{"id":412834,"date":"2026-01-17T11:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412834\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:34:08","slug":"from-the-evil-empire-to-the-galacticos-these-dodgers-arent-alone-in-hoarding-star-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412834\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Evil Empire to the Gal\u00e1cticos, these Dodgers aren\u2019t alone in hoarding star talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

When this offseason began, the notion that Kyle Tucker would be paid the highest present-day annual value in MLB history was, at least, conceivable. That it would be the two-time reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers furnishing the offer, though, seemed too outlandish, even for them.<\/p>\n

Only 10 position players have accumulated more wins above replacement since 2021 than Tucker. Three of them are now his teammates: Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Here\u2019s a star in his prime signing with a juggernaut at the peak of its power, and he may not be a top-five player on the roster. For Tucker, it\u2019s a chance to disappear into a forest of future Hall of Famers. For fans of other teams, it\u2019s an infuriating concentration of talent.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s largely without precedent.<\/p>\n

Others across sports have spent lavishly, amassed talent, and won consecutive championships. But how many have done it like this<\/a>? How many have repeatedly enticed the best talent on the market to join up, to the point of roster redundancy?<\/p>\n

\"Kyle<\/p>\n

\n Kyle Tucker was happy to join the defending champions, even if he wouldn\u2019t be the biggest name on the roster. (Ronald Martinez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not simply a question of star power. Pre-free agency juggernauts like the Murderers\u2019 Row Yankees or the 1970s Montreal Canadiens were mostly homegrown, and didn\u2019t splash cash to attract the biggest names out there.<\/p>\n

Nor can this Dodgers team be compared to LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwyane Wade with the Miami Heat in 2010. Bosh accepting third billing has some similarity to Tucker playing behind Ohtani, Betts and Freeman, but that was a third-place team becoming a high-profile favorite overnight. Similar superstar energy, but not the same rich-get-richer formula.<\/p>\n

Baseball isn\u2019t a salary cap league, so most other North American sports usually can\u2019t mimic the Dodgers\u2019 aggressive win-at-all-costs spending. But even in a world of apples and oranges, there are some analogues to Tucker-to-the-Dodgers, and we\u2019ve put together a collection of similarly seismic transactions \u2014 the type in which stars chose to share the spotlight for a chance to join a dynasty.<\/p>\n

Early 2000s: Yankees go \u201cEvil Empire\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the most apples-to-apples comparison. The Yankees dynasty of the late 1990s was built differently \u2014 a homegrown core supplemented by aging superstars and high-upside role players \u2014 but in the early 2000s, the Yankees built their Evil Empire reputation by continually adding high-priced, high-profile players that other teams simply couldn\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d already traded for Roger Clemens in 1999, then they signed former Orioles ace Mike Mussina in 2000 and former A\u2019s MVP Jason Giambi in 2001. When the Yankees signed both Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui and Cuban ace Jos\u00e9 Contreras in the 2002-03 offseason, it was Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino who compared the Yankees to Darth Vader and his \u201cStar Wars\u201d henchmen. \u201cThe Evil Empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America,\u201d Lucchino said.<\/a><\/p>\n

That line lived on as the Yankees kept adding marquee players: Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Johnny Damon. The steady flow of stars kept the Yankees in the playoffs, but they didn\u2019t win another championship until 2009, when \u2014 immediately after splurging on CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher and A.J. Burnett \u2014 the Yankees won their first World Series since 2000. They haven\u2019t won another since.<\/p>\n

2016: Kevin Durant joins the Warriors<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

\n Kevin Durant joined the Warriors and helped take them to another level. (Gary A. Vasquez \/ USA Today)<\/p>\n

Durant was a perennial NBA MVP finalist in his prime when he hit free agency in the summer of 2016. The Golden State Warriors were on the front end of their dynasty years. They had won the NBA Finals in 2015 and lost in seven games in 2016, and Steph Curry won MVP both seasons.<\/p>\n

Rather than sign a max deal with Boston, Miami, Oklahoma City or another organization where he\u2019d be the face of the franchise, Durant signed a two-year, $54.3 million deal with the Warriors. The decision drew the ire of many who felt Durant was taking the easy route to a title by making a superteam even better. And that criticism wasn\u2019t exactly disproved.<\/p>\n

Durant won NBA Finals MVP in 2017, took a pay cut to re-sign and allowed the Warriors to keep their core intact, then won Finals MVP again in 2018. Durant signed another reworked contract with the Warriors before the 2018-19 season, and Golden State added to its star-studded starting lineup by signing DeMarcus \u201cBoogie\u201d Cousins. Durant\u2019s time with the Warriors \u2014 and their quest for a three-peat \u2014 effectively ended in Game 5 of the NBA Finals when Durant, who\u2019d missed the previous nine games with a calf strain, ruptured his Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n

