{"id":361204,"date":"2025-12-20T21:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T21:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361204\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T21:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T21:40:14","slug":"dodgers-to-pay-record-169-million-luxury-tax-bill-after-back-to-back-world-series-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361204\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers to pay record $169 million luxury tax bill after back-to-back World Series wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The price of winning back-to-back championships<\/a> is rarely cheap, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are proof.<\/a><\/p>\n

As first reported<\/a> by The Associated Press, Major League Baseball\u2019s final competitive balance tax numbers for the 2025 season arrived Friday, officially making the Dodgers the team with the highest luxury tax bill in MLB history.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is set to pay a record $169.4 million in luxury tax after capturing its second straight World Series, bringing their two-year total to $272.4 million.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, the Dodgers\u2019 luxury tax bill exceeds the payrolls<\/a> of 12 individual MLB franchises, according to Spotrac. It\u2019s also higher than the combined tax payments of the seven tax-paying MLB teams below the Dodgers and the New York Mets.<\/p>\n

This marks the fifth consecutive season the Dodgers have triggered the luxury tax. The team\u2019s 2025 tax assessment sets a new record, surpassing the Dodgers\u2019 $103 million luxury-tax hit in 2024. With Friday\u2019s $169.4 million charge, Los Angeles has now overtaken the New York Yankees as MLB\u2019s highest overall payer \u2014 $519.4 million to $514.2 million \u2014 since the luxury tax was instituted in 2003.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles\u2019 $417.3 million payroll included $949,244 in noncash compensation for NL MVP Shohei Ohtani, whose deal guarantees him the use of a Dodger Stadium suite and a personal interpreter.<\/p>\n

The New York Mets owe the second most in 2025 luxury tax, at $91.6 million, pushing their bill over the past four years to $320.3 million. According to the AP, the Mets\u2019 $346.7 million payroll also included $369,886 in noncash compensation for Juan Soto, covering a suite, premium tickets and personal security for the All-Star outfielder and his family.<\/p>\n

2025 MLB Luxury Tax Payers (data from Spotrac)<\/p>\n

RankingTeamEstimated Tax Bill (USD)<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

169,375,769<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

91,637,501<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

61,774,820<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

56,062,903<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

13,609,719<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

6,992,447<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

1,497,438<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

1,496,828<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

190,483<\/p>\n

Luxury tax<\/p>\n

The MLB\u2019s \u201cluxury tax,\u201d officially titled the competitive balance tax,<\/a> is the system that requires franchises to pay additional fees for exceeding agreed-upon payroll limits. Clubs that spend over that threshold are taxed on every dollar above it, and the rate increases the longer a team stays over the line. According to MLB, a team\u2019s tax figure is \u201cdetermined using the average annual value of each player\u2019s contract on the 40-man roster, plus any additional player benefits,\u201d with the final number calculated at the end of each season.<\/p>\n

Under the 2022-26 MLB collective bargaining agreement, the tax threshold will rise from $230 million in 2022 to $244 million in 2026. Teams over the limit pay 20 percent the first year, 30 percent the second, and 50 percent if they exceed the payroll limit for a third straight season. The penalty resets if a team dips below the threshold. Big spenders face additional surcharges for exceeding the threshold by $20 million or more, and clubs whose payrolls are at least $40 million over must also move their top draft pick back 10 spots. In short, the league\u2019s biggest spenders face significant financial and competitive consequences.<\/p>\n

According to figures obtained by AP, nine teams owe luxury tax payments for the 2025 season. Alongside the Dodgers and Mets, those franchises include the Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Toronto Blue Jays, the San Diego Padres, the Boston Red Sox, the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

This year matches the record for the most teams taxed at nine, and the league-wide luxury tax total surged to $402.6 million, topping last year\u2019s $311.3 million. MLB requires franchises to pay their tax bills by Jan. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price of winning back-to-back championships is rarely cheap, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are proof. As first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,1187,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-361204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}