Hour 2 - Feelin Blue

The Dodgers' ownership situation is unraveling in ways that could reshape baseball's most glamorous franchise. Guggenheim Partners, the ownership group that bought the team for $2 billion in 2012, is facing serious financial trouble. Host Ben Maller describes it as "a big time financial boondoggle that has no end in sight" — the kind of mess where the best-case scenario involves selling the Dodgers, paying capital gains, and settling with the federal government to avoid "country club jail." The group already sold the Lakers after owning them for less than a year, a move Maller insists was not part of any original plan but a forced panic sale driven by federal investigators "bird dogging" them.

The Otani Escape Clause Question

At the center of the uncertainty is Shohei Otani and his unprecedented contract. Otani signed a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers that includes massive deferrals — he's currently being paid "$7 an hour" for most of it, as Maller jokes. But the contract also contains a rare "key man" opt-out clause: if owner Mark Walter or Dodgers executive Andrew Friedman leaves the organization, Otani can hit the eject button.