So the Padres give 30-year-old Machado an 11 year, $350 million extension. Insane. It better pay off with a couple WS titles in the next 4-5 years, because the tail end of this contract will be the worst.
Add this on top of the contracts for Tatis, Darvish, Bogaerts. Paying Soto $23M this year also, and they will need a huge LT contract to avoid him leaving after this season. And San Diego is a similar sized market to Cincy...
Those deals won’t age well, you’re right. I guess they figure Bogaerts and Machado can be their 1B and DH once they reach 2030 or so.
The Tatis deal ends at age 35 after 2034, so that looks like a good deal comparatively speaking.
Soto has two seasons left before free agency, and I think they’re almost pot-committed to extending him unless things go totally south this season.
I still can’t believe they extended Darvish through 2028, during which he’ll turn 42. He’s still pretty good right now, but he might be done pretty quick once it starts to go downhill.
Like you’ve told 14Red re: the Reds, scared money doesn’t make money. The Padres as recently as 2018 had a payroll of $94 million and were drawing 26,000 fans a game, many probably at relatively low ticket prices since they were on Year 8 in a row of being sub-.500. After 2018, they went out and got Machado, then Tatis came up in 2019 and it’s been uphill since then.
Last year they drew just under 37,000, and that was with four months pre-Soto and now they’ve added Bogaerts to the mix. I’d be surprised if they average less than 39,000 this year.
Let’s say they get $80 per head between ticket, parking, and in-game concessions/merch, and let’s say that number was more like $60 per head when the team stunk.
So that’s 13,000 extra fans at $80 each x 81 games = $84.24 million
Plus 26,000 existing fans at an extra $20 each x 81 games = $42.12 million
So that’s $126 million added revenue right there. Maybe you toss in a conservative two home gates for the playoffs at around $8 million total at least. Plus an extra $20 million in apparel being bought. Plus in-stadium advertising deals can probably fetch more money if you’re demonstrating more people in the park and more watching on TV.
So all of that revenue ends up supporting going from $94 million to $230 million in payroll over a relatively short period. I wish the Reds ownership group had the guts to bet on their ability to put a winning team on the field.
It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …