AP study: MLB average salary under $1.3M; Scherzer tops list

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s eye-popping salaries took an astonishing dive during the coronavirus pandemic to their lowest level in nearly a quarter-century, according to a study by The Associated Press.

Washington pitcher Max Scherzer topped the shortened season’s list at $17.8 million, his income partially protected by a huge signing bonus. That is the lowest amount for baseball’s highest-paid player since Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Kevin Brown made $15.7 million in 2000.

Players receive about 37% of their 2020 pay under the formula agreed to in March by MLB and the union, a figure the union wound up keeping during bitter negotiations that failed to produce an agreement. Commissioner Rob Manfred unilaterally announced a 60-game regular-season schedule that started four months late on July 23, down from the normal 162 games for each team.

Salaries averaged $1,295,942 on expanded opening-day rosters after prorated pay was factored in, according to the AP study. That must feel like a throwback paycheck, similar to a vintage jersey -- it’s the lowest average in the AP’s annual opening-day study since $1,176,967 in 1996 and down from $4,375,486 at the start of the 2019 season.

Unhappy with flattening salaries during the first four years of a collective bargaining agreement that runs to December 2021, players spoke even before the curtailed season of seeking large changes. Talks figure to be the most contentious since the 1994-95 strike, the last shortened seasons before this one.

Even with contracts at full value and projected for 25-man active rosters, this year’s average of $4,520,010 would have represented just a 3.1% increase over 2016′s $4,381,980.

Part of the drop in the average was caused by roster expansion to an active limit of 30 per team at the season’s start, adding more major...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/AP-study-MLB-average-salary-under-1-3M-15472504.php