I mean, I can't imagine how excited you are to be a Mets fan, Adam. And I promise you, I have a lot of Mets fans that have been very, very active on their, on the text message every single time another signing happens, you know. So it's been great to watch owners who aren't using their team as a piggy bank actually go out there and say, look, I just want to win.

I mean, because that's the way that we're, I mean, they literally train us to where the only thing we care about is winning. For owners to actually do, you know, not just talk the talk, but walk it too is really a breath of fresh air. So before we move on to the other team in New York, and the Mets also signed Brandon Nimmo to a big contract, he's their center fielder, and then signed the pitcher from Japan for a $15 million a year contract for five years. Yeah, I mean, they're just, they're including luxury tax.

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That's awesome. There. I mean, the money's there, right?

Well, think about it. So I had somebody interestingly send me a message or I read it somewhere that if Major League Baseball made 11 billion last year, if you divide that evenly amongst all the teams, it's what 330 350 whatever million it is somewhere in that range. So is he out some money?

Sure. But he's in New York. He's making money. Even if he's at a net negative, it's modest relative to his other revenue streams that he has coming in. So, you know, other teams, here's, here's what he's doing is he's exposing all the other teams for being fraudulent with their unwillingness to spend money. That is really what he's doing. So I think it's the exact reason that Major League Baseball was trying to keep Mark Cuban away from buying the Rangers.

And now they really, you know, unfortunately for them, the gig is up, revenues are up. And so I think other fan bases should rightfully so ask their ownership why they aren't spending in accordance with how much money that they're pulling in. And I think the Red Sox feel seen right there allowing Xander Bogerts to go to San Diego for 280 million over 11 years. Let me ask you about Aaron Judge 360 over nine.

I'm getting pushback from people because we were on this from the very beginning. The Yankees lowballed their best player in spring training. He just chuckled and said no thanks and didn't even counter.

And then he does this. He's probably getting something pretty close to this even with just a great year, not a historic year. If he gets 50 home runs and not 62, it's probably a very similar contract to what he just got. What is the impact of judges 360 over nine? All right, so I wish we could rewind the tape back, Adam, because I said eight for 320. So I got the AAV right on the nose. Nine years, I didn't necessarily see nine, but doesn't surprise me. But he also turned down a bigger deal supposedly from the Padres, Adam.

He did. That doesn't really help fan bases because you're like, oh, you know, we did our best, everybody. We offered them more money and nobody's really excited about that. But at the same time, it did help create leverage. The Giants being there the whole time created a really good sense of leverage.

And the happiest thing about all of it was that Cashman got caught with his hand in the cookie jar because they lowballed the heck out of him at 213. And so you see what a difference a historic year makes, but also the timeline of putting together a performance like that on your platform here with having other teams that are willing to bid you up. I mean, that's why free agency is what it is because now you're not stuck with the team that has you. So I think it's nothing but a good thing. I'm glad that he went back to New York. It's good for baseball. It's good that he wants to be where he started it all. He wants to win in the pinstripes.

I appreciate all that. But the Yankees can't have their cake and eat it too. They're going to have to pay arguably the best player in the game, depending on how you want to look at it, what he's worth. You know, 40 million for that performance, I think is well worth it when it comes down to it. All right, final thing for Elliot Johnson.

This is big picture. If we had more time, I'd get into more players, but we don't. But every single one of these contracts, and this is my opinion, I don't know if it's yours, there are probably two, three, maybe even four years at the end that are probably not going to look very appetizing based on the age and judges going into age 31.

Trey Turner is already 30 and he's got an 11-year deal. My view is that the team shouldn't care about the last few years. It's about the first half of these contracts, first and foremost, because you're trying to win and you shouldn't care that much about the end. What's your view on the length of these contracts and these contracts becoming maybe albatrosses? So they're spreading them out deliberately, Adam, because they want to, for luxury tax purposes, they're spreading it out to water.

So if you just take 200 million or, you know, 160 million, whatever, pick your figure. And instead of condensing it over five, they're spreading it over 10 so that your AAV is down. And for luxury tax purposes, you're not spending as much year over year. So the reality is that they're actually extending them to try to keep themselves underneath those luxury tax thresholds. So they know what they're doing. So instead of paying, you know, use Xander Bogotch, for example, they probably want to give him an eight-year deal somewhere in that range before he turns 40.

And they extended it three years to be able to water down that AAV. That's all they're doing. So you know exactly what they're doing. But again, my favorite example for the fan base, that anyone that says that they're overpaid can continue to point to Albert Pujols getting paid $200,000 and being MVP, being $40 million less than what he was worth. So you can't have it both ways.

You have to see it from the other point of view. And you can't just be like, oh, he's old and overpaid. Well, he was young and underpaid for the first six years of his career. Now it's time for him to get his. And, you know, again, we are grateful that Albert Pujols was as good as he was.

He's a first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players that's ever played. So, you know, all of these guys have an opportunity now to get overpaid because they've been underpaid for all of their career until this point. All right. I lied. I have one more thing.

Okay. How did the Braves get away with Acuna, Alby's, all these guys getting paid so far less, so far below their market value. Acuna is getting paid less than half of what Aaron judge, like bless their hearts.

How did the Braves get, get away with that? So it, it's that same conversation that we have. Do you want to get security upfront or do you want to bet on yourself? So Aaron judge bet on himself.

Okay. And he got rewarded handsomely. So, um, what they do is they, you know, not to say and thoughtless as a smart man, Adam, you know, doing he's offering guaranteed, you know, a lot of money, a hundred million dollars, a lot of money for Acuna, you know, I mean, he's from Venezuela. I mean, all of his family is going to be taken care of for forever, but at the same time, he's worth 400 million. Right. So who is they say, look, we'll give you the a hundred million upfront study playing year to year, and we're going to overpay you relative to what we would have to early on. And then on the back end, they make the money. So those, those contracts, you get it, you understand it, but you know, the player themselves and the representatives have to understand what they're giving up. So they're, they're taking a fast nickel over a slow dime, Adam. Yeah.

I would say a fast nickel over a slow silver dollar. You're probably right. It's unbelievable.

17 million in the last year. I mean, that's into his free agency, Elliot Johnson, uh, who has never, ever been retired by Max Scherzer or Daniel Schlerith. And Justin Verlander was terrified. Uh, I thank you, man. I'll talk to you very soon. Thanks, Adam. You got Elliot Johnson here on the Adam Gold show. At Macy's savings off sale and clearance prices exclusions apply.