The Dodgers claim they aren’t cutting payroll on purpose

Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s okay, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.

The Dodgers will likely have a lower payroll in 2016 than in 2015, since on this date they are more than $100 million behind last summer’s year-end 40-man roster total of $291 million. Sure, pre-arbitration players will raise their current $187 million in obligations a bit, as will their six arbitration-eligible players, but unless they suddenly start spending on free agent outfielders or Wei-Yin Chen or whomever, any major spending they were going to do has likely passed them by. Team President Stan Kasten says that there is no “mandate” to lower payroll, but it’s fair to consider if that’s actually the case in Los Angeles.

Kasten cites the Dodgers’ offer to Zack Greinke as evidence they are still willing to “stretch” to sign expensive players. The use of “stretch” for Greinke is odd, considering the way the Dodgers have thrown money around even in the recent past while flaunting their limitless ability to do so. Plus, they reportedly offered him $155 million over five years -- the average annual value was about right, but the Dodgers had to know that wasn’t going to get it done, especially right after David Price signed for $217 million. Was this a miscalculation, or is Kasten giving a fancy version of the “We tried” speech teams employ each offseason when a popular, talented player “escapes” them for financial reasons?

In the Dodgers’ defense, they did submit a $15.8 million qualifying offer to Brett Anderson, and did sign Hisashi Iwakuma to a three-year, $45 million deal before his physical ended that conversation -- they are still spending heavily on the present, or at least are trying to. But it’s hard to agree with the idea that payroll isn’t being cut, at least, as far as the future is concerned, when the Dodgers are suddenly worried about the value of Zack Greinke’s money in 2021 -- especially when the 2021 Dodgers have exactly zero dollars in commitments on the books as of this moment. At the very least, whether the Dodgers’ words and deeds line up over the next couple of years merits watching.