The Florida Marlins and the New York Yankees won last night. Both teams got a tally in the win column, but the Marlins’ win cost a lot less than the Yankees’ win. In fact, the entire payroll of this year’s Marlins teams comes out to less than what A-Rod will make for playing third base. Obviously, the Yankees will generate more income, though, based on more attendance at games, merchandise sold, television deals, etc. The real important fact about player salaries across the board is that for the first time in baseball history, the average salary topped the $3 million mark.
The 855 players on Opening-Day rosters and the DL averaged $3.15 million, up 7.1 percent from last year’s starting average of $2.94 million.
The median salary is $1 million, exemplifying the fact that the superstars are skewing the average salary mark to the high $3 million figure. Most major league players are making much less than $1 million per year. Still, 434 players will make more than $1 million this year, which is a new record number.
Here is a quick list of the teams with the highest payrolls, bumping up those average player salaries:
- New York Yankees (AL East) – $209.1 million
- Detroit Tigers (AL Central) – $138.7 million
- New York Mets (NL East) – $138.3 million
- Boston Red Sox (AL East) – $133.4 million
- Chicago White Sox (AL Central) – $121.2 million
- Los Angeles Angels (AL West) – $119.2 million
- Chicago Cubs (NL Central) – $118.6 million
- Los Angeles Dodgers (NL West) – $118.5 million
- Seattle Mariners (AL West) – $118 million
- Atlanta Braves (NL East) – $102.4 million
Six out of the top ten payrolls come from the AL. Four out of the top five are AL teams. Represent a player who is bound to turn into a superstar warranting top dollar figures from his team? May want to try to get him onto one of the top five teams listed above. One team to stay away from would be the Florida Marlins, with a total payroll of $21.8 million. Then again, they beat the #3 payroll, New York Mets, last night.
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