Los Angeles Dodgers plays famous in the National League West, with New York Mets in NL East.
The distance between Dodger Stadium and Citi Field is about 2500 miles, which is not as far as Shohei Ohtani beats a home run against the east for Dodgers, or Juan Soto beats a vest for Mets, it just feels that sometimes.
Things become a lot of cozier between last season’s participants in the National League Championship series within the framework of team salary. They are practically next to neighbors when it comes to how much they spend to win. And it is a gated community that contains only two massive compounds.
Dodgers and Mets are the only clubs in a 30-team league that has allocated at least $ 300 million for salary 2025 per COT’s contract at the baseball prospectus.
Near Dodgers and Mets live New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays, which will spend north of $ 241 million, which would trigger the competition balance tax. All are among a group of teams that have earmarked at least $ 200 million to spend on the payroll, including Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels.
For many, this is the beginning and the end of a conversation about who can win the World Series. But is it really? Dodger’s team president Andrew Friedman tried to offer some shade here.
With Dodgers about to win the World Series this past fall, Friedman claimed that it would be easy to say that the players’ wages are the end to beat everyone. Dodgers spent about $ 40 million less on salary than Yankees and almost $ 63 million less than Mets, according to COT’s contract.
“Wages don’t decide the position,” Friedman said. “Seeds entering the playoffs does not decide who wins the World Series. We have seen many teams spend money and not do well.”
Still, the teams that are likely to win the World Series 2025 are the ones that will spend the most.
By taking a brief look at salary reported at Spotrac, almost any number of teams outside the top 10 can reach the World Series. It is easier to count the teams that probably have no chance: Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals will probably be home in October. Everything else is on the way.
The expenses for salary can correlate by reaching the season during a certain season, but there are always exceptions. Look no longer than the 2024 finals that included Padres (14th), Kansas City Royals (20th), Milwaukee Brewers (21st), Baltimore Orioles (22nd), Cleveland Guardians (24th) and Detroit Tigers (26th).
In 2023, five teams were ranked as 19th or lower in the salary for the playoffs.
There are effective spending to envy over the past decade. Astros 2017 was 17th place in salary and won the World Series. Royals won everything in 2015 and was 13th place in salary.
After the 2023 season, Tiger’s Director General Scott Harris Friedman’s claim about what the expenses can do – and cannot – at least for his own team.
“The road to fighting means stacking as many good baseball decisions as we can possibly,” Harris said. “The faster we can do it, the faster we will be an annual challenger in this division.
“When I think about (make additions) during the low season, I see that there are no shortcuts to fight. When I think about what we can do as an organization we can spend to supplement a core; we cannot spend to build a core.”
It is undoubtedly true that Dodgers spend more money across the line than any other team, but not everything goes to pay. Friedman emphasized that player development is what builds its foundation.
Huge resources allow Dodgers to land the big fish in free agency, but player development allows them to add other frontline players. That is how the acquired Mookie was bitten in a trade from Boston Red Sox.
Big names and bigger money do not always correspond to great success. The angels make the playoffs exactly zero times with Mike Trout and Ohtani on the guard list.
When is the last time Yankees held a parade through the canyon of heroes? Mets have been storing ticker bands for decades, although the owner Steve Cohen has made it a point to lead the league in salary for three seasons and lasts four. He spends, and Mets claims, but he would prefer a more holistic attitude.
“I’ve always wanted to be more measured in salary growth,” Cohen told reporters during spring training. “I never get there. It’s never really there. I have the ability to spend if I have to. And I want to win and I want to put the best team I can in the field. But free agency is expensive. It’s just as it is, and it’s always more expensive than you can imagine.”
Dodgers can spend more money than most teams do on expensive free agents, but they also act as they do not want. Ohtani’s huge contract (10 years and $ 700 million) is actually much cheaper in the present due to postponements that Ohtani insisted on.
One of the reasons why Ohtani took launch is because of the foundation that Friedman built which is not just free agents. It is a set of conditions that Dodgers can really offer. The Minnesota -Tvildingarna could not pay Ohtani $ 700 million postponed, not because they do not have the money, but because they do not have everything else Ohtani would have to fulfill such an offer.
“(Ohtani) talked about how much he wants to win, and I think we all Jivar very well at that point,” Friedman said. “So when he presented that structure it was:” Hello, would this let you be more aggressive? “Yes, definitely.
Being heavy spends in salary and other expenses has enabled Dodgers to win 11 NL West titles in 12 years. But the championship 2024 was their second World Series victory since 1988, and first in that range for a whole season.
The last time the MLB team that spent most on the salary and also won the World Series came in 2020 with Dodgers-about than with wages that were struck because of the shortened Covid-19-Pandemic season.
Red Sox 2018 is the latest team that spent most and won everything during a whole season, per data at Spotrac. Yankees won the 2009 series as the biggest spenders. It is their only championship since 2000. They have also reduced the expenditure on salary.
So while a large salary correlates with winning games, the largest bank account is not necessarily the beginning of a direct path to the largest trophy case.
-As David Brown, Field Level Media
