Red Sox salaries

If nothing else changes during Spring training (and everyone still expects David (I need the sun of SD) Wells to be traded, ESPN has the salaries (based on last year) of the Boston Red Sox. Although the Red Sox have a base salary of 121,311,945, the Yankees are projected at almost twice that at 205,938,439.

The third team at the top of the payroll ladder is the NY Mets at 104,770,139. Why are the Mets always considered to irrelevant, but the Sox and Yankees are believed to be teams that 'buy' their way into the playoffs each year?

LAYER	SALARY (US$)
1. Manny Ramirez	19,806,820
2. Curt Schilling	14,500,000
3. Jason Varitek	8,000,000
4. Trot Nixon	7,500,000
5. Keith Foulke	7,500,000
6. Mike Lowell	7,500,000
7. Matt Clement	6,500,000
8. David Ortiz	5,250,000
9. Tim Wakefield	4,670,000
10. David Wells	4,075,000
11. Alex Gonzalez	3,400,000
12. Mike Timlin	2,750,000
13. Mark Loretta	2,750,000
14. Julian Tavarez	2,600,000
15. Josh Beckett	2,400,000
16. J.T. Snow	2,000,000
17. Bronson Arroyo	1,850,000
18. David Riske	1,425,000
19. Alex Cora	1,300,000
20. Tony Graffanino	1,100,000
21. John Flaherty	800,000
22. Rudy Seanez	550,000
23. Coco Crisp	364,900
24. Kevin Youkilis	323,125
25. Josh Bard	317,900
26. Adam Stern	316,000
Total Team Salary:	121,311,945

Not too long ago, I talked about the Red Sox salaries on 12/13/05 and despite having more players listed, the sox payroll is about the same. What a difference there is between Mota and Crisp.