Baseball-Yankees retain title of MLB's most valuable team-Forbes

The New York Yankees are Major League Baseball's most valuable team for a 22nd consecutive year, according to the annual list published by business magazine Forbes.

The 27-time World Series champion, which has held the top spot since Forbes began tracking MLB team finances in 1998, is worth $4.6 billion, the publisher said in a statement on Wednesday. The figure is up 15 percent from a year ago and more than double the league's average value.

The Los Angeles Dodgers ($3.3 billion), reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox ($3.2 billion), Chicago Cubs ($3.1 billion) and San Francisco Giants ($3 billion) rounded out the top five. The average MLB team is now worth $1.8 billion, an 8 percent increase from last year, due in large part to a continued escalation in the value of the sport's media rights.

"The fact that Fox has agreed to pay almost 50 percent more for its national media deal with MLB beginning with the 2022 season shows that baseball content has significantly increased in value," said Mike Ozanian, assistant managing editor at Forbes. (Reporting by Frank Pingue in Augusta, Georgia; editing Mike Harrison)

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