MLB team payrolls from highest to lowest: Money isn't everything in 2026 - USA Today
It remains to be seen if MLB will continue to scream about competitive balance once the postseason is complete, but certainly, there’s a strong correlation between reaching the playoffs and staying home if you spend the money.
Here are the final team payrolls heading into the postseason, calculated by Major League Baseball’s labor relations department, and obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
The team with baseball’s highest final payroll, the New York Mets at $345.8 million, will be sitting home in October. Meanwhile with baseball’s lowest payroll, the Cleveland Guardians at $74.2 million, are in the postseason for the third consecutive season.
The team with the best record in baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers, has the 19th-highest. The team with the best record in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays, has the sixth-lowest payroll.
Three of the six-lowest team payrolls will be in the playoffs this season with Tampa Bay, Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox.
Two of the top five-highest payrolls will miss the playoffs with the Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. Eight of the top-10 teams in payroll made the postseason, while three of the bottom-10 teams missed the postseason.
Interestingly, the middle-class was all but eliminated from the postseason this season. The Brewers are the only team with a payroll ranked between 11th and 24th – from $98 million to $202 million – earning a postseason bid.
In the past 10 years, eight teams have ranked in the top 10 in MLB in payroll, five have ranked in the top five, and three have ranked first. We’ll see if the Brewers or Rays become the first small-market team to win the World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015, which will surely be a vital talking point in the CBA negotiations.
The figured obtained by USA TODAY Sports are the MLB Labor Relations Department's present-day salary calculation. The LRD numbers include the player’s actual salary plus his pro-rated signing bonus before any player or club options.
