August 6, 2026 • 19 mins
With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, the Major League Baseball season is officially entering its final innings. So in this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly break down some of the latest headlines, including what is happening with the negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players, the trade that may have guaranteed the Los Angeles Dodgers another World Series win, and why Alex is still bullish on his New York Yankees. Plus, Alex previews a very special 50th anniversary celebration for the Seattle Mariners.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to the DL.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside my co host and partner Alex Rodriguez. Alex,
you are in Minnesota doing like busy owner stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is cool. What are you up to.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Part of the years of summertime and links won a
big game this week against Kaylen Clark and the Fever.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It was a big game on national TV.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
We had almost two million people watching it, which is
a huge LA plus or minus. You know, w's doing
really well. Makes us twenty five and six with thirteen
games remaining.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, great season, great season so far. And are you
seeing that performance sort of show up in attendance and
all that.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We had about sixteen thousand, five or five last game
against the.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Fever, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, So for a gear like this year, all the
experts were thinking we would be a gap year for us.
Our best player in officia Colle had two surgeries, right,
and now she's recently back our number two pick this
year in the first round. Olivia Miles has been just incredible.
She's talks for MVP Rookie of the Year talks and
it reminds you of like the importance of leadership, which
(01:16):
we have a great leader and our coach, Shoe Reeve,
and the importance of a point guard, which in many
ways is like a quarterback in football.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
She's really leading the way.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
And now Fia has played about four or five games,
and so yeah, we feel like we have a good
shot coming down a stretch thirteen to go and a
lot of work to do.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, winning makes a difference, all right, And you're doing
some business out there, meeting with sponsors, You've got some
other things going on. I want to talk about baseball though.
You know you're busy being a very successful owner. That's great,
but baseball, let's get back to your roots and talk
about this weekend you're going to be in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I just found out about this. What a moment.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I mean, fiftieth year of the franchise, fiftieth anniversary of
the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's exactly right. It's a fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
This upcoming sat we will have all fifty players, top
fifty players back. I received the call from mister Stanton,
the owner, the general partner of the Mariners, and I
got to tell you, Jason, I got really emotional because
the last time I got cheered in that stadium was
about twenty seven years ago, in two thousand, my last
year before I became a free agent and went to
(02:19):
Texas for three years.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So when I got that.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Car, it was really kind of a nice full circle
moment for me to be back in a place that
I love so much, that did so much for me
under the tutelage of Lupenela, Griffy, Jay Buner, Edgar Martinez,
most of these guys Hall of famers, you know, Randy Johnson.
So it's going to be a beautiful night in the
Pacific Northwest in August. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean I have to say, I, you know,
obviously know a lot about your career, but watching Alex
versus a Rod, which if people haven't seen it, shame
money in I'm just kidding. You can watch an ahbo Max.
But you know, I had not realized. First of all,
you're a baby, like you were a literal baby practically
when you got there, and I feel like Loupanella and
(03:01):
maybe you could talk about this a little bit, was
an unbelievable force for good in your life.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
There's no question, you know, my father left at ten.
I was fortunate enough to have a great coach in
high school who I met when I was fourteen, and
then he handed me over to Lupanella at seventeen. And
for a matter of ten years I had two great coaches, mentors.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Father figures.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And I really feel, Jason, that if I would have
stayed under the Seattle bubble for maybe another three years
under Lupanella's tutelage, I think things would have been a
lot better. I mean, at least I've convinced myself of that. Yeah,
And of course I've done a lot of mental work
and you know, turned the lens inward and all that
which we talk about in the documentary. But I think
Luponella is someone who I love and has been a great,
(03:45):
great figure in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, it's interesting too.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I mean it's funny. I have a surprising number of
Mariners fans in my life. And the devotion to that team.
You know, Seattle it's you know, as far away as
basically you can get and still being the continent of
United and that's part of what I think makes it
such a special place. And the devotion to that team
fifty years, but you Also, you know when you rattle
(04:09):
off those names, those are people who really advanced the
game of baseball, and I dare say the business of baseball.
