Guardians have an $85 million payroll problem originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Cleveland Guardians continue to do more with less.
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Eventually, the worry for their fans is that that will come back to bite them in the butt.
Cleveland has won the AL Central Division in each of the last two seasons, including a magnificent rally to pass the Detroit Tigers in 2025.
Despite that, the Guardians continue to outlay very little money relative to the rest of the league.
Spotrac has the Guardians’ projected 2026 payroll at nearly $85 million. That would rank second-to-last in MLB.
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The Tigers and Royals are both nearly double Cleveland on that chart, and they are only at about the midway point of baseball.
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Clearly, the Guardians are never going to be the league’s highest spenders, but this is wildly low for a team that wants to be competitive every season.
Jose Ramirez is the highest-paid player currently under contract, and the only player the Guardians have whose contract has an annual average value of eight digits. Ramirez is at $20.1 million AAV, while Tanner Bibee is next at $9.6 million AAV.
On the one hand, it’s impressive to see the continued success despite lack of money invested.
On the other hand, it’ll be tough to make it last forever. At some point, Cleveland will have to decide if there’s more to spend here.
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