Pour one out for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That may seem like an odd sentiment after this week’s series at Coors Field, where the Dodgers dominated the Rockies like a team leading the division should do against a team in the division’s basement. However, it’s a real possibility the Dodgers that just visited LoDo will be the final version of that Dodgers team to exist.

Here’s why.

With baseball owners and players heading for a lockout when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on Dec. 1, there is a thought the next CBA will be put into place to keep a team like the Dodgers from existing again.

The concept of baseball franchises outspending their competition is one that has been around for decades. The New York Yankees under George Steinbrenner were often vilified as a franchise that could throw money at the best available players, and those financial decisions would help bring a World Series title to the Bronx.

Now, the philosophy (and angst over it) isn’t much different … except that it is. In today’s game, the concept of the deferred payment is one that has struck a nerve with baseball owners and fans alike.

Between 2028 and 2046, eight current members of the Dodgers are scheduled to receive more than $1 billion in deferred pay. That includes $680 million going to Shohei Ohtani between 2034 and 2043.

MLB proposed that the deferred payment concept be stopped in the last CBA, but the Major League Baseball Players’ Association rejected that. That set in motion the Dodgers’ current dynasty — and potential pitfalls that come with it.

With that, the questions must be asked. What if the Dodgers aren’t just the richest team in baseball? What if they are the perfect product of a financial environment that will never exist again?

Much of the talk around a potential salary cap in Major League Baseball that could be a key piece of the next CBA keeps coming back to the Dodgers and the way they have done business. There is no guarantee that a salary cap or floor will be a part of the next agreement that will mold MLB’s near-term future. However, there is more of a push for it now than ever before.

Along with all the talk of loopholes and the upcoming CBA, the Dodgers have found themselves in another spotlight with owner Mark Walter coming under federal investigation for potential fraud. Walter recently sold his majority share of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and is reportedly in talks to sell his stake of Chelsea FC of the English Premier League.

While the Dodgers reportedly aren’t being put up for sale, there have been other jaw-dropping details behind the scenes at Chavez Ravine.

Reports have said Walter engaged in talks with Charter Communications to put an early halt to the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ local television deals so he could receive a lump-sum payment to help alleviate some of his reported debt. It’s estimated the Dodgers receive $334 million per year from that television deal, with that number climbing to more than $500 million when the deal is set to end in 2038.

A scenario where that money wasn’t coming into the Dodgers’ coffers any more would be a game-changer.

Imagine a world where arguably the biggest financial advantage the Dodgers have had was suddenly gone. It may be improbable, but it doesn’t feel impossible anymore.

So are the Dodgers the villains here? Contrary to popular belief, they haven’t broken baseball. They’ve simply become exceptionally good at playing within the financial rules afforded them by MLB. But those rules may be changing, and, when they do, the distance between the Dodgers and everyone trying to catch them could look very different.

That doesn’t mean a salary cap will suddenly turn the Rockies into contenders or erase years of organizational mistakes. It does mean, however, the sport could be approaching a moment when simply having more money now or in the future won’t provide quite the same advantage.

So when the Dodgers walked out of Coors Field on Wednesday night, Colorado wasn’t just looking across the diamond at the team it was trying to beat. It might have been looking at the final version of a baseball superteam built for an era that is about to disappear.