Those numbers are completely misleading because of how the Dodgers do their business.
Ohtani is getting paid a scrub rate of $2 million dollars per year until 2033!!! Starting only in 2034 he bags $46 per mil for the following 9 years.
Mookie Betts? $115 million in deferred contract money. Snell? $60 mil. Freeman, $57 mil, Smith $50 mil...and the list goes on.
L.A. has over $1 BILLION in deferred contracts. Literally. That money doesn't show up on active payroll totals.
The Rangers? A sliver of that amount in the deferral game.
The Dodgers true to their name, sign whomever they please and dodge the luxury tax through their accounting. MLB league office looks the other way. L.A. not only has a crazy-large fanbase, but they draw big in Asia.
The deferred money will be heavily de-valued by that point so saying "$115 million" as if it were like having "$115 million" today is using sensationalism to make a point.
10 years ago, the highest salary in MLB was $32 million per year. In 2025, it's $51 million per year, an increase of 60%.
And that's before you even factor in it's on a much faster scale now. By 2034, the highes salary will most likely top $100 million per year and suddenly, that "huge back then" contract ends up falling several spots down the chart in hindsight.
The reason Ohtani chose the Dodgers is because they area West Coast team which puts him closest to Japan. He was always going to choose the Angels, Dodgers, Giants or Mariners.
Freeman and Snell are from the West Coast so at this point in their careers, it makes sense they want to play for a WC team.
Another fact is that everyone assumes the deferred money is the team's idea. In many cases, the players and their agents are pushing for it. The players and agents can benefit heavily by deferring the money.
For example, some of them want to avoid the California state tax, which they can do when they leave the state and get paid years from now. So when the deferred money is worth less than than it is now, they will end up making more being paid later.
The bottom line is that any team can offer deferred contracts, but many choose not to do it. It is not based on capabilities, but rather it is their choice.
Blame the teams that do offer deferred contracts (and several teams do) all you want, but in the end, the only reason to not do it is because your team's owners are cheap and want to make more money off their fans.
States like Texas with no state income tax have used that to their advantage for decades when signing players.
Deferred money evens that playing field so that is why some people are upset about it because it dilutes or offsets that advantage.
