Latest / The Craig Way Show / Gene Watson talks historic Juan Soto signing with the New York Mets

Transcript

Gene Watson talks historic Juan Soto signing with the New York Mets · The Craig Way Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And we're back to the Craig. I have a message
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for Craig Sharon by using the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio. Okay,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: watch what I'm about to do here. Joining us as
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: he does so generously, is our good friend and MLB
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: insider from the Chicago White Sox front office, Geen Watson,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and I will pose a question. This is similar to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: what Greg Tepper and I do when we put games
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in front of one another and say, if you can
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: only transport to which game, which game would it be?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: So with that in mind, I put this in front
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of Geene Watson and say, you have a choice of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: being in three places next weekend, next Saturday, or Friday
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and Saturday. On the weekend, you can either choose to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: be at Indiana versus Notre Dame in South Bend college
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: football playoff. You can be at State Championship Week in
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Arlington Friday night and Saturday, or you can be at
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the Texas Clemson game on Saturday afternoon. I have a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: feeling I know the answer to this. Which one is
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: it gonna be?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Geno, I'll be in South Bend on Friday night.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I knew you would I knew you would well that's good.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: You're a goal to those two days at A and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: T are pretty good too.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, you could always come up and hang
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: with us for the six man championships on Wednesday. I've
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: got those two games and the two A Division two
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night and the games let me tell you on Thursday.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: The Thursday night three A Division one game, which could
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: be number one Malakoff against number two Columbus could be
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a corker. Friday that could be great games as well.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I have to come back Saturday. It'll be the first
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: time in fourteen years I'll have missed the six A
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: games because of the Texas Clemson game. How about that?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Twenty ten's the last time I didn't call a six
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: A state championship. But our good friend Ted Emrick will
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: be calling us, so we're excited.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I have not ruled out getting on the early flight
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: out of Chicago on Saturday and trying to make the
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: game in Austin. I haven't ruled it out yet, but
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: it's it's gonna be pretty crazy. I'm looking forward to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: being in South Bend for a night game on a Friday.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Well, hostly the weather will be better than it was
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: my good. I was there last week and and Marcus
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Freeman was there for the women's game whatever great game
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that was when overtime. He was there and to Meeka
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Catching showed up. They had all the stars out for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that game. It's first time I've ever called a basketball
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: game at Notre Dame, so I was looking forward to that.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I guess it's what now called the Purcell Pavilion
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: at the Joy Center. So that was that was cool.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Enjoy that And and how excited must the entire state
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of Indiana be, let alone, the whole the Michiana area
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: around South Bend and the show Cargo Land area for
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame against Indiana and the college football playoff.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the excitement rained so far that the ticket prices
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: are absolutely unbelievable. Fortunately enough, I've done some speaking there
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: and my tickets are fairly cheaper. But there's nothing better
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: than South Bend on a cold, snowy night and got
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the grotto and you got to experience the last week.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Yes I did. Indeed, All right, let's move to the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Winter meetings. You're in Dallas right now? Are they still
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: at the Anatole? They are? You know, we haven't been
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: here in twenty four years.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I think two thousand and five was the last time
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: we had him here.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's a cool little spot.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: It's pretty active today. The buzz last night was kind
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of crazy with all the Soto stuff. There was a
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: pretty big roar in the atrium when it all went down,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and so, you know, business, there's a lot of conversations
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: taking place today and tomorrow could just be the doors
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: blown off of this place because I think it's going
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to be really really active tomorrow.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Right, Let's go to the Sodo deal first. The
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: thing that got me was not the seven hundred and
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: sixty five million dollars. I knew that was, you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: we I'd heard the digit seven mentioned a lot when
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it was going to come to one soda. Whether the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Red Sox opposedly had the highest interest in him, the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Dodgers were interested, the Giants, I know, the Padres wanted
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to get him back. I mean there was a lot.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of interest on that, and it comes
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: down to the Yankees and the Mets really in the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Mets decide that they make the deal. But Gino, the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: thing that got me was not the seven hundred and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: sixty five million the fifteen years on that deal. Fifteen years,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and we're seeing more and more of these guys signed
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: those long, long contracts. Mookie Betts did it obviously, Shoeotani
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: signed a ten year deal, and now you've got one
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Soda with a fifteen year deal. Did we lose Geno?
