Don’t hate them because they’re rich.
The Dodgers have used their financial muscles annually since the Guggenheim Group took over ownership, carrying one of – and frequently – the highest payrolls in baseball each season.
But this winter’s billion-dollar flex took things to another level.
The Dodgers have done the ‘super team’ thing before. But they open spring training this week having bought and paid for (or put on layaway to pay later) the best free agents available this winter – domestic (Shohei Ohtani) and international (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) – and one of the best players to change teams via trade (Tyler Glasnow), adding in a few extras (Teoscar Hernandez and James Paxton) along the way.
This spending spree was not universally cheered.
“There’s just something about those guys that you don’t like. Can’t explain it,” San Francisco Giant ace Logan Webb said after the Dodgers’ binge. “It kind of added to that.
“Giants players, we all texted each other. We didn’t like it.”
Former Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling started the winter as one of those Giants players before a trade to the Oakland A’s. On a podcast, he said the Dodgers had crossed a line with this winter’s moves.
“The way I look at it is that they are just going full villain mode in a way,” Stripling said. “They’ve always had the payroll. But they’ve done an unbelievable job in drafting and developing talent. I think that World Series team (in 2020) had, like, 16 homegrown Dodgers on it. Now, it’s Freddie. It’s Mookie. It’s Shohei and Yamamoto and they’re coming for everybody.”
Stripling is not wrong.
Of the 27 players who appeared in the 2020 World Series for the Dodgers, 13 of them were homegrown products. The roster most likely to break camp and head for the season-opening games in South Korea this spring could have as few as five homegrown Dodgers on it with only three – Will Smith, James Outman and Gavin Lux – likely to be in a starting lineup dominated by high-dollar imports like Ohtani, Betts and Freeman.
But if anyone doesn’t like the way the Dodgers spent their money – too bad, Betts said.
“If you’ve got it, then you can, you know?” he said. “You do things that other people can’t do. That’s what makes you good, right? That’s what makes people better than the next guy, because he can put out more power than the next guy. He can do this better than the next guy.
“Somebody’s bankroll may be a little bit longer. There’s nothing you can do about it. … They used it. Sorry.”
Betts’ economic philosophy is endorsed by his teammates.
“I think Mookie said it best – what do you want us to do?” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We’re trying to win. We’re assembling a good team. … If people want to call us the villains, that’s fine. It doesn’t change who we are in the clubhouse. It doesn’t change who we are to our fans. It doesn’t change who we are in the stadium. We’ve got to go out there and perform.”
Shortstop Gavin Lux dismissed any criticism that what the Dodgers did this winter was “bad for baseball.”
“I don’t see how. I think Mookie said it the best – how can you not go out there and try to get the best players possible?” Lux said. “Twenty-nine other teams could have done it. So I don’t see how it could be bad for baseball if everybody else could have done it. Like Mookie said, what do you expect us to not try to get the best guys to win? Our goal is to win a World Series so of course we’re going to go get the best guys out there. I don’t know why you wouldn’t do that.”
The Dodgers have won a lot over the past 11 seasons – an average of 99 wins in the 10 full seasons (including 100 or more in each of the past four) and 10 division titles. But they have just one short-season championship to show for it – a championship devalued in some eyes – and back-to-back first-round playoff failures the past two Octobers.
This winter’s spending spree is already seen in some quarters as an attempt to correct that by buying another championship.
“Believe me, I wish buying a championship meant we win a championship,” Freeman said. “But I think anyone in this game knows how hard it is to win a championship. I’m just glad our ownership gave us a chance to do it. That’s really all you can ask for as players. To give us the best chance to win a World Series this year and many, many more beyond, that’s your ultimate goal.”
This winter’s acquisitions are not short-term investments. Ohtani signed for 10 years, Yamamoto for 12, Glasnow for five.
Ohtani was asked what the Dodgers have to do now to make those investments be seen as wise.
“I mean, the only choice is winning the World Series,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
