Dodgers Winning Another World Series Could Lead to Extended Lockout, Says Insider

Mark Walter, Owner and Chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers shakes hands with Sandy Koufax during an unveiling for his commemorative statue at the Centerfield Plaza at Dodger Stadium on June 18, 2022. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Dodgers' $350 million payroll (per Spotrac) figures to be a key data point in the collective bargaining negotiations looming after the 2026 season.

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The expiration of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players' Association is expected to be met with a lockout on the owners' part. The owners have for decades tried to use collective bargaining to implement a salary cap that fixes how much of revenues go to players, and are expected to do so again.

Why should MLB institute a salary cap for the first time? The Dodgers might have some input into that question.

If the Dodgers win the World Series again, writes ESPN's Jeff Passan, "MLB owners -- who already were vocal publicly and even more so privately about Los Angeles spending as much as the bottom six teams in payroll combined this year -- will likely cry foul even louder."

Is what's good for the Dodgers bad for the baseball industry? That's what Passan believes owners will try to argue.

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"Already, MLB is expected to lock out players upon the agreement's expiration," Passan wrote. "Back-to-back championships by the Dodgers could embolden MLB and add to a chorus of fans who see a (salary) cap as a panacea for the plague of big-money teams monopolizing championships over the past decade."

It's simply not true that money buys championships. If that were the case, the New York Mets ($342.4 million payroll, second in MLB) would have made a World Series under owner Steve Cohen. The New York Yankees ($305.2 million, third) would not be enduring a 16-year championship drought.

The Milwaukee Brewers ($121.7 million payroll, 22nd), Seattle Mariners ($164.3 million payroll, 15th) and Toronto Blue Jays ($255.3 million payroll, fifth) still have a chance to knock off the Dodgers this month. That's hardly a picture that points to the need for a salary cap.

Throw in the fact that no team has won back-to-back championships in a quarter-century, and any attempt to use the Dodgers' success to justify a salary cap is merely a cherry-picked data point that benefits MLB's cheapest owners.

Get those owners in a negotiating room, and the least convenient facts to their argument will carry little weight. The Dodgers draft well, have enviable stability in the manager's office and executive suite, and signed their closer for $760,000 — less than two other teams were willing to commit.

None of those components of the Dodgers' success has anything to do with their player payroll. Expect the players' union to remind baseball's small-market owners of those facts in a year.

For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.