Alden GonzalezMar 17, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
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- ESPN baseball reporter. Lined the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are not only a baseball group nowadays. They’re a logo. For enthusiasts of the opposite 29 main league golf equipment, they’re a supply of both indignation or longing. For rival homeowners — and the commissioner who solutions to them — they exemplify a widening payroll disparity that should be addressed. For gamers, and the union that represents them, they’re a beacon, embodying all of the characteristics of a success organizations: astute at participant building, invested in behind-the-scenes parts that make a distinction and, maximum prominently, desperate to pump their oversized revenues again into the roster.
The Dodgers make use of seven gamers on nine-figure contracts, with 5 of the ones offers reached during the last 15 months. Additionally they have the most powerful farm gadget within the recreation, in step with ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. Their lineup is loaded and their rotation is adorned, but in addition their long run seems to be vivid and their sources appear endless. And but their leader architect, Andrew Friedman, is not waiting for a victory lap.
“It simply does not actually land with me in that manner,” Friedman, coming into his eleventh 12 months because the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, stated in a contemporary telephone dialog. “I feel as soon as I am getting fired, as soon as there may be like actual distance between being mired within the daily and when I am not, I can glance again at the ones issues. However for us at the moment, all of it feels very precarious.
“We’ve got noticed a large number of actually a success organizations that fall off a cliff and take some time to construct again. We do not take any of it as a right.”
Not anything lasts without end. Each empire has fallen, each and every dynasty has light. However what the Dodgers have constructed feels uniquely sustainable. A evident reminder got here closing month, when Main League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, used to be requested whether or not outrage over the Dodgers’ spending reminded him of the way enthusiasts felt in regards to the star-laden New York Yankees groups of the early 2000s, recurrently known as “The Evil Empire.”
The present Dodgers, Manfred stated, “are almost certainly extra successful on a share foundation than the previous Yankees have been, that means it may well be extra sustainable, so it’s extra of an issue.”
The phrase “downside” is determined by one’s standpoint. Dodgers enthusiasts without a doubt would not describe it as such. Because the group prepares to start its season on Tuesday in opposition to the Chicago Cubs in Japan — a rustic through which they’re respected, in a chain backed through their possession staff — it is value working out how the Dodgers were given right here.
It used to be the results of their procedure, but it surely additionally required a number of huge steps during the last dozen years.
Underneath is a have a look at their greatest leaps.
Jan. 28, 2013: They signed a media megadeal
Originally of 2013, the Dodgers, lower than a 12 months into Guggenheim’s possession, landed a large local-media deal spanning 25 years and valued at $8.35 billion, or $334 million yearly on reasonable. However for the remainder of that decade, it certified as a large headache. A stalemate between AT&T and Constitution Communications intended greater than part the Southern California marketplace used to be not able to get entry to the group’s channel, SportsNet LA, from 2014 to 2020.
Because the deadlock endured and tensions escalated, the Dodgers’ media deal got here to signify a rising conflict between sports activities channels that call for upper charges and content material vendors cautious of constructing shoppers pay for content material they don’t devour. Now — 5 years after the 2 facets after all struck a deal, airing Dodgers video games on AT&T video platforms and just about doubling the selection of families to greater than 3 million — it exemplifies a rising disparity this is damn the business.
The Dodgers’ local-media deal runs longer than maximum and is dearer than some other, however here is the kicker, in step with a supply acquainted with the deal: Whilst maximum regional sports activities networks are arrange as subsidiaries beneath a company entity, leaving them within the lurch after they fall into arduous occasions — like Diamond Sports activities Team, a former Sinclair subsidiary that used to be pressured out of business when debt fastened and subscribers fell off — the Dodgers have whole company backing from Constitution, a large media conglomerate.
So now not handiest do the Dodgers generate way more in native media than any in their competition, however at a time when the linear-cable fashion is drying up and groups face expanding uncertainty with RSN contracts that constitute about 20% of revenues, their deal is fairly iron-clad. This is particularly precious taking into consideration they are in a department the place 3 groups — the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies — have misplaced their native media offers.
Dec. 21, 2018: They swung a business that streamlined their payroll
4 days earlier than Christmas in 2018, the Dodgers achieved a unprecedented wage sell off. Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Picket, Kyle Farmer and money have been despatched to the Cincinnati Reds for Homer Bailey, who used to be promptly launched, and two younger gamers who would later assist cause blockbuster acquisitions, Jeter Downs and Josiah Grey. The chance element used to be secondary; the actual receive advantages used to be the cash stored, which gave the Dodgers further wiggle room underneath the luxury-tax threshold and helped them stay debt-service compliant the next 12 months.
