All of a sudden, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the New York Yankees. After the massive trade they pulled off with the Boston Red Sox last season and an offseason that has included signing Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147 million deal, L.A. is expected to have the highest payroll in MLB history in 2013. As baseball fans know, with a massive payroll comes massive expectations.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly knows what will be expected of his squad this season after how much money they have invested in its current roster. He also believes it’s likely the team falls short of expectations no matter what they accomplish.
“No matter what we do this year, every article that’s written is going to have something in there about the payroll,” Mattingly told ESPN Radio’s Mason and Ireland. “And if we win, we were supposed to win. How could these guys not win with that payroll? And if we lose, then it’s a monumental disaster. So we might as well just take it head-on.”
I’m sure the Red Sox could shed a little light on that and, ironically enough, the Dodgers have taken the expensive pieces that didn’t work for Boston to give them a shot on the West Coast. Like most others, we thought the money the Red Sox spent on Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford was a good investment. Fans and the media were instantly thinking of multiple World Series championships and a 100-win season, but the worst September collapse in MLB history changed all that.
Will the outcome be the same for L.A.? Only time will tell, but we certainly know the expectations will be just as high.
