29 Jealous Franchises
I can’t take it anymore.
Every time the Dodgers make a move, baseball fans collectively lose their minds.
“The Dodgers are ruining baseball.”
“We need a salary cap.”
“A lockout is coming.”
“This isn’t fair.”
I’ve heard it all.
Apparently, the Dodgers have become baseball’s Big Bad Wolf.
Here’s the thing.
The Dodgers aren’t ruining baseball. They’re ruining excuses.
Here’s my question.
What exactly have the Dodgers done that Steve Cohen and the Mets haven’t tried to do?
Seriously.
Steve Cohen bought the Mets and immediately opened his wallet like a kid who found his mom’s credit card.
Nobody was screaming that baseball was ruined then.
Nobody was begging for a salary cap.
Nobody was talking about a lockout because the Mets were spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
Why?
Because they aren’t winning.
Turns out spending money isn’t the problem.
Spending it well is.
And let’s stop pretending every huge Dodgers contract automatically works out.
The Dodgers gave Kyle Tucker a mega-deal.
For a good chunk of the season, he was barely hitting his weight.
Then they gave Edwin Díaz big money to lock down the ninth inning.
Here we are in August, and injuries have limited him to just seven innings.
Where’s the outrage?
Where are the think pieces about how the Dodgers wasted all that money?
Where are the cries that they’re destroying competitive balance?
Exactly.
Because this has never been about spending.
It’s about winning.
When the Dodgers spend and things don’t work out, nobody cares because they have the depth to survive it.
When they spend and it does work out, suddenly baseball is “broken.”
That’s the difference.
And every trade deadline, baseball fans treat Andrew Friedman like he’s the Big Bad Wolf.
They act like he’s sneaking into front offices in the middle of the night and stealing everyone’s ace while the GM is asleep.
Last I checked, Detroit answered the phone.
Nobody held a gun to their head.
Nobody forced them to sign the paperwork.
Andrew Friedman didn’t rob a bank.
He made a better offer than everyone else.
That’s called winning the negotiation.
Take Tarik Skubal, for example.
The Dodgers didn’t just wake up one morning and decide they wanted him.
They traded for him.
And that package wasn’t built overnight.
For years, the Dodgers have done something the rest of baseball either can’t or won’t do.
They identify low-level prospects before everyone else, develop them into legitimate Top 100 prospects, and when a generational player becomes available, they have the assets to get a deal done.
The Skubal package wasn’t built by emptying the farm.
It was built by turning low-level prospects into premium assets through elite scouting, elite coaching, and elite player development.
That’s not buying championships.
That’s building one.
Everyone loves to throw around the phrase, “The Dodgers just buy everybody.”
Really?
Mookie Betts.
Trade.
Tyler Glasnow.
Trade.
Tarik Skubal.
Trade.
Those deals don’t happen without elite scouting, elite player development, and an organization that knows how to maximize talent.
Those prospects weren’t gift-wrapped by Rob Manfred.
The Dodgers created them.
That’s the part everyone conveniently ignores.
The funniest part is the hypocrisy.
The Mets spend money.
The Yankees spend money.
The Phillies spend money.
The Padres spend money.
The Rangers spend money.
Nobody complains when those teams hand out nine-figure contracts.
But when the Dodgers sign a superstar and still have the prospect capital to trade for another one, suddenly baseball is broken.
No.
The Dodgers just know what they’re doing.
If spending money alone won championships, the Mets would’ve won three World Series by now.
Instead, they’ve spent years treating free agency like it’s a fantasy baseball draft and wondering why it hasn’t worked.
Money doesn’t fix bad decision-making.
It just makes your mistakes more expensive.
You know what’s actually bad for baseball?
Owners worth billions crying poor.
Owners who are perfectly content cashing revenue-sharing checks instead of building contenders.
Owners who convince their fan base that finishing .500 is somehow part of a “long-term plan.”
Fans shouldn’t be mad that the Dodgers are willing to spend.
They should be asking why their owner isn’t willing to.
And before someone says, “Well, not every team can spend like the Dodgers…”
Fine.
Then explain the Rays.
Explain the Brewers.
Explain the Guardians.
Those organizations compete because they’re elite at developing talent.
The Dodgers just happen to be one of the few teams capable of doing that while also having the financial muscle to keep their stars and acquire new ones.
Let’s put this another way.
Think back to school.
There was always that one kid who got the best grades.
He studied harder than everyone else.
He stayed after class.
He asked questions.
Maybe he even came from money and had the best tutors.
So what do we do?
Cancel the class?
Shut down the school?
Tell the smartest kid he has to stop studying because everyone else is getting jealous?
Of course not.
The answer isn’t to punish the kid who’s putting in the work and using every resource available to him.
The answer is for everyone else to catch up.
That’s the Dodgers.
They scout better.
They develop players better.
They invest in analytics.
They spend money.
And yes, they have more resources than most teams.
Good.
They’re using every advantage available to become the best organization in baseball.
That’s exactly what every franchise should be trying to do.
Instead, we have 29 fan bases asking the teacher to grade on a curve.
That’s not ruining baseball.
That’s embarrassing everyone else.
The reality is, the Dodgers have become the standard.
They don’t just spend.
They scout.
They draft.
They develop.
They innovate.
Then, when the opportunity presents itself, they spend.
That’s what championship organizations do.
If your biggest takeaway from all of this is, “The Dodgers should stop trying so hard,” you’ve completely missed the point.
The problem isn’t the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The problem is that too many organizations have convinced their fans that mediocrity is acceptable.
It’s easier to blame the Dodgers than admit your front office can’t draft or develop talent.
It’s easier to complain about deferred contracts than explain why your team gave a player nine figures to underperform.
It’s easier to scream for a salary cap than admit another organization simply outworked yours.
Stop crying about the Dodgers.
Start asking why your billionaire owner isn’t trying to become them.
Because there aren’t 29 teams getting screwed.
There are 29 franchises watching the Dodgers do their job better than they do.
Twenty-nine jealous franchises.
And if your solution is to punish the smartest kid in the class instead of studying harder yourself…
Maybe the Dodgers aren’t the problem.
