Every time the Los Angeles Dodgers make a big move, the same conversation across baseball comes up.
That was the case this past week when the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker.
Fans accuse them of buying championships, and baseball fanbases cry that they’re too good and have too much money.
As the Dodgers continue to spend aggressively, there have been complaints from both New York Yankees and New York Mets fans who feel baseball needs to make a change.
But according to longtime YES Network voice Michael Kay, that outrage isn’t right.
“The last championship the Yankees won: AJ Burnett, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira,” Kay said, per NJ.com. “Now, they didn’t get A-Rod as a free agent, but they’re one of the few teams that could afford that contract... Yankees use their advantage of money and they used it very very well. And Yankee fans didn’t have a problem with it. So Met fans and Yankee fans can’t really have a problem with the Dodgers.”
It’s hard to argue with the logic, and that’s what it is.
For decades, the Yankees did whatever it took to win. They outspent everyone, made trades, and acted as the Dodgers did now.
That championship core was built largely through free agency and it wasn’t going out and just adding one very good player. They seriously did exactly what the Dodgers are doing right now.
The fact of the matter is that they aren’t breaking rules, doing something other teams can’t, or anything else. They’re simply operating with the biggest budget in baseball and will continue to do so until baseball says they can’t.
The truth is that Major League Baseball has always been this way, as big markets have advantages. While that’s the case, look at the Chicago Cubs, a big market that doesn’t spend.
I’d get Cubs fans complaining, but for Yankees fans, be mad at the ownership and front office rather than baseball. They both have more than enough to go out and get something done.
However, blaming a team for using its resources, especially when the Yankees once did the exact same thing, isn’t very fair.