Even after dealing away right-hander Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot in a cost-cutting deal with the Dodgers back in December, the Rays are set to hit a franchise record in terms of payroll this season. As relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, principle owner Stuart Sternberg recently spoke regarding the new high-water mark for spending in Tampa and the club’s future payrolls. In his comments, Sternberg indicated that the elevated payroll for 2024 is “going to lead to real losses this year” for the club.
While its impossible to evaluate that statement fully given the lack of publicly available information regarding the Rays’ (and the majority of MLB clubs’) finances, it’s easy to see that the club’s 2024 payroll is well outside of their typical range. RosterResource projects the club for a $99MM payroll in 2024, while Cot’s Baseball Contracts projects Tampa to open the season with a payroll of just under $91MM. Regardless of which figure you take into account, it would be a healthy increase to payroll for a club that opened the 2023 season with a $73MM payroll and has an all-time high of just under $84MM.
Per Sternberg, his willingness to exceed past payroll limits is fueled by the club’s competitive window. It’s easy to see the logic behind that, as the Rays have been among the league’s most competitive clubs in recent years. The club has a cumulative 511-359 record since the start of the 2018 season, good for an excellent .578 winning percentage. Meanwhile, they’ve made the playoffs in five of those six seasons, including a trip to the World Series during the shortened 2020 season.
It doesn’t appear as though the increased payroll is guaranteed to last, however. While Sternberg acknowledged that he wants to keep the team’s success in recent years “rolling… if we can,” he also acknowledged that the club’s competitive window is far from guaranteed.
“We think this is, like, our sort of time, and we don’t know if we’re going to have this opportunity in a year or two,” Sternberg said, as relayed by Topkin, who went on to note that Sternberg suggested that the club could “pull back” payroll in 2025 if the club fails to meet expectations in 2024. That’s a possibility worth considering, as the club resides in a difficult AL East division that also sent the Orioles and Blue Jays to the playoffs last year, not to mention a Yankees club that added the likes of Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, and Marcus Stroman this winter.
Even so, the Rays are coming off a 99-win campaign and feature a strong core of position players that includes the likes of Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe, Randy Arozarena, and Isaac Paredes. The pitching staff is less solid, but nonetheless features the likes of Zach Eflin and Aaron Civale to go along with youngsters like Ryan Pepiot, Shane Baz, and Taj Bradley as well as a strong bullpen led by Pete Fairbanks, Jason Adam, and Phil Maton. If the Rays do end up slashing payroll in the coming years, that could mean parting ways with several key players from the aforementioned group. Eflin, Diaz, Lowe, and Jeffrey Springs are all slated to make more than $10MM in 2025, with Arozarena also presumably due for a raise on his $8.1MM salary for the 2024 season.
Aside from the team’s on-the-field success, Topkin notes that Sternberg has plenty of off-the-field incentives to field a competitive team in the coming years. The team announced plans for a new stadium last fall, which Topkin adds is expected to be voted on by local officials in May. Attendance has also been on the rise for the Rays in recent years; per Sternberg, the attendance boost was “the first time it moved up a nice amount” since the mid-2000’s.
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