The Los Angeles Dodgers famously play in the National League West, with the New York Mets in the NL East.The distance between Dodger Stadium and Citi Field is about 2,500 miles, which is not as far as Shohei Ohtani hitting a home run toward the east for the Dodgers, or Juan Soto hitting one west for the Mets, it just feels that way sometimes.Things get a lot cozier between last season’s National League Championship Series participants within the context of team payrolls. They’re practically next-door neighbors when it comes to how much they spend to win. And it’s a gated community containing only two massive compounds.The Dodgers and Mets are the only clubs in a 30-team league that have allocated at least $300 million for payroll in 2025, per Cot’s Contracts at Baseball Prospectus.In close proximity to the Dodgers and Mets live the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays, who are set to spend north of $241 million, which would trigger the Competitive Balance Tax. All are among a group of teams that have earmarked at least $200 million to spend on payroll, also including the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels.To many, this is the beginning and the end of a conversation about who can win the World Series. But is it really? Dodgers team president Andrew Friedman attempted to offer some nuance here.With the Dodgers on the verge of winning the World Series this past fall, Friedman asserted it would be facile to say players’ salaries are the end all in order to beat all. The Dodgers spent about $40 million less on payroll than the Yankees and nearly $63 million less than the Mets, according to Cot’s Contracts.”Payrolls don’t decide the standings,” Friedman said. “Seedings going into the playoffs don’t decide who wins the World Series. We’ve seen a lot of teams spend money and not do it well.”Yet, the teams most likely to win the World Series in 2025 are the ones who will spend the most.Taking a cursory look at payrolls as reported at Spotrac, almost any number of teams outside of the top 10 in spending could reach the World Series. It’s easier to count the teams that probably have no chance: the Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, and the Washington Nationals likely will be home come October. Everything else is up for grabs.In 2023, five teams ranked 19th or lower in payroll made the playoffs.There are efficient spenders to envy over the past decade. The 2017 Astros were 17th in payroll and won the World Series. The Royals won it all in 2015 and were 13th in payroll.After the 2023 season, Tigers general manager Scott Harris echoed Friedman’s assertion about what spending can do — and cannot — at least for his own team.”The path to contention involves stacking as many good baseball decisions as we possibly can,” Harris said. “The quicker we can do that, the quicker we’re going to be an annual contender in this division.”When I think about (making additions) in the offseason, I see there’s no shortcuts to contention. When I think about what we can do as an organization, we can spend to compliment a core; we can’t spend to build a core.”It is unquestionably true that the Dodgers spend more money across the board than any other team, though not all of it goes to payroll. Friedman stressed that player development is what builds their foundation.Enormous resources allow the Dodgers to land the big fish in free agency, but player development allows them the depth to add other front-line players. It’s how they acquired Mookie Betts in a trade from the Boston Red Sox.