maybe they think the division is winnable but another part could be to make a decent attempt to improve the team to be able to sign Bobby long term

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: Dodgers are signing Yoshinobu Yamamato, per multiple reports <a href="https://t.co/GsFNbNUJyS">pic.twitter.com/GsFNbNUJyS</a></p>&mdash; Sports Illustrated (@SInow) <a href="https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1738050469912514954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

12 years and $325 million. Hard to believe.

Very smart. They intend to be team Japan. Make alot of TV money from there.

LMAO Dodgers really went out and spent a literal billion.

If the Dodgers start winning World Series’ like the 90’s Yankees it’ll start to be hard not to check out.

The Dodgers exemplify everything wrong with baseball.

Because we spend money and have a good farm system?

Well it's what is wrong with baseball because KC doesn't have that :LOL:

Could’ve had me for half or less tbh

You're one of my favorite posters on CP, so please don't take this question as me being my normally snarky, asshole self, but if the Dodgers have such a great farm system why do they need to go out and spend a billion dollars on free agents?

When fans of small market teams make statements like "the Dodgers exemplify everything that is wrong with baseball," they mean that for a small market team every decision has to be perfect for that team to succeed. Every free agent acquisition has to work both on the field and financially, every high draft pick has to pan out, and all contract decisions have to be both viable on the field and on the ledger. Teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc...can literally **** it up and then buy their way out of their bad decisions. I'm not saying the Dodgers aren't a well run organization or that they have recently made a bunch of bad decisions, I'm just saying their margin for error is huge.

Baseball will never surpass or even come close to football in popularity again. The fact that 80% of the league knows going into the season they have zero shot at making the playoffs and that whenever a big time free agent hits the market only about 5-6 teams have a legitimate shot at signing said player is a major contributing factor to fan interest.

This is in present tense?!?! Start!?!?!

Braves have spent really the last 5 years or so being the best run organization in baseball. The Rays aren't far behind.

And in about 2 weeks the Dodgers just pulled out a checkbook and undid a half decade of being out-maneuvered.

I mean as a Cardinals fan I don't even care - we weren't winning anything anyway. And the fact that LA is probably going to embarrass us just makes me smile.

But if I were a Braves fan this would be REALLY disheartening. Over a long stretch of really smart decisions they managed to bow out in the 1st round of the playoffs 4 years out of 6 and now the Dodgers have decided they're going to throw money around like they're printing it (and lets be fair, they pretty much are).

Ooof. Tough tough day for Braves fans.

Well I said good and not great. :D

And I get it. I'm sure if I was a fan of one of those small market teams, I would be just as pissed off at a system that doesn't give everyone equal footing.

In my mind, I've seen one championship that I can remember and that one will always have an asterix next to it. It will always be called out as a fraud.

I'm just not seeing the disdain for these moves like other people are. Ohtani and Yamamoto both wanted to be Dodgers and Ohtani deferred money so that he wasn't stuck in another Angels situation. What have we done the past years? Betts and Freeman? We didn't pay an absurd amount to Trea Turner to stay. We didn't pay that to Seager...even though we should have. We didn't do it to Scherzer.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Braves, Red Sox Trade Chris Sale For Vaughn Grissom <a href="https://t.co/4uZ0LN3k5W">https://t.co/4uZ0LN3k5W</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZxMR8AJvvC">pic.twitter.com/ZxMR8AJvvC</a></p>&mdash; MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) <a href="https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1741177221656535183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>