Los Angeles Dodgers: Why the Dodgers are front-runners for Mike Trout

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(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Dodgers /

2. The Los Angeles Dodgers will have money to spend

The Los Angeles Dodgers were unwilling to commit to a long-term contract on Bryce Harper and that is probably what ultimately led Harper to sign with the Phillies. While the Dodgers were willing to give Harper $45 million per year, which would have shattered the previous record, it was only going to be for three or four years.

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The Dodgers do not want to get burned by a contract towards the end and that is evident by the moves the team has made. However, Trout is obviously another story. He is going to go down as a top-10 player of all-time and will most likely finish in the top-five with a legitimate chance to be the best ever.

You don’t get to hear that often.

Length isn’t going to be the problem for the Dodgers but every Dodger fan knows what might be the problem: the dreaded luxury tax.

The best part is unlike Harper this offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers are not going to have to go over the luxury tax threshold at all to sign Trout. The Dodgers are losing a whopping $82 million in payroll after 2019.

Granted, that number is going to be more than that because of arbitration numbers rising but that is a massive amount of money for a massive market team coming off the books.

By the time the 2020 season is over the Dodgers should still be in a very comfortable financial situation and will have more than enough money to sign Trout. It will be like this year’s version of the Phillies, just a better team.

And it is not like the Dodgers won’t be able to extend their young players as well as the team is eventually going to have Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner off the books; all of which have significant contracts.

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