If Arod hit free agency today coming off his last Seattle year, there's a chance he'd get a 16 year 850 million dollar deal with performance incentives that could bring it up to a billion. He was a full calendar year younger than Soto is right now, and unlike soto, played gold glove defense at a premium position and was an elite baserunner
Right?! These experts keep saying Soto hasn't even hit his prime yet, and he is on a decline already with 3 of the original 5 tools he had, that's SCARY! Arm, speed, and glove on the decline with soto.
@gabrielv.2647 he never had 5 tools. He was never a good defender. He was never a good runner. And idk what makes you think his arm has declined because it's tracked on baseball savant, and 2024 was the best year of his career by arm value.
@cosmoid wtf are you talking about? Lol he had a cannon for an arm with the nationals, was stealing bases, playing border line gold glove defense, making diving catches, the 2019 playoffs you don't remember that??? Maybe I'll give the the 2024 arm stat, but you forget he was in right field at yankee stadium with the short RF, of course he is going to be making great throws when the distance to throwing out runners is reduced to all 4 bags. 81 home games I'm sure had a lot to contribute to those great throws/arm value
Adjusting for mlb revenue and salaries by year, and projecting out for the next 15 years, I have Rodriguez's 10 year deal at about 25% higher AAV than Soto. That means if you adjust it to a 15 year deal, it comes just shy of $1 billion at $956 million.
Up until the 2010s, if you weren't on a playoff team, you were essentially disqualified from getting MVP unless you were absolutely undeniable, which screwed A-Rod a lot in MVP voting during his pre-Yankees days. He should have had at least five MVPs, and arguably as much as nine. The absolute worst was either 98 where he led all position players in rWAR by a substantial margin with a 40-40 season, yet finished _9th_ , or 02 where he had 8.8 rWAR to Miguel Tejada's 5.7 and trounced Tejada in basically every stat other than batting average, yet Tejada won the MVP vote in a landslide.
Even crazier is despite losing the best player in baseball in FA the M’s managed to get a Japanese FA who won ROY and MVP while leading them to a record tying 116 wins 😮
@@NotMeNaNaNaImagine if Ichiro hadn’t been contractually obligated to play in Japan through 2000. He could’ve been on all the 95-01 teams instead of just the last one.
Dude 's first 13 seasons he averaged 120 runs, 120 RBI, 40 HR, 20 SB, 8 WAR, batting over .300 and near 1.000 OPS, he could've been the greatest shortstop of all time
If A-Rod was around this offseason, Soto would have likely not gotten such a high amount, at least not until other teams sounded out A-Rod's asking price. But, with the market inflated, he would likely get around $800 million over 15 years
As a 37 year old life long Mariners fan, this was such a massive blow to the franchise and to every single Seattle fan. I’ll put it into context here for non Mariner fans or Mariner fans who weren’t either born yet, old enough or weren’t into baseball at the time. 1995 was our first time in the history of the franchise that we really had success and we had a core of players who were legit superstars and a solid supporting cast around them. Ken Griffey Jr was a legit MVP caliber player every year. Randy Johnson had the nastiest stuff in the league and was a premier ace. Edgar Martinez was winning batting titles and was a hitting machine at DH. Jay Buhner was hittin 40+ homers and 120+ RBI’s, Tino Martinez was a 30HR/100RBI guy, even Mike Blowers was hittin 25HR/90RBI. And then we had the future of the team and future of baseball in A Rod. the feeling was this team was World Series bound in the near future. Well Randy struggled some in 1998 so the M’s trade him to Houston at the deadline where he goes on possibly the most dominant run a pitcher has ever had in baseball history. 11 starts, 10-1 with a 1.28ERA, 116 K’s in 84 innings and 4 complete game shutouts. So that definitely hurt the soul of us M’s fans. But then in the offseason before the start of the 2000 season, our heart and soul was ripped out of our chests when our guy, the heart and soul of the city, my childhood hero, Ken Griffey Jr was traded to Cincy. I don’t remember where I was when I heard that news but I bet I threw up my lunch where-ever I was. But we still had the future of baseball, we still had A Rod. What did A Rod do when he became the face of the franchise in Seattle in 2000? Oh just put together a 10.4 WAR season. But when he hit free agency and pump faked us before signing that wild deal with Texas, that left a real bad taste in M’s fans mouths. Especially signing with a division rival too
He went to bed thinking he was about to become a brave and then the rangers came into the picture at this last minute and I as a Braves fan wonder what would have been
As a Seattle fan who was fairly young when Rodriguez abandoned us for Texas, this was a very illuminating video. Once again I am reminded of the eternal franchise motto to not spend in free agency I guess. It was a trip down memory lane to say the least.
I remember this vividly. The White Sox were rumored for a long time to be in and possibly the favorites and then it was reported Reinsdorf wouldn’t meet with Boras and the Sox were out
Can we get a video on weird outlier seasons? Such as 96 Brady Anderson, 21 Kyle Wright, 00 Darin Erstad, 14 Johnathan Lucroy, and any other singular great seasons you could find in otherwise average careers.
