It is a 'war of money.' This refers to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series. Superstars who receive astronomical amounts of money clash on the biggest stage. They are determined to reach the top of the World Series by fully utilizing their worth.
Shohei Ohtani (30) is the owner of the largest free agent (FA) contract in MLB history. Before this season, he signed a 10-year, $700 million (approximately 138.2 billion KRW) contract with the Los Angeles (LA) Dodgers. This amounts to about 26.45 million KRW per day. His annual salary is $70 million (approximately 96.7 billion KRW). Prior to Ohtani, the largest MLB contract was Aaron Judge’s (32) 9-year, $360 million deal with the New York Yankees signed before last season. Judge’s $25 million salary this season is about 39 times that of Korea’s highest-paid professional baseball players, Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha, 37) and Park Dong-won (LG, 34).
The Dodgers and Yankees, boasting the top two largest contracts in history, will face off in the World Series starting on the 26th. Both teams also have the top two largest contracts for pitchers in MLB history.
The largest contract for a pitcher in MLB history is Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s (26) 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers signed before this season. He dominated Nippon Professional Baseball before entering MLB this year. The second-largest pitcher contract is Gerrit Cole’s (34) 9-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees signed before the 2020 season.
The Dodgers invested over $1 billion in these two Japanese players before this season and have now reached the threshold of their goal: winning the World Series. Ohtani focused solely on hitting this season and became the first player in MLB’s 121-year history to achieve 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. In 159 regular-season games this year, he posted a .310 batting average, 54 home runs, 197 hits, 130 RBIs, and 134 runs scored. He is a strong candidate for the National League Most Valuable Player (MVP). He already won the American League MVP twice, in 2021 and last year. In the postseason, Ohtani has recorded a .286 batting average, 3 home runs, 12 hits, 10 RBIs, and 12 runs in 11 games. Yamamoto, due to a shoulder injury, pitched only 90 innings in 18 games this season, recording a 7-2 win-loss record and a 3.00 ERA.
With Ohtani moving to the National League, the American League MVP this year is likely to be Judge. In 158 regular-season games this year, Judge posted a .288 batting average, 58 home runs, 180 hits, 144 RBIs, and 122 runs scored. Judge won the MVP in 2022. However, he has shown extreme slumps in the postseason, hitting two home runs but only a .161 batting average, 5 hits, and 6 runs.
The Dodgers and Yankees are traditional rivals. Before relocating to LA in 1958, the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn, New York, and fiercely competed with the Yankees.
According to USA Today, the Yankees’ total player payroll this season was $303.32 million (approximately 419.2 billion KRW), ranking 2nd among MLB’s 30 teams, while the Dodgers were 3rd with $249.82 million (approximately 345.3 billion KRW).
There is a huge gap compared to domestic teams. This year’s Korean Series features the KIA Tigers and Samsung Lions. According to data released by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) before this season, excluding rookies and foreign players, KIA’s total payroll was 7.507 billion KRW, and Samsung’s was 8.056 billion KRW. The highest total payroll was the Lotte Giants with 8.984 billion KRW. Considering the $4 million salary cap for three foreign players per team, the total payroll for domestic professional baseball teams is formed within about 15 billion KRW.
The reason MLB teams pay enormous salaries to players is due to massive revenue sources such as ticket sales and broadcast rights fees. In MLB, each team individually negotiates broadcast rights contracts with networks. The Dodgers signed a new broadcast rights contract with Time Warner Cable in January last year. Although the Dodgers did not disclose the contract amount, local media estimated it to be up to $8 billion over 25 years, averaging $320 million annually. The Yankees earned $379 million (approximately 548.5 billion KRW) from ticket sales alone in the 2022 postseason.
The KBO’s broadcast rights contract amount this year is 99 billion KRW. Also, last year’s KBO League regular-season ticket revenue was 123.3 billion KRW, with the LG Twins earning the highest revenue among the 10 teams at 17.3 billion KRW.
The Dodgers and Yankees also rank at the top in MLB team valuations. According to Forbes’ evaluation of the 30 MLB teams this year, the Yankees and Dodgers ranked 1st and 2nd, respectively. The Yankees’ team value was estimated at $7.55 billion, and the Dodgers at $5.405 billion. Next were the Boston Red Sox ($4.5 billion), Chicago Cubs ($4.22 billion), and San Francisco Giants ($3.8 billion). Forbes particularly noted the Yankees’ differentiated value.
In the U.S., predictions suggest the Dodgers will narrowly edge out the Yankees. According to ESPN Bet, the lowest odds are for the Dodgers winning 4-2. Next are the Dodgers winning 4-3 and the Yankees winning 4-3.
With a higher regular-season winning percentage (Dodgers 0.605 vs. Yankees 0.580), the World Series will start at the Dodgers’ home stadium. Games 1 and 2 will be held in LA on the 26th and 27th, Games 3 to 5 in New York from the 29th to 31st, and Games 6 and 7 back in LA on the 2nd and 3rd of next month.
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