In a recent headline that clearly highlighted the difference between the haves and the have nots was the news of the nine teams that paid a whopping $311 million in luxury tax. That tax also known as the Competitive Balance Tax assesses teams a “tax” when they go over the set thresholds set by the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union. The more teams exceed the threshold and/or exceed the threshold in consecutive years also increases the tax levied even further.
The three top teams to pay luxury tax were the Los Angeles Dodgers at $103 million, followed by the New York Mets at $97.1 million and the New York Yankees at $62.5 million. Those three teams made up $262.6 or almost 85% of the total luxury tax paid by the nine teams that exceeded the annual payroll thresholds.
If we were to compare these teams to the bottom payrolls in baseball, it shows just how glaring the disparity in team payrolls has become in the game. The six lowest payrolls in MLB in 2024 were:
| Team | 2024 Team Payroll ($ millions) |
| Oakland A’s | $62.1 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | $84.0 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | $89.7 |
| Miami Marlins | $96.6 |
| Detroit Tigers | $97.0 |
| Cincinnati Reds | $100.3 |
Based on this table above the Dodgers outspent just in luxury tax the entire payrolls of the bottom six teams or 20% of the league. The Mets outspent five of the bottom six, while the Yankees tax put them above the Oakland A’s payroll.
By the way we left out the Washington Nationals, who just barely outspent the Dodgers with their $103.9 payroll.
This is an ominous sign for the game. Where others point to the length of the game and the fix being pitch clocks and ghost runners, we here at BP strongly disagree with what ails MLB. Instead the disparities in team payrolls that ruins the overall competitiveness of the game and makes us wonder just how fans in small markets do not get discouraged as their best players are either regularly signed or traded away to meet their budgets.
We have covered this topic in a prior post and we will continue to bring it up, since the health of the game definitely needs more competitive balance. Unfortunately, over time neither the owners nor the players seem to want to address this issue. Perhaps it will come at the end of the next labor agreement, which will expire at the end of the 2026 season, but until then, we sadly expect this disparity to worsen over time.
Baseball Purist 
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