You know, you think about Randy Johnson, and you think
about Ken Griffy Junior, you think about each a rol
I mean in each of their individual ways, like they
really grew the game in a way that made it
that much bigger of a business.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I think, I'm sure you've thought about this.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Well, there's no question about it.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
I mean, if you think about Griffy and how groundbreaking
his game was with the half backwards, the kid having fun,
the first major Nike campaign. In many ways, he was
like our Michael Jordan there for about ten years, and
even though he was in the Pacific Northwest, his brand
was so strong it transcended America. And then you look
at each ro and his style of play, it grew
the game globally. Obviously Asia Japan is a huge market
(04:56):
for us. We see it today with Otani and others,
but each really transformed the game in his style of play,
his contact, his speed, They're a better to throw the
ball from the outfield.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And it was quite a phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, well, I'm really interested to hear the stories that
you have that that's an emotional moment for you.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
When I first got drafted in nineteen ninety three one
to one by the Mariners, it was six years after
Griffy got chosen one to one. So Roger Youngwood, the
late Roger Youngwood, who was the main scout for the Mariners,
drafted both of us. He also drafted Sean Dunstan and
Darryl Strawberry. So he was an incredible talent evaluator. But
the gift in the curse about Seattle, one you said,
(05:37):
is very far. But the gift of it is you
have the whole Pacific Northwest quadrant almost as a monopoly,
from Utah, the Bay Area, Idaho Quarterlane to even southern Canada.
That whole region is all Mariners. Therefore is a great business.
They have great numbers. The TV ratings actually rate as well.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
As the All right, so let's talk, Alex about where
we are with baseball. You said, I think you said
it to me, You said it on the Fox broadcast,
you said it to anyone who will listen. This is
the most important season for Major League Baseball in a
long time.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Has the league delivered so far?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Is it meeting the expectations for this crucial season, yes.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And in many ways has made it even more complicated
because there's so many different things going on. As an example,
the worst five payrolls are all over five hundred, right,
that's incredible. The highest payroll in base was the New
York Mets. They have one of the worst record, of
not the worst record. And then you have teams like
the Brewers with our buddy over there, Mark a. Nacia Yah, yes, sir,
(06:45):
and Murphy the great coach that recruited me when he
was at Notre Dame in Arizona State, right, and they
have a nineteenth payroll and have the very best record
in baseball, even better than the Dodgers. All these things
are happening, and of course that Dodgers make an incredible
trade by having trading two times Cy Young Winner Trek
(07:06):
Schouble from the Tigers to the Dodgers. And here we go,
going there, middle of the fairway. IM about to win
the third World Championship. Forty one percent odds versus the
field fifty nine to win the championship, highest we've ever
had in baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Oh my god, that's crazy, But so so take that
into the sort of broader landscape. How does that play
into the biggest negotiation that's happening, at least quietly, which
is this new CBA. It expires on December one, as
you have pointed out. So with these smaller market, lower
(07:48):
payroll teams doing well, how does that affect the conversations
between the league and the players? Are the owners and
the players?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I think for the owners is not the greatest thing
in the world for this timing that you know, the
lowest five payrolls are doing really, really well, that actually
works against them. But what works in their favor is
here the Dodgers come again. They're a runaway train. They
have over three hundred million dollar pay roll when you
include luxury tax over six hundred. Well, you take the
(08:17):
Dodgers over six hundred million dollars in payroll and you
compare them to Cleveland at seventy four million, and they're
probably going to go to the postseason or Tampa who's
two and a half three games on top of the Yankees.
They're over three hundred the Yankees and Tampa's at one hundred.
So it's all these incredible shifts and deltas. But I
think the biggest one is like, look, the Dodgers, while
(08:40):
having a titan call it a dynasty is good for baseball,
But too much of a good thing could also be
a bad thing. And I think that's what's going to
be the point of the other twenty nine teams. And
I think for the players, who I was a member
of this union for almost a quarter of a century,
this would be the biggest test as juniors ever had
since Marvin Miller started this many many decades ago. Yeah,
(09:03):
the owners are aligned, and I think they will test
the players, and the players say they're aligned and they
say they're going to test the owners.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Is going to be a heavyweight battle match.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
How's Manfred doing amid all of this? How do you
think he's playing it so far?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I think Rob is doing an incredible job because I mean,
if you think about it, I just went to a
game Jason last weekend and it was Yankees Cubs, full house,
really exciting, but the game, you know, I want to
get a quick bite, and the game was almost over
and snap, it was like two hours and twenty minutes.
It was fantastic, The pace was great. Yankees won two zero.
