The smartest team in baseball is the Tampa Bay Rays – once again.
In
all three years I’ve measured this, the Rays have every time did the best in
seeing how little money it takes to produce each win. Their 2020 payroll of
$28.3 million produced 40 wins – meaning each win cost them $707,500.
Once
again, the worst performing team was the Red Sox -- $83.7 million in payroll
got them 24 wins. That’s $3.45 million for each win.
The other super
big-spenders: Yankees at $3.3 million, Mets at $2.9M, Rangers at $2.87 M and
Astros. $2.84 M.
The Marlins were also
high-performing, making the playoffs by spending only $1 million per win.
Impressive, considering that their payroll of $31.3 million includes $10
million guaranteed to the nonplaying Wei-Yin Chen.
There are various ways to play around with this formula. One would be to add post-season victories to the mix. The Rays, for example, have already had nine, heading into the World Series. Or you could count post-season victories as double or triple wins. I decided to stay with just the regular season.
Note: I use Spotrac for payrolls, because they update
throughout the season and include total payroll, adding those still being paid
though they’re not playing.
The full list:
TEAM $$$ WINS $/WIN Tampa
Bay Rays 28.3 40 0.7075 Orioles 23.5 25 0.94 Marlins 31.3 31 1.0097 A's 36.7 36 1.0194 Indians 37.5 35 1.0714 Pirates 25.1 19 1.3211 Royals 34.8 26 1.3385 Brewers 39.9 29 1.3759 White
Sox 52.4 35 1.4971 Twins 55.4 36 1.5389 Blue
Jays 54.5 32 1.7031 Reds 55.6 31 1.7935 Braves 63.1 35 1.8029 Mariners 48.9 27 1.8111 Tigers 43.1 23 1.8739 Padres 72.6 37 1.9622 League
Average 59.4 30 1.98 Cubs 75.6 34 2.2235 Rockies 61.8 26 2.3769 Diamondbacks 60 25 2.4 Cards 72.2 30 2.4067 Dodgers 107.9 43 2.5093 Giants 73.3 29 2.5276 Angels 66 26 2.5385 Nats 68.3 26 2.6269 Phillies 78.6 28 2.8071 Astros 82.5 29 2.8448 Rangers
63.2 22 2.8727 Mets 77.6 26 2.9846 Yankees 109.4 33 3.3152 Red
Sox 83.7 24 30 3.4875
