President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman doesn't think the Los Angeles Dodgers are ruining baseball and called out people who agree with the narrative.
"I am obviously biased, but I think it is an incredibly lazy narrative," Friedman said Friday on "Foul Territory."
"If you look back 13 years ago, the Dodgers filed for bankruptcy. This is just a really, really strong organization right now where our fan support is incredible, and so the feeling that our ownership group has is we have to fulfill our side of this and reward our incredible fans."
Andrew Friedman says the narrative that the Dodgers are ruining baseball is incredibly lazy. pic.twitter.com/v7UuYDlGCv
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) February 20, 2026
The Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series titles while carrying a massive payroll that has not only infuriated MLB owners but also sparked debate over whether MLB should have a salary cap to curb excessive spending.
Los Angeles is projected to carry a 2026 payroll north of $317 million, which increases to over $410 million with competitive balance tax payments, according to Cot's Baseball Contracts. The club will pay six players more than $22 million next season, including winter acquisition Kyle Tucker, who's set to earn $33 million.
Friedman added that the Dodgers wouldn't spend the way they do if they didn't have 50,000 fans watching them play every game.
"The counter of this to the people who are saying, oh, you want (owner) Mark (Walter) to just pocket more money," Friedman said.
"Fans come out because they like watching the best players in the world playing this game. That's incredibly difficult to do, and for us to reward our fans and have the best players we can have, we feel like it's more common sense than anything."
