The Los Angeles Dodgers were already a “superteam” before they reportedly agreed to a four-year, $240 million contract with Kyle Tucker. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Freddie Freeman are just a few of the big contracts they’ve added from outside of the organization that have resulted in back-to-back World Series titles.
Ownership is able to spend money — more than double that of over half of MLB. That has led to LA being a prime destination for free agents looking to contend for a World Series while also cashing in.
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How does this current roster compare to both previous Dodgers teams and “superteams” of baseball’s past?
1927 New York Yankees (110-44-1, World Series champions)
This is the famed Yankees team that employed “Murderers’ Row,” a lineup featuring Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Mark Koenig, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel and Babe Ruth.
Ruth broke his own MLB home run record set in 1921 by hitting 60. Gehrig would hit 47 and also record 173 RBI while batting .373 en route to the first of two MVP awards. Four Yankees would finish with at least 100 RBI, and Ruth and Gehrig would combine for 107 of the team’s 158 home runs that season. New York had a plus-376 run differential and was never out of first place.
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Eight total Hall of Famers were on this Yankees team: Combs, Gehrig, Hoyt, Lazzeri, Pennock, Ruth, plus manager Miller Huggins and Ed Barrow, the team’s business manager, who helped bring in most of “Murderer’s Row.”
The Yankees’ 110 wins broke the previous AL record of 105 and lasted until 1954. In the World Series, the Yankees would sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates in four games for their second championship.
Reggie Jackson during a celebration of the Oakland Athletics’ 1972 World Series winning team in June 2022. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
(Michael Zagaris via Getty Images)
1972 Oakland A’s (93-62, World Series champions)
The 1972 A’s were meticulously built over time by owner Charlie Finley, beginning when the franchise was still in Kansas City. Baseball’s first-ever draft pick, Rick Monday, was selected in 1965 and later traded for pitcher Ken Holtzman, who won 19 games in 1972. Drafted 118 picks after Monday was third baseman Sal Bando, who tied for the team lead in hits during their championship-winning postseason.
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The MVP of the 1972 World Series was Gene Tenace, whom the A’s drafted 400th overall in 1965. A backup to Dave Duncan behind the plate, Tenace got more playing time later in the season and became the starting catcher in time for the postseason. He would lead Oakland with four home runs and 10 RBI in 12 games in their ALCS series win over the Detroit Tigers before outlasting the Cincinnati Reds in seven games in the World Series.
As noted, the A’s championship run was built piece by piece. In 1966, Reggie Jackson was drafted second overall, and future Cy Young Award winner Vida Blue went 27th in 1967. A year before that fruitful 1965 draft, the A’s signed Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers.
Four seasons after moving to Oakland, the A’s won the first of three straight World Series. Fingers, Hunter, Jackson and manager Dick Williams would eventually earn plaques in Cooperstown.
2009 New York Yankees (103-59, World Series champions)
Coming into 2009, the Yankees had won four titles since 1996 and been to six World Series in the Derek Jeter era. The “Evil Empire” was not shy about spending money to secure talent to compete. That’s how George Steinbrenner operated.
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But even as Steinbrenner faded out of the picture one year before his death, the franchise didn’t alter its direction. CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira were signed to free agent contracts for a combined $423.5 million — a signal of intent as the team opened up new Yankee Stadium. The roster already featured players who had been re-signed in recent years, including Alex Rodriguez and his $275 million contract, plus Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada. One-third of the “Core Four,” Andy Pettitte, would sign an extension one month before spring training.
After securing the AL East, the Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS. They would secure another World Series title after knocking out the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALCS and the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. Both series lasted six games.
Rivera, Sabathia and Derek Jeter are all Hall of Famers from this roster, with Alex Rodriguez and Pettitte potentially finding a way in down the road.
2024/2025 Los Angeles Dodgers (191-133, two World Series titles)
The Ohtani signing changed everything for the Dodgers. Free agents were lured with big contracts, and pieces were continually added.
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LA’s payroll was $353 million in 2024 and $417 million in 2025. According to Spotrac, it’s actually down approximately $4 million heading into the 2026 season following the Tucker signing.
Between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the Dodgers signed contracts with a total value of over $1 billion. Deferred money is another expensive story, but in the end, it was mission accomplished — two more championships.
And the rosters featured numerous future Hall of Famers, including Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, manager Dave Roberts and Clayton Kershaw, plus maybe a few others depending on how the rest of their careers go.
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2026 Los Angeles Dodgers
A number of the same stars are back in 2026, minus the retired Kershaw, but this offseason hasn’t been the usual spending spree for the Dodgers. While salary was shed by letting players walk, only four major league contracts have been signed in free agency: Tucker, closer Edwin DÃaz (three years, $69 million) and infielders Miguel Rojas (one year, $5.5 million) and Andy Ibañez (one year, $1.2 million).
But it’s still a roster that has the likes of Ohtani, Freeman, Snell, Betts, Yamamoto, Sasaki and Glasnow, to go along with the newly-signed Tucker. That means even more pressure to achieve a three-peat to make the money spent worth it.
Superteams across sports
The sports world has seen plenty of other superteams in previous decades. Here are a few from this century, for honorable mention:
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2007 New England Patriots: Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss joined the Pats and caught a record 23 TDs that season, supercharging New England’s offense. Tom Brady led the Patriots to a perfect 16-0 regular season — the only team to ever do so — only to lose to Eli Manning and the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.
2012-13 Miami Heat: LeBron James’ “Decision” rocked the sports world in the summer of 2010, when he chose to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami to form their formidable “Big Three.” That trio secured back-to-back NBA championships, while James collected two MVP awards, two NBA Finals MVPs and four All-Star appearances in his four seasons in Miami.
2015-16 Golden State Warriors: Led by Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, Golden State went 73-9, breaking the NBA’s all-time record set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10. The Warriors broke over 25 NBA records during that season, but ultimately blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and lost to James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.