MLB Teams Have Developed a Case of Dodger Envy
The narrative of the 2025 season has been birthed before its start. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the bullies of the block. The defending World Series Champions are acquiring players left and right to reinforce an already established championship core. They have used the rule of deferment to counter the MLB competitive balance philosophy to build a juggernaut. Yet, the response from all the other teams is a collective burst of complaints that defy logic.
It's as if all of baseball is bowing at the altar of defeat without so much as a fight. The American League Champion New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner shared his thoughts implying that the Dodgers are monopolizing the market and leaving the rest of the league behind. “It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things they’re doing,” Hal pointed out, “They still have to have a season relatively injury free for it to work out for them.” The Dodgers’ answer to that is to simply add and add some more. They won the 2024 World Series with a pitching staff that was mostly on the IL when the postseason began including 2024 record contract breaking Japanese pitcher-hitter Shohei Ohtani, who only batted during the season. This offseason, they overloaded on depth considering injuries.
The Dodgers must be laughing when they hear about the Yankees playing the role of a small market team. The Yankees and Mets both can match the spending of the Dodgers but choose not to. They can try to be creative but only the Dodgers have displayed it. The rest of the MLB clubs have been collecting free money from the big market teams for years but do not use it to improve their clubs. The Dodgers found a loophole of sorts by deferring a large amount of money to acquire players who were willing to accept these types of contracts to play for a winning organization that appears to be on the verge of a dynasty. The Dodgers are the most attractive destination as their free agent pickups of Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Michael Conforto can attest to.
It's interesting to see the concern now that Los Angeles broke through. The Dodgers have been banging the drum for over 24 years, going for it every year until finally winning their second World Championship of the 2000s. The Dodgers had the highest payroll for some time now and were known more for repeated postseason failures outside the Covid 2020 season. They have proved that money or adding multiple free agents does not necessarily translate to World Series rings. They have not changed. The Yankees have certainly changed as the Dodgers have become what they once were. Now, they are more concerned with not exceeding tax levels and just making it, while the Mets broke the bank for Juan Soto and stopped there. The Dodgers will pay the price for overloading all these contracts at the back end, but they are willing to risk that to maximize the present opportunities to finish on top.
MLB will come to realize that dynasties or super teams bring two things, league recognition into the mainstream and a bar that other teams can compete to overcome making the league better overall. The Yankees' late-90s dynasty and the San Francisco Giants' five-year, three-title run proved this to be true. Now, no one is looking to be better outside the Dodgers. The goal for owners is making money but without a superior product to market, fans will not respond in the manner they desire. The Dodgers are giving their fanbase what they want, living by the philosophy that the Ricky Bobby character from Talladega Nights made famous, “If you're not first, your last.” MLB is currently running last, and envy will not change that anytime soon.
