One of Thirty

Are the Los Angeles Dodgers ruining baseball, Dave? What a thing to say.

Last night, the Dodgers completed the National League Championship Series sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. For what it’s worth, the Brewers won the NL Central and had the best regular season record in all of baseball, finishing 97-65, while the Dodgers won the NL West, finishing 93-69. According to FanGraphs, the Brewers ranked 22 out of 30 teams in payroll spent (approximately $118.9 million). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers, rank 1 out of 30 teams in payroll, spending a whopping $390.1 million -- more than three times what the Brewers spent to earn a spot in the NLCS.

In case you’re wondering, Cleveland ranks 25 out of 30 teams, spending around $103.3 million in 2025. We won the division and made it to the Wild Card round -- a feat in and of itself.

But I digress.

I am no expert on the business side of baseball and really try to know as little about it as humanly possible. But I would venture a guess that the ownership group for the Dodgers would win awards in being awesome at owning a baseball team if such specific awards existed. The World Series trophy is about as close as you can get and the Dodgers have won that sucker twice in the last five years. While their goal is to win it every single year (as is it the goal of all 30 teams), the thing that sets the Dodgers apart from almost every other team is they have the capital to invest in the roster and all other systems related to supporting an atmosphere for winning. And they have done it by going out and getting the best available players.

The obvious example is Shohei Ohtani, who signed a 10-year $700 million dollar contract with the Dodgers in 2023. For the majority of that contract (2024-2033), he is being paid $2 million per year while deferring the bulk of what he’s owed to later years. Specifically, from 2034-2043, he will be paid $68 million per year. If this sounds insane (which is honestly should), it’s actually good business for an organization like the Dodgers.

And here’s why:

Shohei himself can also earn money through endorsements, jersey sales, and other means while trying to make ends meet during these lean $2-million-per-year days. This year alone, he’s earned $100 million outside of his baseball paycheck.

Absolutely insane.

And that’s just one of the Dodgers’ superstar players. Their roster is full of them. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Blake Snell, Kike Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernandez, Hyeseong Kim, Andy Pages, just to name a few. The whole team is ridiculous, especially when you compare them to a much smaller market team like Cleveland. Ours is not a roster of household names -- theirs is.

So let’s go back to Dave Roberts’ comment -- are the Dodgers ruining baseball?

First of all, I think it’s a dumbass thing for him to say in a presser after sweeping the Brewers, a team that frankly would have appreciated the chance to play in the World Series more than a team that ho-hums its way there annually. The Brewers, as a franchise, have actually never even won the World Series, so there’s no need to be an arrogant asshole in this moment, Dave.

Second of all, it reveals how Dave Roberts sits atop the throne in his little LA kingdom surrounded by all the finest in the land, tittering to the peasants that they should eat cake or fuck off. It matters not to him as he maniacally laughs his way to the bank.

Third of all, it’s the wrong framing of an important issue. Are the Dodgers ruining baseball? No. I think the Dodgers organization is business-smart. Because, look, there are plenty of other teams with bloated payrolls who didn’t even make the playoffs (cough, Mets) as well as teams whose fanbases expect their team to be in the World Series every year (cough Yankees). Here are the Dodgers who spend more than everyone and are expected to perform at the highest level at all times and consistently doing both. They’re doing a lot right besides paying high salaries to marquee players. Doesn’t that make them a success story? Something enviable? That all other teams should hurry up and adopt this model to stand a chance to compete with these juggernauts?

Maybe.

How the Dodgers “ruin” baseball for me is that they bore me to tears. This is going to be a hugely unpopular take but I have zero interest in Shohei Ohtani. Z E R O. Great player, no doubt. Do I want to watch him play? Meh. Not really. Would I be more interested in Shohei if he played for, say, the Toronto Blue Jays, a team that tried their darndest to sign him when he became a free agent? Honestly, yes, I would. What about a guy like Mookie Betts? Mookie is one of my favorite non-Cleveland players. Smart dude, community-minded, seems down to earth, great team player. Truth be told, I paid more attention to Mookie’s career when he was with the Red Sox than his time with the Dodgers. How about Freddie Freeman. Is there a more likable player than Freddie? Possibly not. Do you think that Freddie wishes every single day that his stupid agents hadn’t mislead him about staying with the Braves and just played his entire career in Atlanta? I’d be willing to bet money that Freddie wishes he was a Brave. And I wish that for him, too.

