SURPRISE, Az. — It’s usually after several days of spring training I feel empowered to make some sort of bold prediction on the fate of the Texas Rangers. Somehow this doesn’t feel like the right time, not just yet. The team looks good and the prediction will come, but something else, something larger has gotten in the way.
Do the Rangers (or anybody else for that matter) really have a chance to compete with the world champion Dodgers and their extraordinary ability to outspend the rest of the baseball world?
Before we dive any deeper, let me borrow a few words from another sportswriter:
Somehow or other they don’t play ball nowadays as they used to eight or ten years ago. I don’t mean to say they don’t play it as well … But I mean they don’t play with the same kind of feelings or for the same objects they used to.
That came from a man named Pete O’Brien (a New York baseball writer, not the Ranger first baseman). And he wrote this in 1868, 32 years before the American League was born. So the idea that baseball has managed to lose its way, usually related to money in one fashion or another — salaries too high, players being paid by underworld figures to throw the World Series (that was not a one-time complaint), tremendous disparities between one team’s revenues and another’s — has been going on for more than 150 years. It’s hardly original for me to suggest the game is in trouble.
Having said that … I think the game is in trouble.
The Dodgers, of course, are not an immediate problem for our local club. If they become an issue, it has already been a successful year because it means Texas is in the World Series. For the Rangers, the Yankees are the larger problem in reaching that goal, and even New York can’t compete financially any longer with the team from LA.
It’s not simply a problem of the Dodgers having a payroll in excess of $375 million, one that will push their total including the luxury tax beyond the $500 million mark this season. And that doesn’t even count all their financial expenditures on players such as the $6.5 million signing bonus for Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. The problem isn’t what the Dodgers are willing to do but why they are able to spend like this and not even blink.
Unlike the NBA and especially the NFL, major league teams’ local TV revenues are a bigger deal than the national TV package (one ESPN recently pulled out of after this season). And the local TV money disparity — always considerable — has become immense since the collapse of regional sports networks for most clubs, including the Rangers, who will offer a streaming service this year. Although owner Ray Davis has indicated he thinks the Rangers can still make the $100 million they once expected from cable, that figure may be high. Regardless, the Dodgers’ local TV deal pays them in excess of $370 million. The Yankees are not quite on the same footing but close as co-owners of the YES Network. These revenues are not shared although MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said he wants this to be considered in the next year.
Good luck.
On top of that, something small looms even larger. It’s the patch on the Dodgers’ right uniform sleeve. A year ago MLB teams were allowed to place a small slice of advertising on their jerseys, so most clubs collect a nice little check from, say, Kroger (Cincinnati), Chevrolet (the Giants) or Energy Transfer (the Rangers). The Dodgers wear a G on their right sleeve and it says Guggenheim in small print underneath. Probably doesn’t mean much to you, and it means absolutely nothing to me because a “global investment and advisory firm” isn’t really searching for access to my accounts.
But that G plays big in Japan.
In case you missed the news, the Dodgers and Cubs will open the regular season March 18-19 in Japan. Technically, it is called “The Tokyo Series presented by Guggenheim.” Not sure how the Cubs feel about their opponents sponsoring their first two games.
Anyway, with the signing of Sasaki on top of already having the greatest player in the game (Shohei Ohtani) and last year’s addition, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won the elimination game against San Diego and Game 2 of the World Series against New York, the Dodgers have cornered the market on Japanese pitching. Besides the obvious value on the field, the fact that these three pitchers — all major stars in Tokyo — are now constantly pictured wearing the Guggenheim logo has dramatically expanded the financial company’s footprint in Japan. All I’m saying is that while Davis gets a few bucks from a pipeline company for which he has served on the board of directors, the Dodgers’ owners are a step ahead of the league in turning a single patch into one more major revenue stream that can’t truly be calculated.
On top of this, the Dodgers were again big winners in offseason free agency, even adding last year’s Rangers closer Kirby Yates at $13 million for this season. After making the AL All-Star team, Yates probably just pitches the 8th inning for LA because they signed Padres closer Tanner Scott for $72 million over four years.
And so it goes.
The Dodgers won the World Series in 2020 and 2024 and are heavy preseason favorites (3-1 on DraftKings) to win again. Doesn’t mean it will happen. Every baseball team is flawed, and the Dodgers have some age in their lineup, although I would say their depth and quality of pitching is more important. Sometimes, as the saying goes, the game saves itself.
I think the Rangers will be good this season, perhaps good enough to win their division. But I don’t think the financial advantages that are ever expanding in the Dodgers’ direction can be considered good for the game in any fashion or even fixable without a stunning decision by owners to seek parity.
Old Pete O’Brien was on to something.
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