Hour 1: Tarik Skubal to Dodgers Trade Reactions, plus TNF’s Jason Whitworth Talks Aaron Donald

0:00You know when you're locked in, focused and fearless. Welcome to the WNBA. Your vision narrows. You can't look away. Every assist, every stop, every logo three. From beyond the logo. Every did you see that moment. You bet. What records are going to be broken this season?

0:21Rich Eisen:All of it right here. Lock in. It's the WNBA on ESPN. All season long. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rich Eisen Show. Like I told you guys, it's all ball. Why did Baker Mayfield and the Bucs not come to a long-term resolution?

1:09Rich Eisen:From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Baker wanted this done earlier rather than later. Today's guests. Prime Video NFL analyst Andrew Whitworth. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas. Actor LaMonica Garrett. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. We've got ourselves quite the triple play today. Andrew Whitworth, Bob Costas, and LaMonica Garrett. So we'll be talking about lioness, tigers, and rams. Oh, my. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you? I'm great.

1:54Rich Eisen:When did you think of that? Literally a minute ago. Okay, good. Listening to the open. That's how top notch you are. Good to see you. DJ Mikey Diaz and DJ. Good morning, Rich. What's going on? TJ Jefferson, that candle's lit. What's going on over there, sir? A whole lot of stuff is going on. It's the first week in August. It's Susie's birthday today. Hey. Happy birthday, Susie. Yeah. Same day as Tom Brady. Tom Brady. Johnny C. And Johnny C. McGinley. Butterbean. Yeah, I saw that. Susie probably didn't know. She's got the same birthday as Butterbean. The most important one, though, is Susie Schuster.

2:32Rich Eisen:That's correct. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here in our neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. So we start today's show in the state of Michigan, though, where one week ago, this show emanated from the state of Michigan. So I went back to my alma mater for the Champion Circle event. got to see a whole bunch of people that i hadn't seen in a long time or i've i've known for a very long time and when i first showed up on that campus in 1986 as a kid from new york city right there in the in the midwest and i began to learn what it was like to live outside of new york city um you know people started using words that i didn't you know like tennis shoes for sneakers They called it pop.

3:21Rich Eisen:I called it soda. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a card game called Euchre, and they made it a verb. Like, do you want a uke? And I thought, why are you asking me to vomit? You know, that sort of thing, you know? Fish out of water. Then I would turn on the television set, and I saw one face more than any other. Now, this was just at the beginnings of the Zeke-led bad boys era. Okay. Okay? But there was one guy on television that was not like selling cars, selling tires, selling everything. I mean, this guy was absolutely everywhere. And his name was Sparky Anderson. I'm telling you guys, I would turn on the television and it was Sparky this, Sparky that.

4:08Rich Eisen:The longtime manager of the Big Red Machine when I was a Yankee fan for the first time in 1976. And they made the World Series. And I'm like seven years old. This is the greatest thing ever. Wait a minute, who's coming to town? Four game sweep. So now here I am in Michigan. I see the guy who basically was the manager, not basically, who was the manager of the team that basically taught me how to be disappointed in baseball. Now everywhere. Because the Detroit Tigers just two years before had won the World Series. And this man could have run for mayor. I'm telling you. you know long before a gibby wound up here in los angeles california you know pumping his arm as he went yard off of dennis eckersley he was a michigan state spartan who became a big time tiger and won it all for them and he was everywhere and i learned really fast that the old english d meant a lot to people there in the state of Michigan.

5:13Rich Eisen:They love their Tigers, man. And then the Red Wings were good for a while, too. Jacques Demers was the coach of the Red Wings. He was everywhere, too, selling cars after a while. The Illich family wound up buying the Tigers after the Red Wings. And their pizza was everywhere. Pizza, pizza. Pizza, pizza. and they were running Detroit sports essentially outside of the Lions and the Pistons clearly but they got a lot of money that's what I'm saying but things have gotten to the point for the Detroit Tigers like many other teams in Major League Baseball that they're looking at one player and saying you want how much despite how good Tarek Skubal is and what he's meant to the Tigers organization since they drafted him and as he even pointed out over the weekend used the opportunities that the Tigers gave him kept putting him out there on the mound they just knew as he began to blossom and become a superstar pitcher that he was going to get expensive and this year in arbitration he got a record$32 million one-year contract in arbitration this year.

