Highest Major League Baseball Payrolls and Player Salaries for 2026 Season

Which MLB teams are spending the most and which are pinching pennies?

The Dodgers will enter 2026 with an enormous payroll as they seek a third straight World Series crown. | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Major League Baseball is an outlier in the American sporting landscape in that teams do not operate under a salary cap. There is no limit to the amount of money organizations can spend in pursuit of the World Series. On the other side of the coin there is no salary floor, which creates widespread disparity across the 30 teams.

Clubs that exceed a predetermined payroll threshold must pay the Competitive Balance Tax, known more commonly a the luxury tax. This is an escalating figure that went up to $244 million for the 2026 season. A team's Competitive Balance Tax figure is calculated using the average annual value of each player's contract on the 40-man roster, plus any additional player benefit.

MLB team payrolls for 2026

Team	2026 Payroll
Dodgers	$395.8 million
Mets	$367.9 million
Yankees	$325.4 million
Phillies	$309.5 million
Blue Jays	$302.4 million
Padres	$262.2 million
Red Sox	$256.3 million
Tigers	$236.6 million
Braves	$233.0 million
Astros	$228.1 million
Cubs	$222.4 million
Giants	$221.6 million
Rangers	$199.4 million
Orioles	$198.2 million
Angels	$187.0 million
Mariners	$182.6 million
Royals	$181.9 million
Diamondbacks	$162.0 million
Reds	$139.0 million
Athletics	$137.0 million
Brewers	$129.1 million
Pirates	$120.7 million
Cardinals	$119.7 million
Nationals	$106.3 million
White Sox	$105.5 million
Rockies	$105.3 million
Twins	$101.6 million
Rays	$98.8 million
Guardians	$97.0 million
Marlins	$77.3 million

Whether one thinks the latitude for teams to spend whatever they want is a good thing for baseball or bad, there is no argument against the blatant evidence that high payroll teams have enjoyed far more success than those operating on a tight budget.

Highest paid players in MLB for 2026

There are many ways for teams to construct contracts. For this exercise we will use the average annual value for each player's current contract

Player	Team	AAV
Shohei Ohtani	Dodgers	$70 million
Kyle Tucker	Dodgers	$60 million
Juan Soto	Mets	$51 million
Bo Bichette	Mets	$42 million
Zack Wheeler	Phillies	$42 million
Aaron Judge	Yankees	$40 million
Framber Valdez	Tigers	$38.3 million
Jacob deGrom	Rangers	$37 million
Blake Snell	Dodgers	$36.4 million
Gerrit Cole	Yankees	$36 million

World Series winners by payroll

The winning formula in baseball is not as easy as "highest payroll equals World Series" but historic trends suggest that small-market, tight-pursed teams have an uphill battle on their hands competing against the big boys. Nineteen of the past 26 World Series champions have been in the top-10 of payroll.

Year	Champion	Payroll Rank
2025	Dodgers	2nd
2024	Dodgers	3rd
2023	Rangers	4th
2022	Astros	8th
2021	Braves	10th
2020	Dodgers	1st
2019	Nationals	7th
2018	Red Sox	1st
2017	Astros	17th
2016	Cubs	5th
2015	Royals	13th
2014	Giants	7th

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