Yankees' Hal Steinbrenner Talks 'Concern' Over Dodgers' Payroll, World Series Wins

The New York Yankees may be a strange source for worries about payrolls being too high in Major League Baseball, but owner Hal Steinbrenner expressed "concern" about the Los Angeles Dodgers winning back-to-back titles.

"Of course it's a concern," Steinbrenner said, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. "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."

Los Angeles had the highest active payroll in the league last season and have certainly turned heads with moves such as deferring significant money to pay for stars such as Shoehei Ohtani.

But that doesn't make it any less strange to hear such concern coming from the Yankees.

After all, they were fourth in the league in active payroll in 2025 after they led the league in the category in 2024. And they have built up the reputation as being one of the sport's biggest spenders for decades, especially when Hal's father, George, was the team owner.

There is a reason the Yankees were known as the Evil Empire, and their ability to land high-profile additions while winning World Series titles contributed to it.

Still, Hal Steinbrenner continued when talking about the Dodgers.

"If there's a correlation between spending the most money and winning a championship, I still think it's a weak correlation, sample size of data," Steinbrenner said. "But (the Dodgers) earned every bit of it. … They really played up to their potential, especially those last two games. That has to happen. Your players have to play up to their potential when you're playing a team as good as the Blue Jays, and you're playing under that kind of pressure in the World Series. Hats off to them. It's not easy to do twice, and they did it in dramatic fashion this time."

He might not see a correlation, but the New York Mets were the only team in the top seven in active payroll in 2025 to not make the playoffs. 

It would also be anything but surprising if the Dodgers continue to win as their ownership is more willing to open their wallets in a league without a salary cap preventing teams from doing so.

Especially if other teams aren't as willing to commit their financial resources to building stronger rosters.