Braves payroll limitations could be due to future tax battle

Much like 2024, the Braves 2025 campaign is off to a tumultuous start, highlighted by injuries and inconsistent play. Despite a current four-game winning streak, they still sit at 9-13 on the season, already 6.5 games back of the red-hot New York Mets for first place in the NL East.

With over five months left to play and Ronald Acuña Jr. expected to return to the lineup in the next few weeks, the panic can be delayed, but the holes on the Braves roster have been on full display through the first month of the season.

When the 2024 season ended, Alex Anthopoulos had a pretty clear checklist that needed to be addressed. It looked something like this:

• 1 Outfielder
• 1 Starting Pitcher
• 1 Shortstop
• 2 Relievers

Fast forward to April 22nd, and the Braves’ needs look something like this:

• 1 Outfielder
• 2 Starting Pitchers
• 1 Shortstop
• 2 Relievers

The Braves essentially did nothing this offseason. The only significant addition they made was signing Jurickson Profar, who played in four games before being suspended for PEDs. With Spencer Strider back on the IL and Reynaldo Lopez possibly out for the entire season with a shoulder injury, the Braves are in a far worse spot than they were a year ago, when they barely snuck into the postseason with 89 wins.

So why didn’t they make any moves?

That’s the million question everybody is trying to figure out. When the offseason began, Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos reiterated payroll would continue to rise as it has year after year… except it didn’t. According to Spotrac, Atlanta’s 2024 payroll sat just north of $240 million, ranking seventh in baseball. This year, that number is down to $215 million, good for eighth in the league.

The Braves are still up there with many of the top spenders in the league, but that’s quite a decline for a club whose payroll was expected to rise again in 2025, especially considering all of their obvious needs. The reason for the change is unknown. Perhaps ownership was unhappy with the money they made in 2024, or maybe Alex Anthopoulos just didn’t see any deals that made sense and thought he could upgrade the roster more efficiently during the season.

One theory that’s been brought to light in recent days comes from Yahoo! Finance. The Atlanta Braves are the only Major League Baseball team in the United States that is publicly traded, which means they are subject to different tax rules than the rest of the league.

“A little-known tax rule soon to go into effect will restrict public corporations from deducting the salaries paid to their highest compensated employees,” Bill Allison writes. “For Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc., those employees are players — including first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Austin Riley and former National League Most Valuable Player Ronald Acuña Jr.”

“The team’s five most generously compensated players are set to collectively earn $96 million in 2027 — the year the new rule limiting salary deduction for all but $1 million of each of the top five most highly compensated players’ pay.

“That amounts to a potential $19.1 million tax hike on the Braves, assuming a 21% corporate tax rate…”

Could this battle have affected the Braves offseason plans, hamstringing Alex Anthopoulos’ ability to maneuver? It’s certainly possible, but it’s not an excuse Braves Country is going to take too kindly to if that’s the case. Atlanta’s attendance is among the highest in the league year after year, and the surrounding Battery area is generating money at an absurd rate. The move to Cobb County couldn’t be going better for the Braves, and fans should rightfully expect some of that gold mine to be reinvested back into the club.

That didn’t happen this offseason, and the team is feeling the effects of those decisions on the field.