Dodgers president defends team's offseason spending

The Dodgers introduced their latest big-ticket free agent signee on Thursday.

Team president Stan Kasten was among those in attendance at the press conference to celebrate Tanner Scott joining the club on a four-year free-agent deal.

Asked about the Dodgers second consecutive monster offseason, Kasten defended the organizations spending.

This is really good for baseball.

I have no question about it, he told reporters ( link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic ).

Kasten pointed out that MLBs playoff volatility reduces the chance for any individual team to post a dynastic run of World Series titles.

He argued that the Dodgers roster-building approach should energize both their own fanbase and those of other clubs who want to see them fail.

On the entertainment side, which is what we are, its really good when theres one beloved team by their fans who come out in record numbers, leading all of baseball in attendance, while that same team can be hated and lead baseball in road attendance.

Thats a win-win for baseball, Kasten said.

Needless to say, not everyone outside Los Angeles shares that opinion.

ESPNs Jeff Passan published a lengthy column looking at both the Dodgers successful Roki Sasaki pursuit and their overall success in both free agency and internal player development.

Unsurprisingly, the Dodgers have gotten backlash not only from opposing fans but from rival front offices.

Thats in response to both L.A.s overall willingness to spend and the level of deferrals theyve included in most of those contracts.

Readers are encouraged to check out Passans piece in full.

Cots Baseball Contracts projects the Dodgers for a luxury tax payroll of around $375M.

The Phillies have the second-highest layout at roughly $308M.

The Yankees are the only other team above $300M by that estimate.

The gap between the Dodgers and the 30th-ranked Marlins is almost $300M.

Passan writes that the payroll disparity (plus the $765M guarantee which Juan Soto secured from the Mets) has led to a rekindling of talks amongst owners who hope for the implementation of a salary cap.

New Orioles owner David Rubenstein, who purchased the franchise from the Angelos family last spring, is among those in support.

I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do, and maybe eventually we will, but we dont have that now, Rubenstein told Yahoo Finance at this weeks World Economic Forum in Davos.

I suspect well probably have something closer to (the salary caps and floors) the NFL and the NBA have, but theres no guarantee of that.

A cap, of course, would need to be collectively bargained.

Major League Baseballs owners have attempted to implement a cap in many previous CBA negotiations.

The MLB Players Association has refused to budge on that issue, as it remains strongly opposed to putting fixed limits on players earning power.

The luxury tax is designed to curtail spending at the top of the market.

It has indeed served as a deterrent for some big-market franchises but obviously is a barrier that teams are free to cross if ownership is willing.

I think the big city teams have some advantages.

Now, in Los Angeles, they have another advantage, Rubenstein added.

They have Japanese players, [a] number of them that they got like Shohei, and people in Japan really love watching the Dodgers, and they sell a lot of merchandise in Japan for Dodgersplayers.

A salary cap would not have directly influenced the Sasaki signing.

His earning power was hard-capped by MLBs international signing limit for amateurs.

Sasaki qualified because he hasnt turned 25.

He signed for a $6.5M bonus that is hundreds of millions of dollars below what he wouldve commanded had he been a true free agent.

The Dodgers spending may have indirectly influenced his decision hes joining the defending champions on a roster that already had a pair of Japanese superstars in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto but the geographic and endorsement reasons for his signing are outside the purview of a cap.

Nevertheless, its clear that many fans are frustrated by how this offseason has transpired.

More than two-thirds of respondents to a recent MLBTR poll indicated they hoped for a salary cap to be implemented during the next round of collective bargaining, which will take place after the 2026 season.

Roughly half of respondents said theyd be willing to sacrifice the entire 27 season to a work stoppage if it meant the league could successfully leverage the players union into agreeing to a cap.

Deferrals are another source of agitation for many fans, particularly after Ohtanis deal that deferred $680M of his $700M guarantee.

The Dodgers are neither the first team nor the only current club to defer significant money.

The Nationals had deferrals on a few deals (e.g.

Max Scherzer , Patrick Corbin ) that were crucial to their 2019 World Series win.

The Blue Jays deferred around two-thirds of the salary on Anthony Santanders contract just this week.

Still, the Dodgers have deferred a much greater amount of money than anyone else within the past year-plus.

Ohtani, Will Smith , Blake Snell , Teoscar Hernandez , Tommy Edman and Tanner Scott have all deferred payments on recent contracts.

As MLBTRs Tim Dierkes covered shortly after the Ohtani signing, the deferrals are not really a workaround the luxury tax.

In many cases, those contracts net present value which adjusts the deferrals for inflation ended up around expectations.

As Passan notes, the CBA requires teams to set aside money for future salaries within two years of signing a contract that includes deferrals.

Passan points out that the deferrals and significant signing bonuses, which many of those deals included, are advantageous for the players to minimize taxes under California law though.

None of this will change in this offseason or next.

Were less than two years away from the expiration of the CBA and what seems likely to be another offseason lockout.

These conversations will take on greater urgency as that draws nearer.

This article first appeared on MLB Trade Rumors and was syndicated with permission..

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