Juan Soto

But when you think about where Randy wants to go, and you also think about some of the Scott Boras relationships, certainly has a relationship [laughs] with the Mets, he's gotten a lot of his guys signed there.

Most notably Juan Soto.

But Randy seems like he wants to be on the East Coast, and he certainly is a guy that I think would be pretty content being in Florida.

I think he lives in Miami in the off-season.

Lake Bucker as the opener takes a loss as he only gives up one run over the course of two innings before Brandon Isert give you two and a third inning scoreless.

You don't mess with the Yoan Ramirez was not messed with as he gave you a pair of outs out of the bullpen scoreless, but Gregory Soto was.

Four runs allowed in a third inning.

Wilbert Hotel, pair of outs out of the bullpen scoreless.

Dylan Dingler is up to 25 plus home runs.

So this is an ordeal where I did set the Tigers as a very slim favorite here of minus four-- 104, so I'm gonna be in on the money line.

And with regards to Soto, I did set mine at an 8.3, so seeing that eight and a half, I'm gonna be in on this to the under.

Nine twenty-one, nine twenty-two on the card, the Athletics are gonna be on the road facing off against the Tampa Bay Rays as Brady Baso is on the bump for the Athletics, and Nick Martinez goes for the Rays.

He gave up seven hits, which were a home run and six singles, issued two walks, recorded just two strikeouts.

He threw 68 pitches, 43 strikes, 25 balls, a buzz in the bottom of the second to let a run on three singles, including a two-out RBI single by former Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto to center field to tie the game at two.

Boz in the bottom of the third.

A lot of run as he gave up a leadoff first pitch.

Even in that offseason.

If they had signed Juan Soto, you probably could have gotten away with it.

2025 changed the calculus for me.

Juan Soto was great.

He bet on himself.

That should have been it.

And if they did, they would have won more games this year, obviously.

So I think it's a little bit of an unfair kind of comp there with your Ben Rice, Pete Alonso, and then coupling in Juan Soto to that take.

Let's go to Chester in Brooklyn.

He joins us next here on The Fan.

In year two, but he also had a monster year.

He was third in the MVP last year.

And I will put money on Juan Soto being healthy throughout his Met career because he's been... outside of this year, a guy that is out there, much like Pete, every single day.

I mean, Lindor got hurt this year, but Lindor's been an Ironman too.

...

when you, when, when you piggyback this with you, when you piggyback this with bringing Juan Soto in at the same time for three-quarters of a billion dollars, and you can't give Pete five years and $450 million-

But, but it's, it's, but it, it's not ...

You're viewing it almost like children, EJ.

No, no, no, but they, but they, they feel like-

It's baseball or business

... with Juan Soto you're getting more of the prime of his career.

And, and, and, and, and another thing-

You know, you talk a little bit of smack, and you want to see the Mets and Coens kind of fall flat on their face.

And much like we used Juan Soto as sort of a vehicle, as a chess piece to kind of needle the Yankee fan, I think the Yankee fan now could use Pete Alonso as a vehicle to needle the Met fan.

And that's all above board.

That's all...

But Steve Cohen has done nothing but put a lot of money into this team.

He hired David Stearns, a guy that everybody out there wanted.

He, Steve Cohen, has done everything so far in his power as owner to win, including signing Juan Soto to the richest contract in all of sports.

So, I mean, this is a situation where if you're mad at Stearns, fine, but this idea that Steve Cohen is also catching some heat, I don't understand that.

Milwaukee, to me, should be the symbol of what you're looking to build here with the Mets.

And you have the ability to also sign Juan Soto.

So.

But yeah, I think that's kind of what we've gotten here is the idea that why you're seeing this reaction for Pete is because he is a vehicle for those that don't like analytics, don't like David Stearns.

They weren't.

And remember, they weren't going to replace Pete Alonso with one person, but with the idea of bringing in Bichette and bringing in Polanco and bringing in Luis Robert Jr. and creating the avenue for Carson Bench, who's had a terrific rookie season.

And oh, gee, I don't know, Juan Soto is on the team.

and Francisco Lindor, they both got hurt a lot in the early part of the season.

He signed Max Scherber and Patrick Corbin in free agency and built the roster that won the Nationals' only World Series title in 2019.

In August 2022, he traded Juan Soto to the Padres for a five-player package.

C.J. Abrams, Mackenzie Core, James Wood as the three headlining that package.

That package has produced multiple All-Stars, and it's honestly one of the more lopsided in hindsight trade returns of the last few years.