Mike Freire - A Quick Look At Team Payrolls (2010-2019)

After reading fellow Mack's Mets' writer Tom Brennan's recent piece on Gerrit Cole's new deal with the Yankees, it piqued my interest about team payrolls over the last decade.  Specifically, who is spending what, has it been successful and how have the Mets fared in the "money standings", if you will.

If I asked each of you who were the "big spenders" in MLB, the familiar teams would likely populate that list, such as the Yankees, the Dodgers and the Red Sox.  All of the listed teams would be good guesses, so let's first take a look at the top ten teams with regards to team payrolls for the 2019 season to get an initial idea.

1. BOS       $229 million
2. NYY      $223 million
3. CHI-N   $222 million
4. LAD      $201 million
5. SFG       $178 million
6. STL        $174 million
7. WAS      $172 million
8. HOU      $169 million
9. LAA      $161 million
10. NYM   $161 million

***The listed salary totals were taken from the website Sportrac.com

***I also took the liberty of rounding the figures down to what is listed, for simplicity's sake.

Upon first blush, the top two teams are not a surprise, but there may be a few teams on this list that

are unexpected.  In my humble opinion, I did not expect to see the Cubs, the Giants or the Cardinals on this list.  They are all well run organizations, but they are also not shy about spending money, it seems.

The fact that our "penny pinching" Mets are just barely in the top ten with a team payroll of 161 million dollars is mildly surprising.  Especially if you accept the public narrative that Fred "Scrooge" Wilpon prefers to hide his money in his closet, instead of investing in the team.

Oh and coming in at #7 are the defending World Series champions, which turned out to be a trend that I will elaborate on in a few minutes.

Since a one year snapshot isn't always accurate, let's take a look some of the top franchises with regards to team payrolls over the last ten years (2010-2019);

1.  NYY     $216.8 million (0 titles)
2.  LAD     $205.5 million (0 titles)
3.  BOS     $191.5 million (2 titles)
4.  SFG      $160.4 million (3 titles)
5.  LAA     $154.7 million (0 titles)
6.  CHI-N  $150.3 million (1 title)
7.  STL      $134.7 million (1 title)
8.  WAS     $134.4 million (1 title)

***The Mets average team payroll for the listed decade was $130 million dollars per season and as we know, they did not win any titles (although they came pretty close in 2015).  Their average rank in team payrolls for the last decade was 12.4, or not far off of the top ten.  Not great, but a bit better then average, I suppose.

Taking a look at a much bigger body of statistics reveals a few interesting facts.

Again, there isn't much of a surprise at the top three teams on this list, right?  Unless you expected the Dodgers to be the top spending franchise, that is.  A deeper look at their finances shows that they were an average spending ball club early in the decade (2010-2012), before they hit the proverbial gas pedal and upped their spending tremendously.  Since 2013, the Dodgers team payroll has averaged $245.3 million dollars annually, which would easily be the top figure on our list.

So, what happened?  The team was sold by a financially frugal owner to a group that is quite the opposite.  Does this sound familiar, Mets' fans?  Let's hope that Steve Cohen comes on board and has a similar effect (fingers crossed that the sale is approved and that it doesn't take five years).

The Giants are third on this list, which is still surprising to me since they do not get the same scorn as the other elite teams like the Yankees.  Another thing that they did well this decade was win 3 titles with a team that was based on strong pitching and good fundamentals.  Maybe there is a lesson somewhere in there?

You also might be wondering where the Astros are?  They had a four year window from 2012 through 2015 where they were "tanking" and they had ridiculously low team payrolls (like Tampa Bay Rays low).  They built the core of their current team in that window and it resulted in an eventual title in 2017.  Now that core wants to get paid and the team's payroll has steadily risen, but their decade long average is still pretty low.

In closing, does spending more money lead to championship seasons?

Well, yes and no.

The top two clubs on the list (NYY, LAD) have not won a title in the last decade, despite their spending habits (but they have come close).  However, eight of the last ten champions appear on this list, so there seems to be a correlation of sorts.  The only teams to win a title (KC,  HOU) that are not on this list were in the upper echelon of spending franchises during the year that they won their championship, so that is more evidence to support the notion that spending gives you a better chance at success.

But, not only do you have to spend money to win, you have to spend money WISELY in order to reap the benefits.  Since this is a Mets' blog, that is the ultimate lesson I hope the team learns under the next ownership group. Being the 12th or 13th highest payroll consistently will not result in a title, so increasing the team payroll in future years seems necessary.  You just have to avoid spending money on the Yoenis Cespedes' of the world, which is easier said then done.

Do you agree?