Fear The Chorizo

I've been waiting for them to sign Hiura on a flyer - and then watch him hit 40 HR playing with that home ballpark (0.950 OPS/0.600 slg in about 100 plate appearances there)....then again, perhaps some of Hiura's success hitting in Pitt had more to do with Pirates pitching, lol.

I don't like that comparison, because the Dodgers are able to spread out what it costs to sign a generational talent playing for them for the next 10 years over double that amount of time, and did so in a way to also afford adding additional generational talents around an already loaded team because they're pushing that cost far enough down the road that it won't matter to their future payroll bookkeeping. The fact they were able to defer actually paying about 97% of the contract value in actual dollars to Ohtani until after the term covering years he plays expires is insanity. More specific to your comparison, I'd be ok with this type of contract if the Dodgers were forced to have Ohtani in their lineup for the next 20 years and suffer the onfield issues that running out a middle aged man would have on their onfield results, if that's how they elect to spread out the costs from a competitive balance luxury tax perspective. Instead, if nothing changes they'll just have the next 'best player ever' signed and ready to take Ohtani's roster spot well before his current 10 year playing deal expires.

Waiting for the announcement that Lugo will be paid his first 3 years in car wash tokens, will receive a briefcase full of IOUs from 2027-2035, and will be paid out in deferred Yuan (presumed US currency by 2035) in annual $2M payments until either the total value reaches $45M 2023 US dollars or he passes away, whichever happens first.

I think it has to, and it really wouldn't surprise me if it's the other huge market clubs that don't have a quarter of a billion dollars coming into their coffers each year just from TV money that would spearhead it. I really could care less how a team moves around actual dollar expenditures to benefit/reduce income or payroll tax burdens paid to entities outside the league (i.e., government) - but for the spirit of the competitive balance luxury tax system to actually work across MLB, which has very marginal revenue sharing in the grand scheme of things, guaranteed salaries, and no salary cap, exploiting the current luxury tax reductions with deferrals at this type of scale that wind up being paid long after a player is on the field absolutely can't become the norm when it allows teams to stockpile silver slugger-type talent in its prime all over the diamond without having to pay the luxury tax penalties to the rest of the league that were designed to prevent an organization from being able to do this longer than 1-2 seasons.

What's mystifying to me is when the Packers rush 4 and play coverage behind it with 7 guys consistently, that the scheme routinely has enormous gaps in the middle of the field for TEs and RBs to catch easy passes and turn upfield for huge chunk plays - and it takes Packer defenders several seconds to even get in the vicinity of those players. It's not like the Packers don't have athletes at LB or safety that can't run - it's just that the scheme has 1 or two defenders responsible for far too much of the field that is easy for underneath and intermediate pass patterns to exploit. Those aren't NFL windows for QBs to thread the needle to complete passes, they're more like vacant city blocks of space - it looks more like the Packers sent the house in a blitz and didn't get home, without enough people on the back end to cover everything. Almost as if at the snap the Packers' scheme runs two DBs off the field and they're playing with 9 defenders instead of 11.

Then that's what needs to happen - unless MLB is ok with the Dodgers being able to operate this way financially in a way that even the other monster MLB markets can't.

Will the deferred money actually hit the LAD luxury tax payroll down the road though? Even if it fully does, that $20-30m annual accounting value 10-20 yrs from now is much less of a hit to those luxury tax years because of inflation and rising payroll limits. It's simply not right and more evidence of a broken financial system mlb organizations operate in. It's way different from chourio's contract, too - one thing to be paid $80 m over 8 seasons /calendar years at progressively increasing amounts, totally different to sign a ten year, $700m free agent contract and then proceed to be paid $2m actual dollars a year for those 10 years of play, then get the remaining $680m the following 10 calendar years and have the actual contractual impact to the Dodgers from an accounting standpoint spread across 20 seasons with accounting gymnastics to make it feel to the LAD like they signed a mid-tier player to a 20 year contract. It's like doing salary cap gymnastics without having to meet a salary cap to avoid the luxury tax penalties paid to the rest of the league. People will say that any of the other teams could also work out this sort of deal with huge deferrments, but thats not based in reality. The only way it's possible for LAD to make this work in terms of annual cost is the fact their TV deal alone pays them enough annually to field close to a $250m payroll without selling a single ticket or a jersey shirt. That's entirely due to the market they play in. No other team could afford to play footsie with the luxury tax for 20 straight seasons and in years 11-20 of that stretch pay out $68m dollars a year in actual dollars in deferred money to a player that has likely been retired for a few seasons.

Packers are now seemingly one of about 15 nfc teams with a 6-7 record. Enough gb dbs gotta get healthy so Nixon can leave the field on defense...dude made a big INT against the chiefs but he's the patsy in coverage right now. Instead of putting together a defensive game plan to step on the giants offense, Barry reverts to the bend and eventually break soft coverages and lack of imaginative blitzes that give a hack quarterback a chance to make a couple throws and scramble all over the field, and it results in a L.

Force him to get there throwing, please don't give up a 30 yrd scramble to Tommy meatball

Was he in?

I think that's a td...but Calvin Johnson would probably disagree with me

good thing they burned a timeout to take a 10 yard loss and then turn a gimme FG into a miss...what a stinker of a game

This is what happens when you have a young team thinking they're better than they actually are after playing a few good games, and taking an opponent lightly...and your best wideout that's really made the offense look legit goes down with yet another injury and your defense still really can't stop the run when it has to. I think they'll still find a way to win this game, for some insane reason...but it isn't surprising this game coming off a big Sunday night home win is giving them problems.

