![]() ![]() Opening Night marks the first of 14 fireworks nights during the 2023 season, including following every Friday home game. The Dodgers will begin the 2023 season at home Friday, March 31 against the Tacoma Rainiers. Given their conservative approach this week, the Dodgers clearly believe they don’t have to keep spending at levels even their deep-pocketed ownership group might be unwilling to stomach.OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Dodgers have released their 2023 schedule, complete with dates, times and opponents for all 75 home games, as the team celebrates its 25th season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.įor the second consecutive season, all Triple-A teams will play a total of 150 games, with 75 home games. “The sustained success part comes - and we’ve seen over the last seven, eight years - interjecting young, talented players into the mix.” “This is just not the sport where that reward is the same as in other sports,” he said. The team will certainly bolster the roster before opening day, but probably not with superstar additions - barring a change of heart toward shortstop Carlos Correa, whom they’re intrigued by but not expected to pursue given his involvement in the Houston Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal or a sudden collapse in a pitching market now headlined by Carlos Rodón and Kodai Senga, who have also received interest from the Dodgers but will probably earn offers beyond the team’s preferred price range.įriedman defended the Dodgers’ approach this week, pushing back against the notion that the team could benefit from another all-in approach. Though their 2023 team is probably already playoff-caliber - at the start of the offseason, Fangraphs’ ZiPS projection still predicted the Dodgers to be a 91-win, first-place team - the league’s other title contenders have made more high-profile improvements during this week’s flurry of free-agent activity. It’s not a strategy that comes without risk. They’ve held onto a new wave of prospects now knocking on the door of the big league roster. They’ve shed payroll and positioned themselves to reset their luxury tax penalties. To this point, the Dodgers are opting for the latter. The only problem: The Dodgers failed to bring another title, or even National League pennant, to Los Angeles.Įntering this offseason, all of it left them at an awkward crossroads: keep spending really, really big … or try to recalibrate back at more sustainable levels. They tried jarring the window open a little bit more, hoping it wouldn’t suddenly slam shut. In hindsight this week, Friedman argued those moves - which helped escalate the club’s payroll past the league’s luxury tax threshold and, at more than $280 million this past season, to club-record heights - were essentially the Dodgers’ effort at going all-in. Last spring, they shocked the league again by luring Freddie Freeman after his departure from the Atlanta Braves. In 2021, they signed Trevor Bauer, then traded for Trea Turner and Max Scherzer at that season’s trade deadline. ![]() That finally changed in 2020, when Mookie Betts’ arrival preceded a long-sought World Series championship - and became the first in a string of high-profile roster moves. The postseason was a different story, with the Dodgers’ annual shortcomings in the fall increasingly blamed on their unambitious moves the previous winter. Instead, the Dodgers evaluated the market, talked to agents and deemed the going rate for many players surpassed what they felt was a responsible, manageable, sustainable amount.ĭodgers Cody Bellinger’s career with Dodgers ends as he agrees to terms with CubsĬody Bellinger agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, ending his career with the Dodgers and leaving a hole for the team to fill. ![]() It’s not as if they lacked the financial capital for a blockbuster move, with their current luxury tax payroll at around $189 million - almost $100 million less than last season and still well below the league’s $233 million luxury tax threshold. It’s not that the Dodgers couldn’t use another splashy signing, with an experienced starting pitcher, a defensively capable center fielder and a potential new shortstop all on their offseason wish list. They engaged in negotiations with several big-name players but didn’t splurge in an inflated market that has already seen more than $2 billion of guaranteed money dolled out. While many teams indulged in a nearly unprecedented spending spree, the Dodgers stuck to their principles and kept a tight grip on their purse strings. “We’ve seen a lot of large-market teams compete over a short period of time, and then fall off a cliff,” Friedman said during this week’s annual winter meetings in San Diego, where his calculated philosophies were under the microscope again.
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