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: We might have lost him. Oh, there we are now
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: we got to now about it. Fifteen year deal.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't get this kind of deal if you're
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: not an international sign or a high school sign, just
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: you don't get to free agency, you don't get to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: arbitration early enough to be you know, twenty three, twenty
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: four to twenty five, and have put up the plateau
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: type numbers that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Juan Soto did.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: You look at all the big contracts O Tani International,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Juan Soto International, Bobby Wit junior. You look at all
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the big contracts in baseball, and they're all high school
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: and international. In an industry right now, that's kind of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: pushing the college draft. And so that was the one
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: big thing about it. But I think all along, everybody
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: knew it was either going to be the Yankees or
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the Mets and Mets ownership it was a chance for
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: them to just cut it off with the head, make
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: a big splash for their fan base, and they certainly
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: did that, and it's you know, they they're not Does
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: it make them the best team in the National League East,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know. It certainly doesn't make them the best
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: team in the National League, but it definitely secures star
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: power and traction to the Mets organization for a long time.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about. Okay, So let me let me
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: ask you about a couple of other things as well.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: First of all, Michael Conforto signs with the Dodgers one year,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: seventeen million dollar deal, and this was after you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers did make a run at Soto, but not
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: as heavy duty a run as some of the others
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and uh. And then they also just did that what
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: five year deal with Tommy Edmunds, so they wanted to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: keep him there. So that's a couple of interesting things there,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: because it brings to mind this deal with ti Oscar Hernandez.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And even though last week supposedly they said they were
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: working on on the deal, we're still hearing other teams
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and the Red Sox really turning their attention to Tao
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: now that they lost out on Soda.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the thing that kind of will will and I
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: do think Ti Oscar is going to go off the
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: board next. I think it'll be Oscar Hernandez and then
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Anthony send tender. I think those are the two best
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: guys on the board right now. But they both declined
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: their qualifying offers, which means teams it's signed are going
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: to be give up their draft picks and that can
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: be a little bit of a hang up for teams.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: But I do think these two are the next to
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: go off the board. I do think the Red Sox
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: and look for the Phillies to be heavily involved in
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: both these guys.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: About the Phillies also signing the deal with Jordan Romano
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: as well, he was non tendered. You were talking about
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: non tendering. He was non tended by the Blue Jays,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and of course he had injuries during the year. How
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: about your thoughts on that With the Phillies a one
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: year deal with Jordan Romando.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's kind of the ear the early
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: end of what they're going to do. Look, I look
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: for the Phillies to be pretty active on the high end,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: but they've had a decent bullpen. But Vermondo certainly adds
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: to the depth of it, gives a little impact.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a comeback guy with the injuries.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: But I just looked for that move to be the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: first of many for them to make in the coming days.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: All Right, you're you're expecting, if I'm reading what you're saying, right,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the next two days to be explosive. I was. I
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: was reminiscing about this, Geno, because I know you were
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: part of this as well. In nineteen well, when I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: was in Atlanta over the weekend for the SEC Championship,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I was not in the team hotel. I was at
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: the Marriotte Marquee, and I've stayed in the Marquee several times,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and I know you have as well as an outstanding
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: hotel and all that sort of stuff. But when I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: walked into it, the first thing that flowed into my
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: mind was the first time I stayed in there was
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine when Brad Sham sent me on behalf
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of KRLD and said, hey, I want to send you
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: to the winter meetings. Tom Grave, who was the general
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: manager of time the Rangers. He said, Tom Greeve told
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: me they might be a little bit active just be
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: ready for that for news coming said okay, a little
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: bit active. That was Nolan Ryan, Julia Franko, and your
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: pal Ryefield, Paul Merrow all siding. Get that eighty nine
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Winter Meetings in Arlington. I mean in Atlanta, it seemed
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: like every time I turned around there was a news
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: conference going on. But to the point that there was
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: one deal done Monday, but the other two were done
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday, and there were a lot of other stuff.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So Tuesday seems to be big day at Winter meetings.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: It really is, you know, Sunday night, everybody's kind of
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: getting to their rooms, settling in, you start talking about
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the things you've been talking about for weeks in your
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: office to get here. You know, you begin to you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: run into team officials from other clubs. You start to
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: have conversations, and really sometimes it turns into it It's
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: happened today already with me out in front of the hotel,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: running into a club official and coming up with an
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: idea and you take it back to your room and
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: the next thing you know, you've got a concept.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: On the board.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: And that's kind of some of the things that happened
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: when you have everybody face to face like that. But
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: you know, after the Soto deal going down, I think
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are getting their ducks in a
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: row right now. I think there could be some signings
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: announced later this evening, but I think tomorrow by Sason.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of activity and a lot
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: of players coming off the board. I want to ask
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you about one other guy, because it became an official today,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the Japanese right hand a Roki Sasaki. He was, as
