Well, at least there is no sign that the recession is hitting baseball player pay in the Major Leagues. Though clubs have trimmed overall payroll coming into the 2009 season by 3-5%, high baseball player wages are just concentrated on fewer because they are making as much money as they ever have.
Here at Electro-Mech, we make it our goal to keep you informed on all the latest in baseball news, trends, lates and greats, because we’re more than just an electronic scoreboards (and paychecks) light up as our favorite players rack in the points (and dough in this case). Read on to see what some of your favorite MLB players make on a paycheck.
Here is the list of the top baseball player salaries for 2009 in countdown format:
No. 10: Barry Zito, San Francisco Giants, $18,500,000
Pitcher Zito has been ineffective since signing a contract after 2006. His ERA in 06 before the contact was 3.83 and in the last two seasons he has checked in with a 4.53 and a 5.15 ERA. He is a bust after signing to one of the biggest salaries for baseball players.
No. 9: Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs, $18,750,000
He is a fine hitting pitchers and he is just one year into a $91.5 million contract. Last year he delivered with a 14-6 record and a 3.91 ERA.
No. 8: Johan Santana, New York Mets, $18,876,139
Another pitcher to start this list, Santana came off his best season in 08 since joining the league back in 2000. He is worth every penny if he delivers another 16-7 record with a 2.53 ERA.
No. 7: Magglio Ordonez, Detroit Tigers, $18,971,596
The right-fielder made Tigers history with their second-biggest ever contract signing. He slumped a little bit last year but for him a slump is batting .317.
No. 6: Carlos Lee, Houston Astros, $19,000,000
The 3-time All Star signed a $100 million contract in 2006 for six years. A big slugger with a .314 batting average, 100 RBIs and 21 home runs he needs to keep earning it.
No. 5: Carlos Beltran, New York Mets, $19,243,682
Outfielder Carlos Beltran is locked into a $100 million contract and responded with 114 RBIs but his batting average dropped to .284 last year.
No. 4: Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees, $20,625,000
The Yankees brought in the first baseman to deliver some of the solid hitting they lacked. After being traded to the Angels in 2008 he batted .358 with a .632 slugging average. The highest of the baseball players salaries signed in this offseason.
No. 3: Derek Jeter, New York Yankees, $21,600,000
The current captain of the Yanks and the league’s second highest-paid endorser, Jeter batted a solid .300 last year in his 13th season in New York.
No. 2: Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers, $23,854,494
The push and pull of the offseason battle between agent Scott Boras and the Dodgers left Manny with $1.5 million less per season but luckily he still had $23 million leftover.
No. 1: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees, $33,000,000
Beginning the season on the IR won’t help the Yankees much but the league’s all-time highest paid player should get back in plenty of time. Until then his .302 batting average, 35 home runs and 103 RBIs in an injury-shortened 2008 season will be missed.
Hard to believe people are still complaining about sports salaries when bank guys are getting loads of dough to be failures. Look at what these ball players do, year in and year out. I say give ’em more!
Get over it already.
It’s hard to judge the worth of a professional athlete. I don’t know what kind of calculator the owners and players’ agents use, but when you consider the tons of money that pro sports rakes in every year, I think that a good chunk needs to get spread to the players who do the work. Besides, those figures are for multi-year contracts.