(09:38):
But amongst all this noise, Rob Manford, I think if
you can figure out a way, just like we did
it with a WNBA, figure out a way to somewhere
meet in the middle and get this thing through and
continue the tailwinds in Major League Baseball, I think he
ends up with a big A A plus.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And so I mean for the person who's not following
it minute to minute as you are, and who's enter
in the business of sports, I would put myself in
this category. I'm watching it relatively closely, but I don't
know all the details like you do. All I see
from a headline perspective is owners want a salary cap,
players don't like. That's the sort of like TLDR for
(10:18):
this debate.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Is there a middle?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Because it feels like there's either a salary cap or
there's not. And I know that there's like terms of
art and all of that. What is a potential meeting
in the middle if you were I'm going to do
to you what you often do to our guest. If
you know, if you were the commissioner, if you were
in charge, like, what would you do?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What's a viable solution here?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, disclaimer, I'm much better at asking questions after you
coach me, then I am answering them. But you're giving
my own medicine here. So Jason, let's think about this.
You have two boys, right, you have two sons. Let's
just say one's a shortstop and one's a pitcher, and
you have thirty teams. In layman's terms, if there is
no salary cap, that means that players can make eleven
(10:59):
to twelve the thirts two million dollars, right, But if
you put a kapa on ten, that also means that
if the low payroll is one. I think with the owner,
they're trying to say, look, we'll pay the full roster,
will elevate it to three bucks.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
We just want to see it in at ten bucks.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And by the way, there's only you know, three players
that are over ten bucks. Anyways, call it Otani and
call it a tucker for the Dodgers and Soto. So
what we're really talking about is we want a more
democratic approach. We want to pay you know, seven hundred
and fifty players more money across the board, but just
do it in a sustainable matter that we can grow revenue.
(11:38):
And then if the revenues are twenty bucks, we can
split it right down the middle and you guys take
ten and we take ten. I think that's the middle
point here. But it's going to take some finance, it's
going to take a lot of communication, a lot of trust.
And sometimes I think you bring someone that is really
respected by all called Jamie Diamond, maryor Doz call someone
like Bob Eiger, One Buffett, Charlie Mucky you're still alive,
(12:00):
and say what is the best formula for the sport?
Forget which side you want to go in, what is
the best formula? And then of those formula you can
formulate three options and go from there.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
That's the way I would think about it.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I mean it is interesting, and I just come
back to the idea that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Certainly if you're an owner of a team, and.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I guess it's a little harder to do as a
player because, as you know, you have a finite time
that you're going to be playing, and so as much
as you probably want to be magnanimous and do what's
right for the sport and you want baseball to thrive,
you know you only have a certain time to get
yours and you want to get as much as you
can because the reality is is that baseball is not
(12:44):
I think it's fair to say, and you can correct
me if I'm wrong with this, because again you know
it better than I do. But from a financial perspective
and from a parity perspective, it is not the healthiest
of the big four sports, you know, like the NBA
has figured it out, the NFL, you know, has beyond
figured it out. The NHL, you know, feels like it's doing,
you know, some of the right things and in a
(13:06):
growth trajectory, talking about expansion, et cetera. So it just
feels like it's in everyone's best interest to figure it out.
But we live We know this from being in the
business world. We live in a world of short, short termism,
and this is this needs to be in the spirit
of a long term deal and the long term you
(13:29):
know sort of success of baseball as a sport. We
all love it, We all grow up with it, you know,
as they say, baseball has been very very good to you.
So you know, I just I wonder if they can
get there.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I think they can, And I think if I was
sitting on either side of this trade, what I would
say is a few things.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Number One, everyone, let's stay calm.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Number two, let's promise not to message through the media,
and let's not read headlines because that's all going to do,
is what it does in politics, right, the redtagains blue.
Everyone's screaming at each other, everyone's dug in, everyone's upset, egos,
drives and deals get crushed.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
What I would look is the real data.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And I think players and owners both need to get
a lot of real education and not just believe what
people are telling you in pitches or like going and
do the When you look at the numbers and you
go back ten years, when you look at the NHL, NFL,
and NBA, to your point, all those salaries have skyrocketed,
and ironically they have some type of.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Ceiling on them.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
The league that doesn't have a ceiling in some case
from ten years ago, salaries have gone down some or
been very very flat. And you ask yourself, why is that?
