The Dodgers, Angels and Indians spent the most money last offseason in free agency. Mainly via trades, the Blue Jays raised their payroll more than 50 percent from 2012 — only the Dodgers had a steeper percentage.
Yet that quartet went into yesterday at 37-50 and forming the field for the majors’ most disappointing teams. Once again being offseason champs is not translating to the actual season (see the Marlins and Angels last year, the Red Sox from the season before).
There are many reasons for that, but let me float one I have been thinking about a lot recently because of how well the Yankees, Rangers, Cardinals and Braves have played despite a spate of key injuries: When teams try to speed up the contention process by injecting stars, they fail to recognize that there is no way to accelerate what too simplistically has been called chemistry over the years. I think it is more about culture; about having a steady core, philosophy, self-assurance and leadership that flows from the top down — from the front office to the clubhouse — and stays intact year after year.
The constancy does not assure winning, of course. The Phillies, for example, seem to have become what was feared for the Yankees: Hitting a tipping point of too old and diminished without a suitable next layer of players, making their collective winning DNA irrelevant.
Still, having an established playbook on how to overcome the pitfalls of a season serves an organization well. It alleviates panic while providing a formula and foothold from which to weather the annual storms.
“I know the sabremetric community scoffs at the idea or notion that people ‘know how to win,’ ” an AL executive said. “I get their snickering and sometimes it is overused, but that doesn’t mean it does not exist, it just means it is overused. I think there is something to having players, leadership and a philosophy that is set up not to panic. I am not sure how it is created, my best guess is through continuity — the more people are around each other, work together, play together, etc., the more trust is built.”
Consider that no general managers were more lambasted in the offseason for doing too little than Brian Cashman and Texas’ Jon Daniels. But what both have come to believe is that the big moves of winter quiet fans and media without consistent correlation to winning. Perhaps Cashman’s most important legacy, especially in the post-George Steinbrenner Era, will be helping the Yankees kick the addiction to more stars and longer contracts being the solution to all problems.
Conversely, look at what has happened to the champs of winter. When problems have struck, where is their institutional manifesto to know how to dig out? Where are the deep reservoirs of belief that they can adapt and succeed on the fly?
As one AL assistant GM said, making roster changes annually to infuse energy, urgency and talent while avoiding staleness is vital, but “in contrast, by making too many moves, a club can create a mercenary culture. The players no longer believe that it is up to them to right the ship, but rather that if the going gets tough, the front office is just going to trade all the players, so the players’ accountability is reduced. Chemistry, winning cultures and resiliency is built over time and relies heavily on some degree of consistency in your core.”
It probably is unfair to lump the Indians into this category. Yes, they spent more than $100 million in free agency and that upped expectations — but only to fringy contention. But to open the season, bovada.lv had the Blue Jays tied with the Tigers at 8-1 to win the World Series, trailing only the Nationals (7-1), while the Dodgers and Angels were both next at 9-1.
Barely a month into the season, Toronto has moved to 18-1, the Dodgers to 15-1 and the Angels to 14-1. They are talented teams and have five months to reverse. But do you believe these are organizations that have the cultural roadmap to get from low to high?
Consider that the Dodgers (Hanley Ramirez), Blue Jays (Jose Reyes) and Angels (Erick Aybar) all lost their shortstops to the disabled list and have been undermined by woefully insufficient Plan Bs.
Meanwhile, the Yankees (Derek Jeter) and Cardinals (Rafael Furcal) so far have not collapsed with their shortstops out until at least the second half.
The Blue Jays traded a wealth of organizational depth for Reyes, R.A. Dickey, etc., transforming them, on paper, into contenders. But now their depth and resolve are being tested, and Toronto just might not have enough of either to survive.
By comparison, the Cardinals could be without Furcal, co-ace Chris Carpenter and closer Jason Motte for the season. But they have built such a wealth of options and self-reliance that they remain an elite team.
The Braves acted boldly to sign B.J. Upton and trade for his brother, Justin. However, it is a feeder system that began with John Schuerholz and was handed off to his GM successor Frank Wren that has enabled Atlanta to prosper with Chipper Jones retired, Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward having been in the same lineup for just the first five games of the season and Brian McCann, Brandon Beachy and Jonny Venters yet to play at all.
But perhaps the best way to see what has happened is to follow the bouncing Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton — who both ended up in SoCal on the largest free agent deals signed in the offseason.
If you are wondering why the Angels had to play Brendan Harris (not in the majors the previous two seasons) at short while Aybar recuperated, it is because Jean Segura is hitting .356 with six steals for Milwaukee. The shortstop was the key prospect the Angels gave up last July for half a season of Greinke, and to not make the playoffs anyway.
Greinke then spurned the Rangers in the offseason to sign with the Dodgers. This was thought to give them an overabundance of starters, eight for a five-man rotation. But last season the Dodgers traded Nate Eovaldi (for Ramirez) and Rubby de la Rosa and Allen Webster (in the Josh Beckett/Carl Crawford/Adrian Gonzalez mega-deal) then Aaron Harang this season. So when Greinke, Chris Capuano and Chad Billingsley (for the season) went down, suddenly the Dodgers did not have rotation depth.
But you know who did even without Greinke? Texas. The Rangers have not gotten a pitch thrown this season from Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, Martin Perez and Joakim Soria, then Matt Harrison and Justin Miller joined them on the DL. Yet the Rangers have the AL’s best ERA by about a run and lead the AL West. And they expect all their pitchers to return.
Meanwhile, after giving up Segura for Greinke, the Angels decided nevertheless to focus their big free agent dollars for a second straight offseason on the market’s best hitter. So they outbid the Rangers to have Hamilton join Albert Pujols but neglected to assemble a quality pitching staff.
They scrambled for flotsam and jetsam relievers in the last week of spring training while presumptive closer Ryan Madson has yet to make it back from Tommy John surgery. Then ace Jered Weaver went down (fracture of non-pitching elbow) and the Angels had a rotation devoid of a top-of-the-rotation piece.
And if you remember. there was quite some hullabaloo in these parts that the Yankees should go after Greinke and, especially, Hamilton. But early this season both have shown the temperamental concerns that so worried the Yankees beyond even the large contract demands — in Greinke’s confrontation with Carlos Quentin and in Hamilton carrying over his late-season plunge last year into this season.
The Yankees, meanwhile, obtained Vernon Wells — squeezed out of the Angels’ outfield by Hamilton — and he has become yet another player who has come to the Yankees culture and been reborn.
joel.sherman@nypost.com