On Dec. 16, 2017, the Atlanta Braves and Los Angles Dodgers made a trade that caught just about everyone in the baseball world off-guard. In total, five players changed jerseys — and, given the overall impact of the trade, the names included were seemingly headliners.
Had this trade occurred five years ago, it’s safe to say that it would have dominated the news cycle for days if not weeks — and yet, in 2018 it was almost an afterthought. To be truthful, it was nothing more of a mathematical salary dump.
The Dodgers had too much money committed to players for the 2018 season and they wanted to spread it out in order to get under the luxury tax threshold.