Dave Roberts calls criticism of Dodgers' spending 'lazy,' says rivals should 'look in the mirror'

In 2023, they once again won 100 games, only to get swept in the NLDS by the 84-78 Arizona Diamondbacks. After all these failures, fans derisively referred to the Dodgers as "chokers," without a single full-season title since 1988.

"I actually think it's a competitive advantage in the sense that people feel that way, and not look at themselves in the mirror and see how they can operate things better. So that's beneficial for us."

Utility man Miguel Rojas agreed. "At the end of the day," he said, "it's not about wasting money or spending money to buy the best players because that's not going to guarantee you anything. You can see it. There are another five or six clubs close to us in payroll, and they haven't accomplished it. That's why people aren't talking about them, because they haven't won.

"People just talk about us."

"Having the payroll and the depth that gives you," Roberts added, pointing out the team's player development, "certainly is a benefit. No one's debating that. But I do think that the players we acquire, how we play the game every night, getting younger players to assimilate in a star-studded clubhouse, that's important. That's hard to quantify, but that's of value.

"If you look at the World Series the last couple of years, there's a lot of home-grown guys making league minimum that have been on postseason rosters."

The Dodgers' key acquisitions this past offseason were Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz. Diaz had an ERA over 10 before going down for several months with arm surgery. Tucker is having the worst season of his career, hitting just .235 with four home runs. Meanwhile, LA's bullpen has been helped out by Klein, homegrown player Kyle Hurt, Edgardo Henriquez, Jack Dreyer, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen. Their ability to find talent everywhere is the reason they surpass other teams who spend more. And it's why they're such an easy excuse.

Identifying unheralded players is hard. Complaining about money is easy. Oh, and as Roberts said, it's lazy too.