Major League Baseball finalized its luxury tax calculations for 2024. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers was first to report the list of payors, while Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reports the details. A record nine teams surpassed the $237MM competitive balance tax threshold. In a separate post, The Associated Press lists the finalized CBT numbers for all 30 teams.
The payments are as follows:
- Dodgers: $103MM
- Mets: $97.1MM
- Yankees: $62.5MM
- Phillies: $14.4MM
- Braves: $14MM
- Rangers: $10.8MM
- Astros: $6.5MM
- Giants: $2.4MM
- Cubs: $570K
Teams pay escalating penalties for exceeding the threshold in consecutive seasons. The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies have all paid the tax in at least three straight years — subjecting them to the highest escalator fees. Texas and Atlanta are second-time payors. Houston, San Francisco, and the Cubs did not exceed the threshold in 2023 and are marked as first-time payors.
The Dodgers ($353MM), Mets ($348MM), and Yankees ($316MM) all had CBT numbers above $277MM, which marked the third tax bracket. All three teams will see their first-round pick in the 2025 draft dropped by 10 spots. Considering they each advanced at least as far as the LCS and the Dodgers won the World Series, those clubs won’t have any regrets about that penalty. Atlanta narrowly stayed below the $277MM threshold to avoid any impact on their draft.
Teams that paid the CBT are entitled to the lowest level of compensation for losing free agents who declined a qualifying offer. They receive a draft choice after the fourth round for each qualified free agent who walks. They’re charged the heaviest penalty — their second- and fifth-highest picks in 2025 and $1MM from their ’26 international bonus pool — for signing a qualified free agent from another team.
The Mets (Juan Soto), Yankees (Max Fried), Giants (Willy Adames), and Astros (Christian Walker) have already signed or agreed to terms with qualified free agents. The Mets (Luis Severino), Yankees (Soto), and Braves (Fried) have lost qualified free agents. Houston is likely to see Alex Bregman walk. The Mets (Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea) and Dodgers (Teoscar Hernández) still have unsigned qualified free agents of their own.
The top eight luxury payors were all clearly above the base threshold, while the three biggest spenders blew beyond every surcharge marker. The only source of CBT intrigue late in the season concerned the Cubs and Blue Jays, both of whom were hovering right around the tax line.
When it became clear that neither team would make the playoffs, they each attempted to dip below $237MM by shedding money via waivers. The Cubs were unsuccessful and landed around $239.9MM; Toronto dropped just below $234MM. The tax impact for the Cubs is negligible — a $570K bill is less than the cost of one player on a league minimum salary — but it places a higher penalty for signing qualified free agents and could incentivize them to stay under the threshold in 2025 to reset their status. Six of the nine payors made the postseason. Texas, San Francisco, and Chicago were the exceptions.
Last year, a then-record eight teams surpassed the CBT threshold. The Padres are the only team that was above the line in 2023 and got below it this year. San Diego finished with an approximate $228MM mark that ranked 11th in the majors — behind the nine payors and the Blue Jays. The Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, and Angels were the other teams above the median in payroll. On the other side of the equation, the five bottom spenders were as follows: Athletics ($84MM), Rays ($107MM), Tigers ($110MM), Marlins ($122MM), and Pirates ($123MM).
The teams that exceeded the threshold have until January 21 to pay MLB. The first $3.5MM will be used to fund player benefits. Half the remaining money goes to players’ retirement accounts, while the other half is used for revenue sharing distribution from MLB to teams. Next year’s base threshold climbs to $241MM.
They feel shame.
More shame than Canseco after having a fly ball bounce off his head for a HR
He might not have felt it…
Castellini and Nutting must have Woody’s right about now. Fisher too.
Yeah all Canseco could feel was roid rage!
From a soccer perspective, that header was amazing.
Penny pinching Padres not on the list.
Shame on the Dodgers, Mets and Skankees.
Why? They fund the payrolls (or pockets) of other teams.
