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On Average, Baseball Players Are Banking

Alex RodriguezThe 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:

  1. New York Yankees (AL East) – $209.1 million
  2. Detroit Tigers (AL Central) – $138.7 million
  3. New York Mets (NL East) – $138.3 million
  4. Boston Red Sox (AL East) – $133.4 million
  5. Chicago White Sox (AL Central) – $121.2 million
  6. Los Angeles Angels (AL West) – $119.2 million
  7. Chicago Cubs (NL Central) – $118.6 million
  8. Los Angeles Dodgers (NL West) – $118.5 million
  9. Seattle Mariners (AL West) – $118 million
  10. 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.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.

One reply on “On Average, Baseball Players Are Banking”

if you’re an agent for a high-profile player that’s arbitration eligible, the marlins wouldn’t be interested, the mets would.

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