Dave Roberts sends message to rest of MLB about Dodgers payroll, ownership

The Los Angeles Dodgers are baseball's favorite villain – the team that's "ruining" the game with their reckless overspending. They know it. They embrace it. In fact, they want the rest of the league to get on their level.

Speaking to the media ahead of NLCS Game 4, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned a routine compliment into a league-wide statement – one that challenges the sport’s financial inequality and calls out the owners who treat baseball like an investment portfolio instead of a competition.

“Our ownership puts it (revenue) back into players, a big chunk of it," Roberts said (via Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times). "That’s the way it should be with all ownership groups.”

Roberts’ comment wasn’t just praise for Dodgers ownership. It was a public rebuke of MLB’s complacent owners – one that sends a pointed, almost defiant message to the rest of the league about how winning teams should operate and what responsible ownership actually looks like.

Dave Roberts praises Dodgers ownership while sending message to the rest of the league about payroll spending

Roberts’ line isn’t subtle. It’s a shot across the bow at small-market and profit-driven teams that refuse to reinvest revenue into their rosters. Teams like the Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies routinely claim they can’t spend due to “market size” or “revenue limitations," and Roberts is effectively saying, "that’s an excuse."

The Dodgers generate massive revenue, yes, but they also choose to funnel it back into baseball operations – not just ownership profit. Roberts' comments send a message to other MLB owners that if you’re not investing in your roster, it’s a choice – not a necessity.

Los Angeles has made spending part of its organizational philosophy. The Dodgers make money, and they reinvest it into players, facilities and development. Roberts’ comment underscores that ownership – led by Mark Walter and the Guggenheim group – sees winning as a business priority, not a luxury. It’s a not-so-veiled reminder that sustainable success and strong ownership are inseparable in today's MLB.

Roberts’ statement amplifies the widening gap between franchises that compete through investment (Dodgers, New York Yankees/Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and the like) and those that compete through austerity (Pirates, Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays, among others). It exposes the hypocrisy of teams that take revenue-sharing money but still field bottom-tier payrolls. Essentially, Roberts is putting public pressure on MLB’s low-spending clubs by saying: "If we can do it, why can’t you?"

Roberts’ quote suggests payroll isn’t just a budgetary figure; it’s a statement of values. When ownership spends on players, it signals a commitment to winning and to fans. When ownership doesn’t spend on players, it signals that profit and cost control matter more than championships.

Comments like this from a high-profile manager like Roberts also push MLB to confront its competitive balance problem. When one of the sport’s flagship franchises publicly calls out the lack of investment from others, it highlights how uneven the playing field has become. It raises the question: if the Dodgers’ model of spending revenue to win is the ideal, then why is MLB allowing so many teams to do the opposite?

Roberts isn’t saying every team needs a $300 million payroll; he’s saying every team should use its available resources to build the best possible product. The Dodgers are proof that investing in talent, player development and infrastructure can create sustained success.

Ultimately, Roberts' comments draw a clear moral and competitive line: "If your franchise is profitable and you're not reinvesting it in players, you're not trying to win."