2001: Red Wings add three future Hall of Famers<\/p>\n

After crashing out in the first round of the 2001 playoffs, Detroit\u2019s earliest playoff exit in seven years, Red Wings GM Ken Holland strengthened an already robust core by adding Dominic Hasek, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille. Those three are now among the 10 Hall of Famers on the 2001-02 Red Wings roster, along with Hall of Fame head coach Scotty Bowman.<\/p>\n

Hull and Robitaille, two of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history, were overqualified for second- and third-line roles, yet eager to play for the Stanley Cup favorite. That season, Hasek won a career-high 41 games, Hull and Robitaille scored 30 goals apiece, and the Red Wings were the NHL\u2019s best team in the regular season \u2014\u00a0by six wins. They came from behind against the rival Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals and then rolled the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Afterward, when Hasek (briefly) retired, Holland followed a familiar script and replaced \u201cThe Dominator\u201d with another aging, expensive star with a cool nickname: Curtis \u201cCuJo\u201d Joseph.<\/p>\n

2000-06, 2009-18: Real Madrid\u2019s \u201cGal\u00e1cticos\u201d pursuits\"Cristiano<\/p>\n

\n Real Madrid\u2019s second Gal\u00e1cticos era saw Cristiano Ronaldo lift the Champions League trophy four times. (Laurence Griffiths \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Dodgers could learn a thing or two about branding from former Real Madrid president Florentino P\u00e9rez. Because the best name baseball writers have mustered is \u201cDeath Star Dodgers.\u201d And that\u2019s nothing compared to Real Madrid\u2019s \u201cGal\u00e1cticos,\u201d<\/a> the policy the club operated under when P\u00e9rez set out to bring the biggest soccer stars to Spain.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez signed one star each year from 2000 to 2004 \u2014\u00a0Lu\u00eds Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham and Michael Owen \u2014\u00a0and two in 2005: Robinho and Sergio Ramos. That spending resulted in two La Liga championships and a Champions League title, one clinched on Zidane\u2019s wondergoal, a stunning left-footed volley<\/a>, against Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n

Twenty years after P\u00e9rez resigned in 2006, that first Gal\u00e1cticos era is not remembered entirely fondly. The stars did not always play well together, or play defense, and the big wins dried up. Yet P\u00e9rez returned in 2009 and resumed his Gal\u00e1cticos ways. This second era, headlined by the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, was dramatically more successful than the first, with Real Madrid winning four Champions League titles in five years.<\/p>\n

2023: Aces land Candace Parker<\/p>\n

Rather than retire after two seasons (and a title) with her hometown Chicago Sky, Candace Parker extended one of the greatest careers in WNBA history by joining the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces in 2023.<\/p>\n

Parker was 36, yet she had still been named to her 10th All-WNBA team the previous season and finished fifth in voting for MVP, an award she won in 2008 and 2013. In Las Vegas, Parker joined a starting five that included two fellow No. 1 overall picks \u2014 now-four-time WNBA MVP A\u2019ja Wilson and now-four-time All-Star Kelsey Plum \u2014 and Finals MVP Chelsea Gray.<\/p>\n

The move didn\u2019t play out as planned. Parker sustained a foot fracture and missed the playoffs. But the Aces defended their crown anyway, and Parker became the first WNBA player to win a title with three different franchises. Parker re-signed in 2024 but didn\u2019t play in a game. Now, Parker has retired, and the Aces have won three of the past four WNBA championships.<\/p>\n

1995: Cowboys win \u201cDeion Sweepstakes\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys had been \u201cAmerica\u2019s Team\u201d for almost two decades, but they were on another hot streak in the mid-1990s. They\u2019d won at least 11 games in four straight seasons, with back-to-back Super Bowl wins in \u201993 and \u201894. Quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, and wide receiver Michael Irvin were three of the biggest names in the sport, and safety Darren Woodson was emerging as an All-Pro defensive back.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys lost in the NFC championship game in January 1995, then entered an offseason that was quickly dubbed the \u201cDeion Sweepstakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deion Sanders was another of football\u2019s most high-profile players, with a persona to match. He\u2019d just won the league\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year while beating the Cowboys enroute to a Super Bowl win with the San Francisco 49ers. He was highly coveted, and the Cowboys gave him \u2014 at the time \u2014 the NFL\u2019s largest contract for a defensive player, a deep-pocket splurge for the team\u2019s notoriously aggressive owner, Jerry Jones, who said the deal only got done because other Cowboys renegotiated their contracts <\/a>to make the money work.<\/p>\n

Four months later, the Cowboys won their third Super Bowl in four years, and Sanders won his second in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When this offseason began, the notion that Kyle Tucker would be paid the highest present-day annual value in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2323,363,355,385,403,99,1794,434],"class_list":["post-412834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-nba","tag-nhl","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}