Update: I have added some more information at the article's end looking at totals for trips less than and more than 30 days.
After using Josh Hermsmeyer's injury database from RotoBlog.com to look at individual players, I will now look at the total Salary lost to teams. Here is the list of 30 teams ordered by percentage lost, highest loss to lowest loss from 2002 to 2009.
Rank | Team | Total Salary | Salary Lost | Total Days | Number of Trips | Percentage of Total Payroll |
1 | LAD | $802,269,413 | $214,186,872 | 6717 | 61 | 27% |
2 | WAS | $395,077,500 | $87,927,311 | 7395 | 73 | 22% |
3 | TEX | $592,355,667 | $130,295,946 | 8521 | 77 | 22% |
4 | NYM | $912,960,802 | $198,784,051 | 7922 | 72 | 22% |
5 | ARI | $567,058,065 | $112,040,169 | 6347 | 72 | 20% |
6 | ATL | $752,293,394 | $146,002,505 | 6574 | 67 | 19% |
7 | OAK | $456,603,575 | $88,576,685 | 5211 | 50 | 19% |
8 | SD | $450,328,690 | $84,326,605 | 5964 | 68 | 19% |
9 | KCR | $415,440,333 | $77,368,885 | 7206 | 81 | 19% |
10 | DET | $650,323,576 | $120,741,210 | 6621 | 53 | 19% |
11 | BAL | $559,966,955 | $100,803,387 | 7716 | 68 | 18% |
12 | CLE | $481,570,082 | $82,899,809 | 5499 | 61 | 17% |
13 | ANA | $781,804,489 | $131,803,169 | 1864 | 24 | 17% |
14 | TBA | $279,920,832 | $45,948,441 | 4898 | 62 | 16% |
15 | STL | $701,113,759 | $113,433,432 | 6370 | 57 | 16% |
16 | CIN | $490,024,584 | $71,801,485 | 6894 | 70 | 15% |
17 | MIL | $448,053,000 | $65,448,742 | 4862 | 53 | 15% |
18 | COL | $476,445,377 | $67,833,222 | 5768 | 71 | 14% |
19 | SF | $673,267,093 | $91,626,965 | 4202 | 53 | 14% |
20 | TOR | $555,509,833 | $75,545,147 | 5243 | 57 | 14% |
21 | CHC | $780,401,763 | $106,017,190 | 5444 | 58 | 14% |
22 | PHI | $705,761,638 | $86,937,200 | 4540 | 62 | 12% |
23 | HOU | $655,044,680 | $79,356,784 | 3888 | 44 | 12% |
24 | BOS | $976,978,257 | $117,482,570 | 5556 | 71 | 12% |
25 | NYY | $1,464,447,266 | $175,817,451 | 6107 | 57 | 12% |
26 | MIN | $462,768,538 | $50,398,150 | 4917 | 49 | 11% |
27 | PIT | $350,135,323 | $37,785,164 | 4759 | 49 | 11% |
28 | FLO | $298,132,793 | $25,716,545 | 6007 | 56 | 9% |
29 | SEA | $747,503,317 | $59,606,332 | 5245 | 52 | 8% |
30 | CHW | $677,133,665 | $38,169,033 | 2135 | 38 | 6% |
Graph of comparing totals after jump
Few notes:
- The Dodgers being in first is no surprise.
- I figured the Yankees would have been higher. Their total amount lost is less than the Dodgers and the Mets.
- Teams should figure out what the White Sox are doing to prevent injuries. They are amazingly good.
Tom Tango started a thread on this topic over at The Book Blog. Since Tom was voted BtB's Best Researcher and Writer, I figured I would go ahead and answer a few of his questions. He was mainly interested in the amount of salary that was lost after a player was on the DL for greater than 30 days. The amount before 30 would not be covered by insurance, but the amount over 30 days would be covered.
Description | Dollars | Percentage |
Total Amount | $18,560,694,259 | 100.0% |
Salary lost from trips 30 days or less | $434,260,356 | 2.3% |
Salary lost from trips > 30 days | $2,373,561,406 | 12.8% |
Total Salary Lost | $2,807,821,761 | 15.1% |
Salary covered by insurance (> 31days on DL) | $1,460,573,173 | 7.9% |
Salary not covered by insurance (30 or less days on DL) | $1,347,248,588 | 7.3% |
Description | Days |
Days lost from trips 30 days or less | 23687 |
Days lost from trips > 30 days | 143548 |
Total Days Lost | 167235 |
Days covered by insurance (> 31days on DL) | 92218 |
Days not covered by insurance (30 or less days on DL) | 75017 |
Description | Trips to DL |
DL trips 30 days or less | 1202 |
DL trips > 30 days | 1711 |
Total DL Trips | 2913 |
Few notes on the above charts:
- The dollar amounts covered by insurance and not covered are about the same ($1.5 billion vs 1.3 billion)
- Many more days on DL occur after 30 days than before (92K vs 75K). Also more trips to DL last more than 30 days than less than 30 days (1711 vs 1202)