Are the Los Angeles Dodgers the new 'Evil Empire'?
Have the Los Angeles Dodgers replaced the New York Yankees as the new 'Evil Empire'?
For those of you who don't know, it all started in 1919 when Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees for $100,000 because Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee over-extended himself financially in his non-baseball ventures.
Yankees owner Jacob 'Colonel' Ruppert also made a personal loan to Frazee (at an unknown interest rate) for $300,000 to make the deal happen.
That was just the start of many championships to come for the Yankees, and they dominated the sport until the 1960's
As I'm sure every Yankees fan will remind you every minute of everyday.
And then came along George Steinbrenner in the 1970's.
Steinbrenner was known for his big boss attitude and ran the club with an iron fist.
Steinbrenner was controversial in those days with his personal life, and his public rants with managers and players a like.
There were always rumors of collusion with the Yankees and MLB because of the amount of money Steinbrenner threw around.
He was the head of what became known as the 'Evil Empire'.
A moniker given to Steinbrenner's club by fans of every other team in major league baseball because of Steinbrenner's propensity to outbid and purchase any player the Yankees wanted or needed.
One example is when Steinbrenner got into a bidding war with the Montreal Expos in 1977 over the services of long time Oakland A, and one time Baltimore Oriole Reggie Jackson.
Jackson ended up signing a five-year deal for $3 million with the Yankees because the aforementioned clubs simply could not compete.
The Yankees rarely developed their own stars back then, they just bought or traded for every other clubs best players as soon as they became available to win championships.
By the time the 80's and 90's rolled around all the small market teams just felt like part of the evil empires farm system.
Today the 'Evil Empire' moniker under Steinbrenner's son Hal has kind of lost its luster, he's not as brash, doesn't throw money around as much and keeps a low profile. Well as low as you can for the city of New York anyway.
Sure the Yankees steal a player here and there but Hal Steinbrenner has learned to actually develop their own players, and have a pretty good farm system these days.
So with all that being said, who is the new 'Evil Empire'?
It's without a doubt the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I think you have to look back to the trade of Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts and David Price in in 2020.
After coming of an American League MVP win, a World Series championship in 2018 and a down year in 2019, the Red Sox could no longer afford Mookie Betts or David Price.
They couldn't trade him to an AL East rival (especially the Yankees) who had the players and capital to make it happen, so they traded Betts to a National League team with the same kind of capital. The Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers fleeced the Red Sox in the deal sending Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong to Boston for Mookie Betts and David Price.
Because of that fleecing of the Red Sox the Dodgers easily won the World Series in a shortened 60 game season in 2020.
To say that Red Sox fans had a sour taste in their mouth was a massive understatement.
Then came along Shohei Ohtani.
When the Dodgers ugly stepsister the Los Angeles Angels could no longer afford to keep Ohtani and Mike Trout, you knew the Dodgers were going to go all out to get him.
At the time the Angels, Blue Jays and Dodgers were offering Ohtani everything they possibly could, in fact the Toronto Blue Jays offered more money than both LA based teams and still the Dodgers came out on top.
Ohtani signed a 10-year $700 Million contract with the Dodgers.
Toronto Blue Jays fans were devastated when they learned the Blue Jays offered more and embarrassed when they were led to believe that Ohtani was on a flight coming to Toronto.
All the while Ohtani was sitting on his couch at home in California watching it all unfold instead of reaching out to someone to tell them it wasn't true.
The rest of MLB were laughing at Jays fans because of the hoax but not for long.
When the rest of the league and its fans learned about all the deferrals in Ohtani's contract the laughing stopped immediately.
for instance of the $700 million in the contract only $2 million was on the books for Ohtani in 2024 allowing the Dodgers to keep under the luxury tax radar, and in turn allowing them to add more firepower to their lineup.
Then not long after came the betting scandal in which Ohtani's interpreter Ippei Mizuhara eledgedly stole $16 million from Ohtani to place bets with bookmaker Mathew Bowyer without Ohtani's knowledge.
The rest of the League and its fans found it very hard to believe that Ohtani had no knowledge about the missing $16 million dollars that his interpreter stole and placed bets on until Ippei Mizuhara was caught.
In fact there are a lot of people and conspiracy theorists who think that Ohtani was placing the bets and using his interpreter as a buffer in case he got caught.
MLB investigated it and found Ohtani to be devoid of any wrong doing.
Conspiracy theorists will tell you of course MLB found him devoid of any wrong doing, he isn't just the face of a franchise Shohei Ohtani is the face of the entire sport.
Again the Dodgers are accused by many to be in collusion with MLB.
So because of all the deferrals in Ohtani's contract and all the others that followed, like Teoscar Hernandez for instance, it allowed the Dodgers (according to Braves fans) to steal away Freddie Freeman (one year removed from winning a world series with Atlanta) to the Dodgers.
All the previous deferrals allowed Freddie Freeman to signed a 6-year, $162,000,000 contract also laced with deferrals.
The Dodgers have since acquired Tyler Glasnow, Michael Conforto, Tommy Edman, Blake Snell, Jack Flaherty, Micheal Kopech, Blake Treinen the list goes on.
Lets not forget Japanese phenom pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto who the Los Angeles Dodgers also to a 12-year $325 million deferral laced contract.
After another World Series win in 2024 every free agent on the planet wants to play with the virtual All-Star team in Los Angeles.
We will start with former Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez who was a big contributor in the playoffs and in the 2024 World Series for the Dodgers.
Teoscar was thought to be a lock in re-signing with the Dodgers but held off due to their difference of opinion on term and deferrals.
The Toronto Blue Jays reached out with a better offer, however Teoscar ended up coming to an agreement for less money with the dodgers because he had a better shot at winning in LA.
Who could blame him for that? Certainly not me, but many other fans were not happy because no other team, including the Blue Jays can compete with a club that is a virtual an All-Star team.
Players would rather take less to play in LA because of predetermined side deals and they have the biggest shot to win.
Many fans believe there should be a salary cap to level the playing field for the smaller market teams, just like the NHL and other professional sports.
It would allow other teams to be more competitive and get rid of the perception of collusion and side deals.
So here we are in 2025 and the latest 23-year old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki is posted for all teams to take a run at and after visiting the Dodgers first, then other clubs including the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Sasaki has one last meeting in LA with the Dodgers and again after the Blue Jays offered nearly double what the Dodgers had on the table.
Nobody in the industry or its fans were surprised that Sasaki went to LA, actually most people saw it to be a done deal before Sasaki even made the rounds to other teams.
So much so that there are whispers of a handshake deal made with the Dodgers prior to Sasaki visiting other cities and listening to other teams proposals. Indicating that Sasaki was just going through the motions, wasting everyone's time when he knew all along that he would be a Dodger.
According to Jack Harris of the LA Times, MLB conducted an investigation into the suspected handshake deal with the Dodgers and found no evidence of any wrong doing by Sasaki or the Dodgers.
Again people around the league, former GM's and conspiracy theorists allude to collusion between MLB and the Dodgers.
MLB teams and it's fans are looking at the Dodgers as the new 'Evil Empire' and like the Yankees before them fans will be rooting for them to fail because everyone likes an underdog, and for Blue Jays fans its always a good day when the Yankees and now Dodgers lose.
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| POLL | ||
JANVIER 19 | 208 ANSWERS Are the Los Angeles Dodgers the new 'Evil Empire'? Should MLB have a hard salary cap to level the playing field with smaller market teams? | ||
| Yes | 190 | 91.3 % |
| No | 18 | 8.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
