Baseball in the modern age is a clear hierarchy of financial ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’ For every big spender like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees (all of whom had payrolls of $290+ million in 2025), there're multiple low-budget teams like the Pirates, Rockies and the Guardians with payrolls that are less than half of the teams at the top of the list.
But the beauty of baseball is the fact that a lack of spending doesn’t mean that a team can’t win — despite what anyone says. While the Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series, the Guardians made the postseason in both of those seasons despite finishing near the bottom of the league in payroll.