How do Dodgers plan to become first repeat champs in 25 years? Spend half a billion dollars

If effort could be measured in straight dollars and cents, no baseball team in the last quarter century has tried harder to defend a World Series championship than the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It has been 25 years since a team has won back-to-back titles. But in an effort to end that drought, the reigning champions have already committed $445.5 million in guaranteed dollars this winter. That’s more than the $370.5 million spent by the previous four World Series winners combined.

By moving aggressively on big-league free agents and contract extensions — a flurry of activity that has raised consternation throughout the sport — the Dodgers have operated as if their season had stalled out against the Padres early in the playoffs. It’s a tactic they forecasted in their comments even before this latest wave of spending.

“It’s really hard to win it,” general manager Brandon Gomes said in December. “It’s even harder to repeat — reloading and putting out an even better team to try to do it again.”

“It’s about doing everything we can to maintain,’’ Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations said in November.

In their attempt to become the first team to repeat since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000, the Dodgers enter the 2025 season with a projected payroll of $374 million, according to Cot’s Contracts. That figure doesn’t even include the highly-coveted Roki Sasaki, who signed a minor-league deal with a $6.5 million signing bonus from the international pool.

The Dodgers have signed six of The Athletic’s Big Board of top 40 free agents. Only two other teams – the New York Mets (three) and New York Yankees (two) – have inked more than one. The spree began with landing two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, and has continued through into the new year. Less than 48 hours after landing Sasaki, the Dodgers inked a four-year, $72 million deal with Tanner Scott, the top available reliever on the market.

Inflation calculations were used with this calculator.

“I think no matter what, our mindset was, ‘Let’s be aggressive to add to the core that we had,” Friedman said. “I think with the position we’re in right now and the success we’ve had it puts us in position to be even more aggressive.”

A few months later, the rest of baseball is now grappling with the fallout of that aggression. They’ve been welcomed to a startling reality where the Dodgers haven’t rested on their laurels – they’ve only maintained their prolific spending.

For perspective, only six reigning champions in the last quarter century have committed as much as nine figures toward the defense of a title, with the number rising to seven because adjusting for inflation pushes the post-2000 Yankees into the group.

The Dodgers have not only re-upped with some of their title-winning core, they’ve also supplemented it, another way in which they’ve stood out from much of the rest.

The more common thought for reigning champions has been to bring back the stars that brought them to glory in the first place.

Take the 2019 Washington Nationals, who held the crown for the most money spent in an offseason for a reigning champion until before the Dodgers came along this winter.

The Nationals added $316.3 million in new money. Just over $39 million went to players outside the organization, with $24 million going to reliever Will Harris. But most of it went to keeping the talent they already had on the roster.

Keeping Stephen Strasburg, the World Series MVP, cost the Nationals $245 million. The rest went to keeping the heroes of their title run, including Daniel Hudson, Howie Kendrick and Ryan Zimmerman. But even that wasn’t enough to keep everyone, with Anthony Rendon signing a $245 million deal with the Angels.

Numerous other World Series champions prioritized continuity.

The post-2018 Boston Red Sox re-signed Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce, which constituted their $74.25 million post-title outlay. But Boston did not commit a single dollar to an external free agent

After the San Francisco Giants won the 2014 title, their lone external addition was Nori Aoki. Following the 2012 title, the Giants’ one addition was Andrés Torres, who was returning to San Francisco for a second stint. In their post-2007 title glory, the biggest move by the Red Sox was re-signing Mike Lowell. And after the 2005 Chicago White Sox brought the first title to the Southside in 88 years, one of their major additions was re-signing Paul Konerko.

The Anaheim Angels took this idea to the extreme in the aftermath of their 2002 championship. With the franchise amid an ownership change, the Angeles guaranteed a modest $925,000 to free agent Eric Owens, part of a total spend of roughly $1.9 million. That winter, then-general manager Bill Stoneman seemed to imply that there had been more change than he’d hoped, telling ESPN that he wanted his team to be “more of the same.”