When factoring Yankees revenue to actual payroll then they are not spending enough. All the small market teams could spend more money than stated but those owners take the bigger profits. They are subsidized by the big spenders. Imagine if no team went over the cap. What happens then. The ship sails with big spenders helping the players and small market teams.
This is all kinda stupid when a third of the league pays the so called luxury tax and lower budget teams are entirely propped up by revenue sharing.
Yes.
This is why I laugh when fools cry about “small market teams” not having a chance. Their owners don’t care. They’re glad to receive the revenue sharing from the big spenders. Most teams operate with the goal of just being able to make the postseason every couple of years to convince their fans they’re actually trying
There’s no question the competitive imbalance. Those higher revenue teams have greater revenue streams. How can the $107 mil Rays compete with the $316 mil Yankees? The high revenue teams can compete nearly every year while small and mid have to retool or rebuild with shorter competitive windows.
How much of that 107MM is been paid with the revenue sharing ?
How many players from Rays are been paid by Yankees ?
I’m not denying that certain teams have a financial advantage. However, the low spending teams are capable of increasing payroll every now and then. They just choose not to. It’s hard to feel sorry for teams that refuse to pay their players fair value or supplement their rosters in free agency while benefiting from having a bunch of pre-arb players
One of the ways the game has been balanced is by increasing the number of teams in playoffs to the level that a 500 mediocre team can sneak in, and who knows?
There are many examples that small market teams gets hot an eliminated the best seed.
As much as I like playoffs, the competition does not reward excellence.
How can the rays compete with the Yankees? Well for the last 10 years they’ve been virtually equal.
Why do fans think small market teams can’t compete? It’s been happening for years.
Yes but teams like the Rays A’s Guardians never can keep their stars. The big market teams go ahead and pay them more in FA so they have to trade them once they get to their second year of arbitration
The Rays are the one team to consistently compete! Your point remains but you picked the worst example.
i like al conin
There’s no question the competitive imbalance.
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What I don’t understand is why this is such a difficult concept for people to understand. The folks to the north of me have more money, so they have nice houses and cars. The people to the south of me have less money, so their houses and cars are not as nice.
What part of this concept do people not understand?
It’s more profitable to just put a competitive team on the field. If you can go 500 or so, and compete for playoffs, enough people will show to stadium to increase profits more so. That’s why many teams never go for it or trade their prospects bc they are just trying to stay competitive
Force the revenue teams to spend the money they get and make the penalties for going over three times very harsh. Loss of drafting, loss of signing int’l players, then we’ll get a more even playing field.
The CBA already calls for teams to spend 150% of the money they receive in revenue sharing on MLB payroll. Penalties need to be added, and it needs to be enforced. The A’s were threatened with the loss of their revenue sharing funds if they did not go over that 150% this season.
With revenue increasing every year, the threshold needs to be set much higher with harsher penalties for going over. 1st tier at $271 million with a 50% penalty, 3rd tier at $331 million with 150% penalty and loss of 1st round pick.
Encourage teams to spend more but penalize the few that can spend a huge amount over that level more severely. Last season the Braves, Rangers, Astros, Giants, Cubs, and several other teams could afford to spend more, but chose to not spend up to the tier because they did not want to pay the additional penalties.
Web- I agree the system can work or work better but it needs to be adjusted.
The issue is the top rev teams don’t want severe tax penalties and the bottom rev teams don’t want the top teams to have a penalty that stops them from going over. They want those rev sharing dollars.
Instead of handing out money to the low rev teams, hand out that money to the teams based on local tv revenue. 2 things separate the big and small rev teams. Attendance/ticket price rev and local tv money. Not much a team can do about their tv market size. A lot of attendance is based on the team’s performance. When teams go out and spend money, build a local fan base the fans will come out and see them. That doesn’t increase your tv market size.
Stop rewarding teams for not trying to win. Increase the amount of tax the big guys have to pay and spread that money around to the low local tv contract teams. That’s the revenue that they can’t really increase. They can increase revenue by spending and winning which brings fans to pay and watch. Or just do 100% tv sharing and call it a day.
