With his career winding down, Miguel Rojas isn’t leaving the game quietly, and he has a fiery message for the rest of MLB. He called out the other 29 teams for not focusing on their own shortcomings but instead blaming the Dodgers. While doing so, Rojas didn’t mind rubbing some salt on the rivals wounds.

“I think the Dodgers are great for baseball. I don’t know, they’re trying to blame someone for their losses because we won the last two years, and they’re gonna blame it on the money,” Rojas said.

“The good thing for us in the clubhouse is we won the last two, and we don’t have to justify anything. We’re not looking for approval. Everybody wants to take us down… Everybody wants what we had the last couple of years.”

The popular narrative around the “Dodgers ruining baseball” took further shape after they won the 2025 World Series. The consecutive two World Series attracted all eyes to what the Dodgers are doing differently from others. And the key differentiating factor is how they spend. The Dodgers’ reported 2025 payroll is more than the bottom six clubs combined!

The Dodgers spent $515 million, including a record $169-million luxury tax payment last year, while the bottom six clubs combined for $510 million in payroll spend.

Surely, that’s creating a difference in roster development. Take any marquee name, and the highest possibility is that the Dodgers have either landed him or gone for him. A clubhouse comprising a two-way player like Shohei Ohtani, hitters like Freddie Freeman, and arms like Yoshinobu Yamamoto is possible with such outrageous spending.

However, as per Rojas, the Dodgers are winning because they are spending. But the other teams, rather than spending more, blame them for losing out.

For instance, last year, D-Backs owner Ken Kendrick said, “Our game, by virtue of how playoffs work, evens the playing field by some degree in the playoffs. But the regular season is not a necessarily even playing field. And I think it should be — more even than it is.”

Thus, as per Rojas, rivals are more interested in taking LA down than making some financial moves. The question is, why not spend more and equip the team to take on the Dodgers?

Lastly, as Rojas said, all 29 teams want to be like the Dodgers. The fact is that what the Dodgers have achieved since 2024 is unparalleled. The Yankees, in comparison, have yet to win a World Series since 2009, while the Dodgers have won two in the last two years.

However, while there shouldn’t be any calls around the Dodgers’ spending, critics also point out the undue advantage that the team gets.

The Dodgers also get called out for unfair advantages

While the Dodgers are criticized for the overspending and deferred contracts, many rivals and critics also point out a structural and unfair advantage granted to them by MLB.

The Dodgers currently have the most lucrative TV deal in MLB history. It is a 25-year, $8.35 billion agreement with Spectrum, which averages out to $334 million per year. However, the controversy is based on how that income is taxed by MLB. Under standard revenue-sharing rules, teams are required to contribute 34% of their net local revenue, which includes TV deals.

But the Dodgers only pay the percentage on a capped value of $130 million. The reason? Back in 2012, when the Dodgers under Frank McCourt stared down at bankruptcy, MLB came to their rescue. To offer them some relief, MLB fixed the highest TV revenue for LA at $84 million. That was later increased to $130 million.

So, while all other teams are giving away 34% of their total TV revenue, LA is paying its share on only $130 million per year, while earning $334 million. This means that they roughly save $200 million on television revenue from the league.

For many, that’s an unfair advantage and fuels the Dodgers’ outrageous payroll.

Miguel Rojas has yet to talk about this.