MLB clubs are now worth a record $2.6 billion on average—but uncertainty around the league’s media rights is putting them on the warning track.
Three years after the NFL, and just one after the NBA, Major League Baseball has its first $8 billion team: the New York Yankees.
The Bronx Bombers, who have led the ranking of baseball’s most valuable clubs every year since Forbes began publishing the list in 1998, are now worth an estimated $8.2 billion. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the second-most-valuable team for 14 straight years, are up to $6.8 billion after a 25% jump from 2024, placing the defending World Series champions among the 10 most valuable teams in the world, from any sport.
The largest increase this year belongs to the A’s, who climbed 50%, to $1.8 billion, even as they move into a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento for the next three seasons. Many around the sport have high hopes for the Athletics’ eventual move to Las Vegas and the plan for a new stadium there, but after a miserable end to their 57-year run in Oakland, even the stopgap situation isn’t looking so bad, with the team’s season-ticket base having grown significantly since last year.
Still, while MLB team values continue to rise—to a record average of $2.6 billion, up 8% from 2024—there are some reasons for concern. Four clubs are flat year-over-year—the St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays—and the Chicago White Sox actually declined 2%, to $2 billion.
At the same time, the league’s most recent control stake sale, David Rubenstein’s $1.725 billion purchase of the Baltimore Orioles last year, was priced at 5.3 times revenue, and on Forbes’ 2025 valuation list, the league’s spread of multiples stretches from 11.3x for the Yankees down to 3.3x for the Miami Marlins. Compare those numbers with the higher ranges in the NBA (10.1 to 15.6) and the NFL (7.5 to 10.8), which reflect investors’ greater appetite for the franchises in those leagues and greater optimism for their revenue outlook.
Baseball’s growth is similarly starting to lag behind those other sports’. Over the last five years, NFL teams have appreciated 87% on average, to $5.7 billion, and NBA teams have soared 101%, to $4.4 billion. In the same period, MLB clubs are up 36%.
To some extent, that disparity reflects MLB’s long-standing systemic challenges, starting with the lack of a true salary cap. Baseball also faces labor uncertainty—again—with its collective bargaining agreement set to expire in 2026 and the players’ union already raising the alarm that it expects another lockout. Above all, though, the league’s flatter trajectory is a reflection of the media rights landscape.
The NFL, which announced the first agreements of its new television package in 2021, is guaranteed $126 billion in national media money through 2033, and the NBA is due to collect $76 billion in 11-year broadcast deals that take effect next season. By contrast, MLB’s current deals with ESPN, Fox and TBS were set to pay $12.9 billion over seven years, and the league is having to rejigger its lineup on the fly after agreeing with ESPN last month to opt out of the final three years of their arrangement, which was worth an average of $550 million a year.
Making matters worse, much of the league is still grappling with the fallout of the 2023 collapse of regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group (since rebranded as Main Street Sports Group). The company emerged from bankruptcy in January, but several teams had to scramble to find new broadcast homes, and the vast majority of the teams that have remained with Main Street are believed to have taken a significant discount. That is especially bad news in baseball, where local cable, on average, made up 19% of teams’ total revenue last season—far more than in the NBA (13%) or the NFL, where it is essentially a rounding error.
MLB, however, was not pleased with the level of promotion it was getting on ESPN and thinks it could also come out ahead financially with a new partner, or perhaps a group of partners divvying up smaller slices of its broadcast rights. And the expiration of the national TV deals after 2028, along with a smaller digital agreement with Apple, will present an opportunity for a broader media overhaul. Commissioner Rob Manfred, for instance, is pushing a more centralized model that could bundle together local media rights—the way the NFL has done with its Sunday Ticket package—and is reportedly considering tying the league’s domestic rights to its international rights, which to this point have largely been treated as a throw-in in negotiations with networks.
That change in strategy overseas would capitalize on the excitement around the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, whose playoff games last year drew massive viewership in his homeland and who has helped attract new Asian-based corporate partners to MLB. The sponsorship picture is also improving more generally, with 24 teams now sporting brand logos on their uniforms and the Washington Nationals hoping to join them soon. That jersey patch program has generated more than $200 million in revenue across its two seasons, and MLB’s sponsorship growth now exceeds that of the other North American major pro men’s leagues.
With well-received rule changes shortening games and creating more action on the basepaths, MLB saw regular-season attendance cross 71 million fans last year—its best figure since 2017—and clubs averaged $407 million in total revenue, rising 8% from 2023’s record $378 million.
Coming off that success, the Pohlad family is seeking to sell the Minnesota Twins with an asking price believed to be $1.7 billion, and the A’s are reportedly targeting a $2 billion valuation for a minority stake. And the Rays, who are temporarily playing at a minor league ballpark in the wake of Hurricane Milton, might end up on the auction block as well, after they pulled out of an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to build a new stadium. Manfred, who has said Tampa Bay must find a permanent solution to its stadium situation before the league can add expansion franchises, is now reportedly pressuring Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg to sell.
Baseball may soon learn whether investors see its teams as a home run.
