MLB Transactions

[manly]

Ohtani becomes the second player, after Stan Musial, to win 3 MVPs in his first 7 seasons.

Aaron Judge also unanimous, for AL MVP.

Ohtani, Judge capture unanimous MVP honors

The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani won his second straight unanimous MVP award, and Yankees star Aaron Judge became a two-time MVP on Thursday.

www.espn.com

 

[manly]

Ummm yeahh..

Sources: Mets land Soto on 15-year, $765M deal

Juan Soto and the Mets are in agreement on a 15-year, $765 million contract, sources told ESPN, the largest deal in professional sports history.

www.espn.com

Ohtani's massive deal from a year ago now looks even better lol.

 

[manly]

Ohtani will win his 4th MVP award, and has just played arguably the greatest individual game in MLB postseason history.

Ohtani's 2-way show for the ages sends L.A. to WS

Shohei Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters and clobbered three home runs in a performance many of his Dodgers teammates described as the greatest in baseball history.

www.espn.com

 

[manly]

Dodgers officially break MLB, with the ludicrous signing of Kyle Tucker. A very good player, who's never even hit 30 HRs in a season. Somehow Tucker gets the largest AAV ($57M) ever in MLB.

Sources: Kyle Tucker, Dodgers agree to 4-year, $240M deal

The World Series champion Dodgers added another big bat to an already-potent lineup Thursday night, agreeing to a four-year, $240 million deal with prized free agent Kyle Tucker, sources told ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Dodgers officially break MLB, with the ludicrous signing of Kyle Tucker. A very good player, who's never even hit 30 HRs in a season. Somehow Tucker gets the largest AAV ($57M) ever in MLB.

I'm still hyped for this next season

 

[manly]

I'm still hyped for this next season

I'm a Dodgers fan, and it was F'ing hilarious when the Yankees complained about the economic balance. Baseball is interesting because the fiscal imbalance is clearly quite real, but the variance of the game itself means outcomes are far from predetermined. (If an NBA team could outspend its rivals 2-to-1, there would be little competition.) Part of the reason we enjoy the NFL Is the high level of parity, and media market size is irrelevant to competitive balance.

Personally I'd like to see a bit more rev share (but not NBA-level punitive luxury tax), but I'm pretty sure MLBPA will never agree to a salary cap of any kind. Why would they, when a consistent 5 WAR player like Kyle Tucker can get $57M AAV to reset the market?

The Ohtani and Aaron Judge contracts have aged spectacularly well.

 

[Brainonska511]

I'm a Dodgers fan, and it was F'ing hilarious when the Yankees complained about the economic balance. Baseball is interesting because the fiscal imbalance is clearly quite real, but the variance of the game itself means outcomes are far from predetermined. (If an NBA team could outspend its rivals 2-to-1, there would be little competition.) Part of the reason we enjoy the NFL Is the high level of parity, and media market size is irrelevant to competitive balance.

Personally I'd like to see a bit more rev share (but not NBA-level punitive luxury tax), but I'm pretty sure MLBPA will never agree to a salary cap of any kind. Why would they, when a consistent 5 WAR player like Kyle Tucker can get $57M AAV to reset the market?

The Ohtani and Aaron Judge contracts have aged spectacularly well.

The fiscal imbalance exists because some teams are run by cheapskate billionaires who are happy to collect MLB shared revenue and still make a profit while investing nothing into building a team or a brand in their region.

A salary cap is just a way to keep more money in owners' pockets.

 

[jpiniero]

I'm a Dodgers fan, and it was F'ing hilarious when the Yankees complained about the economic balance.

The Dodgers got a sweet deal where their TV deal is great and is also not subject to the revenue sharing. That is because the Dodgers went bankrupt and MLB gave the owners a waiver that lasts to like 2038 or something.

Btw, we do have data on the Braves. The "Baseball Operating Costs" were 470 million for the 9 months. Still had 600M in revenue.

https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_cd2b8055c8248a27b68f2bed67bc4f8c/bravesholdings/news/2025-11-05_Atlanta_Braves_Holdings_Reports_Third_Quarter_212.pdf

 

[manly]

The fiscal imbalance exists because some teams are run by cheapskate billionaires who are happy to collect MLB shared revenue and still make a profit while investing nothing into building a team or a brand in their region.

A salary cap is just a way to keep more money in owners' pockets.

Only partially true. Obviously the NFL has the most fair rev share split, but that's possible only because they have national broadcast rights at the league level.
You can't really replicate that with the NBA or MLB, unless you convinced owners to completely upend the status quo.

However, the NBA has quite a brutal luxury tax setup. I think it's actually too punitive*. But even as a Dodgers fan, I wouldn't mind if the large market teams paid a little more into revenue sharing. The economics in MLB makes it impossible for small market teams to truly invest in their team, although you're right that some owners are tightwads. The way to solve that is to insist on a salary floor as well.

A salary cap doesn't necessarily maximize profits. In the NBA (and probably the NFL as well), players get a fixed cut of the total money pool. IIRC it's about 47% in the NBA, but used to be higher before the owners flexed**. So a salary cap (hard or soft) doesn't take money out of players pockets, but it ensures that big contracts get distributed throughout the entire league.

* In about 2 years, the top 3 players on the champion OKC Thunder will soak up about 80% of the salary cap. Chances are that isn't sustainable, although OKC could try if they are dynastic.

** Players in Spain's La Liga were getting a lot higher than 47%, which is why perennial powerhouse FC Barcelona was teetering on insolvency a couple years ago, despite being one of the world's most valuable association football teams.

The Dodgers got a sweet deal where their TV deal is great and is also not subject to the revenue sharing. That is because the Dodgers went bankrupt and MLB gave the owners a waiver that lasts to like 2038 or something.

I've read this is a myth. IIRC the Dodgers have paid the most money into revenue sharing over the past 12 or so years (prior to that, it would have been the Yankees and Red Sox).