Major League Baseball players have seen their average annual
salaries go up every year basically since the 2004 season when the percent
dropped 2.5 percent. Major League Baseball was in the midst of cleaning up the
game then and the mega contracts were becoming scarcer but now injuries were
almost to blame for another drop in salary. In 2016 the average MLB salary was
$3,966,020 which was up just 0.35 percent from last season’s $3,952,252.
As a whole MLB said that salaries increased from $3.58
billion to $3.69 billion through August 31st of last season
including those players who were on the disabled lists. That salary figure
included 964 players on active rosters and disabled lists which was up from 933
players on the eve before September call ups in 2015.
In 2016 there were 561 different disabled list trips which
led to more than 31,500 days spent on the disabled list. Both were MLB records.
This led to more young players being called up at the league minimum of
$507,500 which kept the overall growth down.
I find it hard to feel sorry for the players even getting
paid $507,500 a year to play baseball let alone the ones getting paid
multi-millions of dollars annually. I want to add that I am not one of these “they
shouldn’t be getting paid millions to play a kids game” type of people or fans,
I think that is obvious by my blog name and my work on the blog over the years,
but at the same time…. I’d play MLB for $20 if they’d let me. You know?
Sometimes your love for the game has to take over your wants, needs and greed
for the green.
