According to Matt Gelb, the Phillies new deal with Comcast is for 25 years and worth more than $2.5 billion. That means the Phillies will receive more than $100 million per year under this deal. That's a lot of money, but it's not a huge amount of money compared to what other teams have received. I guess it all comes down to how much "more" than $2.5 billion the deal is for. We still don't know the final amount.
While the prospect of the team being shortchanged is worrisome, it's even more worrisome to read the comments from Dave Montgomery in Gelb's piece. Montgomery seems content to spend at the current levels and not to increase the team's spending.
He also seems focused on making good baseball decisions instead of spending a lot of money. While I'm all for sound baseball decisions rather than throwing money around stupidly, there has to be huge concern about this management group's ability to make sound baseball decisions.
In other words, this Gelb article is troubling. Not only does it appear the Phillies did not cash in on what could have been a huge payday, but it also sounds like the money is going to mean more business as usual with this franchise.
Of course, we could all be proven wrong with a massive bid on Tanaka in the near future. As the saying goes, time will tell....