Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Hi everyone, welcome to
Speaker 1: the Deal. I'm your host Jason Kelly here with Alex Rodriguez. Alex,
Speaker 1: really good to see you. Oh my god, I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for this.
Speaker 2: We spoke yesterday and we said we have to jump
Speaker 2: on because it's such exciting news and is really the
Speaker 2: news of sports and business.
Speaker 1: All right, this is, of course the record breaking deal
Speaker 1: Wan Soto signing for the Mets. Unbelievable fifteen year deal.
Speaker 1: We're gonna unpack it all. I mean, what's funny is this?
Speaker 1: This is a discussion Taylor made for our show. We're
Speaker 1: right in the middle of sort of our regular season.
Speaker 1: We're actually taking a break for the holidays. We've had
Speaker 1: some amazing episodes come out already, Sue Byrd, Billy gen King,
Speaker 1: George Pine, you know, so much fun with those. We've
Speaker 1: got more coming out after the first of the year.
Speaker 1: Carolyn Logic, Josh Richards, so lots of stuff we have
Speaker 1: waiting for you. But as you said, there was no
Speaker 1: question we had to do this. I said to a
Speaker 1: text as soon as this news about one Soto's record
Speaker 1: breaking contract hit, because there was literally one human that
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear his reaction, and it was you,
Speaker 1: And then luckily we figured out a way to get
Speaker 1: this onto the podcast. So let me start there. The
Speaker 1: news hits the tape. We knew he was negotiating, we
Speaker 1: knew who he was negotiating with, but the number, the news,
Speaker 1: the team. What's your first reaction when you hear that?
Speaker 2: I mean, my first reaction, Jason, is deja vu. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was an exact same situation in an undisclosed location
Speaker 2: for ten days. And what was interesting, Scott Bors was
Speaker 2: also my agent. What was also the same thing similarities eerie.
Speaker 2: It was also the Hilton in Dallas. So my phone
Speaker 2: started blowing up. Jason, I thought I was like back
Speaker 2: in the future. Yeah, and I thought I signed the deal.
Speaker 2: But unfortunate than me, it was Juan Soto. I could
Speaker 2: not be more excited for Juana, could not be more
Speaker 2: excited for Steve Cohen and Alex Coin and the New
Speaker 2: York Mets. This is like a historic moment in sports,
Speaker 2: in New York history.
Speaker 1: So why tell me why, because I mean, it certainly
Speaker 1: feels like that, and I can't tell you how it's
Speaker 1: dominating every conversation I'm here at the Hope Global Forum,
Speaker 1: where you and I were last year here in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: There were several Major League commissioners here, including Rob Manfred.
Speaker 1: I'm talking later with our friend Tony Wrestler about some
Speaker 1: of the work he's doing here in Atlanta and beyond.
Speaker 1: But everybody's talking about this deal. What is it other
Speaker 1: than the numbers that really capture this sort of business
Speaker 1: imagination here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's such a statement, especially in New York,
Speaker 2: around baseball, around the globe. I mean, this news hit everywhere,
Speaker 2: and as if you think about it and you take.
Speaker 3: A step back. The Yankees have been around for over
Speaker 3: one hundred years.
Speaker 2: They've never, and I mean never with all Caps have
Speaker 2: lost a player they've coveted to another team. Why because
Speaker 2: forever they've been the king of the jungle. They've had
Speaker 2: more resources sometimes two x, three x four x and
Speaker 2: some of the smaller market teams. So whatever they want
Speaker 2: they get. This is the first time somebody has stood
Speaker 2: up to the New York Yankees and said not so fast.
Speaker 2: We're richer and we want to be better and this
Speaker 2: is our city. And Steve Coin and Alex con they're
Speaker 2: on their way.
Speaker 1: It is remarkable. I mean, the New York of it
Speaker 1: all is just fascinating it and you bring up something
Speaker 1: that is at the heart of this, which is Steve
Speaker 1: Cohen is a different sort of owner that's undeniable, and
Speaker 1: the moves that he's made they have been bold, they
Speaker 1: have been aggressive, and you're right, it is a statement
Speaker 1: like no other. So let's talk about the Yankees for
Speaker 1: a second, and then I want to get back in
Speaker 1: the time machine. Did you feel bad for the Yankees
Speaker 1: in all of this when you saw that he was
Speaker 1: going to the Mets or were you? Were you mad? Disappointed?
