In December of 2023, Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani signed a record-breaking deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, marking the beginning of a new era of Dodger baseball: one of a potential dynasty. Ohtani is this generation’s Babe Ruth; he is not only a powerful hitter but a superb pitcher, a rarity in today’s game. After five seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League, Ohtani joined the Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels in 2018, where, despite his talent, he failed repeatedly to push the floundering Angels to the playoffs. Ohtani’s contract with the Dodgers brought the team millions of new fans, sponsorships, and most of all, incredible, barely-tapped talent to drive them through the 2024 season and beyond.
Prior to the 2024 season, the Dodgers had qualified for the playoffs eleven seasons in a row, and won their division, the National League West, ten of those years. Despite their regular season success, however, the team became infamous for their playoff slumps, only making it to the World Series in 2017, 2018, and 2020, and winning it all only in 2020. However, it is necessary to include several asterisks in this four-year span. For starters, it was revealed several years later that the Astros, who defeated the Dodgers in 2017, were cheating throughout the season using illegal sign-stealing technology. Although MLB punished the Astros, they didn’t take away their ring or name the Dodgers the true champs. Instead, 2017 is considered a blank year by most baseball fans. Additionally, the 2020 season was shortened from 162 to 60 regular season games due to Covid-19, resulting in many critics dubbing the Dodgers’ World Series title a “mickey mouse ring.” These setbacks have reinforced the Dodgers’ reputation as a team that is, essentially, unable to live up to the hype.
With an early exit in the postseason in a 3-game sweep by the Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series (quarterfinals), the 2023 season was another disappointment for the Dodgers. However, things started to turn around starting with Ohtani’s signing. His 10-year, $700 million contract is the biggest deal ever signed in Major League Baseball, and was quickly followed by a 12-year, $325 million contract with Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With these two signings, the Dodgers added to their stellar lineup, which already featured stars like outfielder Mookie Betts, first baseman Freddie Freeman, catcher Will Smith, and an array of auspicious pitchers.
More offseason signings of outfielder Teoscar Hernàndez and pitcher Tyler Glasnow, as well as the return of many injured players to the roster, had the 2024 season looking bright for the Dodgers. However, the high hopes began to crumble as injuries ravaged this all-star lineup. Over the course of the season, the Dodgers led the league in combined days missed due to injury with a startling 2,158. Star pitcher Walker Beuhler missed the first 36 games of the season, then another 45 with two different injuries. Yamamoto missed 72 games with a right rotator cuff strain. Third/first baseman Max Muncy missed 80 games for a right oblique strain, and Betts missed 45 with a broken hand. The bullpen saw Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Joe Kelly, Brusdar Graterol, and Anthony Banda miss tens of games throughout the season for various injuries. Starting pitchers Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Glasnow, and Clayton Kershaw (who has the lowest career earned run average of any active pitcher ) all faced season-ending injuries, forcing the Dodgers to enter the postseason with just one starting pitcher remaining from the beginning of the season: Yamamoto. He was joined by a recovered Beuhler, a newly-signed Jack Flaherty, and a bullpen who ultimately stepped up to the occasion.
Despite the injuries, the Dodgers had another great regular season. They championed the best record in baseball with 98 wins and 64 losses, and Ohtani was the star of the show. Despite an elbow injury preventing him from pitching, the Japanese designated hitter lived up to the high expectations, with a batting average above .300 and almost 200 hits on the season. He even founded the 50/50 club, meaning he hit 50 home runs and stole 50 bases in one season, a feat no player has ever accomplished.
Entering the playoffs, the Dodgers played their SoCal rival, the San Diego Padres, in a best-of-5 Division Series. The matchup, often a heated one, was packed with tense moments, with the players frequently at each other's throats with taunts and insults. After falling behind 2-1 in the series, the Dodgers made an incredible comeback to win the series 3-2. Moving onto the National League Championship best-of-7 series, they solidly beat the New York Mets in six games. Tommy Edman, a clutch utility man the Dodgers picked up at the trade deadline, was awarded the MVP after an outstanding performance. Thus, the Dodgers headed to one of the most heavily anticipated World Series in recent history against the New York Yankees.
The Yankees were stacked with superstars like power hitters Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton, as well as lockdown pitcher Garrett Cole. Game 1 of the best-of-7 was not looking good for LA when they went down 3-2 in extra innings. However, the Dodgers managed to load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving some tentative hope to the home fans. The stadium held its breath in anticipation as Freeman, who had sustained an ankle injury in the last series of the regular season, hobbled up to the plate. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Freeman hit a game-winning grand slam to left field. With one swing, Freeman became a Dodgers legend as he made history with the first walk-off grand slam in a World Series, ever. Many Dodgers fans have drawn comparisons to Kirk Gibson’s famous home run in the 1988 World Series, commentator Joe Davis even echoing former Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully’s legendary call of “She is gone!” followed by “Gibby, meet Freddie!” Gibson, too, came up to bat limping and hit a walk-off homer to win Game 1.
