Shohei Ohtani, in an interview with NBC News, says he believes the Los Angeles Dodgers' large spending is beneficial for baseball, citing the team's commitment to winning and providing an exciting product for fans. This comes amid criticism about the impact of the Dodgers' payroll on competitive balance within the league.
Ohtani, who is coming off his third consecutive MVP season, spoke with NBC News as his team prepares to make another run at a World Series title.superstar Shohei Ohtani told NBC News in an interview Tuesday he believes his team’s massive spending is good for baseball.
“Yeah, I think with what the ownership group has done … is great,” Ohtani said through a translator when asked by NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas whether the team’s extraordinary payroll was good for the game. “I mean, obviously the fans pay money to, they buy tickets and they, you know, they come to the game. So I think that money is being … used back to sign these, these great players, and put up, put out a winning product on the field.”Ohtani, a Japanese icon who’s coming off of his third-consecutive MVP season and last fall won his second-consecutive World Series championship as a member of the Dodgers, said the team’s outsized payroll was the result of committed ownership wanting to deliver for the team’s fanbase. But that spending has also made the Dodgers and Major League Baseball at the target of growing criticism that money has begun to erode the ability of many smaller franchises to compete.and about $100 million more than all but four other teams in the sport. Critics have said this imbalance has harmed the competitive balance in the sport, which is the only of the four major North American sports to not have a salary cap.This offseason, the Dodgers spent $300 million on multi-year deals for two of the top available free agents on the market, outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Diaz. “I think it’s very exciting,” Ohtani said of the signings. “You know, when I did decide to sign with the Dodgers, that was a conversation I had with the ownership group. They promised me that they were going to put the best team out on the field. And just, you know, the goal was to, again, continue to win as many World Series as we could. “I never forget that I go out on the field every day kind of feeling the pressure, but at the same time having fun and knowing that this team has a chance to win and we can bring it, bring it home to the fans,” he continued.“The initial idea was, basically, I had my daughter coming soon,” he said. “So timing wise, I felt it was … a nice time to maybe be able to read her a book about my story as well as our dog Decoy’s story. That it’d be kind of cool if we could do that together.” A designated hitter and starting pitcher who signed a $700 million deal with the team prior to the 2024 season, Ohtani hit a combined 109 home runs and scored 180 runs in his first two seasons with the Dodgers, winning an MVP and World Series in each season. Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani earned his third straight MVP award, repeating as unanimous NL MVP “So the first year, my first World Series, you know, I had never experienced the postseason at all,” Ohtani, who started his Major League career with the, said. “So, like, just to be able to experience postseason, get to the World Series and win it was obviously very special. But this second year was, it was a lot harder, you know, obviously a lot more pressure that was put on the team.” With pitchers and catchers reporting for Spring Training next week, Ohtani said his goal is to be a part of a team that wins a third consecutive championship — an incredibly rare feat across the four major sports. "As you look back at history, there’s only been a, you know, small group of teams that have three-peated,” Ohtani said, adding,"The task is going to be very difficult. However, I do hope that, you know, when I retire and I look back and I can be able to say that, ‘hey, I was on that team that won three, three championships in a row. That would be very cool.'"
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