The Los Angeles Dodgers have tossed any semblance of a budget they may have had right out the window and continued to lavish extraordinary contracts on their players, with the newest arrival, Kyle Tucker, getting nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.
Tucker Gets Paid
Baseball betting fans around the league are envious, if not downright angry, at the devil-may-care attitude of the LA Dodgers. Big Blue has won two straight World Series titles, and the luxury tax appears to be a mere inconvenience to the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group, of which Mark Walter owns a 27% share.
Despite a lineup that is littered with All-Stars, the Dodgers have an insatiable appetite for getting the best players available. LA traded for Boston’s supremely talented outfielder, Mookie Betts, just a few years ago when he was looking for a big-ticket contract that the Red Sox were reluctant to pay. Of course, the biggest deal in MLB history was struck on December 23, 2023, when the Dodgers inked Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million deal.
Tucker’s Signing Further Inflates Payroll
And as if the Dodgers’ payroll books weren’t already busting at the seams, the team with a seemingly unlimited budget went out and signed the best big bat available when 4x All-Star Kyle Tucker put his pen to paper and became the newest member of the world champions courtesy of a four-year, $240 million pact.
Dodgers World Series Odds Drop After Signing
Sportsbooks throughout the industry immediately dropped the odds on the Dodgers’ futures, with many adjusting their World Series champion odds from +300 to +225, while plummeting from +160 to +130 to win the National League and -375 to -650 to win the NL West. The Tucker signing has also moved the Dodgers’ total season wins up approximately three wins, from 99.5 to 102.5.
Breaking the Bank
In a day and age when most teams’ primary concern is the bottom line rather than championship trophies on the mantle, the LA Dodgers are a unique exception. Spending extraordinary amounts of cash to land the sport’s best players is not just the most important thing for the Dodgers; it’s the only thing.
Unlike other sports, there is no salary cap in baseball, only a luxury tax that teams must pay if they spend above a certain level. It is safe to say that the Dodgers have no issues with the additional expense of spending through the roof, but a salary cap may be instituted after the current Collective Bargaining Agreement ends in December.
Dodgers Payroll Towers Over Rest Of MLB
To put the Dodgers’ 2026 payroll of $413,597,413 into perspective, consider that the team with the second-highest payroll, the New York Mets, trails LA by nearly $100 million. Moreover, aside from the Mets, only the Blue Jays and Phillies have payrolls north of $300 million. At the other end of the spectrum, the Marlins have committed just $69 million to field their team in 2026.
Los Angeles has signed eight players to deals worth more than $100 million, including Tucker, Ohtani, Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Tyler Glasnow.
If we include the eight above and add them to the following six, Edwin Díaz, Teoscar Hernández, Tanner Scott, Tommy Edman, Blake Treinen, and Max Muncy, the Dodgers have 14 players making in excess of $10 million. To put that into perspective, the Marlins, Guardians, Rays, Athletics, White Sox, and Pirates have 11 combined.
