The Dodgers are “Hundreds of Millions in Debt” after reaching $1 Billion in Player Spending

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been spending too much money on baseball players, especially since 2013 when Guggenheim Baseball Management assumed control of the team. The Dodgers have spent $1.181 Billion in those four years on player salary, an average of around $295 Million annually.

So the crazy spending must stop, and one might think that it becomes a hinderance of their ability to compete in 2017 and the years following. But the Dodgers are falling back on one key thing: the development of young talent coming out of their minor league system which has been fruitful of late.

So while the Dodgers would have to pay big in order to keep established stars such as third baseman Justin Turner and closer Kenley Jansen from signing elsewhere as free agents, the club says it otherwise is able to operate more efficiently because it has a minor league system that is churning out the young, relatively inexpensive talent necessary to sustain a perennial contender.

It’s improbable that the Dodgers are able to keep both Turner and Jansen. One of them will get an offer elsewhere that the Dodgers cannot sensibly match. For shit’s sake, they’re paying Alex Guerrero some insane amount of money next season to go play in another country (he’s not a Dodger anymore after being released). There just are so many poor crooked numbers and players on the Dodgers books that were needlessly put there, and it’s felt that way for a while.

They’re going to start behaving differently, if the LA Times report by Bill Shaikin has wheels.