The Dodgers Have Spent More Money This Offseason Than the Rest of the League Combined
There's good offseasons. Then there's what the Los Angeles Dodgers are doing in 2023.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have spent over $1 billion in free agency this offseason, outspending the rest of the 29 leagues in Major League Baseball... combined.
Yes, you're reading that correctly.
As of Friday, Dec. 22, the Dodgers have spent $1.053 billion in free agency, per Travis Sawchik of The Score. The rest of the MLB — including the recent $3 million deal for former Dodgers RHP Shelby Miller — has spent $876 million.
When the Dodgers signed two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, he and agent Nez Balelo proposed a contract with historic deferrals.
Ohtani is deferring all but $2 million of his annual salary, a decision he made to ensure the Dodgers continued to spend around him. The Dodgers listened.
After making the deal with Ohtani official, the Dodgers wasted little time, trading for RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Manuel Margot from the Tampa Bay Rays.
That deal was contingent on an extension with Glasnow, one the Dodgers quickly agreed upon for five years and $136.5 million.
But that wasn't enough.
The Dodgers then joined the New York teams in the bidding war for star Japanese RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, ultimately giving him 12 years and $325 million, the most years and largest sum of money ever given to a pitcher. Yamamoto chose that offer over an identical one from the Mets, and a 10-year, $300 million one from the Yankees.
The Dodgers have spent over $1.2 billion this offseason — but they're not done yet.
They still have money to spend before reaching the final luxury tax threshold — and they still have a farm system loaded with talent.
The Dodgers have already put together one of the greatest offseasons in MLB history.
Why not just make it the greatest?
