Shitlol
Not this year!
View attachment 110704
I guarantee you the Yankees throw Ohtani money at Soto this off season.
I'm a Dodgers fan, and they've had a top 4 payroll every season for the past decade+.
Just because the Mets were more foolish for 2 years doesn't disprove my point. IIRC the Mets are paying Verlander and Scherzer to pitch for other teams LOL.
Also note that most high payroll teams made these playoffs, with a few exceptions of course.
The only reason it's not worse than it already is because there is high variance in baseball. You can stockpile the most talent as the Dodgers have done year in and year out, but there's still a fair amount of injury luck, and random luck/noise in every game. The 5th inning last night alone was testament to that.
I used to be a Moneyball A's fan, but you can only defy MLB economics for so long. Contrast this with the NFL where the national TV deals and revenue sharing makes it possible for Green Bay (and other small market teams) to not just survive, but thrive.
Believe it or not, Ohtani's deal is
very team friendly (it's basically a state income tax dodge for Shohei). Since Soto is a Boras client, they will try to extract max pain.