The Dodgers have gone on a spending spree following a World Series title unlike any the sport has seen in nearly a quarter of a century, as Los Angeles seems fixated on forming the first MLB dynasty since the Yankees of the late 90s.
As the reigning champs add Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, and now Kirby Yates to a team boasting three MVP candidates at the top of their lineup, fans have collectively criticized the state of the sport for allowing one team to stack the deck while smaller markets fight over the scraps.
Those criticism are not only misguided, but should be aimed back at the teams that those fans support themselves.
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: the Dodgers aren’t doing anything illegal. Regardless of the complaints surrounding deferred money with Shohei Ohtani or Freddie Freeman’s contracts (and now the contracts of Snell, Scott, and Teoscar Hernandez, who have deferred money exceeding $150 million), it is legal under the current CBA, and is a tactic that any other team in the sport is allowed to deploy. The only difference is Mark Walter, controlling partner of the Dodgers, is willing to pony up the dough, and most other owners aren’t.
Walter’s net worth as of 2021 was roughly $5 billion, per Forbes. That is less than a third of what Steve Cohen’s net worth was that year, and less than owners of teams like the Giants, Blue Jays and Braves. The difference? Many baseball owners use their franchise as a means to make a profit, increase their investment, and eventually - if the price is right - sell for an enormous profit, but not before blaming the “imbalance” across baseball that allows teams like the Dodgers to stack the deck. This of course is a mirage. Nearly 80 percent of baseball owners have a net worth exceeding $1 billion, and could pitch similar contracts to the ones the Dodgers are offering to their stars if they had the same financial investment in their teams. Some owners simply don’t want to wade into the deep end of the luxury tax pool like LA, while Walter and the Dodgers believe that their investment will not only lead to winning, but increased revenue in the process.
So far, that tactic seems to be working. Some estimates put Ohtani at roughly $120 million in increased revenue for the Dodgers in his debut season, not to mention it ended with a World Series championship. Assuming that number keeps growing in the years to come, the Dodgers will have no problem paying that boatload of deferred cash to the Japanese star, or their other stars under similarly structured contracts.
LA’s payroll currently stands at around $370 million, per FanGraphs. If the season ends in another championship, more sellouts, more October revenue, and more eyeballs on the team, do you think ownership will care at all about what they have to pay their players? That mindset should not only be protected from criticism, it should be praised as a refreshing change of pace from how many other ownership groups operate. Owners like Walter, Cohen, and the late Peter Seidler of the Padres are in the minority in terms of their willingness to spend whatever it takes to field a winner. Others treat their teams as investments, choosing when - if ever - to put a bulk of their profits back into the roster.
Take the A’s and owner John Fisher, who sported a payroll in the bottom 10 in the league for the past decade, yet this offseason, set a franchise record by paying Luis Severino $67 million, signed Brent Rooker to a $60 million extension, and traded for Jeffrey Springs and his $21 million.Perhaps now, as the A’s leave Oakland after using lack of fan interest as a justification (even though fans understandably didn’t invest in a team that ownership didn’t invest in either), ownership is jacking up its payroll to generate interest in the franchise’s next chapter, which will take it to Sacramento and then Las Vegas. See? Even small market teams can spend when they actually feel like doing so.
Whether it’s Bob Nutting (net worth exceeding $1 billion) in Pittsburgh, where upgrades to the Pirates spring training facilities came out of the payroll budget, or Fisher, or new Orioles ownership going through an offseason of little to no spending, teams could pull the trigger when they want. Here in New York, Cohen isn’t afraid to invest in the team, and Yankee fans recall the days of George Steinbrenner doing whatever it took financially to get the player he wanted. His son Hal has done that to an extent during his tenure, making sure Aaron Judge didn’t leave while making sure Gerrit Cole signed with the Yanks. But with a revenue stream like the Yanks have, they could be in on nearly every big-name free agent. The Dodgers are simply doing what other teams are reluctant to, so any frustration with the reigning champs or the current MLB system should redirect it towards their own teams, and examine why their ownership isn’t doing the same.