The last four full seasons their OD payroll ranks have been 20th, 19th, 19th and 17th per Cots.
From 2007 through 2015 Cots has them 15th, 15th, 17th, 17th, 17th, 13th, 19th, 16th and 20th on opening day.
The only time they went cheap in the last 15+ years was 2016-18 when they ranked 30th, 30th and then 26th in their NLCS year.
The current $154M number on Spotrac would be a franchise record, I believe.
Mark A & partners have consistently outspent their market size by a pretty considerable margin.
Whatever investments they’ve made on the international and amateur side have also paid, and continue to pay dividends.