MLB average salary remains at around $4.4 million

Flattened wages curve is evidence of a shrinking portion of the pie for baseball’s middle class

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s average salary ahead of a postponed opening day remained at around $4.4 million for the fifth straight season, according to a study of contracts by The Associated Press.

Following an off-season when Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon and Christian Yelich all agreed to $200-million-plus deals, the flattened salary curve is evidence of a shrinking portion of the pie for baseball’s middle class. The stagnant stretch is unprecedented since the free-agent era dawned in 1976.

And that is before taking into account any decrease caused by a shortened season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a throwback, the New York Yankees, at $242 million as of March 28, top payrolls for the first time since 2013 and tower over the Pittsburgh Pirates, at $54 million — the lowest of any big-league team in six years.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred remains confident there will be a season but is unsure when health conditions will allow training to resume.

MLB’s average when rosters were frozen March 28 was $4,432,530, up 1.3 per cent from $4,375,486 in AP’s opening-day survey last year. The average remains below its record $4.45 million at the start of the 2017 season and has plateaued since stiffer luxury-tax rates began for high-payroll teams.

Going back to 2016, the average has increased just one per cent over four off-seasons, an average annual rise of 0.25 per cent. The average went up 27 per cent in the four years ending in ’12 and nine per cent in the four years through ’08.

MLB revenue is estimated to have increased at close to a four per cent annual rate in recent years, but will drop sharply this year because of the impact of the new coronavirus. MLB’s 2021 revenue also will be impacted, according to Manfred.

Scott Boras, the sport’s most powerful agent, says the disparity in rate of increase should be addressed in collective bargaining for the labour deal that replaces the contract expiring in December ’21.

“When the revenues are going up 15 per cent and salaries are going up one per cent, we’ve got to really calculate the rights valuation and look at it in a way that allows for those rights to be exercised differently,” he said.

While there were 878 players on rosters and injured lists at the start of the 2019 season, there were 899 players in the latest AP survey because teams had not yet trimmed to the active limit. The limit goes up this year from 25 to 26, and there could be an additional roster expansion following the disrupted spring training, which would impact the average.

Many teams have redirected money from the shrinking baseball middle class and toward the top of salary structures.

Forty-four players are at $20 million or more, up from 39 last year and topped by Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout. The three-time American League MVP is at $38.5 million when a prorated share of his signing bonus is added to his $36-million salary.

Cole is second at $36 million with the Yankees, followed by Washington pitcher Max Scherzer, who is at $35.9 million when factoring in his signing bonus and discounting deferred payments he won’t fully receive until 2028.

There are 136 players earning at least $10 million, up from 122.

Players who get at least $5 million and less than $10 million dropped from 120 to 102. Those making at least $2 million, but less than $5 million, fell slightly from 150 to 145. A few players at spring training with minorleague contracts at that level are likely to be added to 40-man rosters if and when the season starts.

After signing Cole, the Yankees boosted their projected payroll to a team record of nearly $242 million as of March 28, up from $207 million at the start of last season and topping the previous club mark set in 2016.

Boston topped payrolls the past two seasons and won a World Series title in ’18. The Los Angeles Dodgers had the highest payroll from ’14 to ’17, ending the Yankees’ 15-year streak as baseball’s biggest spender.

The Dodgers are second at roughly $222 million, up from $191 million last year.