I’m sure you know by now, but just in case you just woke up, the New York Mets swooped in to sign Carlos Correa because why the fuck not:
In a shocking development, Carlos Correa has agreed to join the Mets for a 12-year, $315MM contract, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. Correa had previously agreed to a 13-year, $350MM deal with the Giants, yet reports surfaced yesterday that an unknown issue with Correa’s medicals had led to a postponement of the Giants’ introductory press conference for the shortstop. The 28-year-old Correa is represented by the Boras Corporation, and his deal with the Mets will become official once he passes a physical.
So he gets one fewer year than the Giants offered and a bit less money (I’m sure he’ll live), and the Mets payroll climbs ever higher and perhaps triggers an owner revolt to enact a CBA change that actually spurs more equitable spending across the league so the bottom dwellers don’t just suck up revenue sharing money (but I doubt it). Meanwhile you wonder why the Cubs didn’t try for the last minute Hail Mary, but then again, the medical mystery surrounding Correa might be a risk too big to take.
While the Mets are blowing half a billion dollars on payroll and luxury taxes instead of something like sustainable energy or ending world poverty, I guess it’s better than funding questionable campaigns, so go Steve Cohen I guess. Good luck to the Mets in their quest to survive the wild card round in 2023.
Comments
From previous:
Since social media pretty much strongarmed MLB into agreeing to negotiating a new MiLB contract, maybe that might be enough to tell owners they should stop hoarding as much money and use it to develop a more entertaining product, but billionaires think differently, see Musk Melon and Twitter.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Oh hey I guess it’s happening
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I was debating whether to use the Kirk gif I just uploaded, but Granny throwing money into the fire seemed more appropriate.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Didn’t something like this happen a few years ago? Maybe not like this, but there was some high profile player that lost out on a huge contract because of the physical. This is just weird. If you’re going to have billionaire owners, get yourself a Cohen. Not a Ricketts.
dmick89Quote Reply
I for one am super happy that Correa has gone to the Mets. It consolidates people and teams that I root against.
Ron Santo agrees with me.
BVSQuote Reply
dmick89,
I did like that story about the guy who’s about to buy the Phoenix Suns. Like, there’s no such thing as a “good” billionaire, but that guy feels like the least shittiest.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Also, I think Steve Cohen has been reading OV because he clearly has taken “Don’t tell me what to do” to heart.
BVSQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
We also don’t know if Cohen is thinking like Ricketts (a World Series will bring in a ton more money) or if he just obsessively wants to win.
Billionaires do think differently but they’re also giant cowards/psychopaths/freaks. Who knows how they’ll all react to this?
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Well, there IS this…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Yeah, I’m definitely in the minority on this one. (dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Someone is going to give out his assassination coordinates. (dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
Just saw the headline – looooooooooooooooool
berseliusQuote Reply
This Kirk gif also works
berseliusQuote Reply
Need to (but don’t really care to (dying laughing)) read more about this guy – not sure about the rest of yall but for some reason I look askance at someone who’s described as a mortgage consolidator /2008
berseliusQuote Reply
It’s really a win-win situation for us. If the Mets lose, then (dying laughing)Mets. If the Mets win, we were really the secret sauce that pushed them over the top.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Allegedly he takes really good care of his employees and is quite philanthropic but also as you said, billionaire mortgage guy
Rice CubeQuote Reply
People seem to be forgetting what a monumental asshole Cohen showed himself to be two seasons ago.
I like that he’s spending a lot. That doesn’t make me like him even a little bit, and I also don’t think it will change the narrative at all to be that all owners have money to spend. I also don’t think *he* will try to make that the narrative. People will still conclude he’s spending money out of his pocket, and they’ll continue saying things like “it’s not my money,” when, if you’re a baseball fan, it IS your money he’s spending. He’s keeping his money and there’s scarcely a single thing he will or can do to prevent the amount of his money from increasing exponentially until he dies (offers to hold Elon Musk’s beer).
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I think the Goldblum “you crazy son of a bitch, you did it!” would work well here.
PerkinsQuote Reply
andcounting,
Oh no, I will make fun of him for decades for looking like an evil thumb
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
I think of it more as – it is my money, I’d rather see it as going to the players than be donated to the TFG campaign. Though given the politics of many baseball players that may be a wash (dying laughing).
I don’t think it’s going to move the needle much, but then again, I also was pretty surprised to see how many people were actually sympathetic to the players’ side for once in the last CBA negotiations compared to past labor disputes.
berseliusQuote Reply
Maybe he’s related to
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Yeah, that’s fair. I still have this idiotic goal of seeing the wealth distributed to younger players. And I still kinda hope the reaction to this winds up being, “owners don’t let your players grow into free agents.” I know the press reaction to that will always be “is this too much too soon,” but maybe it will be a glacial drift where they slowly grow to realize young players are criminally underpaid and owners are by nature thieves.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Well they did try to do that with the new CBA in regards to a higher league minimum and the pre-arbitration pool for the top players by WAR (which is somewhat questionable but it seems the right guys got extra cash) but they probably need to shift more. However I read in passing a theory that with better training and nutrition, the age curve may have shifted again which may explain (along with deferring the money artificially) these longer term deals for “old” guys.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I wonder which is a higher number: the collective extra pre-arb money doled out after last season or Carlos Correa’s income in a week on his new contract?