6:35Rich Eisen:The Tigers said, we'll pay you$19 million. That's so absurd. We'll pay you$19 million. And the Arbiter's like, no, you'll pay him$32 million. And you're beginning to get the sense that Scoobble was looking towards free agency. Certainly this year was a big one for him. You remember he didn't pitch, but more than once in the World Baseball Classic. And he got the sense, even when And he had arm problems and needed surgery for what was called loose bodies. By the way, that's a cover band name. Come see me. Hey, come on out Friday night. See me in loose bodies.

7:17Rich Eisen:And then he comes back and he looks the same. You're like, OK, is this guy even human? You knew the clock was ticking. And you knew who was going to get him. Right. You know, you knew it was going to get him. But the Dodgers seem to have competition. At the end of the day, though, that competition, I don't know what it was. Jeff Passan's on tomorrow's program. We'll ask him when he finishes with all the dust settling on this today with the trade deadline going down today. Was it the fact that the Dodgers were willing to pick up every last penny remaining on his contract, which is$9.5 million this year?

8:03Rich Eisen:Was it the fact that, you know, Scoobal is going to be a free agent at the end of the year? I don't know what it was, but the Dodgers were the ones who raised their hands with either the best money deal on top of the best prospect deal or the fact that Scoobal is already looking over the steering wheel and like, I'd like to go to a spot that's willing to sign me long term. Because the amount of money, by the way, for long term. Have you looked it up? Have you heard about what Scoob is going to potentially earn?

8:39Rich Eisen:Starts with a four. And has eight zeros after it. So, I don't know what it was, but he wound up a Dodger. And for three guys that, you know, Tiger fans are going to have to learn who they are, outfielder two pitchers, and they might turn into the next Scoobble. But then the question is, if things don't change in baseball, will they just wind up back with the Dodgers when it comes time to pay them? Is that the way it's going to work?

9:17Rich Eisen:So Scoobble gets traded. He winds up on the Dodgers. Tiger fans are definitely done for this year, one would think. And they have to sit there and go, can we pay any? What are we going to do here? What are we going to do here? As Scooble got them to the divisional round twice, they lost two game fives in those divisional round series. And the Tigers have made the World Series twice since Sparky and the Tigers last won it in 84 for the franchise in 2012, most recently swept by the Giants, 2006, lost in five games to the Cardinals as Jim Leland. Another Hall of Fame manager was their skipper for that.

10:00Rich Eisen:Scoobo got him as close as the last game of two divisional rounds. But now he's a Dodger where one would expect he will get past a divisional round for the first time in his career.

10:14this is what he had to say after learning he got traded you know ever since um that 24 game five the failure that i experienced on the mound um i've used that as fuel to try and bring a world series to the city of detroit you know i truly did and that whole off season i was never been more motivated and then you know go in and we lose game five again and um you know that failure kind of sparked some more motivation you know and just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be and um you know the goal was always to win a world series you know for the city for the organization um that took a chance on me so um yeah it's tough you know I love all those guys in there um they're some of my best friends, you know, and, um, yeah, that'll be tough for sure.

11:11Having a shot to be part of history, you know, how much does that mean to you? Yeah. Um, sorry. Um,

11:29yeah, it's exciting. You know, I'm excited. Um, they got a good group, You know, you hear everything across the way. I'm excited, though.

11:38Rich Eisen:I don't blame him for being emotional. I mean, he probably thought he would be a Tiger for life, and now he just knows the business of baseball has forced him to go to a team that is perennially great now. And in terms of being tear-filled about going to the Dodgers because of where you once belonged, all he's got to do is just spend a few minutes with Freddie Freeman, and he'll probably tell you, listen, you'll get over it, kid. I needed, remember that? Kershaw kind of reportedly had to give him a little bit of kick in his behind after a couple months of being with the Dodgers, like you're not on the Braves anymore, sir.

12:14Rich Eisen:But Scoobles showed up one night later just to greet all of his new teammates. And again, Freddie can counsel him on what it's like to transition to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. And I'm sure Scoobble will get out there on the mound and start pitching his head off for a franchise that has now not one, not two, not three, but four of the five pitchers that have the lowest ERA in Major League Baseball since 2022. That's four. They already had Blake Snell, who's third on the list, and Otani, who's fourth on the list, and Yamamoto, who is fifth on the list. The only one that's remaining is Paul Skeens.

