Saturday, December 20, 2014

Dodgers the Big Spenders of MLB

Major League Baseball has released their final tallies on payroll and luxury tax penalties for the 2014 season and the Los Angeles Dodgers, not the New York Yankees for the first time in 15 seasons, spent the most money and owe the most to the luxury tax before next season. Los Angeles finished with a payroll of $257,283,410 (with player incentives, 40 man roster calculations etc. the payroll number for tax purposes is $277.7 million) and will have to pay $26,621,125 in luxury tax penalties. Add that together and prepare for your mind to be blown, $277.7 million plus the $26 million in change is tax is a record $304,321,125.

New York dropped their payroll right at $10 million in 2014 despite spending over $500 million in the offseason prior thanks to not picking up salary dumps mid-season and throughout the season like Vernon Wells. New York has still gone over the luxury tax every season since it's implantation 15 seasons ago and have paid a total of $271 million in taxes based on the max 50% on every dollar tax penalty. 

Interestingly enough three of the top five spenders in MLB missed out on the playoffs in 2014 in the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies while the Dodgers made the NLCS while the Detroit Tigers got swept by the Baltimore Orioles. 

MLB has calculated the average salary for a player in 2014 and came up with the number $3,692,123 for an 11% spike from 2013. There is definitely money in the game right now and owners are not shy about handing it out. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)