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
The pre-arb pool is actually around $50MM per MLBTR –> https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/dylan-cease-tops-pre-arbitration-bonus-pool.html
Correa’s new Mets contract has a $26.25MM AAV so he may lap an individual player in a week, but not the whole field (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
This type of thing will always be super interesting, especially as we get back to the inevitable question of what is or should be legal.
andcountingQuote Reply
Twitter can still be a treasure trove despite the best efforts of their idiot billionaire owner
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
You mean the stretching the contract to depress the AAV thing? I’m guessing they’ll have to look at it at the next CBA since the Commissioner technically has to approve all deals and none of these have been nixed yet…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
berselius,
I had this in the previous thread hehe
COHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
-the other 29 owners probably
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Top tier petty
Love it
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
(dying laughing), thank you for looking that up. It still shows what we’re talking about here. That’s 100 players! 4 rosters! 10 starting lineups! At some point I might go through and total the WAR on that list, but for Yordan Alvarez alone, his $2.38 million bonus was just $350k per WAR. Like, hey, I’m glad he got that bonus, but for a 6.8-WAR player? I don’t begrudge Correa a single penny of that contract, but we’re a long way from seeing the best talent get paid for what they bring us as fans.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
I think NBA, NFL, and even NHL rookies get a certain pay structure that is commensurate to their value and talent, but also they have the whole salary floor/cap system which I guess will never happen in MLB, but MLBPA did try. The pre-arb pool would have been way higher, but the owners balked at it so they had to settle (as is the norm with negotiations, obviously)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
As part of my petty, I was thinking how hilarious it would be if this iteration of Mets also fell victim to a Ponzi scheme but of way higher magnitude than the last one
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Compared to the other leagues, MLB players* getting guaranteed contracts is pretty nice.
*free agents/non-arb
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Still holding out hope that they’re exposed to crypto!
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
No, I mean like HGH and supplements engineered for peak nutrition/training.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Oh yeah, that whole era was dumb. Chicks dig the long ball
Rice CubeQuote Reply
berselius,
Aren’t NBA and NHL contracts guaranteed? I know the NFL does some nefarious math to not pay their players the full contract if *waves hand* reasons
Rice CubeQuote Reply
There are just so many things that make MLB unique. Antitrust exemptions, the number of games they play, weird-ass broadcasting restrictions, the owners’ history of avoiding Cohen-type spending by just outright agreeing amongst themselves that they wouldn’t do that to each other. I mean, Cohen himself did that with the Yankees on Judge and the league did a 12-second investigation to dismiss it.
andcountingQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
You’re probably right, though I don’t really know anything about the NHL anymore (dying laughing). The NBA seems to have the ‘best’ system you can get with the presence of a salary cap, though I think the economics have changed since I last paid attention to it.
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
From what I remember, the TL;DR version of NFL contracts is that bonuses are guaranteed, salaries are not. There’s lots of other nonsense that branches out from there wrt the salary cap and guarantees, but that’s the gist of it.
berseliusQuote Reply
andcounting,
Oh, and the minor leagues. Such a crazy difference between baseball and other sports in that regard. I’m sure hockey is somewhat similar in a lot of ways, but NFL and NBA are in a different universe. And the player pool in the NBA is just so crazy small baby comparison.
andcountingQuote Reply
berselius,
The NBA players union has a much more consolidated, powerful position simply by the nature of the numbers. They’ve done a good job of leveraging that in recent decades.
andcountingQuote Reply
Between the antitrust and the collusion I suppose the MLB salary system from top to their lowest affiliates is super shady but probably not on par with what NFL does with their salaries. I think depending on what Congress’ mood is at the time that the antitrust might be threatened but who knows?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
Fewer guys to have to represent just by basis of their roster sizes so more money to spread around too, plus it’s obviously easier to market NBA in North America
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
It’s so weird. The NFL kills its players, so they can make concessions to try to kill fewer players and come off looking philanthropic. Other leagues don’t have “we can try to make it more likely that you’ll ever recognize your grandchildren” as a bargaining chip.
andcountingQuote Reply
It was pre-MLB so not the carpal tunnel from banging a trash can
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
(dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
That’s realllllllly sus. With the leak on that coming from the player side (Boras) the only thing SF can legally say in response is “No, that’s not it.” It could be true, but if it’s not SF really can’t do much to respond.
andcountingQuote Reply
And there we go
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I guess it’s a good thing that the Cubs had the Swanson deal locked up before a desperate Giants team suddenly had big incentive to bid things up (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
Slightly newer shit –> http://www.obstructedview.net/welcome-to-the-cubs-dansby-swanson/
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
I can’t stand him and I know little about him. I’d just prefer if a billionaire is going to own my favorite team that it be someone spending an obscene amount than someone spending money to promote fascism. I’m sure Cohen favors fascism too, but at least he’s spending.
dmick89Quote Reply