Padres’ luxury tax waste shows how far ahead Dodgers are yet again

Only two MLB teams paid any form of luxury tax penalty in 2021: the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, the two squads expected to run away with the NL West and Wild Card together.

Only one of those teams spent all that money just to collapse spectacularly in a bloated second half, which rolled quickly down a ravine into the water below. Any guess which team that was?

Yes, the Padres should be applauded for going for it, which so few teams do these days. They should also be laughed at, though, for going for it entirely incorrectly, compounding wrong decisions with more wrong decisions with deadline whiffs with an August to forget.

So, while MLB is locked out because most of the league’s owners want to treat its players like depreciating assets who are only payable from the ages of 27-30, we can tip our caps to the Padres for breaking the bank to try to compete.

We can also laugh at them for wasting  $1.29 million, only to now need an escape hatch for Eric Hosmer, Yu Darvish, and possibly Blake Snell.

The Dodgers know how to shoot past the luxury tax better than the Padres do.

Blake Snell’s escalating arbitration? We’ll take it! We trust our own scouting department over the Rays’ judgment!

Yu Darvish’s final three years of his six-year, $126 million deal in exchange for some teenagers? Easy decision! Who could’ve seen Darvish getting injured and posting a 4.22 ERA coming? Surely, it was all worth it to get the mid-February praise columns. AJ Preller can now nestle himself in a blanket of pre-Spring Training “offseason winner” ribbons.

And, of course, we can’t forget lavishing four years on Ha-Seong Kim without really knowing what position he would play, giving Jurickson Profar three years, and extending Fernando Tatis Jr. to a record-shattering 14-year deal. Had to do it, but by mid-summer, the coaching staff was already cramming him in center field while nursing what might’ve been a very damage elbow. Anything for our centerpiece!

2021’s spree has resulted in 2022’s offseason trade proposals from all corners of the fan base. Oops.

There’s nothing wrong with spending — and, in fact, the bigger problem here is that only the Dodgers and Padres eclipsed the threshold that the Yankees, Red Sox and five other teams also should’ve.

Perhaps the Padres should try a little harder to figure out a mix that works before trying to win preseason medals by being a “Bad Contract Weigh Station,” though.

3 non-Rangers teams that should try to swipe Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw

These three teams, other than his hometown Texas Rangers, should try to sign Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw away.