Dodgers spending is “fantastically great for the game.” Manny Machado and Bryce Harper aren’t complaining

PHOENIX –– It turns out not everyone in baseball despises the Los Angeles Dodgers’ record spending sprees.

On Sunday morning, two of the game’s greatest veterans, Bryce Harper of the Phillies and ex-Dodger Manny Machado, now of the San Diego Padres, were asked if they were trying to compete with the defending two-time World Series champions.

And instead of issuing the typical complaints — about how the Dodgers are ruining baseball and distorting the competitive balance with their $400 million-plus salaries — the two sluggers struck a decidedly different, almost defiant tone.

“I love it,” Machado told reporters at the Padres camp. “I think it’s great. I mean, honestly, I think every team should do it. They figured out a way to do it, and it’s great for the game.”

“Honestly, I like what the Dodgers do,” Harper said echoed in the Phillies camp. “They pay the money. They spend the money. They’re a great team. They run their team like a business. And they run it the right way.”

In much the same way the Dodgers have downplayed outside criticism of their roster construction in recent years, they also did not indulge in Sunday’s contrasting comments from Harper and Machado.

“I don’t really pay attention to that at all,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said later Sunday morning at Camelback Ranch. “We don’t look outside. The validation is winning championships and deploying the best team possible every year.”

Still, the points Harper and Machado made illustrate a different perspective on the Dodgers that many in the sport quietly maintain.

Both argued that other teams (and, reading between the lines, ownership groups) have the capabilities to better challenge the Dodgers and replicate their organizational approach.

“I think every team is capable of that,” Machado said. So I hope that all thirty teams can learn from this.”

“Every baseball team has an opportunity to do the same thing,” Harper added. “Maybe not at the highest level of money. But they can draft, they can develop, they can trade. I don’t know, I think a lot of teams can do that in baseball. And they should.”

Harper further highlighted the Dodgers’ development system, calling it something “people don’t look at” when they complain about the club.

“Their design and their development are incredible,” he said. “Then they trade those guys for big-name guys, and they can spend the money. So I don’t know, it bothers me when everyone talks about, ‘The Dodgers are spending money.’ No, they draft, they develop, they do it the right way, they understand what it takes to be the best team in baseball.”

Gomes mentioned that kind of organizational harmony when discussing the team’s latest blockbuster winter on Sunday. He said that while the team was “in the fortunate position this winter to be able to recruit guys that fit really well” — referring to the signings of Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz — he also noted that “the guys being able to pick here, I think speaks to (our) culture.”

The Dodgers were a topic of conversation elsewhere in the baseball world on Sunday, including at Arizona spring camp, where the Diamondbacks owned Ken Kendrick was also asked about their attempt to compete with them as a rival in the National League West division.

Kendrick didn’t deny the Dodgers’ current position in the sport, calling them the “900-pound gorilla” in the current MLB hierarchy.

However, he also sidestepped any criticism of their spending and instead stated that “the way it works in the jungle, the gorilla doesn’t win every fight.”

Fittingly, that’s the same message the Dodgers have been preaching to each other in camp thus far. They know how the rest of the sport views them. They know they are expected to complete a World Series three-peat. But they also know that they are not invincible –– that no matter how much money they spend, baseball still offers no guarantees.

“I don’t know,” Gomes said when asked if he believes in so-called World Series hangovers. “I mean, we did a good job last year. I wouldn’t say we played our best baseball all year. But I think a lot of it comes in and makes sure our guys are focused. It’s incumbent on all of us to continue to pay attention to the little things and make sure the attention to detail is there so there’s no dip in intensity.”

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