13:03Rich Eisen:Maybe just set your watches on this one. I don't know. He'll be here soon enough. Because Scoobles expected to earn$400 million in his next contract. And I'm sure Skeens is like, that sounds good to me. And the Pirates are probably like already looking for couch cushion change. but everybody believes this means that baseball is now destroyed that this is exactly why we're about to have a nuclear winter collective bargaining agreement is up every other team in baseball is like how can we compete with this andrew friedman the man who shops for the groceries and puts this roster together had this to say when asked if the dodgers are destroying baseball How do you respond to the blowback the Dodgers are breaking baseball?

13:55Rich Eisen:What's your response to that? Passionately disagree. Again, this is about the partnership that we have with our fans who come out 50 ,000 large and the passion that they have for this team. the guys in that clubhouse who are doing everything they can to put us in position to win a World Series and fortunately through the incredible work by our scouting staff our player development staff our front office analytics group all of our different departments have their fingerprints all over this and so it's put us in position to not only be competitive here but also to have a really strong farm system which then puts us in position to be able to have these type conversations and so i think it's incredible work by a lot of people that have allowed for this um and it's special and we're not going to be flipping about this moment in time and how special this group this you know era can be in the history of you know this incredibly storied organization and We're going to do everything we can to keep doing what we can to win the last game of the year.

15:11Rich Eisen:All right. Many ways to look at that answer in this question about whether the Dodgers have destroyed baseball or are destroying baseball. Because there's two ways to look at it. First of all, this. All it cost the Dodgers was three prospects, two pitchers, one outfielder and nine million bucks. Where's the rest of Major League Baseball to try and get Tarek Skubal for the rest of the year? Where's the rest of them? that's all this deal cost we're all just assuming scoobal staying with the dodgers and that's short that's a little short-sighted but okay but this year for right now if you want to compete to win the world series and there's many in the american league that have a shot to make the world series in a league that is definitely less than the national it looks like okay nine million bucks and three prospects that's it where's the rest of the if i'm andrew freeman i'm like that's all we did

16:15Rich Eisen:it's not like they've already signed scoobal to 400 million bucks and that's why they were able to get him that's all but the understanding is that that i understand what the understanding is so do you want a two-month rental three-month rental why the hell not yeah the the brewers tried it with cc sabathia a couple years ago and they apparently tried it again here now i don't know why the dodgers wound up with scoobal i i will ask those questions of jeff passin tomorrow destroying baseball also i'd be a total hypocrite as a diehard yankee fan forever Steinbrenner used to outspend everybody. Everybody.

16:58Rich Eisen:And it was the rules at the time. And what the Dodgers are doing right now under the rules that they have.

17:08Rich Eisen:Your guy in Queens has got as much money as the Dodgers. Yeah. Not able to build something like what they're building right here in Los Angeles.

17:21Rich Eisen:That said, the Dodgers do have an insane amount of money that most other teams in Major League Baseball do not have, or at least in the case of this trade, not willing to spend. They came into this season with an opening day payroll of 323 million bucks, which caused them to pay a tax of one hundred and sixty three million dollars.

17:47Rich Eisen:487 million dollars so some teams might be like that's a lot of money what's another five nine nine and a half million for school or like that's enough we're not spending another nine and a half million for this guy and they're like screw it how many other teams have a chance to three-peat one them and how many teams have had a chance to three-peat in major league baseball ever and they're going for it. So you can't blame them. But that said, the rules that they are driving a Dodger blue Mack truck through with all sorts of like Walter White pallets of cash in the back.

18:30Rich Eisen:Do you know how much money the Dodgers are already on the hook to pay and deferred? Oh, I can't even. Because that rule in Major League Baseball that you can defer money, and a couple teams would do it for a million here and a million there, a few million here, a few million there, and the Dodgers are like, well, do you know how much money they are on the hook? For nine players through the year 2047, that figure is$1.064 billion. Now, it's not my money, and I don't know, what does this mean for the 2034 through 43 Dodgers? i don't know in 19 in 2038 and 2039 this the peak aggregate of paying money out will reach 102.3 million bucks and the dodgers are like whatever we'll get service or we'll just get ready or we'll put it aside i don't know like the ultimate baseball 529 putting money aside for your kids education the dodgers put money aside to win baseball games right now in a way that other teams are not and they're also not equipped to do that's so who's ruining baseball is it the dodgers because they're seeing this and they're they're highly capitalized to take advantage of it and they're like screw it and otani's raising his hand saying i'll take 680 million of your dollars through 2034 to 43 and betts is like i'll take 120 million dollars between 33 and 44 and snell it's like i'll take 66 million of your dollars between 35 and 46 and freeman's like I'll take$57 million between 2028 and 2040.

