Here’s the biggest problem MLB has right now when it comes to Dodgers’ spending

Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.

When it comes to the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers and their payroll, Major League Baseball definitely has a problem. It’s been growing for years and, sure, the massive payroll is one component. 

The main problem, though, is public perception. Perception is reality, as so many of us know all too well. 

Major League Baseball is a business that is built solely on fan interest. If fan interest wanes, that’s a problem. The massive number of people complaining about how unfair baseball is and how it needs a salary cap and how the league is a joke because the Dodgers are automatically just going to win the World Series again in 2026 — because they bought it — is a problem. 

I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as others do. I don’t think the Dodgers are definitely going to win the World Series. Hell, the Dodgers didn’t even have the biggest payroll among the 30 MLB teams in 2024. There remain others in their stratosphere of spending (as opposed to, say, the 2009 Yankees) But I also don’t get to dictate how sports fans at large feel about the state of Major League Baseball when it comes to finances. 

I heard it loud and clear last week. I wrote about how the Brewers trade of All-Star starting pitcher Freddy Peralta one year away from free agency feels bad for baseball to me. I got crushed online. Just obliterated. I don’t mind the ill words in my direction, otherwise I’d stop writing soapboxes. Something struck me, though. 

What boggled my mind was the number of people who felt the need to walk me through the move as follows: 

• The Brewers can definitely afford to pay Peralta $8 million in 2026 (I know this). 
• The reason they traded him is that he’s going to walk in free agency after 2026, so they are getting something for him rather than nothing (I understand this). 

None of them mentioned that they thought the Brewers got better for 2026. 

This is a problem. 

I just can’t wrap my head around “just go for the title in 2026” not being an option for the team that had the best record in baseball in 2025 along with the best run differential. They were a great team. I even replied to a few people with this sentiment and one acted like I was suggesting the Rockies or White Sox could topple the Dodgers. It was just laughable that I would suggest the Brewers try to beat the Dodgers and win the World Series in 2026. 

Again, this is a problem. A big one. 

We’re talking about a team that just went to the NLCS after winning 97 games and masses and masses of fans believe the best move is to get ahead of “he’s going to walk in free agency after 2026,” instead of trying to beat the mighty Dodgers and their gargantuan payroll. And, again, if you truly believe this move made the Brewers better in 2026 because Peralta is a five-inning pitcher (and “not prime Clayton Kershaw,” as I heard), talk about that. It’s not like they’ve never let a star player get to free agency and walk. It just happened with Willy Adames.

But there was none of that. It was a bunch of people either calling me names or explaining that Peralta was going to walk in free agency after 2026 so he absolutely had to be traded before 2026 (I guess the Blue Jays should have traded Bo Bichette before last season, huh?).

It might seem like I’m mocking those who disagree with me and, sure, there’s a little of that. There’s just far too much defeatism here, given what we’re talking about.

The Dodgers won 93 regular-season games last year. They might have lost to the Phillies in the NLDS if Orion Kerkering made a quicker decision in Game 4 of that series. The Blue Jays had them on the ropes in the World Series multiple times and if closer Jeff Hoffman just doesn’t allow a fluky home run to Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers wouldn’t be champs. That Game 7 truly could have gone either way multiple times.

The Dodgers are, of course, champs. It was a well-deserved title. I’m not saying they didn’t deserve it. They were amazing in the playoffs. I’m just not understanding this cloak of invincibility so many are giving them. I know that when fans get tired of teams winning titles, the drama gets ratcheted up, but the 2025 Dodgers weren’t the 1998 Yankees with 114 wins and an 11-2 record in the playoffs, including a sweep in the World Series. They weren’t the 2018 Red Sox with 108 wins and an 11-3 playoff record, either. 

Both Caesars Sportsbook and DraftKings currently list the Dodgers with +230 odds to win the 2026 World Series. Those are implied odds of roughly 30%. That means the oddsmakers think it’s a 70% chance that they won’t. And I can’t believe the number of people acting like it’s a foregone conclusion that the Dodgers will win a third consecutive title. The feeling I got in all the feedback last week was that most people believe they have a better than 50% chance to win it all. That’s just lunacy. 

We’ve all been baseball fans for decades, right? We’ve seen how much can go wrong for any given team and how much has to go right for a team to win the World Series. The Dodgers are the only repeat champ since 1998-2000 and they got there last season by the skin of their teeth. 

Again, though, it doesn’t much matter to nail down to the specifics, does it? 

Far too many people perceive that the Dodgers now are just going to show up and win a World Series. That the league is a joke and there’s no reason to even play games. That’s just as big a problem as the salary thing. 

Every single argument you see that loops in other sports makes sure to point out how much more parity there is in the NFL (a lot of the times the person calls it “parody,” which is always fun), ignoring that NFL has had fewer champions in whatever stretch of years we want for the past several decades and that either the Patriots or Chiefs are in the AFC title game every single year. But, sure, it’s baseball where it’s “just the same teams every year.”

Again, it’s a perception problem. 

So many sports fans have been trained to believe that a salary cap will cure all ills that it is a legitimate problem for Major League Baseball. I’m as sincere as I’ve ever been right now when I say that I do firmly believe this has reached the point where MLB can’t solve the problem of fan perception with anything short of a cap. The Dodgers with their winning and spending have broken the minds of fans in the collective. I think there is so, so much more to it than simply “throw money at players and win,” but there’s only so much those of us in the minority here can do. 

Public perception is that MLB has a problem that is an unfair financial game tilted toward the Dodgers. It won’t be an easy problem to solve.