With Spring on the verge of sweeping across the nation, we creep closer to one of the oldest traditions in this country, MLB Opening Day. For the second straight off-season, the Los Angeles Dodgers set the market in a blaze with their spending on talent acquisition. Last season, it was the signing of a man that is truly a one-of-one player, Shohei Ohtani. Not only did the signing bring a century-talent to the LA Dodgers, but details of the seven hundred-million-dollar mega contract raised more than a few eyebrows. All but twenty-million dollars would be deferred and payment would begin in 2034 when Ohtani’s contract with the Dodgers had run its course.
Deferred payments in MLB, while uncommon, are not unheard of, and there is even an unofficial holiday that exists in recognition of a player that took deferred payments, and for over the past twenty years, has still been receiving checks from his former team. While MLB has no salary cap to limit owners’ spending on player salaries, the Dodgers set out with a clear mission, to win the organization’s first World Series in over a quarter-century. Bolstering a roster already stacked with All-Star level talent, and a new seven-hundred-million-dollar man, the Dodgers could not be stopped from claiming the 2024 World Series Championship.
The Dodgers wasted no time in making their intentions known, a repeat is where the bar is being set, and this was reflected by their aggressive efforts in the Free Agent markets. It was recently reported that Dodgers were on the verge of surpassing one billion in deferred salaries currently on the Dodgers payroll. This has raised questions of fairness and if rules should be changed to prevent such financial tactics being used. Currently, the Dodgers are well within the bylaws of the MLB and MLBPA. In 2024, we saw New York Mets owner Steve Cohen take a liberal approach to paying free agents in an attempt to get his team over the proverbial hump. For baseball fans old enough have seen baseball played before the start of the 21st century, tactics utilized in such ways are nothing new.
For many decades, this was a staple of how George Steinbrenner ran the New York Yankees, and over that time, it led to many World Series Championships. Steinbrenner was ridiculed and outright hated throughout the league both by fans and other owners, but demanded greatness in return. Any season that did not end with the Yankees as the last team standing than it was a failed season. This mindset has been adopted by the current day Dodgers. Those in protest of the Dodgers spending should know a little secret about every other team in the league. Your team could do the same thing, but choose not to.
One glance at the disparity in spending on player salary by other teams is downright criminal in my opinion. It is a simply con for many of these owners, spend less on the team then brought in by the shared proceeds of the league revenue. Completely ignoring the fact that being competitive doesn’t mean sacrificing profitability. It has been a poorly kept secret that players gravitate to the teams willing to pay in MLB, and the duality of it is as simply as it might appear. The teams with owners seriously intent on competing for a World Series are the same teams willing to pay players larger salaries, in large part due to the fact that through the players’ successes, the teams generate greater revenue numbers. What’s old is new, and the LA Dodgers are going retro.
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