How Much Does The Average Baseball Player Make?

According to a recent study, the average baseball player earns about $3.2 million per year.

MLB Salaries

The average Major League Baseball player made $4.47 million in 2019, according to MLB’s website. The highest-paid player in 2019 was Bryce Harper, who made $330 million. The lowest-paid player was Baltimore Orioles player Stevie Wilkerson, who made the league minimum of $563,500.

Minimum Salary

In order to be eligible for salary arbitration, a player must have three or more years of service time. To qualify for free agency, a player must have six or more years of service time. Service time is accumulated from year to year, so a player may not be eligible for free agency or arbitration until several years into his career.

The minimum salary for MLB players is $555,000. This figure is set by the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The CBA is agreed to by the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) and the Major League Baseball owners. The current CBA was agreed to in 2016 and will run through the 2021 season.

Players who are on a team’s 40-man roster but who are not yet eligible for arbitration or free agency are said to be “pre-arbitration” players. Pre-arbitration players’ salaries are not set by the CBA; instead, they are determined by the team’s ownership. As a result, pre-arbitration salaries can vary widely from team to team and from year to year.

Average Salary

The average Major League Baseball salary is $4,031,794, according to Spotrac.com, as of the 2019 season. The average salary has been on the rise in recent years and is now more than double what it was in 2003, when it was $1,917,708. The highest-paid player in MLB is Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who makes an annual salary of $34.083 million. The lowest-paid player in MLB is Miami Marlins outfielder Derek Dietrich, who makes an annual salary of $555,000.

Maximum Salary

The maximum salary of a MLB player is $46 million per year. The average player in MLB earns $4.36 million per year, which is the highest average salary of any professional sport. Major League Baseball salaries have been on the rise in recent years, thanks to new television contracts and the influx of money from newer baseball markets.

MLB Contracts

The average baseball player’s salary has been increasing steadily over the past few years. In 2018, the average salary for a Major League Baseball player was $4.09 million. This was a significant increase from 2017, when the average salary was $3.95 million. The minimum salary for a player in 2018 was $545,000, which was also a significant increase from the minimum salary of $535,000 in 2017.

Length of Contracts

The average length of an MLB contract is four years. The typical free agent contract is for three years. A team has the option to renew a player’s contract for one or two additional years (at a higher salary) before the player becomes a free agent again. Long-term contracts are rare in baseball, but they do occur. The New York Yankees have been known to sign players to lengthy deals (although they typically only do this with players they drafted and developed).

The average salary for an MLB player is just over $4 million per year. However, there is a wide range of salaries among MLB players. The minimum salary for a player in the MLB is $555,000 per year. Some of the game’s highest-paid players make over $30 million per year.

Types of Contracts

There are three types of contracts in Major League Baseball: major league contracts, minor league contracts, and split contracts.

Major league contracts are signed by players who have been added to a team’s 40-man roster. These contracts stipulate that the player will receive a certain salary while under contract with the team. The minimum salary for major league players is $507,500 per year.

Minor league contracts are signed by players who have not been added to a team’s 40-man roster. These contracts do not guarantee a certain salary, but stipulate that the player will receive an invitation to spring training.

Split contracts are signed by players who spend time both on a team’s 40-man roster and in the minor leagues. These contracts guarantee a certain salary for the time spent on the 40-man roster, and a minor league salary for the time spent in the minors.

Signing Bonuses

Signing bonuses are cash payments made to a player in addition to their salary. They are typically given to players when they sign their first professional contract and are meant to entice players to sign with a particular team. For example, a team may offer a player a $5,000 signing bonus if they sign with the team instead of going to college.

Signing bonuses are not guaranteed, meaning that if a player is released before they play a game, they do not have to be paid the bonus. However, if a player meets certain criteria (such as playing in a certain number of games or being on the team for a certain amount of time), their signing bonus will become guaranteed.

In recent years, signing bonuses have become less common as teams look to save money. However, they are still offered to top prospects in an effort to lure them to sign with a particular team.

MLB Free Agency

The average baseball player made $4.47 million in 2019, according to Spotrac. But that’s just the average. The top 10 percent made more than $10 million while the bottom 10 percent made less than $500,000. So, how do salaries vary throughout a player’s career?

Qualifying Offer

In order to become a free agent, a player must have six years of Major League service time. Each year of service time is worth a set amount of money, with players receiving salaries based on the number of years they’ve been in the league.

After a player has spent six years in the league, they are eligible for free agency, and can sign with any team that offers them a contract. However, before a player can become a free agent, they must first be given a qualifying offer by their team.

A qualifying offer is a one-year contract worth the average salary of the 125 highest-paid MLB players from the previous season. For example, if the average salary for an MLB player in 2019 was $10 million, then the qualifying offer for 2020 would be worth $10 million.

Players have seven days to accept or reject a qualifying offer. If they reject it, they become free agents and can sign with any team. If they accept it, they are effectively signing a one-year contract worth $10 million for the 2020 season.

