Since Opening Day
Every payroll table on this site is a snapshot — thirty numbers as of one date. This one is a move: where each club started in March against where it sits now. It is the only page here that shows a front office changing its mind, and it carries no opinion about whether any of them was right to.
30 clubs · Opening Day to
21
clubs added payroll
9
clubs cut it
1
moved opposite ways on the two rulebooks
The widest add is Milwaukee Brewers +$18.0M and the widest cut is New York Mets −$9.3M in cash. Neither is a verdict: a payroll is a club’s decision, not our read of its roster, so nothing on this page is coloured and the sign does all the work.
One club cut one payroll and added the other
Cash is what a club pays out; tax payroll is the average-annual-value figure it is charged on. A trade moves the two by different amounts, so a club really can spend less this season and owe more against the line. Both are true at once, and a reader shown only one of them has half the story.
- Baltimore Orioles — −$4.5M cash, +$7.3M against the tax line
| Club | Opening Day | Now | Cash move | Tax move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee Brewers | $126.0M | $144.0M | +$18.0M added | +$24.6M added |
| Chicago Cubs | $226.0M | $242.4M | +$16.4M added | +$16.4M added |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | $323.3M | $338.8M | +$15.5M added | +$15.5M added |
| San Diego Padres | $212.7M | $227.0M | +$14.3M added | +$15.6M added |
| Chicago White Sox | $84.1M | $96.2M | +$12.1M added | +$10.1M added |
| Minnesota Twins | $97.6M | $109.3M | +$11.7M added | +$11.7M added |
| Atlanta Braves | $253.9M | $262.9M | +$9.1M added | +$9.1M added |
| Texas Rangers | $183.2M | $191.9M | +$8.7M added | +$8.7M added |
| Tampa Bay Rays | $90.7M | $98.9M | +$8.2M added | +$8.2M added |
| Boston Red Sox | $198.0M | $206.0M | +$7.9M added | +$7.8M added |
| Philadelphia Phillies | $284.8M | $291.9M | +$7.1M added | +$7.1M added |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | $102.1M | $108.3M | +$6.2M added | +$20.5M added |
| Athletics | $92.3M | $97.9M | +$5.6M added | +$5.6M added |
| Seattle Mariners | $163.0M | $168.5M | +$5.5M added | +$16.3M added |
| Cleveland Guardians | $71.2M | $75.6M | +$4.3M added | +$4.3M added |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | $187.2M | $191.5M | +$4.3M added | +$4.3M added |
| Kansas City Royals | $145.2M | $149.4M | +$4.2M added | +$4.2M added |
| Houston Astros | $246.8M | $250.2M | +$3.4M added | +$3.4M added |
| Miami Marlins | $80.5M | $82.5M | +$1.9M added | +$1.9M added |
| Cincinnati Reds | $126.0M | $126.9M | +$0.9M added | +$0.9M added |
| New York Yankees | $300.5M | $301.2M | +$0.7M added | +$0.7M added |
| Washington Nationals | $89.1M | $88.8M | −$0.3M cut | −$0.3M cut |
| Toronto Blue Jays | $275.3M | $274.9M | −$0.4M cut | −$0.2M cut |
| Los Angeles Angels | $179.7M | $178.2M | −$1.6M cut | −$1.6M cut |
| Colorado Rockies | $118.5M | $116.3M | −$2.2M cut | −$1.7M cut |
| St. Louis Cardinals | $102.3M | $99.0M | −$3.3M cut | −$3.8M cut |
| Baltimore Orioles | $170.0M | $165.5M | −$4.5M cut | +$7.3M added |
| Detroit Tigers | $208.7M | $201.5M | −$7.2M cut | −$7.2M cut |
| San Francisco Giants | $198.6M | $189.8M | −$8.8M cut | −$10.3M cut |
| New York Mets | $358.5M | $349.2M | −$9.3M cut | −$10.1M cut |
A move is not a payroll. The two right-hand columns are distances, not levels: they are never summed with, sorted against or compared to the dollars beside them. Where a club sits today is the payroll board; what its payroll is made of is on its own club page.
Two points, for now. This is a start and an end, not a path. The source is a sheet updated in place, so we began keeping a copy of every weekly reading on 2026-08-05 — which is what will eventually turn these two numbers into a line. Nothing here can show you a week we did not capture.
Opening Day and in-season payrolls from Ethan Hullihen (@EthanHullihen, MLBSpreadsheets), from a workbook whose oldest relevant sheet is dated . Cot’s, the source behind the payroll board, publishes no Opening Day figure — which is why this page exists only since a second source did.