Attendance is partly based on team performance, but it is also based on a market’s population. The Dodgers drew 3.9 million fans last year from a metro population of 12.8 million (you can half that to 6.4 million since they share the market with the Angels). The Reds drew only 2.0 million last year, but Cincinnati’s metro has only 2.3 million people. Seems the Reds reach a higher percentage of their potential fan base than do the Dodgers. To expect the Reds to draw the same number of fans as the Dodgers ignores reality.
That is a great call Simm. Now to get the team owners to agree to it.
The Padres metro area has about 3.2 million and they drew about 3.3 million. NYC metro is about 20.1 million and the Yankees and Mets combined for 5.6 million in attendance.
The only problem is that would put the Orioles and Nationals into the courts in perpetuity(which was the case previously).
I agree 100%. Yet here we are. Rotf smh
Kinda like the federal government. 10% of households pay 72% of federal income taxes. The bottom 43% pay zero.
That is totally false. Smh
Yes. Baseball does not take into account geographical, social, and economic differences. And it’s true the other owners get a healthy chunk from the richer teams.
But then why the heck hasn’t the MLB stepped in on these cheap owners? I blame the Dodgers and Yankees and Mets for setting the market as they clearly overpay for talent. Good talent, but overpaid nonetheless. This sets a market standard for FAs. Now we have guys like Manaea and Montas asking for 15-20 mil per season… It’s too much for these cheap owners.
We need more situations like the current A’s. Cut off revenue streams for cheap owners and they’ll spend.
Rays can compete but they will never win a World Series. Every WS team has a star or two. Can any of you remember who the last star for the Rays was? Arozarena? Franco? Zobrist? Longoria? Price? Snell? Are any of them, alone, able to push a mediocre team over the hump? The answer to that question, season after season is… No. In baseball you NEED money. You NEED talent. Smaller market team owners will not pay out money unless they are forced to. That’s why baseball is broken and the league continues to ignore it because TV ratings.
It probably has something to do with some teams playing in cities with iM people living in them, with no corporate offices, and other teams living in cities with 4M people living in them, with 25 corporate HQs residing there.
The teams who don’t spend love this.
2024 MLB total payroll expenditures is $5.924B.
2023 MLB total revenue is $11.6B and likely higher in 2024.
thats actually a higher split (50%) than the NFL (48%)
YBC, not sure where you got those numbers, but that doesn’t gibe with what Cots has in payroll numbers.
It also doesn’t gibe with what Manfred said during the CBA negotiations. In the 2021-2022 offseason Manfred said the average revenue was over $400 million per team and no team had less than $250 million in revenue with only 2 being at that $250 million level. They were in negotiations over what to pay the players, so he had every reason to put out lowball numbers. That level of revenue per team would indicate that MLB revenue exceeded $12 billion in 2021. It has gone up since then.
@web It’s not scientific and only a Forbes estimate of MLB revenue. They were spot on with the O’s valuation when it was sold to Rubenstein. I wouldn’t completely trust what Manfred says because he represents at least 33% of owners who cry poor.
You are right in that I would not trust Manfred to correctly report MLB revenue, because if he did the owners would have to come out of pocket with more money for players. I can be absolutely certain that he would not have overestimated revenue for that reason.
Having seen what the Braves and Blue Jays have reported in their Form 10-K filings with the SEC each of the last 4 seasons, I think Manfred was about 18-20% low. That puts actual MLB revenue for 2023 at $13.68 -13.92 billion.
Distribution is fine, it’s the unbalance of who is distributing that money which causes the issues.
Though mlb is probably pretty happy with things right now. Big markets are spending, those are the teams they want to see in the playoffs. The little guy has a shot because of the additional wild card spots. So both the top and the bottom have a shot each year.
The bigger the TV markets in the WS, the bigger the revenue for MLB. With 1 and 2 in the WS, Manfred and the other owners were doing backflips of pure joy even though their teams were not in it.
The threshold needs to be higher if 9 teams are over.
Baseball needs a cap and a floor. I fully understand the team I root for is part of the problem.
