The Los Angeles Dodgers angered the baseball world yet again on Sunday, signing All-Star closer Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million deal.
While the move — yet another major signing for the reigning World Series champs — led to many fans calling out MLB for not having a salary cap, free agent Joe Kelly doesn’t see it that way.
In fact, he laid out pretty clearly why that argument doesn’t make any sense.
“Let’s say Shohei Ohtani could only make $10,” Kelly said Sunday on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. “The whole entire league could pay Shohei Ohtani $10. He is coming from Japan. Growing up, watching movies — and if you just do a quick Google search, ‘best places to visit when you’re going to America’ – Minnesota is not popping up, Pittsburgh is not popping up, Milwaukee is not popping up.
“Why the f— would he be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make $10 in Milwaukee.’ That’s the problem with the (salary) floor and the (salary) cap that people don’t understand.
“Even if every team could pay him $10, he’s going to go to the team, number one, which is a great destination to be at. Number two, you have to show him what separates (your team) at that point.”
The Dodgers are baseball’s best run organization, and have turned into a destination spot for just about every top free agent. So why wouldn’t players want to be a part of that?
The Dodgers, after spending $700 million on Shohei Ohtani, quickly pivoted to making Yoshinobu Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history on a 12-year, $325 million last offseason.
This offseason, they’ve done even more, adding Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Roki Sasaki, Hyeseong Kim, and now Scott, while also bringing back Teoscar Hernàndez.
However, the Dodgers aren’t doing anything other teams can’t — and they’re also not just outbidding teams.
Ohtani offered his $700 million contract with deferrals to every team who wanted to sign him. He just chose the Dodgers in the end.
Yamamoto had that same 12-year, $325 contract offer on the table from the New York Mets. He just chose the Dodgers in the end.
Sasaki, who’s a different case since he’s an amateur international free agent, left nearly $4 million on the table to sign with the Dodgers over the San Diego Padres.
Teoscar Hernández, too, left “$5 or $6 more (million)” to stay with the Dodgers this offseason.
“The Dodgers, they’re different,” Hernández said regarding his motivation to come back. “They think about everybody. Not only the players, not only the things I can do on the field. For me, they just give me the confidence. I never got that really in the other places that I worked.
“They trust in everything that I can give them, and to this team and this organization. And that was one of the biggest things for me, that pushed me to the best job that I can do.”
The Dodgers have an ownership group willing to spend, and have built an organization that players want to be a part of. A salary cap isn’t gonna change that.
