Are the Los Angeles Dodgers ruining baseball — or are they simply the first team to fully understand how modern sports actually works?
Over the last decade, the Dodgers have gone from a bankrupt punchline to the most powerful franchise in Major League Baseball. They’ve spent more money than anyone, won multiple World Series, and built a roster that feels impossible to compete with. After signing Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Kyle Tucker, and more — many fans believe MLB is headed toward a lockout because of them.
But this story isn’t just about payroll.
It’s about how ownership, private equity, media rights, analytics, deferred contracts, and global markets quietly reshaped the sport — and why the Dodgers became the model franchise of the modern era.
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Bio: Joon Lee is an independent sports journalist reporting on YouTube. He’s written op-eds for The New York Times and The Boston Globe and worked for ESPN, Bleacher Report and The Washington Post, where he’s interviewed and photographed sports & pop culture figures like Kylian Mbappe, Shohei Ohtani, David Ortiz, Mookie Betts and Action Bronson. He previously was a contributor to SportsCenter, Around the Horn and First Take. His work has been featured on The Best American Sportswriting series and recognized as a finalist for the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting.
