By now, you might have a fair idea of what’s going on. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Tarik Skubal, and what followed was an intense debate. Fans and rival executives have argued that MLB’s current financial system favors big-market teams like the Dodgers, who are projected to carry a $430 million luxury-tax payroll this year. But the other side of the debate stands in favor of LA’s aggression, and Anthony Rizzo is one of them.

“What the Dodgers are doing is amazing. And they keep on, which is great,” Rizzo said in a Front Office Sports interview. “It’s good for their franchise. But every team can do it, honestly. I mean, when you win, this is what you can do.”

And it was ultimately the Dodgers who did it. For weeks, insiders had predicted that the clubhouse would make a move on Skubal, and once it actually came through, many from rival franchises started complaining that the big teams, like the back-to-back World Series champions, are ruining the sport’s competitive balance. Some even said that the Dodgers are the reason MLB should have a salary cap, but not Anthony Rizzo.

“In my opinion, it’s the most competitive the league’s ever been,” the 36-year-old said.

If anything, competition is something Rizzo is acquainted with. He had a 14-season MLB career and made his debut with the San Diego Padres in 2011. Then, he spent a decade with the Chicago Cubs, winning the World Series in 2016 before ultimately closing his career playing for the New York Yankees for four more years. 

Rizzo has first-hand experience of how big clubs operate, and that’s why the 4x Gold Glove winner said:

“When you keep winning, you can keep affording to buy the best players and get the best players.”

Earlier, Skubal himself and his new manager, Dave Roberts, had echoed a similar idea. Both acknowledged that there was nothing the Dodgers did that any other team couldn’t have done. In fact, the Milwaukee Brewers are one of the biggest examples of that. LA offered three of their top prospects to Detroit to nab Skubal without depleting their farm system. And many argued that the Brewers, with one of the league’s best farm systems, could easily have outbid them.

That’s why insiders like Ken Rosenthal and Fernando Álvarez say it’s not about the money. The Dodgers are involved in the same baseball operations as anybody else. They simply do it better, and they even praised their aggressive decision-making that actually landed the 2x CY Young winner on their roster. Despite all their reasoning, the Dodgers remained at the center of the debate. 

LA-Skubal became the face of MLB’s salary-cap debate

The latest move by the Dodgers has only added fuel to what has been simmering throughout the season. The current collective bargaining agreement ends on December 1, and the league and the MLBPA have yet to come to a mutual understanding. Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly argued that the sport needs some structural changes, and he proposed a salary cap as part of the bargain. 

The salary gap between the highest- and lowest-spending clubs is close to $200 million. Manfred, on behalf of the owners, argued that this disrupts the competitive balance of the league. That’s why they proposed a $245.3 million pool, paired with a salary floor of $171.2 million. They also offered to limit the contracts of the players to just 5 years (6 years in case a player is rejoining the same team). 

The players’ association argued that every franchise can compete and the owners just try to hide behind the salary cap. Bruce Meyer, executive director of the MLBPA, even said that fans have repeatedly urged some owners to “sell the team” following their unwillingness to compete. That’s why the association offered a counterproposal for a “Competitive Integrity Tax” to penalize the low-spending teams. 

Meyer even argued that the salary cap is actually bad for the fans, contradicting the commissioner’s remarks. And several players like Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, and Mike Trout, among others, reflected the same argument as the MLBPA executive director. 

The heart of the debate now remains whether the Dodgers are exposing the flaws of the system or just fairly maximizing the opportunities. It’s important to note that the Skubal trade alone won’t trigger a lockdown, but this will certainly be one of the focal points during the next CBA discussions. 

But Anthony Rizzo firmly states that every team could build what the Dodgers have achieved. However, for the sake of his fans, he did lean on the Cubs or the Yankees to win the championship this time to foil LA’s three-peat plans.