Philly Front Office

Objectively, I think we can all agree that the name “Dodgers” is stupid, right? They aren’t dodging the baseball and being a draft dodger isn’t exactly something to hang your hat on, at least commercially. Look, I know where it came from, but it’s about as bad as “Lakers” especially with context. Why am I bashing their team name? Because it is about all I can bash.

The Dodgers have used their considerable financial might to bring the baseball off-season to its knees. They bought the second-best pitcher (Blake Snell), the best reliever (Tanner Scott), the best prospect (Roki Sasaki), and even brought back two of their biggest contributors from last year (Teoscar Hernandez and Blake Treinen). This of course was after buying Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and winning a World Series last year. They are fucking loaded.

Rotation

As much as I want to say the Phillies have the best rotation in baseball, it is hard to bet against this beast:

• Shohei Ohtani will be back from his injury induced pitching sabbatical and will probably give his regular low 3s ERA dominance.
• Blake Snell was the best pitcher in baseball during the second half last season and has won 2 Cy Young awards so far. He loses it sometimes, but when he’s on he is basically unhittable.
• Tyler Glasnow was throwing Cy Young level gas last season before getting hurt. Though almost all of his season accolades usually end in “before getting hurt”, he is still dominant.
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto did not have the crazy ace level first season everyone expected when he signed his 12 y, $325m contract, but he still had a 3.00 ERA and 2.61 FIP. Unfortunately, he only pitched 90 innings. I think everyone expects him to be better and more acclimated this season
• Is Roki Sasaki and his 102 mph fastball the #5 guy in this rotation? What about Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May who are both coming off of Tommy John surgeries but have shown crazy upside in the past? Then there is the likely return of Clayton Kershaw who was still shockingly effective as recently as 2023.

This almost has to be a 6-man rotation. Not only do they have the talent to do so, but they have serious injury concerns. Limiting innings is going to be a priority. The Dodgers one Achillies heal is blowing out their pitchers. Ohtani didn’t hurt himself as a Dodger, but all the other guys did (including newest Red Sock Walker Beuhler). I don’t know enough about it to say much more, but being a Dodgers pitcher seems to lead to Tommy John surgery. With several guys coming off serious surgery, injury and poor recovery are the only things that can sink this unit. It is no wonder the plan has been to get as many legitimate starters as possible. The Dodgers are trying to Dodger-proof their rotation.

Bullpen

Anyone who watched the playoffs last year saw 36-year-old Blake Treinen arrive. He wasn’t perfect, but he had the look of someone who wasn’t going to lose…especially in game 5 against the Yankees. He had to come back. The Dodgers didn’t stop there though, nabbing the best available reliever in Tanner Scott. This unit went from a possible problem to a strength, especially with guys like May and Gonsolin possibly becoming super relievers capable of going multiple innings when someone like Snell or Kershaw throw too many pitches.

UPDATE: While I was writing this, the Dodgers reportedly signed Kirby Yates and his 1.17 ERA last season. I THOUGHT THEY WERE DONE!!!

Lineup

It is pretty devastating when a lineup can start with Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman. Do you know how many top-4 MVP finishes those guys have combined? TWELVE!!! They won the award a staggering 5 times. They follow that salvo up with Teoscar Hernandez and his .501 slug, just the perfect cleanup hitter for those on-base machines in front of him. The rest of the lineup has all had their moments in the sun from time to time even if their overall numbers don’t look great. Tommy Edman was a hero of the early post season last year and Max Muncy is still productive and versatile. They brought in Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim while shipping out Gavin Lux which will only make the bottom of the lineup even more competent. I haven’t even mentioned one of the best catchers in baseball, Will Smith. Because of the stars at the top, they only need those guys at the bottom to put together good at bats. Production will take care of itself.

Assets

Even with a gargantuan payroll, you can’t buy everyone. Well wouldn’t you know it, the Dodgers also have a pretty stacked farm system. It doesn’t just have high end talent either, it has high end MLB-ready talent.

