Jim Alexander: It is amazing, isn’t it? The Dodgers are 31-19, the third-best team in baseball right now (Detroit is 33-17 and Philadelphia 31-18 as of Thursday afternoon), and they’re leading the rugged National League West by two games with … what, 40% of their starting rotation healthy and functional? Or is my math off slightly?
Maybe I should put it another way: A look at Cot’s Baseball Contracts shows that their current $403 million payroll (for luxury-tax computation purposes) finds a good chunk of that amount currently on the injured list. From the rotation, Tyler Glasnow ($30 million this year), Blake Snell ($26 million) and Roki Sasaki (a bargain at $760,000) are all disabled (to use the old baseball terminology). So are relievers Kirby Yates ($13 million), Blake Treinen ($6 million), Evan Phillips ($6.1 million), Brusdar Graterol ($2.8 million) and Michael Kopech ($5.2 million).
Clayton Kershaw ($7 million) and Tony Gonsolin ($5.4 million) have come off the injured list. Shohei Ohtani ($2 million payable, $68 million deferred) isn’t on the IL, but he’s still weeks away from pitching. And then you’ve got five other pre-arbitration youngsters who are on the IL: Michael Grove ($790,000), Emmet Sheehan ($780,000), River Ryan ($770,000), Gavin Stone ($780,000) and Kyle Hurt ($770,000).
So, out of the $403 million payroll, $93.75 million worth of pitchers are idle (not counting Ohtani). This says one of two things: Either the Dodgers overspent, or they bought themselves a lot of insurance, if you figure that a lot of these IL moves have come out of caution, to make sure that the stars are healthy and ready by October. Also consider this: They’ve played 50 games and already used 25 pitchers, not counting position players Miguel Rojas and Kiké Hernandez.
Given that most of the talk around baseball is about how the Dodgers are spending too much money, maybe it’s good to put those numbers into perspective, right?
Mirjam, you saw them finish up their series with Arizona on Wednesday night with, essentially, their best performance in a week. What do you detect as they begin a road trip tomorrow night in Flushing against the Mets?
Mirjam Swanson: I mean, what’s too much?
They’ve spent enough, it seems, to fortify themselves from inevitable injuries and bad luck and stuff that a season will throw at a team. And, as you noted, they’ve spent to be able to exercise caution and set themselves up for success when it really matters – in the postseason.
Because it’s not just what they spend, it’s how they spend it.
The Mets are spending plenty too. Cot’s has them spending $328 million – including paying Juan Soto $46.88 million plus that $75 million singing bonus – but I don’t trust New York to succeed in the regular season like I trust the Dodgers, who have, of course, won their division 11 of the past 12 years.
The Mets are 30-20, but they’ve lost some momentum, and five of their past seven games. And Soto is the subject of all sorts of slander from demanding New Yorkers who expect him to do what might be impossible and live up to his monster contract … which isn’t to say they won’t have the Dodgers’ number this week, but, in the long run, the Dodgers do have a track record of money well spent.
And being at the ballpark Wednesday, watching Dustin May bounding off the mound after shutting down Arizona, and seeing Teoscar Hernandez do what he does and come through in the clutch, being there taking in a team that knows how to navigate a long, arduous season … it did feel like momentum has swung back their way. As it usually does.
Less expected: How hard momentum has swung in the Angels’ favor!
Jim: And remember, the Dodgers helped them get well. Fortuitous scheduling, that: They swept the Dodgers in The Ravine, then headed to the state capital for a series with the Sacramento A’s. And I’m sorry. The Team That Used To Be In Oakland is trying to convince us that it shouldn’t have a city name attached while biding its time in West Sacramento before the (maybe) move to Las Vegas, and can you tell I’m still not convinced they’re actually going to pull it off?
I don’t go along with it. If you’re going to play your home games in West Sacramento, it says here, you carry the city’s name. (Either that, or put the acronym TTTUTBIO on the front of the jerseys.)
An aside: Years ago, a Giants’ public relations guy would refer to them as the Apathetics. Maybe that applies here.
As for the Angels, there are signs of optimism for a fan base so desperately in need of anything, anything at all, to justify their fandom. It is still an uphill climb – 23-25 going into this afternoon’s game, five games behind division-leading Seattle (!) and three out of a wild-card spot – and while it is still late May and there are still 114 games left, let’s not get carried away.
But … the guys who will carry this team’s future hopes are starting to have an impact: shortstop Zach Neto, catcher Logan O’Hoppe – who hit two homers Wednesday night against Sacramento and hit his 14th this afternoon moments after Taylor Ward hit his 14th – and first baseman Nolan Schanuel. Their starting pitching, led by Tyler Anderson, has been pretty solid. Their relief pitching … eh, we’ll get back to you on that, although old friend Kenley Jansen does have 10 saves in 10 opportunities.
