2024 MLB Opening Day Financials

Michael Ginnitti
Michael Ginnitti, Managing Editor & NFL/MLB ExpertMarch 28, 2024
© USA TODAY Sports

Opening Day is upon us (amidst the rain for much of the east coast), and so too is our annual MLB Opening Day Financial Primer. We’ll recap the signings & trades from the offseason that was, project payrolls for each team going forward, and point out notable free agents for 2025 as well.

Notable Free Agent Signings

From Shohei Ohtani to Jordan Montgomery, this past winter saw plenty of eyebrow-raising moments for one reason or another. Spotrac details the biggest free agent contracts in a deep dive piece here: Recapping MLB Free Agency

2023-24 Free Agency Totals

With the regular season now here, we can put close on a 5 month free agency window that included 130 major league contracts for a combined total of $2.88 billion. If we exclude the massive pay days for Shohei Ohtani ($700M) & Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325M), this figure drops down to $1.86 billion across 128 contracts.

Last 5 Free Agency Totals
2024: $2.88B
2023: $3.9B
2022: $3.2B
2021: $1.4B
2020: $2.1B

2024 MLB FREE AGENCY

Offseason Spending

When factoring in free agent signings, internal contract extensions,  & arbitration results from this past winter, these days led the way in terms of 2023-24 offseason spending.

  1. Los Angeles Dodgers, $1.26B
  2. Kansas City Royals, $413M
  3. San Francisco Giants, $361M
  4. Philadelphia Phillies, $341M
  5. Houston Astros, $273M

These teams kept their foot on the brake pedal this winter…

  • Oakland Athletics, $26.7M
  • Minnesota Twins, $27.3M
  • Washington Nationals, $28.2M

VIEW MORE OFFSEASON TOTALS

Offseason Trades

87 trades hit the books between November 1st & March 28th, most of them on the smaller side, plenty of them including cash considerations to offset another move, but a few of them certainly seem impactful on the surface:

Dodgers Acquire SP Tyler Glasnow
This seems like it could very well be an “everybody wins” move out of the gate. Tampa Bay was never going to live with a $25M salary for Glasnow (or anybody for that matter), and the Dodgers had an opening to take on a high-level starting pitcher this winter (they ended up with 2). LA extended Glasnow to a 5 year, $136.5M contract upon acquiring him. Pepiot made the Rays’ rotation out of camp.


Yankees Acquire OF Juan Soto
A move that has long been rumored finally came to fruition. Soto will spend his walk year in a park that will have a lot of trouble holding his fly balls. Not a bad way to lead into your first big pay day. Michael King is already settled into the Padres rotation.


Orioles Acquire SP Corbin Burnes
The Orioles didn’t make the free agency splash some were hoping for, but bringing in Burnes to play out his walk season in Baltimore is plenty to hang your hat on (for now). This trade included a rare competitive balance draft pick move (the only type of draft pick allowed to be acquired in MLB).


Padres Acquire SP Dylan Cease
Despite rumors all over the east coast, San Diego swooped in late to acquire Cease from the White Sox. Cease has two more arbitration seasons (2024/2025) ahead of him, making this one of the more impactful acquisitions of the winter.

VIEW ALL TRADES

Opening Day Payrolls

Spotrac is now projecting out full tax payrolls for each team (including their 40-man allocations, minor league salaries, retained salary, etc…). The first tax threshold for the 2024 season comes in at $237M. Any team above this figure is considered a tax-paying team, and there are different levels of penalties based on where a team ends up with the payroll at the year-end. Those thresholds fall at $237M, $257M, $277M, & $297M this season.

Based on our Opening Day estimates, the Mets are set to carry a $336.5M tax payroll into the season, $14M more than the 2nd place Dodgers ($322M), & $27M more than the 3rd place Yankees ($309M). In total, 9 teams are currently projected as a tax team for 2024.

VIEW TAX PAYROLLS

In terms of cash spending, the Yankees ($303M) enter the season with the highest allocation, slightly higher than their cross-town rival Mets ($301M), and the heavily-invested Dodgers ($295M). The Marlins ($100M), Pirates ($92M), and of course Athletics ($66M) enter the year at the bottom of the barrel for now.

