World Series: Red Sox, Dodgers combined payrolls highest on record
Big-market baseball is back in the spotlight with this year’s World Series, as the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers face off in a battle of two of the largest payrolls in MLB playoff history.
The two franchises had a combined payroll of $419 million for the 2018 season, the highest combined total for two World Series competitors on record, according to Baseball Prospectus. The combined tally shatters the previous record set in last year’s clash between the Dodgers and the Houston Astros, where the teams paid their players a combined $365 million for the year.
The Red Sox ranked first in Major League Baseball with a 2018 payroll of $233 million, spending aggressively in recent years to lure stars such as slugger J.D. Martinez and ace David Price to Beantown. The Dodgers ranked third in the league with a payroll of $186 million, more than $35 million of which goes to the franchise’s ace pitcher, Clayton Kershaw.
“I’m a little concerned having to play these high-payroll teams, it seems unfair to make us do that, but we are going to give it our best,” Dodgers CEO and President Stan Kasten joked at a recent press conference, according to the New York Post.
Historically, teams with high-end payrolls have had a far better playoff track record than their smaller-budget competitors. No team has won the World Series with a payroll under $100 million since 2010, when the San Francisco Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers with a payroll of $97 million.
The Red Sox compiled a league-best 108 wins en route to the World Series. The Dodgers won 92 games, good for third-most in the National League.
First pitch for Game 1 of the 2018 World Series is set for Tuesday at 8:09 p.m. ET on Fox. Twenty-First Century Fox is the parent company of Fox Sports, FOX Business and Fox News.