Arte Moreno’s organization resisted, for so long, the idea of a tear-it-to-the-studs rebuild, figuring Southern California fans would respond by not going to the park. The upshot is that their fans have instead sat through more than a decade of dreadful baseball, when maybe a committed rebuild early on in the process might have cut that stretch of agony in half or less. (And just about every Angels fan I’ve come in contact with, either in person or via email or social media, lays the blame on one person. Guess who.)
Oh, and we might have a Mike Trout sighting sooner rather than later. I will resist pointing out what percentage of the Angels’ payroll is inactive during Trout’s bouts with injury, but he may be as star-crossed an athlete as exists in pro sports today. He deserves good health, for a change, and so do his team’s fans.
Mirjam: Agreed. Someone turn injuries “off” when it comes to Trout.
Whatever transpires from here, I think this successful stretch is something the Angels could build on.
On one hand, they’re the Angels, and so it’s hard to imagine that happening really, because it’s hard to imagine things actually going right. But! If you’re going to have two young players on good young player contracts taking massive steps – a shortstop and a catcher are good picks.
And another thing I love about the ongoing plot twist, is Ward’s recent surge. In his previous 15 games before today, he had seven home runs, 19 RBI and a slugging percentage of .742 – and that’s cool because 15 games ago, I was there to hear manager Ron Washington tell us all about how Ward showed up extra-early that day to take 35 or 40 extra pitches from a minor-leaguer because he was determined to work his way out of his slump.
Love it when the work works, especially because of what that means for the evolving culture of that crew.
You know?
Jim: That’s why they brought Ron Washington in: To work on that culture, and to help the youngsters understand what goes into being a productive major-leaguer. And I’ll admit that I haven’t had that many dealings with him – we columnists do tend to be front-runners, right? – but the one thing that has struck me is that he’s not afraid to be blunt, and he’s willing to speak the hard truths.
Oh, hard truths … it’s kind of a painful segue, but the chatter is that the traditional, wonderful football rivalry between USC and Notre Dame may be on its last legs. Notre Dame people have sought a multi-year contract to keep the series alive, but USC – Lincoln Riley, mostly, but apparently with the full backing of athletic director Jennifer Cohen – agreed to extend the series only one additional year, through 2026, while the College Football Playoff format sorts itself out and the Trojans figure out how best to schedule to put themselves in position to make the College Football Playoff.
(I suppose it’s too late, but may I suggest that for those purposes they were better off not bolting for the Big Ten and starting the destruction of the Pac-12.)
But as one of the many who has cherished this rivalry – growing up a Catholic school kid and a young fan of Notre Dame, then getting a little older and pulling for USC, and eventually becoming a mature adult who doesn’t choose sides in this rivalry but appreciates the history and the passion – I also recognize that, for USC particularly, times have changed. How many automatic spots will the Big Ten get in the playoff? And how best for USC to put itself in position to get one, given that (a) this conference is a much stiffer challenge to start with, and (b) there will probably be an annual matchup with a SEC behemoth baked into the schedule if college sports’ two dominant conferences reach an agreement.
Will this even mean that USC’s traditional aversion to scheduling lower-level teams (Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA) will be reevaluated as well?
Everything seems to be on the table. And, sad to say, history and tradition don’t pay coaches’ salaries. If this rivalry ends, I’ll hate it, but I’ll understand.
Mirjam: I can’t quibble with anything you’ve written, because, yeah, my gut reaction is that tradition and history absolutely do (especially?) matter in college football! But that, these days, USC and other college programs feel like they’re in a corner (that they totally painted themselves into).
And, yeah, duh, it’s all about the money, and financially the best bet is to protect your shot at a CFP windfall, and that matters over everything else. I guess. Sure. Nothing is sacred but the almighty buck. Cool, got it.
But I guess I just hope that history remembers that USC wanted to avoid the hard thing. The old “everything you want is on the other side of hard” notion? That they tried to circumvent that. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t work, but maybe it will.
Still, yeah, I hope, if this historic rivalry ends, that history remembers it was the Trojans who couldn’t be bothered.
Whether it’s Riley’s wish or Cohen’s call, I hope when football fans of the future – what WILL college football look like in the future, if we stay steadily stripping the pageantry and tradition and continually keep shrinking the club of competitors? – tell their kids about the old USC-Notre Dame rivalry that ran for a century, they’ll remember whose fault it was that it went away, and that it wasn’t the Irish’s.
Jim: You can’t run from history. I hope USC’s decision-makers are comfortable with that … and prepared for the blowback they’re almost certain to get.
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