The Blue Jays are approaching a payroll of $300 million

As you know, the Blue Jays don't cut corners.

For years, Rogers hasn't hesitated to invest large sums of money in the club. We're talking about potential free agents (Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani were offered deals by the Blue Jays and several players were signed), guys in the clubhouse, and renovations in Toronto and Dunedin.

And now, with the success of 2025 (as well as the revenues generated in the playoffs), Rogers is more ready than ever to pull out the cash to try and win one more game in 2026.

If you go to FanGraphs, you'll see that right now, the Blue Jays have an estimated payroll of $294 million in 2026. This takes into account projections for arbitration-eligible players, as well as all expenses related to Major League Baseball players.

Blue Jays CBT payroll now around $294M, per Roster Resource. That can be a bit misleading with pending arb salaries and some potential deferrals. But it looks like they're gonna be well over $300M if they sign another bat and don't move out a lot of salary in a trade.

– Brandon Wile (@Brandon_N_Wile) December 13, 2025

And that's not counting the fact that the Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker of this world are in the rumor mill in Toronto.

So that means the Blue Jays could well climb above the latest luxury tax threshold. The thresholds are $244 million, $264 million, $284 million, and $304 million in 2026.

Currently, only the Dodgers ($339M) and Mets ($297M) have more robust projected payrolls than the Blue Jays. Two of the top three teams made it to the World Series in 2025.

On Friday night, the Blue Jays offered $37M guaranteed to a right-handed pitcher (Tyler Rogers) in his mid-30s who can't really pitch in the ninth and isn't a master of velocity. So yes, the club spends a lot to ensure that all the club's needs are met.

Clearly, the Blue Jays are on a mission and the club's shareholders are behind the plan of Mark Shapiro (who recently signed a contract extension to stay in town) and Ross Atkins.

By 2025, the club's payroll was projected at $282 million.

This content was created with the help of AI.