According to the AP, the Yankees will open the season with an estimated $204M payroll, the second highest in the game behind the Dodgers ($235M). This will be the first time since 1999 that New York will not have baseball’s highest Opening Day payroll. The Astros ($45M) and Marlins ($48M) have the lowest and second lowest payrolls, respectively, and the league average salary is in the $3.95M to $4M range.
The payroll estimations cover everything — the 40-man roster, players on the DL or restricted list, pro-rated salaries, payments from other teams, so on and so forth. The Yankees opened last season with a $228M payroll according to Cot’s, though that is an outlier because they took on salary late in camp (Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay, etc.) to cover for injuries. The team’s average Opening day payroll from 2008-12 was ~$208M, so it has not increased as league revenues and other payrolls around the game have gone up. The luxury tax is doing what it was intended to do.
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