The first massive domino of free agency dropped late on Tuesday night and, of course, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fresh off winning the World Series, the superteam added another power by inking free agent southpaw Blake Snell to a reported five-year, $182 million deal.
For a team that has been doing this for several years, namely stockpiling the biggest-named talent available, this isn’t surprising. MLB fans know it, have seen it, and many get annoyed by it. And if you ask Atlanta Braves outfielder Michael Harris II, it seems like some of baseball’s best players — those who aren’t wearing Dodger Blue, of course — aren’t exactly thrilled by it either.
Right after the news of Snell going to the Dodgers broke, Harris took to X/Twitter and didn’t offer a single word but, rather, a GIF reaction that spoke louder than anything else he could’ve posted.
pic.twitter.com/wDZGydPX8p
— Michael Harris II〽️ (@MoneyyyMikeee) November 27, 2024
A Stanley Hudson eye-roll is the type of thing that reverberates for everyone, Braves fans in particular.
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If you’re Alex Anthopoulos, if you’re a Braves fan, and even if you’re a fan of most non-Dodgers teams, how could you not see Harris’ reaction and feel it deep to your core? There are few teams operating from the position of luxury that LA is currently working in, so it has to be frustrating.
For the Braves in particular, the success of recent years in Atlanta has come without breaking the bank to any massive degree such as this (or such as Shohei Ohtani, such as Mookie Betts…). In fact, the bulk of what Anthopoulos has done in Cobb County is a combination of developing homegrown talent and signing them long-term early on before the market inflates their price. Or, on the other hand, finding undervalued outside talent, acquiring those players and maximizing their potential.
In any case, it’s substantially different than just writing the biggest check and having Los Angeles in your back pocket. So to see the Dodgers just casually add a $182 million pitcher, not to mention that their rival signed last offseason and saw opt-out heading into this winter, has to be a tough pill to swallow.
Having said that, even if the Dodgers are World Series champions, they haven’t won every single title since this newfound uber-aggressiveness at the top of the market began. Far from it. So perhaps seeing LA continue further down this road will only make it sweeter if a team like Harris’ Braves or whichever other franchise can send them packing from the postseason in 2025 or any time beyond.
