Money buys everything, I’m sure you’ve heard, even happiness if you win.

So we expect the Yankees to win every year because they spend the most money.

Well, if baseball has taught us anything, it’s not only how much money you spend, but who you spend it on that counts the most.

Sure the Yankees have had recent success, but who can forget the dozen years from 1982-93 when New York finished fifth in its division four times, seventh once and never made the playoffs.

New York often spent the most money then, too, and ended up with nothing to show for it.

That isn’t the case now, but you may be interested to know that of the 10 teams that spent the most money on their players this season, only three — the Yankees (No. 1 in salaries), Philadelphia (No. 2) and Detroit (No. 10) — are in the playoffs. Boston (No. 3) was still in the wild card race in the final days.

And who was challenging the Red Sox? How about Tampa Bay, which somehow fielded a really good team with a payroll ranked next-to-last according to a preseason USA Today database.

Texas, Milwaukee and Arizona are all in the playoffs, each of those teams with payrolls less than half of what the Yankees are paying.

Can the Reds become one of those teams? Why, sure. Cincinnati had a payroll of nearly $76 million this year, while Arizona’s was under $54 million and Tampa Bay’s was just over $41 million.

The Mets — big team, big town, big money — are not even .500.

You can spend it, but you must spend it wisely.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.