The problem with the Rangers during this time wasn't the Arod signing; rather, it is that it was ONLY the Arod signing that happened. Hicks & Melvin didn't keep building the team around him, and by the time that Mike Young, Mark Texiera, and Hank Blalock were coming up, Arod had already seen enough of the Hicks operation to know that there would never be a full-hearted effort to build a championship-caliber roster in Texas. All Hicks was ever motivated to do is put butts in seats. It wasn't until Jon Daniels got there that the Rangers started to operate like a smart baseball-before-all org.
I remember when the details on his Texas contract came out the earth stopped for a minute. That contract length and amount was completely unheard of. How in the world did one of those Mariners rosters not win the WS!? They were STACKED.
Great regular season on their part but from a Mariners fan, it’s the Cubs record. Not only did they have fewer games to begin with, but they had two rained out tie games that were never made up whereas we played our entire schedule
Mets were also the first team in agreement on a Griffey trade, reportedly for Octavio Dotel, Roger Cedeño, and Dennis Cook. Griffey refused. Also Cincinnati initially walked away from negotiations, over Pokey Reese of all people.
5:25 as an Astros fan who grew up in the 2000s, I can confidently say that absolutely NO ONE liked Gerry Hunsicker. The Astros had a storied history of awful GMs until Jeff Luhnow came knocking in 2011.
As a Ranger fan we hardly acknowledge ARod's tenure. He never endeared himself to the club or the area, and he was essentially an island that nobody visited. There are no warm, fuzzy feelings for anything he did here, and most Ranger fans I know still actively root against him personally and professionally. Great player? Absolutely. But he was COMPLETELY hollow as a human.
Alex Rodriguez is my baseline for “BIGGEST CONTRACT EVER” in all of sports, mostly in terms of pay (because Rick DiPietro got that 15 year contract a few years later). It doesn’t feel like a quarter of a century ago, but it’s enough to let contract value grow, even if the jump to Shohei skipped 500 and 600 million entirely, there’s not much that can be done about it now.
@@reclusedoggo3513nah Soto’s contract will be a lot like A-Rod’s, no one’s touching $800 mil for awhile. I don’t think it’ll be as long as it took to get back to $200 mil post-ARod but the amount of stars that have to align to have a superstar 19-20 year old make the big leagues, never sign an extension (which teams are now way more open to doing, JRod, Witt, Carrol, Chourio, etc) and hit FA at 25-26 to be in line to receive that 14-15 year structure required to get those gaudy numbers are just too rare. And shohei’s contract doesn’t compare to either and actually isn’t that big, his ~$460 mil present day value is pretty in line with the market, the $700 mil is very misleading.
What I always find funny is the mariners could’ve beaten the record for most wins rather than tie the record if they didn’t blow a 12 or 14 run lead against the Indians
Of course he admitted years later he was greedy and should have signed with the Mets, no or little demands. After meeting the Mets, their PR guy very simply told the press, “We’re not getting him.” And that was that.
A lot of "experts" think players prioritize playing in $0 income tax states over, y'know... *winning* A-rod was the start of that short-sighted mentality. There are plenty of other things a person can do to amke money without paying taxes. Players (should) play to WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS
A-Rod was easily worth his contract and would get as much if not more than Juan Soto today, and I could see him getting around $850-$900 million in today's market. When he went to the Yankees, they should have moved Jeter to 2B and put A-Rod at SS, he was much better defensively than Jeter was and had a much better arm too.
The highest salary in the MLB in 2000 was Kevin Brown, who was with the Dodgers at the time and made about $15.7 million (in year-2000 dollars). The average salary at that point was $1.9 mill, with the minimum salary at just $200,000. A-Rod's Rangers contract blew that all out of the water. Times have certainly changed in the almost quarter-century since. The landscape of baseball has also changed since those days. 2024's minimum salary was $740,000, with the average at just under $5 million. No doubt that A-Rod would have had a lot on the table in his prime, just like Soto had. But would a team put up with all the controversy surrounding A-Rod? Funny thing is, it would probably be the Yanks and Red Sox at the top of the list, just like back then.
I know the Braves F.O. were confident they were signing ARod to something like a 7-year, $125-140m contract. Then the Rangers offer just blew every team away.
With rising inflation and the willingness of teams tacking on more and more years (15 years was unheard of in 2000s/2010s), we will see a billion dollar contract sooner rather than later
Had no clue the white Sox were in on ARod. What happened to that Jerry Reinsdorf. Now he won't go above 75 million these days. It's a shame he acts like they're small market. He's worth billions
I’m sure losing to the M’s in the 2000 ALDS had something to do with that. Don’t forget Jerry did go big signing Albert Belle to a 5y/$55m contract in ‘97, at the time the biggest contract in baseball. Who knew it would be dwarfed so much in just 4yrs 😮 Oh and as a Chicago kid I was devastated when he opted out and left for Baltimore 😢
I can’t speak for the entire Mariners fan base but looking back at this now, Mariners ownership (Howard Lincoln & Chuck Armstrong) really screwed not only A-Rod but the M’s fanbase. Their offer was a big joke, at least they could have offered (at the time) 8 yrs/200 million. Plus they both were on vacation during the final negotiations w/ ARod as they didn’t take him seriously. As why Lou Pinella left after ‘02 season. Both those guys running the Mariners as a business first ballclub as they prioritized maximizing profits than building a contender is what lead the Mariners not making the playoffs for 20 straight seasons. This latest current ownership group lead by John Stanton & Chris Larsen (minority owners back then) is unfortunately still run like this today.
