LOS ANGELES -- Before they knew Shohei Ohtani wanted to sign with them and well before they beat out an array of suitors for the rights to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Los Angeles Dodgers wondered if two of Japan's most popular athletes would dare to be teammates.
The thought that Japanese stars prefer not to play with one another in the major leagues has been bandied about throughout America's baseball industry for years, oscillating between tenet and myth. But the idea was strong enough to seep into the consciousness of Dodgers decision-makers as they navigated the early parts of what became a historic offseason.
They eventually learned it might be their preference.
"Serendipitously," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, "I think the Samurai Japan team, the success they enjoyed, the comradery they enjoyed, helped set the stage for both of them really wanting to be teammates and compete for the World Series together."
The Dodgers, the preeminent franchise of this era and the most befuddling postseason team in recent memory, did what felt impossible this winter. They signed a two-way phenomenon, the most unique talent in baseball history, and a 25-year-old starting pitcher coming off three consecutive MVPs in the world's second-most-advanced baseball league. They spent $1.2 billion in one offseason -- for Ohtani, Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernandez, among others -- and left people throughout the industry marveling at how it somehow felt fiscally responsible.
It was all, in many ways, a culmination. A decade spent striving toward becoming a destination spot and several offseasons highlighted by financial restraint met the moment when two exceedingly unique free agents presented themselves. Japan's stirring run to a championship in last spring's World Baseball Classic might have pushed Ohtani and Yamamoto to want to play together again in the United States. And the Dodgers' own postseason disappointment the ensuing fall might have motivated them to go above and beyond to make it happen.
The Dodgers have won 10 division titles over the past 11 years, winning 106 games the one year they didn't. If you don't count the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, which saw them finish with the highest winning percentage since 1955, they've won 100-plus games in four straight years.
And yet October, increasingly more random with an expanded playoff field, continues to defy them. The Dodgers have come away with only one championship in this era, captured amid the weirdness of baseball in a bubble. The past two years have seen them get eliminated in their first postseason series by two division rivals they previously dominated, first the San Diego Padres and then the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It might have helped trigger the biggest spending spree in baseball history.
"Obviously we are all incredibly competitive and want to win," Friedman said. "But then you couple that with the immense pressure we feel to deliver for our incredibly passionate and devoted fan base -- I think the disappointment of the last two years probably contributed in some way to being more aggressive. But as much for our fans as anything."