Among some MLB Draft wonks, the 2025 class was seen as a relatively weak one. Only time will tell just how weak or strong it is, but the lack of a consensus around the top pick — even the order of the top 10 picks — was unusual. Projections about who would be the best player to emerge from this year’s class varied widely and changed often, even among evaluators making the picks in Atlanta.
The eventual top pick, Eli Willits, was among the rumored players to go 1-10 and the only one of the lot not represented by Scott Boras. That suggests affordability was a concern to at least the Washington Nationals and perhaps the Angels, who drafted UC Santa Barbara pitcher Tyler Bremner second — to the surprise of many.
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One could reasonably conclude, then, that if ever there were a year to sacrifice a draft pick — in order to sign a free agent who rejected his team’s qualifying offer, or by incurring a luxury-tax penalty — it was 2025. Perhaps this is among the reasons the Dodgers were comfortable extending their payroll to nearly $400 million (as estimated by Roster Resource), losing their Top-30 draft pick in the process.
The New York Yankees and Mets were penalized similarly to the Dodgers. As a result, none of the three teams had a single pick among the first 37 Sunday.
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For that reason, Jim Bowden of The Athletic dubbed the three teams among the “biggest losers” on Day 1 of the draft.
“The Dodgers, Yankees and Mets had no picks in the first round because they exceeded the competitive balance tax thresholds last year, which pushed their picks back 10 spots, to 40, 39 and 38, respectively,” Bowden wrote. “Those are the rules, and those teams made payroll decisions knowing the consequences. But it’s still disappointing to me that the biggest markets in the game were not in the first round.”
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Bowden’s slight of the Dodgers does not even attempt a comment about Zach Root, the left-handed pitcher from Arkansas whom they drafted 40th; or Root’s teammate, outfielder Charles Davalan, whom they drafted 41st.
Rather, Bowden is indirectly suggesting that the Dodgers should not have extended their payroll to sign Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto, and/or Teoscar Hernández — all free agents after last season. The former general manager is suggesting financial prudence as a more valuable asset than the aforementioned All-Stars.
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The Dodgers, of course, are hoping to continue their momentum after winning the 2024 World Series, while maximizing their championship window with former MVPs Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman still at or near their peaks.
Among Dodger fans who are eager for another World Series run, that’s a more defensible tactic than banking on a late-first-round pick becoming a franchise cornerstone in what could prove to be a shallow draft year. We’ll need more than a day to learn whether or not the Dodgers made the right call.
For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.
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