M’s fan here. Ownership definitely cheapened out at points like that. Pinella explicitly was frustrated in 2002 for a lack of trade deadline moves, and he requested to leave. To be fair to ownership, I believe the book “Out of Left Field” said that most of the minor league prospects we had in 02 that were of value were injured. Even so, there’s no guarantee that they’d successfully trade them for a player who would have done much of note.
As a Red Sox fan I was adamantly against the A-Rod trade. He was a diva that didn't fit in with the team we were building. Plus, having to trade away Manny and Nomar to do it? I was very glad to see the trade nixed...even more so by the end of the season!
It would have been A-Rod and Magglio Ordonez. Since they already seemed to want to part with pending free agent Nomar anyway; that still seems a good trade off for the Red Sox to get the best player in the game, at that time.
@@nathanakers45Nomar Garciaparra was a really good player; bordering on a Hall of Fame trajectory perhaps through 2003, but after the injury at the start of 2004 he was pretty much never the same again (save for the first half of 2006). I wouldn’t blame the Red Sox for considering going after A-Rod following Nomar’s second injury as he would have been a better shortstop going forward, but yeah, he probably wouldn’t have fit in with team culture. Not to mention the payroll he’d demand would inevitably have been a lot.
"We may never see a player get a contract with the word billion in it" -- Jolly Olive, 2024 Never? After seeing Ohtani and Soto blow through previous records? We're really not that far from it. Maybe not for a couple more years, but surely we'll see someone get a billion in the next decade.
For the record, Alex Rodriguez was way way better than Juan Soto and I think it's funny when people try to say Soto is unprecedented. Prime arod, steroids or not, was the second best player in baseball behind bonds
As a rangers fan I don't care what Arods stats were with us. It wasn't worth the money, the organization was set back years because of the money spent on him. The question for me isn't what his BA is or other stats it's if a player helped make a club a winning club. Arod made the rangers worse as club despite anything he could do on the field because he wasn't affordable for the rangers. That's where Soto is different tho I was hoping for more arod deal Soto deal comparisons, Soto went to a team that CAN afford him, so if he's good the money will have been worth it.
I chanted Pay-Rod at the many Mariners games I attended as a kid (I was 5 when A-Rod went to the Rangers). But Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong were terrible. Stanton is frustrating in his own right, but these two destroyed the Mariners in an absolutely brutal fashion.
A-rod is a better Corey Seager by todays standards. Great defense, power bat, average speed. Probably more consistent than Seager up to new. Corey can change that though
I think if A-Rod hit Free Agency, at 25, in this same year, that he would have been given the money Juan Soto would have. In my mind, Soto received the money he did because he was the top free agent on the market. Not just because of his name, age, or because of his legacy: he simply was THE top free agent. Had A-Rod been in this same class, he would have gotten the money Soto did, and Soto would have probably gotten somewhere around $650 million-ish. It simply comes down to, "Who is THE top guy this year?" and "Who is going to spend the most on him?" After that, the other dominos tend to fall into place with a bit less flair.
Total disrespect to AROD comparing Soto to AROD. AROD was an MVP, 5 tool player, playing gold glove defense, cannon for an arm, he was still able to run around the bases, as well he wasn't on a decline like Soto is right now. Yes Soto is on a decline at 26 years old, doesn't have a great glove anymore, doesn't run and use his speed anymore, and his arm isn't as strong anymore, doesn't not play gold glove defense either. Arod- 5 tool elite player MVP. Soto-power bat, bat, that's it.
The Red Sox comeback in the ALCS is certainly not the "most famous comeback in sports history". Maybe in American sports history but definitely not sports as a whole.
@JollyOlive The obvious one is the 2005 European Cup final in Istanbul between Liverpool and AC Milan. An underrated shout would be Bohemians beating Shamrock Rovers 6-4 after being 4-1 down at half time. Other honourable mentions would be the 2011 Heineken Cup final, 2012 Ryder Cup, Carl Froch's last second KO against Jermain Taylor
To all y’all saying A-Rod would get a billion, he would not. The AAV of a $1 Billion 15 year deal is $66 million, he’d get more than Soto for sure but not $14 mil a year more. If it stretched out to 17 years a $58 mil AAV is slightly more doable but I don’t think any teams are promising to pay a 42 yr old $58 mil. I know Soto got way closer than we all could’ve imagined, but $200 mil is a big difference when Father Time always limits the theoretical length of these deals. Someone would’ve had to play their first full season at 17 to even get in the range of the years needed.
