If your jaw hit the floor when you learned that the Los Angeles Dodgers had signed free agent Kyle Tucker to a borderline offensive contract this week, you were not alone. Now that we know that the Dodgers payroll will top $400 million dollars for the upcoming season, it’s more important than ever that Chaim Bloom and his team get this rebuild of the St. Louis Cardinals done right for us to contend again soon.
Just for reference, here is the payroll for the Los Angeles Dodgers dating back a decade:
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2015 – $266.1
2016 – $235.9
2017 – $227.8
2018 – $177.4
2019 – $206.0
2020 – $221.6
2021 – $237.0
2022 – $263.5
2023 – $210.6
2024 – $277.5
2025 – $354.8
The projected payroll for the Dodgers for the 2026 season is a remarkable $413.6 million dollars. Now, let’s all exhale and try to find our happy place because this outrageous Dodgers spending shouldn’t be intimidating. It should be inspiring because I believe we have the management team now that is capable of taking down giants (and I’m not talking about the San Francisco kind). I can’t remember which one of my favorite Cardinals writers said this, but I think it’s Bernie Miklasz. It’s not the amount of your payroll, but it’s what you do with it that matters. Yes, the Los Angeles Dodgers have used their money to grab nearly every all-star within reach, but the choices they made have been smart and roster management by Dave Roberts has been masterful.
One of our fine writers recently described how the St. Louis Cardinals are currently building a nice farm system pipeline. That’s part of the key to how the rebuilt St. Louis Cardinals can become a lean, mean fighting machine capable of taking down big spending teams like the Dodgers again. In 2014, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a payroll of $235 million dollars which was huge for 12 years ago. What was the St. Louis Cardinals payroll for 2014? A measly $111 million dollars. Hold on a sec while I daydream about Clayton Kershaw’s response to that Matt Adams home run in the 2014 NLDS again. Good times, good times.
My point to this is the St. Louis Cardinals used to be great at developing great young players and then adding the appropriate pieces during the offseason and at the trade deadline to fill needs and improve strengths. Our beloved team lost that vision over the past half decade. It doesn’t matter if you want to blame ownership or the previous president of baseball operations, the bottom line is our farm system did not progress the way it needed to for us to be real contenders against big market teams like Los Angeles. After seeing the moves made by Chaim Bloom this offseason, I’m a believer again. He has accomplished nearly everything he said he wanted to do and that should be applauded.
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There is history to prove that if the St. Louis Cardinals get this rebuild done right, a big payroll will not stop us from ascending back into a place where we’re consistently contending for pennants again. Remember the lowly 2003 Florida Marlins who won the championship with the league’s smallest payroll? The 2007 Tampa Bay Rays (then Devil Rays) ended up in the World Series with a team that may have included some buy one, get one free coupons. The Kansas City Royals 2015 World Series title was accomplished with a payroll of just over $112 million. Even the recent 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks made a deep playoff run with only a $116 to $119 million dollars roster. Having a world championship caliber team with a non-stratospheric payroll has been done in the past and it will be done in the future. Let’s hope that there are birds on the bat uniforms that make that happen. We’re coming for you, Dodgers. It’s only a matter of time before you have to explain to your Hollywood fans how a small market team took you down. Ask Clayton Kershaw how that feels. He remembers it well.
