On Opening Day for the MLB 2025 regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers had the eighth lowest expenditure on player salaries in the game. According to USA Today back in April 2025, the Brewers payroll was $115,136,277. Let me ignore that level of specificity and say the payroll was $115M. Here is perspective on that figure:
- Five MLB teams – – Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays – – had Opening Day payrolls MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH as the Brewers did.
- The Brewers’ payroll was $5.5M LESS THAN the Colorado Rockies’ payroll.
- Five of the seven teams with payrolls less than the Brewers’ payroll – – Marlins, A’s, Rays, White Sox, Pirates – – are notorious for keeping player costs well below league average.
And yet, as of this morning, the Milwaukee Brewers sport the best record in MLB by a comfortable margin. The Brewers are 79-45; that is 7 games better than the Blue Jays who hold the second best record as of this morning. On Sunday night, the Brewers had a 14-game winning streak broken by the Reds; that was the second double-digit winning streak by the Brewers for this season.
Can the Brewers keep this up – – or have they “peaked too soon”? As of today, the Brewers project to win 101 games in 2025; no other National League team projects to win as many as 95 games which means the Brewers may be able to coast into the playoffs rested and refreshed. That may or not turn out to be a benefit, but I think this year’s “plucky underdog” has been identified.
Moving on … The Washington Nationals are not presently considered one of MLB/s chronic “low-payroll teams”, but they should get more scrutiny in that department. The Nats have had some great young talent that they either lost to free agency, or they traded away to avoid having to compete for their services in free agency. Here is an alphabetical list:
- Bryce Harper
- Anthony Rendon
- Juan Soto
- Trea Turner
When the Nats traded Soto to the Padres, the Nats received an excellent haul of young players who are respectable MLB participants in their early 20s. CJ Abrams and James Wood will be in MLB for the next decade at least and MacKenzie Gore is reportedly considered a “top-of-the-rotation starter” at the age of 26. Gore’s contract situation is an interesting one given the Nats’ history of keeping salaries in check.
For 2025, Gore is being paid $2.89M on a one-year deal; that contract was reached as a way to avoid salary arbitration in the last offseason. Gore faces two more years of potential salary arbitration with the Nats in control, but a pitcher identified as a “top-of-the-rotation starter” is going to be able to point to comparables elsewhere in MLB well in excess of $2.89M. Just so you know, Gore’s agent is Scott Boras just in case you thought the agent here might be a rookie who could miss such comparisons(s).
There was some rumbling around the trade deadline that the Nats might listen to offers for MacKenzie Gore rather than face off with Boras twice in arbitration and then ultimately in free agency discussions. Nats’ owners chose to fire their manager and GM in that timeframe and the interim GM held onto Gore as an important asset for the team. I probably would have done the same were I in that situation; MacKenzie Gore was too young to give up on a month ago; remember, he pitched in the All-Star Game in mid-July of this year.
However, since that All-Star Game appearance, things have not gone well for either the Nats or MacKenzie Gore. Since the all-Star Game:
- Gore has started 6 times. His record is 1-4 in those games
- His ERA in those 6 games is north of 8.00.
- In 27.2 innings, he has walked 15 batters and given up 36 hits – – WHIP = 1.85
I will be surprised if the negotiations leading up to and potentially through arbitration in this offseason for MacKenzie Gore do not generate a tad of animosity and I will be very interested to see what sort of contract Gore plays under in 2026 – – because to a large extent, that contract will impact the 2027 contract which is the final year of salary arbitration with the Nats.
Finally, this from P. J. O’Rourke:
“I live in New Hampshire. We’re in favor of global warming. Eleven hundred more feet of sea-level rises? I’ve got beachfront property. You tell us up there, ‘By the end of the century, New York City could be underwater,’ and we say, ‘Your point is?’”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………