20:06Rich Eisen:And Will Smith's like, I'll take$50 million between 34 and 43. Go make a deal with Uniqlo and start raising more Dodger dogs.

20:17Rich Eisen:And other teams can't keep up. And so what's going to happen? The 29 other member clubs are going to be like, let's shut it down. They're the ones who will be ruining baseball if they do that. Get in a room, figure this thing out. because fans are like sick and tired of it but you can't blame the dodgers for this one it cost them nine million bucks and three prospects that's it but they're also spending all this money a billion in the future and 400 half a billion now almost just to round up and they're like we'll take scoobal 400 million let's start talking how much you want to defer before they change the rules on us that's because of their tv contract let's be let's be well the yankies have one too not like the dodgers eight billion dollars over 25 years signed in 2013 they get 330 million dollars a year from you know spectrum right but the fact that they're able to just jam it in to the system then figure out what the system is but you know what the most of these owners are going to do they'll turn to the players and say it's on you to figure it out we'll just freeze it brings it so and that said too on top of all of it before Andrew Whitworth talks about another star player returning to Los Angeles and Aaron Donald maybe at the end of the day though my brother went to see Saturday night's game in Dodger Stadium and on the way back he's like I've and just locked in on the Knicks and the World Cup.

21:50Rich Eisen:And he's like, I didn't hear, I haven't heard basically of any single Red Sox player with the exception of when Chapman came out of the bullpen. The Red Sox just swept the Dodgers. And are the hottest team in baseball. So anything can happen. But the bottom line is it feels rigged to fans. Got to do something about that. and it feels rigged to you know 90 other clubs and baseball

22:24so that's my take on school will come in here 844-204-RICH number to dial on the program

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25:00Rich Eisen:the segment's called is he back yet what do you think Andrew is he back yet is he back yet I don't think he's back yet I guess I'd be curious you know from the reporter standpoint of like you know maybe some questions like have you renewed your passport lately nice uh you know do you have any long trips planned good one coming up you know this you know maybe in September you know I'd be interested what he thinks about Australia you know just in general um you know maybe just a couple more questions that maybe could lead us down the road maybe they just want to keep dropping little food bites for us to nibble on a little bit every week but i i think i think he's really close to being back that's what i would put it at that's what would be my guess okay i would guess that we're some finite details okay and we're gonna make this thing happen so uh can you at least allow this um what did you talk with him about his process that you are willing to share yeah i would say that you know even before all of this really kind of got started this summer when just some original inklings came out about would that be cool if he did.

26:00You know, we obviously talked time to time and just, you know, he had had some conversations about wanting to work out and maybe just see, you know, where he was at physically. And really that's, I think, still kind of been the stage he's been in for the most part is training, kind of seeing if you can get there. A lot of people think about the games and stuff, but it's really the, you know, it's putting your body through the impacts and the down in and down out running into other big, strong humans all the time. Your tissue doesn't just walk around ready for that. You've got to prepare. And so I think some of this was him, you know, hey, is the passion still there?

26:34Do I still have that ability to be sore as crap and every day want to go chase it? And I think for him that kind of meant, you know, the last month, month and a half, you know, really training like a football player and really doing some of the drills, some of the things he used to do day in and day out and see where he's at physically. And that's kind of the stuff we talked about. I was just asking where he's at. Is he still training? Does he still think he wants to do it? You know, I think there's still a definite curiosity to do it. I think he's super fired up about trying to see if it's there.

27:01But I think it takes time to find out is the drive still there. Yeah, there's this excitement. There's a curiosity. But to play the game of football, you're going to have to go way past all that. You're going to have to fall in love with the pain again. And waking up every day sore as hell, not being in the mood to do it, but still having the drive to go do it. And that happens long before just being in pads and hitting people. And so I think for him, you know, it's really going through that process, making sure it's all there. And then obviously there's some, you know, things they got to do, checks and balances wise with with the Rams to figure out his contract and how it goes forward and how do you make that work for everybody.