"Dodgers finessed the league": MLB fans stunned as Dodgers 2024 payroll doesn't make it to top 3 in the league

The Los Angeles Dodgers seem to have worked out the math brilliantly as the team doesn't even feature in the top three franchises with the biggest payroll in 2024. This has been possible thanks to the deferred money contracts on some of the biggest stars among their lineup.

The MLB's deferred money policy has been criticised by the baseball community. As per the new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed in 2022, a player can defer an unlimited amount of money on his contract, which also has a direct relation to its proportion on the payroll of the club. If the club is able to keep their payroll under the luxury tax limit of $237 million, then they will avoid a number of penalties attached to them.

The Dodgers shocked the world by deferring $68 million per year on Shohei Ohtani's gigantic contract. They already had deferred sum of money contracts like that of Freddie Freeman. This has helped them control their luxury tax threshold.

As per Bleacher's Report, the New York Yankees, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies have the biggest payrolls this season, with sums of $285 million, $270 million and $237 million, respectively on their payroll for the 2024 season.

Baseball fans from all over the world were shocked as they took to X to react to the absence of the Dodgers from the top 3 payrolls in the MLB.

"The Dodgers finessed the league," one fan wrote.

"Complete joke that LA isn’t number 1," another fan wrote.

Here are a few other reactions:

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US Congress alerted about Shohei Ohtani's deferred contract amount

The Los Angeles Dodgers deferred a total of $680 million out of the $700 million on Ohtani's contract. Even though MLB regulations allow these, Malia Cohen, a controller for California, recently asked Congress to close the loophole that may allow Ohtani to avoid paying state taxes while receiving the deferred funds.