The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have baseball’s fifth-highest payroll for the 2005 season at $95 million.
The figure is historically high for the team but down from last year. In 2004, the team opened the season with a payroll of about $101 million, which was the third highest in Major League Baseball.
Last year, the Angels ranked behind the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
This year, the Angels come after the Yankees and Red Sox as well as the New York Mets, with a payroll of $104.8 million, and the Philadelphia Phillies, at $95.3 million.
The Mets leapfrogged the Angels thanks to massive spending on marquee acquisitions Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran.
The Yankees, baseball’s perennial payroll leader, have a 2005 payroll of $200 million. The World Series champion Red Sox come in at $121.3 million.
Interestingly, the Angels’ payroll is $14 million more than the Los Angeles Dodgers at $81 million this year. The Dodgers have the 11th highest payroll.
Angels owner Arte Moreno had said last year that cutting payroll would be a priority until the team can get more lucrative TV contracts.
A big portion of the 2005 payroll reduction came from the ending of already-released pitcher Kevin Appier’s contract.
The Angels released Appier during the 2003 season, but still had to pay him $12 million in 2004 for the final year of his contract.
This year’s figure still is big for the Angels. In 2003, the team counted an $80 million payroll.
Last year, the team had to pay nearly $1 million in baseball’s luxury tax, the first time it’s had to do so.
Earlier this year Moreno made the controversial decision to change the team name to “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,” claiming the move would raise the team’s profile and enable him to negotiate better TV advertising deals.
