The Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani $700 million over 10 years (with the deferred money, it’s more like a 20-year commitment).
They also traded for Tyler Glasnow from the Tampa Bay Rays and extended him to a $136 million deal.
Then, on Thursday night, they were pronounced the winners of the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes, inking the Japanese star to a 12-year, $325 million pact.
It’s fair to say that the Dodgers have been the clear winners of the 2023-24 offseason.
What we didn’t quite expect was the team spending more money in total than the entire league.
“The Dodgers have spent more in free agency this winter than all 29 other MLB teams combined,” Front Office Sports tweeted.
The Dodgers have spent more in free agency this winter than all 29 other MLB teams combined pic.twitter.com/IASpPuRvzh
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 22, 2023
The other 29 organizations have spent a combined $873 million.
LA is known around the industry for its excellent player development skills and for being extremely resourceful.
They have a deserved reputation for signing unheralded players, or “washed up” veterans and getting some value out of them due to their impeccable coaching skills.
However, we often forget about their financial firepower.
This is a team that traded for and extended Mookie Betts in 2020, giving him $365 million.
This is a team that signed former MVP Freddie Freeman to a lucrative free-agent contract.
And this is now a team that spent over a billion dollars on just a couple of players when the rest of MLB hasn’t even approached the billion mark.
When all is said and done, the field’s free-agent total money will likely surpass the Dodgers.
However, as of now, LA has single-handedly spent significantly more than your favorite team… and the other 28 combined.
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