According to an analysis of MLB contracts conducted by the Associated Press, 65 players would earn at least $100,000 each time they step on the diamond once the pandemic-delayed baseball season finally begins.
That 65-player group is headlined by an even smaller section of players who would bank more than $200,000 each time they take the field.
Each set to make $36 million in salary in 2020, 28-year-old Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout and 29-year-old New York Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole are slated to earn $222,222 for each game of the 162-game season. Trout and Cole are followed in average earnings by Colorado third baseman Nolan Arenado at $216,049 per game, Houston right-hander Justin Verlander at $203,704 and Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander David Price at $197,531.
In total, each game on the big league schedule earns players about $24 million in aggregate. Given those hefty contracts, MLB is going to have a tough time getting the Players’ Association to agree to slash salaries if the season needs to be cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would need to be fully informed about revenue and things like that before I would decide if I think it’s fair for us to do that,” Washington first baseman Ryan Zimmerman told the AP. “I know the owners make a lot of money … If there ever was a time where two sides that have obviously argued in the past could get along and get things done, now would be the time. That being said, I’m not going to sit here and say the players would be willing to do that. I don’t even know if I would be willing to do that.”
Zimmerman, 35, has a $2 million salary and is slated to get $12,346 per game. If he doesn’t want to renegotiate about what he is earning, imagine how players like Trout and Cole feel about the matter.
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