It doesn't make any sense. It's counterintuitive. So you have
to look at the data and say, is this formula
right now in twenty twenty six moving forward working? And
if I was a player, I would say, how do
(14:51):
I get a contract like SGA from Oklahoma City or
how do I.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Get Pat Mahomes contract for football?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Because those numbers are you know, you take an exception
of a Tawny Tucker soda is a handful, but for
the most part, players are making less and it's very,
very stagnant. So if you're a player, you want to
see players go up in salary from one to the
seven times member of the Union.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, all right, So I would be remiss if I
didn't ask you about the Yankees. You mentioned seeing the
Cubs and the Yankees. You know, I have to say
I live not that far from the Bronx. I have
(15:36):
a couple of Yankee fans as sons, and they're pretty excited,
you know. I mean, there's like there's some optimism, I think.
But I want you to revisit a moment that you
had that you were the one who showed it to
me to be fair, when you were coming off the
All Star Game and Kevin Burkhart, you, Big Poppy, Derek Jeter,
(15:57):
the boys getting together chopping it up after the All
Star Game and you were asked, you know, to make
a World Series prediction, and you were very bullish on
the Yankees, with which Big Poppy took exception with I
am not in a position where I could do a
big Poppy impression, but you can and can you relive
that for us for a second?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Well, I mean, I think basically, Kevin Burkhart a few
minutes right after the All Star Game, which was very entertaining.
And by the way, Philadelphia, the Phillies did a fantastic
job of hosting the fan base was incredible and boy,
if you wanted to talk about baseball, city baseball, nothing
like what a town, right, So that was fantastic. And
basically Kevin Burkhart t does up and said you know
(16:38):
what to look for and how do the Yankees get better?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Or something like that.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And I said, look, I had huge, terrible hedges and
huge disclaimers, and I basically said, if you can have
Stanton and Judge back, obviously that's the master of the obvious, right,
you need Judge, you need Stanton. And then I thought
you needed a couple of right handed hitters and a
couple bullping guys.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And Kevin Broker said, stick.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So besides Judge, besides this, who else do you want?
And then and then Poppy walks in and goes, oh,
you want you want Yogi Beta back?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Do you want Demago back?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Who else do you want?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Reggie Jackson a ro Gita, He's the best man.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Lou Gary, lou.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Gary go, sure that'd be great too.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We'll be yeah, exactly, whatever it takes, whatever it takes,
all right. Any final thoughts on baseball, I mean you
seem I mean, first of all, the Seattle thing's so cool.
Baseball is in your blood. I mean, I will say
one thing that I often say about you when I
talk well behind your back, as Amy Koehler says on
her show, is the thing you have to understand about
(17:42):
Alex Rodriguez is he's a baseball sicko.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
He loves baseball so much.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He knows more about it than ninety nine point nine
percent of the population and probably ninety nine point nine
nine percent of anybody who ever played it. You seem optimistic,
though more optimistic than I would. I think you feel
more optimistic today than you were even a year ago.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
That's very fair? And the momentum just keeps on growing. Look,
being at the game is a better product, Jase. I mean,
instead of watching a four hour game, I'm watching a
two and twenty game at Wrigley Field.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Daytime.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It was raining a little bit. I had to poncho on,
but it was just the pace of the game was
like really really nice. I think you take away the
CBA negotiations, take that away. This is the healthiest game
it's been in fifteen years, which goes back to Rob Manford,
Dan Halem and company at the office and also the
folks that run the union because they've worked well for
(18:35):
the last five or ten years. You hope we can
get a CBA done and continue the incredible momentum we've
built the last five years.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
All Right.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I would like to point out that you said it
went from four hours to two and twenty. Even when
we're talking about sports, you're still thinking about private equity
deals two and twenty.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
You know, it's like twenty here you go. I heard you,
I heard you. Can't. I can't help any you can't
slip that in on me. All right, Well that's all
I can see out of this weekend. I can't wait
to see the posts and the videos from that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
That's going to be very special.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Good luck, Thank you, all right, talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason
Kelly Show is produced by Stacy wong. Our senior producers
are Alexis HoTT and Anamazarakis. Original music by Blake Maples.
Our booker is Paige Keffer. Our executive producers are Amy Keen,
(19:35):
Kelly Leferrier, and Ashley Zingaro. Special thanks to Rachel Carnivale,
Elena Los Angeles and Nick Silva.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
You can also watch.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This episode on The Deal on YouTube. Subscribe to the
Deal and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.
