Each year, a litany of articles are written about who is spending what on player payrolls in Major League Baseball based upon the Opening Day rosters.

But, a more telling set of numbers arrives each year, well after the season has ended, that is arguably for more critical.

The “End of Year” or “Final” player payroll figures in MLB shows how clubs spent over the course of a season, and reflects changes after the rosters are expanded to 40 players toward the end of the season. It’s also the figure that drives who has, or hasn’t broken the Luxury Tax threshold. For 2011, a total of $2,999,559,291 was spent at the end of the season, up 3.02% from $2,911,575,488 in 2010. It was the largest increase since 2008 when salaries increased 6.20%.

When the season started, the Yankees (again) ranked #1 in the league by player payroll with the Phillies #2. When the season ended, the Yankees still held the #1 position, but the Red Sox went to #2. With it, both those clubs will have to pay penalties as part of the Luxury Tax system.

So, how do the EOY player salaries shake out?

The biggest gainer from 2010 to 2011 is the Texas Rangers. Their end of year player payroll was $103,967,140 up a whopping 39.92% from $74,302,980 the year prior. It was the largest increase since 2006. Every season since then, the Rangers had been cutting payroll, not increasing it.

Other big gainers were the Marlins (up 30.86% after being “forced” into spending when it was found the club was not spending revenue-sharing proceeds correctly in 2010), the  2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants (up 23.36% from 2010), and the Orioles (up 18.61% from 2010).

The biggest decliners both sit at the bottom of the EOY player payroll list, but with very, very different outcomes in the standings.

Ranking 29th in EOY payroll were the Tampa Bay Rays. With the loss of several free agents, the club saw a decrease of 41.98% compared to 2010, and still made the playoffs. At #30 were the Kansas City Royals, who saw EOY player payroll drop 41.96% and finished last in the AL Central and 23rd overall in the league compared to the Rays’ 7th.

Other points of interest:

• The club has lost a reported $70 million and has had to take out more than one loan, but the New York Mets actually saw player payroll rise 11.51%. At $142,244,744 they ended the season ranked 5th behind only the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and Angels. Next year (and likely in years to follow), the Mets will drop down the list. Already they saw Jose Reyes go to the Marlins by way of free agency.
• The Dodgers are bankrupt, right? Well, when you look at the player payroll figure, it’s hard to see it. The Dodgers ranked 12th in league by way of End of Year player payroll at $109,865,640, that was an ever so slight increase from the year prior (up 0.10%).
• In the “excess of $100 million player payroll dept”, 13 clubs held that distinction in 2011, up from 11 in 2010.
• It hasn’t shown up in the standings, but it has to be a big concern for those tracking financial parity: The AL East has seen a growing chasm between the Yankees at #1 and whoever is the lowest payrolled club at the bottom. In 1999, the distance between the lowest (Rays at $37,860,451) and highest (Yankees at $91,990,955) was $54,130,504. Jump to 2011 and the distance between those two clubs is a staggering $141,821,775, more than double the distance between the two in 1999 based on EOY player payroll.

SELECT READ MORE TO SEE EOY PLAYER PAYROLL FOR 2011 THE % OF INCREASE FROM 2010 ALONG WITH THE 2010 EOY FIGURES

Source: The Associated Press

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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Comments (7)

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Distance between clubs in AL East
written by EmanMsFan, December 27, 2011

If one takes a closer look at the payroll difference between the Yankees and Rays in 1999 and 2011, it becomes apparent that while the dollar amount has increased tremendously, it has done so at almost the exact same rate as free agent costs, meaning that the value of that payroll gap is basically the same as it was in 1999. In 2011, $141.8 Million would be worth about 31.5 wins on the free market at the going rate of $4.5 Million per win (fangraphs). In 1999, I wan't able to easily find the exact dollar value, but based on backtracking from the provided 2002 market value it feels safe to a*sume about $2 Million per win in 1999. At that rate, $54.1 Million was worth about 27 wins on the free market.

The gap is due to the difference between filling out the roster with cost controlled a*sets and filling out a roster with free agents. While that gap has increased, the value only increased 17% rather than the 162% increase of the dollar amount. This helps explain why we have not seen a huge effect in the standings, as the increase in dollar gap is simply due to the fact that it cost more to buy the same advantages they were buying in 1999.

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...
written by MauryB, December 27, 2011

No other division sees a gap even remotely close. It's an unsustainable matter. The Rays cannot continue at the pace they are at, and the Yankees can plug holes via FA. When coupled with changes in the CBA, there will be a change brewing. The gap is about to occur in the AL West, as well.

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Rays
written by Siv, December 27, 2011

@MauryB: Moves like the Matt Moore extension shows that the Rays front office can get creative and still compete with a limited budget.

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Yes the CBA does change things.
written by EmanMsFan, December 27, 2011

I guess I was just trying to show how the money difference is essentially the same as it was 12 years ago. It was a problem then and it is a problem now. I just disagree with the the implication that the gap has grown tremendously, when in fact it has simply grown a little. In 1999 the rays were in a position where the Yankees had a 25-30 win head start and solely through the draft, trades and low cost signings they had to catch up. Now, the situation is the same, where the yankees have a 25-30 win head start and the rays have to play catch up solely through the draft, trades and low cost signings. The new CBA makes improving through the draft a whole lot harder, but that does not change the fact that the value of the dollar difference between the teams is essentially the same.

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in fairness to the Royals,
written by gonfalon, December 27, 2011

they were on the hook for $12M more in 2011 if Gil Meche hadn't surprised everyone by retiring. they still would have shed payroll in 2011, just not by as much.

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Comparing apples to apples
written by monster, December 27, 2011

Is it really fair to compare team salaries straight up? No doubt the Yankees go after the premier players so the bottom line is bigger than a lot of the other teams, but there are other considerations. A player going to New York has to get more money than he would from Kansas City right off the bat anyway considering the taxes and cost of living. Using the cost of living calculator at CNN.money a player in KC making $1.5 million needs to make $3.3 million in New York. One can blow this off, but I'm sure it's a factor to a player's bottom line when negotiating.

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Discrepancy
written by Plank, December 27, 2011

Why is there a discrepancy between the final payroll for the Yankees here (216MM) and in the previous article?

If they were taxed 40% of any amount over 178MM, they should have paid $15,217,982, but in the previous article, you said they paid $13,896,069.

Why don't they match up?

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