Some teams, like Houston and the Dodgers, increased payroll costs.
San Diego cut payroll by $96 million in the past year, the New York Mets by $50 million and the Los Angeles Angels by $49 million, among nine teams that slashed spending in a tepid free-agent market that sparked player unrest.
Several top free agents — including two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger — remained unsigned into spring training and took shorter-team deals than they anticipated.“It’s a concern,” said Toronto pitcher Chris Bassitt, his team’s player representative, adding he took notice “when you have reigning Cy Young, when you have seven or eight guys that are really, really good not signed.
The Mets at $306 million topped payrolls for the second straight season and were followed by the Yankees , the Los Angeles Dodgers , Philadelphia and Houston . The Mets are paying $70 million this year to other teams to cover portions of salaries of three players they traded: Houston’s Justin Verlander , Texas’ Max Scherzer and Baltimore’s James McCann . That total is more than the entire $61 million payroll of Oakland.
Of four players with $40 million salaries, three began the season on the injured list, including Scherzer and Verlander at $43.3 million each. Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom, recovering from Tommy John surgery, was tied for third at $40 million with Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.Of 947 players in the major leagues on opening day, 532 had salaries of $1 million or more, 56%, and down from 546 last year.
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