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In a larger sense, it used to be the fruits of a multi-year effort through the entrance workplace to rid the Dodgers of bloated contracts and streamline a payroll that in the end was pressured through huge offers for gamers like Kemp, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford and Adrián González. The Dodgers’ luxury-tax payroll dropped through about $50 million from 2017 to 2019, in which level handiest two gamers — A.J. Pollock and Kenta Maeda — have been signed past the following two years. In Friedman’s thoughts, the Dodgers have been now unfastened to be competitive.
“For our first 4 to 5 years, it used to be as a lot about looking to be as aggressive as we may well be whilst getting our long run payroll outlook in a greater spot,” he stated. “On the finish of the 2019 season used to be the primary time we had reached that time and have been in role to be extra competitive on the height of the free-agent elegance.”
Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon headlined that offseason’s free-agent elegance. The Dodgers did not come away with both of them.
They might quickly make up for it.
Feb. 10, 2020: Mookie Betts was to be had — they usually pounced
The Dodgers engaged in preliminary business conversations round Betts main as much as the business closing date in 2019, however then the Boston Purple Sox gained 5 of 7 in opposition to the Tampa Bay Rays and the Yankees close to the tip of July, and abruptly Betts used to be unavailable. A tone used to be set nevertheless.
“We knew, with him going into his closing 12 months of keep watch over, that there used to be a possibility they’d glance to business him going into that offseason,” Friedman recalled. “There used to be a transfer of their baseball-operations division, and Chaim Bloom used to be employed, who I’ve a just right courting with. I spent a large number of time speaking to him to start with. For him, it used to be about getting his toes at the floor and working out the organizational path of what they have been doing. And it wasn’t till January the place he opened the door to have interaction.”
Friedman, who gave Bloom his first front-office process in Tampa, in the end landed Betts and David Value for Alex Verdugo, Downs and every other position-player prospect in Connor Wong on Feb. 10, 2020. Friedman had lengthy coveted Betts now not only for his splendid skill, however for his paintings ethic and aggressive edge and the way the ones qualities appeared to raise the ones round him. Inside of 5 months, Betts agreed to a 12-year, $365 million extension, eschewing unfastened company.
March 17, 2022: Freddie Freeman was a wonder unfastened agent addition
When Freeman hit unfastened company after successful the 2021 International Sequence with the Braves, Friedman assumed he would merely go back to Atlanta. So did everybody else — Freeman integrated. He used to be a homegrown megastar poised to sooner or later get his quantity retired and feature a statue out of doors Truist Park. However preliminary conversations slightly advanced, and the Dodgers noticed a gap.
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At the afternoon of Dec. 1, moments earlier than the game would close down in the course of a sour hard work battle, Dodgers gamers, coaches and bosses collected for Betts’ wedding ceremony in L.A. Friedman, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts and then-third baseman Justin Turner in short stepped away to name Freeman. They sought after to depart a long-lasting influence earlier than an owner-imposed lockout would restrict communique between groups and gamers. They sought after to be the closing membership he heard from.
The message, necessarily: Do not disregard about us.
Friedman stated he “were given off the decision feeling find it irresistible used to be extremely not likely” that the Dodgers would land Freeman. But if the lockout ended on March 10, the Braves and Freeman’s then-agent, Casey Shut, nonetheless could not bridge the distance, both on period or price. 4 days later, the Braves traded for every other megastar first baseman in Matt Olson, leaving Freeman surprised. 3 days after that, he pivoted to the Dodgers, coming to phrases on a six-year, $162 million contract.
2022-23 offseason: They sat out the shortstop marketplace
When Corey Seager was a unfastened agent on the finish of the 2021 season, the Dodgers had a ready-made alternative in Trea Turner, who have been bought with Max Scherzer the former summer time in a deal that despatched Grey and 3 different minor leaguers to the Washington Nationals. But if Turner himself was a unfastened agent a 12 months later, the Dodgers did not anything to shore up some of the recreation’s maximum necessary positions.
Turner was a part of a historical elegance of free-agent shortstops, at the side of Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson. The Dodgers did not pursue any of them, although they did not have a transparent alternative. The Dodgers will have have shyed away from years of uncertainty at this role through locking in a confirmed megastar, however doing so used to be infrequently entertained.
The reason being now obtrusive.
