The Dodgers are making waves again, and not everyone’s happy about it.
Fresh off signing Shohei Ohtani to that jaw-dropping $700 million deal and winning the World Series, the team just keeps loading up. They’ve added Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, and grabbed rising Japanese star Roki Sasaki.
That’s got plenty of people crying foul. “They’re ruining baseball!” you might have heard fans say.
But MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred isn’t buying it.
“No, I don’t agree with that,” he said recently. “The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization. Everything they do follows our rules.”
Sure, he gets why some fans are worried. His inbox is full of messages from people concerned about their own teams keeping up.
Let’s talk money, because that’s what this is really about.
The Dodgers are spending a whopping $389.1 million on players this year. That’s the highest in baseball – by a lot. For comparison, the Miami Marlins are at the bottom, spending just $89.1 million.
That’s quite a gap, right?
But here’s the thing about baseball – money doesn’t guarantee championships. Just look at the numbers:
Baseball hasn’t had a repeat champion in 24 years. Think about that.
Since 2000, 16 different teams have won the World Series. That’s more than half the league getting a taste of glory.
Compare that to other sports with salary caps:
– The NBA has seen just 11 different champions
– The NFL? 13 different winners
– The NHL? Also 13
And get this – every single MLB team has made the playoffs at least once in the last decade. Can’t say that about the NFL or NHL.
“There are a bunch of different ways to measure competitive balance,” Manfred points out. “It’s not just about who’s spending what.”
Here’s something interesting to watch: The current MLB labor agreement ends in 2026. Some owners want a salary cap, others don’t. The players definitely don’t want one.
It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out. And probably pretty frustrating for us fans watching from the sidelines.
But for now, maybe the real question isn’t whether the Dodgers are spending too much, but whether other teams are spending too little.
