Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says the media should focus on how close they came to losing rather than the money they spend. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is trying to turn the page after winning back-to-back World Series championships. But with the focus this spring on the Dodgers’ spending, it’s been hard for him to ignore all the talk about his club ruining baseball.
It comes up over and over again as the Dodgers try to “three-peat,” a term coined by former NBA coach Pat Riley. His Los Angele Lakers didn’t get it, but maybe the Dodgers, with their Major League Baseball leading $381.6 million payroll for luxury tax purposes, will.
“I think we do a great job keeping our eyes looking forward to our goal versus looking to the side at who’s around us and chasing us,” Roberts said recently. “Knowing that we have a target on us as defending champions, but ignoring all that—that’s what we do a good job of.”
The Dodgers are back with the same cast of characters, plus free agent signees outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Diaz. Those additions set off a frenzy among Dodger haters across the country.
Roberts Has His Own Job To Worry About
But here’s the deal: The Dodgers are not ruining baseball and should not be the impetus for MLB to propose a salary cap in upcoming negotiations for a new Basic Agreement. The union and the players are dead set against it causing a pitched battle between the two sides and a probable lockout if the contract isn’t settled by its expiration date of Dec. 1.
If any one of a handful of plays in the 2024 and 2025 World Series had turned the other way, the Dodgers would have been back-to-back losers rather than the first team to win consecutive titles since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. Had they lost instead, the baseball world would be mocking them for signing Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract and spending $770.3 million on player payroll over those two seasons.
“You’re right about all that, absolutely,” Roberts said. “That’s why the biggest conversation should be about that versus a payroll conversation. Because if you really watched the games, all the things that could have happened to change history—that’s what I thrive on and get my juices going about sports and baseball in particular. It’s mind boggling.”
Here Are Some Plays Roberts Is Talking About:
- In Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, the Yankees led, 3-2, heading into the bottom of the 10th inning. During the inning, Yankees manager Aaron Boone brought in Nestor Cortes, a starter who hadn’t pitched for a month, in relief. The Yankees had already used all their top relievers. With runners on second and third and two out, Boone intentionally walked Mookie Betts to load the bases for Freddie Freeman, who hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.
- During the fifth inning of Game 5 of the same series, the Yanks led 5-0 but a number of mental and physical miscues led to the Dodgers tying the score, resulting in New York’s ultimate demise. Aaron Judge dropped a line drive to center. Shortstop Anthony Volpe bounced a throw to third base that Jazz Chisholm Jr. couldn’t handle. And pitcher Gerrit Cole failed to cover first base when Betts grounded to first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Had any one of those plays not happened the Yanks would have walked out of the inning unscathed. Instead, they lost the game, 7-6, and the series in five games.
- In Game 6 of the 2025 World Series, there were a myriad of plays that could have swung the game and the series to the Toronto Blue Jays. But the one that ended it stands out. With the Dodgers leading, 3-1, and the tying runners on second and third and one out, Andres Gimenez smacked a liner toward left-fielder Kiki Hernandez, who later said he had ignored instructions and played closer to the infield. He took a step toward his left, snared the ball and threw to second base, doubling off Addison Barger, who had inexplicably wandered off the bag. The Dodgers won, tying the series.
- In Game 7, the Jays were within inches of winning the 2025 World Series. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied 4-4 and one out, the Jays loaded the base. With pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa on third for a hobbled Bo Bichette, Daulton Varsho grounded to second baseman Miguel Rojas, who threw off one foot to the plate barely forcing Kiner-Falefa, who was later chastised for not taking a longer lead. In the bottom of the 11th, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound in relief, the Jays had runners on first and third with one out and the Dodgers leading, 5-4. Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, a good right-handed clutch hitter, but one of the slowest runners in the league, was hitting. Roberts pulled the infield in to cut down the tying run at the plate, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., on third. Yamamoto threw a pitch on the outside of the plate. Kirk swung and broke his bat hitting a grounder to the perfectly positioned Betts at short. Betts quickly slid over to step on second and easily tossed the lead-footed Kirk out at first for a series-ending double play.
“We got our breaks,” Roberts said. “We got big hits. When I think about all that it just blows my mind. How many different plays came out on our side? But you have to have stuff like that. If not, coming into this year, this whole conversation would be different.”
We’d be asking the Dodgers why they’ve been such losers. Instead, they are ruining baseball.
“It’s going to go down as one of the greatest games of all time, that Game 7,” Roberts said. “Yeah, the stakes. Everything. It has to be.”