MLB’S MOST VALUABLE TEAMS 2025
#1. $8.2 billion
New York Yankees
One-Year Change: 9% | Operating Loss: $57 million | Owner: Steinbrenner family
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
#2. $6.8 billion
Los Angeles Dodgers
One-Year Change: 25% | Operating Income: $21 million | Owner: Guggenheim Baseball Management
Ronald Rodriguez/Getty Images
#3. $4.8 billion
Boston Red Sox
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Income: $120 million | Owners: John Henry, Tom Werner
Reed Hoffmann/Associated Press
#4. $4.6 billion
Chicago Cubs
One-Year Change: 9% | Operating Income: $81 million | Owner: Ricketts family
#5. $4 billion
San Francisco Giants
One-Year Change: 5% | Operating Loss: $24 million | Owner: Greg Johnson
#6. $3.2 billion
New York Mets
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Loss: $268 million | Owners: Steve and Alexandra Cohen
Noah K. Murray/Associated Press
#7. $3.1 billion
Philadelphia Phillies
One-Year Change: 6% | Operating Income: $9 million | Owners: Middleton family, Buck family
#8. $3 billion
Atlanta Braves
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Loss: $3 million | Owner: Atlanta Braves Holdings
#9. $2.8 billion
Houston Astros
One-Year Change: 16% | Operating Loss: $11 million | Owner: Jim Crane
Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images
#10. $2.75 billion
Los Angeles Angels
One-Year Change: 2% | Operating Income: $40 million | Owners: Arturo and Carole Moreno
#11. $2.55 billion
St. Louis Cardinals
One-Year Change: 0% | Operating Income: $7 million | Owner: William DeWitt Jr.
#12. $2.45 billion
Texas Rangers
One-Year Change: 2% | Operating Loss: $38 million | Owner: Ray Davis
#13. $2.2 billion
Seattle Mariners
One-Year Change: 0% | Operating Income: $43 million | Owners: John Stanton, Chris Larson
Richard W. Rodriguez/Associated Press
#14. $2.15 billion
Toronto Blue Jays
One-Year Change: 2% | Operating Loss: $60 million | Owner: Rogers Communications
#15. $2.1 billion
Washington Nationals
One-Year Change: 5% | Operating Income: $0 | Owner: Lerner family
#16. $2 billion
Chicago White Sox
One-Year Change: -2% | Operating Loss: $41 million | Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf
#17. $1.95 billion
San Diego Padres
One-Year Change: 10% | Operating Income: $32 million | Owner: Seidler family
Denis Poroy/Associated Press
#18. $1.9 billion
Baltimore Orioles
One-Year Change: 10% | Operating Income: $65 million | Owners: David Rubenstein
#19. $1.8 billion
Athletics
One-Year Change: 50% | Operating Loss: $23 million | Owner: John Fisher
#20. $1.7 billion
Milwaukee Brewers
One-Year Change: 6% | Operating Income: $24 million | Owner: Mark Attanasio
#21. $1.6 billion
Arizona Diamondbacks
One-Year Change: 12% | Operating Loss: $33 million | Owner: Ken Kendrick
Chris Coduto/Getty Images
#22. $1.55 billion
Detroit Tigers
One-Year Change: 7% | Operating Income: $30 million | Owner: Ilitch family
#23. $1.5 billion
Minnesota Twins
One-Year Change: 3% | Operating Income: $5 million | Owner: Pohlad family
#24. $1.475 billion
Colorado Rockies
One-Year Change: 0% | Operating Loss: $22 million | Owners: Charles Monfort, Richard Monfort
#25. $1.4 billion
Cleveland Guardians
One-Year Change: 4% | Operating Income: $11 million | Owners: Paul Dolan, David Blitzer
Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images
#26. $1.35 billion
Pittsburgh Pirates
One-Year Change: 2% | Operating Income: $47 million | Owner: Nutting family
#27. $1.325 billion
Cincinnati Reds
One-Year Change: 6% | Operating Income: $29 million | Owner: Robert Castellini
#28. $1.3 billion
Kansas City Royals
One-Year Change: 6% | Operating Income: $6 million | Owner: John Sherman
Nick Wass/Associated Press
#29. $1.25 billion
Tampa Bay Rays
One-Year Change: 0% | Operating Income: $32 million | Owner: Stuart Sternberg
#30. $1.05 billion
Miami Marlins
One-Year Change: 5% | Operating Income: $38 million | Owner: Bruce Sherman
METHODOLOGY
Forbes’ team valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) based on historical transactions and the future economics of the sport and each team. Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are estimated for the 2024 season and are net of revenue sharing, competitive balance taxes and stadium revenue used for debt service.
The team values include the economics of each team’s stadium but not the value of the stadium real estate itself. Similarly, the values include rights fees from regional sports networks owned by a team but not the value of the RSNs themselves; equity stakes in other sports-related assets and mixed-use real estate projects are also excluded.
Team values are rounded to the nearest $25 million, and estimated operating income is rounded to the nearest $1 million. All figures are in U.S. dollars based on the average U.S.-Canada exchange rate during the 2024 season.
The information used to compile Forbes’ valuations primarily came from team and league executives, sports bankers, media consultants and public documents, such as stadium lease agreements and filings related to public bonds.