How Do The Dodgers Keep Getting Away With It?
By Finley Keene
Image from SI.com
Their acquisition strategy, growing Japanese fanbase, and a broken salary cap system
Introduction
The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the most prominent teams in the sport of baseball. Their fanbase is massive on the West Coast, and is rapidly growing in places like Japan and Korea. Last year, their acquisition of superstar two-way player Shohei Othani for $700 million played a key part in them winning the 2024 World Series despite Shohei not even being able to pitch for the season, as well as their 315 million dollar signing of top Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto from the Orix Buffaloes in the Nippon Professional Baseball League, the combined sum of their contracts over $1 billion. Shohei Othani’s signing created a one-two-three punch of MVP(most valuable player) award winners at the top of the Dodgers lineup.
If a team didn’t want to face an MVP at the start of a game against the Dodgers, they would have to immediately load the bases, and even then, they would be up against 2-time all-star, home run derby champ, and 3-time silver slugger Teoscar Hernandez. Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched to an impressive 3.00 ERA in 2024, contributing greatly to one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball.
This Off-Season
One may think that the combined sum of Othani’s and Yamamoto’s contract alone may have been financially crippling to the Dodgers, not even accounting for the salary of the rest of the team. However, this offseason, they picked up where they left off, signing superstars left and right. As of the time of this writing, the Dodgers have agreed to a $182 million deal with 2-time Cy-Young award winning pitcher Blake Snell, signed veteran outfielder Michael Conforto, and picked up another Japanese superstar, Hyeseong Kim. In addition, they have re-signed star infielder Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernandez, and, in my opinion, the nastiest reliever in baseball right now, Blake Trienen. Roki Sasaki, a top MLB prospect also from Japan, whose fastball tops out at over 100 miles an hour, also has been seen wearing Dodgers merchandise, and it seems improbable that he will end up signing with any other team. So how do the Dodger keep signing players without going under?
The Strategy
To figure that out, you have to look at the details of Othani’s contract. Over the 10 years he will spend with the Dodgers, he will only get paid a mere $20 million, less than 3 percent of the contract money. The remaining $680 million will be paid to Othani in the years after his contract. This is called deferred pay, and it is a strategy that has been used in the MLB in the past, but most teams do not make use of it anymore because it makes them have a long-term commitment to players, and often teams are uncertain whether the contracts will be worth it given future revenue streams. However, these “future revenue streams” only seem to be looking good for the Dodgers.
Japan and LA
The Dodgers, being the only good team(sorry Angels but it’s the truth) in Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the U.S., and also being in the most populous state in all of the U.S., already have a very substantial fanbase. In addition, them being located on the West Coast has allowed them to connect very well with baseball-interested Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. Then, when they signed Othani, their popularity in Asia skyrocketed even more, and their first game of the 2024 season took place in Seoul, South Korea, against their fellow Califiornians, The San Diego Padres. Yamamoto made the start for the Dodgers, and Japanese legend Yu Darvish took the bump for the Padres.
Balance? What Balance?
Most large sports leagues have punishments for teams spending too much money. This helps balance out the games and creates a competitive environment that draws viewers and fans of the game. However, there is no such thing as a salary cap in the MLB, a massive flaw in the league's design according to many fans. There is a luxury tax, and the Dodgers last year paid the most compared to every other MLB team, just over $103 million. But this just doesn’t seem enough to balance the league. It certainly didn’t affect the Dodgers much, as they have already made many moves in the off season.
Is This Good for the Sport?
The balance of the MLB is key to it being popular. Whereas most of the top soccer teams only lose a couple of times in their seasons where they win the league, if you just won 65 percent of the time in the MLB, you would be far clear of any 2024 MLB team. Competitiveness and persistence are two of the major traits that stand out compared to any other sport. In baseball, you are expected to fail more than anywhere else. If you failed two-thirds of the time as a hitter, you could be considered among the best in the world. If suddenly a dominance was introduced to the league alike Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 or the 2015-2016 Golden State Warriors, the effect on baseball itself would be tremendous. Baseball, as do all professional sports, thrives on competition. If one day, there was a team that no matter what happened, couldn’t be beaten, the sport may become less intriguing, making the MLB lose more fans and also making it harder for it to pick up new fans.
While currently the popularity of baseball is booming again, the signs for its possible downfall are beginning to show themselves. Tenth grader, East Side High School Varsity Baseball Team member, and avid MLB watcher Truett Keene shared his opinions on the matter, “The Dodgers aren’t at fault here. Every team wants to win, and they haven’t broken any rules. The flaw is in the design of the MLB. Commissioner Rob Manfred could be doing something to fix this problem, but instead, he’s letting it happen.”