GLENDALE, Ariz. — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred shared some conflicting feelings about the big-spending Los Angeles Dodgers this week, praising the franchise’s competitive spirit in one breath before addressing the financial disparity they have created in the next.

Players elsewhere around the league don’t seem nearly as conflicted.

“Teams spending money is never bad for baseball and never bad for players. Ever. In any situation,” Athletics slugger Brent Rooker said.

If Manfred is looking to find some sympathy from MLB’s rank-and-file regarding his worry over the sport’s financial health, it’s probably not going to come from the guys on the field.

MLB is the only major professional sport in America that doesn’t have a salary cap, though there are luxury tax penalties for passing certain spending thresholds. Last season, the Dodgers had a $353 million luxury tax payroll and had to pay a $103 million tax. The Athletics had the lowest luxury tax payroll at just under $84 million.

Los Angeles’ spending didn’t slow this offseason. The Dodgers signed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal and made sizable investments in players like Teoscar Hernández, Michael Conforto, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Roki Sasaki.

That came one year after the organization splurged on more than $1 billion in commitments to Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Los Angeles’ spending has dwarfed all but a few franchises. Opposing players might be envious of those fat paychecks, but it’s hard to find them complaining.

Even Manfred — who said he has received emails from fans worried about competitive balance — can’t fault the Dodgers’ approach.

“The Dodgers have gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field, and that’s a great thing for the game,” Manfred said Tuesday. “That type of competitive spirit is what people want to see.”

Walker Buehler threw the final pitch of the 2024 season, recording the last out for the Dodgers in their World Series-clinching Game 5 victory. He signed a one-year, $21.05 million with the Boston Red Sox during the winter, but the right-hander isn’t about to talk smack about his former employer.

“Teams spending money is never bad for baseball and never bad for players. Ever. In any situation.”

Athletics slugger Brent Rooker

The 30-year-old knows exactly why players are flocking to Chavez Ravine.

“I don’t think it’s odd,” he said. “It’s a first-class organization and obviously coming off a huge World Series and, I think on top of that, you layer in that on a team right now where there’s probably four or five Hall of Famers, I think it’s an attractive place to play.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t some awe from players about the formidable roster that the Dodgers have built thanks to their deep pockets.

“I worked out with some guys that ended up signing with the Dodgers and was like, at a certain point, ‘I didn’t know they had room on the 40-man [roster],'” Red Sox pitcher Patrick Sandoval said.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the teams trying to keep pace with the Dodgers in the National League West. They signed ace right-hander Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million in December, but they are still projected to have a payroll that will be roughly half the size of the Dodgers.

“I don’t think it’s unfair at all,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “They’re within the rules. They’re doing what they have to do to get the best players on the field. When I was a kid, it was the Yankees, remember? George Steinbrenner was going crazy with his spending, and it yielded world championships. That’s what we’re all chasing.”

Lovullo makes a good point about the Yankees. Baseball has had a long history of financial disparity, particularly since free agency started in the 1970s.

Even so, there haven’t been many dynasties over the past 40 years. The Dodgers are trying to become the first team to win back-to-back World Series titles since Steinbrenner’s Yankees had a three-peat from 1998 to 2000.

Third baseman Max Muncy is in his eighth season with the Dodgers and says a big payroll certainly helps to build a talented roster, but it doesn’t mean much once the season starts. He points to 2023, when the Diamondbacks swept the Dodgers out of the postseason in the NL Division Series despite having a much smaller payroll.

“This sport is really tough,” Muncy said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of roster that you have. Time after time, teams have shown that you get into the playoffs and anything can happen.”

BOSTON — What makes Team USA a team — and not just a collection of All-Stars — is having Jaccob Slavin on the roster.

That’s not conjecture. That’s what Team USA coach Mike Sullivan said when asked what the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman means to the men’s national team at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Practically everything about Team USA is a spectacle. The way they win is a spectacle. Their personalities are spectacles upon spectacles. Even hearing the song “Free Bird” after each goal is a spectacle; the reaction it draws from Team USA’s fans comes with the expectation that a bald eagle is going to soar throughout the arena to the backdrop of fireworks.

And while Slavin is the antithesis of that spectacle, what he does for the team is one of the main reasons the spectacle exists in the first place. Goals and those who score those goals receive the bulk of the attention. Goal prevention is not always guaranteed acclaim.

But this is what defines Slavin. It’s also what could help America sit atop the hockey world with another win over Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off final (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+/Disney+).

“He’s so underrated and he’s honestly one of my favorite players to watch,” Team USA defenseman Jake Sanderson said. “He just flies under the radar and makes great plays. He’s so solid defensively and such a great skater. It’s the sort of attribute I want in my game someday.”

LEADING INTO THE TOURNAMENT, a big talking point was what Team USA’s defensive structure would look like. While Connor Hellebuyck was long believed to be the starting goalie, there was a thought that whoever would be in front of America’s goalies was going to give opponents fits.

