One of the preeminent goals of any General Manager is to put
the best possible team on the field that he can, given the resources at his
disposal. Well, the resources at Ned Colletti’s (or whoever the next GM is) disposal just got a bit larger.
It was announced yesterday that the LA Dodgers would be sold
to a group of bidders that included Magic Johnson for a whopping 2.1 Billion
dollars. Yes, that is Billion with a B. Crazy. That is a Billion dollars more
than any other franchise has sold for. Why so much? The Dodgers are located in
the potentially largest market in the United States, Los Angeles. They have a
history as a franchise, which means that they have a loyal fanbase. They also
have a humongous television market, which will allow them to have enormously
deep pockets in terms of player spending.
As a GM, the possibilities suddenly became endless. This
year, the Dodgers payroll is at $90 million dollars, which is smack in the middle
of the league. I would expect that number to rise by several (dozens) million
over the next few years. The Dodgers General Manager will now have the freedom
to pursue marquee free agents, so players in the 2013 free agent class (Ervin
Santana, Francisco Liriano, Zack Greinke, Josh Hamilton, BJ Upton, Delmon
Young) should all be options. My guess is that money will still be regulated,
but I assume that the payroll will end up in the 130-150 Million dollar a year
range.
As far as actual control over player movements, I could see
the ownership wanting to take a large role in player decisions. For a GM, that
can be helpful, or it can be a nightmare. Even though a GM has a lot of power, his
ownership group has the final say over player movements and contracts, and if
they consider themselves baseball experts, that can be crippling to a general
manager’s freedom to build a team.
I suppose we just need to hope that Magic and his cohorts
can sit back, trust their staff, and watch the wins and money roll into Los
Angeles.
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