It helps other people find the show. Thanks for listening.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to the DL.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm Jason Kelly alongside my co host and partner Alex Rodriguez. Alex,
you are in Minnesota doing like busy owner stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is cool. What are you up to.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Part of the years of summertime and links won a
big game this week against Kaylen Clark and the Fever.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It was a big game on national TV.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
We had almost two million people watching it, which is
a huge LA plus or minus. You know, w's doing
really well. Makes us twenty five and six with thirteen
games remaining.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, great season, great season so far. And are you
seeing that performance sort of show up in attendance and
all that.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We had about sixteen thousand, five or five last game
against the.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Fever, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, So for a gear like this year, all the
experts were thinking we would be a gap year for us.
Our best player in officia Colle had two surgeries, right,
and now she's recently back our number two pick this
year in the first round. Olivia Miles has been just incredible.
She's talks for MVP Rookie of the Year talks and
it reminds you of like the importance of leadership, which
(01:16):
we have a great leader and our coach, Shoe Reeve,
and the importance of a point guard, which in many
ways is like a quarterback in football.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
She's really leading the way.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
And now Fia has played about four or five games,
and so yeah, we feel like we have a good
shot coming down a stretch thirteen to go and a
lot of work to do.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, winning makes a difference, all right, And you're doing
some business out there, meeting with sponsors, You've got some
other things going on. I want to talk about baseball though.
You know you're busy being a very successful owner. That's great,
but baseball, let's get back to your roots and talk
about this weekend you're going to be in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I just found out about this. What a moment.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I mean, fiftieth year of the franchise, fiftieth anniversary of
the Mariners.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's exactly right. It's a fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
This upcoming sat we will have all fifty players, top
fifty players back. I received the call from mister Stanton,
the owner, the general partner of the Mariners, and I
got to tell you, Jason, I got really emotional because
the last time I got cheered in that stadium was
about twenty seven years ago, in two thousand, my last
year before I became a free agent and went to
(02:19):
Texas for three years.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So when I got that.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Car, it was really kind of a nice full circle
moment for me to be back in a place that
I love so much, that did so much for me
under the tutelage of Lupenela, Griffy, Jay Buner, Edgar Martinez,
most of these guys Hall of famers, you know, Randy Johnson.
So it's going to be a beautiful night in the
Pacific Northwest in August. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean I have to say, I, you know,
obviously know a lot about your career, but watching Alex
versus a Rod, which if people haven't seen it, shame
money in I'm just kidding. You can watch an ahbo Max.
But you know, I had not realized. First of all,
you're a baby, like you were a literal baby practically
when you got there, and I feel like Loupanella and
(03:01):
maybe you could talk about this a little bit, was
an unbelievable force for good in your life.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
There's no question, you know, my father left at ten.
I was fortunate enough to have a great coach in
high school who I met when I was fourteen, and
then he handed me over to Lupanella at seventeen. And
for a matter of ten years I had two great coaches, mentors.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Father figures.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And I really feel, Jason, that if I would have
stayed under the Seattle bubble for maybe another three years
under Lupanella's tutelage, I think things would have been a
lot better. I mean, at least I've convinced myself of that. Yeah,
And of course I've done a lot of mental work
and you know, turned the lens inward and all that
which we talk about in the documentary. But I think
Luponella is someone who I love and has been a great,
(03:45):
great figure in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, it's interesting too.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I mean it's funny. I have a surprising number of
Mariners fans in my life. And the devotion to that team.
You know, Seattle it's you know, as far away as
basically you can get and still being the continent of
United and that's part of what I think makes it
such a special place. And the devotion to that team
fifty years, but you Also, you know when you rattle
(04:09):
off those names, those are people who really advanced the
game of baseball, and I dare say the business of baseball.