Think you're underselling the defensive difference between the two by a lot, the difference between gold-glove caliber shortstop defense and below average right field defense is probably 3 WAR. And that gap could indeed be as high as 20-25 million on an open market. Caveat of course that Soto is the better hitter, but the difference in value even accounting for that is probably enough to justify A-Rod getting 10-15 million more per year. Granted, shortstop defense ages more poorly than Soto's skillset, and ARod of course transitioned to 3B in NY, but even then the defensive value add over Soto (who will probably be a DH within 7-8 years) is still enough for me to think he'd get very close to a billion.
"there have only two free agents similar since ARod"...NOT...Harper's deal was record setting BUT nowhere close to Ohtani's (he's slightly older than the others) unprecedented contract...Soto's an outstanding hitter but his contract is beyond absurd/overhyped..doubt he'll be able to justify it
Power of hindsight and my biases aside, A-Rod was that dude. While the viewers see the records of those Rangers teams in the 2000s and they weren't Chicago White Sox 2024 bad more like Los Angeles Angels Albert Pujols bad. The media at the time was questioning was the deal a bad deal and can Alex lead that team to even a winning record. When the initial Manny for Alex swap was happening I was heartbroken from the Aaron Boone job and desperately wanted Boston to do something seismic. They would later.
The Rangers didn’t have a good record, and while a-Rod had his issues and high salary, at the end of the day they still probably would have had pitching issues in the early 2000’s whether they trade for A-Rod or not.
Longer video idea (probably needs a big sponsor but) Would it be worth doing a deep dive on the first free agents? Seems like a you-coded history video :o
The greatest thing that could have ever happened to the Boston Red Sox was the Yankees outspending them on the very man who would largely lead to the greatest comeback in sports history.
Could you imagine if prime-time A-Rod became available now? Do you honestly think Steve Cohen would go with the: 24-1 bullshit... It would be more like: How much pal and how may suites 😎
Go to TryFum.com/JOLLYOLIVE or scan the QR code and use code JOLLYOLIVE to get your free FÜM Topper when you order your Journey Pack today.
I think a Scott Boras video would be amazing
Scott Boras is bigger than baseball.
Boris is a rodent of a man! He is an absolute menace and disgrace to baseball! I can't wait until he retires!
Or a Dillon gee one
Amazing idea.
Puns and puns
If Arod hit free agency today coming off his last Seattle year, there's a chance he'd get a 16 year 850 million dollar deal with performance incentives that could bring it up to a billion. He was a full calendar year younger than Soto is right now, and unlike soto, played gold glove defense at a premium position and was an elite baserunner
Might’ve been 20 years 1 billion with some opt outs lol
@@IsItButterTho probably
Right?! These experts keep saying Soto hasn't even hit his prime yet, and he is on a decline already with 3 of the original 5 tools he had, that's SCARY!
Arm, speed, and glove on the decline with soto.
@gabrielv.2647 he never had 5 tools. He was never a good defender. He was never a good runner. And idk what makes you think his arm has declined because it's tracked on baseball savant, and 2024 was the best year of his career by arm value.
@cosmoid wtf are you talking about? Lol he had a cannon for an arm with the nationals, was stealing bases, playing border line gold glove defense, making diving catches, the 2019 playoffs you don't remember that??? Maybe I'll give the the 2024 arm stat, but you forget he was in right field at yankee stadium with the short RF, of course he is going to be making great throws when the distance to throwing out runners is reduced to all 4 bags. 81 home games I'm sure had a lot to contribute to those great throws/arm value
Adjusting for mlb revenue and salaries by year, and projecting out for the next 15 years, I have Rodriguez's 10 year deal at about 25% higher AAV than Soto. That means if you adjust it to a 15 year deal, it comes just shy of $1 billion at $956 million.
Absolute insanity
Well he was more worth that than what Soto got.
Edit: love the vids man, easily above the more reaction channels.
well he was at least 25% better than Juan Soto lol. an actual 5 tool player.
@13:10 just casually saying "averaged 8 WAR per year". 8 WAR PER YEAR!!
A-Rod would have got 16 years/$1 billion in today’s market.
Those quotes upon Arod signing are wild! Makes the Soto comments look so friendly lmao
The fact that 2001 season only got 6TH in MVP voting is crazy
Well 2001 was a wild year 😂
Up until the 2010s, if you weren't on a playoff team, you were essentially disqualified from getting MVP unless you were absolutely undeniable, which screwed A-Rod a lot in MVP voting during his pre-Yankees days. He should have had at least five MVPs, and arguably as much as nine. The absolute worst was either 98 where he led all position players in rWAR by a substantial margin with a 40-40 season, yet finished _9th_ , or 02 where he had 8.8 rWAR to Miguel Tejada's 5.7 and trounced Tejada in basically every stat other than batting average, yet Tejada won the MVP vote in a landslide.
Even crazier is despite losing the best player in baseball in FA the M’s managed to get a Japanese FA who won ROY and MVP while leading them to a record tying 116 wins 😮
It was all because of the team he was on
@@NotMeNaNaNaImagine if Ichiro hadn’t been contractually obligated to play in Japan through 2000.
