The Los Angeles Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series titles, and even before they accomplished this feat, fans of other teams were already stating that this franchise is ruining baseball.
Los Angeles has an ownership group with deep pockets ready to spend money to ensure this dominant run in MLB continues for the foreseeable future. Amid the complaints from other fanbases, one former major league general manager spoke about whether the Dodgers are truly ruining baseball.
Are the Dodgers Really Ruining Baseball?
While speaking on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, former MLB general manager Jim Bowden doesn’t share the same opinion that the Dodgers are bad for the sport of baseball, given how much money they have spent and the rules the organization has circumvented.
“People go out there and say, ‘Well, this isn’t good for baseball,'” Bowden said. “Let me tell you why it’s good for baseball. I think anyone out there that wants to be a GM wants to be able to do what they did. They want to be able to have the money and be able to spend it the right way on the right people, not just the right players. And the Dodgers did just that.”
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Will There Be a Salary Cap in MLB?
Vote For Your Favorite Dodgers Duo: Ohtani – Yamamoto, Betts – Freeman, Hernandez – Hernandez
Although Bowden admits that he would like to see MLB embrace a cap system similar to the NFL, he doesn’t see that coming anytime soon in the majors. As a result, he states that people need to embrace the Dodgers.
“It’s like the house that’s on the ocean that’s $40 million that none of us can afford, except a few, like [Shohei] Ohtani and [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto,” Bowden added. “But most of us can’t afford it, and we would love to have it, though, wouldn’t we? So is the person that owns that house bad for society, or do we all wish we could have it, too? I think it’s the latter.
“And I think that’s how I view the Dodgers. If you’re going to have rules that allow it, you’re going to have an owner that will spend it, you’re going to have a group of baseball people that spend it the right way on the right players and the right people, then I have a hard time even rationalizing why it’s bad for baseball.
“Would I prefer a salary cap and put people more teams within a range of each other like the NFL does? Ideally, sure. I think that would be better, but that’s not going to happen, not anytime soon. And so to me, let’s embrace and let’s enjoy what the Dodgers just did.”
