One Dodgers veteran thinks more teams should spend like the Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been criticized recently for potentially ruining baseball by putting the best possible team on the field. Having won the 2024 World Series, and following that by bidding on the best available free agent in Juan Soto, the Dodgers are doing what every professional sports team aspires to do: win, and win a lot.

The controversy stems from how. The Dodgers are deferring approximately $1 billion in future contract obligations, a practice explicitly allowed by baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Some teams have been reluctant to offer deferred-money contracts even though they've been around since Bobby Bonilla agreed to begin deferring pay from the New York Mets 30 years ago.

The Dodgers aren't even baseball's biggest spenders. In terms of 2024 salary outlay, they were outspent last season by four teams — the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, and Philadelphia Phillies — according to Spotrac. Still, the Dodgers seem to be drawing singular criticism in advance of their potentially signing more star players.

One Dodgers veteran believes the teams that ought to wear criticism are those whose owners don't spend big.

“Every single one of these teams is making money," Dodgers infielder Max Muncy said Wednesday on Foul Territory. "I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t care what kind of book they show you to try to prove their point. They’re all making money. They all get a huge revenue-sharing check from MLB every single year. It’s just who decides to spend it? In our case, our owners looked at it, and they’re spending money and because of that they’re making more money. It seems like a common, easy business model. The more money you spend, the more money you make. For them it seems like a pretty good deal.”

Muncy isn't the only one to make this argument. Considering his team just won the World Series, it's easy for the statement to come across as arrogant, but his point is valid.

Valuations of MLB franchises are going up across the board, not down. Teams are generally smarter now than they have ever been when it comes to issuing "bad contracts" to players who fail to deliver value. Not spending money on good baseball players makes less sense than ever.

The Dodgers hold the unique advantage of employing Shohei Ohtani, whose estimated $65 million in endorsement earnings also made the Dodgers an attractive team to numerous Japanese-based companies looking to hang advertisements in Dodger Stadium this year.

What makes the criticism of the Dodgers especially indefensible? No team has won the World Series in back-to-back seasons since the New York Yankees of 1999-2000. There is simply no proof of concept that one team can dominate the league by hoarding star players. The nature of baseball, where the 26th man on the roster can play just as critical a role as the first, makes it too difficult.

Good on the Dodgers for trying their best to defy history.

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