He could’ve been on all the 95-01 teams instead of just the last one.
Dude 's first 13 seasons he averaged 120 runs, 120 RBI, 40 HR, 20 SB, 8 WAR, batting over .300 and near 1.000 OPS, he could've been the greatest shortstop of all time
He is the greatest SS of all time
He is the greatest lol who you got over him?
If A-Rod was around this offseason, Soto would have likely not gotten such a high amount, at least not until other teams sounded out A-Rod's asking price. But, with the market inflated, he would likely get around $800 million over 15 years
As a 37 year old life long Mariners fan, this was such a massive blow to the franchise and to every single Seattle fan. I’ll put it into context here for non Mariner fans or Mariner fans who weren’t either born yet, old enough or weren’t into baseball at the time. 1995 was our first time in the history of the franchise that we really had success and we had a core of players who were legit superstars and a solid supporting cast around them. Ken Griffey Jr was a legit MVP caliber player every year. Randy Johnson had the nastiest stuff in the league and was a premier ace. Edgar Martinez was winning batting titles and was a hitting machine at DH. Jay Buhner was hittin 40+ homers and 120+ RBI’s, Tino Martinez was a 30HR/100RBI guy, even Mike Blowers was hittin 25HR/90RBI. And then we had the future of the team and future of baseball in A Rod. the feeling was this team was World Series bound in the near future. Well Randy struggled some in 1998 so the M’s trade him to Houston at the deadline where he goes on possibly the most dominant run a pitcher has ever had in baseball history. 11 starts, 10-1 with a 1.28ERA, 116 K’s in 84 innings and 4 complete game shutouts. So that definitely hurt the soul of us M’s fans. But then in the offseason before the start of the 2000 season, our heart and soul was ripped out of our chests when our guy, the heart and soul of the city, my childhood hero, Ken Griffey Jr was traded to Cincy. I don’t remember where I was when I heard that news but I bet I threw up my lunch where-ever I was. But we still had the future of baseball, we still had A Rod. What did A Rod do when he became the face of the franchise in Seattle in 2000? Oh just put together a 10.4 WAR season. But when he hit free agency and pump faked us before signing that wild deal with Texas, that left a real bad taste in M’s fans mouths. Especially signing with a division rival too
He would have been the first to get a 1 billion dollar contract
He went to bed thinking he was about to become a brave and then the rangers came into the picture at this last minute and I as a Braves fan wonder what would have been
In hindsight as Rangers fan I wish he woulda went to the Braves.
Braves were also rumored in on Griffey at first when he wanted to leave Seattle to be closer to come in Florida.
@@S_Over_Streetyeah however the M’s wanted both Andruw jones and Rafel Furcal in return so our gm didn’t make that deal
As a Seattle fan who was fairly young when Rodriguez abandoned us for Texas, this was a very illuminating video. Once again I am reminded of the eternal franchise motto to not spend in free agency I guess. It was a trip down memory lane to say the least.
I remember this vividly. The White Sox were rumored for a long time to be in and possibly the favorites and then it was reported Reinsdorf wouldn’t meet with Boras and the Sox were out
I've always wanted to see an A-Rod Texas video. Thank you!
Ever since Soto signed all I have been thinking about is Arod’s first free agency. Love the comp
One of my biggest sports what if is what if A Rod had gone to the Red Sox in 04.
14:04 ‘Never see a billion dollar contract’? If anything we’re closer than ever. Bet we see one by the end of the decade.
Now imagine if Boras let him take a 50% pay cut and go to the Mets like he wanted
Perfect example of how CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE A TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENT NOT AN INDIVIDUAL STATISTIC
Great vid as always, Jol
Can we get a video on weird outlier seasons? Such as 96 Brady Anderson, 21 Kyle Wright, 00 Darin Erstad, 14 Johnathan Lucroy, and any other singular great seasons you could find in otherwise average careers.
Ralph Garr 1974 might be one
The problem with the Rangers during this time wasn't the Arod signing; rather, it is that it was ONLY the Arod signing that happened. Hicks & Melvin didn't keep building the team around him, and by the time that Mike Young, Mark Texiera, and Hank Blalock were coming up, Arod had already seen enough of the Hicks operation to know that there would never be a full-hearted effort to build a championship-caliber roster in Texas. All Hicks was ever motivated to do is put butts in seats. It wasn't until Jon Daniels got there that the Rangers started to operate like a smart baseball-before-all org.
I remember when the details on his Texas contract came out the earth stopped for a minute. That contract length and amount was completely unheard of. How in the world did one of those Mariners rosters not win the WS!? They were STACKED.
5:22 Homie needs to go back to history class, lol!
2000 ARod was basically a 99 overall MLB The Show Diamond Dynasty card with diamond hitting and defense.
Mariners fan and he was a great player at his peak.
Probably could be in the Hall of Fame without steroids
i love the way jolly only makes this after the soto sweepstakes are won by his team, the mets.
Your best one yet , jolly !
7:22 tied the 1906 Cubs with 116 wins, but set the record with wins in a 162 game season
So you get the point
Great regular season on their part but from a Mariners fan, it’s the Cubs record.
