(New York) The New York Mets are on track to have the highest payroll in baseball for the first time since 1989, among the six teams at risk of having to pay a penalty for overspending.
Posted at 4:04 p.m.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who started the season with the biggest payroll, slipped to second place due to the suspension of Trevor Bauer.
The Mets entered the last full month of the season with a $273.9 million payroll, according to Major League Baseball’s updated August 31 numbers. The Dodgers are second at 267.2 million, followed by the New York Yankees at 254.4 million.
The Mets are hoping to win their first World Series title since 1986.
Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, with a Major League-high salary of $43.3 million, earns about $5 million less than the entire Oakland Athletics team. If you add his salary to that of his teammates Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor, it’s around 103 million – more than eight of the 30 clubs.
When the Mets last finished top Major League Baseball in payroll, their total was 21.3 million.
The Dodgers payroll declined when Bauer was suspended for two years without pay on April 29 for violating domestic violence policy. Bauer’s salary in 2022 was 32 million, but it was reduced to what was owed to him at the time of the suspension: 3.8 million. He challenges his suspension in front of a referee.
The Dodgers finished top of the payroll in 2020 and 2021. They set a record with a payroll of 291 million in 2015.
The Mets’ payroll has been steadily rising since Steven Cohen bought the team from the Wilpon and Katz families after the 2020 season. the first season after the pandemic, and the negotiators revealed last March that a new tax cap was aimed at them. Cohen then joked, “It’s better than having a bridge named after you. »
For the purposes of the luxury tax, which uses average annual salaries on the 40-player roster, the Mets are on track to set a record 298.8 million and eclipse the Dodgers’ 297.9 million in 2015. .
The Mets would have to pay a tax of 29.9 million, as the mid-season trades increased their payroll from a projection of 289.3 million on opening day and beyond the new threshold of 290 million provided for in the March agreement which ended the 99-day lockout.
The Dodgers entered this season with a payroll of 310 million, which would have resulted in a record penalty of 47 million. Their payrolls fell to 289.96 million as of August 31, leaving them just below the Cohen tax. With higher tax rates as a repeat offender, the Dodgers are likely to have to shell out $29.4 million.
The Yankees have a payroll of 267 million and a projected tax of 9.4 million, and the Phillies at 243 million are expected to pay 2.6 million.
The Boston Red Sox, just above the first threshold at 234.5 million, would expect around $900,000. After paying the tax for the first time last year, the San Diego Padres are doing it again with a payroll of about $233 million and a tax of just over $800,000.
The four penalty levels have been set this season at 230, 250, 270 and 290 million.
First-time offenders pay 20% on the amount above the first threshold, 32% above the second, 62.5% above the third, and 80% above the fourth.