Mac Engel: Major League Baseball can't say it, but the Dodgers are great for baseball

FORT WORTH, Texas — Since implementing new rules, MLB has celebrated a resurgence in attendance, interest, TV ratings and we are to believe the team at the top during this revival is the same one that is “ruining” it, too.

The L.A. Dodgers have replaced the New York Yankees as the evilest of evil empires; a financial behemoth that J.P. Morgan, or Apple, would hate.

The Dodgers are also an organic gift to MLB; nothing sells quite like a dynasty, and the Dodgers are the current version of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, New England Patriots, Alabama football, San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors in their respective prime years.

The Dodgers are also unifier of the 29 other teams who are joined in their zeal to see the Dodgers lose.

Professional sports leagues spend millions on advertising and marketing, but no manufactured pitch works as well as the giving the fans what they want, which is what the Dodgers do better than anything or anyone else in baseball.

Nothing creates fans like dominance. Nothing enrages fans like violating the myth of fairness.

The Dodgers are also the easiest target in sports that league owners will use as a scapegoat to sell why it needs to lock out the players after the season to implement a hard salary cap, so all teams “have a chance.”

Buyer beware if you are a fan who eats this empty bowl of free ice cream. None of these savings will be passed on to you, and a salary cap does not guarantee your team has a better chance to win. It only guarantees the owners will save money.

The Dodgers are ‘killing baseball’

The Dodgers have made the playoffs every year starting in 2013, reached five World Series in this span, won three of them, including the last two. The Dodgers are overwhelming favorites to become the first team since the 1999-2000 Yankees to win three straight World Series.

The Dodgers’ odds only increased on Sunday when they sent three prospects to the Detroit Tigers for the best pitcher available in the trade market, two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Between the Dodgers’ rotation and starting lineup, there is nary a vulnerability an opponent can exploit.

Their opening day payroll was $316 million, and factoring in MLB’s Competitive Balance Tax, the number was $410 million.

The Dodgers can do this because of a loophole they were granted in court; they keep a larger amount of their already massive local TV contract, which allows them to spend big on payroll. They’re also deferring large portions of these monster player contracts, a detail that will get them, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.

All this does is strengthen a tired argument that has existed in baseball since the ‘90s; that market size dictates the winners. That and too many clubs serve as farm systems for the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Red Sox.

There is some inescapable truth here.

Since the big TV money started to pour in the late ‘80s, five “small market” teams have won World Series: 1990 Reds, 1991 Twins, 2003 Marlins, 2006 and 2011 Cardinals, 2015 Royals. The 1997 Marlins are excluded because ownership approved massive free agent spending, which pushed their payroll into the top five; in 2003, their payroll ranked 25th.

Please note the Cubs have won one World Series in the last 100 years. The Mets just celebrated the 40th anniversary of their last World Series-winner, and despite having the second-highest-payroll in MLB, have the second-worst record in the National League.

The Dodgers are not ‘killing baseball’

Amid the many accusations pointed at the Dodgers is that their rush of high-dollar player acquisitions, and bloated payroll, guarantees a long lockout after the collective bargaining agreement between the player’s union and league expires this winter.

Don’t be too sure on either.

MLB remains where it’s been for the last 30 years, trying desperately to slow spending on player salaries. Owners want a hard salary cap so they’ll stop spending money; they use the salary cap as a rhetorical device to sell fans that it is the only way to ensure competitive balance.

They may even use it to sell fans that a cap will result in lower ticket prices. Never believe that. Never believe the pro sports team owner about money.

In the last 40 years, MLB’s ownership has been so fractured that it is the rare pro sports league that loses in collective bargaining negotiations. The MLB Player’s Association has consistently prevented a salary cap.

Ask any MLB player, and they’ll tell you that a hard salary cap is a greater threat to the game than the Dodgers.

As the years go by, baseball’s lack of parity at the top is undeniable. There is none. A chimp’ could link the champs’ to market size, and payroll.

Meanwhile, the NFL, NHL and NBA all in the last 20 years have enjoyed a variety of teams at the top, while celebrating a few dynasties, too. The NFL and NHL both have hard salary caps, and the NBA has tax-like “aprons,” which has some similarities to MLB.

Dynasties have been great for the popularity of Major League Baseball, and these Dodgers are no different.

The difference will be how they do it will be used against them as an example of what is wrong with the league.

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