Not only did they have fewer games to begin with, but they had two rained out tie games that were never made up whereas we played our entire schedule
Mets were also the first team in agreement on a Griffey trade, reportedly for Octavio Dotel, Roger Cedeño, and Dennis Cook. Griffey refused.
Also Cincinnati initially walked away from negotiations, over Pokey Reese of all people.
What a video, hell yeah Jolly
5:25 as an Astros fan who grew up in the 2000s, I can confidently say that absolutely NO ONE liked Gerry Hunsicker. The Astros had a storied history of awful GMs until Jeff Luhnow came knocking in 2011.
As a Texas Rangers fan, this was so cathartic to watch lol
I absolutely love A-Rod … his batting stance was beautiful 🥹 I miss him - I need his card in DD
Where can I get one of those Immaculate Grid hats???
As a Ranger fan we hardly acknowledge ARod's tenure. He never endeared himself to the club or the area, and he was essentially an island that nobody visited. There are no warm, fuzzy feelings for anything he did here, and most Ranger fans I know still actively root against him personally and professionally. Great player? Absolutely. But he was COMPLETELY hollow as a human.
That kind of money can buy alot of enhancements 😂
Alex Rodriguez is my baseline for “BIGGEST CONTRACT EVER” in all of sports, mostly in terms of pay (because Rick DiPietro got that 15 year contract a few years later). It doesn’t feel like a quarter of a century ago, but it’s enough to let contract value grow, even if the jump to Shohei skipped 500 and 600 million entirely, there’s not much that can be done about it now.
I think rather than shohei, I think soto contract will inflate contracts more due to people having a more comparable stats to soto
@@reclusedoggo3513nah Soto’s contract will be a lot like A-Rod’s, no one’s touching $800 mil for awhile. I don’t think it’ll be as long as it took to get back to $200 mil post-ARod but the amount of stars that have to align to have a superstar 19-20 year old make the big leagues, never sign an extension (which teams are now way more open to doing, JRod, Witt, Carrol, Chourio, etc) and hit FA at 25-26 to be in line to receive that 14-15 year structure required to get those gaudy numbers are just too rare.
And shohei’s contract doesn’t compare to either and actually isn’t that big, his ~$460 mil present day value is pretty in line with the market, the $700 mil is very misleading.
0:20 Not putting Ohtani on that should be criminal
Think he was referencing the youth aspect as well. Ohtani was 29 going into his free agency. All those other guys were 26 and younger
@ Bryce harper still got half as much as Ohtani
I wouldn't be surprised that if in 10 or 15 years we start seeing literal billion dollar contracts being given out
What I always find funny is the mariners could’ve beaten the record for most wins rather than tie the record if they didn’t blow a 12 or 14 run lead against the Indians
1:44 a 50% haircut?!?!?! lmaooooooo
srsly wtf?
A-Rod might've gotten a cool billion
Of course he admitted years later he was greedy and should have signed with the Mets, no or little demands.
After meeting the Mets, their PR guy very simply told the press, “We’re not getting him.”
And that was that.
A lot of "experts" think players prioritize playing in $0 income tax states over, y'know... *winning* A-rod was the start of that short-sighted mentality. There are plenty of other things a person can do to amke money without paying taxes. Players (should) play to WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS
I am so glad the Red Sox didn’t get him. I’ll take Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz every time
The irony of course is that while D-Day was of course horrific, it was a success for the allies.
A-Rod was easily worth his contract and would get as much if not more than Juan Soto today, and I could see him getting around $850-$900 million in today's market. When he went to the Yankees, they should have moved Jeter to 2B and put A-Rod at SS, he was much better defensively than Jeter was and had a much better arm too.
Remember when he tried to have a podcast lmao. We love arod here in minnesota though!!
The highest salary in the MLB in 2000 was Kevin Brown, who was with the Dodgers at the time and made about $15.7 million (in year-2000 dollars). The average salary at that point was $1.9 mill, with the minimum salary at just $200,000. A-Rod's Rangers contract blew that all out of the water.
Times have certainly changed in the almost quarter-century since. The landscape of baseball has also changed since those days. 2024's minimum salary was $740,000, with the average at just under $5 million.
No doubt that A-Rod would have had a lot on the table in his prime, just like Soto had. But would a team put up with all the controversy surrounding A-Rod? Funny thing is, it would probably be the Yanks and Red Sox at the top of the list, just like back then.
Please do a video on Rey Ordóñez
I know the Braves F.O. were confident they were signing ARod to something like a 7-year, $125-140m contract. Then the Rangers offer just blew every team away.
With rising inflation and the willingness of teams tacking on more and more years (15 years was unheard of in 2000s/2010s), we will see a billion dollar contract sooner rather than later
If Bobby Witt Jr. didn't sign that extension and he was able to keep up this production, he could (potentially) have been a billion dollar player NGL.