Speaker 1: I feel like we're like two parrots talking. It's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. Like, how did you
Speaker 1: feel as a as a Yankee about your Yankee family?
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a Yankee fan and a Yankee alum. Look,
Speaker 2: it's been a long time since we won a World Series.
Speaker 2: It's been fifteen years. And there's no question that the
Speaker 2: main reason why the Yankees made it to the World
Speaker 2: Series was the combination of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge
Speaker 2: one lefty, one righty, both hit over forty home runs,
Speaker 2: both extraordinary hitters. And of course you have you know,
Speaker 2: Garrett Coe and others, but the main formula was the
Speaker 2: one to two punch that reminded me of Maris and
Speaker 2: Mantell back in the day. So the question for the
Speaker 2: Yankees is how do they pivot out of this? And
Speaker 2: they're going to have a lot of resources to go
Speaker 2: out and deploy. But the last time they lost Robinson Cano,
Speaker 2: the pivot did not go well and they signed some
Speaker 2: players that they didn't work out, and they were back
Speaker 2: to square one. So all the pressure right now will
Speaker 2: be on Brian Cashman because he has a bank open,
Speaker 2: and the question is what players would he attract to
Speaker 2: New York.
Speaker 1: All right, So I'm taking you back to the time
Speaker 1: machine twenty four years, same agent, same hotel, same undisclosed location.
Speaker 1: As you say, what were you feeling in that moment?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like, again you're literally the only other
Speaker 1: person who's had this almost eerily similar experience. What was
Speaker 1: it like in that moment for you?
Speaker 3: Excitement and anxiety?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure which one I had both, you knowever
Speaker 2: stuck in this location for ten days, but I was
Speaker 2: twenty four, Jason. And one of the great benefits of
Speaker 2: you know, entering the major leagues at eighteen, is it
Speaker 2: takes you to six years to become a free agent. Now,
Speaker 2: remember Scott Bors had me three years prior to that.
Speaker 2: He had me at fifteen years old. So for nine years,
Speaker 2: from fifteen to twenty four, he was training me almost
Speaker 2: like a robot, feeding me, giving me the information, preparing
Speaker 2: me for this big heavyweight battle. And when that battle came,
Speaker 2: just like Juan Soto, we were ready. He was ready
Speaker 2: and I was ready. I knew he was ready. Twenty
Speaker 2: minutes after the last out when they got eliminated, that
Speaker 2: Juan Soto had his hat backwards. She did a postgame
Speaker 2: press conference, I'm not sure if you saw it, and
Speaker 2: he basically said, everybody starts at ground zero, nobody has
Speaker 2: an advantage. And that's when I said, oh, the Yankees
Speaker 2: are in trouble.
Speaker 1: All right. So I don't want to get too far
Speaker 1: away from your own experience because I want to understand
Speaker 1: this because I've never been in those rooms. Like what
Speaker 1: are the conversations like between you and Scott? Are you
Speaker 1: talking ten times a day? Is he talking to you
Speaker 1: only when he has information, like especially during that first
Speaker 1: big deal, Like take us inside the room.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and two thousand and one. It was
Speaker 2: a lot easier to hide because there was no social media.
Speaker 2: There was no Instagram, no Twitter, no X all that.
Speaker 2: So I was in this location and we were probably
Speaker 2: talking about seven or eight times a day, and the
Speaker 2: conversations consisted of, we're talking to these five teams. I'm
Speaker 2: talking to this owner at this time. I'm talking to
Speaker 2: this GM at this time. We want to start everybody
Speaker 2: at two hundred. That's the starting bid. And he said,
Speaker 2: we have three of the five teams there. Let me
Speaker 2: work on the other teams. I'll come back to you.