The U.S. created a defensive corps featuring Brock Faber, Adam Fox, Charlie McAvoy, Zach Werenski, Noah Hanifin and Sanderson. Those six skaters are part of a larger wave of puck-moving defensemen who’ve helped define the NHL’s newest glamour position.

It’s a group that initially included the reigning Norris Trophy winner, Quinn Hughes, who was ruled out because of an injury.

But that also comes with the caveat that the rise of those puck-moving defensemen has led to defensive-minded defensemen receiving less attention.

Or to view it another way: The NHL’s affinity for two-way quarterbacks has come at the cost of those shutdown defensemen. And if his Team USA teammates are quarterbacks for what they do in the offensive zone, that in turn makes Slavin a shutdown cornerback.

“Jaccob’s a guy that, in my mind, is one of the best defenders and one of the best defending defensemen in the league,” Sullivan said. “His size, his mobility, his reach, his ability to read plays, he closes on people, how strong he is in the battle areas. I don’t know if there’s a defenseman in the league who defends the rush more aggressively or better than Jaccob does.”

MANY THINGS HAVE CONTRIBUTED to why Team USA has looked like the most consistently complete team throughout the 4 Nations tournament. One of those is a restrictive defensive structure that, if all else fails, can rely on Hellebuyck, one of the greatest goaltenders America has ever produced, to contain the situation.

Actually getting to that point against Team USA has been rare for opponents. Finland scored only once, as did Canada. The U.S. won both of those games, which made Monday’s 2-1 loss to Sweden irrelevant because it had already qualified for the title game.

The most surprising part of Sweden’s two goals? Slavin was on the ice for both.

Before that, he had logged more than 45 combined 5-on-5 and short-handed minutes without a goal being scored. He leads Team USA’s skaters with an average ice time of 21:31 per game, while anchoring a penalty kill that hasn’t allowed a power-play goal against.

“He’s super tough to play against. I’m a D and I don’t go against him a lot,” Sweden and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “The way he is in the way, the way he breaks pucks up and is such a great skater.”

Much of what Slavin does is in the details, but there are times when it becomes large enough for all to see. That was the case in the win over Canada, when Colorado Avalanche superstar center and reigning Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon was speeding in for a zone entry, as he has done so often in his NHL career.

Just when it appeared MacKinnon found an opening, Slavin was right there — forcing one of the game’s most dangerous players to rethink his approach.

“Yeah, he’s incredible defensively and does a lot of little things that are hard to notice,” said Hanifin, who was teammates with Slavin for three seasons in Carolina. “Just his stick. He breaks up so many plays that are hard to break up.

“He’s a great skater; he’s always gapping up and limiting an opponent’s time and space. He’s one of the best in the game at it.”

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Will Canada vs. USA live up to the intensity of their last game?

Mark Messier previews the high-stakes rematch as USA faces Canada in a winner-takes-all showdown for the 4 Nations Face-Off crown.

TEAM USA AND Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger said that he always knew that Slavin was underrated, but actually playing with him at the 4 Nations gave him a greater appreciation for what he does.

“He takes away stuff before it ever happens,” Oettinger said. “It never has time to develop, and he just reads the game so well and is so smart. I’m sure those goalies in Carolina love playing for him.”

Slavin does have an offensive presence. He has had seven seasons of more than 30 points, and is flirting with what would be an eighth season, with 20 points through 56 games this NHL season. In total, he’s had 292 points in 721 career games. For comparison, Hughes has scored 392 points in just 412 games.

But another detail that speaks to Slavin’s effectiveness is how he’s low-risk for penalties, despite consistently playing in high-risk situations (for copious minutes) on a nightly basis.

The 30-year-old Slavin is averaging more than 22 minutes per game for his career, yet he has accrued only 94 total penalty minutes in those 721 games. Another comparison: Team USA forward Brady Tkachuk finished second in the NHL with 134 penalty minutes last season.

Sullivan explained that Team USA wanted to build the sort of well-rounded team that could thrive in whatever situation was presented.

By adding Slavin to its roster, Team USA has done more than thrive in all situations at the 4 Nations Face-Off. And now, he has put them in position to win it all.

“He’s been a big part of our group’s ability to be stingy defensively,” Sullivan said. “He’s a huge part of our penalty kill. He helps us at our net front. Those are the types of skill sets or complementary skill sets we were looking for when we were putting this group together.

“He may not be the guy that ends up on the scoring sheet or on [‘SportsCenter’], he’s just the guy that helps you win.”

Hurricane Milton wrecked the Tampa Bay Rays’ ballpark last fall, leaving them without a stadium. For this season, they will play their home games in the Yankees’ spring training facility, which has a capacity in the range of 11,000 fans.

