The Royals fielded an Opening Day payroll of $89 million in 2021, keeping player expenses close to level despite financial losses last year. Around baseball, teams were cutting payroll left and right and claiming $1.8 billion in financial losses due to the shortened pandemic season that had no fans in attendance.
Last year, teams were projected to spend $4.9 billion on player payroll, which was pro-rated to $1.8 billion in player payroll due to the 60-game season. This year, teams have a collective player payroll of just $3.8 billion, according to data from Sportrac, a 22 percent decrease from what they would have spent in 2020.