After a busy offseason where teams spent over $1 billion combined on free agents (the Los Angeles (LA) Dodgers were at the top of the list as always), along with the looming presence of a potential 2027 lockout, the 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is shaping up to be one of the most tense and one-sided seasons to date.
A lot of discourse this offseason has centered on the hundreds of millions of dollars that certain teams have spent in free agency. While teams such as the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays have spent a large amount, the Dodgers lead the bidding by a cool $20 million.
To kick off the offseason, the Dodgers signed former Mets star relief pitcher Edwin Diaz to a three-year, $69 million contract. The real bomb, however, would drop in January, when the Dodgers signed star outfielder Kyle Tucker to a $240 million, four-year deal, setting the record for the average annual salary for a player at a whopping $60 million per year. The Dodgers’ projected opening day lineup on Fan Graphs, a baseball statistics website, contains one player who, by the statistic OPS (On-base Plus Slugging), was below average offensively this past year. Led by four-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shohei Ohtani, who continues to cement himself as an all-time great, this team intends to run over whoever is in its way. Vegas seems to share this sentiment. Fanduel, an online sportsbook, has the Dodgers’ odds of being World Series Champions at +210. For reference, the next highest team is the New York Yankees at +1100. Although the Dodgers are clear favorites, a three-peat is extremely hard, as only four teams have ever done it, the last coming from the Yankees over two decades ago.
Fans and owners have expressed concern and disdain over the Dodgers’ grand spending. A March 2026 fan survey by The Athletic found that 52% of fans now believe that the Dodgers are bad for baseball. In my opinion, they are entitled to spend as much as they please. If what they are doing is within the rules of the sport and brings the stars to the forefront of the spotlight, I’m all for it.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told reporters in late 2025 that it is “difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things they’re doing.” While the Yankees are not light spenders at all ($306 million 2026 payroll), one might find it hard to believe that Steinbrenner could spend as much as the Dodgers, as his team was worth $8.2 billion this year according to Forbes, $1.4 billion more than the LA Dodgers.
It’s no coincidence that the top three teams projected in baseball this year, according to online betting site Fanduel (Dodgers, Yankees, Mets), have the largest three payrolls in the league. Spending money works. The Marlins, who have the lowest payroll in the league, have shocking +20000 odds to win the World Series.
Teams such as the Athletics and Pirates are infamous for their lack of spending. Despite having extremely wealthy owners (John Fisher: $3.6 billion net worth and Bob Nutting: $1.1 billion net worth), both teams have never given out a contract larger than $110 million in their team’s history. 2025 National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes will undoubtedly not be re-signed to the Pirates because they don’t spend money.
The owners and teams have the resources to compete with the Dodgers, but they refuse to spend due to the risk of not making as much yearly profit. If they are going to care solely about the bottom line and not about their team’s success, they do not deserve to win, never mind complain about teams like the Dodgers and Mets, who go for it every year.
But why bring this up? This spending disparity is occurring at a watershed moment, as the MLB faces a potential lockout in 2027, when the player-owner bargaining deal ends. If players and owners cannot reach a deal before the start of the season, baseball cannot be played.
The player-owner bargaining deal secures financial policies between owners and players. A major issue this cycle is the disagreement between owners and players over the ever-growing salaries. If 2026 turns out to be another year when high-spending teams dominate, disagreements could arise in an attempt to establish a new player-owner bargaining deal; an agreement might not be reached in time for the season, and the MLB could be in for a lockout.
A lot, including the future of America’s pastime, rests on the 2026 MLB season. It would be a shame to stop the upward momentum that baseball has accumulated over the past few years.
To save America’s pastime, wealthy owners of low-spending teams need to step up and invest money into their teams.