“With the place we have been commitment-wise,” Friedman stated, “and with Shohei [Ohtani] arising the following offseason, it used to be only a upper bar to transparent for us to do one thing that will have any damaging skill for us to pursue Shohei.”
Dec. 11, 2023: Ohtani selected them
By the point Ohtani was a unfastened agent in November of 2023, the Dodgers’ roster used to be loaded however their payroll used to be manageable, with handiest Betts and Freeman assured past the following two seasons. The Dodgers may boast a contending group — with two franchise pillars and a wealth of younger skill — but in addition pitch Ohtani at the promise of including different affect gamers round him, without reference to his monstrous contract. It labored.
Now, Dec. 11, 2023, stands as one of the crucial huge dates in Dodgers historical past. Ohtani now not handiest joined the Dodgers that day, however he agreed to defer greater than 97% of his 10-year, $700 million contract. The Dodgers have turn into notorious for his or her propensity to defer cash, a mechanism to offer gamers with a better ensure however, given the power to take a position deferred commitments, is most commonly really useful to the Dodgers (regardless that most likely now not up to one may assume).
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Ohtani’s deal used to be adopted through the addition of 2 frontline starters — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who landed a freelance value $325 million, and Tyler Glasnow, who used to be bought by means of business and therefore signed a five-year extension value with regards to $140 million. Ohtani did not pitch in 2024, however he put in combination some of the biggest offensive seasons in baseball historical past, beginning the 50/50 membership and turning into the primary full-time designated hitter to win an MVP.
Simply as necessary, from the Dodgers’ standpoint: He generated huge quantities of earnings.
Ohtani had MLB’s top-selling jersey through a large margin. With him at the roster, the Dodgers struck sponsorship agreements with 11 other Eastern corporations all the way through the 2024 season. Two Ohtani bobblehead giveaways caused enthusiasts to line up out of doors Dodger Stadium as much as 10 hours earlier than the primary pitch. Eastern guided excursions in the course of the ballpark — a twice-a-day, four-day-a-week addition — by no means relented. The present stores steadily had strains out the door.
The Dodgers would possibly not reveal how a lot further earnings they generated from Ohtani closing 12 months, however group president Stan Kasten has many times stated it blew away even their maximum constructive projections.
Oct. 9, 2024: They survived Sport 4 of the NLDS
It is wonderful, given the distance the Dodgers lately occupy, that 5 months in the past they carried a name as, properly, chokers. Their championship on the finish of the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season have been completely disregarded for its unconventionality. Extra prevalent in most people’s thoughts used to be 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023, seasons that ended with gifted groups getting eradicated early through inferior warring parties.
The 2024 season used to be temporarily headed in that path. On Oct. 9, the Dodgers trailed a Padres membership that used to be extensively regarded as extra well-rounded two-games-to-one within the best-of-five Nationwide League Department Sequence. Their depleted rotation had run out of starters. They might level a bullpen sport with their season at the line. And they might live on. The Dodgers close out the Padres in Sport 4, close them out once more in Sport 5, then cruised previous the New York Mets and Yankees to seize their first full-season championship since 1988.
What adopted used to be a 2nd directly offseason through which the Dodgers added nearly each and every participant they sought after. That integrated a frontline starter (Blake Snell), two nook outfielders (Teoscar Hernandez and Michael Conforto), 3 top class bullpen items (Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Blake Treinen), two fan favorites (Clayton Kershaw and Kiké Hernández) and one of the crucial alluring pitching potentialities in a era (Roki Sasaki). A key software participant (Tommy Edman) used to be additionally prolonged. The price: every other $466.5 million in assured cash, instantly after an offseason through which they assured with regards to $1.4 billion in signings and extensions.
Roberts, contemporary off a record-setting extension, has mentioned how he may had been fired had he now not navigated his Dodgers previous the Padres closing fall. Friedman said that the Dodgers almost certainly do not spend as a lot if they do not win the International Sequence and generate the additional earnings that comes from it, regardless that he referred to as that “a lazy wager.”
Nonetheless, when requested how ceaselessly he has thought of how lifestyles could be other if the Dodgers hadn’t gained Sport 4 of the 2024 NLDS, Friedman stated: “0 mins.”
“We have now been at the just right facet of the ones video games and at the unhealthy facet of the ones video games,” he added, “and I have spent 0 mins enthusiastic about what the sector would seem like if the result have been other.”
All that issues now could be a truth that exhilarates their enthusiasts and infuriates everybody else: The Dodgers glance about as insurmountable as a franchise can also be on this recreation.
