With the Red Sox sitting at 4-8 through their first two weeks, an Associated Press study found the Red Sox sitting outside the top ten in cash spending.
The Boston Red Sox are coming off their worst start to the season since 2019 at 4-8. And fans expressed their displeasure on multiple occasions during the team’s first homestand, breaking out into ‘Sell the team’ chants. Those same fans won’t be happy with the Associated Press’ latest study on all 30 teams' cash spending heading into Opening Day. Here’s what you need to know:
How much are the Sox spending?
According to the AP, the totals calculated include "salaries and pro-rated shares of signing bonuses for players on the 26-man active roster, injured lists, and restricted list. In some cases, parts of salaries deferred without interest are discounted to reflect present-day values. Adjustments includes cash transactions in trades, signing bonuses that are responsibility of club that agreed to contract, option buyouts and termination pay for released players."
As noted by Mass Live's Chris Cotillo, this number is calculated by pure cash spending as of Opening Day and is not the number that Major League Baseball calculates for the Collective Bargaining Tax (CBT), which, per SoxProspects.com, is $268.41 million, putting the Sox a little over $4 million over the second CBT threshold.
Why is there such a stark difference?
The simple answer is that cash spending and CBT spending are calculated differently. The AP report takes into account the cash being spent on only the 26-man roster, players on the injured or reserve lists, and money from salaries that were deferred or retained from trades. While the luxury tax calculation takes the average-annual-value (AAV) of contracts signed, not just purely cash spending, and accounts for the entire 40-man roster.
This means there is a stark difference between the two lists. First, the extension of Kristian Campbell counts for $7.5 million against the CBT, even though he is only due $1 million in 2026, while the AP release doesn't take Campbell into account at all, given that he is in Triple-A Worcester.
The CBT number being high clearly shows that the Red Sox do spend, however, one can wonder if the Red Sox are really spending smartly on their actual roster. For instance, did the Red Sox make a mistake extending Campbell given that he can't crack the roster right now? His money may impact how the Red Sox spend on the roster, but he's not actually playing right now and not actively contributing.
Also, the extensions for both Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony, and Ranger Suarez' deal carry higher CBT hits than the actual cash the team owes to them this season, due to the structure of the contract.
How does it compare to previous seasons?
According to Baseball Prospectus, the AP number of $194,464,167 is just slightly below the mark from the 2025 Red Sox Opening Day lineup. However, since the 2018 World Series-winning season, this number ranks the 2026 Red Sox roster as the fifth-most expensive team on Opening Day since then.
The Red Sox will kick off a six-game road trip tonight in St.Louis, taking on the Cardinals, first pitch from Busch Stadium at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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