Comparing Braves CBT payroll to previous year revenue in the Anthopoulos era
December 8, 2024
Comparing Braves CBT payroll to previous year revenue in the Anthopoulos era
3 comments
2021 was the only year payroll went down, and that was because of the pandemic. I have confidence AA is going to spend this offseason, whether via FA or trades. There’s just too many needs to fill with a wide open contention window.
I’ve seen way fewer “Liberty Media is hoarding money!” comments in the last few years, but there appears to be a vocal minority of fans who still refuse to believe that the Braves are taking the money they’re making from, e.g., the Battery and actually allocating it to player payroll.
I think a quick and dirty way to determine whether this is true is to look at how the Braves’ revenue in a given year impacts the way they spend next year.
A few notes:
– I use CBT payroll rather than cash payroll because I think CBT payroll better captures the financial outlay a team is making in a given year. Like even if Ohtani’s cash figure is $2M this year, obviously his ~$45M luxury tax figure better captures the financial commitment the Dodgers have made to him.
– If you’re wondering, “has the Braves’ revenue increase outpaced their CBT payroll increase, even if both have gone up?” the answer seems to be no. In 2018, the payroll-to-revenue ratio was .352. This past year, it was .479. **The share of revenue the Braves allocate to CBT payroll has gone up every single year in the Anthopoulos era except for 2022** (and that’s because they spent 91% of their 2020 revenue on CBT payroll in 2021! Just a pandemic-era issue.)
– Yes, the main reason the Braves’ CBT payroll is so big is because the team has signed a ton of extensions. But this isn’t ‘fake’ money; extending stars all the way through their primes is a huge deal.
– **I expect the Braves’ CBT payroll to go down in 2025.** A big reason for this is that the 2024 payroll was somewhat artificially inflated with the ~$25M in dead money the Braves took on to acquire Jarred Kelenic, most of which is now off the books. However, I expect them to be above the $241M luxury tax threshold.
Yep – excellent proof that we do indeed spend aggressively on our roster
3 comments
2021 was the only year payroll went down, and that was because of the pandemic. I have confidence AA is going to spend this offseason, whether via FA or trades. There’s just too many needs to fill with a wide open contention window.
I’ve seen way fewer “Liberty Media is hoarding money!” comments in the last few years, but there appears to be a vocal minority of fans who still refuse to believe that the Braves are taking the money they’re making from, e.g., the Battery and actually allocating it to player payroll.
I think a quick and dirty way to determine whether this is true is to look at how the Braves’ revenue in a given year impacts the way they spend next year.
A few notes:
– I use CBT payroll rather than cash payroll because I think CBT payroll better captures the financial outlay a team is making in a given year. Like even if Ohtani’s cash figure is $2M this year, obviously his ~$45M luxury tax figure better captures the financial commitment the Dodgers have made to him.
– If you’re wondering, “has the Braves’ revenue increase outpaced their CBT payroll increase, even if both have gone up?” the answer seems to be no. In 2018, the payroll-to-revenue ratio was .352. This past year, it was .479. **The share of revenue the Braves allocate to CBT payroll has gone up every single year in the Anthopoulos era except for 2022** (and that’s because they spent 91% of their 2020 revenue on CBT payroll in 2021! Just a pandemic-era issue.)
– Yes, the main reason the Braves’ CBT payroll is so big is because the team has signed a ton of extensions. But this isn’t ‘fake’ money; extending stars all the way through their primes is a huge deal.
– **I expect the Braves’ CBT payroll to go down in 2025.** A big reason for this is that the 2024 payroll was somewhat artificially inflated with the ~$25M in dead money the Braves took on to acquire Jarred Kelenic, most of which is now off the books. However, I expect them to be above the $241M luxury tax threshold.
Yep – excellent proof that we do indeed spend aggressively on our roster