The Los Angeles Dodgers are MLB’s second-richest team in the country’s second-biggest market with an international superstar who prints money, a talent pipeline that regularly churns out young talent and every technological resource you possibly think of.
Some people think that’s unfair, but not Bryce Harper.
Ahead of a series against the defending World Series champions, the Philadelphia Phillies star praised their organization and cast their critics in a rather negative light, via On Pattison:
“I don’t know if people will like this, but I feel like only losers complain about what they’re doing. I think they’re a great team. They’re a great organization. That’s why guys want to go over there and play. L.A. is a great city to play in, obviously. They’re the Mecca of the world of everything, from food to nightlife to sports, the Dodgers to the Lakers to anybody.
“They’re going to continue to get guys. They’re going to continue to pull guys from the sport. Bullpen, starting pitching, international players, anything like that.”
Bryce Harper has no hate for the Dodgers. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
(Rich Schultz via Getty Images)
It’s probably worth noting a) Harper is a longtime Los Angeles Lakers fan and b) the Dodgers were a significant player in his free agency, offering him a shorter-team deal with a higher average annual value than the 13 years and $330 million he got from the Phillies.
Harper also made his MLB debut at Dodger Stadium, going 1-for-3 with a double. He just began his seventh season with the Phillies, who entered Friday with a 5-1 record before handing the Dodgers their first loss of the season in a 3-2 victory.
The Dodgers are projected by Fangraphs to have the largest payroll in MLB history at $390 million, while the Phillies are third in MLB at $289 million.
Between their 2024 World Series title, highly successful (and expensive) offseason and 8-0 start, the Dodgers’ success has increasingly become one of MLB’s bigger talking points. It was easy to disregard them when their only recent World Series title was during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, less so when they won one with MLB’s biggest star in Shohei Ohtani, dropped another few hundred million on free agents such as Blake Snell, and then landed Roki Sasaki to top off one of MLB’s top farm systems.
The Dodgers were on the longest winning streak by a defending World Series champion to open the season before Friday’s loss in Philadelphia. They’re +230 favorites to become MLB’s first repeat champions since the 2000 New York Yankees.
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