Major League Baseball (MLB) is a 10 billion-dollar industry with billions of dollars going to players each year. The best players receive the most money. There is a preconceived notion that more money translates to more wins and therefore more championships. However, there have been an increasing number of individuals who believe that all 30 teams have a chance to win their respective games regardless of the amount of money spent on players. The objective of this research was to explore the relationship between team payroll and team wins. Independent t-test and regression analyses were conducted using data for the 1995-2019 time period. The results herein show that teams with the top 10 highest payrolls had a better chance of winning the world series than teams with the lowest payrolls. This finding supports the claim that payroll is a predictor of success but the causal factors are yet to be explored; a topic for future research. The focus of this research was professional baseball. Future research may also be extended to explore the implications of compensating college athletes