Speaker 2: But because I was getting ready for nine years, Jason,
Speaker 2: the volatility of this, I was actually much more in
Speaker 2: the zone than I would have been if I hadn't
Speaker 2: been prepared. So Scott's formula is he wants to prepare
Speaker 2: you for the situation because when he knows his go
Speaker 2: time as a young man, you have to be emotionally
Speaker 2: ready for anything to happen. And it was so much
Speaker 2: anxiety because I could have ended up in Baltimore or
Speaker 2: the White Sox or the Mets. I had no idea
Speaker 2: where I was going, So you know, I also have
Speaker 2: you know, Cynthia was my wife at the time, and
Speaker 2: we were like we have a young baby. We had
Speaker 2: no idea where we were going to go.
Speaker 1: And I did wonder. I'm glad you said that about
Speaker 1: about Cynthia and your family because I do wonder, like
Speaker 1: who are you talking to? You know, Scott's feeding you information,
Speaker 1: Like what is your process then for assessing that. You know,
Speaker 1: are you and Cynthia sort of like huddling, are you
Speaker 1: talking to your mom? Like what's going through your mind
Speaker 1: in terms of that decision making because as you say,
Speaker 1: this is a life altering from a money perspective, but
Speaker 1: even to your point where you're going to live, who
Speaker 1: you're going to play for, what's the culture of the
Speaker 1: team you want to embrace? So what are those conversations
Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, let me bring you inside the tent because
Speaker 2: this is a very tight tent and it was basically Cynthia,
Speaker 2: myself and Scott. And part of prepping for nine years
Speaker 2: is there's a gag order. So you go to undisclosed location.
Speaker 2: You're basically in a mountain somewhere, and you're to make
Speaker 2: no phone calls, no family, no friends. You got to
Speaker 2: build a mistique and a mystery around what's happening, and
Speaker 2: you don't want anybody to be able to know what
Speaker 2: you're thinking, or to be able to kind of connect
Speaker 2: dots because of, you know, informal conversations you're having. So
Speaker 2: I was in a hall for ten days, and I'll
Speaker 2: tell you when it finally said are you sitting down?
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I'm sitting now, I was actually standing.
Speaker 2: He said are you ready? He said ten years, two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty two million dollars and I said, WTF,
Speaker 2: what are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: How is that possible?
Speaker 2: We were trying to get you know, one eighty two
Speaker 2: hundred and you know, the ten years made it the
Speaker 2: big two fifty two, which, ironically, Jason, was double the
Speaker 2: amount of the largest contract in American history from Kevin
Speaker 2: Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: He had one twenty six.
Speaker 1: Wow. The symmetry here is insane, like where your life
Speaker 1: has taken you from a sports perspective and elsewhere. So
Speaker 1: what was your feeling when that when you heard that?
Speaker 1: What goes through your mind?
Speaker 2: I don't know if I was more excited at the
Speaker 2: time of the number or the fact that I get
Speaker 2: to fly home because I was homesick. I wanted to
Speaker 2: get home, so I was super excited. I felt a
Speaker 2: lot of pressure. I felt like the work starts today.
Speaker 2: Is not the end, is the beginning. And I remember
Speaker 2: I flew home and I landed in Miami around two
Speaker 2: in the morning. I remember putting on my clothes on
Speaker 2: the plane, my workout stuff. Two o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 2: I drive to the University of Miami to the track
Speaker 2: right behind the baseball field where if you hit a
Speaker 2: home run in the baseball field over the left field wall,
Speaker 2: you hit.
Speaker 3: The middle of the track. That's where I went.
Speaker 2: I jumped the fence and I started running and doing
Speaker 2: my sprints and my workouts to about four o'clock at
Speaker 2: five o'clock in the morning, and that was my first
Speaker 2: wor work out getting ready for spring training, which was
Speaker 2: in a few months.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Unlike a lot of people, you got sort of a
Speaker 1: second bite at the apple because you sort of got
Speaker 1: got to do it again. You do end up with
Speaker 1: the Yankees, And for those who missed it, I highly
Speaker 1: recommend going back to the episode we did with Derek Jeter,
Speaker 1: your teammate and fellow world champion back in nine, talking
Speaker 1: about your deal to get there. There's a really funny
Speaker 1: story about you and Brian Cashman and having a few drinks,
Speaker 1: and obviously there's also some really interesting context about why
Speaker 1: you made the decision. Then, So take us back to
Speaker 1: that second go round, because you're a different player and
Speaker 1: maybe you have, I dare say, like some different priorities.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, there's no question.