@Von Of those 9 one the Cubs made a huge mistake ending in luxury tax especially by that small of an amount. Rangers are on there still paying cost of what helped them win World Series. Then there’s the Giants, they ve had to overpay to lure talent and unfortunately for them have to try and keep up with Dodgers and Padres if they want to be relevant right now.
I also couldn’t believe a modern day front office team couldn’t maneuver themselves under the LT with only 570k to clear. Major whoopsie by the Cubbies.
There are a million good reasons for a floor and zero good reasons for a cap.
There are plenty of good reasons for a cap. You must be a Dodgers, Mets or Yankees fan.
You would rather the Billionaires pocket more money?
I’d rather create an even playing field financially.
Not all ownership groups are as rich as one another despite what fans may think.
Not all owners have the financial resources as each other.
Dodgers “owner” is worth 12 billion but the Guggenheim group has over 270 billion net worth in all assets
You look at the rays who’s “owner” only worth 800 million as a stock investor and highly doubt his business ventures come anywhere close to the Guggenheim group. Thats a stark difference in resources each “owner” is capable of putting towards building a competitive team financially.
floor increases teams talent by forcing them to spend money on talent. For example, do you think the A’s would have signed severino if they wouldnt lose revenue sharing?
A cap limits players earning potential as mentioned below for the nba and there is basically an inherent cap as to how much revenue a team brings in.
Baseball has never been fair. Life has never been fair. Wanting a socialism system never works and just brings the quality of the product down. It’s not like most of the large long term contracts dont ultimately backfire on teams. The Rays are competitive every year because they aren’t hamstrung by long term contracts and make smart moves.
Works just fine in the NFL and NHL. NHL has a spending floor and cap.
You can have a floor and a ceiling
Both should exist
Revenue sharing teams should be expected to spend whatever they receive in revenue sharing ie if you get 90 mill you must match it at 90 mill for a payroll of 180 mill.
By that same token. Teams shouldn’t be able to spend double someone’s actual spending ability without consequences for doing so.
You want small market teams to keep their home grown star players you need to create a system that makes it easier for teams to do so
The easiest solutions is salary cap to prevent big market teams from buying up all the small market teams talent like we’ve since baseballs free agency inception.
Bingo
A cap doesn’t solve any problem that doesn’t exist in any other sport. Why do casual ignorant fans want a cap, its pretty much them spitting in the faces of players who gave up millions over the years fighting for no cap in the cba
Both leagues have less parity than the MLB. A major market wins the World Series once and now it’s not fair?
Salary caps prevent home grown talent from staying with teams. As soon as three or four become stars then they have to start leaving.
NHL players don’t all head towards big market teams
NFL players don’t all head towards big market teams
NBA players don’t always head to big market teams (they’re more inclined to form super teams but with a cap it severely hinders their roster ability financially)
Why is it only the MLB that big name players wind up in big markets ThatsIT?
Almost like unlimited spending with little to no actual penalties is bad for the sport
You’re literally watching NIL money destroy college athletics but somehow think “oh yeah totally fine baseball runs a similar model”.
There’s a reason baseball is becoming the 4th place team among fans interest. People are tired of big markets hogging all the best players while small markets can’t actually compete with their spending.
Salary cap doesn’t prevent homegrown players from staying at all’s. Thats a myth as you literally watching nfl mlb nba players stay with their franchises more often during their first run at free agency.
Some how nba nfl nhl can keep their young stars but mlb teams struggle to do so. Wonder what the difference is between leagues with salary caps and the one league without it. Totally a mystery.
It prevents big market teams from buying up all the players teams develop.
No they don’t. Not since the nfl expanded to 7 playoffs teams.
NFL NBA NHL all have more parity than the mlb
The sheer fact you don’t know that is silly. MLB rebuilds take years. A NFL NBA NHL team can finish a rebuild in less than 3 years. NFL it can literally be fire a coach and hire someone better and be better next year. Theres more immediate turn around for NFL NHL NBA franchises in shorter amounts of time than mlb sees.
