Every year since Forbes first began publishing its ranking of Major League Baseball team valuations in 1998, the New York Yankees have claimed the top spot. But while the Bronx Bombers once again lead the league—at an estimated $8.5 billion—they face serious competition as the sport’s most valuable club for the first time in decades.

Forbes now values the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions, at $7.8 billion, halving last year’s $1.4 billion gap between the historic rivals. Of course, $700 million is not exactly a Texas League blooper, but the difference stood at $2.1 billion just two years ago.

Most around the sport still believe that, relative to their actual business performance, the Yankees would command a premium if they ever hit the open market, giving them a valuation that in some ways makes them look more like an NBA or top-tier NFL franchise. But the Dodgers, who have been No. 2 in Forbes’ ranking since 2012, have taken a significant lead in terms of annual revenue, posting an estimated $850 million last year, versus $710 million for the Yankees. No other MLB club surpassed even $600 million last season, and across all of the team valuation lists Forbes published in 2025, only five clubs exceeded Los Angeles’ revenue figure: three European soccer powerhouses, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

Amid the turbulence with regional sports networks across the country, the Dodgers are locked into a local TV deal believed to have paid them more than $200 million last season—triple the MLB average, and more than $60 million ahead of the second-place Yankees—and the addition of Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani two seasons ago has helped put Los Angeles’ sponsorship revenue in a similarly untouchable stratosphere. While bankers caution that the $1 billion in deferred player salary on the Dodgers’ books might depress their price tag a bit, several told Forbes they could see the team’s revenue trajectory pushing its valuation ahead of the Yankees’ in the next few years.

Still, the 13% year-over-year growth in the value of the Dodgers looks modest next to the 59% of the San Diego Padres—No. 10 this year at $3.1 billion—and relative to the increases across much of the bottom tier of baseball, with the exception of the Chicago White Sox, whose valuation declined for the second straight year, to $1.94 billion.

The Miami Marlins, climbing 43% from 2025, now set the league’s floor at $1.5 billion—after an eight-year stretch in which they appreciated a mere 12%, from $940 million to $1.05 billion—and MLB’s 30 franchises are up 12% on average, to $2.9 billion, from $2.6 billion a year ago. It is baseball’s largest single-year rise since 2017’s 19%—a span in which the NBA, the NFL and the NHL have each posted a year-over-year gain of at least 28%.

MLB’s jump up this year might come as a surprise given the state of local media deals across the country, with regional sports network operator Main Street Sports Group winding down and a number of clubs scrambling to preserve a business line that........

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