MLB Expected To Surpass $4B In Payroll, Benefits During Upcoming Season

MLB “almost assuredly will cross” the $4B threshold as an industry "in payroll and benefits” during the ‘15 season, according to Jeff Passan of YAHOO SPORTS. With the signings of remaining free agents, teams “should guarantee at least” another $125M in ‘15 salaries to players “before the start of the season, pushing the total well past” the $3.63B teams paid players last season. By adding an estimated $12M per team in “benefits and other supplementary income, the total money paid should rocket past” $4B, as the industry’s annual revenue exceeds $9B. Nearly two-thirds of the teams in MLB “could start the season” with $100M-plus payrolls, with the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox “all certain to exceed” the $189M luxury-tax threshold. The bottom five in payroll are “some familiar culprits.” The Astros “again are projected to have baseball’s lowest payroll” at $64.7M, “even with a jump of more than” $20M from Opening Day ’14 (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/15).