PALM BEACH, Fla. — In 2012, an attorney for Major League Baseball told a bankruptcy court judge that the league might soon find itself divided into “the Dodgers and the other 29 teams.”
That time might be now, at least according to fans outside Los Angeles. The Dodgers are the first back-to-back World Series champions in 25 years, they are guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars in local television revenue every year at a time some teams are guaranteed nothing, and they are the only team with a roster headlined by a pitcher/designated hitter/tourist attraction/marketing icon/cash machine.
For Dodgers fans, nothing could be better than a team that makes lots of money, spends lots of money, and wins unapologetically.
For other fans, not so much.
This time last year, Commissioner Rob Manfred talked about how his email reflected concern from fans across America about how their teams could not compete.
As major league owners meet here this week to consider a probable push for a salary cap, I asked one of those owners — one with a team that competes against the Dodgers in the National League West — what he hears from fans on that score.
“I think all of us recognize that fans are not happy when they see their team not being able to be as competitive as they would like,” Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick said. “That is a widely known situation.”
It is widely known in, say, Kansas City and Miami and Pittsburgh. It is more urgent in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks last won a division championship in 2011, the year before Mark Walter and Guggenheim Baseball bought the Dodgers.
To Arizona fans, the enemy is not the system, even if Kendrick says the Dodgers have mastered the system rather than skirted it. To Arizona fans, the enemy is the Dodgers.
“They are the 900-pound gorilla,” Kendrick said. “I think it’s obviously widely seen that way by everybody who has any interest in our sport. They are seen as that.
“I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way at all. They are playing by the rules.”
If competitive balance is the concern, the Diamondbacks could try to get away from the Dodgers and get out of the NL West. Kendrick did not think much of that idea.
“You have to beat everybody to win it all,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter. There is a legitimate opportunity. The last time I looked seriously at it, I think my club beat them to go to the World Series.
“They are beatable.”
In 2023, the Dodgers won the NL West by 16 games. In the postseason, the Diamondbacks eliminated the Dodgers in a three-game sweep.
“We’re in a competitive business,” Kendrick said. “I’m OK with competition. It’s all the better when you beat somebody who is more highly rated than you are.”
The Diamondbacks qualified for the playoffs that year with 84 victories, taking advantage of an expanded playoff system intended to enhance competitive balance. They did not need to spend at Dodgers levels, and they did not need to win the division. They got hot in October, and they got to the World Series.
So is Kendrick saying the Diamondbacks can compete against the Dodgers, or they cannot?
“We have competed against them,” he said. “I think, on a regular-season basis — and I’m trying to be honest about the competitive atmosphere — they are a more competitive team than we are.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t end up playing for the championship, because we just did it.”
Here is something the Dodgers just did: They signed outfielder Kyle Tucker for $60 million per year, for four years, to support Ohtani and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Will Smith in their lineup.
The Diamondbacks try, which is not true of all teams. They signed ace Corbin Burnes last winter for $35 million per year, for six years. He made 11 starts and then underwent Tommy John surgery.
To say other owners should spend more, yes. To say other owners can sign Tucker for that kind of money to accent their starting lineup, well, no.
“I think they made a solid business decision, based on the rules that we have,” Kendrick said. “They have deferred a ton of that money down the road, so the economics are not as they might appear in the moment. It’s a very, very significant investment. He’s obviously earned his money.”
He is going to help the Diamondbacks earn money, too.
Of the Diamondbacks’ seven largest crowds last season, five came against the Dodgers. The average crowd in Arizona for games involving the Dodgers: 43,441; for games against every other team: 27,865.
“It is L.A. It’s fairly close,” Kendrick said. “We get a lot of L.A. people coming to our ballpark.”
And a lot more fans from Arizona too, right?
“No,” he said. “You’re an L.A. guy.”
The Dodgers led MLB in road attendance last season. People come out to see Ohtani and the Traveling All-Stars.
“Of course,” Kendrick conceded. “When you’re a sports fan, you want to see the very best players.
“And they have many of them.”
Kendrick and his fellow owners are here to discuss some way — a salary cap or otherwise — to stop the Dodgers from having so many of the very best players.
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