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LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell‘s introductory news conference took place amid commotion. The two-time Cy Young Award winner sat behind a dais in the right-field corner while bulldozers and cranes dotted Dodger Stadium’s playing surface, excavating massive piles of dirt to make room for new batting cages and clubhouses that will soon outfit the old ballpark’s interior, a renovation that will cost tens of millions of dollars.

These days, it seems, the Los Angeles Dodgers don’t even blink at the cost. A franchise that was already among the sport’s wealthiest has elevated into an even higher financial stratosphere, a reality made obvious by recent business.

Snell’s contract represents the Dodgers’ fourth nine-figure addition in less than 12 months, occurring one offseason after deals for Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. Tack on Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith, and those are seven nine-figure contracts totaling more than $2 billion in guaranteed money on one roster — nearly half of which is deferred through 2046. And though they are not looked upon as favorites for Juan Soto, sources familiar with the process say the Dodgers made a highly competitive offer to the superstar outfielder who is expected to sign for more than $600 million — simply because they can.

All of it has coalesced into outrage from fans outside of L.A., triggering claims that the Dodgers have exposed some sort of loophole. That they’ve rigged the system. That they’ve broken baseball. Asked if that is indeed the case, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman smiled politely, his attempt to hide the indignation felt by the Dodgers’ principal decision-makers when presented with that narrative.

“I think,” Friedman said, “we’re rewarding our incredibly passionate fans.”

Friedman spent much of his Tuesday availability fielding questions about the inordinate amount of the deferrals sprinkled throughout his payroll. With Ohtani, Betts, Snell, Freeman, Smith, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and J.D. Martinez, the latter two not currently on the team, the Dodgers owe eight players a little more than $1 billion in deferred money from 2028 to 2046. The next-closest teams, the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox, owe $137 million and $130.5M in deferred payments, respectively, according to numbers compiled by Spotrac. No other team has more than $50 million deferred.

Friedman, hired 10 years ago to oversee the Dodgers’ baseball operations department, downplayed the role of deferrals in the team’s strategy, calling them “a lever” to find “overlap” in negotiations while adding that there is “no hard-and-fast rule” toward the concept.

“I think the Shohei one is just jarring to people because it’s so different, and I think the others just unfairly get lumped into that,” Friedman said. “But I think it’s kind of a lazy narrative.”

The Dodgers didn’t include deferrals in Yamamoto or Glasnow’s contracts. Their initial offer to Snell, sources said, was straightforward, with deferrals only tacked on later as a mechanism to get the guarantee to a higher place. But while it’s true that more than half of the team’s total is made up of the $680 million that is deferred on Ohtani’s $700 million deal, the Dodgers will also owe Betts ($115 million deferred), Snell ($66 million), Freeman ($57 million), Smith ($50 million) and Edman ($25 million) significant amounts of money after their contracts expire.

Players and their agents are often open to deferrals because they boost the total guarantee of a contract, allowing agencies to tout larger deals and players to have higher comps that bolster free agent prices. Teams benefit in a multitude of ways — by lowering their hit toward the luxury tax, providing themselves with more cash on hand and profiting off the investments that fund those deferrals. But industry sources caution that the benefit is not as outsized as one might presume.

“If it were really that beneficial,” a rival general manager said, “we’d see a lot more of this.”

The competitive balance tax payroll, used to determine where teams reside relative to the luxury tax threshold, takes into account the present-day value of deals and averages them out over the length of a contract. So even though Ohtani is only making $2 million annually as a player, his yearly cost toward the luxury tax threshold is about $46 million because, for this purpose, his contract holds a present-day value of $460 million. Snell’s cost toward the luxury tax is a little less than $32 million — a slight savings from the $36.4 million it would’ve been had the deal not included deferrals, but theoretically not much of one when you consider the total guarantee would have been smaller in that case.

