The MLB trade deadline came and went on Monday, and while some Yankees fans were frustrated with their ballclub’s lack of aggression in adding talent ahead of a pennant race, you’d be hard-pressed to find fans of the Dodgers, the MLB’s second-most valuable franchise behind only the Yanks, in a similar boat.
The Dodgers dealt for former Detroit Tigers ace and back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, adding to a loaded rotation that already included Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Wrobleski, and Tyler Glasnow, and a clubhouse that sports arguably the best lineup in the bigs.
Many have pointed to the Dodgers’ massive hoard of talent, made possible in large part by deferred-money contracts and a $55 million revenue-sharing advantage, as evidence of competitive imbalance as a potential labor lockout between MLB and MLBPA looms over the 2027 season. Multiple owners have called for the implementation of a salary cap, something the players have been staunchly opposed to.
On Tuesday, legendary play-by-play broadcaster Bob Costas appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, where he discussed whether baseball was actually “broken,” in light of the Skubal deal and the Dodgers’ vice grip on the rest of baseball.
“Well, it’s another piece of evidence and successful teams, the Dodgers, the Yankees, whatever it might be—there’s resentment around baseball and around the various fan bases. And that’s understandable,” Costas said, before going on to credit the Dodgers’ organizational edge as it exists separate from the club’s resource advantage, such as Los Angeles’s willingness to shell out for players like Glasnow and Yamamoto where other franchises might take a more hesitant approach.
“And in the same way that we talk about it in the postseason, that, you know, championship teams may take advantage of the mistakes that are made on the field. You’re pointing out how they do the same thing in the arena of roster building and front officing, for lack of a better phrase,” Eisen said.
Costas agreed before noting that as talented as Los Angeles may be, the “field” still has a greater than 50% chance to win the World Series, and that throughout his long career in and around the sport, things always work out, even if reform is necessary at some level.
“The game always seems not only to survive, but eventually to bounce back and thrive,” he said. “There are so many appealing things about baseball now, the international talent pool, so many great players. I understand ownership’s desire for some sort of economic predictability, if nothing else.
“And one thing that is a reasonable argument is that even if the Brewers and the Rays and other teams that are relatively under-resourced, no matter how clever and smart they are in their management, they can’t hold a team together. And that’s disorienting to a fan base…
“And I don’t know what devices— I’m not an economist. I’m not as well-versed in all the particulars of this as some people who were at the bargaining table, rather, would be. But they do have a legitimate argument. Whether that argument extends all the way to imposing a hard salary cap is something else again. And that’s a line that the Players Association vows not to cross when it comes to that.”
While he didn’t go as far as calling baseball “broken,” Costas did concede that a lockout was inevitable ahead of the 2027 campaign.
“There’s gonna be a lockout in December, no question. It’ll probably carry over into spring training, and it might even carry over into the regular season because the owners don’t mind if they play only 140 games. It’s happened before. And in terms of revenues, it’s backloaded in terms of the playoffs for TV. And attendance isn’t so great in April when kids are still in school, and the weather isn’t so great in some cities.”
All in all, Costas is just appreciative he gets to remain around the sport, even if he’s retired from the broadcast booth.
“They’ve been nice to bring me back in a nice emeritus role. They can tie a ribbon around it where most of it played out. No, no heavy lifting, just a few cameos. And then, then, then I go back and take a nice long nap.”