The Los Angeles Dodgers have spent plenty in order to build their roster over the past two offseasons, culminating in back-to-back World Series titles.
Heading into the 2025 season, there were plenty of front office executives from other teams who were critical of the Dodgers’ payroll. New York Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner was one of those voices, stating that it’s difficult for most owners to compete with what the Dodgers are doing financially.
He was skeptical of the chances that such strategy would work for L.A. for a variety of reasons, with injuries and randomness of the postseason chief among them.
Even with the Dodgers’ latest success, it hasn’t necessarily changed Steinbrenner’s position on matching their level of spending.
When appearing on SportsNet New York (SNY), he gave the Dodgers credit for winning a second World Series in a row but pointed to examples of why spending an exorbitant amount on payroll doesn’t guarantee a championship:
“If there’s a correlation between spending the most money and winning a championship, I still think it’s a weak correlation. Sample size of data, not very big. But they earned every bit of it. I mean, they struggled with injuries throughout the season. But they got healthy at the right time. The rotation got healthy, and when that rotation is healthy, they’re tough to beat.
“And they, quite frankly, played up to their potential. They really played up to their potential. Especially those last two games. That has to happen. Your players have to play up to their potential when you’re playing a team as good as the Blue Jays and playing under that kind of pressure in the World Series.
“So hat’s off to them. It’s not easy to do twice, and they did it in dramatic fashion this time. But again, we’ll see what they do next year and how it pans out. There was nothing low about my payroll and the Mets’ payroll, and look where we ended up.”
The Yankees didn’t spend the most money in free agency last year, but they did do so smartly.
Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt were the two biggest moves the Yankees made. The left-handed starting pitcher signed for eight-years, $218 million, while the first baseman signed a one-year contract worth $12.5 million.
The Yankees were in the mix for Juan Soto and his record-breaking contract before he signed with the New York Mets on a 15-year, $765 million deal.
Both signings nevertheless worked out well for the Yankees, with Fried finishing fourth in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
As it currently stands, the Yankees are projected to once again have a top-five payroll in baseball during the 2026 season.
Dodgers confident if MLB salary cap arrives
Even if the Dodgers’ spending needs to be curtailed some by a potential MLB salary cap, it’s highly likely nothing would change regarding their ability to contend for a World Series year in and year out.
The Dodgers’ drivers of success go far beyond spending money in free agency, which is one reason president and CEO Stan Kasten downplayed any concern.
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