If NFL MLB NHL miss on draft picks they’re not nearly as impacted like mlb teams missing on theirs.
Baseball is nowhere near being in 4th place. NBA and MLB ranks 2nd/3rd depending on the metric. NHL is 4th/5th with soccer. And that’s with no truly viable league. MLS is just the current top of the hill, but a mere bump compared to the mountains that are FIFA and Premier League.
I do think more needs ro be done to level the playing field. But I don’t agree with a hard cap. It does not really work in the NBA. Teams like the Lakers have been trading out 5 years of draft picks into the future or whatever the limit is. Contracts are moved more often then players.
As for the NHL, I’d say the verdict is still out. Hockey is somewhat of a niche sport. It’s by nature at a disadvantage in warmer regions. In colder regions many many families see their kids priced out of the sport often limiting potential growth of the sport.
@Harrison Are you kidding about missing on draft picks?? In MLB if a top pick fails to sign that team gets an extra high pick the next season((Bregman was that 2nd chance at a 1st)).
MLB draft picks don’t see the league for years in most cases. NFL top picks are more often than not expected to start as rookies. NBA 1st rounders nearly all end up on rosters the season following draft.
Statistically MLB has the most parity as far as champions. Feel free to look it up, I’ve seen the #s on the past and I’m not doing the work to provide them. They have been reported on a bunch and are easily available.
As for stats on draft pick failure, the % of 1st and 2nd rd picks that never make their respective sports league is highest in MLB. These are things backed by statistics.
The top spending teams are far more likely to make the playoffs in MLB.
“I’d rather create an even playing field financially”.
For that to happen, it would probably have to come from a new league. IE. a competitor to MLB. Probably a public corporation structure where there’s only one owner. Each team is a department within the corporation and each team has like a branch manager with staff. Each department (team) is given an identical dollar amount to budget each year. Player wage resets every year based on a league wide hourly wage that every player gets plus a bonus hourly wage based on previous year’s performance. Ho hum.
None of these leagues need a cap. They do need a floor and also need better revenue sharing.
If mlb rev sharing was more equal like the nfl each team would have close enough to an equal financial chance to win. You need a floor to prevent teams from bottom feeding profits but you wouldn’t need a cap because all teams could afford to spend more or less the same unless a team decides to over spend and lose money. Which is their choice.
NFL
NBA
NCAA sports
MLB
And you’re barely above hockey and soccer which are growing in popularity.
You’re 4th place
1. NFL NHL NBA have set rookie contract. Only the mlb is dumb enough to let teams not sign guys and give future draft picks
2. You literally proved my point that missing on picks sets mlb franchises back more than it does other leagues Tigers thank you. If you draft a guy in the mlb and 5 years later he whiffs you completely wasted 5 years on that pick. Congrats. NFL NBA NHL if you whiff on a guy you can literally draft his replacement next year. Cardinals literally drafted Josh Rosen #10 overall sucked and got Kyler Murray the following year. Name 1 time that’s happened in the mlb. I’ll wait
3. NBA NHL NFL have more parity when it comes to playoffs. You see teams constantly rotating in and out.
4. Yeah mlb does have a high bust rate. They also drafted 40 guys at one point. Now it’s what 20.
“None of those leagues need a cap”
Yes they do cause if they didn’t Jerry jones would be spending like a wild man to make the cowboys champions while other ownership groups don’t have the same financial resources Jerry jones does thus losing their stars to bigger markets. Hey sounds like the mlb model. Big markets buying up small market stars. How many actual teams could afford Juan Soto’s price tag AND put together a competitive roster? Not many.
You know I wonder how the A’s would look if they were forced to spend double their revenue sharing but there was a cap. I wonder how keeping Chapman and Olson long term would look if the A’s ownership group felt like they had a chance to compete knowing everyone has the same financial restrictions. The purpose of the cap is so teams aren’t calling it quits before the season starts cause they can’t compete financially . MLB is the only league where teams literally punt on multiple seasons simm and you think that’s good for the sport?
