Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, left, Dave Roberts, middle, and Mookie Betts celebrate after Tommy Edman’s two-run double in the first inning of Game 6 in the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets on Oct. 24, 2024, at Dodger Stadium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers gladly — perhaps even gleefully — defer to the New York Mets.
In large part because of heavily deferred contracts to Shohei Ohtani and other top players, the Dodgers have a payroll slightly lower than that of their National League rival who signed outfielder Juan Soto to a record 15-year, $765-million contract this offseason.
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The opening day payrolls of every Major League Baseball team and a trove of other information pertaining to cold, hard cash was calculated by the Associated Press and USA Today. Some surprises are evident, but the overriding theme as usual is up, UP, UP!
The AP calculates the Mets at $322.6 million and the Dodgers at $319.5 million, while USA Today drilled down to the last dollar, with the Mets at $323,099,999 and the Dodgers at $321,287,291. Both calculations put the payrolls of the NL powerhouses within 1% of one another.
The average MLB salary rose 3.6% from a year ago to $5,160,245 — the first time the $5-million barrier was broken. Soto crashed through the ceiling with his salary of $61.875 million, breaking the previous high of $43.3 million shared by former Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
Read more: How the Dodgers benefit from salary deferrals and signing bonuses to build their roster
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Contributing mightily to the rise in average salaries are the Dodgers, who increased payroll an MLB-high $69 million, primarily by doling out contracts to free agents Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Michael Conforto and Kirby Yates. Close behind were the Baltimore Orioles ($66 million increase), Arizona Diamondbacks ($55 million) and San Diego Padres ($47 million) — whose number spiked Wednesday when they announced second-year center fielder Jackson Merrill agreed to a nine-year, $135-million contract.
But the central takeaway from the shower of Monopoly money is the Dodgers’ extensive use of deferred salaries that substantially lower the present-day value of contracts. The New York Yankees can have their torpedo bats, because the Dodgers’ extensive use of deferred money wins innovation of the year.
Ohtani is deferring $68 million of his $70-million annual salary every year of the 10-year, $700-million contract he signed before the 2024 season. The massive deferral lowers the team’s luxury tax commitment and penalties in addition to simply decreasing payroll.
Other Dodgers whose contracts include deferrals reads like the heart of the batting order: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Will Smith and Tommy Edman. Oh, and Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner whose five-year, $182-million contract was the largest the team doled out during the offseason and includes $13 million deferred every year.
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The Dodgers have been accused of gaming the system, although MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and players union boss Tony Clark said during spring training that the contract deferrals don’t break any rules.
Read more: The Dodgers have a record-setting payroll. Could their spending impact future CBA talks?
The collective bargaining agreement will expire after the 2026 season, however, and the creative use of deferrals certainly will be a point of discussion. Manfred said as much during a February news conference.
“It’s clear we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers,” he said. “I think that disparity, as it should be, is certainly at the top of my list of concerns about what’s going on in the sport.
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“When I say I can’t be critical of the Dodgers, they are doing what the system wants. If I’m going to be critical of something, it’s not going to be the Dodgers. It’s going to be the system.”
The Dodgers and Mets aren’t the only big spenders. Seven other teams had opening day payrolls exceeding $200 million, according to USA Today: the Yankees at $293,488,972; Philadelphia Phillies at $284,210,820; Toronto Blue Jays at $239,642,532; Texas Rangers at $220,541,332; Houston Astros at $220,217,813; Atlanta Braves at $214,836,398; and Padres at $208,909,333.
The Angels rank No. 13 at $190,508,096, which includes $38 million owed to injured third baseman Anthony Rendon.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani is a $100-million man this year. Salary not included
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The payrolls of five teams are under $100 million: the Pittsburgh Pirates at $87,645,246; Chicago White Sox at $82,279,825; Tampa Bay Rays at $79,216,312; Athletics at $73,118,981; and Miami Marlins at $67,412,619.
The top 50 out of 953 players on opening day rosters will make 29% of the salaries, a percentage that has held steady for three years, according to the AP. The top 100 earn 48%.
Fifteen players will make $30 million or more and another 51 will make $20 million to $30 million. A total of 526 players will make $1 million or more and 35 players will make the $760,000 minimum.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
