SF Giants fans should roll their eyes as Rob Manfred defends Dodgers

SF Giants fans had to watch as the Los Angeles Dodgers added to their Super Team this past offseason. The team is arguably even better than they were last year when they won the World Series, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred thinks it's great.

Manfred was asked recently about how much money the Dodgers have spent to create their juggernaut of a team, and he had this to say: "The Dodgers have gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules...to be the best possible team on the field. I think that's a great thing."

Rob Manfred defends SF Giants arch rival's Super Team

Sure, Manfred is right that the Dodgers have operated within the rules in order to create this Super Team. But that does not make it inherently a good thing. There's a reason why we have antitrust laws in this country, so companies do not accumulate wealth and power to the extent that it harms consumers because there is no competition.

To be clear, there is still competition in baseball. The Dodgers were on the ropes in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres in the playoffs last season and the New York Mets played them tough in the NLCS. The World Series may have seemed lopsided, but the Yankees easily could have made that series more competitive if they had just capitalized more on the opportunities they had.

Yet, there is now a sense that what the Dodgers have accumulated is bordering on being anticompetitive. The fact that Manfred celebrates this is ridiculous on his part. Of course, he can't come out and say that he is going to break up the Dodgers, but he can say that the league has to look at measures like a salary cap to try and ensure that teams cannot just buy a title.

There is obviously no guarantee that Los Angeles will win the World Series in 2025. Baseball is much more subject to the whims of momentum and vibes than other professional sports, particularly in the playoffs.

But if the Dodgers win the World Series for a second consecutive year, then it will become much harder for Manfred to argue that what the Dodgers are doing is good for the game. What could topple the game of baseball is the same thing that could topple a democracy: a feeling by the masses that the decks are stacked against them and that they really do not even have a fair shot.

The Evil Empire has their fully operational Death Star and they destroyed Alderaan last season. If Buster Posey and the Giants, or some other ragtag team, are unable to lead a Rebellion to destroy that Death Star, then it will only get harder to justify how the Dodgers are currently configured.