Column: Wide gaps in MLS salaries are difficult to defend

When Galaxy defender Daniel Steres played Orlando City midfielder Kaka at the StubHub Center last month, it was a mismatch.

Steres, a rookie, will earn a league minimum base salary of $62,500 this season. Kaka, a former world player of the year with two World Cups on his resume, is guaranteed $7.167 million, making him the highest paid player in MLS history.

So what did Orlando City get for its extra $7.1 million?

Not much. Steres, a defender, played more minutes, had more touches, made more passes and even outshot Kaka, an attacking midfielder, in a 4-2 Galaxy win. There’s little correlation between salary and the scoresheet this year in MLS, where attackers are paid millions of dollars to score goals against defenders who are paid a relative pittance.

According to figures released by the players union, only two of the league’s 23 millionaires – Colorado goalkeeper Tim Howard and Portland defender Liam Ridgewell – are primarily defensive players. Meanwhile, 56 defenders, including Steres, will earn no more than $70,000.

That’s an imbalance that’s difficult to ignore in a league in which scoring is up more than 13% since 2010. Some players say the emphasis on signing high-priced attackers rather than skilled and experienced defenders is partly to blame.

“The beauty of this league is that there are less tactics,” Italian midfielder Sebastian Giovinco, who had a MLS-best 22 goals for Toronto FC as a rookie last year, said through a translator. “For attackers it’s better because there are more chances to score. But for a defender, it’s maybe not the best.”

Team and league executives are unapologetic.

“That’s a trend worldwide,” said Matt Jordan, a former goalkeeper who is now general manager of the Houston Dynamo. “The hardest skill in the world is to put the ball in the back of the net. So it’s normally going to pay the high-skilled guys the most money.”

That is especially true in a young league such as MLS, which needs star power to carve out a niche in a crowded sports landscape.

“People come to see goals,” said Galaxy President Chris Klein.

MLS attendance has risen as scoring has gone up. But there are other reasons why strikers drive luxury cars and defenders take the bus.

For starters there’s the dichotomous salary structure. MLS has a two-tiered minimum wage, guaranteeing players on the senior and supplemental rosters at least $62,500, while players on the reserve roster can be paid $11,000 less. There is also a salary ceiling of $3.66 million per team – but it’s one the league allows clubs to violate through its designated-player rule, under which three players on each roster can earn unlimited salaries that don’t fully count against the cap.

That has allowed teams to spend lavishly on foreign talent, then balance the budget by filling their rosters with low-paid domestic players. The imports tend to be scorers – the 11 highest paid MLS players are midfielders or forwards who previously played in Europe – while the cheap domestic players have traditionally been defenders.

“For a long time America produced more defenders than attackers,” Seattle Sounders General Manager Garth Lagerwey said. “And when you’re looking to fill out a roster … if you can get Americans to play well in defense and defensive midfield, then you tend to use your foreign spots on those attacking players.

“Right now we spend more money on attacking players. Should they be better than the players that make less money? Yes, they should be.”

Still, the wide spread in pay is both unpopular and untenable. In a preseason poll conducted by ESPN, more than eight in 10 MLS players surveyed took exception to a salary structure largely segregated by position. Just two of the league’s 50 high-priced designated players are defenders while a third is a goalkeeper.

“It’s just hard to say that it’s fair when you can be making $60,000 and a guy on your team is making $8 million,” one player said. “You don’t see gaps like that in other leagues.”

In fact, you don’t see anything close to it. In baseball the highest-paid player, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, makes 63 times the league minimum of $507,000, slightly larger than the gap separating Cleveland’s LeBron James from the lowest-paid NBA rookie. The salary of the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, hockey’s best-paid player, is about 24 times the minimum in the NHL. The NFL’s richest man, Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck, earns about 54 times the league minimum of $450,000.

In MLS, there are 11 players making 54 times the minimum wage. And Kaka earns more than 130 times the MLS minimum.

MLS has moved to close that gap. Believing the league’s improvement is tied to middle-class players – those who deserve more than minimum but not as much as designated players – MLS gave each team an additional $1.6 million in league money last winter to spend on salaries over the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Of the 52 players currently receiving the Targeted Allocation Money, 13 are defenders and 10 are forwards.

The Galaxy used some of its money on midfielder Gyasi Zardes, more than tripling his base salary to $472,500. But it also gave a hefty raise to defender Robbie Rogers and spent another $1.25 million to bring in three more defensive players in Ashley Cole, Nigel de Jong and Jelle Van Damme. (De Jong was released from his contract in August.)

“With our salary budget and DPs, there is a natural tendency to pay more for attacking players,” Klein said. “In saying that, if you look at our team … one of the big characteristics is we defend very well.

“Certainly people want to come out and see Robbie Keane score goals. But at the end of the day, what teams are learning is they have to win games or nothing else matters.”

And in that equation, a goal saved is just as important as one scored, no matter how much it costs.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

Twitter: @kbaxter11