Dodgers president Stan Kasten met with reporters on Friday evening to reiterate ownership’s commitment to the team. “I wanted to make sure everyone understood one thing very clearly: The Dodgers are not being sold,” Kasten told L.A. media (links via Jack Harris of The California Post and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic).
“They’re not going to be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell it, period,” the team president added. “We are planning only to win. That is what we are always doing. And we are still continuing to do that.”
Kasten’s comments come amid changes to controlling owner Mark Walter’s other businesses. The Dodgers chairman sold his majority share in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5 billion franchise valuation last week. (MLBTR’s sister site, Hoops Rumors, covered the basketball implications.) Walter had only purchased the NBA franchise 14 months earlier at a $10 billion valuation.
The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Walter and business partner Todd Boehly (also a minority owner of the Dodgers) were willing to sell their minority share in the English Premier League team Chelsea F.C. Walter and Boehly each have roughly 13% shares in the Premier League club.
The majority of Chelsea is owned by Clearlake, the private equity firm of José E. Feliciano — whose purchase of the San Diego Padres was approved by MLB owners on Monday. Clearlake would look to buy Walter and Boehly out of their shares, but no agreement has yet been reached. (ESPN’s James Olley reported that Clearlake’s relationship with Boehly, in particular, had deteriorated in recent years.)
This all comes at a time when some of Walter’s businesses are reportedly under scrutiny. The CEO of Guggenheim Partners, Walter built his wealth through financial and investment firms. He has an estimated net worth in the $18 billion range, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
As recently detailed by Laurence Darmiento of The Los Angeles Times and Matt Slater of The Athletic, the dealings of Walter’s insurance companies are under investigations related to the FBI, the SEC, and the DOJ. Those interested in the financial specifics are encouraged to read those posts in full.
The abbreviated version is that investigators are exploring whether investments and loans made by Walter’s insurance businesses were properly reported to regulators. No charges have been filed. Walter’s conglomerate, TWG Global, released a statement earlier this month denying wrongdoing and saying they’re cooperating with the investigations.
Even if authorities clear Walter of any wrongdoing, an ongoing investigation can impact investors’ confidence in the businesses. Sridhar Natarajan and Katherine Burton of Bloomberg News reported last week that TWG Global was seeking investors to help pay down loans of the insurance companies under investigation. That’s led to some speculation about Walter selling off his sports franchises for a cash influx.
To this point, none of this has directly impacted the Dodgers or Major League Baseball. Kasten called it “not really a Dodgers story” when news of the Lakers sale broke on August 12. He doubled down on that today. “The Lakers thing was what we lawyers call ‘sui generis.’ It was just one of those one-of-a-kind things that really has nothing to do with what’s happening with us,” he said.
Kasten also pushed back against the notion that potential cash flow problems would impact the Dodgers’ payroll. “The Dodgers stand on their own pretty well.” Los Angeles had an MLB-high $417MM competitive balance tax number and paid $169.4MM in luxury taxes in 2025. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, courtesy of contributor Ethan Hullihen, estimates this year’s CBT number at $428.23MM — roughly $59MM more than any other team. They’re on track to pay around $178MM in luxury taxes.
Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year deal counts for about $46MM annually of that CBT number. It also included the unique “key man” clause which would allow Ohtani to opt out after any season in which either Walter or president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman left the organization.
However, fans of other teams shouldn’t hold out much hope that this could be a precursor to the game’s best player leaving Los Angeles. The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya was among those to report that Ohtani would be highly unlikely to opt out even if Walter were to sell. The point of the clause was to ensure they’d reinvest the money saved by his massive deferrals and build a competitive roster. They’ve certainly held up their end of that bargain.
