We Should Talk About The Dodgers’ Deferrals, Them Outspending the Whole League, And a Few Other Topics

I haven’t really addressed the Dodgers’ spending and my thoughts on it, but with the MLB CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) coming up, and also a few people requesting this article, I figured I should probably write something about it. Here it is.

I want to preface this article by saying I am not a Dodgers fan, and don’t think that  (most of) what Dodgers are doing is wrong. I just think that they are using their market advantage, their revenue, and how successful they have been in the past few years to their advantage. Any team can spend big and defer a lot of money, but the Dodgers’ owner (Mark Walter) is one of a very small handful of sports owners who actually wants to spend large dollars. That’s because he’s figured out a system. His system is to spend big, win a lot, and the fans and the revenue will show. It is a system that 29 (actually probably 28 because of the Mets and their owner Steve Cohen) other MLB teams are not willing to commit to because they want to make as much money as possible, but spend as little as possible at the same time. And that way of doing things just does not sit well with other teams’ fans. That is all to say, if you started to read this article looking forward to me criticizing the Dodgers, that is not what is going to happen. In fact, much of this article will be me defending them. If you don’t want to read about that, don’t read this post. With that out of the way, we can finally jump into it. 

I’ll first talk about the deferral situation. I’ll start by stating the simple and obvious truth. Any team can use deferrals. Not just the Dodgers. I understand that the Dodgers are using it the most, but I just wanted to put that out there. Here’s my opinion: the Dodgers are doing what any team in the entire MLB can do. Maybe they are doing it to a bigger extent, but any team in the entire league can do it. Plus, if they want to create themselves money problems down the line, that’s their choice. The fact is that the Dodgers have $1.0945 billion in deferrals in total, and in 2037 (the year where they owe the highest amount of money in deferrals) they owe $101.7 million in deferrals alone (not including the Kyle Tucker deal because we don’t know when the $30 million of deferrals will be paid out). The Dodgers are potentially risking future financial stability to win now. In short, they are basically killing their future selves. You could argue that they are manipulating the MLB CBT (Competitive Balance Tax) thresholds to stay under the limit, but if you look at history, it’s been done before. The Angels, Blue Jays, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Giants, Guardians, Marlins, Mariners, Mets, Nationals, Padres, Phillies, Pirates, Rays, Rangers, Reds, Red Sox, Tigers, Twins, and White Sox have all some some deferrals at some point, and I am probably missing some teams too. The deferrals are not a new thing. It’s because the Dodgers are winning with them that it looks bad. But now after seeing the Dodgers defer heaps of money, teams like the Cubs, Red Sox, and Blue Jays are now following in the Dodgers’ footsteps, and for some weird reason, MLB thinks this is a problem.

Next, I’ll touch on the Dodgers outspending the entire league. The first part of why they are outspending the entire league is just based off their location. They are in Los Angeles which is a very large, populated and rich citie. That is a luxury that a lot of other teams just don’t have. Another part of it is what I touched on above. The Dodgers have figured out a way to keep the fans happy, and bring in lots of revenue. That’s because they are willing to spend money to improve their team (unlike many other ballclubs). Other teams (like the Rockies, Pirates, Nationals, White Sox, etc) want to nickel and dime free agency as well as trading for player players. They want to spend very little money, but make a nice profit. So the second part of why the Dodgers are outspending the league is because about ⅕ of MLB teams are not willing to spend. If we are going to pin down the Dodgers for spending big bucks, we might as well give the same treatment to the Yankees and Mets. While they are not spending at the level of the Dodgers, both of those clubs’ regularly have payrolls that are above $300 million. It’s not fair to just look at the Dodgers when we think about spending a lot of money. I am very much opposed to a salary cap, and I don’t think it would help anything (super agent Scott Boras thinks the same), but what would help is raising the penalties for going over the MLB Competitive Balance Tax (CBT). In my opinion, limiting how much teams can spend is very lame. Smaller teams just need to do the little things better (draft right, develop right, sign players right, etc) than the big clubs and they have a very nice shot. If owners are willing to spend money to win, that’s there prerogative. Why is MLB trying to benefit owners and teams who don’t want to invest in America’s National Pastime? I have literally no idea. On the subject of a salary cap, I would absolutely love it if MLB implemented a salary floor. All of these owners are millionaires (many are billionaires), but not all of them act like it. There’s already sort of an MLB Salary Floor, but it couldn’t hurt to at least increase the penalties for dipping below that. In my honest opinion, MLB isn’t prioritizing the correct things.

Another topic I wanted to touch on is the Dodgers recently signing several high-profile Japanese players, creating a strong connection and pipeline with Japan. With Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Rōki Sasaki, there’s no doubt that they offer a small community away from home and create an attractive spot for any Japanese player to want to play. The Dodgers are also a very attractive team to want to play for souly based on how much they win. Those two factors make them make them a little hub for international players (spessificly Japanese players). This is why I propose an International Draft. I don’t know how it exactly work, but it would be something like the regular MLB Draft. In my proposed International Draft, there would be about 3 rounds (depending on how many international players), and the the order of who would pick would be decided by a lottery in which all 30 teams would be in. The better you were in the regular season, the worse your odds would be to get a decent spot in the Internation Draft. MLB could even make another penaltie for going over the luxury tax that states that if a team goes over a certain threshold, they automaticly recieve the last International Draft pick/get their draft pick moved back. Teams would also offer signing bonuses to players who they aquire in the International Draft. The International Draft would keep teams (like the Dodgers) from becoming a big hub for all the excellent internernational players to come play for. This is an issue in baseball that I very much care about.

The last thing I wanted to touch on is what some people call “parity” in MLB. You might’ve noticed that I haven’t used that term up until now. That’s because it's fake. Parity in baseball is a lie. MLB can always try to restrict the Dodgers as well as other big market teams, but they can (and will) never make MLB an entirely level playing field. There will always be teams that will outspend the rest of the entire league. The opposite is also true. That means that there is no perfect cap/tax that will make MLB fair. What’s interesting is that in the last 10 years, 7 different teams have won the World Series, and one of those World Series wins came from the Astros cheating (they won one without cheating, but that is besides the point). My mind goes back to the 2023 World Series where the Arizona Diamondbacks faced off against the Texas Rangers. At the time, both teams were in the middle of the pack in terms of payroll, and were both hoping to collect a World Series title! Plus, the Dodgers are not unbeatable. They almost lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2025. The Blue Jays were one game away from eliminating them (twice)! I just want people to stop obsessing over parity like MLB forgot to grab its daily dose. In my opinion, MLB is fine and Commissioner Rob Manfred needs to stop messing with it.

Anyway, thanks for reading my long rant, and here’s to a smooth MLB CBA.