htxag09 said:

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Match? Match makes it sound like someone has offered that. Which I don't believe....or else he'd have signed...

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I think he meant "match" Bregman's demand, not match another team's offer.

I mean he has to know that he's the one who has to change his position, right?

You can't get an offer for $26m a year, go try the market, get no bites, and then come back and say OK, I'l ltake $30m.

He kinda needs to hurry TFU because Paredes is now down to 2 months to learn the position that everyone is so confident he can play despite playing zero innings there as a pro.

Faustus said:

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Jose Cruuuuuuuuuuuuz said:

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n_touch said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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Cubs president Jed Hoyer is booed by Cubs’ fans when he said he couldn’t answer whether they had any interest signing free agent 3B Alex Bregman.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 18, 2025

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Should be a warning to Alex of what a slow start will sound like in Chicago

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Wait till they see tucker lollygag that first ball hit into the corner.

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This is his contract year. He has every incentive to play like an MVP, which he already wasn't far off of.

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He's playing in the Shohei Ohtani charity invitational league, he's not gonna win MVP there

Ag_07 said:

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Jose Cruuuuuuuuuuuuz said:

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I mean he has to know that he's the one who has to change his position, right?

You can't get an offer for $26m a year, go try the market, get no bites, and then come back and say OK, I'l ltake $30m.

He kinda needs to hurry TFU because Paredes is now down to 2 months to learn the position that everyone is so confident he can play despite playing zero innings there as a pro.

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This is irrelevant because he ain't coming back

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At 6/156, he no longer makes sense to bring back. Only a short term deal would make sense at this point, and even that might be pushing it.

Jose Cruuuuuuuuuuuuz said:

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OK let's make it interesting.

Everyone gets 1 AL and 1 NL team as your guesses of where Bregman actually winds up.

I'll say Cubs and Angels.

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That Rendon dude at 3B would be a problem. They still owe him roughly $77MM for the next 2 seasons.

Speaking of Mr Rendon. He's played in 257 of 708 possible games with the Halos. And during that time he's sucked off $167,857,142. In that time he has hit 22 HR and has a combined 5 year bWAR of 3.8.

If there has been a worse contract in baseball EVER, I would love to see it. He makes Captain Lou look like a bargain.

Bregman to the Dodgers for $200M, $150M deferred

AggiEE said:

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From 4 days ago, I believe the Astros offer of 156/6 is still there and if Bregman wants to come back he can.

But it looks like he's wanting to be paid $30M a year, which the Astros won't match.

Snow in Houston is more possible than Bregman coming back https://t.co/g5oAXUFOWx

— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) January 20, 2025

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He should be jumping all over this deal. There is no way that 24 million over 6 years is worth playing roulette right now.

BadAggie said:

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Top left...Tracy Morgan.

Dr. Doctor said:

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EastCoastAgNc said:

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The deferrals alone are greater than the total value of 7 MLB franchises. The “any owner could do this,” is the most annoying message the media is trying to shove down people’s throats. https://t.co/TjgUI1cpwq pic.twitter.com/LFkJbiEfyp

— The Astros Locker (@TheAstrosLocker) January 19, 2025

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How in the world are the angels worth more than the astros? I can't honestly think of a time in which they were any sort of competitive, at least not in my lifetime. I realize they have a few (or had a few) good players and such, but how?

~egon

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It's because of the TV market they are in, even though their TV ratings suck.
The metro area population that can watch their games is almost 13 million.
It's just a potential #.

iamtheglove said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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So they have deferred basically 4 total years of the Astros entire yearly salary. Or Rangers or anyone else right at the edge of the CBT level.

They are getting 4 years a full team of high level players with no penalty and effectively no cost while they play.

Thats insane.

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And yet Manfred just sits on his hands as the game tilts evermore to the "haves" he is allowing irreparable damage to the sport on his watch.

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The WS just a year ago was Texas and Arizona.

Milwaukee and Tampa have been consistently competitive for the last 10 years.

The issue isn't parity or competitive balance, that still exists in MLB as of today and I don't think it's in real jeopardy.

The issue is the narrative/reality of big market teams accumulating the biggest names. This has a compounding effect on depressing fan interest and valuations of franchises further widening the financial gap between franchises.

In the not so distant past, teams like KC (Brett) and Milwaukee (Yount) and San Diego (Gwynn) could hold on to HOF quality players for their whole careers. They were great players that a generation of fans grew up watching in those cities. That's the ideal situation for MLB, have a cornerstone star in each market. As it stands now teams like the Pirates are only going to get 6 years out of Skenes and be forced to watch him sign with the Mets or Yankees.

Although the NBA is flawed in many ways, they realized this issue years ago and basically have built in a variety of rules that try to give the team the player is currently on an advantage when it comes to signing their own guys to extensions. This is why Giannis is in Milwaukee and Jokic is in Denver and SGA is in OKC. Under the MLB model the Lakers or Knicks would just sign those guys.

The league should have a vested interest in finding a way to both protect the players ability to get paid in free agency, while also trying to find a way to keep stars in smaller markets.

I would love to see something like the franchise tag used in baseball, where a team could apply a tag to a key free agent and either pay them or receive enhanced compensation for losing them. Then make the compensation a team owes for signing them escalate for each one they sign in a given season. Fine, if LA wants to sign errrbody, let them. But make them lose their entire set of draft picks for the next 3-4 drafts if they do.

We riot if Wags doesn't get in.

Farmer1906 said:

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We riot if Wags doesn't get in.

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…when the snow melts…