The Los Angeles Dodgers have been one of the crown jewels of Major League Baseball for pretty much their entire existence. Outside of a handful of years, they have always been a well-run organization, and that has led to massive success on the field
The Colorado Rockies, on the other hand, have been one of the bottom-barrel franchises since their founding in the early ’90s. In the past 20 years, the franchise has had just 5 winning seasons.
They reached their peak in 2007 when they finished the season on a historic run and swept their way to the World Series. They would lose to the Boston Red Sox in 4 games and would never see the same success again.
There are multiple reasons why the Los Angeles Dodgers have had so much success and why the Rockies have not, but Colorado owner Dick Monfort had some choice words for his reason as to why.
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The Rockies have an estimated 2025 payroll of $124 million, per FanGraphs. That is an astounding $265 million less than the $389 million that the Dodgers are spending this year.
Many fans in smaller markets have had an issue with this for years, and now Monfort has decided to speak publicly about it.
Monfort told The Denver Gazette, “The Dodgers are the greatest poster children we could’ve had for how something has to change. Sports are supposed to have some sort of fairness, right? There’s got to be some purity.”
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What is fascinating about Major League Baseball is that while it is absolutely true that a few of the top markets dominate spending and free agency acquisitions, the league actually has incredible parity in terms of who wins the World Series.
There has not been a repeat winner since the New York Yankees three-peated in 1998, 1999, and 2000. For some context, 7 of the last 9 Super Bowls have been won by the same 3 NFL teams (Eagles, Chiefs, Patriots).
However, this all being said, there has been plenty of talk about baseball implementing some kind of salary cap.
“Something’s got to happen. The competitive imbalance in baseball has gotten to the point of ludicrosity now. It’s an unregulated industry,” Monfort continued.
“The only way to fix baseball is to do a salary cap and a floor. With a cap comes a floor. For a lot of teams, the question is: How do they get to the floor? And that includes us, probably. But on some sort of revenue-split deal, I would be all-in.”
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While the league does have parity in terms of World Series winners, there is something to be said about the bottom of the league and what the floor should be to keep the bottom spenders competitive.
The MLB is run very differently than cap-controlled leagues. This doesn’t mean they can’t adjust things, but will they?
For now, the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to operate within the rules and have the support of Commissioner Rob Manfred in how they operate. Maybe teams like the Rockies just need to spend more.