And yet the Rays have outspent the Chicago Cubs in free agency this winter.

Which says so much more about the conduct of the big-market Cubs than about the Rays. Last week, the Cubs were outbid by multiple teams for the services of All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman, and the question that should hang over the franchise is: why? Why aren’t the Cubs spending more?

Owner Tom Ricketts provided no answers last week when he briefly stopped by camp in Arizona, told the players that it was a privilege to play for his organization (according to manager Craig Counsell) and then left without speaking to reporters. Jed Hoyer, the team’s head of baseball operations, cited the club’s budget when asked about the Bregman bidding. The Cubs dangled a four-year, $115 million deal that left them outbid significantly by the Tigers and Astros, and Bregman chose a three-year deal with the Red Sox, partly to give himself the option of testing the market again next fall since the deal includes two opt-outs.

Nothing about the Cubs’ offer could’ve given them a legitimate shot at landing a player who would’ve been a perfect fit. The Tigers offered the most total dollars on the table; the Astros offered a chance for Bregman to continue his Houston legacy, without being tapped for state taxes. The Red Sox deal offered the highest average annual salary with contractual flexibility. It was as if the Cubs wanted Bregman to play for less money and the privilege of being part of their organization.

But it’s hard to see that being appealing enough to convince someone like Bregman, who has played in the postseason in every year of his career and aims to continue that tradition. Despite the fact that the Cubs are playing in baseball’s land of opportunity, the incredibly weak NL Central, they’ve given no indication that winning is actually a priority. Making money seems to be the modus operandi.

This all comes at the end of a winter in which Ricketts already made headlines for his comments about the Cubs’ inability to keep up with the sport’s top payrolls when he told 670 AM in Chicago that “it’s really hard to compete” with the Dodgers. In that January interview, he said that fans “think somehow we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we just keep it. Which isn’t true at all. What happens is we try to break even every year, and that’s about it.”

But that doesn’t really align with the available numbers from Sportico’s MLB team values rankings. The Cubs’ franchise value, as assessed by Sportico, was at $5.3 billion as of last season. That’s the fourth highest in Major League Baseball, and more than three times greater than the combined value of the Brewers ($1.6 billion), Reds ($1.5 billion) and Pirates ($1.4 billion). The Cubs’ revenue generated last season, as estimated by Sportico, was at $502 million, the fourth highest in the majors, behind the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox.

With the draw of Wrigley Field, the Cubs’ ability to generate income is Teflon-coated, especially compared to other teams that didn’t spend much this winter. The Rays’ situation is fragile; it’s really tough for fans to get to and from the Marlins’ park; and even Cardinals’ fans have vacated their park in recent years because of the team’s lackluster play. But even in the worst years, the Cubs draw. It’s one benefit of playing in the third-largest market in the nation.

And yet the Cubs’ payroll will be significantly lower than last year. Per Sportico, the Cubs are in line to spend $186 million in player salary, or nearly $30 million less than last year.

Sure, the Cubs traded for All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker from the Astros — for one year, perhaps, because Tucker will be a free agent in the fall — but the front office seemingly had to move Cody Bellinger and his $27.5 million salary to make that happen. Tucker will make $16.5 million.

The Cubs swapped for Ryan Pressly, after the Astros agreed to pay down some of his salary. Colin Rea was signed for $5 million. And the Cubs signed Matthew Boyd to a two-year, $29 million deal.

The storm-ravaged Rays? They landed shortstop Ha-Seong Kim for $29 million over two years and signed catcher Danny Jansen to a one-year, $8.5 million deal. With those two contracts, Tampa Bay spent more in free agency than the Cubs.

Yes, the Cubs’ overall payroll currently sits just above $185 million compared to $72 million for the Rays, but in a crucial offseason for the franchise, Chicago has elected to spend like its small-market counterparts. And, yes, the Cubs do have reason for hope in 2025, but also likely not enough star talent to stand toe to toe with the National League’s best.

The defense is excellent — Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are exceptional up the middle, and the outfield of Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Tucker will probably be the best in the majors. A signing of Bregman would’ve given the Cubs another lockdown defender, another Gold Glove contender feeding into a distinct style. The Dodgers might have the most prolific offense; the Phillies have a great group of veterans; Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider will be back for the Braves; the Mets added Juan Soto — but with a high-end third baseman, the Cubs could have been the best run prevention team in baseball, which often translates well in the postseason. And Bregman would’ve improved an offense that was so inconsistent last year.

Instead, the financially mighty Cubs chose to effectively stand down in the bidding for Bregman, content to fall somewhere in the range of 12^th to 14^th among the 30 teams in their payroll size, and they have a roster that feels unequipped to take on the teams that were willing to spend.

Ricketts can rightly expect the best effort from his players. But sadly, he has not reciprocated. The Cubs players — the Cubs fans — deserve better.