The New York Mets, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres have the three top payrolls in baseball this season, with a combined $880 million spent on player salaries this year, and all three will be watching from home when the MLB playoffs start next week.
The poor performance of these teams has been so surprising that some throughout the sport are wondering if free agent spending will fall below expectations this winter because owners of larger payroll clubs will see a correlation here and may mistake it for causation -- especially with the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks all likely to make the playoffs with bottom-10 payrolls.