The Dodgers rode the momentum of this spectacular Game 1 to win the next two games series handily, going up 3-0 in the series, a deficit no team had ever come back from in the World Series. However, injuries continued to haunt LA. Just as Freeman was starting to get back on track, Ohtani suffered a shoulder subluxation, or partial dislocation, in Game 2. Although he stayed in the lineup for the rest of the series, he was largely ineffective, with only one hit for the rest of the series. In Game 4, the Yankees struck back with an 11-4 win, leaving Dodgers fans fearful of a potential comeback, and, when the Yankees went up 5-0 in the early innings of Game 5, it was looking grim for LA. However, several Yankee errors and mental mistakes, including a dropped fly ball by Judge and Cole’s failure to cover first base on a basic ground ball play, allowed the Dodgers to take the game back. The game ended 7-6, Dodgers in the lead. The Dodgers had won the World Series, their first championship ring from a full season since 1988. Freeman, who hit four home runs in the five games of the World Series, was named MVP, and Los Angeles got the victory parade they were denied due to Covid-19 in 2020.
So, why is this win the start of a dynasty? The last team to win back-to-back World Series was the Yankees, when they won in 1998, 1999, and 2000. The last team to win three World Series in five years was the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Longevity is a hard thing for a team to accomplish, and dynasties don’t happen often. But the Dodgers are building something special.
As mentioned, the signings of Ohtani and Yamamoto were huge for the quality of the Dodgers’ lineup. But they made perhaps an even more important impact in the long run: they got Japan on their side. Japan is becoming an undeniable baseball powerhouse. Defeating the USA in the Baseball World Classic (BWC) in 2023, baseball’s equivalent of the World Cup, is just one sign of this phenomenon, and Ohtani’s record-breaking contract is another. But the players aren’t all; it’s the fanbase. Baseball is immensely popular in Japan right now, even more popular than it is in the United States. The final of the BWC was viewed by 60 million people in Japan, more than the most-watched World Series game in history. Ohtani and Yamamoto are two of the most famous people in Japan, and both of them are on the Dodgers. With that, suddenly millions of Japanese baseball fans became Dodger fans. Ohtani’s first Dodger game got 17 million viewers in Japan, and only 350,000 in the U.S. More Japanese fans watched Dodger NLDS games and NLCS games than American fans. Only the World Series got about the same number of Japanese and American viewers, with about 15 million each.
Furthermore, in 2024, the Dodgers got twelve new team sponsors, eleven of them being Japanese companies. Of the two major airlines in Japan, one (Japan Airlines) sponsors Ohtani, and the other (All Nippon Airways) sponsors the Dodgers. The Dodgers have generated about $50 million in sponsorships just from Japan. A report by The Athletic has said that ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorship, etc. stemming from Ohtani made the Angels about $70 million a year, before he even took the field for the first time. The Dodgers have more sponsorships, a bigger brand, and bigger fanbase, meaning he is probably making the Dodgers far more than that. Finally, the Dodgers sold 4.36 million tickets during the 2024 season. In comparison, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour sold 4.35 million in its first year.
Just wait, there’s more. Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract will cost the Dodgers an unreal amount of money that most teams couldn’t even dream of spending. But Ohtani did something unique: he deferred 97% of it. He should, according to his contract, be getting paid $70 million a year until 2034. Instead, he’s getting paid a measly $2 million a year until 2034. Then, he will be paid $68 million dollars a year for ten years, and due to inflation, that money will be worth much less in the future. The reason he did this was to allow the Dodgers to spend more money on other great players while he is on the team. Other great athletes have used similar tactics: Draymond Green and Tom Brady both agreed to get paid less than they were worth to allow their teams to further stack their lineups, and both saw their teams win championships because of it. Because Ohtani deferred this money, the Dodgers are able to have the second-highest payroll in baseball and still buy more players.
It will be interesting to see who the Dodgers sign this offseason. They are reportedly interested in young Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, who is looking to join an MLB team after four years in Japan. Fans are also hoping for the re-signing of free agents Hernàndez, Flaherty, Beuhler, Treinen, and more 2024 stars. Additionally, reporters have linked the Dodgers to elite free agents like the Yankees’ Juan Soto, the Brewers’ Willy Adames, the Giants’ Blake Snell, and the Braves’ Max Fried. Because Ohtani deferred his contract, it is very possible for the Dodgers to make these high-profile signings, and also to face less taxes imposed by the league for going above the threshold of $241,000 in salaries per year.
On top of that, not only are the Dodgers able to afford these high sought after players, but they have a unique ability to build high-quality players out of almost nothing. Players like Muncy and Chris Taylor struggled on their former teams, but when brought to the Dodgers shined. The team’s staff has turned discarded pitchers like Treinen, Michael Kopech, Alex Vesia, Phillips, Banda, and Ryan Brasier into bullpen giants, with Treinen being one of the most valuable free agents on the market this offseason. And the best part for the Dodgers is, they aren’t even paying these players very much. Finally, the Dodgers will have several injured players returning in 2025, including pitchers Kershaw, Sheehan, Stone, May, Gonsolin, and Glasnow, mentioned previously.
Finally, the Dodgers have the approach of a winning team. From their trademark baserunning celebrations and their focus on the fundamentals of baserunning and defense (which the Yankees lacked), to players like Kershaw, Freeman, and Betts with an unmatched work ethic, the Dodgers have the mindset, energy, and comradery of a team meant for greatness. All baseball teams should be scared of the Dodgers in years to come. They broke through in 2024, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
The Dodgers Could be the Next Baseball Dynasty
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