MLB
Who is the lowest-paid player in the MLB? Is there a minimum salary?
When the media reports on MLB player salaries, the focus is on the top end. But over 300 players in the Show are earning the minimum wage.
Major League Baseball players are often thought of as multi-millionaires, almost like lottery winners in a way. And with the numbers thrown about in the media when discussing signings, it is easy to understand why. Most people on the planet simply can not comprehend of a salary that runs to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the US, an average college graduate can expect to earn somewhere in the region of $2.7 million over the course of their working life - that is between birth and the grave. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander will earn that same lifetime’s money in just 23 days.
At the top end of the scale, Shohei Ohtani will earn an average salary of $70 million during his 10-year stint with the Dodgers. But when the focus is on the top end of the board, the bottom often gets overlooked.
What is the average salary for MLB players in 2024?
To give you an idea, the top 50 highest-paid players get 30% of the money in the league and while the average salary rose 7.1% last year to a record $4,525,719, that is not a clear indicator of the gulf between the top earners and everyone else - the median salary is just $1.5 million, which shows that the bottom end is pretty heavy to balance out those big pay checks.
2024 minimum MLB salary
Despite the star players of each team earning millions, the very fact that the Collective Bargaining Agreement specifies a minimum salary should indicate that it is needed. In fact, there are 304 active players who this season will be earning the bare minimum, with two players (Brayan Rocchio and Cade Cavalli) earning just $200 per year above the minimum, and Riley O’Brien, in 779th, earning just a little more than that ($740,450).
The CBA lays out a schedule to raise the league minimum each year, Minimum salaries agreed in the last CBA are $740,000 in 2024, $760,000 in 2025 and $780,000 in 2026.
The top three highest-paid MLB players in 2024 are: Shohei Ohtani ($70 million), Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander (both on $43.333 million). To put that into some kind of context, the Oakland Athletics’ total payroll for 2024 is $60.5 million - the lowest in the league.
As for the lowest-paid players in Major League Baseball, a few hundred are currently taking home the minimum wage of $740,000 - too many to list here but in terms of the overall ranking, this collective group come in way down the list at 782nd.