The more tangible benefit is cash. The Dodgers actually paid Ohtani just $2 million to win an MVP award while putting together the first 50/50 season in baseball history in 2024 and will pay him just $2 million to perform as an elite two-way player in 2025. In that sense, it’s the biggest bargain since the advent of free agency. The savings, however, are not necessarily the Dodgers’ to spend. Most of the aforementioned $46 million must be stowed away annually in what amounts to an escrow account that holds the deferral commitments until they’re due.

The collective bargaining agreement contains some language that stipulates teams must invest that money in safer, more liquid accounts that might possess a lower yield but also mitigate the risk of franchises being unable to foot the bill and going into bankruptcy. But rival executives believe there is some leeway nonetheless — enough for a team such as the Dodgers, owned by a multitude of savvy investors, to profit further off those investments. By how much is hard to decipher.

“It’s just how you account for it,” Friedman said when asked about the risk of having so much money tied to the distant future. “You have to fund a lot of it right now and having that money go to work for you. We have a lot of our ownership group from a financial background and can have that money going to work right now and just making it not something that sneaks up on us. We’re not going to wake up in 2035 and be like, ‘Oh my god, that’s right, we have this money due.’ We’ll plan for it along the way.”

The Dodgers, who are still expected to re-sign Clayton Kershaw and are also hoping to bring Hernández back, are currently in line for a 2025 payroll of roughly $210 million, second behind only the Philadelphia Phillies. Their CBT payroll projects to $285 million, according to Spotrac — $40 million more than the second-place Phillies and $85 million more than the third-place New York Yankees. The Dodgers are all but guaranteed to exceed MLB’s highest luxury tax threshold in the two years remaining on the current collective bargaining agreement, which means drafting 10 spots later and paying tax surcharges of up to 110%.

They’re suddenly operating as if none of that matters, and a lot of that circles back to Ohtani. For the revenue he generated in his first season in L.A., which blew away even the most optimistic projections. For the World Series he helped them win, triggering another financial windfall. And, perhaps most importantly, for the massive deferrals he volunteered in his contract — all with the expectation that the Dodgers would use the savings to continually surround him with high-end talent.

“That pledge and commitment we made to him,” Friedman said, “we take it seriously.”

Friedman navigated through his first six offseasons as Dodgers president of baseball operations without handing out a single nine-figure contract. Bryce Harper became a free agent at just 26 years old during that time, and the Dodgers offered a four-year, $180 million contract, hoping a stalled market would prompt the superstar outfielder to agree on a shorter deal with a higher annual value that would allow him to reenter the market again at 30.

The Dodgers were attempting to be opportunistic then. Now they’re unabashed aggressors, constantly willing to stretch themselves to get deals done. And though Friedman continues to talk about the importance of “keeping one eye on the future and one eye on the present,” and thus maintaining a minor league system good enough to minimize external needs, there’s no question the Dodgers are operating at a different level at the moment.

They’re doing practically whatever they want — and making no apologies for it.

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Spire releases crew chief Childers after 9 races

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Spire releases crew chief Childers after 9 races

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Spire Motorsports has parted ways with championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers after only nine races with the team.

Childers, one of the winningest active crew chiefs in the Cup Series, won the 2014 championship with Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing. When that team closed at the end of last season, Childers moved to Spire to crew chief Justin Haley.

Through the first nine races, Haley is 23rd in the Cup standings. His best finish this year is 10th at Homestead, but Haley is coming off a 13th-place finish at Bristol, where he scored a season-high 13 stage points.

The decision to release Childers came after NASCAR’s only off weekend of the season. The team announced Thursday that Ryan Sparks, competition director and former crew chief, will be Haley’s crew chief for the rest of this season.

“NASCAR is an ever-evolving sport and the path to improvement isn’t always comfortable,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said in a statement. “The break in the Cup Series schedule gave us a chance to evaluate where we are as a program. We took the opportunity to discuss the best paths forward for everyone involved and the team and Rodney agreed that it would be best for us to part ways.

“Rodney has worked at the highest level of our sport for 20 years, and he knows what it takes to win championships. With that in mind, we collectively acknowledged challenges with the team dynamic. Having the right combination of talent is just as important as the results on track. As we move in a new direction it is not lost on us that Rodney has been an invaluable asset to our organization, as he will continue to be for others in this sport.”

