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Is the Dodgers Way of Spending Good for Baseball?
The defending champions are not going away quietly. Instead, they are loading up so that way they can defend their crown. The Los Angeles Dodgers went out and spent money and continue to be aggressive.
Where they Spent the Money
The Dodgers shocked the world and signed 2023 CY Young Winner Blake Snell. Snell got this out of the way early, which is what he intended to do. He is locked in for five year and $182 million dollars. This seemed to fly under the radar, as the Boston Red Sox were a team that met with him. Being he’s a West Coast guy, this made a ton of sense.
Snell was the best pitcher in baseball during the second half of the 2024 season. From July until the very end, Snell had a 1.23 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP. He also finished with the highest strikeout percentage among qualified pitchers in this span (38%). That’s not all though.
The Dodgers brought back Tommy Edman, who was the most underrated trade deadline acquisition. The NLCS MVP signed for five years and $74 million. Edman shores up the bottom of the order and gives the Dodgers versatility. He can play the outfield and the infield. What makes him special is his ability to play defense and play it efficiently. Here is his fielding value over the last five years in outs above average (OAA):
2019- 97th percentile OAA (12)
2020- 90th (3)
2021- 98th (13)
2022- 100th (19)
2023- 96th (9)
2024- had 1 but in only 37 games played
It was a steal at the deadline, who came in and performed well in a short sample size. He made a name for himself in the playoffs and the Dodgers are building a team to contend for the rest of the decade.
A Man With A Plan
Fans everywhere must have been fuming when the news dropped that they signed Snell. A rotation that features Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Snell, and future hall of famer Clayton Kershaw seems unfair. If there is a big fish on the market, the Dodgers are likely to be in on it. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? This is what the New York Yankees did in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. If there was a stat available, they spent and spent BIG. Everyone hated it and now those same feelings are circling back around for the Dodgers. It is not so much that the Dodgers are landing all the big time players, but the deferred payments on the contracts.
It all started with Mookie Betts, who deferred $115 million of his $365 million. The snowball kept rolling and the Dodgers have essentially deferred nearly every big contract they’ve signed. Freddie Freeman ($57 million), Ohtani ($680 million), Will Smith ($50 million), Snell ($62 million), Edman ($25 million) are all deferred and for a grand total of $989 million. That’s a lot of deferred payments to make at a later date. But here’s one thing to be true, the Dodgers mean business.
You have to spend money to make money. Also, the Dodgers have that really unique TV deal which helps financially. The Dodgers are spending money to field a product that will win and deliver. For example; Ohtani is the best player in the sport, but he is also extremely marketable. Also, the Japanese Sponsorships the Dodgers now have are continuing to build up. The Ohtani contract is hefty, but the Dodgers will profit and benefit from it. Not to mention, winning. Ohtani’s current popularity in Japan is beyond unimaginable. We see him daily in every single news TV show and local Japanese bookmakers pick him up for odds boost.
The Dodgers not only won the World Series but will continue to compete and win more. Sure they’ve formed a “super team” and have tremendous talent all over the diamond, but they are an attractive team to come to. Players see it and want to join it and are coming to a team that plans to win championships.
Me personally, I love it. The baseball world got to see the best player play on the biggest stage finally and it appears that meaningful baseball will be played in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future.
It does now beg the question, are deferred payments good for the sport?
Is it Good for Baseball?
What the Dodgers are doing is well within the rules and the Dodgers aren’t breaking the rules. Yes, there are other teams that have deferred contracts, but not to the extent the Dodgers do. They’ve now set the standard and the market for offering contracts. Is it good for the sport? I don’t think it’s bad for the sport. But if they somehow manage to land Juan Soto and defer a large portion of it, then you say to yourself, “okay what gives?”
Every team can do this. Every team can find ways to defer contracts, even the small market teams. Is it harder for those markets to do so? Absolutely, but it’s not impossible. The Dodgers have now become “The Evil Empire” and have a target on their backs.
You can either beat them or join them and players have seemed to join them. Again, I don’t hate what they are doing. I think what they are doing is aggressively smart and they are building long term success and have a loaded team due to the fact that they aren’t scared to spend money.
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