Baseball fans rejoice (or cry depending on your team’s stance); it’s playoff season! How does this relate to HR you ask? Simple—a new chart released by Business Insider shows that you don’t have to pay a lot of money to have great talent, although it wouldn’t hurt!
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Business Insider, with the help of Spotrac, shows that out of the 14 teams with the largest payrolls in Major League Baseball (MLB), only 9 teams actually made it to the playoffs. According to Business Insider, the Cleveland Indians—whose $114 million payrolls ranks 23rd out of the 30 teams—is the only playoff team not among the top 50 percent in payrolls. Coincidentally, at the time of this writing, the Indians beat the Red Sox and won the MLB American League Division Series, advancing to the American League Championship Series.
Business Insider also reports that “Of the teams among the top 14 payrolls that did not make the playoffs (Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Cardinals, [and] Mariners), the Angels (No. 7, $181 million) are the only team that was not still in contention in the final week of the season.”
Spotrac reports that the Dodgers and Yankees lead all the MLB teams in total payroll again this year with over $200 million in compensation for 2016. The bottom of the pile includes Tampa Bay—who spent the usual $70 million in combined payroll—and Milwaukee, Miami, and Oakland, all of whom spent less than $100 million total.
Your 2017 budget is probably well thought out at this point, but if not, this may give you hope! While most employees and new hires might enjoy earning more money, if these MLB teams can have success on a smaller budget, you can, too! Go (insert team name here)!