How does the new Lakers boss do things in MLB? Spend a lot of money 😍 No interfering in management around the stars

Translator's Note: This article was originally published from The Athletic, and the authors are Andy McCullough and Fabian Ardaya. The data in the article are as of the original text as of June 19th local time. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.

Last fall, shortly after Mark Walter's Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series for the second time in five years, he called out Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, to discuss offseason strategies. The team's investment in the previous year shocked the entire baseball community, signing a record $700 million contract with player Shohei Otani in a huge spending totaling up to $1.4 billion. As the new season approaches, Friedman wants to know what Walter’s priorities are.

"Mark's mindset," Friedman told The Athletic earlier this year, "is to be more radical." He added, "He was just like, 'Hey, let's keep investing more.'"

Walter aims to establish this period as "the golden age of Dodge baseball," for which he invested another $456 million in 2025 for new players. It turns out that for Walter, there is even a bigger expense ahead. Walter and its holding group TWG Global are about to reach an agreement to acquire the Los Angeles Lakers at a team valuation of up to $10 billion.

Walter, a 65-year-old financier from Chicago, has become the king of sports in Los Angeles. The Dodgers and Lakers fan groups have significant overlap. In the South Bay area, and among the people throughout the basketball circle, many are wondering how Walter will guide his new team.

For those who are curious about Walter, here are five key principles extracted from his time in charge of the Dodgers. Not all principles apply directly to the Lakers. But they reveal the priorities Walter has shown during his last 13 years in charge of the Dodgers.

Huge investment and creative expenditure

Walter had regained the vitality of this team that had once fallen into bankruptcy and operational chaos long before the Dodgers signed Shohei Otani. A few months after the team was acquired in spring 2012, Walter rented a dedicated plane to transport Adrian Gonzalez and several other players from the Boston Red Sox to Los Angeles, a group of players costing more than $250 million and immediately brought credibility to Walter's team.

This sets the tone for Walter's tenure. Without hard salary cap restrictions, Walter's consortium has supported the team in maintaining the league's top five salary every year since 2013, with spending in seven seasons ranked first in the league. At the same time, the Dodgers have never missed the playoffs since 2012. This is by no means a coincidence.

Of course, in a league with a salary cap, the Lakers cannot play the same advantage as the Dodgers. But the club has shown flexibility in spending by cleverly utilizing delayed payments in recent years. This trend peaked in Shohei Otani, who agreed to postpone 98% of his huge salary until after his player contract ended; the team paid him only $2 million a year while using its celebrity effect to earn countless off-court income by reaching sponsorship agreements with Japanese companies. The club has turned Shohei Otani's contract into a "credit card" to use the funds to attract talents to Los Angeles, while convincing new players to postpone their salaries until future payments. There are currently about $1.04 billion in delayed payments on the Dodgers' account, and a high upfront premium is still required. A year ago, their luxury tax bills were as high as $103 million, setting a record high in baseball history. Between players’ salaries and luxury tax, they are expected to pay more than $500 million in 2025.

funds can also be spent outside the players

Reiterate: To what extent Walter's funds can shape the Lakers' roster is limited - after all, the NBA's second-rich line seems to be more restrictive and punitive for high-spending teams than the MLB's hierarchical luxury tax system. But the team owner can buy other things.

For example, the second plane.

This season, the Dodgers have introduced what they call an unprecedented travel system to transport their massive travel team: players take one plane and the rest of the crew take another. Additionally, the team has just completed a multi-million-dollar Dodger Stadium home player locker room: expanded space, remodeled the gym and training room, and added sauna and bathrooms with Japanese toilets – one of the factors that attracted much-loved Japanese pitcher Ryoki Sasaki to sign in Los Angeles. Another small benefit: Added a coffee station for players participating in day games in the Players’ Restaurant.

"I think he's doing everything possible to provide resources and support," said Dodgers head coach Dave Roberts. "He longs for victory. He feels that fans, the city deserves victory. I think that he always remembers it."