You know, you think about Randy Johnson, and you think
about Ken Griffy Junior, you think about each a rol
I mean in each of their individual ways, like they
really grew the game in a way that made it
that much bigger of a business.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I think, I'm sure you've thought about this.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Well, there's no question about it.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
I mean, if you think about Griffy and how groundbreaking
his game was with the half backwards, the kid having fun,
the first major Nike campaign. In many ways, he was
like our Michael Jordan there for about ten years, and
even though he was in the Pacific Northwest, his brand
was so strong it transcended America. And then you look
at each ro and his style of play, it grew
the game globally. Obviously Asia Japan is a huge market
(04:56):
for us. We see it today with Otani and others,
but each really transformed the game in his style of play,
his contact, his speed, They're a better to throw the
ball from the outfield.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And it was quite a phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, well, I'm really interested to hear the stories that
you have that that's an emotional moment for you.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
When I first got drafted in nineteen ninety three one
to one by the Mariners, it was six years after
Griffy got chosen one to one. So Roger Youngwood, the
late Roger Youngwood, who was the main scout for the Mariners,
drafted both of us. He also drafted Sean Dunstan and
Darryl Strawberry. So he was an incredible talent evaluator. But
the gift in the curse about Seattle, one you said,
(05:37):
is very far. But the gift of it is you
have the whole Pacific Northwest quadrant almost as a monopoly,
from Utah, the Bay Area, Idaho Quarterlane to even southern Canada.
That whole region is all Mariners. Therefore is a great business.
They have great numbers. The TV ratings actually rate as well.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
As the All right, so let's talk, Alex about where
we are with baseball. You said, I think you said
it to me, You said it on the Fox broadcast,
you said it to anyone who will listen. This is
the most important season for Major League Baseball in a
long time.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Has the league delivered so far?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Is it meeting the expectations for this crucial season, yes.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And in many ways has made it even more complicated
because there's so many different things going on. As an example,
the worst five payrolls are all over five hundred, right,
that's incredible. The highest payroll in base was the New
York Mets. They have one of the worst record, of
not the worst record. And then you have teams like
the Brewers with our buddy over there, Mark a. Nacia Yah, yes, sir,
(06:45):
and Murphy the great coach that recruited me when he
was at Notre Dame in Arizona State, right, and they
have a nineteenth payroll and have the very best record
in baseball, even better than the Dodgers. All these things
are happening, and of course that Dodgers make an incredible
trade by having trading two times Cy Young Winner Trek
(07:06):
Schouble from the Tigers to the Dodgers. And here we go,
going there, middle of the fairway. IM about to win
the third World Championship. Forty one percent odds versus the
field fifty nine to win the championship, highest we've ever
had in baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Oh my god, that's crazy, But so so take that
into the sort of broader landscape. How does that play
into the biggest negotiation that's happening, at least quietly, which
is this new CBA. It expires on December one, as
you have pointed out. So with these smaller market, lower
(07:48):
payroll teams doing well, how does that affect the conversations
between the league and the players? Are the owners and
the players?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I think for the owners is not the greatest thing
in the world for this timing that you know, the
lowest five payrolls are doing really, really well, that actually
works against them. But what works in their favor is
here the Dodgers come again. They're a runaway train. They
have over three hundred million dollar pay roll when you
include luxury tax over six hundred. Well, you take the
(08:17):
Dodgers over six hundred million dollars in payroll and you
compare them to Cleveland at seventy four million, and they're
probably going to go to the postseason or Tampa who's
two and a half three games on top of the Yankees.
They're over three hundred the Yankees and Tampa's at one hundred.
So it's all these incredible shifts and deltas. But I
think the biggest one is like, look, the Dodgers, while
(08:40):
having a titan call it a dynasty is good for baseball,
But too much of a good thing could also be
a bad thing. And I think that's what's going to
be the point of the other twenty nine teams. And
I think for the players, who I was a member
of this union for almost a quarter of a century,
this would be the biggest test as juniors ever had
since Marvin Miller started this many many decades ago. Yeah,
(09:03):
the owners are aligned, and I think they will test
the players, and the players say they're aligned and they
say they're going to test the owners.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Is going to be a heavyweight battle match.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
How's Manfred doing amid all of this? How do you
think he's playing it so far?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I think Rob is doing an incredible job because I mean,
if you think about it, I just went to a
game Jason last weekend and it was Yankees Cubs, full house,
really exciting, but the game, you know, I want to
get a quick bite, and the game was almost over
and snap, it was like two hours and twenty minutes.
It was fantastic, The pace was great. Yankees won two zero.
