The Toronto Blue Jays delivered their best season in more than 30 years in 2025, advancing to Game 7 of the World Series before losing against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, the season came at a price – in more ways than one.
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As noted by the Associated Press on Friday, the Blue Jays were one of nine teams who had to pay a penalty for going over the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. They were joined by the Dodgers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.
The Dodgers had to pay a penalty of a whopping $169 million. The Jays paid $13.6 million and also saw their top draft pick affected.
The CBT threshold for 2025 was set at $241 million. The Blue Jays’ final payroll was $286.1 million. Basically, the Jays went about $45 million over the threshold number.
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Because they went significantly over, they were penalized as a Tier 3 offender. They were charged 20 percent on the first $20 million, 32 percent on the next $20 million and 62.5 percent on the remaining five.
That adds up to that $13.6 million penalty.
As noted by MLBTradeRumors:
The Dodgers ($417MM), Mets ($347MM), Yankees ($320MM), Phillies ($314MM) and Blue Jays ($286MM) all had payrolls above $281MM. That was the third tier of penalization and marked the point at which a team’s top draft pick is dropped by 10 spots.
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The Jays will now pick between 35th and 40th in next July’s draft. For a team with an iffy farm system, that’s certainly not nothing.
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If the Jays go over the threshold for a second consecutive year, they are subject to more penalties next year. However, they don’t seem to care about that, as evidenced by the contracts they’ve given to Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce and Tyler Rogers already.
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Assuming they land at least one of Bo Bichette or Kyle Tucker, they will blow right past the threshold. However, as the Dodgers have proven, if you can win the World Series, it’s all worth it.
The business of baseball is likely to shut down between the Christmas holiday and New Years, so the Jays may have some pressure to get something done before the holidays. We’ll see if they do. They’ve also been linked to Ketel Marte on the trade market, at least to some degree.
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