The calendar hasn’t even turned over yet, and the Dodgers have already won MLB’s offseason. With Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto inked to long-term contracts, Los Angeles adds the sport’s biggest star and a potentially elite ace. Additionally, Cy Young candidate Tyler Glasnow arrived from Tampa Bay via trade and signed a nine-figure extension of his own.
All this for a cool, crisp $1 billion plus.
One of baseball’s most iconic, globally known franchises added the winter’s two biggest free agents and completed a blockbuster trade, and yet, some people claim this is bad for baseball.
How?
We just got done with a season that taught us that nothing in Major League Baseball is guaranteed. The Arizona Diamondbacks, carrying the league’s 21st-biggest payroll, overcame the Dodgers and Phillies (the sixth and fifth-highest payrolls) to get to the World Series.
Additionally, the top three payrolls all missed the playoffs entirely.
2023 is clear evidence that money can’t buy results in baseball. What it can buy is public goodwill, positive PR, and good marketing buzz – all things that the game desperately needs.
I don’t see how a globally-recognized franchise generating all those things can possibly be bad for the sport.
Plus, wouldn’t it be nice for the best player in the game to actually play in the games that matter most? You could argue that, between Mike Trout and Ohtani, the face of the league hasn’t played in the postseason since Albert Pujols and the Cardinals won the title in 2011.
2011.
No other sport on the planet has its best player sitting at home in the playoffs year after year after year. There’s no way to deny that this does no favors for the game’s popularity.
It also speaks to the ineptitude of the Angels, but that’s for another time.
The Dodgers’ big spending clearly improves the league’s ability to retain relevance, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee them anything competitively.
Ohtani won’t be able to pitch until 2024, and there are no guarantees he’ll be able to get back to his best self on the mound. Yamamoto hasn’t even thrown an MLB pitch yet, and Glasnow spent most of 2023 on the IL himself. None of that sounds like a sure thing to me.
Additionally, the Dodgers’ lineup as a whole is far from a sure thing. I’ll give you the top four of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Ohtani, and Will Smith. That’s elite.
However, 5-9 likely lines up as some sort of combo of Max Muncy, Jason Heyward, Chris Taylor, James Outman, and either Gavin Lux or Miguel Rojas. Lux missed all of 2023 due to injury, and the other five averaged 2.08 WAR and a .754 OPS. Above average, sure, but not necessarily championship-caliber.
My point here is that the additions don’t move baseball’s competitive mountains. There’s too much variance in the sport for anything to be guaranteed.
The only thing we know for sure is that more fans will be paying attention in 2024. Some casual fans will be interested in the Dodgers’ new pieces. Others will fanatically hate-watch them. It doesn’t matter what the context is. All fan interest is good interest, and the league desperately needs anything it can get.
Just remember that this all came about because the Dodgers couldn’t beat Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte. Clearly, money can only get you so far.