- Steve Cohen took over the New York Mets as majority owner in October 2020, and has spared no expense to get the franchise back to success.
- The Mets have made it to the postseason in two of four years with Cohen at the helm, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in last season’s NLCS.
- The Mets led the majors in payroll for the third straight season.
You need to spend money to make money, and that is especially true in Major League Baseball. As the only league with no salary cap, teams can spend whatever they want.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is taking that to the limit. The Mets spent more than any other team in 2024, and it was the third consecutive season they have done so.
Mets Pay Out $430 Million in Payroll and Luxury Tax
It was reported on Wednesday that the Mets led the majors in spending once again, shelling out a lot of money for their team.
The Mets had a payroll of $333.3 million in 2024, which broke the record of $319.5 million they spent in 2023. Cohen also had to pay another $97.1 million in luxury tax, which is what a team has to pay when they spend over $237 million.
This doesn’t even count the Mets signing outfielder Juan Soto to a 15-year deal worth a record $765 million in December 2024. But the Mets are lapping the field for most of the major leagues in spending.
Their payrolls from 2021 to 2024 come to more than the Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Tampa Bay Rays have spent, combined, from 2004 to 2024, which is outlandish.
The top five in the final MLB payrolls are:
- New York Mets — $333.3 million
- New York Yankees — $310.9 million
- Los Angeles Dodgers — $270.8 million
- Philadelphia Phillies — $249.1 million
- Houston Astros — $244.9 million
It should be noted that the Dodgers have deferred over $1 billion in salary since 2023.
Will This Spending Get the Mets to the World Series in 2025?
It remains to be seen if all this spending will get the Mets their first World Series since 1986. Most 2025 World Series odds have the Mets behind the Dodgers at most MLB betting sites. However, they still have to go out and play the games.
But the payroll list shows that it does pay to shell out big bucks if you want success in Major League Baseball. The Dodgers won it all in 2024, and are favored to do so again. They beat the Yankees in the World Series, and the Dodgers also beat the Mets in the NLCS.
The Mets got past Philadelphia in the NLDS, but Houston lost to Detroit in an AL Wild-Card series. All five teams at least made it to the playoffs, and the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets all managed to skip the wild-card round.
This is both good and bad for baseball, as the lower-spending teams need to be encouraged to invest more in their teams. However, the higher-spending teams are going wild with their wallets. The conversation is ongoing about how to control spending in baseball, but there likely won’t be a solution (or a salary cap) anytime soon.
