We called them “the new owners” back then. In its fourth month as the Dodgers’ new owners, Guggenheim Baseball agreed to assume a quarter-billion dollars worth of contracts — over six seasons — to land Adrián González.
Half that money would go to González. The other half, well, that was the value of the three other player contracts the Dodgers absorbed to induce the Boston Red Sox to trade him.
The Dodgers had started that 2012 season in bankruptcy court, and all of a sudden the baseball world nervously wondered whether the new owners had a spending limit, or at least what that spending limit might be.
“I haven’t found it yet,” team President Stan Kasten said then. “I’ll let you know when we get there.”
Not there yet.
In 2025, the Dodgers are projected for about half a billion dollars in payroll, benefits and luxury taxes, based on baseball’s tax accounting system, for one season alone. No major league team has ever spent that much.
Half. A. Billion.
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The Dodgers agreed last week on a $72-million contract with reliever Tanner Scott. Never in their 125-year history have the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland/Sacramento Athletics awarded a player $72 million, and yet eight players on the 2025 Dodgers roster have more money guaranteed than Scott does.
In 2012, the baseball world wondered about the new owners. In 2025, the baseball world mutters about them, and how they are allegedly ruining the game.
No one in Dodger blue was apologizing Wednesday, when the Dodgers introduced pitcher Roki Sasaki at a televised news conference.
“Another superstar from Japan!” exulted Joe Davis, the voice of the Dodgers.
“Two superstars from Japan aren’t enough?” the baseball world surely mumbled.
For Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, the chorus of “You’re ruining the game!” is nothing more than background noise.
“I think I look at it from the other side,” Friedman said. “The inverse of that hopefully means that our fans are really happy.
“From our standpoint, that’s our only mission: to do everything we can to be great stewards of this organization and to reward our incredibly passionate fans.”
Kasten happily addressed the perception that the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
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