The Best Team Money Can Buy comes to Citi Field this week with the best record in baseball in tow. Along with a single championship since 1988 and — more important — over the last 10 years.

Since Guggenheim Baseball Management purchased the Dodgers in 2012, the franchise has been a model for the rest of baseball. They have spent big — over $200 million in payroll in all but one season since 2013. They have won accordingly — over 90 victories in every 162-game season since 2013, and the chance to reach that milestone again this week. They are perennially among the World Series favorites.

And yet, the only time the Dodgers have actually won a title over that span came in a partially-filled, neutral-site ballpark following a 60-game pandemic season. There’s virtue in winning the division, yes, and their fans have gotten plenty of good memories out of the last decade. But by and large, their seasons have ended with a loss.

That’s no revelation — baseball’s postseason is by definition random, and there hasn’t been a back-to-back champion since the Yankees won three in a row at the turn of the century. The sport has changed drastically since then, and it’s accordingly much harder to get the kind of edge on everyone else that results in serial winning. The Yankees themselves have been victims of those changes, winning just one title since their late-’90s dynasty despite regular playoff appearances, high spending and expectations.