World series champion and former Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez shares bold predictions and advice for Juan Soto ahead of the 2025 MLB Season.
Dodger Blue is the new Victory Red.
In the eyes of Alex Rodriguez, the Los Angeles Dodgers have become to Major League Baseball what a young Tiger Woods was to golf: a dominant force that has comfortably distanced itself from the competition.
“Reminds me a little bit of when Tiger was in his prime, where it was Tiger against the field,” Rodriguez told NBC Local ahead of Opening Day while promoting Lysol Laundry Sanitizer. “I feel it’s the Dodgers against the field.”
No team in that field was able to stop the Dodgers last season, as they went on to win their second World Series in five years. And it could be even more challenging to stop them this season.
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The lineup mostly returns intact, led by reigning National League MVP and inaugural 50-50 Club member Shohei Ohtani, World Series MVP Freddie Freeman and former MVP Mookie Betts.
The pitching rotation, even without two-way star Ohtani, is even deeper. The Dodgers signed former Cy Young Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal and also brought in 23-year-old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki to join a staff that also includes Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dustin May – as well as Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw and other dependable arms if needed.
So, with the Dodgers owning the league’s highest payroll, and a pipeline to Japan’s top players, how does MLB level the playing field? Rodriguez, who was once MLB’s highest-paid player and is now set to become owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, was asked if baseball needs a salary cap like other professional sports to reduce the financial disparity between its teams.
“I don’t know what the answer is, but I think you have much smarter people than me that are having to figure that out now,” Rodriguez said. “I do think that you need a system where somehow everybody has an opportunity. I’m not sure what that looks like, but I think they’ll figure it out. And again, we have to make sure that the game stays healthy and it stays fair, and more teams than the Yankees and Mets have an opportunity to win year in and year out.”
And the Dodgers, of course.
Rodriguez -- a three-time MVP who hit 696 home runs, the fifth most in MLB history -- signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000 that at the time was the largest deal in MLB history.
That now looks like utility infielder money compared to the 10-year, $700 million contract the Dodgers gave to Ohtani.
"I never imagined as a young kid that came from very modest beginnings that I would sign the contracts that I signed,” Rodriguez said. “So, anytime players get big contracts, I celebrate them and highlight them. Shohei Ohtani is definitely one of one.”
Rodriguez expects Ohtani to lead the Dodgers back to the World Series this season. His pick for their opponent in the Fall Classic is more of a surprise.
“The one thing I will not sleep on is the Baltimore Orioles,” Rodriguez said of a team that has not reached the World Series since 1983. “The Baltimore Orioles I think can win 100 games. In many ways, everyone is talking about the Yankees and the Red Sox, but I think the Orioles have a chance to be the head of the class in the American League.”
