Dodgers Top Yankees For Highest MLB Payroll

Zack Greinke and the Los Angeles Dodgers have knocked Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees off baseball's payroll perch, part of a spending spree that has the average salary approaching $4 million.

The Dodgers are ending the Yankees' 15-year streak as baseball's biggest spenders and as of Tuesday had a projected payroll of $235 million, according to study of all major league contracts by The Associated Press.

New York, which last failed to top the payroll rankings in 1998, was second at $204 million.

Houston is last at $45 million. The average salary projected to be between $3.95 million and $4 million, up from 8 to 10 percent. The average U.S. wage in 2012 was $42,498, according to the Social Security Administration, an increase of 3.12 percent.

(Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)