Money in baseball is a weird, opaque beast. You see the headlines about Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract or the New York Mets dropping hundreds of millions on a roster that sometimes doesn't even make the playoffs, and it's easy to think every team is just printing cash. But if you actually look at MLB teams by revenue, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than the distance between home plate and the center-field bleachers at Coors Field.
Honestly, the way MLB handles its books is part business, part magic trick.
Take the New York Yankees. They’ve basically owned the top spot since the 90s. In 2025, their revenue hit an estimated $750 million. That's a massive jump from where they were just five years ago. But then you look at the Oakland Athletics—or the "Athletics" as they transition through their Vegas move—who are scraping by with revenue figures that wouldn't even cover the Yankees' luxury tax bill. It’s not just about ticket sales anymore. We’re talking about massive regional sports network (RSN) deals, jersey patches that look like nascar stickers, and real estate empires built around the stadiums.
The Revenue Leaders: Who’s Actually Winning the Money Game?
If you want to understand the hierarchy, you’ve gotta start with the Big Three. The Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Red Sox aren't just baseball teams; they're media conglomerates that happen to play 162 games a year.
The New York Yankees
They are the undisputed kings. Forbes recently valued the franchise at $8.2 billion. Their revenue isn't just coming from $15 beers and Pinstripe jerseys. It’s YES Network. By owning a huge chunk of their own broadcasting, they keep a massive slice of the pie that other teams have to share with dying cable networks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers are currently the blueprint for "spend money to make money." Their 25-year, $8 billion deal with Spectrum SportsNet LA is basically a cheat code. In 2025, they generated over $600 million in revenue. When they signed Ohtani, it wasn't just about his arm or his bat. It was about the Japanese advertising market. They've turned Dodger Stadium into a global billboard, and the revenue from international sponsorships is staggering.
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The Boston Red Sox
People forget how rich the Sox are because they’ve been "frugal" lately. But the Fenway Sports Group is a monster. Between the stadium tours, the NESN ownership, and the fact that Fenway is basically a museum that people pay $50 to enter, their revenue consistently stays in the top five, hovering around $550 million.
Why the "Middle Class" of Baseball is Vanishing
Behind the scenes, there’s a bit of a crisis. You’ve probably heard about the "RSN Mess." Basically, the companies that pay teams to broadcast games locally—like the FanDuel Sports Networks (formerly Bally)—are going broke.
For a team like the St. Louis Cardinals or the Minnesota Twins, that TV money is their lifeblood. When Main Street Sports Group (the parent company of FanDuel Sports Network) failed to make payments to the Cardinals in late 2025, it sent shockwaves through the league.
Suddenly, teams that thought they had guaranteed $60 million checks coming in are looking at a giant zero.
This is why you see the gap widening. The Yankees and Dodgers own their networks. They’re safe. The "middle class" teams are the ones currently panicking. They’re the ones cutting payroll because their revenue projections just fell off a cliff.
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The Breakdown: How Teams Actually Make Their Cash
It’s not just ticket sales. In fact, for some teams, the gate is a secondary concern. Here’s the rough breakdown of where the money actually comes from in 2026:
- Central Revenue: This is the "socialism" of baseball. Every team gets an equal slice of the national TV deals with FOX, TBS, and ESPN. With the new deals including Netflix and NBC, each team is pocketing roughly $90 million to $100 million before they even sell a single hot dog.
- Gate Receipts: The Dodgers and Cubs lead the way here. If you can pack 40,000 people into a stadium 81 times a year, you’re looking at $150M+ in just tickets and concessions.
- Sponsorships: Have you noticed the patches on the sleeves? Those aren't cheap. The Mets’ deal with New York-Presbyterian is worth about $7 million a year. Multiply that by 30 teams, and you’re looking at a $2 billion industry that didn't even exist a few years ago.
- Revenue Sharing: This is the part that makes big-market owners' blood boil. Under the current CBA, teams put about 48% of their local net revenue into a giant pool, which is then split equally. So yes, the Yankees are literally paying for the Pirates' scouting department.
The Surprising Success of the "Small" Markets
You’d think the Atlanta Braves would be a mid-tier team, but they’ve become a financial juggernaut. Why? The Battery. The Braves don't just own a baseball team; they own the apartments, the bars, the hotels, and the offices surrounding the stadium. Their revenue is "Atlanta Braves Holdings," and it's public info. In 2024 and 2025, they posted record-breaking numbers, often out-earning traditional big markets like Chicago or Philadelphia because they control every cent spent within a half-mile of the pitcher's mound.
On the flip side, you have the Tampa Bay Rays. They play in a warehouse, their TV deal is in shambles, and their local revenue is bottom-tier. Yet, they stay competitive. It proves that while revenue dictates what you can spend, it doesn't always dictate who wins. But let’s be real: it sure helps.
What This Means for the Future of the Game
We’re heading toward a massive showdown. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a ticking time bomb because the revenue gap is getting so wide. The players want a salary floor—basically forcing teams like the Marlins or Athletics to spend a minimum amount of their revenue sharing money on the actual team.
The owners, meanwhile, are crying poor because of the RSN collapse.
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It’s a weird paradox. The league as a whole is making more money than ever—over $12 billion in total revenue—but the distribution is so uneven that it feels like two different leagues playing the same sport.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Investors
If you’re trying to track where your team stands, keep an eye on these three things:
- Ownership of the RSN: If your team owns its network (Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, Orioles), they are "recession-proof" in the baseball world.
- Real Estate Development: Watch for teams trying to build "ballpark villages." This is the new gold mine. Revenue from a Marriott hotel next to the stadium doesn't always get counted in the same "baseball revenue" pool, giving teams more flexibility.
- The 2026/2027 Labor Talks: This will be the turning point. If a salary cap or floor is introduced, the entire revenue landscape of MLB changes overnight.
The bottom line? MLB teams by revenue isn't just a list of who is rich. It’s a map of who has the power to dictate the future of the sport. The Yankees might have the most cash, but the teams that are figuring out how to make money outside of the nine innings are the ones that will survive the next decade of media chaos.
Check your team's local TV status. If they just moved to a streaming-only model or "MLB Media" distribution, expect a lean couple of years while they figure out the new math.