It's honestly the type of contract where even teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs feel like the little guy, because even their market sizes and TV deals can't make it work with those deferrals. Makes me wish they would set up full revenue sharing with a salary cap during the next cba, keep guaranteed contracts and then the salary cap figure would be based entirely on actual dollars spent on payroll each year (meaning the Dodgers would have an annual $68m cap hit due to Ohtani count against their cap for a decade after he's done playing)

To me it's not the deferred money payments that is gross, it's the fact that doing so reduces the luxury tax AAV of the deal in any meaningful way for the 10 years ohtani is actually playing for the dodgers The Dodgers are literally the only market that can absorb this type of longterm deferred payment because of their tv deal compared to everyone else, and they are skirting the serious luxury tax penalties altogether because of it, basically saving those penalties they'd othwise have to pay the rest of mlb and instead giving it to ohtani as a retirement gift.

His agent's commission should be based on the percentage on non-deferred $ instead of the overall CV - that would put a stop to this bs instantly

I've never wished for a career-diminishing injury on any player...but after seeing this type of deferral bs I wouldn't shed too many tears if we are robbed of peak ohtani in a couple seasons and his draw to the Japanese market resembles that of Ricky Bobby slinging gum so the Dodgers don't capitalize on that market share. Ohtani is likely making more in endorsements than his contract would've paid him if he just took all the money upfront. Not exactly "taking one for the team" as much as it's "exploiting a rules loophole" to avoid annual luxury tax penalties with little to no ability to reset without completely gutting their organization. It all makes me pretty sick, and the players should be kind of ticked due to the unintended consequences it's going to cause.

Nothing makes me happier than knowing how many of these billionaires feel poor after having no hope of signing Ohtani. I sincerely hope you've got more going on than this that puts a smile on your face! Because I guarantee that none of them feel poor, lol. Reality is probably more than 2/3 of those owners/front offices feel smart knowing there's zero chance Ohtani's onfield production is worth anywhere close to 700 million dollars over the next 10 seasons as Ohtani ages from 30-40ish - if their focus is on-the-field success. Just ask the Angels how having the best two players in this generation over the past ~6 years has helped them win titles. People knew at the start of the 2023 season where Ohtani was going to sign (Dodgers, in LA, west coast in same market he broke into the league with the Angels, only team with a TV contract large enough to offset the payroll hit + luxury tax problems it will incur annually), kudos to him for getting a monumental mountain of cash to DH 90+% of the games over the next decade in LA - that doesn' t mean the rest of MLB are all going to cry poor about not having to deal with that kind of a payroll hit when trying to field a competitive team with the other 25 roster spots.

It's the only way to win a title - just look at the 2023 World Champion Mets....er, Padres...er, Dodgers....er, Yankees...oops. Well, at least we all saw how much an impact the $40M+ arms of Scherzer and DeGrom meant to the Rangers WS title run last fall, amirite??

I think the issue, in retrospect, was whether Gute should've invested so much in a 5'10 cornerback longterm just after he missed most of 2021 due to injury. Totally understand the extension in a vacuum, but unfortunately injuries have a way of making good contracts look bad quickly in the NFL. Really do hope Jaire can get back healthy enough to finish this season off - if the Packers keep on a decent run and find themselves in playoff position, having Alexander on the outside really helps their pass defense.

How the heck has Toney not been cut yet? That's the bigger story than the Chiefs complaining about the fact they've stuck with a mistake-prone wideout on their roster all year, and underperforming receiving corps in general, because their star quarterback takes up an ever-increasing percentage of the team's salary cap. The refs made the right call - had that not been flagged the Bills would rightfully be upset about an obvious presnap penalty not being called at a critical point of the game.

The Brewers have been among the most active teams this offseason leading up to Ohtani signing....this article is kind of silly.

Yeah, I'm convinced WAR was a stat invented by the players union and boras corp....if there was a salary cap with all teams having to build their roster under an even financial structure, WAR value might actually resemble what actual wins are worth in terms of payroll dollars

I think it depends how dumb the Cubs get with throwing around $$ to fill what are still gaping holes on their roster in the rotation, pen, and lineup now that Ohtani is a dodger. Right now, the Reds are probably the next best team on paper to the Brewers - that could quickly change if Burnes and Adames are dealt - and then i would imagine Williams is also gone by the 2024 trade deadline...but it also makes some sense to make a big move or two to shore up 1B and the rotation and run it back to start the season, too.

Embarrassment for who? Burnes didn't do himself any favors, crying about losing his hearing to the press afterwards, and could have avoided losing his hearing by signing the arby offer the Brewers and his team were negotiating up to the deadline, and likely would have made more $ than he wound up with in 2023. The Brewers did exactly what the process in place required of them. I don't think the Brewers would mind one bit going through arbitration with Burnes one more time if they don't get the moon for him via trade before then. That's the route Burnes has decided to go instead of Freddy or Ashby, and that's his right to do so...but that doesn't mean the Brewers then have to go to a hearing and fall over themselves saying how fabulous he is on the mound and beg the arbitrator to pay Burnes whatever he wants.