The Los Angeles Dodgers are getting continuous flak, but resting on their laurels—that’s not for them! Some teams win the championship and then rest, hoping the team will successfully make the magic happen again. (spoiler alert—it usually never does). Look at last year’s Texas Rangers; they had a championship under their belt, yet they couldn’t make it to the playoffs. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are not walking in the same footsteps. Sure, they already had an envious lineup, but they haven’t been sitting it out. They have spent an arm and a leg this off-season.

They locked in Tommy Edman, re-signed Teoscar Hernandez, and got Blake Snell and Hyeseong Kim. And now, they even got Roki Sasaki, the player who most thought would go for the San Diego Padres. Los Angeles also got Tanner Scott – the top reliever who was a threat to them. So, they literally took the approach of ‘if you can’t fight them, get them right.’ Fans are flipping, looking at the Dodgers’ unreal spree. They are deemed as the evil empire, a team bad for the business. However, not everyone subscribes to this narrative, not Justin Verlander’s brother, Ben Verlander.

Verlander on the real reason other teams are falling behind LA

Ben Verlander, in his podcast, mentioned the problem doesn’t lie with the Dodgers getting players. The issue lies with other teams not wanting to spend. Verlander highlighted last season’s off-season when most thought getting one player for $700 million was madness. However, it became a game-changer. Not only did the franchise end up making that amount and more from endorsements, but they also attracted other players. Shohei, after all, is called the modern-day Babe Ruth. No wonder he decided to play for a winner and on a winning team!

“Instead of being mad at the Dodgers, be mad at every other team for sitting on their heels and allowing this to happen. Teams cry cheap but won’t ever open up the books to show how much they’re truly making. That’s the problem here,” said Ben Verlander in Flippin Bats. Well, in the end, it is true that the Los Angeles Dodgers are simply taking risks and moving forward. Had they not spent the $700 million last season, getting key players might not have been a possibility. Take Sasaki, for example. Shohei Ohtani was literally driving the bus to get him to LA. But it’s not just the Dodgers; the New York Mets did the same with Juan Soto, and they, too, ended up getting key players.

Also, make no mistake, it’s not like the LA Dodgers are flawless. Or they didn’t have pits in their lineup. For example, their starting pitching was a major weakness last time. But look at it now – they seem to be at their strongest. They have got in two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, they now have Roki Sasaki, and they have Tanner Scott. They already had Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow in the lineup. Meanwhile, other teams now have a different problem.

Los Angeles Dodgers are attracting baseball’s best

Right now, even if the teams are paying the players more, they end up going to the LA Dodgers. Roki Sasaki, for example, has his mentor, someone he calls his godfather, Yu Darvish, in the San Diego Padres. They even offered him $4 million. But he did not sign there, did he! LA seems to fill all the boxes he wanted. He needed a winning team and a place where he could develop more. The Dodgers don’t need to have him pitching every time; they have a stellar lineup. He can get his time to develop. And it was the winning factor that even helped the LA Dodgers get Teoscar Hernández back.

Teoscar Hernandez had a great 2024 season, and he entertained plenty of offers from various teams. However, in the end, he stuck to the team he was comfortable with and whom he thought could win. Hernandez in the Dodgers Territory podcast mentioned that he got other offers, “But for me, winning was the biggest thing, and going back to LA was the second biggest.” Hence he clinched the $66 million offer, out of which $23 million is deferred from the Dodgers.

Right now, though, the Los Angeles Dodgers have one billion, with a B, in deferred payments. Everyone from Blake Snell, Tommy Ekman, Mookie Betts, Freedman, Ohtani, and even Hernandez is part of this future payment plan. But it seems like they are putting that concern off for later; right now, they are enjoying this limelight.

Do you think what the Dodgers are doing with the excess signing and the deferred payment is smart?