Even the most diehard Houston Astros fan can admit that over the past five years or so, their team has been public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of many. Whatever you may think of it, the sign-stealing scandal left a black mark on the game, and more importantly, on the Astros organization. Houston was the most hated franchise in Major League Baseball.
But that label may have now shifted to the Dodgers. In the midst of their second World Series run in two years, the Dodgers have become despised by most baseball fans. Why? Well, quite frankly because LA’s ownership does what Jim Crane fails to do — spend money and a lot of it.
Shohei Ohtani was always expected to sign with the Dodgers during the 2022-24 offseason, but no one expected the game’s best player to sign a heavily-deferred $700 million contract that basically paid him $2 million per year. While LA was perfectly within their right to do so, it just felt like the Dodgers cheated the system.
Dodgers have officially replaced the Astros as MLB’s biggest villain
Since Ohtani’s deal, a number of players have flown out to southern California and joined LA’s super team. According to ESPN, the Dodgers deferred payments to eight of the team’s players add up to over $1 billion. Seeing as how Los Angeles is back in the Fall Classic for the second year in a row, it would seem that their strategy to buy pennants and World Championships is working.
The Dodgers are essentially employing the New York Yankees’ strategy from the late-90s. Former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner spared no expense when it came to player salaries, which is why the team was eventually dubbed the Evil Empire. As far as baseball fans are concerned, there’s something nefarious about grossly outspending your counterparts.
Baseball has always been about star players, and the star players want to get paid. Astros know that all too well, which is why the likes of Alex Bregman, George Springer, and Gerrit Cole are no longer in H-Town.
The Dodgers’ high-dollar roster may be controversial, but they’re not cheating — something the Astros were accused of during the 2017 season. So while the reasons are not similar in nature, the fact of the matter is that baseball officially has a new “bad boy” and no longer the Astros.
