By Talan Quinteros
The Dodgers are not ruining baseball; they’re improving it. The Dodgers franchise is demonstrating to the baseball world that teams can be competitive, smart, and invest in their teams. Other MLB owners should follow their lead and invest billions in their rosters, giving fans a reason to believe in their teams again.
For the third time in the last six years, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the World Series. During that stretch, Dodgers’ President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, has done everything possible to put the best team on the field. Every year, the Dodgers are in the race for baseball superstars like Bryce Harper and Gerrit Cole, while also consistently being linked to trade rumors.
To start the 2025 season, the Dodgers’ payroll was around 350 million, the highest ever by a professional baseball team. They’ve blown past the MLB luxury tax threshold, paying tens of millions in fees that go to small-market teams.
In recent years, the Dodgers have successfully acquired top players, including Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. These signings combined for a total of well over $600 million.
However, the contract that truly fueled the Dodgers’ fire was the record-breaking $700 million deal given to Shohei Ohtani. It was the largest contract ever for any athlete at the time. What caused the uproar wasn’t just the total, but how it was structured. $680 million of it is deferred until 2034, allowing the Dodgers to build a deeper roster while still compensating Ohtani in the long term.
After clinching another World Series (a second straight appearance in the finals), social media fans exploded, accusing the Dodgers of “buying championships” and “ruining baseball.”
Critics claim that the Dodgers’ spending has made the league unfair, but this overlooks the real issue in baseball: teams choosing not to spend. Out of the 30 MLB teams, 24 are owned by billionaires. For example, the Chicago White Sox, owned by billionaire Jerry Reinsdorf, spent only $141 million, resulting in a 41–121 record last season, the worst in modern history.
Money doesn’t automatically buy success either. For example, the Angels had Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Albert Pujols for years; they still failed to make the playoffs a single time and didn’t have a winning season during this long stretch.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are setting the standard for what a modern baseball team should strive for. Their actions challenge owners to maintain their organizations, invest money, and build competitive teams. The Dodgers are pushing the sport forward, proving that success in baseball comes from planning, strategy, and a genuine investment in both money and time to build a championship-winning team.
