The claim that wealthy baseball teams like the Los Angeles Dodger are able to buy their way into championships isn’t exactly true, but has some sort of truth to it. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first team to popularize deferring hefty contracts they give out to their athletes while they actively play for the team. Usually when a player retires and they’re owed money on their contract a team will defer those payments for a long time, but the Dodgers are different by deffering contracts while these athletes are playing. According to Bet MGM the average MLB roster for all thirty teams is around one hundred fifty million, with the Dodgers being the most expensive team with over three hundred million dollars owed to its players. This offseason alone the Dodgers spent 450 million dollars which outspends every other team. Specifically the Dodgers got multiple all star level players, a cy-young pitcher, the best prospect pitcher, and the Dodgers are definitely still not done making moves. Last offseason the Dodgers gave the best player in baseball Shohei Ohtani a contract of 700 million dollars over ten years and deferred 680 million dollars of his contract until 2034. Meaning Ohtani is getting paid two million dollars a year instead of seventy million dollars. Not only did the Dodgers defer this deal, but also deferred 115 million dollars from Mookie Betts, 66 million dollars from Blake Snell, 57 million dollars from Freedie Freeman, 50 million dollars from Will Smith and 25 million dollars from Tommy Edman which will all be paid out by 2046. The Dodgers owe players around a billion dollars in just deferred payments alone which hasn't stopped them from still acquiring the best talent. There is no salary cap in the MLB meaning teams can spend as much money as they want, but can face penalties for spending too much money, but teams just pay a fine. A team like the Dodgers has plenty enough money to pay fines for spending too much money on players. Just because a team has the best players doesn’t mean the team will fit well enough to win the World Series. Last season the Dodgers won 98 out of 162 games, but the past three seasons with an objectively worse team they won over 100 games. Even with the worst record they’ve had in three years they still did end up winning the world series. The Dodgers have the best team that they’ve had on paper in the past three years, therefore they should do well. However injuries, and having a down year for one of the older teams in the MLB can definitely cause some issues. The Dodgers have the best roster and are currently favored to win the World Series, however nothing is certain and in the realm of sports anything is possible. Having enough money allows teams to acquire the best players in order in an attempt to win, but nothing is certain in sports. Teams with more money have better chances of winning, and those teams that spend less money typically don’t do well during the regular season. Therefore the Dodgers use money to their advantage to build a World Series eligible roster, but nothing is certain until you see the team hoisting a trophy.
https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/mlb/mlb-teams-highest-payrolls-2023-bm15/#:~:text=The%20 average%20 total%20 team%20 payroll,far%20in%202025%20is%20%24146%2C410%2C509.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43610514/yankees-hal-steinbrenner-spending-dodgers-difficult-most-owners
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42815541/mlb-offseason-2024-25-free-agency-los-angeles-dodgers-deferrals-1-billion-snell-ohtani
