by Paul Semendinger
April 23, 2024
***
The Forbes baseball team valuations are out.
Here are some highlights.
The Yankees are still baseball's most valuable franchise.
The Yankees, according to Forbes, are worth $7.5 billion.
The next closest team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are not even in the Yankees' universe. They are worth a little more than TWO BILLION dollars less then the Yankees (at $5.45 billion dollars).
The third place team, the Boston Red Sox, are just about a billion dollars behind the Dodgers at $4.5 billion. (That means the Yankees are worth three BILLION dollars more than the Red Sox. Three billion dollars. )
The Yankees have such a greater value than the other teams that if one combines the value of the fifth most valuable team (the San Francisco Giants, $3.8 billion) with that of the sixth most valuable team (the New York Mets, $3.0 billion), those two franchises together are not worth as much as the Yankees.
The Yankees are worth more than the Pirates ($1.32 billion), Reds ($1.25), Rays ($1.25), Royals ($1.23), A's (1.2) and Marlins (1.0) - COMBINED. Those six franchises combined are worth $7.25 billion.
Again, the gap between the Yankees and the rest of baseball is not close. The Yankees are in their own universe. And it's not even close.
Some thoughts:
The Yankees have the financial strength to keep Juan Soto and acquire any (and every) other player that can be a difference maker. If the Yankees want or need a player, there is no reason they cannot get that player. At all.
As an illustration of the TWO BILLION DOLLAR difference between the Yankees and the Dodgers... Two billion dollars is equal to paying 25 players $80 million dollars each. (In other words, just about an entire roster of players making double Aaron Judge's annual salary.)
The difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox (in third place) is a 25-man roster comprised of each player making $120 million.
Again, the Yankees' value is light years beyond the other teams.
I am THRILLED the Yankees make so much money. Good for them. Great for them. I am happy the team I root for is so so so so valuable.
But, the Yankees never, ever, ever have an excuse for saying, "We can't afford Player X" or "We need to be concerned about the luxury tax" and etc. Again, just to make up the two billion dollar difference between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the Yankees could pay each of the other 29 teams $68 million each and still have 28 million dollars left over.
I can't stress this enough because I think this gets lost in these discussions... When one says, "The Yankees are worth 7.5 and the Dodgers are worth 5.45," the numbers seem close. Seven and five... no big deal. But it is a big deal because we are not talking about little old seven and little old five. We are talking billions of dollars. This is why I often write the numbers out. 7.5 billion simply does not look the same as 7,500,000,000 which is what we are talking about.
Again, I am thrilled for the Yankees. It's nice to be the best. It's the best.
Now I hope they use their financial might to make their team the best one in baseball year-in and year-out. (That's what the fans are paying so much to see.)
