It was quite bold, even on the part of the Dodgers‘ standard. Their $17 million left fielder Last year they fell short, so they threw $240 million on another corner outfielder to complement the three most valuable players already on their roster.
However, as Kyle Tucker smiled to the cameras at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, it was hard to imagine that this man could sign here and win the 2027 season with him.
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Tuesday, l’Athletic cited an ownership source who described Tucker’s signing as a tipping point that made it a “100 percent certainty” that owners would push for a salary cap when the collective bargaining agreement expires this fall. Owners complain about Dodgers signings Shohei Ohtani And Yoshinobu Yamamoto And Tyler Glasnow And Blake Snell And Tanner Scottand so on, and it seems silly that the signing of one Kyle Daniel Tucker would single-handedly turn the owners in a direction that many of them have already indicated they want to go.
“I agree,” said the man who signed it, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. Andrew Friedman.
Learn more: Plaschke: The Dodgers’ ruination of baseball continues with Kyle Tucker, and it’s a beautiful thing
If baseball comes up with new rules next year, the Dodgers will follow them. In the meantime, Friedman said, their “single goal” is to provide the best possible product for fans. this Dodger Stadium pack every night and shop the team store like crazy. In return, he said, the Dodgers can sell themselves to stars like Tucker.
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“A destination is where players and their families feel incredibly well taken care of,” Friedman said. “If they’re playing in front of 7,000 people, they don’t feel that as much.
“Playing in front of 50,000 people and seeing the passion and how many people live and die for the Dodgers every summer and every October, I think, adds to the experience and the appeal of playing here.”
He also said this, which might infuriate some fans and perhaps some owners outside of Los Angeles: “It’s not just about spending a lot of money.”
If the Dodgers’ spending habits border on satire, well, The Onion got there first. Twenty years ago, when fake news meant fake, The Onion published this title: “The Yankees guarantee the 2003 pennant by signing every player in baseball.”
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The Yankees led the major leagues in payroll that year and for the next 10 years. They won the World Series once during that span, in 2009. They haven’t won since.
So when the Dodgers splurged last winter, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered a measured response.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things they do,” Steinbrenner told YES Network. “We’ll see if it pays off.”
Learn more: Dodgers’ torrid offseason continues with star outfielder Kyle Tucker
This is indeed the case. The Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series. In 2024, they made more money just from ticket sales than about half of the 30 teams made. total income. Ditto for their local television revenues.
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There’s more: around $200 million in sponsorship income last year – thanks, Shohei. In total, they welcomed approximately $1 billion last year – an MLB record – which means they spent almost 600 million dollars in terms of payroll and luxury taxes while still making money.
At this level, cries that other team owners should just spend more start to ring a little hollow. Of course, they should spend more. But the problem is how to persuade the owners to spend another $100 million when the Dodgers could still spend $300 million on them.
The Yankees can do the kinds of things the Dodgers do, and the San Diego Padres have shown how small-market fans behave. when an owner is more concerned with winning than profit. However, the implosion of cable and satellite television means local media revenues have exploded for teams outside major markets.
Half of MLB teams have never paid even one player the $240 million the Dodgers promised Tucker. The Dodgers had already done it with Ohtani, Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.
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Owners might agree that teams should share more of their revenue, with luxury tax penalties not only in cash, but also in restrictions that would hamper the ability to compete, something more significant than losing a few draft picks.
But this deal with Tucker: the Dodgers committed $64 million in signing bonus – not to mention salary! – to a player they probably didn’t need. Owners will be very happy to argue that the luxury tax has failed and only a salary cap will stop the New York Dodgers and Mets.
Kyle Tucker’s contract includes a $64 million signing bonus. (Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)
This was part of the Onion’s 2003 satire: “Yankees manager Joe Torre, whose pre-mass signing pitching rotation lacked a clear seventh ace, now has the luxury of pitching each of his pitchers twice per season.”
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“ “As they say, you can never have enough pitches in this league,” Torre said. »
Let’s see: Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan. It could be six aces. And because you can never have enough: Ben Casparius, Kyle Hurt, Landon Knack, River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski. There could be a seventh ace out there, or on the trade market during their next running year: Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers, or even Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers.
A salary cap would provide cost certainty, which would likely allow owners to sell teams for more money. It’s debatable whether a salary cap would solve the competitive balance problem — in the capped NFL, the AFC championship game has included either the New England Patriots or the Kansas City Chiefs for 15 straight years — but that would be the owners’ choice.
The same goes for this: You could compete with the Yankees for the first two decades of this century, but you just can’t compete with these Dodgers, even if it reflects less on payroll than on management, a dash of fluke in October, and that horrible fifth round of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.
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In 1994, when the owners canceled the World Series rather than abandon their quest for a salary cap, the next season started a month late, and even then the owners didn’t get a cap hit. If they really want a cap, baseball insiders say, owners will have to vow to stand together and support what NHL owners did to get one: cancel an entire season.
For the Dodgers and their fans, it’s someone else’s problem, at least for this year. In Los Angeles, the prevailing question isn’t “salary cap?” but “Three repetitions?”
Tucker likely to hit ‘second or third’ in Dodgers’ lineup, manager Dave Roberts said. He will improve the defense by playing right field, allowing Teoscar Hernández to move to left field.
Of all the potential offseason acquisitions the Dodgers have discussed, Friedman said, “No one has really moved our World Series odds for 2026 more than Kyle Tucker. »
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I asked Tucker how he felt about having so much power that his signing could bring an end to what the owners consider a struggling sport.
“I think baseball is in a good place,” Tucker said. “We have phenomenal attendance all over the world. … The fans are very supportive of their teams, their players and their organizations. I think it’s a good thing to have that interaction with everyone, and I think it’s just going to grow the game from there, as long as we can – as a league and as players – continue to grow the fan base.”
Learn more: Shaikin: Make starting pitchers great again? MLB is not. This independent league will attempt
Ohtani and the Dodgers are rock stars, as evidenced by the team selling seats for $253 stageside on the field during the annual event. fan party next week.
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The players will not play. They will appear for short interviews with the team’s broadcasters.
Grandstand seats are available from $28 to $153, for an event that was free two years ago. While fans and owners of other teams complain, the Dodgers get over it and find ways to make even more money.
Life is good when you are a champion. Enjoy it this year, Dodgers fans. If a lockout occurs next January, as it likely will, the fan festival will not take place.
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This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