You literally hear the Nike ceo say I’ll give a blank check to his alma mater in Oregon in NIL money for them to win a championship and only fools think “that’s good for the sport”
metsin4
Salary caps prevent home grown talent from staying with teams.
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What keeps home-grown talent from staying is a lack of revenue.
FWIW, this happens everywhere. The smartest people in America go to big cities and big companies to make the most money.
Many of the smartest people in other countries come to the US to make the most amount of money. There is really nothing unusual here.
Neither a floor nor a ceiling can exist until all the teams in MLB reveal 100% of their revenue like they do in the NFL, NBA, and NHL. Today only 2 teams do and its because they are owned by publicly traded corporations and are legally required to do so.
How am I proving your point? In MLB if they miss in signing a pick they get a 2nd chance. That’s a huge advantage.
The percentage of top picks never to make the league is highest in MLB. The players who do make it do not make a difference for years. In the NBA and especially the NFL these players are almost always counted on to step in and contribute immediately.
And how is it wasting 5 years of a pick if nearly every team is waiting that long to see if they work out?? They don’t occupy a roster spot on the big league team. Statistically MLB players wash out the most, it’s part of the game. And no it does not set a team back like wasting a 1st on a Jamarcus Russel or a Johnny Manziel.
As far as what Nike’s CEO says, I’m not sure if he said that nor am I taking the time to look. What I do know is he hasn’t. UofM just signed a player to largest NIL deal at just over $10M. Whether it’s good for the sport remains to be seen. And if Nike’s CEO actually means what you allege he said, remains to be seen as well. What doesn’t change is the top talent going to the biggest schools, they ll just b paid to do so now. In the past they just choose schools the big programs they thought would help them get paid later. Same concept.
Delusional no they don’t have more parity end of debate now shut up and learn something read everything I write on here and learn stop having opinions
@rare Technically there is a floor. 26 × league minimum= floor. That floor obviously is woefully inadequate of putting together a MLB roster that is competitive let alone any real possibility of contending.
Having a cap though I’m absolutely against. The NBA has gotten to a point where teams are trading from their pics as far out as allowed. They also trade more salaries then actual players . These trade contracts ultimately end up in players who are just released as they were included just to facilitate the actual trade within those deals.
Why should the rays be forced to pay more when they can put out a winning team spending in the bottom 5 teams every year?
@ThatsIt The Rays should have to spend more because they are collecting revenue from other teams.
There are a million good reasons for a floor and zero good reasons for a cap.
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Because you cannot have one without the other. MLB will only pay the players x% of revenue. If you raise the floor, that extra money will come out of somewhere.
Why so much back and forth about a cap? Any debate about having, or not having, a cap is wasted time. Whether it’s better or not with one is moot. The players will never, ever, agree to one.
Instead of cap floor, how bout you don’t get revenue sharing once you go 5 seasons without making the post season !? See how long the cheap owners stay around then !?
I thought our 10 million was bad. Then I saw the Dodgers.
The Dodgers PENALTY is basically the same as the entire Rays payroll!
It’s unsustainable. People talk about a Dodgers’ dynasty, but despite their accumulation of talent, I have to think the profligate spending is going catch up with them. In fact, I have to think the top 3 are all unsustainable.
Baseball is still fun for me to watch and follow. Baseball is an imperfect monopoly. There are more billionaires who want to buy a team than spots open in the elite ownership club. The biggest cities have an advantage so the playing field is not completely fair. But it mostly works and is very entertaining. I am glad that the players’ threat of litigation has resulted in the Sacramento A’s spending a little bit more on payroll.
Again, so many teams willing to pay the luxury tax proves it is not a disincentive at all. What a joke.
Imagine if there was no luxury tax. If the Dodgers spent that 103 million on payroll instead of taxes they would have twice as many starting pitchers. And the gap between highest and lowest payroll would be much wider.
The Reds benefit.
How would you fix it ?
Hire smarter people. That is what LAD did.
Kinda surprised Twins and Guardians weren’t among the bottom spenders.
