It’s common knowledge that baseball is one of the highest paying sports. With money pouring in from outside ventures, you can bet players are reaping the benefits of leaving it all out on the field. Team owners are handing out $100 million dollar contracts left and right, and there are now approximately 45 MLB players signed to make at least nine figures. The question is, how are all these smaller teams getting the money to pay their players so much?
I have three words for you: local TV deals. See, these huge contracts used to be reserved for players in big name places like New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, but now that they’re not, these deals are changing the game—literally.
This winter, the Arizona Diamondbacks outbid the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Zach Greinke with a $206.5 million contract, a contract that wouldn’t have been possible without their local TV deal with Fox Sports Arizona. This deal is said to be triple their previous TV pact; good news for other small teams outside of Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.
So what does this mean for the players? Well, it means they have more options to take and more money to make. Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap, so these deals have the potential to become even bigger, making the draft even more competitive.
Deals like these bring more attention to teams, and more importantly, the team’s players. The players with bigger names are like magnets to endorsement deals. The highest paid player for the second year in a row is Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who will make approximately $32.8 million dollars, plus $800,000 from endorsements. In the number two spot is Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price, estimated to make $30.5 million with the potential to make $500,000 in endorsements. Together, the top ten most paid players will make a combined $282 million, which is up 6 percent from last year, and is estimated to continue growing through the prospect of bigger local TV deals. This year’s draft should be interesting considering the options players will have.
South Georgia/April 2016/Web Only
Baseball Salaries
The Reason Baseball Players Are Being Paid More Than Ever
By Njeri Mathis
Photos courtesy of Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
