Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I think the price of a Dodger Dog might have just gone up a little.
In case you were vacationing on Mars and missed it, last week the Dodgers and free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker agreed to a four-year, $240-million contract. The deal lets Tucker opt out if he wishes after the second or third year. It also includes a $64-million signing bonus and $30 million of the total salary is deferred, reducing the net present value to a mere $57.1 million a year.
Last season with the Cubs, Tucker, who turned 29 Saturday, hit .266/.377/.464 with 23 doubles, 22 homers and 73 RBIs. He walked 87 times and struck out 88 times in 597 plate appearances. He was hampered throughout the middle of the season by a broken pinkie, which he played through. He spent part of September on injured reserve with a strained calf and hit .259 in the postseason, with one homer in eight games.
In his career (769 games), Tucker is hitting .273/.358/.507, finished fifth in NL MVP voting in 2023 when he led the league with 112 RBIs and has an OPS+ of 142, meaning he has been 42% better than the league average.
Does this make him worth $57.1 million a year? Probably not, but the Dodgers obviously have a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot more money than everyone else. So, this is probably like me or you paying someone $50 a day to paint our house.
No matter the money, he should be a big upgrade over Michael Conforto. Tucker’s downside is his injuries the last two seasons, as he played in only 78 games in 2023 because of a broken shin. But what Dodger plays a full season anymore? Not many.
This is your current Dodgers lineup:
DH-Shohei Ohtani
SS-Mookie Betts
1B-Freddie Freeman
C-Will Smith
RF-Kyle Tucker
LF-Teoscar Hernández
3B-Max Muncy
CF-Andy Pages
2B-Tommy Edman
That’s pretty decent.
Of course, we all know what’s going to happen. The Dodgers will go into spring training favored. Someone somewhere will write that they will win 120 games this season. Injuries will hit the pitching staff. The offense will go into a week-long slump. They will win 93-100 games and everyone will say what a disappointment the team is. But, they will win the World Series.
It’s like the third part of any trilogy. You know what is going to happen, the fun part is how entertaining they make it until the curtain falls.
But what does this mean for baseball?
Not long after the Tucker-Dodgers news broke, the artist formerly known as Twitter went into meltdown with fans of 29 other teams saying the Dodgers are ruining the sport by buying all the best players. This brings to mind several thoughts.
Before I get to that though, an admission: I grew up a Dodger fan. If I grew up in Kansas City as a fan of the Royals, would I feel the same way? I don’t know, it’s impossible to say. No matter how impartial we try to be, all of us bring our biases into situations, even if it is subconsciously.
I do find it comical when Yankees fans, or Mets fans, complain about the Dodgers.
So, the thoughts:
1. Shohei Ohtani did the Dodgers a huge favor when he agreed to only receive $2 million a year from his 10-year, $700-million deal, receiving the remaining $680 million in $68-million installments from 2034 to 2043, with no interest. His salary still counts for $46 million per season under the luxury tax, but that’s a far cry from $70 million. The Dodgers also bring in millions of dollars a year in endorsements from brands that want to advertise with the team Ohtani plays for. Is this unfair? I don’t see how it is. The Angels could have been doing the same thing, but they pretty much bungled the handling of Ohtani throughout his career.
2. The Dodgers paid a record $169.4 million in luxury tax overages in 2025. It will be even higher next season, unless they shed some salary. Some of that money is distributed to small market teams. Some of those team owners basically pocket the money rather than invest it and make their team better. It’s hard to blame the Dodgers for anything here.
3. Other teams had chances to sign Tucker. Reports are that the Mets offered four years, $220 million (with a $75-million signing bonus). The Blue Jays offered 10 years, $350 million. So, the Dodgers aren’t the only team offering large contracts to players. The day after the Tucker news, the Mets agreed to terms with free agent Bo Bichette on a three-year, $126-million deal.
4. This is interesting. Guess when this was written:
“Consider it Part XIV in a continuing series.
