The Dodgers have managed to put together a run here in the 2024 MLB playoffs, and despite a 12-6 drubbing in Game 5 of the NLCS, they remain a game away from punching their ticket to a World Series clash with the Yankees.
Funny that the Dodgers should see the Yankees there, if it happens. Because while the Dodgers broke the bank to add key free agent Shohei Ohtani in the offseason, the move that paved the way for L.A.’s magical playoffs to this point, current Yankees star Juan Soto will be the next free agent to command the kind of jaw-dropping money (10 years, $700 million) that Ohtani got.
The presumption around baseball has been that bidding for Soto will come down to the two New York teams, the Mets and Yankees. But on “The Spotrac Podcast,” site managing editor and contract expert Mike Ginnitti said it is a certainty that the Dodgers will find a way to insert themselves into the conversation.
That’s just how the team has been run in recent years.
“They don’t just take the money and put it in their back pockets,” Ginnitti said. “They used it on a pitcher who is going to start Game 2 (Yoshinobu Yamamoto). … It’s exactly what you want in a large market. The gas pedal is consistently down. They are in on every big player. Guess what? They’re going to make an offer to Juan Soto.”
Dodgers-Yankees World Series, With a Juan Soto Subplot?
It could be, then, that if the Dodgers face the Yankees, not only would the 2024 World Series be on the line, but the future path of both franchises might, too. The Yankees could keep Soto either way, but the consensus has been that winning the World Series would guarantee him sticking in the Bronx.
Lose, and look for Soto to go to the highest bidder.
Soto is coming off a year in which he helped Aaron Judge carry a Yankees offense that would have collapsed completely without him. He hit .288 with a .415 on-base percentage and a .569 slugging mark, smacking 41 home runs. He is expected to land a contract well north of $500 million in total—at Spotrac, the total is $514 million over 14 years, but that is likely too low.
Other projections for Soto have soared well over the $600 million mark.
Pitchers Will Be Eyed, Too
Would the Dodgers go that high? Maybe not. But with the talent on their roster, they have a lot they could sell Soto on. Imagine a lineup that started with Betts, Ohtani and Soto. That’s probably the starting point of the Dodgers’ conversation with him.
And if not Soto, they’ll be poking around all the other big MLB fish this winter.
“Guess what?,” Ginnitti said. “They’re going to make an offer to Blake Snell and Corbin Burnes. Because there is no reason for them not to. Now, will it be a top-of-the-market, best-offer out there? Probably not. But they’ve earned the right to lowball a little bit because of years like this, because it takes a village, not one house.”
All this is because the Dodgers—once utterly dysfunctional from the top down—are now arguably the best-run organization in baseball. Remember, this team was hammered by injuries on its way to the precipice of the World Series.
“The Dodgers have been so good for so long that there is a bit of a fatigue factor, somewhat like the Chiefs in the NFL, that we just take it for granted,” Ginnitti said. “But the adversity they have gone through in the rotation, in the bullpen has been completely usurped by a magical year from Ohtani, standard to above-standard years from Betts and Freeman, and just some blockbuster performances.”
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