B/R
The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to strengthen their financial strength after agreeing to a contract with 2024 All-Star reliever Tanner Scott.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Sunday that the two sides have agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal, adding that the deal will bring the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll to more than $375 million.
That’s nearly $70 million more than the next closest team, the Philadelphia Phillies ($308 million), according to FanGraphs. The New York Yankees are the only other team projected to exceed $300 million.
Competitive balance is always a concern in leagues without a clear salary cap, but the competitive balance tax has become a de facto cap.
In the past, fans lamented how the best players ended up with the New York Yankees. The Dodgers currently occupy that position. They committed more than $1 billion to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last offseason, and added Scott, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Michael Conforto this winter.
spot rack @spotrac
#Dodgers Offseason Players to Watch
free agency
Blake Snell, $182 million
Tanner Scott, $72 million
Teoscar Hernandez, $66 million
Blake Treinen, $22 million
Michael Conforto, $17 million
expansion
Tommy Edman, $74 million
international
Loki Sasaki, $6.5 million
The debate over whether Los Angeles’ spending was good or bad for the health of baseball as a whole was already heating up. Signing Scott will further heighten the discussion.
nugget chef @jayhaykid
The Dodgers signed players because they offered the most money: Sports are broken.
Dodgers sign players who don’t offer top dollar because of the quality organization and winning environment they’ve built: The sport is broken
This is a situation where more than one thing could be true.
There are many examples around MLB of ownership systems not investing as much as they reasonably could. There’s no reason why the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, big-market powerhouse teams, need to pay salaries to mid-level players in the league. The Cleveland Guardians will spend approximately $91 million after the ALCS appearance, which is slightly less than their 2001 roster cost.
But asking owners to spend more ignores that all money is not equal in MLB.
The San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays have pursued valuable free agents in recent years, but have missed out almost every time. The Giants finally made a big splash by acquiring shortstop Willie Adames, but few would consider him a true star in the traditional sense. Seeing how the Blue Jays are being ridiculed for not being able to close a deal makes you wonder why they need to try any harder.
mike beauvais @MikeBeauvais
“Blue Jays fans would be devastated if Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers.”
Brother, do you know how dead we are already in our hearts?
We hadn’t felt anything for years.
You can’t kill something that’s already dead.
There’s also a key aspect that separates the Dodgers and Yankees, teams recognized as the biggest spenders of the past generation.
The Bronx Bombers were ultimately run by the whims of one man, George Steinbrenner. It worked both to their advantage and disadvantage. Sure, Steinbrenner cut big checks to proven talent, but his attitude and antics behind the scenes led to a lot of drama that affected the team’s performance.
As many have noted, the seeds of the Yankees’ dynasty in the 1990s were planted when Steinbrenner was suspended and unable to have any input into baseball decisions.
Front offices don’t work like that anymore.
The person in charge in Los Angeles is Andrew Friedman. Friedman combined knowledge from his time with the Tampa Bay Rays with the financial power of the Dodgers. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, a pretty outspoken guy who isn’t shy about voicing his opinion, will let president of baseball operations David Stearns run the show. Phillies chief owner John Middleton seems content to just sit back and write checks.
No matter how much they spend, there’s no guarantee the Dodgers will win the World Series in 2025 or any year beyond. But they are now showing how impossible it is to match major market franchises if you do everything at your best and do it efficiently.
