MLB Salaries Hit Record High As League Heads Toward Looming Labor Battle

The average MLB salary rose by 3.4% this year.

New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto is the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball this season. | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

Major League Baseball’s players are making more than ever. That’s not a big headline, but a data point worth paying attention to as the 2026 season unfolds with a big labor fight looming.

The average MLB salary rose by 3.4% this year to a record $5.34 million. Given the wave of massive contracts handed out over the past few years, the salary growth is not surprising. It is worth noting that it isn’t just veteran All-Stars being lavished with big deals, as young players are increasingly being paid early in their careers.

Rather than waiting until they hit free agency or close, clubs are locking up their young prospects as soon as possible. The Pirates are the latest example, as they agreed to a nine-year, $140 million deal top prospect Konnor Griffin before he ever stepped on a big league diamond. Other deals like those given to Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jackson Merrill were made in the past year-plus and will take them well into their primes. Those early deals have helped reshape things on the bottom end of the scale.

Juan Soto is baseball’s highest-paid player for the second year in a row. The Mets are paying him $61.9 million this season as part of the 15-year, $765 million deal he signed with the team last offseason. Across town, the Yankees will pay Cody Bellinger $42.5 million this season as part of the five-year, $162.5 million contract he received this winter. Phillies pitcher Zach Wheeler and Mets third baseman Bo Bichette will each make $42 million this year, while Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. checks in at $40.2 million, and Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge at $40 million.

Not surprisingly, the Mets lead in payroll for the fourth year in a row. They’ll shell out $352 million, just short of the record $355.4 million they set in 2023. And they’re not the only team that’s blown past the $244 million luxury tax threshold.

The top 10 spending teams are listed below:

1. New York Mets, $352 million
2. Los Angeles Dodgers, $317 million
3. New York Yankees, $297 million
4. Philadelphia Phillies, $282 million
5. Toronto Blue Jays, $269 million
6. Atlanta Braves, $252 million
7. Houston Astros, $244 million
8. Chicago Cubs, $223 million
9. San Diego Padres, $208 million
10. Detroit Tigers, $207 million

The Guardians have MLB’s lowest payroll, clocking in at $62 million for 2026, which is more than five times less than what the Mets will pay.

The bottom 10 spending teams are below listed from lowest to highest:

1. Cleveland Guardians, $62 million
2. Miami Marlins, $76 million
3. Chicago White Sox, $82 million
4. Washington Nationals, $84 million
5. Tampa Bay Rays, $89 million
6. Athletics, $90 million
7. Minnesota Twins, $97 million
8. Pittsburgh Pirates, $100 million
9. St. Louis Cardinals, $100 million
10. Colorado Rockies, $117 million

Those numbers underscore the growing divide among baseball’s financial haves and have-nots. Yes, players are earning more than ever, but the big market teams at the top are dominating spending, tilting the balance in their favor.

Players should be thrilled with this environment, in which big names and young rookies are being showered with big deals. The owners? Not so much.

That battle will be at the crux of negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement this winter. The current CBA expires on December 1 of this year, and a fierce battle is expected when the two sides finally sit down at the negotiating table. That agreement will almost certainly change the entire financial structure of the sport.

The outcome of that fight will determine whether baseball’s spending boom continues.

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