LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 28: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates a … More walk-off home run against the Detroit Tigers in the tenth inning at Dodger Stadium on March 28, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
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Here’s some friendly advice to those who play Major League Baseball outside of Chavez Ravine in southern California: If you want to stop the Dodgers for 2025 (and likely for years beyond that), you better do it now.
Otherwise, it’s a wrap for what Forbes says is baseball’s second-most valuable team at $6.8 billion behind the $8.2 billion for the New York Yankees. There is that, along with this about the Dodgers and finances: They own the most expensive payroll for a season in MLB history at $330,529,444.
So, with apologies to those such as Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), Steve Ballmer (Los Angeles Clippers) and the modern-day Steinbrenners (Yankees), who says a bunch of pennies can’t buy championship rings?
The Dodgers look destined to win the National League West, the NL pennant and their second consecutive World Series. Then maybe to ease their boredom of dominating baseball, they’ll challenge for the Super Bowl, the NBA title and everything in between while becoming the first czars of the universe.
Let this sink in.
The Dodgers roared to a 4-0 start for the season Friday night at Dodger Stadium after one of their four winners of a league most valuable player award became an instant and miracle hero against the Detroit Tigers. It was Mookie Betts, and he ignored two weeks of baseball inactivity due to a nasty stomach virus that caused his digestive system to reject food along the way to losing 20 pounds.
Nevertheless, Betts did the ridiculous.
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 27: Tommy Edman #25 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates with Mookie … More Betts #50 and Teoscar Hernández #37 after hitting a solo home run in the second inning during the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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“That was super special,” Betts told reporters after he ripped a walk-off homer with two runners on base in the 10th inning to give the Dodgers an 8-5 victory to complete his three-hit night that included a go-ahead homer in the eighth.
“I know it sounds super selfish, but more for me,” Betts said. “I was really proud of myself for coming in and playing underweight. Not that it’s a big deal playing underweight, but just the fight that I’ve kind of been through — the ups and downs, and the nights I’m just crying because I’m sick, and my wife’s there holding me. That’s where the emotion comes from.”
Somebody needs to cuddle the Dodgers’ competitors, because if they aren’t “sick” and “crying” over Betts and his teammates, they should be.
The Dodgers are as ferocious as advertised, and yes, it’s only April.
The MLB regular season still has the rest of the spring, all of the summer and parts of the fall before anything becomes official regarding playoff participants let alone ultimate winners.
That said, those running and comprising this Dodgers bunch flash signs of continuing to put their actions where their salaries are.
The manager is Dave Roberts. Before the Dodgers left for Tokyo in mid-March for the MLB opener, the Guggenheim Baseball Management group – with an opearting income of $21 million according to Forbes – signed Roberts to a four-year extension for an average of $8 million per season.
Roberts’ annual salary became a record for baseball managers after Dodgers officials rewarded him for three World Series rings in his nine previous seasons with the team.
Now Roberts is hinting of adding a fourth in Year 10.
You know, with a lot of help.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 27: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers runs the bases … More after hitting a home run in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium on March 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
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It starts with Shohei Ohtani, the game’s most dynamic player with his ability to rip pitches with ease as a designated hitter or to fire them with speed and precision from the mound when his right elbow is healthy.
Ohtani signed a 10-year contract with the Dodgers after the 2023 season for an MLB-record $700 million. He’s among those contributing to the team’s collection of players producing six MVP awards overall (he has three of them), and he’s also among the seven Dodgers carrying a nine-figure contract.
They all can play, too.
In addition to Ohtani, those other Dodgers with heavy pockets range from two-time, Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell who signed a five-year deal worth $182 million before the season for an even stronger LA pitching staff to Betts, the eight-time All-Star who ignites an offense that already is an inferno.
Betts set the foundation for huge signings to come for the Dodgers in the summer of 2020 with a 12-year deal for $365 million.
Nobody is complaining about the bang for the buck regarding Betts or the Dodgers.
Except for Dodgers’ opponents.