VIEW CASH PAYROLLS

2023 vs. 2024 Opening Day Tax Payrolls

Team 2023 2023 % CBT 2024 2024 $ CBT Diff Diff %
ARI $133,719,523 57.4% $212,792,666 89.8% $79,073,143 32.4%
ATL $241,969,166 103.8% $264,173,333 111.5% $22,204,167 7.6%
BAL $88,657,965 38.1% $115,805,166 48.9% $27,147,201 10.8%
BOS $213,732,499 91.7% $205,626,852 86.8% -$8,105,647 -5.0%
CHC $222,199,047 95.4% $231,215,714 97.6% $9,016,667 2.2%
CHW $209,561,666 89.9% $118,686,666 50.1% -$90,875,000 -39.9%
CIN $99,791,166 42.8% $117,849,999 49.7% $18,058,833 6.9%
CLE $116,519,523 50.0% $131,786,309 55.6% $15,266,786 5.6%
COL $191,433,797 82.2% $165,396,428 69.8% -$26,037,369 -12.4%
DET $136,613,499 58.6% $116,871,016 49.3% -$19,742,483 -9.3%
HOU $216,340,476 92.8% $257,638,809 108.7% $41,298,333 15.9%
KC $105,141,666 45.1% $158,816,691 67.0% $53,675,025 21.9%
LAA $224,391,666 96.3% $185,788,333 78.4% -$38,603,333 -17.9%
LAD $243,209,124 104.4% $322,731,927 136.2% $79,522,803 31.8%
MIA $117,666,666 50.5% $115,536,666 48.7% -$2,130,000 -1.8%
MIL $139,165,554 59.7% $146,795,554 61.9% $7,630,000 2.2%
MIN $165,755,713 71.1% $159,326,113 67.2% -$6,429,600 -3.9%
NYM $376,807,499 161.7% $336,502,691 142.0% -$40,304,808 -19.7%
NYY $293,001,666 125.8% $309,096,666 130.4% $16,095,000 4.7%
OAK $76,061,666 32.6% $82,701,666 34.9% $6,640,000 2.3%
PHI $255,246,091 109.5% $257,863,770 108.8% $2,617,679 -0.7%
PIT $91,204,166 39.1% $116,560,416 49.2% $25,356,250 10.0%
SD $251,291,060 107.9% $225,982,011 95.4% -$25,309,049 -12.5%
SF $218,476,666 93.8% $249,711,256 105.4% $31,234,590 11.6%
SEA $182,615,237 78.4% $154,986,666 65.4% -$27,628,571 -13.0%
STL $183,026,387 78.6% $211,700,554 89.3% $28,674,167 10.8%
TB $128,177,154 55.0% $119,215,254 50.3% -$8,961,900 -4.7%
TEX $214,244,826 92.0% $247,201,666 104.3% $32,956,840 12.4%
TOR $250,259,445 107.4% $247,933,452 104.6% -$2,325,993 -2.8%
WSH $122,619,999 52.6% $132,521,666 55.9% $9,901,667 3.3%

Opening Day Starting Pitchers

Getting the nod to take the hill for the first game is still an honor (even if injuries impact so many teams in this regard out of the gate). We've collected the official list of Opening Day starters, making note of each player's salary for the upcoming season. The pitchers range from Tyler Glasnow's $25M with the Dodgers, down to Josiah Gray & Cole Ragan's near minimum salaries with the Nationals & Royals respectively. VIEW 2024 STARTING PITCHER SALARIES

  Team Pitcher 2024 Salary
1 ARI Zac Gallen 10,011,000
2 ATL Spencer Strider 1,000,000
3 BAL Corbin Burnes 15,637,000
4 BOS Brayan Bello 2,000,000
5 CHC Justin Steele 4,000,000
7 CIN Frankie Montas 14,000,000
8 CLE Shane Bieber 13,125,000
9 COL Kyle Freeland 15,000,000
6 CWS Garrett Crochet 800,000
10 DET Tarik Skubal 2,650,000
11 HOU Framber Valdez 2,600,000
12 KCR Cole Ragans 770,000
13 LAA Patrick Sandoval 5,025,000
14 LAD Tyler Glasnow 25,000,000
15 MIA Jesus Luzardo 5,500,000
17 MIL Freddy Peralta 5,500,000
16 MIN Pablo Lopez 9,000,000
18 NYM Jose Quintana 13,000,000
19 NYY Nestor Cortes 3,950,000
20 OAK Alex Wood 8,500,000
21 PHI Zack Wheeler 23,500,000
22 PIT Mitch Keller 7,500,000
23 SDP Yu Darvish 15,000,000
25 SEA Luis Castillo 22,750,000
24 SFG Logan Webb 8,000,000
26 STL Miles Mikolas 16,000,000
27 TBR Zach Eflin 11,000,000
28 TEX Nathan Eovaldi 16,000,000
29 TOR Jose Berrios 17,000,000
30 WSH Josiah Gray 770,000

 

Minimum Salary

The minimum salary for the 2024 MLB regular season comes in at $740,000. The most recent CBA instituted $20,000 increases annually on this figure. Nearly every 1st year player will earn this (or a prorated amount of it) salary for the upcoming season. Most players still in the pre-arbitration portion of their careers will earn at or slightly above this number until they become arbitration eligible in their 4th service year. VIEW MORE

Trade Deadline

This year’s trade deadline is set for Tuesday July 30th, and could include plenty of firepower based on the below list of notable expiring contracts.

Notable 2025 Free Agents

It's never to early to start thinking about next winter. These players are on the must-watch list as they enter a contract season in 2024. VIEW ALL 2025 MLB FREE AGENTS

Starting Pitchers

Corbin Burnes, Shane Bieber, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Luis Severino, Max Fried, Nick Pivetta, Blake Snell, Sean Manaea

Relief Pitchers

Paul Sewald, AJ Minter, Scott Barlow, Ryan Pressly

Infielders

Pete Alonso (1B), Gleyber Torres (2B), Alex Bregman (3B), Christian Walker (1B), Willy Adames (SS), Paul Goldschmidt (1B), Danny Jansen (C), Yoan Moncada (3B), Cody Bellinger (1B)

Outfielders

Juan Soto, Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander, Alex Verdugo, Tyler O'Neill


Top