:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-2241348260-2100fe8ef99245109b2fdd97657e8ed6.jpg "How Much Money Are Dodgers or Blue Jays Players Set to Earn if Their Team Wins the World Series? The Answer May Surprise You")
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Key Takeaways
- The Los Angeles Dodgers will face the Toronto Blue Jays when the first pitch of the Major League Baseball World Series is thrown on Friday.
- Players on the winning team could take home hundreds of thousands of dollars if they win.
- Last year, the title-winning Dodgers paid out north of $477,000 per player, as the team received $46.5 million of the MLB’s $129.1 million bonus pool.
The Major League Baseball (MLB) season is approaching its final games, with Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays players fighting for the Commissioner’s Trophy, and also for a sizable bonus when the World Series starts later this week.
Last year, the champion Dodgers split a pool of about $46.5 million, which came to a per-player full share of $477,441, according to the MLB commissioner’s office. While the exact figure for this year’s championship winner will depend on ticket sales revenue through the first four games of the World Series, previous payouts could offer a guide.
How the Bonus Pool is Calculated and How Much Players Typically Get
MLB teams that make the playoffs are each awarded a portion of a pool of money made up of 60% of the total ticket sales across the minimum number of games played in the postseason, per the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Players Association. That’s the first two games of the Wild Card round, three games of the Division Series (four games if the Division Series is expanded to the best of 7 games), and four games of the League Championship Series and World Series.
That pool is split between all of the playoff teams, with the World Series winner receiving 36% of the pool and the runner-up getting 24%. The rest is split among the losers of the semifinals, the quarterfinals, and the Wild Card rounds.
The bonus money is then divided into shares for each player, with players for each team voting on how many full or partial shares they want to give out.
The 2024 Dodgers got about $46.5 million of a record pool of $129.1 million.
Note
In the last decade, the payout for a full share has ranged from $368,872 in 2016 when the Chicago Cubs won to $516,347 in 2022 when the Houston Astros won, according to the sports business outlet Sportico.
Despite last year’s playoffs generating a record overall pool of $129.1 million, the Dodgers’ $477,441 per-share payout in 2024 was smaller than the Astros’ $516,347 payout in 2022 because the Dodgers elected to give out 79 full shares and other partial shares in 2024, compared to 59 full shares distributed by the Astros in 2022.
How Does That Compare to NBA and NFL Payouts?
While an extra $477,441 likely doesn’t make a substantial difference to players like Shohei Ohtani—who signed a 10-year, $700 million contract—it could have a much larger impact for players making closer to the 2025 minimum MLB salary of $760,000.
Playoff bonuses are paid out across the major American sports, but the size of the payout can vary widely. The National Basketball Association (NBA) provided the highest per-share playoff bonus last year, with the 2024 champion Boston Celtics receiving about $804,000 per share, per Sportico. It’s worth noting that NBA teams have much smaller rosters than MLB teams.
The Dodgers’ 2024 payout of about $477,000 per share did, however, top the 2024 Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs at $338,000 per share, along with the National Hockey League’s $240,000 per player that went to the Florida Panthers, Sportico reported.
