Opening Day payroll totals slightly down

Maury Brown as the Biz of Baseball has Opening Day payroll totals for all 30 teams. The Yanks lead the pack with an Opening Day payroll of $201 million, a decline of about $8 million from 2008. The Mets ($149 million), Cubs ($134 million), Red Sox ($121 million) and Tigers ($115 million) round out the top five. Overall, Opening Day spending is down by about $43 million this year over last with the Padres’ 40 percent payroll reduction accounting for the bulk of that figure. As always, good stuff from Maury.