I’m surprised the cubs and Red Sox aren’t as much as their fans complain they don’t spend lol
Teams are claiming that they are losing money yet values of teams are rising. Yes there is a problem with top teams spending too much but until teams like the Marlins, etc. lose their revenue sharing income when not spending enough nothing is going to change. Both owners and players need to agree and it makes too much sense not to have it….so again nothing will happen. Ten years from now we will still be having this conversation I predict.
“top teams spending too much”
Let the owners figure out how to balance things out with additional revenue sharing.
But how many teams have shown interest in exceeding the luxury tax?
Sounds like we need a higher threshold. Players are being too greedy.
Old York: Players are greedy but owners aren’t? How does that work?
k = thousand
M = million
MM = 2 thousand in using Roman numerals
k = strikeout
M is a thousand. MM is a thousand times a thousand which equals a million.
M comes from the Romans. And MM is 2 thousand in Roman numberals. II means two. XX means 20.
mil(.), mill(.), mln(.), MM
Are ALL abbreviations for Million when working with dollars.
It SUPER pisses me off when Spaniards DELIBERATELY try to pass off mil. as thousand. It is actually FRAUD AND EMBEZELLMENT. I just want to wipe that smart assed smirk right of their damned lying, scumbag faces.
You’ve got to be on this list if you wanna win a ring
Skenes is kidding himself thinking the Pirates will win but another way from the big revenue teams. Their window is now open and aren’t spending. There’s only 1 way to be competitive nearly every year. For the same reason he’ll be gone in 5 years.
He’ll be there for 3 years and they’ll restock their farm then. Big deal.
Incorrect. Playoffs are complete crapshoot. Not debatable
Not debatable? In the next round of playoffs, I will take the team that is favored, and you can have all the underdogs, at even money.
Let me know if you are open to a wager.
You take the favourite and I’ll get the field, you can bet whatever you want but you must bet the next 10 years. I work in the gambling industry and am much smarter than you. Let me know beta if you accept any amount of money.
I wonder how Mickey feels about the Dodgers tax bill.
There should not be a cap on threshold penalties. It should keep going up and up year in and out. That will eventually force these teams to get under.
Then only revenue share with teams that made post season the past 5 years and get rid of divisions.
Thats as fair as you can make it
None of that sounds fair at all.
Why’s that ?
Cubs management has to be kicking itself a little. They were that close to resetting the tax, but paid it anyway, and with no playoffs to boot.
A lot of Jays fans like to rip the current management, but at least they managed to do one small thing right. No reason to pay the tax on a team that bad.
Yes sir. Another nail in Hoyer’s coffin. He’s trying to save his job by getting Tucker but stubbornly refuses to get a closer for the bullpen.
Can’t build it, buy it.
This is a competitive sports league?
The Dodgers payed more in tax than 7 teams did in salary. The Mets paid more in tax than 5 teams did in salary. The Yankees paid more in tax than one team did in salaries.
So those 7 teams made profits? Why not. Who invests money to lose money? But reality is that the Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees played with the money and made far, far more than any of the other 27 MLB franchises.
Again, it’s not really the owners that I feel for one way or the other. It’s the sad fact that fans of teams in MLB have the illusion that their teams can be successful on the field more than once in a while.
In the NBA today the Cleveland team has the best record in the East. The teams in Oklahoma City and Memphis have the best record in the West.
Currently in the NFL, teams that have won 10 or more games at this point are in: Kansas City, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Green Bay (Milwaukee). Of those only Philadelphia is in a major market.
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No wonder that most people under age 45 or so don’t understand the sport of baseball. They didn’t play it growing up, and in most American markets their teams are 2nd and 3rd class citizens. But boy, do they understand and follow pro football and pro basketball.
How many different Super Bowl champions in the last 20 years? How about nba? MLB? Patriots and chiefs are dynasties. Warriors nba dynasty.
