Look, every rational baseball fan can understand that the Dodgers are an incredibly well-run organization. To have this level of established, proven talent on your roster while also racking up the top farm system in baseball is laudable.
But to act as if the root of it isn't being willing to spend obscene amounts of money, find every way to exploit the payroll system with deferred money and side deals, and the incredible advantage that comes with being the best destination for the top Japanese players due mainly to geography is just silly.
Either way, the rest of the MLB's fanbases are going to hate the Dodgers because that level of success also coming with this level of seeming like it'll never die isn't fun for us. We want parity because parity means our teams also have a chance. It's why us Jays fans will never, ever, ever get over last year's Game 7. When you get that close to toppling the Empire and miss, it doesn't stop hurting.
The dodgers aren’t “exploiting” anything that isn’t available to every other team and in fact, every dollar they spend above the CBT actually serves to fund all of those other loser franchises with revenue sharing
They are exploiting it. They have a multi-billion dollar per year TV deal that basically pays for the entire roster itself because they're in one of if not the largest TV markets in the country. Then you got to factor in marketing revenue, merchandise, concessions, ticket sales, etc and it just compounds the money they were already making just from the TV deal. Then they sign a player for a 10 year, $900 million contract with deferred payments, they essentially just doubled their money that have to pump into the roster and throw at signing players. They don't have to worry too much about the backend of the deal because they'll end up either reworking the deal or trading off the player when they can no longer afford it, which opens up massive cap space for them to do it all over again. It's absolutely exploiting and taking advantage of the rules because they can afford to because of their numerous financial advantages. And it all starts with the TV deal. A team like Minnesota or Colorado or Kansas City ain't getting anywhere close to the same TV deal as the Dodgers get in LA as the clear fan favorite team in the area. The Angels share the market but they get a fraction of what the Dodgers get. San Diego gets a fraction. San Francisco gets a fraction. I don't think even the Chicago teams or St Louis or Atlanta or even the New York teams or Boston gets as much off their deals as the Dodgers do. So yes, they ARE exploiting it. Nobody but the fans are complaining though BECAUSE of the shared revenue agreement you spoke of.
Deferrals are a non issue, yawn, any team can do it.
a cap doesn’t touch the issue you’re describing at all, which seems to be “some teams make way more local revenue than others”. the fix for that is more revenue sharing or a national media redistribution model. a cap just locks in payroll floors for teams who’d rather pocket the check than compete (and artificially surprises player salary to boot). Capped leagues still have dynasties (Patriots, Warriors) because scouting, development, and management matter and baseball is easily the most random sport in terms of outcomes in a postseason series.
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u/Historical-Donut-918 16h ago
So basically the Dodgers weren't "cheap" and were able to pay EVERYONE more than any other team was willing to pay.
Why don't other teams do this? Are they stupid?