The New York Mets are on track to have baseball’s highest payroll for the first time since 1989, and are among six teams at risk of having to pay a penalty for overspending.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who started the season with the biggest payroll, slipped to second place due to the suspension of Trevor Bauer.
The Dodgers’ payroll declined when Bauer was suspended for two years without pay on April 29 for violating domestic violence policy. Bauer’s 2022 salary was $32 million, but it was reduced to what he was owed at the time of the suspension: $3.8 million. He challenges his suspension in front of a referee.
The Mets entered the last full month of the season with a payroll of $273.9 million, according to figures updated August 31 by Major League Baseball. The Dodgers are second at 267.2 million, followed by the New York Yankees at 254.4 million.
The team is hoping to win its first World Series title since 1986.
Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, with a Major League-high salary of $43.3 million, earns about five million less than the entire Oakland Athletics team. If we add his salary to that of his teammates Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor, the sum reaches around 103 million – more than the combined mass of 8 of the 30 clubs.
When the Mets last finished top Major League Baseball in payroll, their total was 21.3 million.
The Dodgers finished top of the payroll in 2020 and 2021. They set a record with a payroll of 291 million in 2015.
A gradual increase
The Mets’ payroll has been steadily rising since Steven Cohen bought the team from the Wilpon and Katz families after the 2020 season. last year, the first season after the pandemic, and the negotiators revealed last March that a new tax cap was intended for them. Cohen then joked, “It’s better than having a bridge named after you. »
For the purposes of the luxury tax, which uses the average annual salaries of 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 $29.9 million tax as midseason trades boosted 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 team is likely to have to shell out 29.4 million.
The four penalty levels have been set this season at 230, 250, 270 and 290 million.
Offenders, for a first offense, pay 20% on the amount above the first threshold, 32% above the second, 62.5% above the third and 80% above the fourth.