In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Willy Adames is heading to the bank with a new contract with the San Francisco Giants for $182 million over 7 years. It was bound to happen sooner or later this offseason, there’s just no way the Brewers would be able to afford that price tag. Yes, he was the lynchpin of the team, and did lots of good for Milwaukee. But with that kind of money, and that kind of risk signing someone for that much for that long, there was just no chance. 

Unfortunately, this is the new normal of professional baseball. Just look at the Dodgers, who are on the hook for a billion dollars in guaranteed contracts. Juan Soto alone is going to cost them as much as $800 million in about 15 years. Sorry Bobby Bonilla, your contract isn’t quite as laughable anymore. Without a salary cap in the MLB, this is the new reality. And it doesn’t even guarantee you’ll have an amazing player, they still need to stay healthy. Case in point is Mike Trout, who’s played about half all games since he signed a massive 12 year contract. Yes he’s a great player, but that doesn’t mean anything if he isn’t healthy. But hey, at least the Brewers will be getting a good deal out of it all. You know, despite the fact that they’ll never have that kind of money. 

Moving to the Packers, Lucas has a pretty big question this week: where is Jayden Reed? He only had one target against the Lions last week, and that’s been the story for weeks now. Sure, the Packers have a lot of great weapons when it comes to receivers (especially if you include Tucker Kraft in that bunch), but as someone once told Oates: when you have a cannon, use it.

Moving to Badgers football, Luke Fickell made a big move, and maybe a bit of a backtrack, by hiring Jeff Grimes as his new offensive coordinator. Coming most recently from Kansas, Grimes is definitely run-game friendly. When Fickell came aboard, he decided to junk the run game and go all in on that air raid offense instead. This is a good move, Oates thinks, especially when it comes to Fickell’s reputation. Oates sees this hiring as an admission that he was wrong and something big needed to change. Now if only they can have a quarterback next season that isn’t a freshman, considering Tyler Van Dyke is joining the over a dozen other players heading to the transfer portal. That means it’s time for the Badgers to open up the checkbook and start buying some players. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.