The Dodgers are showing you get what you pay for
With the 2025 season well behind us at this point, and the calendar about to flip to 2026, the final CBT payrolls were released this weekend for each club. There are some big blunders, like the Texas Rangers only going over the CBT threshold of $241 million by less than $200,000, which is quite the mistake.
This would have been an easy year to reset their payroll taxes, and reset the penalties they have to pay by staying under the threshold for one season. But instead, they went barely over, and those taxes will continue to be high. That’s not the worst news for AL West fans.
One team that doesn’t care about the CBT threshold is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who held a $417.34 million payroll in 2025, which amounts to a $169.375 million tax assessment on their payroll. That $169 million figure is higher than the team payroll of 12 clubs—nearly half the league.
Of course, one of those club was the Athletics, despite their spending spree from a year ago, where they locked up Luis Severino in free agency, added Jeffrey Springs and his contract, and then extended the stays of Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler with contract extensions.
With all of that spending, the A’s finished with a payroll of $118.141 million. For those keeping track at home, it was estimated that the figure the A’s were reaching for last winter in order to avoid a grievance being filed by the MLBPA was right about $115 million, so the A’s went slightly above and beyond.
Right now the A’s estimated payroll over at FanGraphs is sitting at $106 million for the 2026 campaign, so assuming that they still have the $115 million benchmark to hit, they’ll have to spend a little more this offseason.
By all accounts, that does seem to be the intention of the club, who have already reportedly offered Ha-Seong Kim a four-year, $48 million deal that he rejected to sign with the Atlanta Braves (one year, $20 million). The hope here is that the A’s end up being able to hand that money out to someone that will be able to help them out in 2026 and beyond, like Kim.
The alternative would be signing a relief pitcher for above market rate, like they did with Jose Leclerc last winter, or bringing in veteran infield options that don’t necessarily fit onto next year’s roster. Obviously, the A’s could always make a big signing at a position of need, and then add some veteran arms to help supplement their young group, and then they’d be off to the races.
The Dodgers are putting together the best roster they possibly can, year in and year out, and that’s certainly admirable, if not a little frustrating for fans of the game.