Speaker 2: I mean, remember from fifteen to twenty four, when I
Speaker 2: was a free agent, I was like a robot that
Speaker 2: was trained for nine years by Scott Bores. Now you
Speaker 2: fast forward to when I'm thirty two, I had different priorities.
Speaker 3: At that time. I had two baby girls.
Speaker 2: At that time valued the Yankees so much that I
Speaker 2: had two or three teams that had bigger offers than
Speaker 2: the Yankees. But I valued the Yankees a great deal,
Speaker 2: and I had the luxury Jason because at that point
Speaker 2: I had made a lot of money, So I was
Speaker 2: in a different position. Money didn't mean as much as
Speaker 2: it did as twenty four a better way of saying it.
Speaker 2: At twenty four, I was more of a mercenary. At
Speaker 2: thirty two, I was more of a missionary, and the Yankees.
Speaker 1: Meant a great deal to me, right, And that I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you would probably agree you made the right decision, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no question about it or Yankees, and
Speaker 1: my vision was I wanted more than anything to be
Speaker 1: in Monument Park. The romance of going to the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame with a Yankee and the pinchtripes was very
Speaker 1: appealing to me. And the other teams while they were,
Speaker 1: you know, good teams and they made better offers. I
Speaker 1: just thought the combination of spending fifteen years as a
Speaker 1: New York Yankee meant a great deal to me. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about why do you think Soto made this decision.
Speaker 2: I think you can't blame one Soda. Look, Juan comes
Speaker 2: from a very humble background in Dominican Republic. You work
Speaker 2: your absolute tail off. The average career of a major
Speaker 2: league players five and a half years. He's worked his
Speaker 2: butt off. So anyone who blames one Soto, they got
Speaker 2: to be crazy because this is you know, lottery money
Speaker 2: and he can take care of his family for generations
Speaker 2: to come. He did everything he asked for, He never
Speaker 2: misled anyone. He was very honest, very forthright, and was
Speaker 2: an absolute pro. And now he's not a player with
Speaker 2: Steve Cohen. He's a partner of Steve Cohen. And if
Speaker 2: you think about coin, he paid two point four to
Speaker 2: five for the Mets. This contract is going to take
Speaker 2: you north of eight hundred million dollars. And remember, a
Speaker 2: guy like Steve Cohen has bigger ambitions than just the Mets.
Speaker 2: Does he want to build a soccer team, a soccer venue.
Speaker 2: Does he want to build a casino? Is he going
Speaker 2: to be part of when S and Y contract runs out?
Speaker 2: Does he build his own yes network instead of S
Speaker 2: and Y. So there's a lot there, and you have
Speaker 2: a guy like Soho to be your partner and run
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what this means for baseball. You
Speaker 1: said something interesting earlier about sort of the New York
Speaker 1: element of it. There's a little bit of little brother
Speaker 1: punching up. It feels like to me, you know, being
Speaker 1: a sort of transplanted New Yorker, you know, Stevie Cohen
Speaker 1: basically saying I am not messing around here. I want
Speaker 1: to win and I'm willing to, you know, do whatever
Speaker 1: it takes to do that. We know from his success
Speaker 1: in the hedge fund world, like he's going for it.
Speaker 1: But what does this do? Because I think it's fair
Speaker 1: to say, and I'm saying this is me and I'm
Speaker 1: not putting words your mouth. Your contract fundamentally changed the
Speaker 1: business of baseball. I think that's fair to say that
Speaker 1: there were rules the opt out that you know, sort
Speaker 1: of came in in the wake of that. What will
Speaker 1: this contract do do you think for the business of baseball?
Speaker 3: I think it's a tale of twos.
Speaker 2: And I mean, look, there's about five or six teams
Speaker 2: that are crushing it the have and have nots, but
Speaker 2: the have nots of the thirty teams are much bigger.
