Snyder’s Soapbox: Why fans labeling the Dodgers as baseball’s “villain” could be good for MLB

Major League Baseball rarely needs help generating drama, but it does benefit from framing. In his latest CBS Sports column, “Snyder’s Soapbox,” the writer makes the case that treating the Los Angeles Dodgers as a villain is not only inevitable, it is useful for the league. The Dodgers are already a magnet for attention, whether that attention comes from admiration for their roster quality or frustration with what some fans see as an advantage that attracts scrutiny.

The column’s central idea is that the villain label makes the product feel more alive. Baseball is full of long seasons and small margins, and that can soften the edges of competition unless fans have a reason to root harder in the moment. When one club becomes the default antagonist, every series against it turns into something closer to a moral contest. That emotional clarity can raise interest from casual viewers, because they understand instantly what is being fought over.

A key part of the argument is that entertainment and sports are not opposites. MLB has leaned for years into character-based storytelling, not just standings. Rivalries, fan identities, and team histories are the league’s natural narrative engines, and they tend to intensify when one team is cast as the obstacle to everyone else’s goals. In that sense, the columnist is describing a feedback loop: the Dodgers draw attention, opponents absorb the role of “relief” or “redemption,” and fans get a clearer reason to care beyond pure statistics.

That dynamic matters most in a sport where the postseason is the only consistent finish line. In June and July, most teams are building toward a September shape that can be hard to see from the outside. A league-wide villain makes the middle of the season easier to watch because it provides recurring, high-contrast matchups. Even when the standings implications are modest on a given day, the emotional implications are not. The Dodgers, as the antagonist, become the measuring stick for who can withstand pressure and who wants to topple the favorite.

The “villain” framing also interacts with how rivalries are experienced. The Dodgers do not play in a vacuum, and different fan bases will bring their own grievances and hopes into games. A universal villain narrative does not erase those local motives, it organizes them. It can make a series between two teams feel more consequential, even when the result is one piece of a much larger schedule.

At the same time, this is ultimately an opinion piece rather than a report with new baseball facts. The column is not about a specific transaction, injury, suspension, or playoff-clinching event. Instead, it is a commentary on the role of storytelling in how MLB is watched, discussed, and remembered.

For readers and viewers, the practical question that follows the column is whether MLB’s narrative ecosystem is changing in response to fan reactions. If more opponents and more broadcasts treat the Dodgers as the class of the league to be resisted, it could intensify the atmosphere around those games. The bigger test will come as the calendar nears October, when the league’s storylines either harden into playoff realities or collapse under the stubborn randomness of baseball outcomes.

In the weeks ahead, watch for how frequently the Dodgers are framed as the obstacle by broadcasters, social coverage, and rival team rhetoric. If that framing grows, it likely indicates that fans are eager for sharper plots inside a sport that otherwise moves at its own patient pace. In other words, the villain story is not a distraction. It is a lens, and the lens can make baseball easier to feel, easier to follow, and harder to look away from.

If the Dodgers keep being positioned as the antagonist, it will not guarantee better ratings or better results. Baseball does not care about villains, only about innings. But as a matter of entertainment design, the columnist’s point lands: in a long season, clear roles can be a form of clarity, and clarity is something sports audiences always value.