The Dodgers, of course, have put their own spin on running it back. Thus far, they have brought back Teoscar Hernández at $66 million and Blake Treinen at $22 million, with plans to also re-sign Clayton Kershaw. But they also have not been shy about changing the mix.

Walker Buehler left for Boston after he’d presumably been replaced by Snell. With Jack Flaherty still lingering on the open market, the Dodgers landed Sasaki. With Hudson retiring, Scott became a priority to add to the bullpen. And with Kevin Kiermaier retired, the Dodgers upgraded their outfield altogether by giving $17 million to Michael Conforto.

Just counting free agents who weren’t on the team a year ago, the Dodgers this winter have committed $283.5 million.

That’s not to say that other teams haven’t tried bolstering their roster in the aftermath of a title.

After 2020, the Dodgers front office echoed a mantra: “Let’s be pigs.” They committed $106.75 million to external free agents, with $102 million of that total going to Trevor Bauer, who set a then-record for average annual value after winning the NL Cy Young Award.

The post-2004 Red Sox spent $126 million on new free agents, when adjusting for inflation, headlined by the four-year, $40 million deal they gave Édgar Rentería. And when factoring in inflation, the Kansas City Royals committed $133.6 million to external free agents after their 2015 championship, with pitcher Ian Kennedy serving as the headliner. They retained talent, too, giving Alex Gordon a $72 million extension.

This winter’s Dodgers blow all those comps out of the water.

The Yankees splurged big on Mike Mussina before the 2001 season, but it wasn’t enough for a fourth consecutive title. (Albert Dickson / Sporting News via Getty Images)

But for individual star power, there is at least one notable comparison to the Dodgers’ addition of Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Yankees’ championship in 2000 represented their fourth in five years. But it didn’t stop them from trying to extend their dynasty, signing future Hall of Famer and Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Mussina to a six-year, $88.5 million deal that would be worth about $156.8 million in present-day dollars.

“They didn’t unveil the 2001 American League pennant and run it up the flagpole at Yankee Stadium yesterday,” Murray Chass wrote in the New York Times then. “They probably didn’t have time to have it made.”

There are other comparisons. Gerrit Cole joined the Houston Astros via a trade after their 2017 championship. He finished in the top five in Cy Young voting in each of his two seasons with Houston.

Other teams have pinned their repeat hopes on further supplementing their title-winning lineups.

Rentería was supposed to stabilize the shortstop position for the post-Curse Of The Bambino Red Sox for years to come. The White Sox traded for Jim Thome a month after winning their title in 2005, and he’d anchor the middle of their order the following season. The Yankees traded for Curtis Granderson after their 2009 title and he’d become a staple in their lineup. After the Philadelphia Phillies broke through for a 2008 championship, they signed Raúl Ibañez and got back to the Fall Classic the next year. The Astros went big after winning the 2022 title, giving $58.5 million to José Abreu.

Ultimately, though, none of those moves led to a successful title defense.

The Dodgers know the depth of the challenge ahead.

Much of the same front-office infrastructure remains from the 2021 season, when they began their quest to repeat. They’d win more games that year than any defending champions since baseball went to divisions in 1969 — but didn’t even secure the pennant. That club would be done in by fatigue.

In the quarter century since baseball has seen repeat champions, there haven’t even been that many close calls. Just two have managed to make it back to the World Series the next year. The 2001 Yankees lost in seven games to the Diamondbacks, and the 2009 Phillies won the pennant only to lose to the Yankees in six games. Yet, those fates represent the best outcomes.

Of the 24 reigning champions since 2000, about half wound up missing the postseason altogether.

The Dodgers hope to be different. In a quest to snap the streak, they’ve kept key pieces of their roster, and they may arguably be even better than the group that won 98 games a year ago on the way to the World Series championship. It should come as no surprise that they’re projected to win another ring in 2025, perhaps an early validation of their approach to the challenge of repeating: to spend their way through it.

(Top photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)