Could Shohei Ohtani be going to the Cubs?

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See website for details. It's The Adam Gold Show on The Adam Gold. Victoria on the ones and twos. As a Cubs fan, she was intrigued by the tease. Could Shohei Ohtani be headed to the Chicago Cubs? So that was a quick insert for the return music. Jesse Rogers, ESPN baseball writer, joins us on The Adam Gold Show. A short notice.

First of all, sir, thank you so much for the time. But I am intrigued by the potential landing spots of Ohtani. Seems like everybody has tried to kind of basically keep him on the West Coast, which makes a lot of sense.

So he's that much closer to home in Japan and all of those things. But there have to be other people, other teams involved. Could the Cubs be one of those teams? Oh yeah, I think so.

I think so. And I don't say that lightly because the Cubs haven't always played in the deep end of the pool. I document in the story I wrote today at ESPN.com that they really haven't done a deal with a Boris client in many, many, many years. They don't really go for those 10 year kind of contracts. But in this case, I think they would make an exception to their normal course of business because he's a special player. So let's start with the Cubs being interested. I think the fact that Ohtani met with them back in 18 is at least some proof that he would consider them again, at least in terms of a meeting and things like that. I also think the West Coast thing might be still true, but I don't think it's as strong as it was back then necessarily when he was new to the league, I think. And again, I don't think anybody reporting on this really knows exactly what he wants.

That's been really kept close to the vest. But I do believe he understands his place in baseball coming off the WBC, the idea of winning. And certainly there's only a few teams that are necessarily going to pay for for his services. I think he's more open to Chicago now than he would have been the first time around.

All right. I want to handle what you just said about there's only a few teams that are willing to pay for that. My feeling is that every team can afford Shohei Ohtani because he pays for himself. What would Ohtani be worth? I mean, randomly, if the Pirates gave him 70 million dollars a year or whatever silly number that might be, he'd pay for himself the first day, wouldn't he?

Yeah, he would. The problem is what happens to the rest of your payroll? We know this sport is not a one player sport. And so eating up that payroll, that luxury tax payroll, it complicates things for smaller markets.

It just does. I mean, as much as we we know every team can afford these guys, why is it the great players only end up on about 10 teams out of 30? Right. There's something I mean, I think we can all say that the Yankees bring in more revenue than the Kansas City Royals. Yet players that are going to go to the Yankees or go to the Royals, considering either team are still going to ask for the same amount of money. So, look, every team is rich, but there are some teams that are richer. So I do think there's maybe seven to 10 that can really afford them and afford whatever else they want to do moving forward, not just this year, but over the life of the contract.

So that's the difference. Yeah, they can afford them. But can the Pirates afford anyone else would be the question.

So I'm no mathematician or economist. I just know where the big players end up. They end up in the in the big money and big market teams.

Right. My only counter to that is I think that most of those other teams don't try. And that that is a bigger problem, I think, for Major League Baseball than anything else, that those teams don't try. And they tell this is not what I really wanted to talk about today, Jesse. I feel like they tell their fans that we can't do it like what John Angelos told Baltimore fans this year. I just don't think we're going to be able to keep these players bowl.

You can keep them if you want. It's clear that they don't really want to. And look, let's let's dive into it a little bit because what the Padres went all in and look, I'm not taking a side either way. Nobody knows what the books really say. Where's the you know, are the bars around Wrigley Field part of baseball revenue?

These are all these question marks. But all I know is the Padres went all in and now all of a sudden they're borrowing money for payroll. They're about to dump payroll because they lost. They actually lost money. I mean, at least if you believe them.

So I don't I don't know what to believe. All I know is history over time shows that the big markets end up spending the most money. There must be a correlation there. They they can't be the only owners that want to win.

You know, they only reside in New York, L.A., Chicago, Texas. You know, it can't just be that. So I think there's something to the smaller markets being able to spend less, even though we know in a short period of time they probably can spend enough to win. It's just what happens, you know, after your window starts to close there. Can you spend again? No, there's usually there's usually a rebuild that follows a window of contention. Yeah, there's always going to be your margins are smaller for error.

You have to hit it right. Clubs like the Yankees and the Red Sox and the Mets can get out of a bad contract like they'd like the Mets did this past year and just go back into the market if they want, because they have those kind of pockets. But speaking of small markets, the the Oakland Athletics are about to become the Las Vegas Athletics. They can be the Aces. No, that's already taken by the WNBA. It's Vegas is a smaller market than Oakland, if I'm not mistaken. What? It was unanimous.