Childers addressed his departure on social media, writing: “I know this is a shock. But also know that not everything works out perfect all the time. That’s how life works. This was just one of those things that just wasn’t working for either of us. I appreciate my time at Spire, working with JH and the entire 7 team. We did a lot of good that is yet to be seen, and I wish them the best in the future.”

He said he would take some time off, focus on his family and “honestly just see what the racing world holds for me next.”

Childers is tied for second in wins among active crew chiefs. Childers and Adam Stevens each have 40 Cup wins. Paul Wolfe ranks first with 42 series victories.

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Larson miscue ends in crash at Indy 500 practice

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Larson miscue ends in crash at Indy 500 practice

INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Larson experienced his first crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, the second day that Indianapolis 500 drivers participated in open testing on the 2.5-mile oval.

The 2021 NASCAR champion spun coming out of the first turn, hit the wall and bounced down to the warmup lane before tapping the wall a second time and eventually rolling to a stop.

Larson blamed himself, saying he forgot to hit the weight jacker going into the turn. But he also tried to find some positive from the incident.

“I’m happy to crash my first Indy car and live through it,” Larson said.

An Arrow McLaren official told The Indianapolis Star that Larson will not take part in the Thursday afternoon practice session due to the crash damage. The team decided not to rush the repairs, which would have left minimal practice time at best, the official said.

Larson is attempting to complete “the double” by racing in both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on May 25. His first attempt was thwarted by a rain delay in the 2024 Indy 500 that saw him arrive to the NASCAR race just as that race was called off for weather.

He wasn’t the only familiar name to crash Thursday. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato crashed shortly after Larson, losing the back end of his car in the first turn and smacking the wall hard in the short chute before rolling to a stop.

“Lost it,” Sato said. “I simply lost it.”

Both drivers were checked at the infield hospital and released.

Graham Rahal also tapped the wall late in Wednesday’s practice.

Series officials added horsepower to the cars for the Thursday morning session as they test the IndyCar hybrid, which makes its IMS debut next month. An afternoon session without the boost closes out the two-day test.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dodgers’ Snell to pause throwing after discomfort

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Dodgers' Snell to pause throwing after discomfort

CHICAGO — Los Angeles Dodgers starter Blake Snell will back off his throwing program as he continues to recover from left shoulder inflammation, according to manager Dave Roberts.

“As he was playing catch, he just didn’t feel great,” Roberts said Wednesday afternoon before the Dodgers played the Chicago Cubs. “Right now, we’re going to slow play the throwing. Will probably get it looked at again when we get back home.”

Snell, 32, has been on the injured list since early April after making just two starts for the Dodgers. He signed a five-year, $182 million contract this past offseason.

Snell, who was set to throw a bullpen session Wednesday, felt discomfort in the shoulder while playing catch Tuesday. Roberts was asked how concerning the latest setback was.

“I wouldn’t say concerning because part of the messaging from us to Blake is, it’s about later on in the season and if there’s any type of discomfort, let’s not try to fight through it,” Roberts responded.

Snell is one of several Dodgers pitchers on the mend, including left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who pitched three innings in a minor league start Tuesday, his second rehab outing this spring.

“Velocity was good,” Roberts said. “Got into the fourth inning. He’ll make a start next week. Really positive stuff.”

The Dodgers also received positive news about right-hander Tyler Glasnow after he left his last start with leg cramps. His latest bullpen session went well, according to Roberts.

Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani is throwing again after missing time on the paternity list. He’ll have another bullpen session Saturday as he recovers from elbow surgery, though the team still doesn’t have a timetable for his return to major league action.

The team was also without catcher Will Smith on Wednesday after he injured his wrist on a play at the plate in Tuesday’s loss to the Cubs.

“As he made the tag, his [left] wrist turned in and so there’s some residual soreness,” Roberts said.

Smith could get imaging done when the team returns to Los Angeles, but Roberts wasn’t overly concerned about the injury.

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