1949-1971 – 15 Different teams went to the WS
– Which represents 62% of the league by the end of 1971
– The Yankees and Dodgers went a combined 23 times to the WS in that period
2002-2024 – 21 Different teams went to the WS
-Which represents 70% of the league
-The Yankees and Dodgers have gone a combined 7 times
Baseball has always been like this and it could be argued that pre-free agency was even more one sided. Teams in every sport have win-windows, Its the smart front offices that are able to identify that window and make the moves to maximize them.
BTW most of the population (IE people under 45) reside in the big markets. So the Dodgers and Yankees being successful exposes that section of the population a whole heck of a lot more than KC doing it (not a knock on the people of KC just pointing out the facts)
Finally, I suspect that its not the A’s fans or the Red’s fans that are complaining about needing a cap. Its probably the fans of teams that are just below the tax lines, believe me, if your team can afford to get to the tax line or just below it, it can afford to operate above it. Demand more from your ownership group and stop waiting the league to make you relevant.
Is the majority of this money being funneled back into the league to develop and grow the game, or is it just an additional revenue stream for the commissioner and his cronies (other owners)?
MLB payroll set up is absolutely broken. It will never change.
Nothing is broken about it.
ThatsIT? So the concept of a level playing field is now considered unsportsmanlike? hahaha
Seriously, payroll differential allowed the Yankees to win half the world series from the 20s to 1962. You see that as a good thing as long as your team is the team in the superior situation?
Why call it a sport if there is no competition.?
Yep
For eleven (11) years
They’ve been accelerating the rebuild in Detroit……
This is more like dealing with –
A USED CAR SALESMAN.
And we all know what’s happening to the customer.
We all try to be loyal to our brand, like good Americans…we ARE LOYAL but at life’s end, we discover there are more important things to complain about because we are being taken advantage of and being cheated….EVERYWHERE.
Merry Christmas.
No Pirates? I’m amazed.
How stupid for Hoyer to exceed the limit by such a tiny margin! Someone’s not paying enough attention to the bottom line. For a numbers guy like Jed, you would think he’d be on top of this. Not a big deal unless they want to exceed multiple years in a row. Then it starts to make more of an impact.
Love these comments. The financial system of baseball is a microcosm of the American financial system. The people with the money hold the power, and throw the poor some scraps from time to time, then blame the poor people for being poor.
MLBs financial situation sucks. If you don’t believe that, you’re a fan of one of the top 9 spenders.
Interesting that almost half of the playoff field – five of the twelve teams: Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit – came from the bottom half of the salary scale. Just shows that you can get to the promised land without running a sky-high payroll. And any team can get hot for three weeks and win it all once they’re in the postseason.
One more comment: I would prefer a hard-cap, hard-floor system to even out the playing field a little more. I think the current competitive balance in baseball is actually pretty good. After all, when almost half your postseason clubs are coming from the bottom half of the salary scale, balance isn’t all that terrible.
Still, I think a hard cap around $280 million and a hard floor around $140 million with extensive revenue sharing would spread the wealth a bit more. But the high-salary players who dominate the players union would never agree. They’re more interested in protecting their own salaries than in forcing up the pay of (by sky-high MLB standards) low-salary guys,
Of course, the owners recognize this split in the union. That’s how they got the current CBA ratified. The high-salary guys voted against the deal. But the owners had sweetened the pot enough for the lower-salary guys to win the overall vote.
While I hate the big market teams for setting impossible salary standards and overpaying for players I hate the league for not forcing cheap owners to spend more on their teams. They’re just collecting paychecks
There’s only 1 M In MILLION Trade Rumors,!!!! LEARN TO WRITE. They keep writing “$34-MM” instead of $34M.
Like is $34MM-thirty-four-million MILLION !!!???? WOW! that’s a lot of money!
MM is a common abbreviation for “million” when it’s more than 1M.
The abbreviation for million is M or MM:
M is a common abbreviation for million, especially in North America.
MM is a common abbreviation for million in finance and accounting, and is equivalent to “M multiplied by M” or “1,000 times 1,000.
Either works, but since it’s baseball, I think M should suffice.
M = 1 thousand. MM = 1000 x 1000
Surprised to see the Braves on here.