From the high-flying Dodgers to budget-smart Baltimore, check out our ranking of all the MLB Playoff payrolls for 2023.
The top three biggest spenders in baseball for the 2023 season? Yeah, they all missed the playoffs. New York’s various Mets and Yankees combined to drop well over $600 million on their rosters only to miss the postseason entirely, while the San Diego Padres regressed after a run to the NLCS a year ago.
Spending your way to supremacy in a league without a hard salary cap is clearly not as easy as it looks.
We love a good sexy number or two over here at Boardroom, so naturally, this bizarre occurrence got us thinking — what does this team payroll breakdown look like in real terms, and is there much of a relationship between spending and seeding?
Behold, the definitive ranking of the MLB Playoff payrolls among the 12 teams who made the postseason cut, from the flusher-than-flush Dodgers to the eye-poppingly budget-conscious Orioles and Rays, and beyond.
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MLB Payrolls 2023: Highest & Lowest Among Playoff Teams
All MLB salary data via Spotrac.
| TEAM | OVERALL MLB RANK | PAYROLL |
| 1. Texas Rangers | 4 | $251.33M |
| 2. Philadelphia Phillies | 5 | $245.42M |
| 3. Los Angeles Dodgers | 6 | $240.28M |
| 4. Houston Astros | 7 | $237.11M |
| 5. Toronto Blue Jays | 9 | $213.63M |
| 6. Atlanta Braves | 10 | $206.24M |
| 7. Minnesota Twins | 16 | $156.1M |
| 8. Milwaukee Brewers | 19 | $125.34M |
| 9. Arizona Diamondbacks | 21 | $119.26M |
| 10. Miami Marlins | 22 | $105.43M |
| 11. Tampa Bay Rays | 27 | $79.35M |
| 12. Baltimore Orioles | 28 | $71.06M |
Highest-paid Player on Every MLB Playoff Team
Click a player’s name to view his contract details.
| PLAYER | TEAM | 2023 $ |
| t1. Justin Verlander | Astros | $43.33M |
| t1. Max Scherzer | Rangers | $43.33M |
| 3. Carlos Correa | Twins | $32M |
| 4. Bryce Harper | Phillies | $27.54M |
| 5. Freddie Freeman | Dodgers | $27M |
| 6. Christian Yelich | Brewers | $26M |
| 7. George Springer | Blue Jays | $24.16M |
| 8. Matt Olson | Braves | $21M |
| 9. Jorge Soler | Marlins | $19M |
| 10. James McCann | Orioles | $12.15M |
| 11. Ketel Marte | Diamondbacks | $11.6M |
| 12. Zach Eflin | Rays | $11M |
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