Forbes magazine issued its annual ranking of all 30 Major League Baseball teams based on franchise value, with the Yankees the top ranked by a wide margin at $5.25 billion and the Pirates 22nd at $1.285 billion, the latter representing a 2% increase from the previous year.
The World Series champion Dodgers are a distant second at $3.57 billion, just ahead of the Red Sox at $3.465 billion. Two other teams, the Cubs and Giants, had valuations over $3 billion. The Mets, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels and Nationals round out the top 10. The Marlins are the least valuable at $990 million.
The total value of all 30 teams in $57.15 billion.
It's important to note that Forbes has no access to the teams' books, so it uses sources and applies a methodology that approximates based on past transactions and future projections for each team and the league in full, and ignores media ownership and profits and losses.
On that note, Forbes also listed the Pirates as showing a $21 million loss for 2020, this on revenue of $116 million. All 30 teams showed a loss for the pandemic-stricken year, topped by the Yankees' $191 million. The team listed as having the smallest loss was Cleveland at $20 million.
BOB'S TAKE: The Yankees lost more than the Pirates made in total — that's MLB economics in a nutshell. We know the rich teams and what really matters is there is a 5.3 times valuation between the most and least valuable franchise, which might actually be worse in reality.
YOUR TURN: Does the Pirates' valuation change anything about how you feel about the team's ability to spend?
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