If the Dodgers proved one thing this offseason, it was that their pockets were full and they were ready to spend.
Signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a massive 12 year, $325 million deal on Thursday night comes after the Dodgers already added Shohei Ohtani ($700 million, 10 years) and Tyler Glasnow ($136.5 million, five years).
Los Angeles will be shelling out $1,161,500,000 — for just those three players.
Along with those three stars, Mookie Betts ($30 million), Freddie Freeman ($27 million), and Chris Taylor ($13 million) will each get eight figures for this coming season.
By comparison, the A’s have spent just $1.5 million this offseason in adding reliever Trevor Gott.
That’s less than Ohtani is getting per season — around $2 million — even with his massive defferals.
Ohtani’s deferrals, which will pay him $68 million from from 2034-43, might have even helped the Dodgers in their pursuit of Yamamoto and giving him a $50 million signing bonus, as The Post’s Jon Heyman reported.
In paying out enormous amounts of cash for premier talent, the Dodgers will be favored to get back to the World Series.
After winning it all in the COVID-shortened 2020, they fell to the underdog Braves in the 2021 NLCS and have since lost in the NLDS in the two subsequent seasons.
In 2023, the Dodgers ranked second in all of baseball in OPS (.795) and home runs (249), just behind the Braves in both categories.
Adding Ohtani to the mix should give those already impressive numbers a strong boost.
Though Ohtani won’t pitch in 2024 after undergoing elbow surgery, Glasnow and Yamamoto should help improve a Dodgers staff that finished with a 4.06 ERA last year as they battled multiple injuries.
