The New York Mets started out the 2023 season with plenty of promise; by August, they’d opted to lay the groundwork for a large-scale rebuild instead. By season’s end, they’d finished fourth in the NL East. As 2023 itself comes to a close, however, the Mets have found themselves at the top of one MLB category — and to a record-setting extent at that.
That’s the good news; the bad news is that they’ve set a new record for the league’s Competitive Balance Tax, otherwise known as MLB’s luxury tax.
As the Associated Press reports (via The Guardian), the Mets are set to pay $100,781,932 for going over the league’s salary cap. The previous record, the AP reports, was set by the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers, who had to pay just over $43 million.
Major League Baseball’s payroll threshold for the 2023 season was $233 million. As for the Mets, they went considerably over that amount, with the Associated Press citing a figure of $374.7 million for the season. If it’s any consolation to the Mets — and I’m not sure it is — they’re far from alone in this. While the Mets set an individual team record for the luxury tax, the combined luxury tax payments for the 2023 season also managed to set a new record.
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