Study: MLB average salary up 11% YOY to $4.9M
NEW YORK — A year removed from a labor lockout that postponed Opening Day, major league players are enjoying their biggest salary spike in more than two decades.
The average Major League Baseball salary was up 11.1% to a record $4.9 million to start this season, the largest jump for the sport since 2001, according to a study by The Associated Press.
The surge follows a spending spree in the first offseason since players and owners agreed to a five-year collective bargaining agreement in March 2022.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Texas Rangers shortstop Marcus Semien, part of the union’s eight-member executive subcommittee that helped negotiate the CBA.
The New York Mets led the way with a $355 million payroll, $70 million more than the previous high for a season’s start. Seven teams topped $200 million.
The Oakland Athletics were last at $58 million — less than the combined salaries of Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, who tied for the major league high of $43.3 million.
This year’s percentage rise was the largest since a 13.9% jump in 2001.
“It’s about damn time, honestly,” said Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Zach Eflin, who signed a $40 million, three-year deal in December. “It’s been pretty much a joke the past five, 10 years about the way the players have been paid the minimum salaries.”
Aaron Judge, Manny Machado, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa and Jacob deGrom all got big deals during an offseason that saw the average shatter the previous high of $4.45 million in 2017.
“Teams are making money, players are making it. So it’s good all around,” said deGrom, who left the Mets for Texas.
Of 943 players in the major leagues on Opening Day, 546 had salaries of $1 million or more, 58%, and up from 514 last year.
“The stance that we took was great, getting players to be paid more is what we want,” Correa said. “Obviously, we bring a lot to this game. But at the same time us as players have to keep putting up the work, making sure that after we get contracts, we keep performing to the highest level for teams to keep spending and keep going big.”
Judge was third at $40 million after hitting an American League-record 62 homers. Seven of the 11 highest-paid players are with teams in New York or Los Angeles, a sign of the economic power of the large markets.
“I saw the revenue numbers for the game last year,” said Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, also a member of the players’ association’s executive subcommittee during negotiations. “So when those continue to go up, then players salaries should go up with that, as well.”
After setting a record in 2017, the average dropped by just under 1% in each of the following two years and fell as low at $4.2 million in 2021 after the pandemic-shortened season.
Unhappy with their share of spending, players endured a 99-day lockout before agreeing to a labor contract in March 2022. Spending resumed at a frenetic pace, and the average rose 6% to $4.4 million in 2022.
This winter, spending was spurred by paydays for streaming and broadcast rights, an expanded postseason format and rising ticket prices.
“It’s a barometer of the wealth of the game” agent Scott Boras said. “It’s always great business to invest in players, and this increase reflects investment in the great players of the game.”
Steve Cohen has boosted payroll steadily since buying the Mets, who were at $154 million in 2019, the last full season under the Wilpon and Katz families. Their spending rose to $186 million in 2021 and $266 million last year, when they started second to the Dodgers but wound up first after Los Angeles pitcher Trevor Bauer was suspended for most of the season without pay.
The Yankees are second at $275 million followed by San Diego ($258 million), NL champion Philadelphia ($236 million), the Dodgers ($222 million), the Angels ($212 million) and Toronto ($210 million).
World Series champion Houston is 11th at $193 million. Baltimore is 29th at $60 million, with Pittsburgh ($71 million) and Tampa Bay ($75 million) just above.
Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon was fourth at $36.8 million, followed by Angels outfielder Mike Trout ($37.1 million), Cole ($36 million), Texas shortstop Corey Seager ($35 million), Correa ($33.3 million), St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado ($32.8 million) and Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg ($32.5 million).
Sixteen players earn $30 million or more, an increase of three; 53 earn $20 million, a rise of five; and 158 at least $10 million, a jump of 25. The 50 highest-paid players make 29% of total salary, down from 30% last year and 33% in 2021, and the top 100 earn 47%, a decrease from 52% two years ago.
Forty-five players earned the $720,000 minimum, which was increased by $20,000 from last year.
The median salary, the point at which an equal number of players are above and below, rose by $300,000 to $1.5 million, still below the record high at the start of 2015. Active rosters have increased from 25 to 26, lowering the median by adding more lower salaried players.
The AP’s figures include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income. For some players, parts of deferred money are discounted to reflect current values.
MLB’s Opening Day payroll figures for 40-man rosters and luxury tax payrolls based on average annual values of contracts plus benefits, won’t be finalized until later in the season.
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Third baseman Max Muncy was diagnosed with a Grade 1 oblique strain and landed on the injured list Friday, a major blow to a Los Angeles Dodgers team that finds itself fading in the standings.
Muncy was originally a late scratch from Wednesday’s lineup after feeling soreness in his right side during pregame batting practice. The Dodgers’ hope was that sitting out for the finale from Angel Stadium, then getting extra rest during the Thursday off day, would allow Muncy to return for a critical series against the division-rival San Diego Padres, who have taken a one-game lead in the National League West.
But Muncy will miss this weekend’s series from Dodger Stadium, as well as the following series from San Diego’s Petco Park next weekend.
“I don’t think anyone expects it to be season-ending,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but hopefully it’s sooner than later.”
Roberts doesn’t believe the current oblique injury is as bad as the one that forced Muncy to miss about two months last year, but even in a best-case scenario, the Dodgers might be without their third baseman and left-handed power hitter until around mid-September.
Muncy got off to a bad start this year before turning it on in the middle of May, slashing .312/.438/.616 with 11 home runs in a stretch of 41 games. Muncy then injured his left knee during a scary collision at third base and wound up missing most of July. He returned Aug. 4, went 8-for-23 with four home runs over the course of eight games, and now he’s out again — at a time when the reigning World Series champs could really use some reinforcements.
The Dodgers held a nine-game lead in the NL West as of July 3 and have since gone 12-21 to fall a game back of a surging Padres team that arrived in L.A. on the heels of a five-game winning streak. As many as six high-leverage relievers reside on the Dodgers’ IL, though three of them — Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott — are nearing returns. The offense, meanwhile, has been mostly unproductive over the past six weeks, posting an 0.708 OPS that ranks 22nd in the major leagues.
During Muncy’s absence, the Dodgers will use Alex Freeland, a switch-hitting rookie who’s batting .176 in his first 12 games, and Buddy Kennedy, a right-handed-hitting journeyman with a career .193 batting average. Other potential reinforcements like Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Enrique Hernandez remain on the IL and aren’t close enough to a return.
“It’s certainly a tough loss,” Roberts said. “I think it’s just guys got to continue to perform to their abilities. It’s hard to kind of backfill Max, what he means, as far as the plate discipline, the slug, the on-base, all that stuff. I feel good about our lineup, the guys that we have, and they just have to go out there and take good at-bats. That’s all we can do right now.”
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