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The degree to which Shohei Ohtani transformed the Dodgers was revealed in more detail Tuesday.
By agreeing to a five-year, $182 million contract with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, the Dodgers signaled their intentions to the baseball world.
They are building the next sports dynasty.
The financial considerations that previously kept the Dodgers from going all-in on an annual basis suddenly feel like they’re behind them, and the defending World Series champions now have a legitimate frontcourt starter in Snell to complement a historically dangerous lineup featuring Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Learn more: Dodgers agree to sign two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell
Stacked rosters don’t guarantee championships, but they certainly improve the odds of winning them, and not since the New York Yankees of the late 1990s and early 2000s has a franchise been so well positioned to winning title after title after title.
Ohtani was the main agent of change.
In addition to his unprecedented performance on the field, Ohtani gave the Dodgers a level of financial flexibility that the already-rich franchise had never experienced before.
When Ohtani signed, he asked the team to defer $680 million of the $700 million he would be owed over the 10 years of his contract.
“That’s what Shohei did to help us be able to put the best team around him on the field,” team owner Mark Walter said last month.
Nearly a year after Yoshinobu Yamamoto received a $50 million signing bonus, Snell will receive $52 million up front, conditional on the left-hander completing a physical to finalize his contract.
Learn more: Top 30 MLB Free Agents: Blake Snell Joins the Dodgers. Are Juan Soto and Rōki Sasaki next?
Between Ohtani’s contract deferrals and the revenue generated by baseball’s only two-way player, the Dodgers have plenty of cash.
Last offseason, the money saved on Ohtani was used to sign right-hander Tyler Glasnow to a $136.5 million extension after he was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers also signed fellow right-hander Yamamoto to a $325 million contract and signed outfielder Teoscar Hernández for $23.5 million.
Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly said last month of Ohtani: “He wants to be the most incredible baseball player in the history of the world. How do you do this? You win the World Series. And how to win the World Series? You help figure out how to make the club even better. He made the club even better when he made that decision.
This winter, the Dodgers could have gambled the upcoming season on Ohtani’s return to the mound and the possible (but not guaranteed) addition of 23-year-old Japanese firefighter Roki Sasaki, but instead agreed to sign Snell at third. the most lucrative. deal never awarded to a left-handed pitcher.
The Dodgers could have signed Snell to a similar deal when he was a free agent last year, only to settle for a more cost-effective option in Glasnow. Their more assertive approach with Snell this time indicates a general change in the team’s mindset.
Learn more: Dodgers avoid arbitration with Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, Brent Honeywell non-tender
Considering how many $300 million teams they have fielded, the Dodgers have been extremely disciplined spenders. The terms of Betts, Freeman and Trevor Bauer’s deals were favorable to the team. In notable trades for players such as Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Manny Machado and Yu Darvish, the Dodgers benefited from salary cuts.
The strategy kept the Dodgers from making crippling mistakes, but also placed them at the mercy of market conditions. When lopsided deals didn’t work out, they often didn’t do much to improve their teams. How many championships have been lost because of this?
Now, instead of letting the market dictate what they can and can’t do, the Dodgers are dictating the market. At this point, who’s to say they won’t draft Juan Soto?
President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman called the team’s 13 seasons under Guggenheim Baseball Management the “golden age of Dodgers baseball,” but that golden age may only be beginning.
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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.
