Dodgers president dismisses 'anecdotal' criticism of low spending

Los Angeles Dodgers president Stan Kasten isn't buying the notion that his team isn't spending enough money this offseason following back-to-back trips to the World Series.

Kasten dismissed the idea during the team's annual FanFest on Saturday and called it "anecdotal" while answering questions from fans and media, including Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.

"You keep making this stuff up," Kasten said.

Los Angeles' payroll has dropped by almost $100 million since 2015, according to Mike Axisa of CBS Sports.

Hernandez notes Kasten continued to tip-toe around questions regarding the Dodgers' uncharacteristic lack of spending and decreasing payroll.

"That's also such a weird narrative," Kasten said. "If we can do whatever we do and stay under (the luxury-tax threshold), there are a lot of advantages to being under, by the way, a lot more advantages than you all write about."

But the Dodgers executive declined to elaborate when pressed for details.

"I'm not going to go into that because that's real inside baseball economic stuff," he said.

The comments left many baseball insiders, including Fancred's Jon Heyman and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, scratching their heads:

The Dodgers recently signed outfielder A.J. Pollock to a four-year, $55-million contract and re-signed ace Clayton Kershaw to a three-year, $93-million deal in November. But the team also shed significant salary when it traded Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, and Alex Wood to the Cincinnati Reds in December.