The degree to which Shohei Ohtani transformed the Dodgers was revealed in more detail on Tuesday.
By agree to a five-year, $182 million contract With two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, the Dodgers signaled their intentions to the baseball world.
They are building the next sports dynasty.
The financial considerations that previously prevented the Dodgers from push the all-in on an annual basis we suddenly have the impression that they are behind them, and the defenders World Series the champions now have a legitimate front-row starter in Snell to complete a historically dangerous lineup including Ohtani, Bets on Mookie And Freddie Freeman.
Learn more: Dodgers agree to sign two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell
Stacked rosters don’t guarantee championships, but they certainly improve the odds of winning them, and not since the New York Yankees of the late 1990s and early 2000s has a franchise been so well placed to win title after title after title.
Ohtani was the main agent of change.
In addition to his unprecedented performance on the field, Ohtani gave the Dodgers a level of financial flexibility the already rich franchise had never experienced before.
When Ohtani signed, he asked the team to defer $680 million of the $700 million he would be owed over the 10 years of his contract.
“That’s what Shohei did to help us make sure we could put the best team around him on the field,” team owner Mark Walter said last month.
Almost a year later Yoshinobu Yamamoto After receiving a $50 million signing bonus, Snell will receive $52 million up front, provided the left-hander passes a physical to finalize his contract.
Between Ohtani’s contract deferrals and the revenue generated by baseball’s only two-way player, the Dodgers have plenty of cash.
Last offseason, the money saved on Ohtani was used to sign right-hander Tyler Glasnow. a $136.5 million extension after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers also signed fellow right-hander Yamamoto to a $325 million deal and I got the outfielder Teoscar Hernández for $23.5 million.
Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly said last month of Ohtani: “He wants to be the most incredible baseball player in the history of the world. How do you do this? You win the World Series. And how to win the World Series? You help figure out how to make the club even better. He made the club even better when he made that decision.
This winter, the Dodgers could have banked the coming season on the return of Ohtani to the mound and the possible (but not guaranteed) addition of the 23-year-old Japanese firefighter. Roki Sasakibut instead agreed to sign Snell to the third-most lucrative contract ever awarded to a left-handed pitcher.
The Dodgers could have signed Snell to a similar deal when he was a free agent last year, only to settle for a more cost-effective option in Glasnow. Their more assertive approach with Snell this time indicates a general change in the team’s mindset.
Learn more: Dodgers avoid arbitration with Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, Brent Honeywell non-tender
Considering how many $300 million teams they have fielded, the Dodgers have been extremely disciplined spenders. The terms of the Betts, Freeman and Trevor Bauer deals were supportive of the team. In notable trades for players such as Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Manny Machado and Yu Darvish, the Dodgers benefited from salary cuts.
The strategy kept the Dodgers from making crippling mistakes, but also placed them at the mercy of market conditions. When lopsided deals didn’t work out, they often didn’t do much to improve their teams. How many championships have been lost because of this?
Now, instead of letting the market dictate what they can and can’t do, the Dodgers are dictating the market. At this point who can say they will not sign Juan Soto?
President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman called the team’s 13 seasons under Guggenheim Baseball Management the “golden age of Dodgers baseball,” but that golden age may only be beginning.
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This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
