As if they needed more help.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are Major League Baseball’s biggest spending team. They’ve won back-to-back World Series championships. They play in one of the sport’s largest media markets. They have a historic stadium that’s undergone extensive renovations to make it a desirable place to come for free agents. It’s widely believed that they have the game’s largest analytics, scouting, and research department to identify minor league and major league talent.
They were ahead of the curve when it comes to contract deferrals, realizing that players could take their salaries in other states after retirement to save on taxes. All while allowing the current organization to pay marginally lower luxury tax bills.
There’s a reputation among players that the Dodgers are the best place to play. From their consistency in reaching the postseason, to spending money to build a team, to treating players and their families as good or better than anyone.
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If there’s an advantage to be found, the Dodgers have found it. Oh, and they have Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani is a human cheat code. One of the top two or three hitters in baseball, who decided to start stealing bases more often while recovering from arm surgery… and then put up the first ever 50-50 season in baseball history. That would already make him one of the most valuable players in the sport. But he’s also a top-15 pitcher who, through three starts, has an ERA of 0.50.
And he creates another advantage for the Dodgers that opposing managers are not too happy about.
Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell recently became the latest opposing manager to bring up the so-called Shohei Ohtani rule and how it gives Los Angeles an advantage. Because Ohtani is designated as a “two-way” player, he doesn’t count against the 13-pitcher roster limits that MLB has placed on teams. Essentially, the Dodgers can carry an “extra” pitcher, because Ohtani is treated differently. Counsell, whose team was not playing the Dodgers, brought it up when asked about the roster limits.
“It’s a rule to help offense, I think, more than anything, if you ask me,” Counsell said. “And then there’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and that he gets special consideration. Which is probably the most bizarre rule. … For one team.”
“There’s not another player like that, but one team gets different rules for that player,” he added.
Well, here’s the thing about that. Any team could take advantage of this rule, were there other players who were capable of pitching and hitting. The Cubs could decide to get, say, Pete Crow-Armstrong 20 innings on the mound, and he’d be eligible for the two-way player rule, the “Ohtani rule,” and give the Cubs the same benefit the Dodgers enjoy.
But that’s obviously not going to happen.
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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said as much in response: “The thing is, it certainly benefits us, because we have the player,” Roberts told the media from Coors Field in Denver. “But that’s something that, any team that had Ohtani would have that player.”
“We’re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both. He’s an exception because he’s an exceptional player. It is what it is.”
And this is where Counsell’s criticism falls so flat. This is not a rule designed to help the Dodgers. In fact, it was created when Ohtani was on the Angels. Any other team could find and sign a two-way player. They aren’t able to because what Ohtani is doing is virtually unprecedented.
Does it give the Dodgers a benefit? Yes. Does having Shohei Ohtani give the Dodgers a benefit? Yes. Could every other team in baseball enjoy the same benefit? Also, yes. That’s why it’s not unfair, and why Counsell’s complaints come off as sour grapes.
