Absurd Blake Snell contract details will make America hate the Dodgers even more

As the Los Angeles Dodgers plowed through the best teams in baseball last season on the way to a World Series title, they gained plenty of haters along the way. Now, they're already throwing more logs on the fire.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Jeff Passan of ESPN were the first to confirm reports Tuesday evening that the Dodgers have agreed to a five-year, $182 million deal with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. The team has yet to confirm the news, as the deal is pending a physical.

You can already picture the steam coming out of the Dodgers haters' ears when they first heard the news – not only because Snell was one of the most coveted pitchers on the free market, and not only because Los Angeles is now projected to have one of the best and deepest starting rotations in all of baseball in 2025 – but because the Dodgers have once again flexed their frustratingly deep pockets to present an offer to a top free agent that no other team can possibly compete with.

Absurd Blake Snell contract details will make America hate the Dodgers even more

According to Jack Harris of the LA Times and numerous other sources, Snell's contract with the Dodgers includes a massive $52 million signing bonus. For reference, that's more than half of the entire team payroll for seven MLB clubs in 2024; in fact, it's just about $10 million shy of the Oakland Athletics' entire 2024 payroll.

Snell's contract also includes some deferred money, which has become more commonplace throughout the game in recent years, as MLB's collective bargaining agreement places no restrictions on how much money can be deferred. The Dodgers also signed Shohei Ohtani to a massive contract last year that exercised this loophole, giving them more financial flexibility to add more pieces in the short term and helping them circumvent the Competitive Balance Tax ($241 million for 2025).

Haters can be mad all they want that the Dodgers exploited this loophole yet again with Snell's contract, but they have mastered the art of maintaining payroll flexibility to build a winning team that will continue to win over an extended period of time.

Loopholes exist to be exploited by those who discover them, and the Dodgers will likely continue exploiting this one until a new CBA places more stringent restrictions on it. Don't hate the player; hate the game.

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