Tampa Bay Rays: Most wins for fewest bucks
By John Dorschner
The smartest team in baseball is the Tampa Bay Rays — once again.
In all three years I’ve measured this, the Rays have every time did the best in seeing how little money it takes to produce each win.
Their 2020 payroll of $28.3 million produced 40 wins — meaning each win cost them $707,500.
Once again, the worst performing team was the Red Sox — $83.7 million in payroll got them 24 wins. That’s $3.45 million for each win.
The other super big-spenders: Yankees at $3.3 million, Mets at $2.9M, Rangers at $2.87 M and Astros. $2.84 M. The Dodgers, for what it’s worth, spent $2.5 million per win. The MLB average was $1.98 million.
The Marlins were also high-performing, making the playoffs by spending only $1 million per win. Impressive, considering that their payroll of $31.3 million includes $10 million guaranteed to the nonplaying Wei-Yin Chen. It’s a big improvement over the $1.3 million they spent last year per win.
There are various ways to play around with this formula. One would be to add post-season victories to the mix. The Rays, for example, have already had nine, heading into the World Series. Or you could count post-season victories as double or triple wins. I decided to stay with just the regular season.
Note: I use Spotrac for payrolls, because they update throughout the season and include total payroll, adding those still being paid though they’re not playing.
The full list:
TEAM $$$ WINS $/WIN
Rays $28.3 40 $707,500
Orioles $23.5 25 $904,000
Marlins $31.3 31 $1M
A’s $36.7 36 $1.01M
Indians $37.5 35 $1.07M
Pirates $25.1 19 $1.32M
Royals $34.8 26 $1.3M
Brewers $39.9 29 $1.4M
White Sox $52.4 35 $1.50M
Twins $55.4 36 $1.53M
Blue Jays $54.5 32 $1.7M
Reds $55.6 31 $1.8M
Braves $63.1 35 $1.8M
Mariners $48.9 27 $1.81M
Tigers $43.1 23 $1.87M
Padres $72.6 37 $1.96M
League Ave $59.4 30 $1.98M
Cubs $75.6 34 $2.2M
Rockies $61.8 26 $2.37M
Dbacks $60 25 $2.4M
Cards $72.2 30 $2.4M
Dodgers $107.9 43 $2.5M
Giants $73.3 29 $2.52M
Angels $66 26 $2.54M
Nats $68.3 26 $2.62M
Phillies $78.6 28 $2.8M
Astros $82.5 29 $2.84M
Rangers $63.2 22 $2.87M
Mets $77.6 26 $2.98M
Yankees $109.4 33 $3.31M
Red Sox $83.7 24 $3.49M