(09:38):
But amongst all this noise, Rob Manford, I think if
you can figure out a way, just like we did
it with a WNBA, figure out a way to somewhere
meet in the middle and get this thing through and
continue the tailwinds in Major League Baseball, I think he
ends up with a big A A plus.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And so I mean for the person who's not following
it minute to minute as you are, and who's enter
in the business of sports, I would put myself in
this category. I'm watching it relatively closely, but I don't
know all the details like you do. All I see
from a headline perspective is owners want a salary cap,
players don't like. That's the sort of like TLDR for
(10:18):
this debate.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Is there a middle?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Because it feels like there's either a salary cap or
there's not. And I know that there's like terms of
art and all of that. What is a potential meeting
in the middle if you were I'm going to do
to you what you often do to our guest. If
you know, if you were the commissioner, if you were
in charge, like, what would you do?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What's a viable solution here?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, disclaimer, I'm much better at asking questions after you
coach me, then I am answering them. But you're giving
my own medicine here. So Jason, let's think about this.
You have two boys, right, you have two sons. Let's
just say one's a shortstop and one's a pitcher, and
you have thirty teams. In layman's terms, if there is
no salary cap, that means that players can make eleven
(10:59):
to twelve the thirts two million dollars, right, But if
you put a kapa on ten, that also means that
if the low payroll is one. I think with the owner,
they're trying to say, look, we'll pay the full roster,
will elevate it to three bucks.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
We just want to see it in at ten bucks.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And by the way, there's only you know, three players
that are over ten bucks. Anyways, call it Otani and
call it a tucker for the Dodgers and Soto. So
what we're really talking about is we want a more
democratic approach. We want to pay you know, seven hundred
and fifty players more money across the board, but just
do it in a sustainable matter that we can grow revenue.
(11:38):
And then if the revenues are twenty bucks, we can
split it right down the middle and you guys take
ten and we take ten. I think that's the middle
point here. But it's going to take some finance, it's
going to take a lot of communication, a lot of trust.
And sometimes I think you bring someone that is really
respected by all called Jamie Diamond, maryor Doz call someone
like Bob Eiger, One Buffett, Charlie Mucky you're still alive,
(12:00):
and say what is the best formula for the sport?
Forget which side you want to go in, what is
the best formula? And then of those formula you can
formulate three options and go from there.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
That's the way I would think about it.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I mean it is interesting, and I just come
back to the idea that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Certainly if you're an owner of a team, and.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I guess it's a little harder to do as a
player because, as you know, you have a finite time
that you're going to be playing, and so as much
as you probably want to be magnanimous and do what's
right for the sport and you want baseball to thrive,
you know you only have a certain time to get
yours and you want to get as much as you
can because the reality is is that baseball is not
(12:44):
I think it's fair to say, and you can correct
me if I'm wrong with this, because again you know
it better than I do. But from a financial perspective
and from a parity perspective, it is not the healthiest
of the big four sports, you know, like the NBA
has figured it out, the NFL, you know, has beyond
figured it out. The NHL, you know, feels like it's doing,
you know, some of the right things and in a
(13:06):
growth trajectory, talking about expansion, et cetera. So it just
feels like it's in everyone's best interest to figure it out.
But we live We know this from being in the
business world. We live in a world of short, short termism,
and this is this needs to be in the spirit
of a long term deal and the long term you
(13:29):
know sort of success of baseball as a sport. We
all love it, We all grow up with it, you know,
as they say, baseball has been very very good to you.
So you know, I just I wonder if they can
get there.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I think they can, And I think if I was
sitting on either side of this trade, what I would
say is a few things.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Number One, everyone, let's stay calm.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Number two, let's promise not to message through the media,
and let's not read headlines because that's all going to do,
is what it does in politics, right, the redtagains blue.
Everyone's screaming at each other, everyone's dug in, everyone's upset, egos,
drives and deals get crushed.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
What I would look is the real data.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And I think players and owners both need to get
a lot of real education and not just believe what
people are telling you in pitches or like going and
do the When you look at the numbers and you
go back ten years, when you look at the NHL, NFL,
and NBA, to your point, all those salaries have skyrocketed,
and ironically they have some type of.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Ceiling on them.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
The league that doesn't have a ceiling in some case
from ten years ago, salaries have gone down some or
been very very flat. And you ask yourself, why is that?
