STAR POWER
WITH OHTANI ON BOARD, HOLLYWOOD DODGERS ARE LATEST TITLE-OR-BUST SUPER TEAM
THERE is no hiding. Not when you are this good. Not when you make this kind of splash in finances. Not when you add a megastar to a galaxy already under contract. You can’t run from it. It is so overt. So front and center.
As much as anyone involved in sports, Bob Myers understands the position the Dodgers are in now. He was the general manager of a Warriors team that won a championship, then set a regular-season record with 73 wins but failed to win the title and responded by signing free agent Kevin Durant to a roster that already had Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
“When you add someone like Kevin Durant in that situation, it felt like there was nothing acceptable outside of winning a championship,” Myers said. “That was the only thing that would suffice.”
And here are the Dodgers, who won a championship and have followed it with 317 regular-season wins — the most ever in a threeyear period without winning a title in that time — and they have responded with a $1.2 billion offseason in which they notably have added free agent Shohei Ohtani to a roster that already had Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and eventually Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw.
The Warriors won the next two titles after landing Durant. The Dodgers are on the clock. The most fascinating story in the majors this year is 29 teams against the super team. Can anyone or anything stop the behemoth?
“The Dodgers, their legacy, their history, it’s like the Lakers. There is no, ‘Great job you went to the World Series.’ It’s not part of their fabric,” Myers said. “This is a historical franchise. First, they won one recently [in 2020] and they have won so many [seven], there’s no, ‘Good try, guys.’ And that is the kind of place you want to work, the organizations where the expectation is championships. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s where every organization wants to be. Because if you’re there, then you set the expectation for anybody that shows up there. That’s the goal. A lot of places have never won a championship. ‘That’s insanity. We’re never going to do it.’ Whereas certain places you go you look up at the wall and there are seven of them [championship banners]. There’s 12. There’s 15. So, that’s the Dodgers.”
Actually, lack of titles is what is most fueling the Dodgers. The only championship Los Angeles has won since Kirk Gibson limped around the bases in 1988 was in the 60-game COVID season in which the postseason was played at neutral sites with limited fans. Since then, the Dodgers have gone 317-169 in the regular season. That is 23 ¹/₂ games better than the next-best team. It is the third-largest win total in MLB history for any threeseason
The Dodgers spent $1.2 billion this offseason to team Shohei Ohtani (left) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto with Freedie Freeman (bottom left) and Mookie Betts.
period. But the 1906-08 Cubs (322 wins) played in the World Series all three seasons (when the league champion alone made the playoffs/World Series) and won it all in ’07 and ’08. The 1969-71 Orioles won 318 games and the ALCS each of those years and the 1970 World Series.
The Dodgers the last three years are 6-10 in the postseason. There are no World Series trips and in the past two years there has been 1-6 humiliation against the Padres and Diamondbacks.
It all has fed into a larger sense that these Dodgers might be the Bobby Cox Braves, who set the record for making the playoffs in 14 straight completed seasons from 19912005 (there were no playoffs in 1994), but only won one championship in a season shortened to 144 games in 1995. The second longest is the 13 by the 1995-2007 Yankees, who won four titles in that time. And then next comes the 11 straight seasons and counting of these Dodgers.
In that period, the Dodgers have a .613 winning percentage, the third-best for an 11-season span over the last seven decades. The best is the .620 of the 1954-64 Yankees, who went 4-5 in the World Series during that period. Next is the .614 of 1993-2003 Braves, who were 1-2 in the World Series — the same Fall Classic record the Dodgers have over the past 11 years.
The Dodgers’ response this offseason was seismic. Inside the Dodger Stadium walls — like in many shops around the sport — they talk about what moves championship odds. But in a place being judged by rings (and their absence), the resonance was greater. And the reality is in the metric world, not much moves the odds even a point or two.
The Dodgers, though, with the financial titan Guggenheim Partners in ownership and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman’s vision, took off on a plan centered on forming one of the best 1-23 tops of the order in history plus the kind of stuff-heavy/power rotation that plays best in October and — as a fringe benefit — had a vision in which they would become the team of Japan (with all the benefits on and off the field) moving forward.
The outlay crossed $1 billion, but the Dodgers were not spending $1 billion unless they got their top two targets in Ohtani and Yamamoto. As the Warriors did with Durant (think about teams such as the Celtics, Clippers and Heat), the Dodgers had widespread competition for both Ohtani and Yamamoto.
Durant signed a two-year, $54.3 million contract. The Dodgers are deferring more than that per year on Ohtani’s contract. Both sides insist it was Ohtani who came up with the structure of a 10-year, $700 million contract in which $68 million would be deferred annually for the 10 years after this contract, ending in 2043. Ohtani said he did this so that the billionaires who run the Dodgers could have more financial maneuverability to sign other stars, and because the currentday value drops with deferrals, the contract doesn’t cost $70 million annually toward the luxury tax, but rather a hair over $46 million.
And the Dodgers — in part because of the allure of playing with Ohtani — won the bidding with a pitching record $325 million, 12-year deal for Yamamoto, who had earned the Japanese version of the Cy Young award each of the last three seasons. Notably among other moves, the Dodgers traded for Tyler Glasnow and reached a five-year, $136.6 million extension.
The result is a juggernaut — on paper. The kind that from the first day of spring training to the last day of their season will draw scores of reporters, have an increased security apparatus around it and will curry extreme adoration and loathing. This is what happens when super teams are formed. Whether it is Deion Sanders going first to the 49ers and notably the Cowboys or LeBron James and Chris Bosh uniting with Dwyane Wade or Durant enlisting with the Warriors or pick your Yankee moment in the past three decades — Roger Clemens being acquired by the 125-win Yankees or Alex Rodriguez partnering on the left side of the infield with Derek Jeter or CC Sabathia/ Mark Teixeira joining the last great hurrah of the Core Four.
