Apr 16, 2026, 09:18 AM ET<\/p>\n
NEW YORK — The Dodgers<\/a> shattered Major League Baseball’s spending record with a combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax last year en route to their second straight World Series title<\/a>, according to final figures compiled by the commissioner’s office, and Los Angeles is projected for the highest total again in 2026.<\/p>\n Los Angeles’ 2025 spending included records for payroll at $345.3 million and tax of $169.4 million for a total of $514.7 million. Despite several contracts discounted to reflect deferred payments, the Dodgers’ total was seven times the $68.7 million payroll of the Miami Marlins<\/a>, the lowest-spending team, and more than the payrolls of the bottom six clubs combined.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Spending by the Dodgers last year topped the previous high of $430.4 million by the 2024 New York Mets<\/a> — and Los Angeles’ total didn’t include the $6.5 million signing bonus given to pitcher Roki Sasaki<\/a> as part of a minor league contract.<\/p>\n The Mets and Dodgers combined to spend $948.3 million. The ratio of the five-highest spenders to the five lowest increased from 3.6 in 2021 to a record-high 4.7 last year.<\/p>\n The Dodgers in 2025 ended the Mets’ three-year streak as the top payroll, boosted by $8.5 million in earned bonuses by retiring ace Clayton Kershaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n Los Angeles’ total would have been about $71 million higher but for the use of deferred money for seven players that resulted in discounting for their payroll calculations. Shohei Ohtani<\/a> counts at $28.2 million because $68 million of his $70 million salary last year isn’t due until 2035.<\/p>\n The Mets finished second in payroll at $342.1 million and with tax had total spending of $433.7 million.<\/p>\n In the first five seasons after owner Steve Cohen bought the team, the Mets spent $1.44 billion without winning a title: $1.11 billion in payroll and $320 million in tax.<\/p>\n Both the Mets and Dodgers exceeded the previous record-high payroll set by the 2024 Mets at $333.3 million.<\/p>\n Los Angeles is projected as of MLB’s opening-day figures to lead in 2026 spending with a $323.3 million payroll for its 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. The Mets began with a record payroll at $358.4 million and have a projected tax of $124.1 million for a $482.5 million spend.<\/p>\n Cleveland<\/a> has the lowest opening day 40-man payroll this year at $75.5 million.<\/p>\n Total spending, based on regular payrolls, rose 3.1% to $5.32 billion last year from $5.16 billion in 2024 and has increased 31.3% in four seasons under the current labor contract from $4.05 billion in 2021.<\/p>\n Those figures do not include the $50 million annual pre-arbitration bonus pool that began in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement or allocations for benefits, which are included in MLB’s luxury tax payrolls.<\/p>\n Among luxury tax payrolls, eight teams began 2026 over the $244 million tax threshold. The Dodgers ($415.2 million), Mets ($379.2 million) and New York Yankees<\/a> ($339.6 million) were followed by Toronto<\/a> ($319.5 million), Philadelphia<\/a> ($315.2 million), Boston<\/a> ($263.7 million), San Diego<\/a> ($260.1 million) and Atlanta<\/a> ($247.9 million).<\/p>\n The Chicago Cubs<\/a> started $25,000 under and Detroit<\/a> $2.5 million below. Payrolls increase and decrease during the season due to trades and roster moves.<\/p>\n The Yankees finished 2025 with the third-highest regular payroll at $301.5 million, followed by Philadelphia ($291.9 million), AL champion Toronto ($253.1 million), Houston<\/a> ($236.4 million) and Texas<\/a> ($229.9 million).<\/p>\n Four of the top five spenders reached the playoffs, except the Mets, along with teams whose payrolls ranked ninth, 10th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd and 25th.<\/p>\n The Dodgers boosted payroll the most in 2025 at $74.4 million. Other teams with big 2025 increases were Detroit ($61.9 million), Baltimore<\/a> ($60.2 million to $165.6 million), San Diego ($45.6 million to $217.6 million), Philadelphia ($42.8 million) and Toronto ($34.7 million).<\/p>\n Fifteen teams cut payroll from 2024 to 2025, led by the Chicago White Sox<\/a> (by $66.1 million to $87.9 million), St. Louis<\/a> ($39.3 million to $139.1 million), Miami ($29.4 million to $68.8 million) and San Francisco<\/a> (by $28 million to $182.9 million). The Cardinals have further slashed payroll to $102.3 million on Opening Day this year, and that includes about $47.4 million attributable to trades involving three players no longer with the Cardinals: Nolan Arenado<\/a>, Sonny Gray<\/a> and Willson Contreras<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Yankees cut payroll by $9.4 million from 2024 to 2025 and have raised it to $302.8 million this year.<\/p>\n Eleven teams topped $200 million in 2025, matching the record set in 2023. Five teams were below $100 million, one more than the record-low in 2024.<\/p>\n Regular payrolls for last year are based on 2025 salaries, earned bonuses and prorated shares of signing bonuses and non-cash compensation for 40-man rosters. Deferred salaries and bonus payments are discounted to present-day values, and termination pay, option buyouts and cash transactions among clubs are accounted for.<\/p>\n MLB calculated the average salary as of Aug. 31, the last day before active rosters expanded to 26, at $4,611,595. The players’ association, using a slightly different methodology, arrived at $4,721,393,<\/p>\n Luxury tax is based on payrolls with average annual values that include benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. The players’ association doesn’t think tax payments should be used in measuring disparity because half the tax money goes to a commissioner’s discretionary fund distributed among teams eligible to receive revenue-sharing money which has grown their non-media local revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 16, 2026, 09:18 AM ET NEW YORK — The Dodgers shattered Major League Baseball’s spending record with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":{"0":"post-676963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116414814910867081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}