From The Athletic:
Are Dodgers villains? Or a model to aspire to? Their title defense could shape MLB’s labor debate
By Andy McCullough
Oct. 2, 2026
CINCINNATI — The collective bargaining agreement for Major League Baseball will expire a month after the World Series, and Chris Blanton cannot wait.
“I’ve honestly been very anti-MLB,” Blanton said, “until there’s a salary cap.”
Blanton, 32, stood on the concourse beyond Section 101 of Great American Ballpark while the late-afternoon sun reflected off the Ohio River. He received the tickets to that day’s Reds game as a gift. Otherwise, he would have been unlikely to come to that evening’s game. He called himself a lifelong baseball fan, but said his passion had dimmed in recent years.
Could it be that he’s not 12-years-old anymore?
No, that has nothing to do with his receding passion for baseball! Instead, it’s the fault of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And part of the reason was gathering on the field behind him: the Los Angeles Dodgers, the World Series champions the past two seasons and the favorites to three-peat this October, a pursuit that begins Saturday at Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the National League Division Series [against the Atlanta Braves].
Looming over the postseason proceedings this fall is the cloud of an expected labor stoppage this winter, one that could extend into next spring and even next summer after the owners lock out the players. At the center of the storm will be the Dodgers, no matter how long their pursuit of another title lasts. The team has emerged as a lightning rod between the owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, an avatar for the arguments made by both corners.
“Major League Baseball,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said, “needs someone to point to” as it seeks seismic change.
On one side are the owners, who want to overhaul baseball’s financial system with a salary cap.
Most American team sports have salary caps and massive revenue sharing so that teams with few fans, like the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL, can compete successfully against the New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston teams. This year in the NBA, the Knicks of basketball-crazed New York won the title, but it was their first in 53 years. The previous year, the Oklahoma City Thunder were the NBA champs.
In contrast, baseball has no salary cap, although it does have a luxury tax that redistributes wealth to some degree. Unlike European soccer where the same 8 or 12 super teams win most of the time, baseball, however, is somewhat random.
But about a decade ago, it occurred to the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership that if there are rich franchises like the New York Yankees and smart franchises like the Tampa Bay Rays, why couldn’t the Dodgers be a rich and smart franchise?
So, they hired executive Andrew Friedman from Tampa Bay and over the last ten years have averaged a record of 102.6-59.4, which is comparable to that of the DiMaggio-Gehrig/Berra Yankees. Much of the reason was due to hiring cheap journeymen like Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, and Max Muncy and, apparently, teaching them the One Weird Trick to be All-Stars.
For a long time, nobody outside Los Angeles much cared about how good the Dodgers had gotten because they only won one World Series, during the shortened covid season of 2020. In 2021-23, the Dodgers averaged 106 wins per season, but didn’t even make the World Series once.
But then the great slugger-pitcher Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, after years of seeing his first American team, the Los Angeles Angels, fail to make the postseason. Somewhat like Tom Brady with the New England Patriots, Ohtani deferred much of his salary so the Dodgers could buy him a worthy supporting cast. That led two more star Japanese players to sign with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers eked out World Series championships in 2024 and 2025. Ohtani is now, by far, biggest sports star in Japanese history after twice beating the Americans at their own game.
Pitted against them is the union, which views a cap as an impermissible red line. Caught in the middle are the fans of the 29 other franchises who find themselves envious of the spending and the success in Los Angeles, while deflated by the helplessness of rooting for teams whose owners are mostly either unable or unwilling to compete financially.
Here’s my graph of 2026 wins vs. payroll (as estimated by Baseball Reference):
Paywall here.
