Catcher Salaries

Dan Graziano noted in his column today that Ivan Rodriguez may have set the market for Jorge Posada when his option was exercised.  Posada was the game’s second-highest paid catcher in 2007, with his $12MM salary behind only Jason Kendall’s $13MM.  Posada is coming off a .338/.426/.543 season, so he’s going to break the bank.  Some team is probably going to offer $15MM per year over four years. 

Now that Pudge is locked in at $13MM for ’08, he’s jumped to that top of the list.  Behind him, Jason Varitek makes $9MM and Ramon Hernandez earns $7.5MM next year.  Ramon Castro should prepare for a huge raise – he made $850K in ’07 but could be around $4MM in ’08.

Many catchers will definitely have to take a pay cut.  Kendall won’t get $13MM again, of course.  Paul Lo Duca probably won’t pull $6.25MM.  Jason LaRue will come down from this year’s $5.2MM.  Michael Barrett at $4.6MM?  Probably not.  Brad Ausmus at $3.5MM?  No way.

If you’re interested, Download catcher_salaries.xls.  It’s an Excel spreadsheet with all the 2007 and 2008 catcher salaries.