Welcome to Rates and barrels. It is Monday, December 5th, Derek Minreper here with Inoceris after a week off, although we didn't take the week completely off. We did a podcast with our friend Rob DiPietro. It was the pull-hitter podcast that Rob does, so be sure to check out that. We were both on as co-guests last week. So if you really missed rates and barrels and you feel like you were down an episode, you can add that episode to your feed.

And then, of course, we'll have more episodes coming out later in this week.

We'll have a three-o show coming up in a couple of days because it's the winter meetings.

You know, you're in San Diego.

And it's day one, first full day in San Diego for the meetings.

You're in decent shape now.

We know the winter meetings take a lot out of it.

I'm only going to get in worse shape from here on.

I have to hold you up by the end of the week.

But a lot's happening already because before the meetings even started, Jacob de Grom went to the Rangers.

We just found out on Monday

morning that Justin Verlander is headed to the Mets to be his replacement.

But I think we should start with this DeGrom contract because it's a big deal.

It's five years, $185 million.

There are some options that can take it to a 60 year and push it up to $225 million.

And it goes to this core argument that people have had a lot lately where they feel like a

player is just not worth it in free agency, right?

There are Rangers fans who are upset.

They're afraid of the downside instead of thinking about all the ways it could go right,

that even in four years out of five, if Jacob de Grom is healthy for four seasons in the next five years, he will be worth much more than $185 million if what he has done throughout his career is any indication of what he's capable of doing in these next years going forward.

So I'm just curious, what did you think about this contract for the Rangers?

And what did you think about the Rangers being the team that swooped in and actually got the deal done?

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