Dodgers Embrace Charge They're 'Ruining Baseball'

During the Los Angeles Dodgers' October run to the NL pennant, the team has become the dark eminence that many baseball people have long feared. The Dodgers are 9-1 in the postseason—and they've looked like a juggernaut while doing it, with near-flawless starting pitching and a deep, resilient lineup producing key hits and electrifying highlights. They swept the Milwaukee Brewers out of the NL Championship Series with a 5-1 victory Friday night that included an iconic three-homer, 10-strikeout performance by Shohei Ohtani, their $700 million superstar. They'll open the World Series on Friday with a chance to become MLB's first repeat champions in a quarter-century. It's the fifth time in nine seasons the Dodgers have been in the Fall Classic, and they've made 13 consecutive postseason appearances. That streak doesn't thrill everyone, the AP reports.

There's a school of thought that it's bad for baseball if one team ever becomes this successful. The Dodgers' ravenous spending of their extensive resources could irretrievably fracture the majors' competitive balance, which could even hurt the Dodgers by providing fuel for some owners' desire for a salary cap in the next labor negotiations. The players and coaches in Dodger Blue—and the more than 4 million fans who packed Dodger Stadium this season—did not ignore others' concern while they celebrated Friday night, but they didn't fret it, either. "I'll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball," manager Dave Roberts told the Los Angeles crowd after the victory. "Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball!"

The Dodgers will spend about $509.5 million on players this season, with their $341.5 million payroll plus $168 million in projected luxury tax. That dwarfs the expenditures of their prospective World Series opponents from Seattle (a $167.2 million payroll) and Toronto (a $252.7 million payroll and a projected $13.4 million in tax); those two teams play Sunday night. Pat Murphy, the Brewers' manager, argued during the NLCS that the Dodgers' payroll of roughly three times his team's made Milwaukee the biggest underdog in baseball history. But Louisa Thomas points out in the New Yorker that the Brewers had a better regular-season record. It may not be fair that only the Dodgers could afford to sign Ohtani, who will now play in his sport's biggest event. But his unique skill set, and what Thomas calls "the grandeur of his performance," is priceless.