“So now comes this: The Dodgers’ payroll increase is so enormous, it’s dragging the rest of baseball with it into uncharted fiscal territory.
“Yahoo Sports estimates that Major League Baseball’s opening day payrolls will rise 7.1% this season and that more than half of the increase will come from the Dodgers alone.”
That appeared in The Times in 2013. So this is nothing new. Before the Dodgers, it was the Yankees.
The Dodgers signed Kirk Gibson to a large deal (for the era) before the 1988 season. Do you want to give the 1988 World Series title back? The Dodgers gave Orel Hershiser a huge contract. They lavished big contracts on Darryl Strawberry, Don Stanhouse and Dave Goltz. They gave a record deal to Kevin Brown. This has been going on for years. It’s now how much money you spend, it’s if you spend it smartly.
5. Tying into the previous item, the Dodgers now have the best front office leader in baseball in Andrew Friedman. He was in charge of the small-market Tampa Bay Rays from 2004 to 2014, and in that time, this team with few resources made the postseason four times and the World Series once. People would say “What could Friedman do with money?” Now we know.
6. The Dodgers aren’t breaking any rules. They are just playing the same game everyone else is. Yes, they have financial advantages, but why shouldn’t they play fairly within the established rules? It’s up to MLB and the players’ union to decide that something needs to change. And there will probably be a lockout after the 2026 season. Will it end up with a salary cap, meaning you won’t be able to sign a player if it puts you over the cap? People are predicting a long, ugly, protracted dispute. In the meantime, the Dodgers have the core of their team set for well past whenever baseball returns after the labor dispute.
7. The Dodgers were pretty much laughingstocks to many because they couldn’t win a World Series despite the high payroll. That all changed in 2024. So suddenly it’s bad?
8. The Padres were up 2-1 in the 2024 NLDS and could have knocked out the Dodgers. The Blue Jays were up 3-2 in the 2025 World Series and were one hit away from winning it all. Would that have changed the narrative?
9. Whenever I ask people for the “golden age” of baseball, they will frequently say “When Mickey Mantle played.” Or “When Sandy Koufax played.” Guess what, when Mantle played, the Yankees were in the World Series almost every year, and won most of them. When Koufax played (in his prime), the Dodgers were in the World Series three times in four years and won two of them. Most sports become popular when there is one team to root against. Usually it’s a New York-based team, or the New England Patriots, or the Boston Celtics. Now it’s the Dodgers. Last season’s World Series was the most watched since 2017. Ratings during the season for network/streaming broadcasts were up 12%. If what the Dodgers are doing is ruining baseball, a lot of people watching haven’t caught on.
10. The Dodgers draw the highest road attendance of any other team. If the Dodgers are ruining baseball, the fans in other cities sure seem to want to watch them do it.
11. What are the Dodgers supposed to do, say, “This isn’t fair, so we are going to stop trying to improve our team?”
We’ll stop there. There are many pros and cons to the issue. So let’s ask you, Are the Dodgers ruining baseball?
Clayton Kershaw is back!
OK, that may have been a little misleading. Kershaw is not coming back to the Dodgers, or the MLB. He is however going to be on Team USA for the World Baseball Classic.
“I just want to be the insurance policy,” Kershaw told MLB Network. “If anybody needs a breather, or if they need me to pitch back-to-back-to-back, or if they don’t need me to pitch at all, I’m just there to be there. I just want to be a part of this group.
“I learned a long time ago, you just want to be a part of great things.”
In case you missed it
Dodgers go deep again by striking deal with Kyle Tucker, as much of the baseball world cries foul
Plaschke: Dodgers’ ruination of baseball continues with Kyle Tucker, and it’s a beautiful thing
Dodgers’ scorching offseason continues by landing star outfielder Kyle Tucker
One last roundup for Clayton Kershaw: He’ll pitch in World Baseball Classic
Why $100 million in endorsements says Shohei Ohtani is the global face of sport
And finally
Vin Scully‘s call of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.