Los Angeles Dodgers 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 "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Llamas asked him 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’s wanting to deliver for the team’s fan base.
But that spending has also made the Dodgers and Major League Baseball the targets of growing criticism that money has begun to erode many smaller franchises’ ability to compete. Talk of a salary cap has already ramped up with MLB’s collective bargaining agreement expiring later this year.
The Dodgers’ payroll is projected to exceed more than $400 million this season, the highest in the game and about $100 million more than those of all but four other teams in the sport. Critics have said the imbalance has harmed the competitive balance in the sport, which is the only one of the four major North American sports not to have a salary cap.
This offseason, the Dodgers spent $300 million on multiyear deals for two of the top available free agents on the market, outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Díaz.
“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.
Ohtani spoke with NBC News as he was on tour promoting his new children’s book, “Decoy Saves Opening Day,” which features his dog, Decoy. Ohtani said the proceeds from the book will go to support animal shelters.
“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.”
Ohtani, a designated hitter and starting pitcher who signed a $700 million deal with the team before the 2024 season, hit a combined 109 home runs and scored 180 runs in his first two seasons with the Dodgers, winning an MVP award and a World Series in each season.
“So the first year, my first World Series, you know, I had never experienced the postseason at all,” said Ohtani, who started his major-league career with the Los Angeles Angels. “So, like, just to be able to experience [the] 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."
