Only the Red Sox and Washington Nationals are on pace to
pay MLB's luxury tax for 2018. Luxury tax payrolls are defined as "the average annual values of contracts of all players on 40-man rosters", and also include player benefits. The Red Sox will likely have a 2018 payroll of
at least $238.4 million—resulting in a luxury tax payment of around $11.3 million. Washington's luxury tax payroll came in second at an estimated $203.9 million. This puts the projected tax for the Nationals at $2.1 million. At least the Red Sox will be making the post-season for all of their cash outlays—while the Nationals seem destined to
miss a trip to October baseball (which, on the bright side, means they won't choke again in the first round of the playoffs). Amazingly,
The Evil Ones will likely
avoid a luxury tax penalty
for the first time since the tax was imposed in 2003. In addition to
The Bronx Embalmers, other teams that counter-intuitively will not be making luxury tax payments this year are: the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.
