Let's round up what each of the 30 teams are paying their highest paid player this season. This includes any known signing bonus payments, but not money being paid to a player by another team.
- Yankees: Alex Rodriguez, $33MM. That includes a portion of his signing bonus. A-Rod's contract is front-loaded, so his salary goes down as he gets older.
- Blue Jays: Vernon Wells, $21MM. That includes an $8.5MM signing bonus payment he received on March 1st.
- Mets: Johan Santana, $21MM. He could pocket another $1.4MM with award based bonuses.
- Dodgers: Manny Ramirez, $20MM. Hiroki Kuroda is the team's second highest paid player, but he's still $7MM behind Manny.
- Tigers: Miguel Cabrera, $20MM. Magglio Ordonez is only $2MM behind him.
- Astros: Carlos Lee, $19MM. Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman are both making $15MM as well.
- Phillies: Ryan Howard, $19MM. Roy Halladay will join him in the $20MM club next year.
- Giants: Barry Zito, $18.5MM. He could earn another $1.25MM in award bonuses.
- Angels: Torii Hunter, $18.5MM. $500K of that is part of his signing bonus, and he could pocket as much as another $1MM with award based bonuses.
- Cubs: Alfonso Soriano, $18MM. Carlos Zambrano is a mere $125K behind him.
- Red Sox: John Lackey, $18MM. Overtook J.D. Drew ($14MM) as the team's highest paid.
- Rockies: Todd Helton, $16.6MM. I suspect he's been their highest paid player for the last half-decade or so.
- Cardinals: Albert Pujols, $16MM. Matt Holliday's contract calls for a $17MM salary this season, but $2MM of that is deferred, so technically Pujols will make more this season.
- Rangers: Michael Young, $16MM. The second highest paid player on the club is nearly $10MM behind him.
- Braves: Derek Lowe, $15MM. Chipper Jones will earn $13MM, but could push past Lowe if he reaches some games played incentives.
- White Sox: Jake Peavy, $15MM. Mark Buehrle is $1MM behind him.
- Twins: Justin Morneau, $14MM. This only lasts until Joe Mauer's extension kicks in next year.
- Brewers: Jeff Suppan, $12.75MM. Believe it or not, there's another $1.3MM available to him this year in award based bonuses, plus $300K for each time he's traded.
- Reds: Aaron Harang, $12.5MM. Francisco Cordero is just half-a-million behind him.
- Athletics: Eric Chavez, $12MM. Award based bonuses could bump this up another $550K.
- Mariners: Ichiro Suzuki, $12MM. It should be $17MM, but $5MM is being deferred. He's still ahead of everyone else.
- Royals: Jose Guillen & Gil Meche, $12MM. Meche could earn $450K in award bonuses, $50K more than Guillen.
- Nationals: Adam Dunn, $12MM. No one else on the team is in eight-figure territory.
- Indians: Travis Hafner, $11.5MM. Hafner, Jake Westbrook ($11MM), and Kerry Wood ($10.5MM) account for approximately 54% of the team's payroll.
- Rays: Carlos Pena, $10.125MM. Carl Crawford is right behind him at $10MM.
- Orioles: Brian Roberts, $10MM. Kevin Millwood ($12MM) is making more, but the Rangers are on the hook for $3MM of that.
- Diamondbacks: Brandon Webb, $8.5MM. Dan Haren is just $250K behind him.
- Marlins: Dan Uggla, $7.8MM. Nate Robertson is technically the highest paid player on the team at $10MM, but the Tigers are paying all but $400K of that.
- Padres: Chris Young, $6.25MM. No one else on the team is over $5MM.
- Pirates: Paul Maholm, $4.5MM. He'll also receive a portion of his $1.5MM signing bonus.
Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.
My god how did Vernon Wells get THAT MUCH
Its extremely Backloaded – to the point he only made 2 MM combined from 08-09. The Average is 18 MM
“$25.5M signing bonus ($8.5M payment each March 1, 2008-10)
08:$0.5M, 09:$1.5M”
He made 9m in 08 and 10m in 09
Oh, good catch. That said, deal is still extremely back loaded for an average of 18 MM/per
“Brewers: Jeff Suppan, $12.75MM. Believe it or not, there’s another $1.3MM available to him this year in award based bonuses, plus $300K for each time he’s traded.”
*snickering in the corner*
I mean, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t as bad as some of our deals at all. But 13 MM just to field a pitching machine for the Cubs… Well, it’s pretty amusing
Wells almost looks worth it this year, jaw dropping D and the best hitter in the league so far. Of course I’m dreaming thinking he keeps it up, but hopefully he comes close.
im pretty sure paul konerko is tired with him for home runs and Scott Pods is actually leading in average right now
So? Konerko has a worse average and is a 1B, Podsednik has no power and plays LF.
still dont say he is the best hitter in the league when he clearly isnt
and what does the position they play have to do with if they are the best hitters right now?
Miguel Cabrera is on fire.
I think the point was he isn’t going to keep it up
You should cite where you got this information – Cots Contracts?
Thats my bad, I just added the citation. Just forgot about it.
Awesome… I figured it was Cot’s… Great Post
To be fair, this site does a hell of a job citing it’s sources. Gotta cut him some slack for missing some posts 🙂
Oh I know they do, do a hell of a job citing and that is why I love the site. I was not critiquing for missing the citation, I was more just wondering where all the information came from, for my own sake.
Ahhh, it’s cool. More of a tribute to Tim and Co. by me rather than a critique to you.
Isn’t Pujols deferring 3 million this year?
Lackey is overpaid.
yes yes he is…typical east cost media saying this guy is an ace when in all reality he is an above average pitcher I’m not saying he is bad but he was not an ACe like they tried to convince every one they were getting they used burnetts contract to lackeys yet burnett has a slightly better whip, more innings pitched and a no hitter…If you ask anyone that does not work for ESPN they would probably take burnett over lackey any day
I was going to refute this but looking at the stats A.J. has a better career xFIP (3.69) than Lackey (4.02), Lackey has accumulated more total WAR even though he came in to the league 3 seasons after A.J. so I’d say Lackey can be a better pitcher when he is on top of his game, and even though Lackey has been hurt more often recently they’re probably equal injury risks and Lackey is a year younger so I’m not sure who I’d rather have for the same money.
Lackey was paid to turn a good pitching staff into a great one. I’d gladly pay the extra few million per year for that.
I love the fact that A-Rod’s contract is frontloaded. Every player signed over 30 or whose contract extend through their supposed decline years should be offered this type of deals. However, I was wondering… how much will A-Rod be making his 2 final years?
Just a note about Manny… he only makes 10M this year and has 10M deferred, and then he loses money from the suspension as well.. I think that Kuroda is lower if you dont look at deferments, but when it is factored in, Manny may not even be the 2nd highest paid..
Anyone notice that most of these players aren’t even the best on their team?
Anyone notice that most of these players aren’t even the best on their team?