I have been a baseball fan my whole life, and one of my favorite things about baseball has been that almost every fan base feels like they have a chance to compete for a World Series title every year no matter the payroll or market size.
But it feels like that has changed in the past few years as the Los Angeles Dodgers have become what appears to be an unstoppable force.
Why? Because of their unprecedented spending
The Dodgers have always had a large payroll, but over the past few years, their spending has reached another level. According to Spotrac, the Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball at $415 million for the 2026 season which is the largest payroll of all time.
In the offseason, the Dodgers continued to add to what was already the most talented and expensive roster in baseball by signing all-star outfielder Kyle Tucker to a four-year $240 million contract and closer Edwin Diaz to a three-year $69 million contract.
The biggest problem I have with their spending is the way they are going about it, with all of the deferred payments they are giving to many of their star players including two-way player Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani signed a 10-year $700 million deal to join the Dodgers in 2024 and is making $2 million annually. This is because the other $68 million is being deferred to a later date.
The Dodgers don’t have to pay the deferred money on Ohtani’s contract until 2034, which is when his contract ends. According to Clutchpoints the Dodgers have surpassed $2 billion in deferred contracts.
Because a large portion of the Dodgers contracts are being paid in deferred payments, this has freed up more financial flexibility for them in the short term which has allowed them to add elite talent.
Although paying for a majority of contracts is legal under current Major League Baseball rules, it feels like the Dodgers are taking advantage of a loophole in the system.
The payroll disparity between big market and small market teams has continued to widen over the past few years. This has left many fans of small market teams feeling hopeless because their team can’t compete with big market teams that have large payrolls like the Yankees and the Dodgers.
Some fans would argue that other teams can spend like the Dodgers but they just choose not to which is not accurate.
There are a portion of smaller market teams that do not have the same financial resources as some of those bigger market teams and could not spend at a high level even if they wanted to. For example, teams like the Cleveland Guardians have a $ 87 million payroll and the Tampa Bay Rays who have an 108 million dollar payroll.
The extent to which the Dodgers have spent has angered every fan base in baseball outside of Los Angeles.
At the end of the day, professional sports are nothing without support from the fans, so if they aren’t happy with the product, then changes need to be made.
The collective bargaining agreement between the MLB owners and players expires at the end of the 2026 season, which has created growing speculation about whether a salary cap will be implemented in MLB or not.
MLB is currently the only major North American sports league that does not have a salary cap, but many owners and fans are pushing hard for it.
There needs to be a way to level the playing field for all 30 teams and put a set limit on the Dodgers’ spending.