And the 2024 Dodgers joined the fraternity, and not subtly. In the midst of two games in South Korea to open the season, Ohtani — at least tangentially initially — was tied to a betting scandal involving his longtime translator, Ippei Mizuhara, who was fired following the season opener. Then in Game 2, Yamamoto allowed five runs in one inning in his MLB debut. And not long after the Dodgers returned to the United States, MLB announced it had launched an investigation into the Ohtani/Mizuhara matter. Welcome to the super club, 2024 Dodgers. “We were the team that people wanted to follow, we were the team other teams wanted to beat because we were the barometer, we were the measuring stick,” said Derek Jeter, who was on each version of those Yankee super clubs. “Teams look at you as the team that can win the championship, so they think they will find out where they are as a team by how they played against us. So it was every series, every game, teams were coming after us.”
“You 100 percent acknowledge them [all that comes with the formation of a super team],” said a lifelong Dodgers fan named Steve Kerr, who began sitting in the bleachers at age 5 and then coached the Warriors to four titles, including two with Durant. “You can’t ignore them. But I think you acknowledge them with perspective that you have to understand these things aren’t preordained. If you want it, you have to work for it. And even if you work for it, you have to get a little lucky. You just do. Because injuries, stuff happens. Life happens. So finding perspective is something I really learned from Pop [Gregg Popovich] and Phil [Jackson]. Perspective of the team is really important. And it’s important for the coach to keep reminding the team what’s important and what’s not important.”
That falls to Dave Roberts, whose .629 winning percentage is the best in MLB history among the 198 men who have managed at least 750 games. Yet, Roberts is perpetually on the hot seat because of postseason failures. It feels like Roberts, more than anyone else, is under the most championship-or-bust pressure entering his ninth season in charge.
During spring training, he was, indeed, trying to defuse any tension with humor, fraternity and by not ignoring the obvious — even Roberts acknowledged his expectation is a championship.
“I think it is important to remember that it is not a burden, it’s a challenge,” said Joe Torre, who won four World Series as the Yankees grew into a Goliath. “When everything is so big, you have to remember the small things, that all the work you are doing in spring training, matters. You have to validate what everyone thinks of you by playing well and that means — as cliché as it is — not getting ahead of yourself and actually caring about the little things and taking it one game at a time.”
The Dodgers have excelled at this — during the regular season. Last season, for example, their presumptive ace, Walker Buehler, and starting shortstop, Gavin Lux, never played an inning, every member of the rotation missed considerable time and they substantially cut payroll to brace for the Ohtani offseason. Yet, they won 100 games. And the NL West. By 16 games. Over the Diamondbacks. Who then ambushed Dodgers starters for 13 runs in 4 ²/₃ innings en route to a sweep.
Even before the problematic two days in
Asia, the spring was not hopping from one lily pad to another. Lux had throwing problems and was moved off of shortstop with Betts volunteering for a position he has never played regularly as a pro. The Dodgers began the season with seven pitchers on the IL — some of that was expected with the hope that notably Buehler, Kershaw and Dustin May would join the staff with the season in progress. The rotation is heavy on big arms, but not those used to working heavy innings. The big money this offseason was spent on a two-way player in Ohtani, who will not pitch before next season, and a pitcher whose first major league inning came March 22 and lasted a horrible 43 pitches.
Still, look at the roster.
Kerr noted that in the NBA the best team usually emerges to win, but baseball is more random and unpredictable. That is true, largely, because it is democratic. You can make sure Durant and Curry, for example, touch the ball on just about every offensive possession. But Aaron Judge bats and then doesn’t again until eight others do.
However, creating a lineup top three of Betts, Ohtani and Freeman removes some randomness. Last season their MVP finish was first (Ohtani, AL), second (Betts, NL) and third (Freeman, NL). Each has won the award at least once and Ohtani is the only two-time unanimous winner in history. Last season they combined for (among other items) 112 homers and 1.006 OPS. And most days an opponent is going to face 15 plate appearances from them and good luck navigating that without getting dinged somewhere, which was exemplified in the 2024 season opener in South Korea.
In the two games in South Korea against the Padres, the trio reached in 19 of 33 plate appearances — that is a cool .576 on-base percentage — plus a homer, nine RBIs and a steal by Ohtani (watch out for him when he does not have to preserve his legs to pitch). It came in the crucible of so much more attention because of the emerging scandal around Ohtani. A reminder that there is going to be so much expected and so many challenges — even for a super team — that is vital to find ways to embrace the journey.
“If I could do it again, I wish I could go back and tell myself to enjoy each game more,” Myers said. “Enjoy the product. Enjoy the regular season. Enjoy a five-game winning streak. Enjoy a great road win. Enjoy it without looking at the final product. Peter Guber, who is an owner of the Warriors and a part-owner of the Dodgers and a giant in the entertainment industry [as a producer], he has a great line: It all can’t be all about, ‘And the winner is …’ It can’t just be about winning an Academy Award. It has to be about the joy of making a great movie, casting a great movie. It can’t just be everything went great because we won the Oscar.
“And I think that is a great analogy for sports. It can’t just be, ‘We have to win the championship,’ even though there’s never been a bigger time in our society where it is either all or nothing. I learned that harshly in 2016 when we had the best record in NBA history and lost in the finals to the Cavaliers and everyone called our season a failure. So to Andrew or the Dodgers or anyone, I would tell them that you decide how to enjoy it. Me, personally. I was too stressed about the final outcome.”
Of course, after 2016, Myers secured Durant, and even he acknowledges once you do that and form a super team — in basketball or baseball — there is only one outcome that will be accepted.