Hire the best talent

The Dodgers won the National League West Championship in 2013 and 2014, but failed to win every season. The team general manager Ned Coretti formed an admirable and star-studded roster. But Walter and the team's president Stan Carsten believe there are better candidates to lead the baseball operations department. Therefore, the Dodgers transferred Corretti from their post and dug Friedman from the East (Tampa Bay) who once made the small market team Tampa Bay Rays a contender.

A year later, coach Don Martinley encountered a similar fate after being eliminated early in the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.. The team replaced him with Roberts, who then set the highest winning rate record of any head coach in Major League Baseball history.

What does this mean for Robert Pelinka and JJ Redick? Maybe nothing. Walter doesn't seem to act like George Steinbrenner, who fires his subordinates at will. After the team lost the World Series in 2017 and 2018, he continued to retain Friedman and Roberts. Pelinka just signed a new contract extension, and Redick's four-year contract has only been executed for one year. However, Walter has shown that he is willing to part ways with successful employees if he believes there are better candidates available.

And he is willing to invest money to form a team around these senior managers. The Dodgers have one of the largest data analytics departments in baseball and one of the largest scout teams. In an era when many teams cut non-player positions to save money, Walter did the opposite.

Looking for cornerstone stars to build a lineup

Clayton Kershaw. Muki Bates. Shohei Otani. Under Walter, the Dodgers never lack stars. He is willing to pay the price to keep them. Through the multi-round free agent market, the team has always maintained contact with local star Kershaw. After Friedman cleverly operated to get Bates from the Red Sox deal in 2020, Walter immediately signed a $365 million contract extension with former American League MVP Bates.

As for Shohei Otani, in the negotiations after the 2023 season, Walter found a way to resonate with the competitive spirit of this two-way player who has both good shooting and playing. When Shohei Otani met with Dodgers management, Walter insisted that he believed his years of running the team were a failure—because the team had won only once in those years. This sentence left a deep impression on Shohei Otani and helped convince him to sign the contract. (Of course, that $700 million also played a role.)

Therefore, there is reason to expect the Lakers to look for cornerstone stars to build a roster. The good news for Walter is: the team already has LeBron James and Luca Doncic. Can the Lakers make full use of James and Doncic's influence just as the Dodgers used Shohei Otani's fame? The Dodgers tried every means to leverage their unique market position, filling almost every corner of Dodger Stadium with ads, and even making their first batsman a walking billboard.

If the Lakers start announcing partnerships with companies from Slovenia, you'll know the answer.

Avoid excessive interference

Walter does not appear in Dodger Stadium often. He rarely speaks to the media. He was also very brief when he spoke at the White House earlier this year. He tends to avoid interfering in baseball decisions and trusts Friedman, Casten and general manager Brandon Gomez's professional abilities. In this way, he represents the image of the boss of the ideal team: strong financial resources and full trust in the team.

Roberts once said: "In my opinion, a good boss is such a person who asks the people he hires to do their own jobs."

Walter did that. But he can afford this way of letting go management because the club never stops winning. Friedman is generally regarded by his peers as the smartest manager in baseball, and his management topped the list for the second consecutive year in The Athletic’s annual vote. The combination of Friedman's creativity and Walter's stability attracted Shohei Otani, who added a "key person" clause to the contract that states that if either Friedman or Walter leaves the team within the ten-year period of the contract, Shohei Otani will then be entitled to the free agent market.

"To build a successful organization, everyone has to work together," Shohei Otani said at the time. "I feel that those two (Walter and Friedman) are people at the top, and they control everything, and I almost feel like I'm signing a contract with both of them."

So, will the Lakers get the same treatment as Walter? Will he give Pelinka and Redick the same autonomy? Time will give the answer. But there is reason to believe that Walter's priorities for his basketball team will be consistent with his priorities for the baseball team - he is eager to win.