The vast majority of players reject qualifying offers, as they are usually looking for multi-year contracts that will pay them more than $10 million per year. However, there have been some notable exceptions in recent years, including pitcher Dallas Keuchel and infielder Mike Moustakas.

Arbitration

In baseball, arbitration is a process whereby a player and team can have their contract dispute settled by an independent arbitrator. The arbitrator will review the facts of the case and renders a decision, which is binding on both parties. If the parties cannot agree on an arbitrator, one will be appointed by the American Arbitration Association.

The arbitration process is generally used when the parties cannot come to an agreement on a contract extension or salary for the upcoming season. It is also used to resolve disputes over whether or not a player has been properly classified (e.g., as a rookie or veteran).

In recent years, arbitration has become increasingly common as teams look to cut costs and avoid long-term contracts. In 2020, there were 135 players who filed for arbitration, setting a new record.

MLB Revenue

The average baseball player’s salary has gone up over the years as MLB teams have generated more revenue. In 2018, the average player made $4.1 million, up from $3.2 million in 2017. The increase in average salary is due to the rise in MLB revenue, which was $10.3 billion in 2018. MLB teams generated a record $10.7 billion in revenue in 2019, so we can expect the average player’s salary to continue to rise.

Television Revenue

Television revenue is one of the biggest sources of income for MLB. In 2016, MLB reached a new eight-year, $12.4 billion television contract with ESPN, Fox, and Turner Sports. The deal runs through 2021 and continues to increase in value each season. The average annual value of the contract has more than doubled since the last television contract in 2006.

In addition to the national television contract, each team also has its own local television contract. These local contracts can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the team over the life of the deal. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed a 25-year, $8.35 billion television contract with Time Warner Cable in 2013. This was the largest local television contract in MLB history at the time and was worth an average of $334 million per year to the Dodgers.

Ticket Revenue

MLB consists of 30 teams split evenly between the National League (NL) and American League (AL). With 162 regular season games per team, that’s a total of 2,430 games played every year. That’s a lot of potential ticket sales! In 2018, the average cost of an MLB ticket was $31.48. So let’s take a look at how much revenue each team makes from ticket sales alone.

Assuming each team plays in front of a full stadium every game and each stadium has an average capacity of 45,000 people, we can estimate that each team brings in around $1.4 million per game in ticket revenue alone. That’s a total of $3.4 billion generated from ticket sales every year!

Merchandise Revenue

Generating the majority of their revenue from merchandise and licensing, MLB teams profit from the popularity of their players. The Los Angeles Dodgers, for example, generated $146 million in merchandising revenue in 2018. A majority of this sum comes from jersey sales, with the most popular player jerseys being those of Yasiel Puig, Jackie Robinson, Clayton Kershaw and Cody Bellinger. Popular items include replica jerseys, player bobbleheads and team-specific clothing like t-shirts and hats.

MLB Players’ Association

The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) is the collective bargaining agent for all professional baseball players of the thirty Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Founded in 1966, the MLBPA is a non-profit association whose mission is to protect the rights of MLB players. The MLBPA has a wide range of responsibilities, including negotiating and enforcing player contracts, handling grievance procedures, and regulating the players’ pension and benefit plans.

Collective Bargaining Agreement

In order to ensure that all baseball players are fairly compensated for their talents and contributions to the game, the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA) has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league.

The CBA, which is renegotiated every few years, governs everything from player salaries to drug testing to pension benefits. It’s a complex document, but here are a few of the key provisions that relate to player compensation:

– MLB players are paid twice per month during the season (April-October), and once per month in the offseason (November-March).
– Players on 40-man rosters earn a minimum salary of $563,500 per year.
– Salaries for rookies and first-year players are subject to strict limits. In 2019, for example, rookies could earn a maximum of $555,000, while first-year players could earn up to $697,500.
– Players with more than six years of MLB service time can become free agents and command much higher salaries on the open market. The top free agents this offseason are expected to sign contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So while it’s true that the average baseball player doesn’t make as much money as stars like Mike Trout or Bryce Harper, they still earn a very comfortable living thanks to the MLBPA’s collective bargaining agreement.

Player Agents

Major League Baseball players’ salaries have been on the rise in recent years, jumped significantly since the late 1990s. In 2000, the average player made about $2.4 million per year. 2017, that number had more than doubled to an average of $4.47 million per year.

But those are just averages. The top-paid player in MLB history is Alex Rodriguez, who made a staggering $275 million over his 22-year career. And while A-Rod’s earnings are unfathomable to most of us, they’re actually not that far out of line with what the game’s elite players can expect to make these days.

The MLB Players’ Association is the union that represents all Major League Baseball players. The organization is responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the MLB owners and handling player grievances and appeals.

The MLBPA was founded in 1966 and has been incredibly effective at protecting players’ rights and increasing their compensation. Thanks to the MLBPA, today’s players are paid handsomely for their services, with even the league’s minimum-salaried players earning a comfortable six-figure salary.

If you’re wondering how much your favorite baseball player is making this season, you can find out by visiting the MLB Players’ Association website and searching for their name in the online Players Database.