No, the Dodgers didn't sign Shohei Ohtani or build a superteam because of Mark Walter's loans

The Los Angeles Dodgers have become baseball's evil empire over the last few years, starting with the signing of Shohei Ohtani in late 2023.

They added Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernandez and Tyler Glasnow that offseason as well, then won the 2024 World Series over the New York Yankees .

And instead of resting on their laurels, they kept going afterward.

The front office signed Tanner Scott and Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki chose LA over the other interested teams and they brought back Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez.

Then won the World Series again.

In the 2025-2026 offseason, baseball fans, particularly on X, lost their collective minds and any and all connection with rationality when LA added Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz.

Nobody could compete with the Dodgers talent, the argument went, and with no weaknesses, they were virtually unstoppable other than with a salary cap.

MLB'S SALARY CAP PROPOSAL WON'T FIX THE LEAGUE'S NON-EXISTENT COMPETITIVE BALANCE PROBLEMS Fast forward to August, and Tucker's been a below average hitter this year and Edwin Díaz has an ERA around 12.

The Dodgers went just 2-11 over a recent stretch against the Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers .

Those Brewers, near the bottom in total payroll, have the best record in baseball, along with the tiebreaker over LA in the race for the best record in the National League.

The Dodgers' financial advantages over most teams, and their success in building consistently competitive rosters, has created a subculture of fans who view LA as the ultimate enemy.

Fans who prefer when teams do not try to win, and when billionaire owners pocket more profits instead of signing players.

And those fans were given an enormous gift when news broke that one of the team's owners, Mark Walter, was under investigation by the federal government over a series of loans connected to insurance companies he owns and controls.

The details of the investigation are complicated, to say the least, but the short version is that two companies Walter controls, both insurance companies, used investor funds on private-credit deals, essentially making loans directly to businesses.