The Dodgers Win the World Series. Again. What Now?

For the second straight year, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the World Series — this time just barely outlasting an ascendant Toronto Blue Jays team in the October Classic. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Kevin Gausman, and a deep roster of contributors followed a disappointing 2024 campaign with a 94-win season and gave the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers all they could handle for seven games. They won Game 1 riding a nine-run sixth inning before stealing two in Los Angeles. Earning two opportunities to seal the deal at home in Toronto, the AL Champions came as close as any team has in recent history to winning a title, before ultimately falling just short.

First, improbable Miguel Rojas heroics extended Game 7 into extras before a Will Smith solo shot to left field gave the Dodgers a one-run lead headed into the bottom of the eleventh inning. With one out and runners on first and third, Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk hit a high chopper up the middle. The notoriously slow-footed Kirk stood no chance as Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts gathered the grounder, stepped on second, and fired over to first to turn a heartbreaking, season-ending double play. As Blue Jays players and fans alike looked on in devastation, Dodgers players mobbed the mound in jubilant celebration. 

Though the Blue Jays had given them a scare, the Dodgers came out on top. In fact, many baseball fans had foreseen a Los Angeles championship well before the season had even started. Already the best team in baseball a year ago, the Dodgers had spent this offseason adding to their outrageous roster. They brought in Japanese import Roki Sasaki to bolster an already devastating pitching staff featuring Cy Young winners Blake Snell and Clayton Kershaw (and Cy Young finalists Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani). They also re-signed Teoscar Hernandez, who, along with former MVPs Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and, again, Ohtani, constituted the most imposing lineup in baseball. In total, the Dodgers roster featured a staggering 17 former All-Stars, four former MVPs, and two former Cy Youngs. Silly stuff. On paper, no other team in baseball fielded a roster that was even competitive with theirs, which explains why analysts were so bullish about the Dodgers’ postseason chances at the beginning of the year. 

Talent comes with a price, though. Even with Ohtani receiving only $2 million of his $700 million contract in 2025, the Dodgers still had the second-highest payroll in MLB, spending over $321 million to compile their roster. Yet, 21 of the 30 MLB teams did not even cross the $200 million threshold, and the Miami Marlins coughed up a measly $67 million. What gives? In a purportedly competitive sports league, how can certain teams outspend others by hundreds of millions of dollars? This doesn’t happen in the NBA, NFL, or NHL, so how is it possible in MLB? 

The answer: no salary floor or salary cap. While the other three major US sports leagues each have enforceable salary parameters, the MLB instead relies on a competitive balance tax (a luxury tax) to curb extreme spending and simply ignores franchises averse to spending. For years, the aforementioned Marlins, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics, and Washington Nationals, have been among the league’s cheapest teams. These perennial basement dwellers have been unwilling to shell out the money necessary to attract or retain star players. Though some teams with smaller payrolls, like the Tampa Bay Rays, have turned to a development-oriented approach to stay consistently competitive, most teams with smaller payrolls are not in the mix for title contention year after year. 

Conversely, most top spenders rank among the preseason title contenders. While, in theory, owners are dissuaded from spending in excess of a luxury tax threshold due to the additional cost incurred by expenses over that limit, many large market teams are able to exceed whatever artificial ceiling is implemented. In 2025, the base threshold above which spending would incur a penalty was $241 million. The Dodgers soared past it by $80 million. With no enforceable salary minimum or maximum, MLB teams spent drastically different amounts on player salaries, raising questions about the competitive balance of the league. 

That’s where this season’s Dodgers may have an unintended influence. Many observers saw this year as a litmus test for the viability of an entirely free-market MLB player free agency. The Dodgers had accumulated an otherworldly collection of talent by spending gobs of cash, but had they not won, then spending would clearly not be the only avenue to winning. But they did win. So maybe it is.

On Dec. 1, 2026, the current MLB Players Association (MLBPA) collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the MLB expires. The CBA is the governing contract for the league and its players, and its renegotiation next winter will be focused on any proposed salary cap. For years, momentum among ownership has been building to create more parity in MLB through team salary guidelines. This year’s champions might be the catalyst that transforms backroom mutterings into serious propositions. However, as a salary cap inherently limits player wages, the MLBPA will vehemently oppose any proposed ceiling. 

Nonetheless, representatives of smaller market teams view a salary floor as unfair for them, as they cannot benefit from equal advertising and merchandise sales. Both sides are looking to address a growing parity concern, but they are approaching it from opposite directions. Though we’ve now reached the point of total speculation, if management and the players cannot agree upon a new CBA, it may be that a lockout is looming in the future. No agreement, no baseball.

By winning the 2025 World Series, the Dodgers cemented their status as a modern-day dynasty. However, their triumph may inadvertently lead to a lockout next season. Whether or not baseball can address its growing parity concerns before then remains to be seen.