NEW YORK – Major League Baseball payrolls fell 4% in 2021, compared to the league’s last full season.
And the $ 4.05 billion total was the lowest in any full campaign since 2015.
The drop in payrolls has generated part of the labor discontent that has already led to the first unemployment in more than a quarter of a century. This month, the collective contract expired and the owners decided to impose a closure on December 2.
Payrolls are down 4.6% from their all-time high of just under $ 4.25 billion in 2017. That was the first year of the collective bargaining agreement that now expired.
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The decline is featured in information sent by the clubs to the commissioner’s office and obtained by The Associated Press on Monday. Spending on Major League Baseball players hasn’t been this low since 2015, when a total of $ 3.9 billion was noted.
The Los Angeles Dodgers topped the majors, with a payroll of $ 262 million in 2021. It was the second-highest in major league history, behind only the $ 291 million paid by the same franchise in 2015.
The Dodgers were sanctioned on Monday with the so-called luxury tax, for $ 32.65 million. Baseball again taxed clubs that exceed the ceiling established in their payroll after suspending the tax for the pandemic for a year.
San Diego Padres was the other club that had to make an additional payment, for $ 1.29 million, after failing to advance to the playoffs with a roster that included stars such as Fernando Tatis Jr, Manny machado, Yu darvish, Will myers Y Eric Hosmer.
Five teams fell within $ 4 million or less of hitting $ 210 million in payroll, the limit the tax was worth. They are the Philadelphia Phillies ($ 208.4 million), the New York Yankees ($ 208.4), the New York Mets ($ 207.7), the Boston Red Sox ($ 207.6) and the Houston Astros ($ 206.6).
Gross payrolls and those calculated for luxury tax purposes are measured differently. Payrolls include salaries, prorated signing bonus shares, and other guaranteed income, as well as awards. In some cases, the deferred parts of the salary are discounted from their present value.
The payroll for the luxury tax is somewhat more prospective, since it is calculated on the average of the annual values of the contracts for the players who are part of the 40-member squad.
This includes about $ 15.5 million per team for benefits.
Payrolls rose consistently from $ 3 billion in 2011 to $ 4,070 in 2016. They peaked in 2017, before declining slightly to $ 4.2 billion in 2018 and 19.
Because the pandemic shortened the 2020 campaign, wages were paid at a 60/162 ratio. This reduced payrolls to $ 1.75 billion.
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Major League Baseball payrolls drop 4% in 2021