MidValleySports.Com

By Matt Khitikian

This offseason, and especially the past 2 weeks, baseball’s talking heads and many fans of 29 teams not named the Los Angeles Dodgers have cried foul in relation to LA’s mastery of baseball’s contractual rules and the latest CBA.

Headlines and articles in recent days lament the end of MLB as we know it and curse the Dodgers for being the cause.

 “Are the Dodgers ruining baseball?” (LA Times). “What the Dodgers are doing is great for them.  It might not be great for baseball’s future” (Bleed Cubbie Blue). “Rōki Sasaki’s Dodgers Choice Highlights a Growing Problem for MLB” (Bleacher Report).  “Are the Dodgers Ruining Baseball? Inside the Rōki Sasaki Signing – and a spending spree that has rocked MLB” (ESPN).

Calls for an MLB salary cap are flying across radio waves and are the hot topic of podcasts.

And what foul trickery have the Dodgers been using to ruin the sport?

Deferred money?  It’s been a part of contracts for a long time (Bobby Bonilla, anyone?) but the Dodgers have mastered the craft.

International presence?  The Dodgers were one of the first teams to delve into the player-base in Latin America, they’re clearly popular in Japan and just this past week became the second team ever to sign a player from Africa (the first team to sign a player from South Sudan).  Yes, the Dodgers have scouts roaming all over the world, and it’s paying off in spades.

Solid ownership?  Check.

Team friendly contracts, even with astronomical sums attached?  Check.

Winning culture?  Check.

State of the art facilities?  Check.

Player-friendly manager who also keeps those same players accountable and hungry to win?  Check.

But that same manager may not still be in Dodger blue if not for the Padres, and a fateful Game 4 in the NLDS on October 9, 2024.

In 2023, the scrappy San Diego team knocked LA out of the postseason and that was supposed to be the start of their rise to NL West dominance.  During the 2024 regular season, the script played out in the Padres favor as they went 8-5 against their hated northern rivals.  After sweeping the Braves out of the wild card series, San Diego was primed to take the ailing Dodgers out once again.

The Dodgers had a pitching staff put together with gaff tape and glue.  Their offense was ridiculously talented, yes, but pitching’s doomed team after team year after year.  With a 2-1 lead and the Dodgers on the ropes facing elimination for the 2nd year in a row, San Diego put their ace on the mound against the Dodgers’ only option: the bullpen.

Now it’s easy to put the blame on Dylan Cease.  He pitched 1.2 innings and gave up 4 hits and 3 runs.  Given that San Diego had scored no fewer than 5 runs in the series, this wasn’t the end of the world, but Cease didn’t have his stuff and San Diego had to pivot. Bryan Hoeing promptly gave up another 3 runs but again, San Diego was at home with the majority of the 47,773 fans in their corner.

But their offense stalled.  Arraez in the leadoff spot, 1-4.  Tatis, 1-4.  Profar, 1-4. Machado, 0-4. Merrill, 0-4. Bogarts, 1-3 (BB).  Peralta, 2-4.  Cronenworth, 1-3 (BB).  Higashioka, 0-4.  Two walks.  8 strikeouts.  0 runs.

The Padres lost that game 8-0 and their vaunted offense was shut out again in Game 5, 2-0 (this time with 7Ks and 1 BB and their other ace, Yu Darvish, on the mound against Yoshinobu Yamamoto).

The Dodgers went on to become 2024 MLB champs, dominated the offseason with massive free-agent signings (Blake Snell, Rōki Sasaki, Teoscar Hernández, Tanner Scott, Hyeseong Kim, Michael Conforto, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates, Giovanny Gallegos) with more potential signings on the way (Clayton Kershaw, Kiké Hernández).  Let’s not forget the Gavin Lux trade to the Reds for prospect talent, either.

Does all that make your blood boil?

Let’s stay calm.  Remember that  since 1999, the team with the top payroll in MLB has won the World Series 4 times (1999 Yankees, 2000 Yankees, 2009 Yankees, 2018 Red Sox).  That’s a mere 16% success rate in the last 25 years.

And looking deeper…that’s right, the 2020 Dodgers and 2024 Dodgers didn’t have the largest payroll; that honor belongs to the New York Yankees and  New York Mets, respectively (and the Dodgers were actually 3rd in 2024).

If San Diego beats LA in Game 4 (or Game 5), it’s debatable whether Dave Roberts is still their manager today.  Another early exit from the postseason means that some of these free agents may have elected to sign elsewhere.  It certainly means that the majority of these ‘rigging the system’ arguments wouldn’t be made, because the Dodgers wouldn’t be champions despite all of their spending.

But they did win.

Winter came and they spent boatloads of money.

The team got arguably better.

And the talking heads lost their minds.

Jack Flaherty, current free agent and 2024 world champion Dodger, recently tweeted, “A certain team is not ruining baseball A lot of other teams are just doing very little”.

Little or not, most teams are playing catchup to the culture and system that the Dodgers put in place when Frank McCourt sold the team.

Have they mastered the system?  Yes.  

Is that MLB’s fault?  No.

29 other owners are playing catchup.

You can argue the importance of money (yes, it’s important).  You can argue small-market vs. large-market.  You can shake your fist at the (Dodger?) blue sky and curse Blue Heaven on Earth.
But the Dodgers aren’t doing anything wrong.  They’re just doing it better.

Yes, the Dodgers spend money like it’s going out of style.  But so do other teams.  And money doesn’t automatically equal championships.  It helps, but it’s not the end-all-be-all.  

Ownership.  Management.  Culture.  Chemistry.  International presence.  The Dodgers have it all right.  It still doesn’t mean they’re repeat champions in 2025. 

If you’re upset the Dodgers won the World Series in 2024 and are poised to make a solid run in 2025, well, hop on the 5, drive south of LA for a few hours, lay your complaints at the doors of Petco Park and shake your fist at the Padres.  

Because really, it’s the Padres fault.  They’ve got nobody to blame but themselves.