Dodgers Buying and Winning Now, but Still Owe $1B to 9 Players

The back-to-back defending champion Dodgers keep adding to their future salary bills, taking their deferral strategy to unprecedented heights.

The club’s signing of free-agent reliever Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million pact includes $4.5 million in annual deferrals, paid out between 2036 and 2047. While on the smaller side of the Dodgers’ overall deferrals, the latest deal pushes their overall bill to more than $1.06 billion, involving nine players.

The Dodgers’ other deferrals that will come due over the next two-plus decades include:

• Two-way star Shohei Ohtani: $680 million between 2034 and 2043
• Infielder/outfielder Mookie Betts: $115 million in salaries between 2033 and 2044, and $5 million in signing-bonus installments from 2033 to 2035
• Pitcher Blake Snell: $66 million between 2035 and 2046
• First baseman Freddie Freeman: $57 million between 2028 and 2040
• Catcher Will Smith: $50 million between 2034 and 2043
• Outfielder Teoscar Hernández: $32 million between 2030 and 2039
• Utility player Tommy Edman: $25 million between 2037 and 2044
• Reliever Tanner Scott: $21 million between 2035 and 2046

The deferral strategy may come into play again this offseason, as the Dodgers are expected to be an active suitor of talent in what remains a vibrant player market. Los Angeles is hardly the only Major League Baseball team to embrace salary deferrals, but nobody else has done so to the level of the Dodgers. In 2038 and 2039, the Dodgers have more than $102 million in annual deferral obligations—a sum greater than the 2025 payrolls of three MLB clubs.

Dodgers owner Mark Walter and his partners retain strong confidence in their ability to pay the hefty future bills, as the club just led MLB in attendance for the 12th straight year. There is no letup in sight on that front, as the club remains consistently competitive and plays in the league’s largest stadium. The 2025 total of 4.01 million set a franchise record and represented the first MLB team to reach that mark since 2008.

The club is also still midway through a 25-year, $8.35 billion local media-rights deal with Spectrum, another major pact providing significant revenue to the Dodgers.

With Díaz in the fold, the Dodgers already have a $342.2 million luxury-tax payroll for 2026, tops in MLB.