Dodgers Payroll: Walking the Tightrope

The Los Angeles Dodgers are reportedly under an MLB mandate to reduce their payroll, from a high that reached nearly $300 million in 2015, to $200 million by 2018. They continue to spend wildly (more on that later), and yet we have yet to hear even a peep from the Commissioner’s Office. Is Rob Manfred paying attention, or is something else going on here?

According to Spotrac, the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers payroll currently stands at around $187 million. Not too bad for them, you might say. And that would be true, except that figure doesn’t include the recently added contracts of Kenley Jansen, who they signed to a five-year, $80 million deal, and Justin Turner with a deal of four years and $64 million. With these two salaries added, the total now extends to around $220 million.

Which again, you might say is still pretty good for the Dodgers. Except the Dodgers are not done yet. They’re not done because they can’t be done, and because with these two signings they’re essentially back to square one when they had both players last season. They don’t have a second baseman, so they’re in hot pursuit of Brian Dozier, who set a record for most home runs by a second baseman with 42 with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are desperate for pitching help and the Dodgers have plenty of that, so a deal makes sense on both sides. For once, the Dodgers have a chance to score big on the money side, with Dozier due to make just $15 million over the next two years.

Dodgers Hope the Stars Line Up Perfectly

So, according to the estimates made by Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers’ payroll for the upcoming season should be around $250 million, and that includes a $31 million luxury tax.

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Basically, the Dodgers are engaging in a form of legalized gambling by wagering that the upcoming CBA increase in the “salary cap” before a tax is applied (around $10 million), together with about $40 million coming off the books when they say goodbye to Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and Alex Guerrero, will deliver them to the promised land. If they can do that, they would avoid the loss of more draft picks, the penalty Rob Manfred would impose if their payroll doesn’t fall in line with the guidelines he set down.

The trouble with all of this is that the Dodgers’ plan, albeit a good one, does not take into account any measures to improve the team beyond what they already are, which is a playoff bound team that is not capable of going very far once they get there.

Which leads into the next thing about the Dodgers. No one really cares if the Dodgers win or lose. They’ll draw their three and a half million fans every year like clockwork, no matter who’s on the team. And that’s because going to a Dodgers game is a rite of passage in L.A. Only you better not get there before the fourth inning. Because that’s not cool.

The Dodgers Might Outrun Inept Ownership

The good news for hardcore Dodgers fans though is that they still have one of the best baseball organizations in the majors. And Corey Seager isn’t the last budding star that will rise up from the talent they have in the minors. It’s unfortunate, though, that the same cannot be said about their current owners, the Guggenheims, who while successful in other business endeavors, apparently have zero sense about how to operate a baseball franchise.

Next: David Ross Is Just Getting Started

And for that, Major League Baseball has only itself to blame for the way they rushed in to award the franchise to the Guggenheims following the “war of the roses” between Frank McCourt and his wife Jamie that played out like a soap opera for months on end, before a gun was aimed at them and they were coerced into selling. Sort of reminds you of The Who and “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, the players have a chance to take things into their own hands when play on the field begins in just three (hopefully) short months.