Haters gonna hate: Dave Roberts says fans upset over Dodgers spending are just jealous

The Los Angeles Dodgers have responded to their World Series win by putting their foot even more firmly on the gas, assembling one of the most talented rosters in recent memory this offseason. It's not enough that their payroll is lapping the league right now, a full $72 million ahead of the second-place New York Mets. They've also found one loophole after another to take full advantage of, whether it's ducking taxes via deferred payments or a pipeline to Japanese talent that's produced Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a bargain-basement deal with Roki Sasaki over the last two winters.

At this point, it's hard to see how most, if not all, of the other teams in the league can keep up, in both the short and long terms. But Dodgers brass doesn't want to hear anything about how they're ruining the sport, or how Rob Manfred needs to step in to ensure greater parity. The way manager Dave Roberts sees it, it's really everyone else's fault for not trying hard enough.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.

Dave Roberts says Dodgers have no reason to apologize for massive offseason

Roberts appeared on MLB Network Radio over the weekend, where naturally the subject of the Dodgers' offseason spending came up. In the face of weeks of criticism over his team's historic accumulation of talent, he had a simple response: You're just jealous.

Roberts at least had the decency to admit that he's a little bit biased here, but still, this certainly sounds like a man who's had it with everyone else's excuses.

“I certainly come from probably a biased perspective as a bigger-market team. I think it’s really impressive and the way it should be as far as us putting our money into the ball club, into the players. I think the frustration for fans want their teams to have the same kind of motivation that our ownership does. I think the Evil Empire sort of thing, people like to root against somebody. I still think teams would like to invest in teams rather than sit on their hands."

In one sense, Roberts has a point. It's not the Dodgers' fault that, say, the New York Yankees or Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox — teams that make money hand over fist, and are owned by billionaires — haven't invested in their rosters to the extent that L.A. has. There's no reason why Hal Steinbrenner hasn't sunk this sort of money into New York's payroll this winter, or why Brian Cashman has to get out from under Marcus Stroman's contract in order to continue upgrading the team.

And even smaller-market teams share some blame here, run by undercapitalized ownership groups that are perfectly happy cashing revenue-sharing checks and then throwing their hands up when fans ask them to get serious about winning. Still, Roberts' framing here is a little dishonest: Of course the complaints are coming from a place of wanting other teams to be as competitive as the Dodgers, but that's the entire point. Los Angeles has access to a level of competitiveness that not everyone else does, and you can't blame fans for resenting them for it.