The Los Angeles Dodgers’ repeated offseason dominance has become a contentious topic around Major League Baseball.
Despite back-to-back World Series championships and the highest payroll in the sport by a wide margin, the Dodgers swooped in on two of the top free agents in this year’s class: closer Edwin Díaz and outfielder Kyle Tucker. Those two weren’t only the top guys available at their respective positions, but there was no close second.
Díaz signed for three years and $69 million, the average annual value record for a relief pitcher, while Tucker got four years for $240 million, a stunning new high water mark when it comes to the short-term deals with opt-outs that have become all the rage across the sport.
Fans of the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, and every club hoping to unseat the Dodgers as the defending champions were enraged by the additions. And the Dodgers’ general manager recently had a revelation about those deals that won’t calm any of those fans down.
During an interview with “Baseball Isn’t Boring” host Rob Bradford, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes recently revealed that the Dodgers initially did not see themselves as the favorites to land either Díaz or Tucker.
“You have to do your due diligence. You check in on guys you think would be a fit, even if it’s likely a long shot,” Gomes explained in Thursday’s “Baseball Isn’t Boring” episode. “Like, we felt Edwin was a long shot. We felt Tuck was definitely a long shot. … So I think a lot of it is due diligence, and then as things become more real, like, just being ready to fire.
The Díaz and Tucker situations were obviously quite different in nature. Díaz was a quick strike, aided by the star closer’s misgivings about how badly the Mets wanted him to stay. Tucker’s free agency lingered a long time, and he wound up with his choice of three very different contract proposals from Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, ultimately choosing the highest average annual value.
The debate about the Dodgers always comes back to what other teams can and cannot do when it comes to spending, and there are valid arguments for both sides. Could other ownership groups spend more aggressively, the way the Dodgers have made second nature? Absolutely. But at the same time, not every team has Shohei Ohtani and the hundreds of millions of bonus dollars he nets in ad revenue and merchandise sales every year, and Los Angeles also has an incredibly team-friendly television deal.
While the Dodgers may not have seen themselves as the favorites for Díaz and Tucker, the perception is becoming that if LA gets involved for a top free agent, they’ll wind up signing him. Almost everyone who loves baseball agrees that there’s an issue there, but not everyone can agree on the proper solution.
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