Projecting payroll and average annual value (AAV) is important as the two are both functions of population size and density, team quality, team enthusiasm, unemployment, consumer wages, and consumer confidence, among other factors.
While the AAV is used for luxury tax calculations, and teams receive fines and penalties for exceeding the luxury tax threshold (which is $208 million this year), the actual figure is incredibly important as it represents how much money is spent on the roster each year.
As for this year’s data, Jeff Fletcher, a team beat writer with the Orange County Register, maintains an updated spreadsheet which has the team’s AAV for luxury tax purposes at $118,945,000 before considering an MLBTR-estimated $21.