The MLB playoffs are nearly here, and with the Los Angeles Dodgers being the “Bad Guy” of baseball, the criticism will only get louder as the Boys in Blue near a three-peat.
Despite what the haters claim, though, the Dodgers’ success doesn’t come from an unfair advantage, and anyone who tells you differently is pushing an agenda.
Below are a few common complaints from other fanbases, as well some tips from Dodgers Nation on how to respond.
‘The Dodgers are ruining baseball by spending the most’
We hear this one so much that we made a shirt about it.
Amid the labor dispute that could cause next season to start late or even be canceled entirely, a large contingent of people — especially the owners of MLB teams — are arguing that the Dodgers’ ability to spend without a salary cap creates an uneven playing field.
The teams in smaller markets, they argue, can’t pay for the best players and thus, can’t compete with the big-market teams.
It’s funny, then that the Dodgers, with the highest payroll in baseball at $380.3 million, are the No. 2 seed in the National League.
In the American League, the No. 2 seed is the Cleveland Guardians, who have the lowest payroll in baseball at $79.4 million.
The No. 1 seed in the AL, the Tampa Bay Rays, rank 23rd out of 30 MLB teams with a payroll of $107.6 million.
This is when a hater will say something along the lines of “OK, so some teams can outperform their payroll. But the money still helps.”
Tell that to the New York Mets, whose $351.6 million payroll is second in all of baseball.
Despite that spending, they finished dead last in the NL East with a record of 74-88.
It’s no wonder that Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic called out that argument in a column earlier this week.
“The system needs improvement, no doubt,” he wrote. “But if competitive balance is the object, it’s a lot closer than it appears.
‘The Dodgers have an unfair advantage because of Shohei Ohtani’
This is one that you probably heard a lot at the beginning of the year.
Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell criticized the Dodgers’ ability to use Ohtani has both a pitcher and a hitter, even though he takes up just one roster spot.
As any Dodgers fan would likely tell you, though, there’s two problems with the comments by Counsell and others against the so-called “Ohtani rule.”
One, the rule isn’t Dodgers-specific. Any team can go out and find a two-way player and utilize them as both a pitcher and a hitter.
In fact, other teams are doing just that.
And secondly, whatever benefit the Dodgers were supposed to get from having Ohtani pitch and hit has clearly been outweighed by the cost.
Ohtani tried this season to go for a Cy Young, but the stress of pitching caused discomfort, including knee pain, and he ultimately spent time on the injured list even after he abandoned pitching this season.
We’ve seen Ohtani perform double duty in some games, but it seems like for a full season, it’s just asking too much, even if it’s maybe the best player the sport has ever seen.
‘Dodgers fans are bandwagon fans’
This one is perhaps the easiest to argue against.
Sure, we heard the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong denigrate his fellow SoCal natives, but anyone in Los Angeles knows he’s wrong.
If you’re not a Dodgers die-hard yourself, you certainly know a few.
That’s because there’s far too many people bleeding Dodger Blue to think for one second that the team has no real fans.
And if PCA or anyone else needs to see for themselves, there are plenty of murals we’d like to show you.