The “ruin” that comes from a team like the Dodgers is that they’re so manufactured and so perfect and so stacked with talent that when they win, it’s more of a shrug than anything else. Of course they won. Look at who they’ve got. They’re the ultimate Goliath. Beating the Dodgers has that extra sweet feeling of having taken down the best constructed team in baseball.

But I don’t find them to be a fun team to watch.

Obviously, I’m not speaking for the majority. Dollars don’t lie and it’s evident how wildly popular the Dodgers are, even if only by the cashflow related to Shohei Ohtani alone. But when you’re a diehard fan of the sport like I am and I’d rather watch old Different World episodes on Netflix than watch the Dodgers play a baseball game, that’s something I reflect on. Why don’t I want to watch this Perfect Team play?

The simple truth: they bore me.

Last year when the Yankees and the Dodgers played in the World Series, I didn’t watch a single pitch. The Yankees piss me off and the Dodgers put me to sleep. I’ll see what new movies are available to stream on HBO Max instead. Thanks.

Again, I’m not the majority -- the viewership average for that 5-game series was 16 million. One of the best World Series I’ve watched in recent years was the 2023 matchup between the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks -- but because neither of those teams are “household” enough, the average viewership for that 6-game series was around 9 million.

What that tells me, though, is that Major League Baseball has a marketing problem. Because the average person has only heard of the Yankees or the Dodgers or the Red Sox -- they aren’t familiar with some of the smaller market teams and have absolutely no knowledge of their players. While this is clearly not something that MLB treats with any sense of urgency, I’d argue that they should. Because that Rangers/Dbacks series was awesome. And it’s a shame it was so underwatched by the world because they have only been conditioned to believe certain teams are “good.”

That falls squarely on Major League Baseball’s shoulders. Instead of solely promoting the “big name players” like Shohei or Aaron Judge (of the Yankees), it would be refreshing to see a plan to devote equitable attention to the teams. If the Yankees and the Dodgers are the most brand-recognizable to folks regardless of if they’re baseball fans or not, then maybe you find out which teams are the least recognizable and have the least broad interest and start by bringing forward those stories about those rosters. Every single team is full of talented players. Not all of them become superstars or Hall of Famers, but they all have a unique path that brought them into the elite brotherhood of Major League Baseball. Do a better job making that known, MLB. I know it may run counter to your instinct to let the rich keep on getting richer, but if you did a better job recognizing that ALL 30 TEAMS are your product then you’d see the benefit of striving to make every team a household name.

Personally, I’m far more invested in the American League Championship Series between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays (aka the Canadian Guardians, since they feature six former Cleveland players). The series itself is more competitive as it heads into Game 6 on Sunday. Will the M’s close it out and prepare to face the Dodgers in the World Series or will the Jays clap back and force that Game 7? I’ll certainly be tuning in to find out.

Josh Naylor hugging teammate Eugenio Suarez after Geno’s game-winning grand slam

The Mariners/Jays series feels like two really good teams with an equal chance of advancing to the World Series. As someone who isn’t a necessarily a fan of either club but a fan of the sport, I have genuine respect for both organizations and will cheer for whichever of the teams advances to face the Dodgers.

As for the Dodgers, well, give a listen to this conversation between Mookie Betts and Dave Roberts last year on Mookie’s podcast:

These two dudes (who I am fans of them both) are talking as if their roster is the cast of Major League -- some nobody’s and has-beens who are just being scrappy and pulling off unbelievable feats with only a hope and a prayer on their sides. It’s truly mind-bending. Acknowledge you’ve got some insane advantages in the game -- it’ll make you far more relatable.

Instead, what you do is brag about how thrilled you are to be ruining baseball.

I mean, cool. Go off, sis.

Ultimately, this isn’t a Dodgers problem -- it’s a Major League Baseball problem. And one that could be resolved by acknowledging the value of more of the teams in the league instead of lazily focusing on teams that already have huge revenue potential. Hey, you ever think that making your entire product appealing to more people could increase that revenue potential?

These, among others, are the reasons that there will probably be a player lockout in 2027 -- because millionaires are going to get into it with billionaires about what’s “fair” while Major League Baseball plays the “look over there” game instead of owning that this was all preventable by simply caring more about the league as a whole.

But what do I know. I’m just a fan. A season-ticket-holding, merch-purchasing, lifelong-baseball-loving fan. I’m nobody, MLB, just your target demographic with a proven track record of getting others to enjoy the game as well. Tap into what’s working and build from there instead of turning a blind eye to things that are in your control.

Stop letting the Dodgers take all the credit. They’re merely one of thirty. That’s just simple math.

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