“Dodgers is pulling away selfishly”: Yankees owner sends warning about $6.9B franchise widening MLB’s talent divide

New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner expressed concern after the LA Dodgers won back-to-back World Series titles after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 Fall Classic.

Over the last few years, the Dodgers have assembled quite a roster at every position. They have three former MVPs, a Japanese Cy Young winner, a sensational rookie, and a two-time Cy Young winner on top, having other notable All-Star performers. They have spent lavishly over the last two offseasons and have got the results.

Steinbrenner was in praise of the Dodgers in his latest interview on Monday. He also sent a warning to other teams, saying that the $6.9 billion worth club (via Forbes) might continue to win World Series in the near future.

"Of course it's a concern," Steinbrenner said. "The (Dodgers) have tremendous resources, and they've gotten the job done. That's the big thing. They've played to their potential when they needed to.

"They have overcome a lot of injuries this year. Again, they got healthy at the right time. I don't know what next year is going to bring. But of course it's always a concern any time I feel that one team is pulling away from the other 29, (or) selfishly, pulling away from me."

With this, Steinbrenner gave fuel to the voice blaming the Dodgers for buying their way into championships. Even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged this notion when he said famously before the World Series start:

"Let's ruin baseball"

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner cites Mets' fate to justify payroll future

The Yankees are reportedly looking to cut down their payroll to $300 million for the 2026 season. Hal Steinbrenner was asked about the motive behind the move. The Yankees owner said they are hardly making profits, and while it might seem all good on the revenue side of things, their cost to reach there is almost right there.

He further doubled down on the fact that payroll does not always mean championships, as he cited the Mets' 2025 season, where they entered the season as the second-highest payroll and still couldn't make the playoffs.

"Yeah, look, if there's a correlation between spending the most money and winning a championship, I still think it's a weak correlation," Steinbrenner said. "The sample size of data isn't very big, but they earned every bit of it... "You know, there was nothing low about my payroll and the Mets' payroll, and look where we ended up."

The Yankees owner claimed that a lot of championships come down to whether the players on the team perform up to the mark.