Big Paydays Incoming

There's big things coming in and around Major League Baseball in the coming days and coming months. Two of its biggest young stars, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, could be moving teams and could be getting very big paydays. A lot of this talk has been coming over the last few days with coming off the all star game and with Soto turning down a large possible contract extension from the Nationals.

Judge turned down an offer from the Yankees during spring training. It was a seven year contract extension that was worth $30.5 million a year. Which equates out to about $200 million over the length of the deal. He signed on for $19 million given during arbitration. He's currently having a monster year. As for Juan Soto, he just turned down a monster offer from the Washington Nationals. The offer was reported at 15 years and worth $440 million, which is an eye popping number.

What does this tell me? It tells me both guys are aiming to become $500 million players.

Can they get it? Where can they get it?

Gut tells me Judge might have a better shot at it than Soto, and this is no slight at all against Soto who's one of the brightest young stars in the game today. When he's healthy Judge is one of the very best power hitters in baseball and has a chance to really put himself in another level. He can hit and hit with power. Soto is a good power hitter two, but to me he's a little more of a well rounded hitter than Judge.

Now can both players get that kind of money? Its not out of the relm of possibilities the way baseball salaries have been going the last number of years. We've seen Harper, Trout and Machado get huge deals over the last few seasons, so I wouldn't put it past owners to hand out that kind of cash. Either one of the New York teams could be a landing spot. Boston and LA as well. The teams that have been known as of late to shell out a ton of cash for players.

But what worries me about this is what its going to do for the rest of the team. Don't get me wrong, both Judge and Soto are going to be worth whatever money they get, no debate there. But what worries me is that a team is going to put all its eggs in one basket with one player and not really be able to gather a more balanced lineup and pitching staff around them to be a really competitive team. Yes, I do realize that not every one of the 30 MLB teams will be that competitive of a team every year. But I'd like to be able to see teams be able to at least have a shot at it. I'd like to see something more resembling a salary cap to keep more of a balance in the game of baseball.