The Dodgers are the best team in baseball. And maybe justtoogood for baseball to continue as is.
That’s because theback-to-back World Series championshave such a huge lead in payroll that they might trigger a lockout.
For many years, I’ve enjoyed watching games from my season ticket seats in Dodger Stadium, on the Loge level, behind home plate.
Ten games a season is enough to feel the rhythm of a year.I’ve watched Mookie Betts justify every dollar of his $365 million contract. I’ve seen the organization structure Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal — with massive deferrals that dramatically reduce the present luxury-tax hit — to preserve long-term flexibility.
I’ve watched the Dodgers commit $325 million to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, because frontline pitching wins in October. They extended Will Smith for $140 million. They gave Tyler Glasnow $136.5 million to anchor the rotation.
That’s not reckless spending. That’s calculated ambition.
And now that ambition has made the Dodgers the symbol in a fight that could trip up the entire sport.
But this isn’t just about payroll.
It’s about whether Major League Baseball is headed toward asalary cap battlethat could ignite another labor war.
The Dodgers treat theCompetitive Balance Tax as a cost of doing business. They structure contracts creatively. They absorb penalties. They build rosters designed not just to survive the brutal reality of 162 games, but also to play world champion-level postseason baseball.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
