Jack Flaherty knows who's really to blame for Dodgers' dominant offseason

Jack Flaherty is one of the best starting pitchers remaining on the free-agent market, but even he has taken note of the spending gap between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the rest of baseball. The Dodgers payroll is far closer to $400 million than it should be, and not because of Andrew Friedman.

Yes, while Friedman is taking advantage of an inactive market, the onus is on other MLB teams and ownership to meet free agents where they're at, rather than penny-pinching in hopes teams like Los Angeles won't cash in. The Dodgers are more than comfortable deferring salaries and using every loophole in the book to add to an already-talented roster. And the rest of MLB has done little to deter them from doing so.

In the past week, the Dodgers have signed Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. The latter two of those signings aren't official, if only because Los Angeles and Friedman have yet to officially make room for them on the 40-man roster, but they will be Dodgers – and key members of the bullpen at that. All three were available at relatively affordable price tags, especially Sasaki, yet the Dodgers won out. This is not just because of the money offered, but because the Dodgers front office routinely shows they are willing to do whatever necessary to win a World Series.

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Jack Flaherty knows who to blame for the Los Angeles Dodgers free agency splurge

This includes free agency, trades, scouting, managing the farm system – you name it, the Dodgers are doing it better than anyone else. Most teams cannot say that, and it's why Los Angeles keeps winning over star players who have to choose a new home. Flaherty is one of those players, and he made it clear whose really to blame for Los Angeles' shopping spree.

As FanSided's Robert Murray wrote, the Dodgers are better positioned than any other defending World Series champion in MLB history to repeat. Flaherty would argue the rest of baseball is to blame for that, even though he may not be a part of that run.

As of Jan. 9, six teams had yet to spend a dime on their MLB roster in free agency – the Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners. While that number has shrunk some, it's too little, too late for teams like the Padres and Brewers, which made the postseason in 2024 but have fallen even further behind Los Angeles this winter.