Ever since Guggenheim Baseball Management purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, the Dodgers have been the most polarizing team in MLB. They immediately went out and acquired superstars like Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez, infusing a drastic win-now philosophy into the organization.
The Dodgers were second in the league in team salary in 2013, and their payroll ballooned to over $235 million in 2014, which led the league by over $30 million, according to Deadspin.
However, that star-studded roster could not bring a World Series championship to Hollywood in either year. They managed to only win one playoff series, losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS in 2013 and then again to the Redbirds last year in the first round.
Only one week after the Dodgers lost in Game 4 of the NLDS to St. Louis, the club’s front office underwent some changes. They lured Andrew Friedman away from the Rays, making him the new president of baseball operations and reassigning former general manager Ned Colletti to a different position within the organization.
Friedman was expected to get the payroll under control, especially since he had to be frugal in his tenure in Tampa Bay, but he took it to another level, slashing payroll in his first winter meetings in blue. He wasted no time trading Matt Kemp and choosing not to re-sign Hanley Ramirez.
But even with the shift in philosophy, the ownership wants to win now, and it doesn’t really care how much money it has to spend, which is why there is a possibility that the Dodgers could pursue the biggest fish left on the free-agent market, Max Scherzer.
Scherzer is represented by Scott Boras, and his asking price is reportedly somewhere north of $200 million. There is only one pitcher in MLB history who has signed a contract of at least $200 million, and it’s Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw.
Despite Scherzer’s phenomenal success the past two years, his market has been unimpressive. The Scherzer negotiations are completely different than Jon Lester’s. Leading up to Lester’s signing, there was seemingly endless rumor and speculation, with several teams clamoring for position.
With Scherzer, though, there haven’t been any teams that have announced they are “all in” on signing the 2013 Cy Young winner.
That perceived lack of interest will probably not lower Scherzer’s price tag due to Boras’ historic brilliance of getting his clients top dollar, but it does leave the window open for the Dodgers to shock the baseball world.
If they do sign Scherzer, they would undoubtedly have the best starting rotation in the MLB. A staff consisting of Kershaw, Scherzer, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu would be nearly unhittable, especially in a best-of-five or best-of-seven playoff series.
The Dodgers already unloaded Kemp and Ramirez, giving them a bit of flexibility from a financial standpoint, and it’s not like the L.A executives are going to pass up a chance to drastically improve their team just because of money.
They have shown that they are not afraid of massive contracts, and Scherzer could be the next one they sign.
If that is the case, the Dodgers immediately become my pick to win the World Series. They would have the best starting rotation in the game, and they still have plenty of firepower, even without Kemp and Ramirez, in an offense that features Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez and the newly acquired Howie Kendrick.
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