Every year since Forbes first began publishing its ranking of Major League Baseball team valuations in 1998, the New York Yankees have claimed the top spot. But while the Bronx Bombers once again lead the league\u2014at an estimated $8.5 billion\u2014they face serious competition as the sport\u2019s most valuable club for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n
Forbes now values the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions, at $7.8 billion, halving last year\u2019s $1.4 billion gap between the historic rivals. Of course, $700 million is not exactly a Texas League blooper, but the difference stood at $2.1 billion just two years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most around the sport still believe that, relative to their actual business performance, the Yankees would command a premium if they ever hit the open market, giving them a valuation that in some ways makes them look more like an NBA<\/a> or top-tier NFL<\/a> franchise. But the Dodgers, who have been No. 2 in Forbes\u2019 ranking since 2012, have taken a significant lead in terms of annual revenue, posting an estimated $850 million last year, versus $710 million for the Yankees. No other MLB club surpassed even $600 million last season, and across all of the team valuation lists<\/a> Forbes published in 2025, only five clubs exceeded Los Angeles\u2019 revenue figure: three European soccer powerhouses<\/a>, the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n Amid the turbulence with regional sports networks<\/a> across the country, the Dodgers are locked into a local TV deal believed to have paid them more than $200 million last season\u2014triple the MLB average, and more than $60 million ahead of the second-place Yankees\u2014and the addition of Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani two seasons ago has helped put Los Angeles\u2019 sponsorship revenue in a similarly untouchable stratosphere. While bankers caution that the $1 billion in deferred player salary<\/a> on the Dodgers\u2019 books might depress their price tag a bit, several told Forbes they could see the team\u2019s revenue trajectory pushing its valuation ahead of the Yankees\u2019 in the next few years.<\/p>\n Still, the 13% year-over-year growth in the value of the Dodgers looks modest next to the 59% of the San Diego Padres\u2014No. 10 this year at $3.1 billion\u2014and relative to the increases across much of the bottom tier of baseball, with the exception of the Chicago White Sox, whose valuation declined for the second straight year, to $1.94 billion.<\/p>\n The Miami Marlins, climbing 43% from 2025, now set the league\u2019s floor at $1.5 billion\u2014after an eight-year stretch in which they appreciated a mere 12%, from $940 million to $1.05 billion\u2014and MLB\u2019s 30 franchises are up 12% on average, to $2.9 billion, from $2.6 billion a year ago<\/a>. It is baseball\u2019s largest single-year rise since 2017\u2019s 19%\u2014a span in which the NBA, the NFL and the NHL have each posted a year-over-year gain of at least 28%.<\/p>\n MLB\u2019s jump up this year might come as a surprise given the state of local media deals across the country, with regional sports network operator Main Street Sports Group winding down<\/a> and a number of clubs scrambling to preserve<\/a> a business line that just a couple of years ago represented nearly a quarter of teams\u2019 total revenue on average.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not getting back to $90 million a year for the Diamondbacks,\u201d media consultant Patrick Crakes says, referring to the reported average annual value of Arizona\u2019s former local cable deal, which was terminated in 2023. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that what you can get out of pay TV plus streaming isn\u2019t vital. It just doesn\u2019t power those kinds of economics anymore, so baseball has to figure out how to try to claw some of that back and also position itself for a digital universe that may make it easier to make money in the future and has some upside to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Baseball is also staring down a difficult labor negotiation<\/a>. Team owners are expected to demand some form of a salary-cap system when their collective bargaining agreement with the players\u2019 union expires in December, and a lockout is considered \u201calmost guaranteed<\/a>,\u201d in the words of the MLB Players Association\u2019s interim executive director. (Under the current model\u2014which doesn\u2019t cap player payrolls but imposes a competitive balance tax on big spenders, alongside the league\u2019s revenue-sharing requirements\u201412 teams operated at a loss in 2025, according to Forbes estimates, relative to two in the NBA and zero in the NFL and the NHL<\/a> in the most recent season with available data.)<\/p>\n On the other hand, the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to homebuilding billionaire Patrick Zalupski<\/a> in September for a reported $1.7 billion\u2014well above Forbes\u2019 valuation of $1.25 billion that spring\u2014provided a strong sign of investors\u2019 interest in baseball, as have several recent minority transactions around the sport.