Braves officially assessed $3.2M luxury tax bill for 2023 season
Major League Baseball has officially announced the teams being charged an luxury tax assessment for the 2023 season.
Both the number of teams paying, eight, and the total assessed amount, $209.8M, are records.
The full list is highlighted by the NL East's three teams, headlined by the New York Mets paying a bill of over $100M:
| Team | Amount | Repeat Payor? |
|---|---|---|
New York Mets | $100,781,932 | Yes (2nd year) |
San Diego Padres | $39.7M | Yes (3rd year) |
New York Yankees | $32.4M | Yes (2nd year) |
Los Angeles Dodgers | $19.4M | Yes (3rd year) |
Philadelphia Phillies | $6.98M | Yes (3rd year) |
Toronto Blue Jays | $5.5M | No (1st year) |
Atlanta Braves | $3.2M | No (1st year) |
Texas Rangers | $1.8M | No (1st year) |
The previous record for a luxury tax bill was the Los Angeles Dodgers and their $43.6M tax on their $291.1M payroll in 2015.
The Atlanta Braves are paying into the tax for the first time in their history, thanks to their record 2023 CBT payroll of $245.9M (per Fangraphs). And Atlanta's 2024 roster portends to be even more expensive, with a projected $269M CBT payroll (pending arbitration awards).
Does Atlanta care about the luxury tax?
Not really. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos told us at the Winter Meetings that the front office is concerned with the cash payroll versus the tax payroll - they track the tax payroll, obviously, to know how much they'll be paying in penalties, but the focus is the cash amount.
Here's the relevant quote:
"I focus on the cash amount, so what the actual cash is out the door. What the tax is going to look like, so the CBT number for us - other than than being over, we don't pay attention to it. We do pay attention to what that dollar value in taxes is, because that'll have to be paid, and what the salaries are, because they'll need to be paid."
The Braves have until January 21st to remit payment to the commissioner's office.
Per MLB Trade Rumors, the $209.8M in luxury tax penalties will be split three ways by the league. The first $3.5M are used to fund player group benefits. The next $103.15 goes towards individual player retirement accounts - believe it or not, baseball players have a 401K - with the final $103.15M going into a discretionary account for the commissioner's distribution. That money gets distributed to revenue sharing recipients that have grown local revenues (excluding any local broadcast/media deals) over the past few seasons.
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