Speaker 2: And there's no coincidence that the five teams that were involved,
Speaker 2: the Yankees, the Mets, the Red Sox, Dodgers, and the
Speaker 2: Blue Jays all have a very very healthy regional sports
Speaker 2: network deal. Toronto has a whole country, The Boston have Nessen,
Speaker 2: the Mets have s and y, the Yankees f BBS,
Speaker 2: and you have the sports Net with the Dodgers that
Speaker 2: make well over two hundred million dollars a year. If
Speaker 2: you take a step back, Baseball about twenty five years
Speaker 2: ago made a macro bet that regional sports network is
Speaker 2: where the money is where the NBA and NFL made
Speaker 2: out macro bet that the national TV deal and NFL
Speaker 2: is one hundred and ten billion, NBA is at seventy
Speaker 2: seven billion. The national TV deal for the Mets is
Speaker 2: only ten billion. The regional sports networks are having a
Speaker 2: lot of issues. So the teams that have the healthiest
Speaker 2: TV deals. If you think about the Yankees that make
Speaker 2: two hundred plus a year for their TV deal, and
Speaker 2: there's somewhere on sixteen million, it's just not sustainable.
Speaker 3: So I think it's going to change the business. Again.
Speaker 3: You have a.
Speaker 2: CBA that's coming up here in the next couple of years.
Speaker 2: I do watch that very carefully because there's some owners
Speaker 2: that are thrilled, like the Dodgers, the Mets, the Yankees,
Speaker 2: and there's some owners with the Pirates and you know,
Speaker 2: Marlins and others that are saying, how do we compete?
Speaker 1: I feel like, again, this is just me sort of
Speaker 1: specting a little bit. Your contract back in the day
Speaker 1: not only change Baseball, it made every other professional sport
Speaker 1: sort of take stock of what the compensation was for players.
Speaker 1: I would argue it didn't just change the negotiations and Baseball,
Speaker 1: it changed the negotiations elsewhere. Does this have that effect too,
Speaker 1: or are the sports sort of and you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you're very involved, deeply involved in another major sport
Speaker 1: in the NBA and the WNBA. You know, did these
Speaker 1: sorts of contracts resonate across those sports too?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, this is a copy and paste business, right,
Speaker 2: And when you look at Soto's contract at let's say
Speaker 2: forty six million dollars a year, you still have a
Speaker 2: handful of NBA players that make more per year. You
Speaker 2: have a handful of quarterbacks that make more per year.
Speaker 2: What makes this such a daunte number is the fifteen years, right,
Speaker 2: which you don't really have that in footbun in the NBA.
Speaker 2: So that's one way of thinking about it. But I
Speaker 2: think the model that most people are going to follow
Speaker 2: is you're Atlanta Braves. They have Alisonthopolis, the baseball executive there,
Speaker 2: who's brilliant. He came from Toronto and he's made some
Speaker 2: really really shrewd strategic bets, whether that's a Kunya who's
Speaker 2: playing at twenty cents of the dollar, he's brought in
Speaker 2: Olsen from Oakland that he's been fantastic. You have Albi's
Speaker 2: at thirty five for seven. You made a great bet
Speaker 2: with Riley, your center fielder. I mean across the board.
Speaker 2: If you look at the value creation versus what they're paying,
Speaker 2: the arbitrage is enormous. So it's gonna have to come
Speaker 2: down to talent evaluation. And when you see a great
Speaker 2: talent like an Aaron Judge early sign them up for
Speaker 2: as long as possible, don't let him become a free agent.
Speaker 1: And so does that inform And now I'm asking you
Speaker 1: to put on your hat as a professional team owner
Speaker 1: of a couple of sports teams. How is your mindset changed?
Speaker 1: Not necessarily about this deal, but again I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know with all these feelings and memories flooding back, now
Speaker 1: you are literally on the other side of the table
Speaker 1: for a lot of these negotiations. And so how does
Speaker 1: it inform your playbook? How is your playbook different now
Speaker 1: as an owner? I know we've talked about this on
Speaker 1: the show before. Than it was that the player, what
Speaker 1: are the things you're sensitive to or that you especially
Speaker 1: sort of take to heart? Now, you know, being not
Speaker 1: the player but management.
Speaker 2: You know, if you take a step back to two thousand,
Speaker 2: I think it's important to remember it's not so long ago,
Speaker 2: but sometimes we forget as sports fans. Is when a
Speaker 2: team made an announcement, the ownership and management had like
Speaker 2: ninety percent of the power. The ten percent of the players,
Speaker 2: they didn't have the vehicle like the social media, the
Speaker 2: X the Instagram to be able to voice our opinion.
