Financial Behemoth Dodgers Win NL Pennant, Eye History

Baseball’s financial behemoth is back in the World Series, and has the chance to make history.

With a $416.9 million luxury-tax payroll this season that surpasses every other MLB club ever, the Dodgers clinched the 2025 National League pennant Friday night, eliminating the Brewers in an NL Championship Series sweep. After winning last year’s World Series, Los Angeles aims to become the first back-to-back MLB champion since the Yankees won three titles in a row from 1998 to 2000.

The march to the 2024 title carried an underdog spirit, even after the Dodgers acquired superstar Shohei Ohtani in free agency with a then-record $700 million deal. This year’s team, however, has been an overwhelming favorite from the outset, even through a midseason wobble that saw the Dodgers briefly trail the Padres in the NL West division. 

The Dodgers bolstered the 2024 title with an offseason free agency flurry that included acquisitions of pitchers Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, and Kirby Yates to help balloon the payroll to its unprecedented height. The club then reached a record-setting, $32.4 million contract extension for manager Dave Roberts.

That proved to be money well spent, and Snell and Sasaki in particular were key parts of a dominant pitching performance that shut down the Brewers, a team that before the NLCS was the feel-good story of baseball. 

During the pennant-clinching victory Friday over the Brewers, Ohtani also broke out of what had been an extended postseason slump with an epic two-way performance, hitting three home runs and striking out 10 batters on the mound—a stat line never seen before.

The Dodgers have lost just three games in the past month, as a 9-2 run to end the regular season was followed by a two-game sweep over the Reds in the wild-card round, a four-game triumph over the Phillies in the division series, and the NLCS sweep of the Brewers. 

The dominance was also apparent off the field, as the club drew a franchise-record 4.01 million in attendance, once again leading the league by far. Tickets will again be in strong demand when the World Series begins Oct. 24. The Dodgers’ opponent is still to be determined as the Mariners lead the Blue Jays 3–2 in the American League Championship Series.

The lack of a repeat World Series winner for more than a generation has been a key argument in favor of MLB’s current state of competitive balance. But if the Dodgers win it all again, it could prompt outcries from smaller-revenue clubs—particularly as the league goes into tense labor negotiations next year with the MLB Players Association. 

For now, Los Angeles is leaning fully into its behemoth status.

“I tell you, before the season started, they said, ‘The Dodgers are ruining baseball,’” Roberts said during the NLCS trophy ceremony. “Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball.”