The Golden Trident

By Owen Roberts

Photo Courtesy of Beneath Data, FMT

Just over a month after the New York Yankees lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 5 games, Juan Soto signed a $765M, 15-year contract with the New York Mets. This passed Shohei Ohtani and the LA Dodgers’ $700M, 10-year contract as the largest contract in Major League Baseball history. Soto’s annual salary averages $51M, just over 368 times the $138,570 Fox 5 News claims is needed to live comfortably in New York. 

Forbes states that the average MLB team is worth $2.4 billion. The New York Yankees have the highest current value at $7.55 billion. The plethora of money in professional baseball begs the question: is it too much? The Miami Marlins have the lowest value, yet they still profit $35M each season from ticket sales alone according to Statista. 

The richer teams thrive in the playoffs, while the poorest rarely experience October baseball. This is the trend season after season. Of course, there have been exceptions, the 2002 Oakland Athletics team is the leading example. The underdog team, led by manager Billy Beane, won 103 games and set a record 20-game winning streak. They did this with less than half the amount of money as their rivals. Beneath Data provides the graphs below that explain the connection between MLB wins and team salary from 1977 to 2013. It shows a positive trend suggesting that as the team salary increases so does the win percentage.

So naturally, money does correlate with wins. But does the MLB need all this money? In short, no. Teams spend millions of dollars to acquire a star player, and as the talent increases, so does the salary. The minimum wage for a professional baseball player is $700,000, abundantly higher than the average US salary of just over $65,000. And as most people wish to live lavishly with millions of dollars, never having to worry about money, it isn’t necessary in order to live comfortably. Professional baseball is in the entertainment industry; it is an extra enjoyment. First responder jobs, teaching, military, construction, and other necessary occupations deserve higher pay. There are always opportunities for players to donate or give money for opportunity. 

With a salary like Soto’s, they should be expected to give back in much higher quantities than they do. Recently Shohei Ohtani gave $500K to support wildfire relief in California. While this is a great contribution, it is only 0.07% of his 10-year salary. According to AP News, along with Soto’s contract, he is also given a luxury suite in New York provided by the New York Mets. Not only this, he is also given four free premium tickets to each home game, free travel for his family, a $500,000 bonus if he acquires his first MVP award, $1M for each MVP award he will receive, $100,000 for each All-Star selection, $350,000 for World Series MVP, $150,000 for silver slugger award, and more possible paycheck bonuses based on performance with the Mets.

Keep in mind this is in addition to his 15-year, $765M contract. Hypothetically, if Juan Soto won each of these awards each year for his contract, he would make an additional $30.25M. The amount of money and luxuries dumped toward this one person is absurd, and no amount of talent is worth this. Especially considering that this is an entertainment industry, not by any means an essential profession. 

There has been some backlash recently concerning the volume of money Major League Baseball has been dealing with, mainly because of the Yankees-Dodgers World Series matchup. These are the leading teams in value, so it’s no wonder the Yankees also lead in most World Series wins of all time. FMT provides the photo above, showcasing the 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers World Series team with Will Smith’s (Center Left) 10-year, $140M contract, and Walker Buehler’s (Center Right) 1-year, $8.025M contract.

I love the game of baseball. I love the lore, the excitement, the skill, the drama. But the quantity of money is getting excessive and being spent in the wrong places and lines of employment. What the viewer sees and experiences is a small part of the money that the team is handling. Cutting down on ticket prices, concession prices, team apparel prices, and any other kind of profit from fans would still bring profit to the teams and make the experience more enjoyable for anyone who attends a game.