• Dalton Rushing is a high end catching prospect that the Dodgers don’t even need! Will Smith is a top catcher who will start the season at 30 years old and with 9 years of reasonable salary ahead of him. Teams would kill to get Rushing. Expect him to get moved at the deadline for even more elite talent wherever it may be needed. I am kind of surprised they didn’t trade him for Crochet to be honest. He is the same level of prospect the White Sox received from Boston (Kyle Teel).
• Alex Freeland had a breakout season last year and will start the season at AAA. He is a shortstop and will be the first guy called up should anything happen to any of their infielders. They could move him at the deadline, but him being the next Dodger rookie of the year in 2026 is more likely.
• Josue de Paula is the 19 year-old, hyper-athletic, second cousin of Stephon Marbury. Unlike most guys receiving the “athletic” label, de Paula can hit. Despite his age, he will start the season at AA.

How did this all happen?

The Dodgers have the biggest money advantage in baseball, more so than even Steve Cohen and the Mets. Sure, Cohen has more money than any single owner, but the Mets lose money. Guys with tons of money like people to see them as not caring about the money, but guys with tons of money also don’t like losing money for too long. The thing is, not only are the Dodgers worth more collectively than Cohen, they don’t lose money.

The Dodgers are owned by a company called Gugenheim Sports Managment, a subsidiary of Gugenheim Partners. Gugenheim Partners has over $300b in managed assets. The main guy in the mix is Mark Walter who is worth something between $6b and $12b. This isn’t Cohen’s $20b, but Walter isn’t the only owner involved here, unlike the situation in Queens. Aside from Magic Johnson, there are two guys named Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly who have a combined $22b to throw around. They have more money to be the Mets than the Mets.

That’s all well and good, but didn’t you say rich guys don’t like to lose money? Yup, and the Dodgers don’t lose money. Around 10 years ago the Dodgers signed a broadcast rights deal with Time Warner Cable that pays $8.35b over 25 years (funny thing about this, previous owner Frank McCourt got vetoed by MLB when he tried to low ball the Dodgers broadcast rights to Fox before being forced to sell the team; this is a much bigger story). That comes to about $335m per year, EVERY YEAR (and they’ve been getting it for 10 years already). This is in addition to the over $60m each team receives from national broadcast revenue. This also does not include a single ticket sold. The Dodgers boast the highest capacity stadium and the highest attendance in the league by the way. If you were to assume each ticket costs $53, they made $215m+ in ticket sales (without concessions and parking). They are raking in over $600m in revenue EVERY YEAR!!!

You guys didn’t come for that though. You came to hear that evil buzz phrase “deferred money.” Yup, the Dodgers use a system of deferred salary and signing bonuses in order to lower the luxury tax their team owes at the end of the season while giving the players upfront cash. Right now, they have a payroll for tax purposes of around $370m. However, their out-of-pocket cash is only around $300m. So even if their tax bill ends up being around $200m, that’s still $70m less than you think it is. Money now is worth more than money later. All of that deferred cash won’t matter nearly as much when the time comes, no matter how much it is.

Let’s break it down:

• Ohtani – $680m
• Betts – $120m
• Snell – $66m
• Freeman – $57m
• Smith – $50m
• Edman – $25m
• Hernandez – $23.5m
• Scott – $21m
• (Does not include the $50+ posting fee for Yamamoto or $6.5m bonus for Sasaki)

That $1,042,500,000 in deferred money. WTF!

As much as I hate this from a Phillies perspective, literally any team can do this. Granted no team has resources like the Dodgers, but they are not breaking any rules (whispers…a work stoppage is coming in 2 years).

The one saving grace in this is that baseball is still baseball. The team with the highest payroll rarely wins. It probably guarantees your place as a contender, but it can’t just buy a championship. That theory will be very much tested this season.

(unless otherwise noted, all data is from mlbtraderumors.com, spotrac.com, and baseball-reference.com)