Speaker 2: I remember, Jason, when I signed that contract, I became
Speaker 2: public enemy number one, and I didn't have a way
Speaker 2: to fight back. It was like, you know, an ambush
Speaker 2: of criticism. And I love how far we've come in
Speaker 2: this game where Tani and Soto I looked at like
Speaker 2: superheroes because they're everything that's right with the game right,
Speaker 2: So I like that. The other part is players are
Speaker 2: no longer players, at least in the NBA and WNBA.
Speaker 2: They're partners. You're building a business with them as we go.
Speaker 2: We all win together and you lose, you lose together.
Speaker 2: So I think that's where it's been a paradigm shift
Speaker 2: in owner player.
Speaker 3: No, we're partners now, and that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's interesting that the partner point is an issue. Wheen,
Speaker 1: and you said it at the top that the way
Speaker 1: that Soto is youing, you know, the Cohens and vice versa.
Speaker 1: You know, even sort of the language that's been around this,
Speaker 1: you know, with like swedes and you know, all these
Speaker 1: different sort of elements. It does feel much more like, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're in business together now, versus I work for you
Speaker 1: and you're paying me. I don't want to use bad
Speaker 1: layers a lot of money. You're making me a lot
Speaker 1: of money, and I'm going to show up and play.
Speaker 1: It's more we're building a business together.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting about that, Jason, this, I don't
Speaker 2: know if you've heard a lot of the noise around
Speaker 2: some of the things around the edges that made a
Speaker 2: big difference for Juan Soto, and some of them were
Speaker 2: the suite that he got for fifteen years for his family.
Speaker 2: Huansota is a very much of a family man. You
Speaker 2: talked about he had a couple incidents with security where
Speaker 2: they pushed out his family into the rain and they
Speaker 2: weren't allowed into a special place. At the end of
Speaker 2: the day, look, it was about the money. But what
Speaker 2: I would say is if you combine, you know, three
Speaker 2: or four or five of these things around the edges,
Speaker 2: they start moving.
Speaker 3: The needle a little bit.
Speaker 2: I don't think just one, but two or three or
Speaker 2: four of these and look, the one thing Steve Cohen
Speaker 2: knows is he knows how to identify value.
Speaker 3: And whether it's one of his hedge.
Speaker 2: Fund managers at P seventy two or it's Juan Soto,
Speaker 2: he has no problem you the very most if you're
Speaker 2: the very best. And that's exactly what he did. And
Speaker 2: he's one of the greatest art collectors in the world.
Speaker 2: And for him, he was going to an auction, a
Speaker 2: Sotheby's auction, and he was going to walk away with
Speaker 2: the Mona Lisa or the warhow that he wanted and
Speaker 2: nobody was going to outbid him.
Speaker 1: All right, So let me ask you this point blank.
Speaker 1: You think he's worth it?
Speaker 2: I do. I do think he's worth it. Look what
Speaker 2: he did for the Yankees. If you look at the
Speaker 2: numbers for the Yankees, the S and Y numbers have
Speaker 2: not been better in probably ten years. You had a
Speaker 2: full house in Yankee Stadium. There was an excitement, there
Speaker 2: was an energy. It reminds me Jason with Barry Bonds
Speaker 2: went from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. He basically didn't play
Speaker 2: one game at home that wasn't a soldout crowd. And
Speaker 2: when you had the Jordan's, the Lebrons, the Barry Bonds,
Speaker 2: guys like that that can move the needle. They're more
Speaker 2: than just one player. They're really a paradigm shift for
Speaker 2: a whole franchise and the self esteem of that franchise.
Speaker 2: And the Mets are saying, we're not your father's Mets.
Speaker 2: There's a new era, baby, and we're here to stay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's interesting too, And you mentioned this, and I
Speaker 1: want to sort of underline it. This whole notion of
Speaker 1: like what the Coen family is building out around city Field.
Speaker 1: You know, as I mentioned, I'm in Atlanta and last
Speaker 1: night I drove with a friend of mine past Truest Park.
Speaker 1: You see the Battery, You see all these developments. That
Speaker 1: is clearly the vision that Cohen has for around City Field.
