While the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers are enjoying their spoils this offseason, other MLB teams are facing scrutiny from their fan bases for not doing the same.
One year after signing Shohei Ohtani to a record-breaking 10-year contract worth $700—and a few months after winning the 2024 World Series—the Dodgers added star pitchers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki as well as Korean phenom Kim Hye-seong this offseason.
The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, haven’t done much in comparison. They traded for Houston Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker but have mostly sat on the sidelines and watched as other teams sign the top players on the open market.
Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts addressed the notion that he hasn’t spent enough money this offseason during a radio interview Saturday morning, citing the free-spending Dodgers in the process.
“The business model in baseball, it’s worked pretty well for a long time, but there’s a few things right now that are just a little out of kilter,” Ricketts said on 670 The Score’s Inside the Clubhouse. “Obviously, the Dodgers have a lot more resources, naturally, from smart business moves they made years ago. I don’t begrudge them any of that. Some teams just have outside resources that are funding their player moves and acquisitions, and that’s really hard to compete with. I understand when fans say, ‘How come you don’t spend like that?’ Because they think somehow we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we just keep it. Which isn’t true at all. What happens is we try to break even every year, and that’s about it.”
One scrutinized move the Cubs made this offseason was sending outfielder Cody Bellinger to the Yankees for right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet—a trade that appeared to be more of a move to get off Bellinger’s contract than anything else.
“If we trade Cody Bellinger for a starting pitcher, that’s a trade,” Ricketts said. “If we trade Cody Bellinger to get the resources to sign a pitcher, that’s a salary dump. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Ricketts further defended himself from the critics by bringing up his investment in Wrigley Field, which was renovated for about $740 million from 2014 to ’19.
“No one has that kind of financial commitment to their team,” Ricketts said. “So when I have a fan come up and say, ‘Hey, you’re cheap’ or ‘Open your wallet’ or something like that, I just think they’re misinformed. I think it’s the wrong way to look at our ownership.”
Per Spotrac, the Cubs are in line to have the 12th-biggest payroll in baseball at $163.7 million in 2025. They are far from the only MLB club shying away from free agency this offseason, as the Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins, Cleveland Guardians and Colorado Rockies have all spent less than $10 million on the open market.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, have spent $771 million. And until something changes and other teams join the free-agent mix, the Dodgers will continue to dominate the offseason.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
