Rob Manfred Says Dodgers Spending Complies With MLB Rules, Acknowledges Concerns

The Los Angeles Dodgers became the story of the 2024-2025 Major League Baseball offseason, even after winning the World Series. All because their ownership group and front office decided that they should continue trying to win by signing the best available players that fit their needs. In a competitive sport. Where fans pay money to buy tickets and invest hundreds of hours in watching games on television.

The absolute horror. Don't they know that teams aren't supposed to actually try to win games? Using whatever advantages they have? They're supposed to let other teams beat them, because that is how sports work. 

The absurd fan reaction to the Dodgers' offseason additions and re-signings, including Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Hyesong Kim, Michael Conforto, Tommy Edman and Blake Treinen, has reached MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Manfred spoke about it at spring training, and said the Dodgers' spending has conformed to the rules of the game.

"The Dodgers have gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules…to be the best possible team on the field. I think that's a great thing," Manfred said.

He did acknowledge that there are fans who are concerned about competing with LA's roster, per Bob Nightengale. "It's clear that we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers," Manfred said.

And that's how cheap billionaire owners get away with it.

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30:  Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hoists the 2024 Willie Mays World Series MVP trophy after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in  Game 5 to clinch the 2024 World Series presented by Capital One at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 in New York, New York. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Billionaire Owners Thrilled To Direct Criticism At Dodgers

The hand wringing, pearl clutching and outright anger towards the Dodgers has gone beyond concern over competition and into outright absurdity.

Per Sportrac, the New York Mets have the highest total payroll allocation in 2025 at nearly $322 million. They had the highest payroll allocation in 2024 too, with the Dodgers coming in fifth behind the aforementioned Mets, Yankees, Astros, and Phillies. 

The Mets also had the highest payroll in 2023, with a whopping $342 million in payroll allocations, compared to the sixth-place Dodgers with $240 million. The Dodgers haven't led the league in payroll since 2022, when they outspent the Mets by six million dollars. In the last four seasons, New York has outspent LA, per their actual payroll allocation, by $109 million. 

The Dodgers are just better at spending money than the Mets. And fans are furious about it.

The entire conversation also misses several key points. Yes, the Dodgers have deferrals, but those deferrals have to be accounted for, per MLB rules, by the team putting money into a specific account within two years of the contract start date. It's not just a free loan that they can use to do whatever they want. The deferrals also benefit players as much as the team. Players in high-tax states like California and New York can take those retirement payments in a lower tax burden state like Florida, Texas, or Arizona. The Mets also have handed out deferred contracts to top players like Franciso Lindor and Edwin Diaz. The Red Sox just signed Alex Bregman to a heavily-deferred contract. The scale of the deferrals is larger with LA because of Shohei Ohtani. But what fans are most upset about is the Dodgers reinvesting Ohtani generated marketing revenue into making the team better.

What they should have done, per opposing fans, is pocket that profit and stop trying. Even after years of endless criticism that they were postseason chokers and nonsensical ravings that they only had a "Mickey Mouse ring." Makes sense.

Where this criticism becomes especially absurd is giving cheaper owners a free pass. The Pirates haven't signed a multi-year free agency contract since the Obama administration. That's not a market size problem, it's a "we view our fans as a piggy bank and don't care about trying to compete in a competitive sport" problem. The Marlins spent effectively nothing in free agency, despite playing in Miami, one of the biggest markets in the country. 

St. Louis is hardly a big market. In fact, it's one of baseball's smallest, yet the Cardinals have routinely run top-10 payrolls. They've also won two World Series since 2006, the exact same number as the Dodgers. 

Same with San Diego, which ranks 24th in MLB's market score calculations yet outspent the Dodgers in 2023. Meanwhile, Oakland ranked number eight and their owner spent as little as possible. To put it into perspective, the Athletics and Marlins are spending less…combined…than the Kansas City Royals, who play in the league's third-smallest market.

So the Dodgers have not led the league in payroll in four seasons, other billionaire owners are refusing to even remotely pretend to care, deferrals have to be accounted for and help players too, and many, if not most, teams use them with their players too.

But because they're actively trying to compete and put the best team on the field, within the rules, they're the villains. Sure.