{"id":597652,"date":"2026-04-10T10:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597652\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:06:13","slug":"mlbs-average-salary-increases-to-5-34-million-for-2026-mets-have-baseballs-highest-payroll-at-352-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597652\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB’s average salary increases to $5.34 million for 2026; Mets have baseball’s highest payroll at $352 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball\u2019s average salary increased to $5.34 million for the 2026 season, according to a study by the Associated Press<\/a>. That salary represents a 3.4% increase from the $5.16 million that players averaged last year.<\/p>\n

Despite the uproar over the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 offseason spending<\/a>, the New York Mets actually have baseball\u2019s highest payroll this year at $352 million. (That\u2019s less than the $355.4 million<\/a> the team spent on salaries in 2023. But the Mets\u2019 2026 figure is up from last year\u2019s $322.6 million payroll.)<\/p>\n

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The Dodgers rank second with a $316.6 million payroll after winning back-to-back World Series championships. That figure is less than last year\u2019s $319.5 million, however, if not for deferred salaries, the Dodgers\u2019 payroll would be $395.2 million, according to the AP. The Mets would be at $360 million without taking deferred salaries into consideration.<\/p>\n

Coming in at third among MLB team payrolls is the New York Yankees at $297.2 million, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies at $282 million and Toronto Blue Jays with $269 million.<\/p>\n

In addition to carrying the highest team payroll, the Mets also have the player with MLB\u2019s highest average salary this season with Juan Soto earning $61.9 million. He has baseball\u2019s top average salary for the second consecutive year. The Yankees\u2019 Cody Bellinger is next at $42.5 million.<\/p>\n

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Filling out the top five among highest average individual salaries are Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler and Mets third baseman Bo Bichette at $42 million, followed by Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earning $40.2 million. (Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge just missed the top five with his $40 million salary for 2026.)<\/p>\n

Despite Kyle Tucker\u2019s four-year, $240 million contract<\/a> averaging out to an annual salary of $60 million, he\u2019s only being paid $1 million in base salary<\/a> for 2026 in a heavily backloaded deal that includes a $64 million signing bonus (with $54 million paid this year and $10 million next year). Tucker will earn $55 million in 2027 with $60 million player options for 2028 and 2029.<\/p>\n

Which teams boosted their payrolls most? The Detroit Tigers went from $64.2 million last season to $206.7 million this season, led by the $32 million that AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal won in arbitration<\/a>. The Atlanta Braves increased their player budget by $44.1 million and the Chicago Cubs joined the Mets and Blue Jays by spending just under $30 million more.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Twins led MLB teams with the largest reduction in payroll, slashing their $96.5 million figure from last season to $46.3 million. (The team shed significant salaries<\/a> at last season\u2019s trade deadline.)<\/p>\n

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Other clubs with the biggest payroll decreases include the St. Louis Cardinals, who cut their player budget from $141.5 million to $100.4 million. The Cleveland Guardians reduced their payroll by $40 million, while the Texas Rangers cut payroll by $37.3 million and the Washington Nationals are paying $23.3 million less in salaries this year.<\/p>\n

The median salary in MLB \u2014 the middle point between an equal number of players earning more and earning less \u2014 is $1.4 million this season, up by $50,000, according to the AP\u2019s study. A $1 million salary is drawn by 519 players, while 19 players are earning $30 million or more, 74 have a $20 million salary and 168 will earn $10 million. MLB\u2019s $780,000 minimum is being paid to 31 players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball\u2019s average salary increased to $5.34 million for the 2026 season, according to a study by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[6097,146645,4996,64,63,158544,288049,21598,5158,5258,7310,5260,1829,16051,1187,5882,2364,591,1830,2704,11455,2365,85,2366,6100,2367,5161,15146,5264,50577],"class_list":{"0":"post-597652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-annual-salary","10":"tag-atlanta-braves","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-average-salary","14":"tag-base-salary","15":"tag-bo-bichette","16":"tag-chicago-cubs","17":"tag-cleveland-guardians","18":"tag-cody-bellinger","19":"tag-detroit-tigers","20":"tag-juan-soto","21":"tag-kyle-tucker","22":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","23":"tag-major-league-baseball","24":"tag-minnesota-twins","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-new-york-mets","27":"tag-new-york-yankees","28":"tag-payroll","29":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","32":"tag-tarik-skubal","33":"tag-texas-rangers","34":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","35":"tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr","36":"tag-washington-nationals","37":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597652","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=597652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}