It is bad for baseball. It is great for baseball.
The World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers added another starting pitcher from Japan this month in elite right-hander Roki Sasaki, and the internet roared.
The strongest of the conjecture blasted the very competitive nature of the sport, with the West Coast super team now poised to dominate baseball long into the future. Or so the argument goes.
It isn’t just that Sasaki is on board now. Shohei Ohtani will return to his two-way superhero status by pitching again this season, while two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell also joined a starting staff without an apparent weakness.
By the time Ohtani takes the mound, with his Dodgers pitching debut estimated for May, he will join a rotation that includes Snell, Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.
And that doesn’t even account for a power-centric offense or a bullpen that just added the top free-agent reliever in Tanner Scott, with the addition of Kirby Yates now pending.
We have been here before, of course. The New York Yankees built their own super team with the addition of Alex Rodriguez before the 2004 season, and yet they didn’t reach the World Series since 2009 and then didn’t return until last season.
The difference is that the Dodgers are coming off a title.
“I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of teams, and they had a lot of appealing features,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton at his introductory press conference this week. “But overall, when I looked at the general consensus, I thought that the Dodgers were at the top.”
And there it is. Sasaki had the opportunity to pick his own team as an international free agent, and why wouldn’t he pick the club that is championship ready and that has a pair of countrymen on the roster to ease his transition?
And it wasn’t about the Dodgers’ deep pockets. As an international free agent under the age of 25, Sasaki’s economic prospects were limited. He signed a minor-league deal with a $6.5 million bonus.
His main objective in coming to Los Angeles was the Dodgers’ plan for addressing a bit of reduced velocity last season. Being that much closer to a title in his first season didn’t hurt.
The exasperation that has been voiced isn’t necessarily toward Sasaki; it has been aimed toward the Dodgers themselves. But as good as they have been over the past decade and beyond, while winning 11 division titles in 12 years, their only full-season title in that stretch didn’t come until last season. Their 2020 title came in the pandemic-shortened season.
There are no guarantees, and the Dodgers know it well.
What is more certain is that all eyes will be on the mega team from Los Angeles in the upcoming season, and that can’t all be bad.
The Dodgers will open their season in Japan on March 18-19 against the Chicago Cubs, and the two-game series will be an event. They open at home on March 27 against the Detroit Tigers and the three-game series will be a celebration.
In April alone, Los Angeles has road trips at Philadelphia, Washington, Texas and Chicago against the Cubs. Intense atmospheres are expected. The Dodgers won’t win all those road games and the ones they lose are sure to draw the most attention.
Until the playoffs arrive, most baseball fans are content just to watch their favorite team. The Dodgers are turning their regular-season games into must-see opportunities, at the very least for fans outside of Los Angeles to see if they will lose.
A rooting interest, even one rooted in ill will, works in MLB’s favor.
“Nothing is automatic, especially in this sport, especially with the way our postseason is set up,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said. “Anything can happen. We’ve been on both sides of that crucible.”
Are the loaded 2025 Dodgers bad for baseball? As long as there is a debate about it and not indifference, the answer is no.