It doesn't make any sense. It's counterintuitive. So you have
to look at the data and say, is this formula
right now in twenty twenty six moving forward working? And
if I was a player, I would say, how do
(14:51):
I get a contract like SGA from Oklahoma City or
how do I.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Get Pat Mahomes contract for football?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Because those numbers are you know, you take an exception
of a Tawny Tucker soda is a handful, but for
the most part, players are making less and it's very,
very stagnant. So if you're a player, you want to
see players go up in salary from one to the
seven times member of the Union.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, all right, So I would be remiss if I
didn't ask you about the Yankees. You mentioned seeing the
Cubs and the Yankees. You know, I have to say
I live not that far from the Bronx. I have
(15:36):
a couple of Yankee fans as sons, and they're pretty excited,
you know. I mean, there's like there's some optimism, I think.
But I want you to revisit a moment that you
had that you were the one who showed it to
me to be fair, when you were coming off the
All Star Game and Kevin Burkhart, you, Big Poppy, Derek Jeter,
(15:57):
the boys getting together chopping it up after the All
Star Game and you were asked, you know, to make
a World Series prediction, and you were very bullish on
the Yankees, with which Big Poppy took exception with I
am not in a position where I could do a
big Poppy impression, but you can and can you relive
that for us for a second?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Well, I mean, I think basically, Kevin Burkhart a few
minutes right after the All Star Game, which was very entertaining.
And by the way, Philadelphia, the Phillies did a fantastic
job of hosting the fan base was incredible and boy,
if you wanted to talk about baseball, city baseball, nothing
like what a town, right, So that was fantastic. And
basically Kevin Burkhart t does up and said you know
(16:38):
what to look for and how do the Yankees get better?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Or something like that.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And I said, look, I had huge, terrible hedges and
huge disclaimers, and I basically said, if you can have
Stanton and Judge back, obviously that's the master of the obvious, right,
you need Judge, you need Stanton. And then I thought
you needed a couple of right handed hitters and a
couple bullping guys.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And Kevin Broker said, stick.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So besides Judge, besides this, who else do you want?
And then and then Poppy walks in and goes, oh,
you want you want Yogi Beta back?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Do you want Demago back?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Who else do you want?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Reggie Jackson a ro Gita, He's the best man.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Lou Gary, lou.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Gary go, sure that'd be great too.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We'll be yeah, exactly, whatever it takes, whatever it takes,
all right. Any final thoughts on baseball, I mean you
seem I mean, first of all, the Seattle thing's so cool.
Baseball is in your blood. I mean, I will say
one thing that I often say about you when I
talk well behind your back, as Amy Koehler says on
her show, is the thing you have to understand about
(17:42):
Alex Rodriguez is he's a baseball sicko.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
He loves baseball so much.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He knows more about it than ninety nine point nine
percent of the population and probably ninety nine point nine
nine percent of anybody who ever played it. You seem optimistic,
though more optimistic than I would. I think you feel
more optimistic today than you were even a year ago.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
That's very fair? And the momentum just keeps on growing. Look,
being at the game is a better product, Jase. I mean,
instead of watching a four hour game, I'm watching a
two and twenty game at Wrigley Field.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Daytime.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It was raining a little bit. I had to poncho on,
but it was just the pace of the game was
like really really nice. I think you take away the
CBA negotiations, take that away. This is the healthiest game
it's been in fifteen years, which goes back to Rob Manford,
Dan Halem and company at the office and also the
folks that run the union because they've worked well for
(18:35):
the last five or ten years. You hope we can
get a CBA done and continue the incredible momentum we've
built the last five years.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
All Right.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I would like to point out that you said it
went from four hours to two and twenty. Even when
we're talking about sports, you're still thinking about private equity
deals two and twenty.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
You know, it's like twenty here you go. I heard you,
I heard you. Can't. I can't help any you can't
slip that in on me. All right, Well that's all
I can see out of this weekend. I can't wait
to see the posts and the videos from that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
That's going to be very special.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Good luck, Thank you, all right, talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason
Kelly Show is produced by Stacy wong. Our senior producers
are Alexis HoTT and Anamazarakis. Original music by Blake Maples.
Our booker is Paige Keffer. Our executive producers are Amy Keen,
(19:35):
Kelly Leferrier, and Ashley Zingaro. Special thanks to Rachel Carnivale,
Elena Los Angeles and Nick Silva.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
You can also watch.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This episode on The Deal on YouTube. Subscribe to the
Deal and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.
It helps other people find the show. Thanks for listening.
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