Dodgers ($249,823,654 payroll) are up on the Yankees ($303,322,047 payroll) 2 games to none.
Dodgers are going to be a problem for a long time due to Ohtani's contract. His $700 million, 10 year contract equates to $70 million a year - but he's deferring the majority of it. He'll only "cost" the team $2 million/year for the length of the deal...then from 2034 to 2043 he'll take in $68 million/year.
The average salary in MLB is around $5 million/year
So the Dodgers are rostering the best player in baseball for less than half that amount for the next 10 years.
Of course there's nothing to stop the Yankees from going out and rostering a $1 billion roster. I'm sure it's coming.
If MLB truly wants to fix their popularity problem, a good first step would be a salary cap. Out of 30 teams, there are 5 or 6 that spend money as if it's not an issue. The other 25 or so teams need to build from their minor league systems and hope that they can get a good group of kids playing well in that 6 years of roster control. After that - the good players will be signed by the teams with the big pockets and the little guys have to start over again.