This New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series has generated a significant amount of excitement. The two iconic franchises have not met in the Fall Classic since 1981 , and plenty of big-name stars like Aaron Judge , Juan Soto , Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts add sizzle to the proceedings. Yet for fans of middle-class Major League Baseball clubs, who don’t enjoy the large payrolls of these coastal elites, the World Series might prove a dispiriting point: That championships can be bought, that their efforts to compete are futile when faced with the big boys’ big bucks.
With that, USA TODAY Sports takes a look at the dollars and sense of this 120th World Series Do the Yankees and Dodgers have the two highest payrolls? Not exactly. There are various methods to calculate payroll, and myriad sources to cite, but the undisputed No. 1 by any methodology are the New York Mets .
Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings. Steve Cohen’s team was a significant disappointment for much of the season, until catching fire in mid-summer and making it all the way to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. You might say he finally got what he paid for: The Mets ranked No.
1 in preseason payroll ($305.6 million , per USA TODAY Sports), end-of-season allocations ($317.7 million , per Spotrac) and projected competitive balance tax payroll ($356.
2 million , per Cot’s Baseball Contracts). A large chunk of the Mets’ expenditures is dead mone.