The Los Angeles Dodgers’ high spending and dominance over the last handful of seasons has brought plenty of complaints for rival fans, with many calling for regulations on spending such as a salary cap.
LA has spent the last two years at the top of the tax payroll leaderboards among MLB teams, and will do the same in 2026 should the table remain as is.
With MLB’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of the 2026 season, speculation of a lockout until an agreement is reached to balance the league’s payroll has risen.
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Dodgers Nation host Doug McKain expressed his feelings toward the potential lockout, and elaborated on why such an occurrence is unlikely and would damage MLB.
“If you go and you have a lockout right now, during peak Shohei Ohtani time and Aaron Judge time and coming off a World Series that had 51 million viewers at a time when the NBA has struggled with its ratings, where it’s very competitive to get eyeballs in this day and age, if Major League Baseball had a lockdown, it could set this sport back by a decade at least,” McKain said.
“Like it could be that damaging. Nobody wants to hear about millionaires arguing with billionaires no matter what the circumstances are, whether it be salary cap, salary floor, revenue sharing, the Dodgers deferring contracts as long as other teams can do that, too. It does not matter. Fans tune out. They do not care. They will find other things to watch, other things to attend, other places to go.
“And yes, it’s pretty nuanced and complicated as far as what they’re gonna be after, but as far as missing time, I just don’t think they are.”
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While the Dodgers have remained at the top of the tax payroll table for two years, a much larger issue rests at the bottom. The Dodgers had a $417 million tax payroll in 2025, and more than half of the teams in MLB had less than half of their total.
A total of 11 teams had a tax payroll less than $150 million, and just three of them made the postseason. Nothing is stopping MLB owners from investing more in their teams, but the lack of spending towards the bottom of the league would harm the Dodgers — one of MLB’s biggest markets — should a lockout happen.
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4 Responses
“but the lack of spending towards the bottom of the league would harm the Dodgers — one of MLB’s biggest markets — should a lockout happen.”
What?
Only thing I can thinknof is the lower team payrolls would keep the luxury tax threshold artificially low. Which, in turn, means Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, etc would pay more in “tax”.
Thanks RH
Aaron kind of left us hanging as to what he meant. Or me at least. If he meant what you described I still wonder why a lockout would impact this situation. If the low spending teams don’t reach a minimum level of spending they don’t reap the rewards of revenue sharing. Why would a lockout change that absent a new formula from a new agreement?
He was saying that some teams not spending enough to compete is worse for the league than the teams who spend TO compete. The Angels, the Rockies, The Pirates, The A;s, The Nationals, the White Sox, the Giants, even the Marlins, take the fans money and put it in their owners pockets who then complain about the Dodgers, the Mets, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Blue Jays, the Cubs, the Red Sox, and others spending to win because it makes these other owners look bad. These are the same teams that let their stars go into free agency or trade them rather than pay them. Its bad for baseball and for these other teams fans who know their chances of even getting to the playoff are two: Slim and none with slim already having left the ballpark. A salary floor is a must and if those owners don’t like it, then they shouldn’t be in the League…