The sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Guggenheim group of Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten, Peter Guber and Co. is still yet to be officially finalized, but the pressure of the $2 billion plus deal is already being felt around the league, especially in the NL West.
The San Francisco Giants' growth since 2010 has seen their payroll make a big leap the last few seasons, but will unfortunately be overshadowed by the pending 'Boston Red Sox West' in waiting better known as the Dodgers. CSN Bay Area's Andrew Baggarly got ahold of team President Larry Baer to get his thoughts on the Dodgers sale:
"We are going to compete our brains out against L.A. and every other team," said Baer, who participated in the 30-0 approval vote. "But off the field, we want the other 29 clubs to do well and be in good, stable hands. We want them to get good TV deals. We want them to sell tickets. We want them to excel in every area, except we want to beat them on the field."
"We’re partners off the field. You don’t want teams in bankruptcy. You want the industry to be strong from top to bottom and that includes all 30 teams."
Now, there's no rulebook stating the Dodgers have to go out and spend like trust-fund babies, but with the price tag paid and the likely large streams of revenue that will soon be flowing into Chavez ravine it would make sense that LA would go after so high-end targets in free agency. One of those targets could be Matt Cain, who the Dodgers assuredly would love to seen in Blue alongside Clayton Kershaw in the rotation. Heck, they'd even have enough to try and grab Cole Hamels from Philly as well.
Either way, a new era is underway in Tinsel Town, and a new fold to the Dodgers-Giants rivalry may just have come to pass.
For more on the Giants, please head over to McCovey Chronicles.