Had no clue the white Sox were in on ARod. What happened to that Jerry Reinsdorf. Now he won't go above 75 million these days. It's a shame he acts like they're small market. He's worth billions
I’m sure losing to the M’s in the 2000 ALDS had something to do with that. Don’t forget Jerry did go big signing Albert Belle to a 5y/$55m contract in ‘97, at the time the biggest contract in baseball.
Who knew it would be dwarfed so much in just 4yrs 😮
Oh and as a Chicago kid I was devastated when he opted out and left for Baltimore 😢
Oh god, I remember this. The Rangers came out of nowhere to scoop him. I believe they had made the playoffs the year prior.
I can’t speak for the entire Mariners fan base but looking back at this now, Mariners ownership (Howard Lincoln & Chuck Armstrong) really screwed not only A-Rod but the M’s fanbase. Their offer was a big joke, at least they could have offered (at the time) 8 yrs/200 million. Plus they both were on vacation during the final negotiations w/ ARod as they didn’t take him seriously. As why Lou Pinella left after ‘02 season. Both those guys running the Mariners as a business first ballclub as they prioritized maximizing profits than building a contender is what lead the Mariners not making the playoffs for 20 straight seasons. This latest current ownership group lead by John Stanton & Chris Larsen (minority owners back then) is unfortunately still run like this today.
Cost us a chip
M’s fan here.
Ownership definitely cheapened out at points like that.
Pinella explicitly was frustrated in 2002 for a lack of trade deadline moves, and he requested to leave.
To be fair to ownership, I believe the book “Out of Left Field” said that most of the minor league prospects we had in 02 that were of value were injured.
Even so, there’s no guarantee that they’d successfully trade them for a player who would have done much of note.
You’ll never understand how much I despise Tom Hicks and what he did to my franchise my entire adolescense
They now give $252 million to pitchers with .500 records! So sad!
Now do one on M’s pivoting and getting Ichiro that offseason.
As a Red Sox fan I was adamantly against the A-Rod trade. He was a diva that didn't fit in with the team we were building. Plus, having to trade away Manny and Nomar to do it? I was very glad to see the trade nixed...even more so by the end of the season!
And yes...Nomar would end up being traded that summer anyway but at the time of the A-Rod trade he was a fan favorite. It felt like a betrayal.
It would have been A-Rod and Magglio Ordonez. Since they already seemed to want to part with pending free agent Nomar anyway; that still seems a good trade off for the Red Sox to get the best player in the game, at that time.
@@nathanakers45Nomar Garciaparra was a really good player; bordering on a Hall of Fame trajectory perhaps through 2003, but after the injury at the start of 2004 he was pretty much never the same again (save for the first half of 2006).
I wouldn’t blame the Red Sox for considering going after A-Rod following Nomar’s second injury as he would have been a better shortstop going forward, but yeah, he probably wouldn’t have fit in with team culture.
Not to mention the payroll he’d demand would inevitably have been a lot.
"We may never see a player get a contract with the word billion in it" -- Jolly Olive, 2024
Never? After seeing Ohtani and Soto blow through previous records? We're really not that far from it. Maybe not for a couple more years, but surely we'll see someone get a billion in the next decade.
Ohtani is also on the list, since he is the most unique and biggest free agent MLB ever had. Soto rakes, but Ohtani can kinda do everything.
A-Rod was the best player in the game. He deserved to be paid like one.
Great video. If I was to guess conservatively, he would get a $300 million contract.
In today's game? He's probably gets triple that...
For the record, Alex Rodriguez was way way better than Juan Soto and I think it's funny when people try to say Soto is unprecedented. Prime arod, steroids or not, was the second best player in baseball behind bonds
Can we get one on the Manny Ramirez trade saga of the 2000s 👀
Pujols is also up there.
As a rangers fan I don't care what Arods stats were with us. It wasn't worth the money, the organization was set back years because of the money spent on him. The question for me isn't what his BA is or other stats it's if a player helped make a club a winning club. Arod made the rangers worse as club despite anything he could do on the field because he wasn't affordable for the rangers. That's where Soto is different tho I was hoping for more arod deal Soto deal comparisons, Soto went to a team that CAN afford him, so if he's good the money will have been worth it.
1:39 "I would take a 50% haircut to play for the mets." Huhhh???
It was a great success for A Rod financially but it was the first step to his image and legacy being ruins
I chanted Pay-Rod at the many Mariners games I attended as a kid (I was 5 when A-Rod went to the Rangers). But Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong were terrible.
Stanton is frustrating in his own right, but these two destroyed the Mariners in an absolutely brutal fashion.
He would easily be a billion dollar contract
A-rod is a better Corey Seager by todays standards. Great defense, power bat, average speed. Probably more consistent than Seager up to new. Corey can change that though
I think if A-Rod hit Free Agency, at 25, in this same year, that he would have been given the money Juan Soto would have.
In my mind, Soto received the money he did because he was the top free agent on the market. Not just because of his name, age, or because of his legacy: he simply was THE top free agent. Had A-Rod been in this same class, he would have gotten the money Soto did, and Soto would have probably gotten somewhere around $650 million-ish.