<\/p>\n The Rays deal valued the team at roughly 5.7 times trailing-year revenue, according to Forbes estimates, and the league\u2019s average multiple now stands at 7.0x\u2014trailing the NBA (12.9x), the NFL (10.7x), the NHL (9x) and MLS<\/a> (8.9x) but the highest mark Forbes has measured for baseball in the 29-year history of its valuation ranking (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season). Forbes values the Yankees at 12 times estimated 2025 revenue, approaching the NBA\u2019s average multiple and better than 27 NFL franchises last year. Meanwhile, at the low end of the baseball spectrum, the Marlins\u2019 4.7x multiple would have beaten MLB\u2019s average a decade ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a league level, despite reworking its ESPN contract<\/a> last year, baseball continues to see its national media revenue grow, and there is some optimism it could see another step-up in its next cycle of rights deals, starting in 2029, as long as the more popular NFL and NBA haven\u2019t sucked up all of the cash available from debt-strapped broadcasters. In baseball\u2019s favor, networks are hungrier than ever for live sports, the only real appointment viewing left on television, and the deteriorating local media market might end up giving MLB more games it can sell nationally right as it posts strong increases in its viewership<\/a>. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is also eyeing a more centralized streaming package<\/a> that would ideally include even teams like the Dodgers that are happy with their current setup.<\/p>\n Overseas markets are another area where MLB hopes to make financial progress in its next round of media deals. To date, the league has generally thrown in international rights in domestic deals or sold them off at negligible rates, but in Japan, for instance, viewership during the 2025 World Series\u2014which, along with Ohtani, featured Japanese stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers\u2014averaged 9.7 million per game<\/a>, better than Canada\u2019s 8.1 million and more than half of the United States\u2019 16.1 million. Foreign companies could also help keep sponsorship revenue rising now that most teams have signed jersey patch partners and may not have much new domestic inventory to sell.<\/p>\n In a more obvious signal of the health of baseball, MLB\u2019s attendance inched up to 71.4 million in 2025 even though the Athletics and the Rays spent the season in lower-capacity minor league ballparks, giving the league three straight years of ticketing growth\u2014its first such stretch since 2005-07.<\/p>\n With all of that momentum, the Padres are widely expected to fetch more than $3 billion as the Seidler family looks to sell the club this year, perhaps even reaching $3.5 billion with the inclusion of their events business, which generates tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue apart from the team itself. Regardless of where exactly the Padres\u2019 price lands, it will almost certainly demolish the record for an MLB control sale, set by Steve Cohen\u2019s $2.4 billion purchase<\/a> of the New York Mets in 2020.<\/p>\n MLB\u2019S MOST VALUABLE TEAMS 2026\n<\/p>\n #1. $8.5 billionOne-Year Change: 4% | Revenue: $710 million | Operating Income: -$53 million | Owner: Steinbrenner family<\/a><\/p>\n Michael Chisholm\/MLB Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #2. $7.8 billionOne-Year Change: 15% | Revenue: $850 million | Operating Income: -$20 million | Owner: Guggenheim Baseball Management<\/p>\n Nicole Vasquez\/MLB Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #3. $5.25 billionOne-Year Change: 9% | Revenue: $567 million | Operating Income: $78 million | Owners: John Henry<\/a>, Tom Werner<\/a><\/p>\n Daniel Shirey\/MLB Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #4. $5 billionOne-Year Change: 9% | Revenue: $599 million | Operating Income: $58 million | Owner: Ricketts family<\/a>#5. $4.05 billionOne-Year Change: 1% | Revenue: $477 million | Operating Income: $54 million | Owner: Greg Johnson<\/a>#6. $3.5 billionOne-Year Change: 9% | Revenue: $553 million | Operating Income: -$213 million | Owners: Steve and Alexandra Cohen<\/a>#7. $3.4 billionOne-Year Change: 10% | Revenue: $539 million | Operating Income: -$52 million | Owners: Middleton family<\/a>, Buck family<\/p>\n Mitchell Leff\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #8. $3.35 billionOne-Year Change: 12% | Revenue: $524 million | Operating Income: $27 million | Owner: Atlanta Braves Holdings#9. $3.2 billionOne-Year Change: 14% | Revenue: $464 million | Operating Income: -$45 million | Owner: Jim Crane<\/a>#10. $3.1 billionOne-Year Change: 59% | Revenue: $452 million | Operating Income: -$1 million | Owner: Seidler family<\/p>\n Erin Hooley\/Associated Press<\/p>\n #11. $2.8 billionOne-Year Change: 2% | Revenue: $377 million | Operating Income: -$14 million | Owners: Arturo and Carole Moreno<\/a>#12. $2.75 billionOne-Year Change: 8% | Revenue: $350 million | Operating Income: $33 million | Owner: William DeWitt Jr.