But at the end of January, one payroll tracker, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, projected the Dodgers’ 40-man 2025 payroll at $389m for the purposes of MLB’s “luxury tax”, which brings down the financial hammer on clubs that spend over $241m a year.
Since cruising past the New York Yankees in last year’s World Series the Dodgers have strengthened their already-deep squad, with the reported signing of 37-year-old reliever Kirby Yates to a one-year, $13m contract taking their off-season spending to more than $450m.
In the past five years Los Angeles have committed more than $1bn to eight players in deferred salaries while also paying hefty signing bonuses and being among the league leaders in annual payroll in the here-and-now.
Spring training does not begin until mid-February but rivals are already pessimistic, perhaps even panicked, about their prospects of stopping the Dodgers, who also won the World Series in 2020 and have topped the National League West division in 11 of the past 12 seasons.
As the only North American major league without a salary cap, MLB is uniquely vulnerable to the climate of inequality that has taken hold in European soccer in recent decades, with a handful of big clubs dominating thanks to overwhelming financial superiority.
