Whicker: Fortunes of Mets and Dodgers illustrate “difference between rich and richness”
The Los Angeles Dodgers might have a huge payroll, but it was left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who will make only $790,000 this season, who tossed eight scoreless innings to lead his club to a 4-0 win over the New York Mets on Monday. Photo: Los Angeles Dodgers
April 15, 2026
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
The colour of money in the National League is blue.
The Mets have a $366 million payroll. The Dodgers have a $322 million payroll. But not all money is equal, just as Musk is no Zuckerberg. The difference, on Monday night, was illustrated by a lefthander named Justin Wrobleski. He makes 790 thousand dollars this year, with a “t.”
The Dodgers beat the Mets, 4-0, and Wrobleski threw eight of the easiest innings that will be recorded in Major League Baseball this year. He gave the Mets two singles and no walks. He only struck out two, but that meant he only had to throw 90 pitches.
Wrobleski could wind up in triple-A at some point. You don’t have to screw up much to get the ticket to Oklahoma City, not when the Dodgers have a wall of plaques in their rotation. But, more likely, manager Dave Roberts will find useful places for Wrobleski, and there will be starting opportunities that pop up. The Dodgers drafted Wrobleski from Oklahoma State in the 11th round five years ago and they have come to trust him. He appeared four times in last year’s World Series and did not give up a run.
Then there’s Andy Pages. He smashed a three-run home run off Dave Peterson Monday. He is hitting .417 with a .453 on-base percentage and 20 RBIs. All are National League highs. But the Dodgers did not get Pages through deluxe crypto coins. They signed him after he defected from Cuba as a 17-year-old, eight years ago, and they turned him over to the legions of instructors in their minor league system. Unbeknown to most, Pages hit 27 home runs with 86 RBIs last season. He is making $850,000 and L.A. doesn’t have to give him Maserati money until 2031, although it will jump to sign him if he keeps playing like an All-Star.
The Dodgers, going for a third consecutive World Series championship, are 12-4. The Mets are 7-10. They are coming off a three-game sweep, at home, at the hands of the Athletics, who have a $92 million outlay. They have lost six consecutive games at this writing and have been shut out four times.
Let’s get the caveats out of the way. Nobody should even look at the standings until Memorial Day. Jumping to conclusions just gets you shin splints, and a prominent place in Freezing Cold Takes. There’s no reason why the Mets won’t challenge for first place in the N.L. East. There’s also no reason to expect the Dodgers to keep slugging .493 as a team. But these two oligarchs simply aren’t dealing with the same currency. The Dodgers use gold. The Mets use bills to buy Park Place and Marvin Gardens, using either the hat or the sports car.
The Mets have been either first, second or third in payroll every year since 2021. They’ve been in the postseason twice since then. Their last World Series appearance was 2015, with Terry Collins managing. He has been followed by four managers. Each of the first three lasted two years. Fernando Mendoza is in his third year. We’ll see if he can make it to four.
Last season the Mets had a right to yearn for change. They won only 83 games. But they lost closer Edwin Diaz and first baseman Pete Alonso to free agency, and traded outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas for 35-year-old Marcus Semien. Those were formational players and endearing figures to their fans. The Mets tried to recoup by trading for Freddy Peralta and Luis Robert and signing Bo Bichette, and they obviously hope Nolan McLean and Clay Holmes can lead their rotation, but there doesn’t appear to be a plan. The Mets can’t be blamed for letting Jacob deGrom walk, after 38 starts in three years, but now the two-time Cy Young Award winner is one of baseball’s best again, only with Texas.
Before last season the Mets signed Juan Soto for 15 years, $765 million. You buy a lot of boldface statistics with Soto. He has a career on-base percentage of .417 and an OPS of .948, and he has 245 home runs at age 28. It is instructive to note that the Dodgers were outbid for Soto, by a reported $165 million, just as they were outbid for Bryce Harper and Gerrit Cole. They do not get everyone they want. It just seems that way because their imports usually pay off. This is the fourth team on which Soto has played, which is unusual for someone of his ability.
Currently he is out with a calf strain, two ominous words these days. In recent years, calf strains have been an occasional precursor of Achilles tendon tears in the NBA. Baseball doesn’t ask much of the body, in terms of quick stops and starts, but Mike Trout had a calf strain in 2021 and was out for almost four months.
It’s important for the Mets to chalk up winter victories, because they’re competing with the Yankees for attention and loyalty. Baseball has no salary cap, at least not yet. Hockey does, and for the first time, no New York-area team will make the Stanley Cup playoffs. Football does, and the Jets have had 10 consecutive losing seasons, and the Giants eight of the past nine.
Meanwhile the Dodgers have also done a slow makeover. The leaders of the late-2010s Dodgers were Justin Turner, Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger and Kenley Jansen. Now they roll with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and a raft of young veteran pitchers.
They, along with Max Muncy and Will Smith, provide a continuing theme for minor leaguers to recognize and follow. Emmit Sheehan has become important to the rotation. Backup catcher Dalton Rushing, a former first-round pick, is 7-for-13 with three home runs and will get more at-bats somehow.
Then there are guys like lefty reliever Alex Vesia, a grinder who is in his sixth year with the Dodgers and celebrates every scoreless outing as if it were his first, and 37-year-old Miguel Rojas, savior of Game 7, now in his final season but still selling out to pluck grounders, still a trusted voice.
Dave Roberts is managing the Dodgers for the 11th consecutive season. Pitching coach Mark Prior has been on the staff since 2018. Third base coach Dino Ebel has been at his post since 2019. Andrew Friedman has been running the front office since 2015 and is still only 49.
The cost of doing business fluctuates, and it’s always good to remember that the working-class Brewers had the best regular-season record in MLB last year. But the difference between the Mets and the Dodgers is the difference between rich and richness.