#13. $2.7 billionOne-Year Change: 10% | Revenue: $398 million | Operating Income: -$44 million | Owner: Ray Davis<\/a>#14. $2.5 billionOne-Year Change: 16% | Revenue: $445 million | Operating Income: -$71 million | Owner: Rogers Communications<\/a><\/p>\n Daniel Shirey\/MLB Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #15. $2.35 billionOne-Year Change: 7% | Revenue: $390 million | Operating Income: $24 million | Owners: John Stanton<\/a>, Chris Larson#16. $2.15 billionOne-Year Change: 2% | Revenue: $300 million | Operating Income: -$15 million | Owner: Lerner family<\/a>#17. $2.1 billionOne-Year Change: 11% | Revenue: $355 million | Operating Income: $23 million | Owner: David Rubenstein<\/a>#18. $2 billionOne-Year Change: 11% | Revenue: $320 million | Operating Income: $45 million | Owner: John Fisher<\/a>#19. $1.96 billionOne-Year Change: 23% | Revenue: $324 million | Operating Income: -$31 million | Owner: Ken Kendrick<\/a><\/p>\n Richard Rodriguez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #20. $1.94 billionOne-Year Change: -3% | Revenue: $239 million | Operating Income: -$40 million | Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf<\/a>#21. $1.9 billionOne-Year Change: 12% | Revenue: $354 million | Operating Income: $47 million | Owner: Mark Attanasio<\/a>#22. $1.8 billionOne-Year Change: 16% | Revenue: $363 million | Operating Income: $27 million | Owner: Ilitch family<\/a>#23. $1.71 billionOne-Year Change: 14% | Revenue: $315 million | Operating Income: $11 million | Owner: Pohlad family#24. $1.7 billionOne-Year Change: 36% | Revenue: $290 million | Operating Income: $31 million | Owner: Patrick Zalupski<\/a><\/p>\n Matt Dirksen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #25. $1.68 billionOne-Year Change: 14% | Revenue: $319 million | Operating Income: $20 million | Owners: Richard Monfort, Charles Monfort#26. $1.66 billionOne-Year Change: 19% | Revenue: $337 million | Operating Income: $53 million | Owners: Paul Dolan, David Blitzer<\/a>#27. $1.64 billionOne-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $330 million | Operating Income: $25 million | Owner: John Sherman#28. $1.62 billionOne-Year Change: 20% | Revenue: $330 million | Operating Income: $48 million | Owner: Nutting family<\/p>\n Kyle Cooper\/Colorado Rockies\/Getty Images<\/p>\n #29. $1.6 billionOne-Year Change: 21% | Revenue: $336 million | Operating Income: $26 million | Owner: Phil Castellini#30. $1.5 billionOne-Year Change: 43% | Revenue: $320 million | Operating Income: $53 million | Owner: Bruce ShermanMETHODOLOGY<\/p>\n Forbes\u2019 team valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) based on historical transactions and the future economics of the sport and each team. Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are estimated for the 2025 season and are net of revenue sharing, competitive balance taxes and stadium revenue used for debt service. Playoff revenue is excluded.<\/p>\n The team values include the economics of each team\u2019s stadium (including revenue from non-MLB events that accrues to the team\u2019s owner) but not the value of the stadium real estate itself. Similarly, the values include rights fees from regional sports networks owned by a team but not the value of the RSNs themselves; equity stakes in other sports-related assets and mixed-use real estate projects are also excluded.<\/p>\n Team values are rounded to the nearest $10 million, and estimated revenue and operating income are rounded to the nearest $1 million. All figures are in U.S. dollars based on the average U.S.-Canada exchange rate during the 2025 season (1 CAD = 0.87 USD).<\/p>\n The information used to compile Forbes\u2019 valuations primarily came from team and league executives, sports bankers, media consultants and public documents, such as stadium lease agreements and filings related to public bonds.<\/p>\n More From ForbesForbesThe Savannah Bananas, Baseball\u2019s Zaniest Team, Are Now Worth Half A Billion DollarsBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesThe World\u2019s Most Profitable Sports Teams 2026By Brett Knight<\/a>ForbesThe World\u2019s Richest Sports Team Owners 2026By Hank Tucker<\/a>ForbesHow Smashburger Founders\u2019 Sports Bar Chain Is Reshaping The Game-Day ExperienceBy Brett Knight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year since Forbes first began publishing its ranking of Major League Baseball team valuations in 1998, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,319606,1187,5882,591,319605,319609,319607,319603,319604,2704,319608,85],"class_list":["post-661636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball-team-values","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-team-values","tag-mlb-teams-worth","tag-mlb-valuations","tag-most-valuable-baseball-teams","tag-most-valuable-mlb-teams","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-richest-mlb-teams","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661636","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=661636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}