Baseball Salaries Take a Big Jump

The biggest escalation in seven years pushed baseball’s average salary to more than $1.7 million on opening day, according to a study by the Associated Press.

Baltimore outfielder Albert Belle was the highest-paid player on opening day for the third consecutive season, earning $11,949,794. Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez was second at $11 million, followed by Dodger pitcher Kevin Brown ($10,714,286) and Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux ($10.6 million).

Mark McGwire, last season’s star with a record 70 homers, was 11th at $8,333,333. Sammy Sosa, who chased McGwire all summer long and finished with 66 homers, was tied for ninth at $9 million.

The World Series champion New York Yankees opened with baseball’s highest payroll ever, $85.1 million--an average of $3.04 million per player.

The Dodgers were second at $79.2 million, followed by Baltimore ($78.5 million), Texas ($74.9 million), Atlanta ($73.5 million) and Cleveland ($68.9 million).

Arizona moved up from 21st at $31.6 million at the end of last season to seventh at $65.9 million.

At the other end were three teams below $20 million: Montreal was last at $17.3 million, Florida was 29th at $18.8 million and Minnesota was 28th at $19.1 million.

The average salary of $1,720,050, easily a record, was up 19.3% over last year’s opening-day average of $1,441,406, according to the AP study, which examined the contracts of 830 players on opening-day rosters and the disabled list. It was nearly five times the 4.2% rise before last season and the largest increase since a 21.7% rise prior to the 1992 season.

“We’ve been going through all those over the past few months, but I want to see the final numbers before I make any judgments,” Commissioner Bud Selig said.

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Money Players

Baseball’s top 10 salaries this season:

1. Albert Belle, Baltimore: $11,949,794

2. Pedro Martinez, Boston: $11,000,000

3. Kevin Brown, Dodgers: $10,714,286

4. Greg Maddux, Atlanta: $10,600,000

5. Gary Sheffield, Dodgers: $9,916,667

6. Bernie Williams, Yankees: $9,857,143

7. Barry Bonds, San Francisco: $9,381,057

8. Randy Johnson, Arizona: $9,350,000

9. Raul Mondesi, Dodgers: $9,000,000

(tie) Sammy Sosa, Cubs: $9,000,000

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Salaries for the Dodgers and Angels (dl-disabled list):

DODGERS

Kevin Brown: $10,714,286

Gary Sheffield: $9,916,667

Raul Mondesi: $9,000,000

Eric Karros: $5,500,000

Todd Hundley: $5,325,000

Mel Rojas: $4,583,333

Eric Young: $4,500,000

Ismael Valdes: $4,275,000

Jeff Shaw: $3,383,333

Jose Vizcaino: $3,000,000

Devon White: $2,500,000

Carlos Perez: $2,333,333

Chan Ho Park: $2,300,000

Dave Mlicki: $2,250,000

Darren Dreifort: $1,900,000

Mark Grudzielanek: $1,900,000

Alan Mills: $1,250,000

dl-Antonio Osuna: $1,050,000

dl-Todd Hollandsworth: $850,000

Dave Hansen: $450,000

Pedro Borbon: $375,000

Tripp Cromer: $285,000

Rick Wilkins: $270,000

Jacob Brumfield: $240,000

Adrian Beltre: $220,000

dl-Alex Cora: $210,000

Paul LoDuca: $200,000

Onan Masaoka: $200,000

dl-Steve Montgomery: $200,000

Payroll: $79,180,952 (2nd overall)

****

ANGELS

Mo Vaughn: $7,166,667

Chuck Finley: $5,800,000

Tim Salmon: $5,500,000

Ken Hill: $5,450,000

Tim Belcher: $4,600,000

dl-Jim Edmonds: $3,550,000

dl-Gary DiSarcina: $3,125,000

Garret Anderson: $2,100,000

Omar Olivares: $1,600,000

Troy Percival: $1,575,000

Steve Sparks: $1,350,000

Matt Walbeck: $825,000

dl-Mike James: $805,000

Darin Erstad: $800,000

Mark Petkovsek: $800,000

Randy Velarde: $800,000

Charlie O’Brien: $700,000

Shigetoshi Hasegawa: $625,000

Mike Magnante: $600,000

dl-Jack McDowell: $500,000

dl-Jason Dickson: $375,000

dl-Pep Harris: $305,000

Mike Holtz: $290,000

Jeff Huson: $280,000

Orlando Palmeiro: $276,000

Andy Sheets: $230,000

Todd Greene: $225,000

dl-Justin Baughman: $215,000

Tim Unroe: $215,000

Troy Glaus: $212,500

dl-Reggie Williams: $210,000

Alan Levine: $208,000

Scott Schoeneweis: $200,000

Payroll: $51,513,167 (13th overall)