Stop Being Fooled, The Dodgers ARE Ruining Baseball

Soft. Snake. Ring chaser. Traitor. Cupcake. 

These are among many PG jeers hurled at Kevin Durant after he signed with the Warriors following Golden State’s record breaking 73-win season that was one win short of an NBA Championship. To this day, his decision to leave Oklahoma City defines his career. 

A decade later, Major League Baseball is in a similar spot as the NBA was when it was shaken to its core. A California team lords over the rest of the league, looking down at the serfs from their castle. The Los Angeles Dodgers are ruining baseball.

The Dodgers not only have the best roster year after year, but apparently their PR team is at the gold standard as well. The narrative in baseball has quietly shifted from “the Dodgers are ruining the game” to the cop-out “don’t blame the Dodgers, blame the other owners for not spending,” which is disingenuous and insulting to real fans of baseball. 

Should bad owners be ridiculed for not even pretending to care about being competitive? Do I like that John Fisher can cuck one of the most loyal fanbases in sports to sell his soul to the devil in Sin City? Do I agree with Bob Nutting’s strategy to sit on his hands cutting costs on his roster payroll even though he now has a generational player to build a champion around?

Obviously there are bad owners in baseball who need to be ousted. No one wants to root for a Colorado Rockies type product, doomed to be terrible year after year with no escape. While owners who don’t spend to be competitive are part of the problem, the rules need to change because the Dodgers have perfected exploiting the current rules. 

The Dodgers are able to keep roughly $66 million every year because of their uniquely structured TV deal with MLB. When the Dodgers were saved from bankruptcy in 2011, part of deal that was put in place to help the franchise was locking in a fair market value for their games on TV, which means that a significant portion of the approximate $334 million the Dodgers earn just from their TV deal is exempt from MLB revenue sharing. The Dodgers get a substantial boost to their payroll because of this, and this is why they can seemingly outbid every team for every top player that hits free agency. I know, it’s shocking every MLB team doesn’t get an annual influx of almost $66 million to their payroll. 

As if that wasn’t enough of an advantage, the Dodgers exploit the financial rules by deferring payments to star players. Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract is almost entirely deferred. What should be a $70 million annual salary for the Japanese phenom is only $2 million a year, as the Dodgers will pay him $68 million a year for the ten years following the expiration of his contract. For context, let’s name a couple random MLB players and the money they are making. 

Braves outfielder Mike Yastrzemski: $11.5 million AAV. Reds backup catcher Jose Trevino: $5.75 million AAV. Athletics bullpen arm Scott Barlow: $2 million AAV. Arguably the best player in baseball history is making the same yearly salary as a random relief pitcher on the Sacramento Athletics. The face of the MLB making less than a depth outfielder and a backup catcher. In what world does that make sense?

What are the implications for Ohtani making a quarter of the price of a Super Bowl commercial in 2026? The Dodgers can take the money they aren’t paying Ohtani and give it to other stars to pair him with. Future Hall-of-Fame 1st baseman Freddie Freeman ($27 million AAV), multi Cy Young winner Blake Snell ($36.4 million AAV), former Rays ace Tyler Glasnow ($27.3 million AAV) and another Japanese free agency prize Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($27 million AAV) get the highest bids making their choice to go to LA not only easy, but the most logical. This offseason, the Dodgers made a mockery of their exploits, paying All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker $60 million to play for them THIS SEASON. 

The two-time defending champs can give players Godfather offers, which then gives the Dodgers the added luxury to trade all their top prospects at their highest value before they even show any signs of decline. The rich get richer by preying on aforementioned unserious organizations like the Boston Red Sox for other Hall-of-Fame players like Mookie Betts ($30.4 million AAV). Then to round out the roster, the Dodgers still have enough money to overpay for their role players like Teoscar Hernandez and Kike Hernandez who have demonstrated yearly they will show up in October. 

On the roster, the Dodgers have three different former MVP’s including the two-time defending MVP in Ohtani. There is a reason the NBA, NFL and NHL all have salary caps, and it’s to prevent the competitive balance from completely tipping over to one team’s favor in the way MLB has unfortunately succumbed to. 

The discourse in the NBA when Durant went to the “superteam” Warriors was of vitriol, disgust and hatred, but for whatever reason the Dodgers are avoiding the noise even though what they are doing is actually more nefarious by manipulating financial rules and utilizing unique leverage no other team can capitalize on to build a superteam. 

Durant was in Golden State for only three seasons. The Dodgers have scooped up all the league’s best talent since 2018 when they acquired Betts. This isn’t good for the health of the sport. By just letting the Los Angeles Dodgers connive and strangle smaller clubs out of contention doesn’t add to the theater that used to be playoff baseball. 

Los Angeles isn’t getting enough hate for their crimes to the integrity of the sport. Baseball now feels so much like what’s nauseating about the constant news cycle of the evil ultra rich screwing over everyone else and laughing their way to the bank. Now, MLB is just the Dodger invitational, and spoiler, the Dodgers never lose.