Add Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger to the growing list of MLB players who are envious about the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ spending.
The high-priced New York Yankees outfielders opened up about the Dodgers, with Judge saying he wished more teams would spend on players the way Los Angeles has.
Judge is a three-time American League MVP who has won two awards since signing his nine-year, $360 million contract before the 2023 season. Bellinger, a former Dodgers outfielder who landed in New York last year, just inked a five-year contract to stay with the Yankees.
The Dodgers, of course, defeated the Yankees in five games in the 2024 World Series, the first of their back-to-back titles. Los Angeles has not stopped spending this offseason, since it inked free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker and relief pitcher Edwin Diaz to massive long-term contracts.
Aaron Judge Wishes More Teams Would Spend Like the Dodgers
The Yankees once were MLB’s spend-happy behemoths before the Dodgers passed them under the current Guggenheim Baseball Management administration.
Judge has been critical of his own team’s spending this offseason and spoke candidly when asked about LA’s ongoing pursuit of improvement.
“Theyâre trying to get the best product on the field and finding a way to maximize whatever they can to get the best players,â Judge said, according to The Athletic. âI wish a lot of teams found a way to do that.â
Judge is joining Dodgers star catcher Will Smith on the United States for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Though the Dodgers only have one USA rep, they are going to be well represented in the tournament, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani for Japan and Hyeseong Kim for Korea.
Cody Bellinger Calls Dodgers a ‘Well-Oiled Machine’
It took the Dodgers a while to become the dynastic behemoth that has won three World Series in six seasons, and Bellinger, the 2019 NL MVP, got to see the program grow.
âObviously, I was lucky enough to start my career there and see how everything operates,â Bellinger told The Athletic. âEven when I was there, it really is a well-oiled machine from the top down, from the drafting to the scouting to the trades they make. On top of that, they obviously have finances to spend.
“I think that itâs better what they do than having all these assets and not spending. ⦠I think allocating their resources and promoting the best product on the field is really good. It would be really bad if it was the other way around.â
Like Judge, Bellinger was critical of teams who rake in money but don’t invest in their on-field product.
“I always lean on the side of â if I owned a team, Iâm obviously super wealthy,” Bellinger said. “You donât get them at the dollar store. I imagine I would want to put the best product on the field for my fans. Itâs how I imagine myself owning a team.”
The Dodgers’ ongoing spending is creating a rift between owners, which may ultimately lead to a lockout after this season. Still, Bellinger, and his MLBPA brethren, are adamantly opposed to a hard salary cap, and Bellinger explained why.
âI donât think weâre going to change the whole dynamic of the sport because a team goes on a run. They clicked on every free agent,” Bellinger said of the Dodgers. “I donât think you can change baseball forever because a team did the right thing for a while. This is hundreds of years. Just because one team is doing really good at it, I donât think that means you change the whole dynamic of the game.â
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