Welcome to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ billion-dollar offseason. Weeks after reeling in the biggest free agent in baseball history on a record (and, granted, heavily deferred) 10-year, $700 million deal, L.A. managed to land the best remaining player on the market to another record deal — signing Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325 million contract, the largest ever given to a pitcher. Two historic players on two historic deals, both of which have vaulted the Dodgers atop the betting market to win next year’s World Series.
It’s also just the halfway point of the team’s offseason. Los Angeles is clearly desperate to wash away the stain of last year’s embarrassing NLDS sweep at the hands of the Diamondbacks. And as incredible a 1-2 as Ohtani and Yamamoto are, there are still holes to be filled, players to be signed between now and the start of spring training.
But how much money do Andrew Friedman and Co. actually have to work with after such a massive outlay? Let’s take a look at where L.A.’s financial picture currently stands, and where they might go from here.
Dodgers 2024 payroll outlook after Yamamoto signing
The table below shows where the Dodgers’ payroll is at after adding Yamamoto’s totally non-deferred deal to the books. We’ve broken it down into two columns: The team’s active payroll for 2024 — the actual salaries it will be paying out, factoring in Ohtani’s decision to only take $2 million over the life of his 10-year deal — and the team’s payroll for competitive balance tax (CBT) purposes, for which Ohtani will cost just over $46 million.
As a quick refresher: The CBT is basically baseball’s luxury tax, a predetermined payroll threshold that teams become subject to tax payments should they cross it. 2024’s number is slated to be $237 million. Teams that carry payrolls above $237 million will be taxed on each dollar above that threshold, with the tax rate increasing based on the number of consecutive years a team has exceeded it. (There are also several levels above $237 million that carry an extra surcharge: 12 percent for clearing the threshold by $20 million to $40 million, 42.5 percent for clearing it by $40 to $60 million and 60 percent for clearing it by $60 million or more.)
As a team that paid the tax in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Dodgers are subject to the highest tax rates should they exceed any of those four thresholds. The Dodgers would pay 50 percent in tax for the first $20 million ($237-$257 million), 62 percent for the next $20 million over ($257-$277 million), 95 percent for the next $20 million over ($277-$297 million) and 110 percent of anything over the final threshold of $297 million.
Got all that? Great, let’s dive in:
Dodgers 2024 payroll outlook
| Player | Pos | Actual payroll | CBT payroll | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | Actual payroll | CBT payroll | Notes |
| Shohei Ohtani | DH/P | $2,000,000 | $46,076,769 | 1st yr of 10-yr deal |
| Tyler Glasnow | SP | $25,000,000 | $27,312,500 | 1st yr of 5-yr deal |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | SP | $27,083,333 | $27,083,333 | 1st yr of 12-yr deal |
| Mookie Betts | 2B/RF | $22,000,000 | $25,554,824 | 4th yr of 12-yr deal |
| Freddie Freeman | 1B | $20,000,000 | $24,699,249 | 3rd yr of 6-yr deal |
| Chris Taylor | IF/OF | $13,000,000 | $15,000,000 | 3rd yr of 4-yr deal |
| Max Muncy | 3B | $12,000,000 | $12,000,000 | 1st yr of 2-yr deal |
| Manuel Margot | OF | $10,000,000 | $12,000,000 | 1 yr left + option |
| Jason Heyward | RF | $9,000,000 | $9,000,000 | 1-year deal |
| Joe Kelly | RP | $8,000,000 | $8,000,000 | 1-year deal |
| Miguel Rojas | IF | $5,000,000 | $5,500,000 | 2nd yr of 2-yr deal |
| Tony Gonsolin | SP | $5,400,000 | $5,325,000 | 2nd yr of 2-yr deal |
| Austin Barnes | C | $3,500,000 | $3,500,000 | 2nd yr of 2-yr deal |
| Yency Almonte | RP | $1,900,000 | $1,900,000 | 1-year deal |
| Blake Treinen | RP | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | Option exercised Nov 5 |
| Will Smith | C | $9,150,000 | $9,150,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Walker Buehler | SP | $8,027,500 | $8,027,500 | avg. arb projection |
| Ryan Yarbrough | SP/RP | $3,900,000 | $3,900,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Evan Phillips | RP | $3,250,000 | $3,250,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Brusdar Graterol | RP | $2,525,000 | $2,525,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Dustin May | SP | $2,325,000 | $2,325,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Caleb Ferguson | RP | $2,275,000 | $2,275,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Alex Vesia | LHP | $1,350,000 | $1,350,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Gavin Lux | SS | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | avg. arb projection |
| J.P. Feyereisen | RP | $950,000 | $950,000 | avg. arb projection |
| Remaining 4 roster spots | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | 2024 minimum is $740k | |
| Money from Rays | -$2,000,000 | -$2,000,000 | ||
| Minor league salaries | $2,500,000 | MiLBers on 40-man roster | ||
| Pre-arbitration pool | $1,666,667 | $50m split by 30 teams | ||
| Team benefit costs | $17,500,000 | |||
| Totals | $200,835,833 | $281,570,842 |
As you can see, things are now pretty tight. To be clear: Signing Yamamoto was a coup, and a move the Dodgers should make 10 times out of 10. But it also brings their luxury tax bill north of $280 million, well above the CBT threshold — and incurring a pretty serious cost.
Of course, Ohtani and Yamamoto are trans-continental and extremely marketable stars, and the Dodgers were printing money even before bringing them aboard; no one, especially no opposing team, should be crying on their behalf. But it is worth considering when trying to figure out how Friedman might go about rounding out this roster. This is slated to be the most expensive team in Dodgers history — and quite possibly MLB history, once arbitration numbers and tax penalties are all sorted out — and we don’t know how much more money they’ll have to spend on, say, a fourth outfielder or a swingman. Those are rich-person roster problems, to be sure, but expect Los Angeles to keep its powder pretty dry over the next couple of months.
