PALM BEACH, Fla. — Are the Dodgers ruining baseball?
“I don’t think so,” stated Mark Walter, the Dodgers’ controlling proprietor.
Let’s ask somebody not carrying a Dodgers polo shirt. Are the Dodgers ruining baseball?
“I don’t agree with that,” stated Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Main League Baseball.
The Dodgers’ present roster is the latest and maybe greatest use of the phrase “embarrassment of riches.”
For the 2025 season, the Dodgers are projected to spend a document half-billion {dollars} on participant salaries, advantages and luxurious taxes. Their projected tax fee of $138 million exceeds the Opening Day payrolls of 13 MLB groups final season.
We got here to the MLB homeowners’ conferences to search out out if this could be an issue for the game. Manfred, who’s employed by the 30 homeowners, selected his phrases rigorously.
“The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization,” Manfred stated. “Everything that they do and have done is consistent with our rules. They’re trying to give their fans the best possible product. Those are all positives.
It’s not just the fans, though. It’s the owners publicly commenting on the Dodgers’ spending, and not just the small-market owners. The owner of the Chicago Cubs talked about it. The owner of the New York Yankees talked about it.
That is significant, because money issues often divide the owners and the players less than they divide the large-market owners and the small-market owners.
The collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season. If the owners unite against Dodger-like spending, that would put the 2027 season in jeopardy.
“There are some owners that have concerns,” Manfred stated. “This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on. We need to pay attention to it. We need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward.”
MLB officers like to tout aggressive steadiness. If the Dodgers repeat as World Sequence champions, they’d be the primary workforce to take action in 25 years. If the Dodgers and Yankees return to the World Sequence, that may be the primary rematch in 47 years. On Sunday, in the meantime, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs will attempt to win the Tremendous Bowl for the third consecutive yr.
Nonetheless, within the hallways right here, this statistic was shared: What number of groups outdoors the highest 10 markets have received a World Sequence previously 20 years? Reply: Two. The St. Louis Cardinals received, twice, and the Kansas Metropolis Royals.
“I think there are a bunch of different ways to measure competitive balance,” Manfred stated. “I think it’s a different question to say: Do people perceive that the playing field is balanced and fair and/or do people believe that money dictates who wins? Those are separate concerns from who actually wins on the field.”
If the homeowners unify behind the notion that payroll is future, and if they begin banging that drum publicly, that would nicely lead towards the pursuit of a wage cap.
That line of thought outrages Tony Clark, the manager director of the gamers’ union. MLB generated a document $12 billion in income final season. He doesn’t imagine the Dodgers ought to deliver the league to a halt.
“The league, and the owners it represents, have been predicting doom for decades to justify more restrictions on salaries,” Clark advised The Instances, “but the game is healthier than it’s ever been. The real question is: Why aren’t all teams, across all markets, using the resources we know they have to put their best foot forward in an effort to be the last team standing?
“How is it that the game is breaking revenue records, but we have as many teams as we do who are unwilling to improve their club by signing players — especially in a world where more teams make the playoffs than at any point in our history?”
In deciding the way to proceed within the subsequent spherical of collective bargaining, the homeowners might be influenced by potential declines in franchise values. Manfred’s predecessor, Bud Selig, appreciated to say homeowners ought to decide him by their franchise values.
Homeowners have famous that the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning bought final yr for greater than the Baltimore Orioles, regardless of the Orioles producing considerably extra income. MLB groups mix for about $2.5 billion in native media income, in response to Sportico, and no different American sport generates even $1.5 billion. Amid the implosion of cable and satellite tv for pc tv and an unsure and up to now lower-revenue streaming future, a wage cap would supply homeowners value certainty, no less than for participant salaries.
In 1994, homeowners pushed for a wage cap. They obtained a participant strike that value the ultimate two months of the 1994 season and the primary month of the 1995 season. The homeowners haven’t significantly pushed for a wage cap since then.
Does Manfred imagine he can resolve the difficulty of income disparity with out a cap?
“I am a huge believer in the idea that there are always multiple solutions to a particular set of concerns,” he stated.
In 2023, Walter was chosen as chairman of the game’s “economic reform committee.” The committee since has been folded into one other, with a broader give attention to media.
One answer — or no less than a part of an answer — might be higher income sharing, which may imply much less cash for the Dodgers. I requested Walter if he would take into account an choice that could be in the perfect curiosity of baseball however not in the perfect curiosity of the Dodgers.
“I don’t think we’re there,” he stated. “We’re probably trying to find something that’s in the best interest of everybody.”
The 2025 Dodgers haven’t received something but, even when Baseball Prospectus this week put their possibilities of making the playoffs at 100%.
“There’s no guarantee in this thing,” Walter stated.
And simply why does he imagine the Dodgers should not ruining the sport? “We’re attracting more fans,” he stated. “There may be some issues, but this is not the end.”