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: they say, posted to major league teams and he will
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: be available to sign as a free agent beginning tomorrow
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: all the way to five o'clock Eastern on January twenty third.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: The achieve a lot. Marines had said back last month
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: they planned to make him available, but they waited until
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: less than a week before the end of the posting period.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: So in the difference, do you know, if you want
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to explain it to folks, he's considered an international amateur
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: by MLB, so that kind of limits things in terms
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: of it has to go to the minor league contract
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: deal for him.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: It is it's a minor league contract with a maximum
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: of seven and a half million dollars, but you're going
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: into your international pool and not everybody is going to
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: have the money in their pool. A lot of teams
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: who have committed it, but look at it like college
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: football recruiting, and you've got X number of scholarships and
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: then the five star becomes available, and you've got a
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: pool scholarships to go get the five star. There's going
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to be a lot of that teams that are going
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: to decommit from commitments to try to bring their full
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: money back together to get involved with him. So that'll
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: be a limited pool. The assumption is that he's gonna
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: end up with the Dodgers. I think there's there's a
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: chance that it could be somewhere else. It could be
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: San Diego, it could be San Francisco. There's been talk
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: that the Texas Rangers could be involved. But his relationship
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: with Yamamoto and Otani being on Team Japan and the
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: World Baseball Classic will certainly factor in.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: But there's been talked that that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Sasaki is kind of his own guy and wants to
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: do his own thing, and so it's going to be
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: interesting to see where he lands. But really a great
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: talent that still has some development to go. So it
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: certainly falls right in line with the international signing of group.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Have you have you got any vibe, any feel at
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: all as to whether the Astros or Rangers might be
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: active during the course of these next forty eight hours
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: in the meetings, it.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Really has it's been very quiet. I've been with the
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Ranger guys today. I haven't seen any of the Astro guys,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: but I've been with a lot of the Rangers executives today.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: It's been fairly quiet.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: And I really think that with Houston, it's all about
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Ox Bregman and is he going to accept the contract
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: offer that was given to him, and if he does,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: that will certainly move their business forward. But it's been
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: pretty quiet on both fronts for the most part.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: All Right, The last thing I wanted to ask about
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: is about your own ball club. It was announced today
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that Grady Seismore is going to stick with the White Sox.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: He'll be listed. You don't hear this turn listed often
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: in baseball Geno, but I know you can explain it better.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Offensive coordinator under your first year manager Will Venable. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: then also sticking around from the twenty twenty four staff,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: you're pitching coach Ethan Katz, you're hitting coach Marcus Thames,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: your assistant pitching coach Matt Wise, first base outfield coach
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Jason Borgeois, and also the third base infield coach, Justin Gerschelle,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and the catching coach Drew but Terra, all of those guys,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and of course Walker mckinvin was hired as Venables bench coach.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: How about your thoughts on your ball club in the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: organization and reorganization of the staff.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really excited about Will. I've actually been in
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: meetings with Will and Walker all morning and we're super
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: excited about the visions that they have for our twenty
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: six man roster and what they bring to the table,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the experience and the youth and the vibrant that they.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Bring, and it's been great having them on.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: We're also very excited about the fact that Marcus Tims
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: and Grady size More Ethan Cassise guys are all staying
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: on board from last year's staff. Justin Jerseley over our
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: third base coach, whose father, Mike Jerseley, was our famous
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: third base coach in Kansas City during the winning seasons
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: of fourteen and fifteen. So you know, I talked to
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the White Sox fans at least once a week in Chicago,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: and the things they say is, you know, for all
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the things that are going on with our roster, the
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: infrastructure and the things that are going on with the
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: organization are super exciting and it's been it's been really
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: fun so far to try to build this thing and
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: turn it around.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: All right. So so GINO, you've got Grady Sizemore's the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. And then the guy you were visiting with,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Walker mckinvin this morning. He was the run prevention coordinator
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: for the Brewers for the Brewers last year. It sounds
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: like you're getting these guys from the Notre Dame staff.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: It's really all about game planning.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: That's really what it is. It's just game planning. Hey, listen, Uh,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: we'll visit again when all this is wrapped up. I'd
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: like your review of everything once the dust settles and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: all this. So we'll do this again before things get
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: too busy next week for the both of us. And
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your day of the time. You got it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Take care great? All right? Thank you. That is Geene
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Watson uh from the Chicago White Sox front office. There
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: have you ever heard of that run prevention coordinator. That's
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Run prevention coordinator. Uh. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: then and then the offensive coordinator for Shicak now Gino
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: would be the first to tell you they could use
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: him offensive coordination with the White Sox. But they did
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: score more runs and that was with Sizemore's the interim
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: manager down the stretch of the season, So that was
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: good to see. All Right, We're gonna hear more from
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Sark and Dabbo coming up when we continue on Sports
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.