Dodgers tops on payroll list
Two missing Dodgers pitchers, Trevor Bauer and Clayton Kershaw, earn nearly as much as the entire Rays’ major league roster heading into the playoffs.
The defending champion Dodgers enter the postseason with more than three times the payroll of the Rays, the team they beat in last year’s World Series.
The Dodgers, who play the Cardinals in Wednesday’s NL wild-card game, had a major league-high $260.9 million payroll on Aug. 31, according to figures compiled by Major League Baseball. The Yankees were a distant second at $203.5 million.
The AL East champion Rays were 26th at $76.6 million. That is just $7.6 million more than earned this year by Bauer and Kershaw, both unavailable to the Dodgers this week.
Bauer, the Dodgers’ highest-paid player at $38 million, has been on paid administrative leave since July 2 under MLB’s joint domestic violence and sexual assault policy. Bauer, through his representatives, has denied any wrongdoing.
Kershaw, third at $31 million behind Bauer and fellow left-hander David Price ($32 million), went on the injured list last weekend with left forearm discomfort.
Kevin Kiermaier, the Rays’ highest-paid player at $11.67 million, earned less than seven Dodgers. He also trails reliever Kenley Jansen ($20 million), right fielder Mookie Betts ($18.7 million), left fielder A.J. Pollock ($18 million) and center fielder Cody Bellinger ($16.1 million).
The Dodgers were followed among postseason teams by the Astros, fifth at $188.4 million; Red Sox, sixth at $187 million; Cardinals, 10th at $167.6 million; Giants, 11th at $165.4 million; Braves, 14th at $149.4 million; White Sox, 15th at $141.5 million; and Brewers, 19th at $105.2 million.
Among luxury tax payrolls, the Dodgers led at $284.4 million and are on track to pay about $14.9 million for exceeding the $210 million threshold.
The Padres, who failed to reach the playoffs, are the only other team over the threshold at $215.6 million and are on track to pay about $1.1 million in luxury taxes.
Final figures will include earned bonuses and will be calculated in December.
The Phillies and the Yankees were at about $208 million each.
Luxury tax payrolls use the average annual values of contracts and include about $15 million per team in benefits and extended benefits plus a $1.5 million per club COVID-19 credit.
No decision yet on Tingler: Jayce Tingler thinks he deserves to stay on as manager of the Padres, despite the biggest collapse in franchise history.
It’s not his decision to make, of course, and as of Tuesday evening, there had been no announcement about the manager’s fate from general manager A.J. Preller, who hired his friend from the Rangers just two years ago.
“I believe in this group,” Tingler said Sunday after the Padres finished 79-83. “Of course I want to be a part of going forward. I think we’re closer to getting up top of the division than we are going the other way. I think we’ve got a lot of talent.”