With No Salary Cap, Major League Baseball Salaries Continue to Rise, by Mark Erickson

Wrigleyville and Wrigley Field were deathly quiet when I arrived at Game Four with the Mets leading 4-0, no surprise. Then the Mets’ hero of the Divisional Series, Daniel Murphy, turned to a goat in the World Series (pun intended). Now that the Royals have won the World Series, I’d like readers to digest some financial information. Baseball, unlike football, hockey, and basketball, lacks a salary cap. In other words, I guess baseball has the best players’ union. Each year I distance myself a little bit more from “America’s Pastime” due to the outrageous sums paid to players, regardless of the on-field performance. I kept a copy of the April 6, 2015, issue of the USA Today that listed the salary of every player who made an opening day roster. Here’s the list, in descending order, by total payroll (with median salary also).

Dodgers – $230,352,402/5,166,667

Yankees – $213,472,857/3,300,000

Nationals – $174,510,977/3,500,000

Tigers – $172,792,250/2,363,500

Red Sox – $168,691,914/2,250,000

Giants – $166,495,942/4,000,000

Angels – $146,449,583/1,312,500

Rangers – $144,816,873/900,000

Phillies – $133,048,000/700,000

Padres – $126,619,628/1,650,000

Mariners $123,225,842/2,000,000

Cardinals – $120,301,957/2,000,000

Orioles – $118,862,632/2,975,000

Reds – $117,732,284/2,032,143

Cubs – $117,164,522/2,505,000

Blue Jays – $116,415,800/763,500

Royals – $112,914,525/2,532,500

White Sox – $110,712,866/1,500,000

Twins – $108,262,000/1,775,000

Mets – $100,133,953/614,125

Brewers – $98,683,036/529,750

Rockies – $98,261,171/1,087,600

Braves – $89,622,648/1,333,333

Indians – $87,746,766/1,550,000

Pirates – $85,885,832/1,279,167

Marlins – $84,637,500/1,925,000

Athletics – $80,786,666/517,500

Rays – $74849,584/800,000

Astros – $69,064,200/1,031,250

Diamondbacks – $65,770,333/525,000

In terms of players who earned at least $20 million this year, here is the list (rounded to millions).

Cubs – Lester 20

Rockies – Tulowitski 20

Tigers – Verlander 28, Cabrera 22

Angels – Hamilton 25, Pujols 24

Dodgers – Kershaw 31, Grienke 27, Gonzalez 22, Crawford 21

Twins – Mauer 23

Yankees – Teixeira 23, Captain Cheeseburger 23, ARod 22, Tanaka 22, Ellsbury 21

Phillies – Lee 25, Howard 25, Hamels 24

Padres – Kemp 21

Giants – Cain 21

Mariners – King Felix 25, Cano 24

Rangers – Fielder 24

Blue Jays – Reyes 22, Buehrle 20

Nationals – Werth 22

In addition to this list of individuals, there are several other players notable for being vastly overpaid. These include John Danks of the White Sox ($16 million), Indian Nick Swisher ($15m), Royal Alex Rios ($10m), and Brewer Aramis Ramirez ($14m).

– Mark Erickson