Last week, the Associated Press published 2012 payrolls for all 30 teams based on information sent by the clubs to the commissioner's office. Here are the parameters as described by the AP:
The figures are for 40-man rosters and include salaries and pro-rated shares of signing bonuses, earned incentive bonuses, non-cash compensation, buyouts of unexercised options, and cash transactions. In some cases, parts of salaries that are deferred are discounted to reflect present-day values.
In total, MLB teams spent $3,149,424,396, up from $2,999,557,280 last year. The average payroll was just under $105MM and teams like the Cubs, Mets, White Sox, and Twins all came in around that number. The Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball, as they have in every year since 1998, but the 2013 Dodgers will knock them from that perch. The AL West champion A's had the lowest payroll of anyone in 2011 with a sub-$60MM tally. Speaking of the AL West, it should be noted that the Astros are still counted as NL Central members for 2012. Here's a break down of the spending by league and division with last year's averages in parentheses..
American League: $111.7MM per team ($104.7MM)
- AL East: $128.9MM per team ($119.6MM)
- AL Central: $96.3MM per team ($90.5MM)
- AL West: $109.6MM per team ($103.9MM)
National League: $99.1MM per team ($95.8MM)
- NL East: $111.5MM per team ($105.9MM)
- NL Central: $89.4MM per team ($90.8MM)
- NL West: $98.3MM ($88.5MM)
