LOS ANGELES — It has become a predictable talking point around baseball the last couple of offseasons, amplified every time the Dodgers sign a star on what has become an increasingly common contract for the club.
Nine times in the last five years, the Dodgers agreed to deals with significant amounts of deferred money — large portions of salaries that won’t be paid out until well into the future, after the deal is complete.
And on each occasion, the scrutiny of such maneuvers from rival fan bases has become louder and louder, with the Dodgers’ ability to put off long-term payments while reaping short-term benefits raising new fears about a competitive imbalance in a sport many worry is losing league-wide parity.
Deferred money played a prominent role in the recent signings of top free agents such as Blake Snell ($182-million contract, $60 million deferred), Tanner Scott ($72-million contract, $21 million deferred), Freddie Freeman ($162-million contract, $57 million deferred), and Teoscar Hernández (who has deferred $31.5 million of the $89.5 million guaranteed in his two Dodgers contracts).
It also was featured in extensions for Mookie Betts ($365-million contract, $115 million deferred), Will Smith ($140-million contract, $50 million deferred) and Tommy Edman ($74-million contract, $25 million deferred).
Most of all, the deferrals are what made Shohei Ohtani’s $700-million contract ($680 million deferred) such an appealing proposition for the Dodgers, a structure Ohtani personally concocted and presented to teams during his free agency last year.
As a result, the Dodgers have now accrued $1.039 billion of deferred salary over the last five years. For comparison, only the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox top even $50 million in current deferrals, according to Spotrac.
While the team’s 2025 luxury tax payroll (which is calculated using the average annual value of deals, rather than the actual amount of cash paid out each year) now stands at roughly $378 million, their use of deferrals means their actual cash payroll is only expected to be around $312 million, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Both numbers still represent MLB-highs for next season; a reminder that, for all the Dodgers have deferred of late, they are still outspending the league in present day dollars as well.
But, the imbalance has nonetheless made the Dodgers’ use of deferrals a hot-button topic around the sport — especially as they have bolstered their star-studded roster with increasingly more talent in recent offseasons.
“I think everybody’s making deferred-money jokes now,” general manager Brandon Gomes said this offseason.
In reality, however, the Dodgers’ newfound spending spree is being fueled by more than just deferred money.
For all the money they’ve kicked down the road, after all, they’ve also needed to dish out large sums to players up front.
In six of those nine deferral-laden deals over the last half-decade, the Dodgers have also included large, immediate signing bonuses to sweeten their offers to big-name players.
Snell got a $52-million bonus when he signed in November. Hernández received a $23-million bonus when he re-signed last month. Smith’s 10-year extension included a $30-million bonus. Edman’s five-year deal had a $17-million bonus. Betts’ 12-year mega-extension featured $65 million in a signing bonus (though that amount is being paid out in equal annual payments over 15 years). Scott then got a $20 million signing bonus in the deal he struck with the club.