It simply comes down to, "Who is THE top guy this year?" and "Who is going to spend the most on him?" After that, the other dominos tend to fall into place with a bit less flair.
Also could it be: “if I don’t give this player the big bucks, who else is there?”
I'm pretty sure most historians consider D-Day a good thing? Well, give Gerry Hunsicker an A for effort.
Total disrespect to AROD comparing Soto to AROD.
AROD was an MVP, 5 tool player, playing gold glove defense, cannon for an arm, he was still able to run around the bases, as well he wasn't on a decline like Soto is right now. Yes Soto is on a decline at 26 years old, doesn't have a great glove anymore, doesn't run and use his speed anymore, and his arm isn't as strong anymore, doesn't not play gold glove defense either.
Arod- 5 tool elite player MVP.
Soto-power bat, bat, that's it.
A-Rod with 2 suspension for steroids still in the Hall of Fame ballot but Carlos Delgado was one and Done 🤷🏻♂️
Wow Shoei just is an after thought after what he did to the Mets in the nlcs? Crazy 14:07
If Arod went to the mets instead of the Yankees that would of been so cool
The Red Sox comeback in the ALCS is certainly not the "most famous comeback in sports history". Maybe in American sports history but definitely not sports as a whole.
Which one do you think is better?
@JollyOlive The obvious one is the 2005 European Cup final in Istanbul between Liverpool and AC Milan. An underrated shout would be Bohemians beating Shamrock Rovers 6-4 after being 4-1 down at half time. Other honourable mentions would be the 2011 Heineken Cup final, 2012 Ryder Cup, Carl Froch's last second KO against Jermain Taylor
An A-Rod David Wright duo... Good chance it never happens because they probably trade Wright for win now pieces/not getting the right draft slots
In todays market, Arod would get 15/900
To all y’all saying A-Rod would get a billion, he would not.
The AAV of a $1 Billion 15 year deal is $66 million, he’d get more than Soto for sure but not $14 mil a year more. If it stretched out to 17 years a $58 mil AAV is slightly more doable but I don’t think any teams are promising to pay a 42 yr old $58 mil.
I know Soto got way closer than we all could’ve imagined, but $200 mil is a big difference when Father Time always limits the theoretical length of these deals. Someone would’ve had to play their first full season at 17 to even get in the range of the years needed.
Think you're underselling the defensive difference between the two by a lot, the difference between gold-glove caliber shortstop defense and below average right field defense is probably 3 WAR. And that gap could indeed be as high as 20-25 million on an open market. Caveat of course that Soto is the better hitter, but the difference in value even accounting for that is probably enough to justify A-Rod getting 10-15 million more per year.
Granted, shortstop defense ages more poorly than Soto's skillset, and ARod of course transitioned to 3B in NY, but even then the defensive value add over Soto (who will probably be a DH within 7-8 years) is still enough for me to think he'd get very close to a billion.
@@BehindTheBox-f6dhow is Soto the better hitter? I mean an argument could be made but i dont think its some settled fact at all
I think Arod gets sotos deal and is actually worth it Arod’s defense is 50 times better than Sotos
I think a better question is how much money would Mike Trout get if he hitthe market at 25
"there have only two free agents similar since ARod"...NOT...Harper's deal was record setting BUT nowhere close to Ohtani's (he's slightly older than the others) unprecedented contract...Soto's an outstanding hitter but his contract is beyond absurd/overhyped..doubt he'll be able to justify it
Arod easily gets $1 billion today. 5 tool player with stats way better than Soto's even
If arod was a free agent at 25 and with the numbers he had he’d get 800 million lol
Power of hindsight and my biases aside, A-Rod was that dude. While the viewers see the records of those Rangers teams in the 2000s and they weren't Chicago White Sox 2024 bad more like Los Angeles Angels Albert Pujols bad. The media at the time was questioning was the deal a bad deal and can Alex lead that team to even a winning record. When the initial Manny for Alex swap was happening I was heartbroken from the Aaron Boone job and desperately wanted Boston to do something seismic. They would later.
The Rangers didn’t have a good record, and while a-Rod had his issues and high salary, at the end of the day they still probably would have had pitching issues in the early 2000’s whether they trade for A-Rod or not.
Longer video idea (probably needs a big sponsor but)
Would it be worth doing a deep dive on the first free agents? Seems like a you-coded history video :o
That was a disaster for his original team, so if you’re saying Soto: good luck Mets 😊
Arod would be the only other player worth Ohtani money. Soto is worth 500 tops I don’t care 🤷♂️
900 million today. Not a dollar less
A-Rod was miles ahead better than Soto
The greatest thing that could have ever happened to the Boston Red Sox was the Yankees outspending them on the very man who would largely lead to the greatest comeback in sports history.
Could you imagine if prime-time A-Rod became available now? Do you honestly think Steve Cohen would go with the: 24-1 bullshit...
It would be more like: How much pal and how may suites 😎
7:20
IS THAT GARY MATTHEWS AND WHY TF IS HE STANDING NEXT TO THR FIRST BASE COACH WHAT ARE WE DOING
A-rod would get 900 to a billion dollars