The New York Yankees were charged with the third-highest luxury tax in baseball for the 2024 season, but they were a very distant third place behind the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets.
The Yankees' bill came to $62.5 million on their final payroll of $316.19 million, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale.
It was part of an MLB-record total of $311.31 million paid in luxury tax penalties paid by nine teams. The Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the 2024 World Series, paid $103.016 million on a $353.015 million payroll. The Mets paid $97.116 million on a $347.650 payroll.
That tax hit is the reason that Yankees owner and managing partner Hal Steinbrenner said that he would like to keep the 2025 payroll under the $301 million luxury tax threshold.
That gives the Yankees less than $50 million to spend the rest of the offseason to stay on budget. With the addition of Max Fied and Cody Bellinger, the Yankees' projected 2025 Opening Day 26-man payroll is currently $261,914,047 and their 40-man projected competitive balance tax payroll is $283,982,334, according to Cots' Contract.
Also paying taxes for going over the luxury threshold in the 2024 season, were the Phillies ($14.35 million), Atlanta Braves $14.03 million), Texas Rangers ($10.807 million), Houston Astros ($6.48 million), San Francisco Giants ($2.42 million), and Chicago Cubs ($570,309),
All of those teams except for the Rangers, Cubs, and Giants made the playoffs.