Yankees and Dodgers. New York and Los Angeles. Judge and Ohtani. The two sluggers are expected to run away with the MVPs this season. Why not? They’ve run away with the salaries. Both the players and the teams.
The two players are the highest paid hitters in the game. Shohei of course signed that unique deal that pays him $70 million a season even if it’s not in cash right now.
Aaron Judge as most expected, weighed outside interest but returned to his only big league home, to Captain the Yankees return to glory. The rightfielder pulls in $40 million per.
Both of these very rich players can look around their respective clubhouses and find a whole lot of very rich friends. Their teams pay. Sure they have more coming in than any of the other teams but they shell out.
Ohtani saw his countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto claim $325 million of his own
There were three teams with $300+ million payrolls this year, these two and the Mets. Three of the final four in this year’s championship series.
Yankee money, always had it, always will
Put it this way. The Dodgers and Yankees each have comparable player compensation that matches the Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Rays and Oakland Athletics combined
Or put it this way: Yankee sluggers Judge ($40M), Giancarlo Stanton ($32M), Juan Soto ($31M) and pitchers Gerrit Cole ($36M) and Carlos Rodon ($27M) make more combined ($166M) than the entire payrolls of half the teams in the league.
Five of the top 21 salaries in MLB are on the Yankees. Does this bother major league baseball? Hell no! Does this bother the players association, hell no! Despite how hard ownership tries to push back on salaries and a salary cap, this serves them well.
MLB deals with ESPN, Fox and TNT that run through 2028 pulls in $12 billion over seven years, ending in 2028. Apple’s seven-year deal through 2029 is worth $595 million. and Roku’s Sunday afternoons $10 million more per season.
Meanwhile player salaries continue to escalate and while the Yankees, Dodgers and Mets are pushing the top they also move the middle.
Since the new CBA: In 2021 the 15th highest payroll was the Cardinals ($97M). This year the Padres weighed in at #15 on opening day at over $153 million and that’s before they started adding on for their run.
Do you know what drives the television rights fees? Ratings do!
Do you lnow what drives ratings? The teams fans want to watch most! That would be the Yankees and Dodgers. Bring on Joe Davis and John Smoltz. Jeter, Arod and Big Papi!
Almost everybody’s happy. Enjoy The 120th World Series.
The Fernando Valenzuela edition. RIP.
