The Los Angeles Dodgers flexed their financial muscle last offseason when they spent over $1 billion in player contracts to add Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Tesocar Hernández, among others, to an already-talented core.
After winning the 2024 World Series, the Dodgers have continued to be aggressive with improving their roster as they recently signed Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract.
That’s bad news for the National League West and particularly the San Diego Padres, who have made a strong push to win the World Series in recent years.
During an appearance on the “Foul Territory” show, Padres manager Mike Shildt credited the Dodgers for putting the best possible team on the field but said he otherwise is focused on defeating them rather than worrying about their strategy of utilizing deferred salary:
“I mean, it’s fair by the rules that we play within, right? I mean, they’ve got a lot of advantages over there, and they understand and I believe we all would do, take advantage of those advantages. It’s a well-run organization. Can’t fault them.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them. I spend way more time figuring out how we’re going to continue to take care of them and beat them. We had a good regular season against them and took them to Game 5. My time and energy is to continue to figure out a way to move our mission forward to take care of business, win the NL West and ultimately get that big shiny prize at the end with the ring.”
Many believed the Padres had their best chance of winning the World Series this year as they posted an MLB-best 43-20 record in the second half and also took eight of 13 head-to-head matchups against the Dodgers during the regular season.
The Padres had the Dodgers on the brink of elimination in this year’s NL Division Series, but L.A. won two consecutive games to advance to the next round.
It was mostly smooth sailing from that point on as the Dodgers took down the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series in six games before beating the New York Yankees in five to capture the World Series title.
For those reasons, manager Dave Roberts felt the Dodgers’ NLDS matchup against the Padres was equivalent to the World Series.
Mike Shildt shocked by Dodgers’ NLDS scoreless streak
The Dodgers staved off elimination twice against the Padres, largely thanks to their pitching staff throwing 24 scoreless innings to end the NLDS.
“I think ‘stunning’ is appropriate,” Shildt said after the Game 5 loss. “Yeah. I’ve got to tip your hat, and while we’re doing it, congratulations to the Dodgers.
“Hard fought, a lot of things going on in the season. Had them down. They were able to come back. So congratulations to them.”
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