Speaker 1: And there's a massive amount of ambition and I guess
Speaker 1: this may be the crown jewel of it. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's a great example, Jason. I think
Speaker 2: Atlanta Braves have done as good as job as anyone.
Speaker 3: And that Battery area.
Speaker 2: We covered the World Series there for Fox a few
Speaker 2: years ago, and it was like a college atmosphere for
Speaker 2: like you know, college game day. Yeah, but everything starts
Speaker 2: on the field and it works out if you have
Speaker 2: the greatest properties, if you have the greatest assets. If
Speaker 2: you're not winning and you don't have talent, your debt duck.
Speaker 2: Now what Alex and Thopolos has done with the Braves
Speaker 2: is he's identified great talent. He has signed him up
Speaker 2: for many many years as cents to the dollar, and
Speaker 2: it creates a continuity an aura, and the Braves are
Speaker 2: also backed. They may not win every year, but they're
Speaker 2: going to compete every single year with this core.
Speaker 1: I love that we brought it back to the Braves.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, all right. So usually you and I
Speaker 1: are together interviewing someone else and making them answer rapid
Speaker 1: fire questions. I am using my position of mild authority
Speaker 1: here to turn the tables on you and ask you
Speaker 1: some rapid fire questions. So same rules apply, first thing
Speaker 1: that jumps to mind, and I get to ask all
Speaker 1: of them this time.
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it all right.
Speaker 1: So where do you think Wan Soda will hit in
Speaker 1: the lineup?
Speaker 2: I think he would hit second again, and they got
Speaker 2: to go out and get a right hand to hit
Speaker 2: or protect him.
Speaker 1: What round do you think the Mets will make it
Speaker 1: to next year? In the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I think they'll compete for a title and they'll make
Speaker 2: it to the least a championship series again.
Speaker 1: All right, which team is best equipped to offer the
Speaker 1: next record breaking deal?
Speaker 2: I think the Dodgers. The Dodgers, you know, they run
Speaker 2: a team like an NFL team. The P and L
Speaker 2: is unbelievable after all, Tani.
Speaker 1: Okay, who's gonna get the next record breaking deal?
Speaker 2: That's a tougher question, Jason, because I think owners are
Speaker 2: going to go to school on this and they're not
Speaker 2: gonna let young talent, supreme talent like Soto ever become
Speaker 2: a free agent again. And you're seeing that trend now,
Speaker 2: they're going to double down on it.
Speaker 1: All right, So what advice give it? Everything we've talked about.
Speaker 1: You were in his shoes. Now Soto is wearing those
Speaker 1: same cleats. In a way, what's the advice you would
Speaker 1: give the next free agent who does try and negotiate
Speaker 1: a big deal.
Speaker 2: Depend what the goal is, but follow exactly what Juan
Speaker 2: Soto did.
Speaker 3: That was perfectly done. It's a masterclass.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I am very appreciative of you. I
Speaker 1: missed you over the last few weeks because we haven't
Speaker 1: been recording and we agreed on text. If we're not
Speaker 1: talking about this deal, we're not doing our jobs. I
Speaker 1: think I think you said it would be malpractice if
Speaker 1: we didn't do something on the Deal. All right, everyone,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Obviously, keep track
Speaker 1: of everything we've done, stay tuned for everything that's coming
Speaker 1: up on the Deal. My thanks to my partner Alex
Speaker 1: Rodriguez for jumping on. It was really good to see it.
Speaker 1: My man.
Speaker 3: Well, if I don't see you, have a happy holiday
Speaker 3: and I miss you too, pal.
Speaker 1: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: This episode was made by Stacy Wong, Annamasaracus and Lizzie Phillip.
Speaker 1: Our theme music was made by Bleake Maples. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Honig, and Brendan Newnham. Sage
Speaker 1: Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional support from
Speaker 1: Rachel Scaramzino and Elena So Los Angeles. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the Deal. If you have a minute, please subscribe,
Speaker 1: rate and review our show. It'll help others listeners find us.
Speaker 1: And remember, if you're a Bloomberg subscriber, you can listen
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Speaker 1: All you need to do is find the Bloomberg channel
Speaker 1: and connect your Bloomberg account. I'm Jason Kelly. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time with the Deal