MLB Payroll to Wins Ratio Reveals Surprises

We all know that spending money on free agents has ballooned the payroll of teams like the Yankees to astronomical levels.  The Yankees are often nicknamed the Yankee$ because of the amount of money they spend on their players.  They are far and away the biggest spender, with their payroll topping $201 million.  A distant second on the list is their crosstown rival, the Mets.  They come in at $149 million, more than $50 million or 25 percent less than the Yankees.

At the bottom of the list are the Florida Marlins and the San Diego Padres.  The Marlins entered the season with a $36 million payroll and the Padres had a $43 million payroll.  But the Padres just traded Jake Peavy, who made $11 million, so that drops their payroll to $32 million.

The Washington Post did an analysis of the cost per win of the teams in MLB.  You can crunch the numbers beyond what they did yourself if you want.  Just take the standings, and divide the payroll by the number of wins.

The teams with the best bang for the buck are the teams with the two lowest payrolls, the Marlins and the Padres.

But, if you crunch the numbers AFTER the Peavy trade, the Padres definitely climb to the top.  As of the date where the numbers were run, they had 43 wins and a payroll of $43 million.  Take out $11 million for Peavy, and add in the $400K that Clayton Richard makes.  That gets you down to $33 million, so the Padres are now spending $770K per win.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees spend the most per win, and the Mets are right behind them.  Each Yankee win costs $3.2 million.

To put that in perspective, if the Padres were to spend as much per win as the Yankees do, they'd be truly horrible, with 11 wins.  And the Marlins, who are right in the hunt, would have 12.