Is this really a good deal for Major League Baseball or is or are they just trying to get out of Oakland? Xicam knows that when you live life to the fullest, you never want to let a cold slow you down. With Xicam's cold shortening products, you can actually shorten colds when taken at the first sign. And with the winter chill in the air, you need the number one cold shortening brand to help shorten a cold when taken at the first sign this season, because you should never let a cold stop you from missing out on your favorite moments of the season.

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Start today during our holiday sale at Ancestry.com. I think the best we can say is it remains to be seen if it's a good deal for baseball. It's obvious the owner wanted to get out of Oakland.

Rob Manfred, the commissioner, works for the owners. So if there's a way to make money for everyone and they can convince themselves going to Las Vegas is it then then the other owners are going to say okay to it. I mean you can't say it's a terrible market when there's a hockey team there now, right? It's a football team there now.

So there's definitely some question marks here. If they can even fill a 30,000 stadium with putting it near the strip instead of maybe in a neighborhood or something where people actually live and grow up. I mean I have been to Vegas many times. I'm not sure people in the suburbs are going to go to this. They don't go to this strip when they live in Vegas. So they're hoping that tourists come. I know Cub fans will make a weekend of it certainly but I don't think there's enough fans from outside of Vegas that are going to come.

They're going to fill it up. There's a lot of question marks about this deal but it's pretty obvious the owner wanted to move there and everybody else fell in line. Yeah and they're not even charging the relocation fee. Jesse Rogers from ESPN is joining us here and Vegas was maybe the leading U.S. expansion city. So they're not even going to get an expansion fee out of Vegas. Although there's probably other cities that would pay it.

So Major League Baseball probably not out that money. It almost speaks to me like exactly what the National Football League did with St. Louis. Oh it's okay that you guys want to keep your team but we don't care.

We're leaving anyway. That's the way it feels. That's the way this feels to me with Oakland and Vegas.

Yeah and also they're going to continue to receive revenue sharing dollars. You know you're making this big move and building a stadium using public funds. It just it kind of stinks right? It kind of stinks. If they just created a team in Vegas I think people would be less upset about it. You know they're worthy of a team possibly because like I said it's become a bigger market but to move the Oakland A's there it does stink a little bit. You know it's just there's no way around it and John Fisher's taken a lot of abuse for it. Is Oakland ever going to get a team again?

I mean I guess they have to build. I mean you can't go back to there. You can't go back to the Coliseum. Oh very very quickly we only have like a minute and a half or so left.

Yeah. Where are they going to play after next year? They're supposed to play in Oakland for one more season and where are they going to play until the stadium is ready in 28? My guess is they're going to end up cutting a deal with the Giants and when they're you know obviously both teams can't be at home. That's my guess but I don't have an answer to that.

I know a lot of things have been thrown out there. Minor league stadium I think they'll end up across the bay in San Francisco. That's just my guess. It makes the most sense as long as you can work it out schedule wise. All right and quick one more thing before we let Jesse Rogers go. Baseball going to tweak the postseason or are they cool with what it is? It's too early probably to draw any real conclusions about higher seeds losing but what are your thoughts on that? Yeah they're not going to change that so much that the buy you know the buy and the days off they will say you know every team would love the buy if given a choice between playing or not playing they just have to figure out how to stay sharp. I think the one thing is they might reseat.

That's the one thing they may reseat again which makes a lot of sense. I still think this this playoff thing is evolving. I mean I'm a proponent of lesser regular season games. Yeah. Maybe we'll get there someday then you can have full best of sevens and things like that but that that's a ways off because there's a lot of complicated avenues when it comes to you know less regular season games.

Jesse Rogers ESPN.com Baseball Writer. I thank you so much for the time man. Hopefully we can talk again. Enjoy your offseason. Thank you. Be well.

Take care. You got it. Jesse Rogers here. So you excited Cub fan? Yes.

Very. It's the possibility. Like I actually wish we could have spent more time with the um the notion that the smaller clubs can't afford show Aotani. I'll just throw this out there. If a team like and it's the Cardinals are a small market too. Yeah right. Cardinals are like the 30th biggest market in the in major league baseball.

I mean if they can afford a payroll of 150 million then you can take take that same payroll and just add Aotani who pays for himself. I don't I don't get why this is not even a thought but I don't know maybe I'm looking at it from too simplistic of you. Okay round two. Name something that's not boring.

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