Money is essentially growing on trees for the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
According to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, the Dodgers owe $2 billion to seven players on the roster:
- Shohei Ohtani: $700 million
- Mookie Betts: $365 million
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto: $325 million
- Blake Snell: $182 million
- Freddie Freeman: $162 million
- Will Smith: $140 million
- Tyler Glasnow: $136.5 million
Nearly half of that money is deferred through 2046, with the biggest contributor being Ohtani, who has $680 million worth of his contract deferred. However, Ohtani’s contract is essentially paying for itself with the revenue he’s helped to bring in.
“The Dodgers, who are still expected to re-sign Clayton Kershaw and are also hoping to bring Hernández back, are currently in line for a 2025 payroll of roughly $210 million, second behind only the Philadelphia Phillies,” Gonzalez reports. “Their CBT payroll projects to $285 million, according to Spotrac — $40 million more than the second-place Phillies and $85 million more than the third-place New York Yankees. The Dodgers are all but guaranteed to exceed MLB’s highest luxury tax threshold in the two years remaining on the current collective bargaining agreement, which means drafting 10 spots later and paying tax surcharges of up to 110%.”
A question that has risen over the deferred money is whether the Dodgers are somehow gaming the system. President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman recently tackled the controversy after signing Snell.
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During Snell’s introductory press conference, Friedman was asked if the franchise found a loophole in being able to defer so much money.
“I think we’re rewarding our incredibly passionate fans,” Friedman responded.
“I think the Shohei one is just jarring to people because it’s so different, and I think the others just unfairly get lumped into that,” he continued. “But I think it’s kind of a lazy narrative.”
Friedman was also asked about having around $1 billion in deferred money tied to the future.
“It’s just how you account for it,” Friedman noted. “You have to fund a lot of it right now and having that money go to work for you. We have a lot of our ownership group from a financial background and can have that money going to work right now and just making it not something that sneaks up on us. We’re not going to wake up in 2035 and be like, ‘Oh my god, that’s right, we have this money due.’ We’ll plan for it along the way.”
Because of their winning ways and willingness to spend money unlike other MLB teams, the Dodgers are a premium destination for free agents. They have won two World Series in the last five seasons and have made the playoffs for the last 12 years, and this streak shows no signs of ending.