Complaints that the deep pockets of the Los Angeles Dodgers are ruining the competitive balance of baseball have been heard and considered by World Series champions.
They are not apologizing.
“Our ownership group has been incredibly supportive of continuing to put back into our fans, who have done nothing but support us and come out and see us,” general manager Brandon Gomes said at the team’s most recent press conference, this one to announce the signing of top reliever Tanner Scott.
“So we’re solely focused on ‘How do we make our team better?’ and give back to the fans who have nothing but come out to see us.”
The Dodgers’ goal of making a very good roster even better comes from the desire to consistently be able to finish off what they start.
Before 2024, the Dodgers had made 11 consecutive playoff appearances, with 10 National League West titles in that stretch.
And the only championship in that run came in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Anybody with a disdain for the Dodgers, especially anybody in San Francisco, was quick to dismiss the achievement. Some Dodgers’ personnel even referenced that dismissive attitude during last Fall’s title run.
“I’m sure there’s no asterisk on this one,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the current title was secured.
But the Dodgers aren’t spending again this winter out of spite. Key to their goal of adding as much talent as possible, even as payroll continues to increase, is that playing a 162-game season and then surviving the frenzied nature of the playoffs is daunting.
In previous playoff runs, Dodgers pitching seemed to be running on fumes, either from injury or the wear and tear of the regular season.
That issue even was present in the 2024 postseason, when the Dodgers had just three healthy starters, and one of them, Walker Buehler, was a question mark after a two-year layoff for a second Tommy John surgery.
The Dodgers cobbled together bullpen games in the playoffs to get the job done, and anybody who thought it was the team’s plan all along, or that it established some kind of legitimate strategy going forward, had not been paying attention to the team’s postseason plight over the past decade.
So the Dodgers added two of the biggest prizes in the offseason. Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell came aboard on a five-year, $182 million deal, and Roki Sasaki was acquired on a $6.5 million signing bonus, with team-control salaries for his first three seasons.
There were other additions like Scott’s four-year, $72 million deal, shortstop Hyeseong Kim’s three-year, $12.5 million pact, right-hander Kirby Yates’ one-year, $13 million deal, and a one-year, $17 million contract for outfielder Michael Conforto. Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez re-signed for three years and $66 million.
Yet the most anticipated of all for 2025 will be Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound.
With Tyler Glasnow’s return from an elbow strain, Tony Gonsolin’s comeback from Tommy John surgery, and Clayton Kershaw’s desire for at least one more summer in the L.A. sun, the starting staff is stacked. There are even expected contributions from Landon Knack, Dustin May and Justin Wrobleski.
The Dodgers know that a good thing can turn in an instant. Young starters like Gavin Stone, Emmit Sheehan and River Ryan all contributed last season, and all three will be out for 2025 with injuries. Buehler departed in free agency. Half-season rental Jack Flaherty is set to leave in free agency as well.
“… Right now we’re 3-to-1 against to win the World Series,” Dodgers team president Stan Kasten said last week. “That’s 70, 75 percent likely that someone else will win the World Series. So obviously (Dodgers spending) hasn’t damaged the game competitively.”
While that percentage is true, according to implied probability, the odds for a championship favorite don’t get much smaller than 3-to-1. It sets up the Dodgers as both a huge title favorite and a massive antagonist outside of L.A.
Nobody is expected to draw more fans in the upcoming season, either at home or on the road. It means competitive nature will be as big as ever in 2025.
