After winning the World Series by signing Shohei Ohtani, the best player in the game, to a mega-deal with deferred payments, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Roki Sasaki, the best young pitcher in Japan, Blake Snell, one of the best pitching free agents on the board, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, two of the best relievers available, Hyeseong Kim, an impressive Korean infield phenom, and Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez, two of their most notable 2024 pieces in danger of leaving in free agency, and still had room left over to bring back Clayton Kershaw for another year, bring on Michael Conforto as a veteran OF piece.
...and the other 29 teams have to just go on and do the season anyway knowing that the Dodgers, already the best team in baseball, just made themselves ten times better.
The argument I hear most often in regards to the Dodgers, and to a lesser extent the Mets, breaking the game with big contracts and deferred payments, is 'well if all the other teams cared as much as the Dodgers brass about cultivating the best team, they'd spend whatever they could.' And it's an argument that makes...some sense. Like obviously someone like Bob Nutting or John Fisher isn't going to give billions away to players, because that's not in their business MO. The idea is getting someone like Steve Cohen, who WILL give all the money he has away to get Juan Soto and Sean Manaea, and that only happens if someone like Nutting or Fisher realizes the problem is them and sells the team. And just as a general point, no multimillionaire is ever going to have that moment of sudden self-awareness. They're all so removed that they're not gonna snap to it like the average person is expected to. It'll only be when they get bored and want something bigger.
But there are a lot of teams that DO have the money to pull in big players, like the Angels, the Tigers, the Blue Jays and even at times the Rays [remember, they had all that money to offer the one guy they really should have done a background check on], and are either outbid or don't have the full circumstances to win over free agents. Of course people are gonna wanna come to LA, especially if they're getting paid all that money. A lesser deal to play somewhere like Detroit or Toronto isn't going to cut it comparatively. So yes, other teams can try, and they can go for broke trying to rope in the best players, but there's a reason the best players keep going to the Dodgers or the Mets or Yankees. Ultimately there is something appealing about playing there that the other guys just can't match.
And so here we are. The Dodgers are too stacked, and are heading into a season where they're the overwhelming favorite. Even if people get hurt, and with this pitching staff that's always a possibility, there's tons of proven backup options. The infield is also stocked with plenty of depth options. Tommy Edman can play 2nd, 3rd and the outfield. Enrique Hernandez can play second or the outfield. Chris Taylor, and yes he is still here, can play multiple infield and outfield positions. Even Hyeseong Kim is a 2B/OF type. Andy Pages, and ultimately James Outman, are there if outfielders get hurt. This team has so many contingency plans that keep them one of the best teams in baseball even if people get injured, and that is in direct response to last season, a season which still ended in a World Series for them.
The great thing about baseball is that nothing is truly written, and there are circumstances that can rise and unseat predictability. But with a Dodgers team this good, is there anything they haven't prepared for? Is the window of this team riding high then losing in the NLDS fully closed? Or is there hope for an underdog to exploit a weakness this team hasn't thought of yet? I'm hesitant, especially after last season, but hopeful.
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