Famous First Salary Levels

Baseball players have always been able to pay the bills. A typical Major League ballplayer has an average salary ten times greater than the average working person. Here are a few players that were the first to reach various landmark salaries.

Note: Salary is defined for this section as the amount paid to a player from a team for a single season of play. Amounts below often exceed the level listed and attempts to be specific have been made where possible (George Foster made $2.04 million), but the player is the first to break the two-million dollar threshold.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"The only way you can get along with newspaper men is to be like Dizzy Dean, say something one minute and something different the next." - Hank Greenberg (1st Major Leauge Player Paid $100,000 a year)

Famous First Salary Levels

In Chronological Order

03-05-1922 $50,000 Babe Ruth New York AL
01-18-1947 $100,000 Hank Greenberg Pittsburgh NL
11-19-1979 $1,000,000 Nolan Ryan Houston NL
02-07-1982 $2,040,000 George Foster New York NL
11-22-1989 $3,000,000 Kirby Puckett Minnesota AL
06-27-1990 $4,700,000 Jose Canseco Oakland AL
02-08-1991 $5,380,250 Roger Clemens Boston AL
03-02-1992 $7,100,000 Ryne Sandberg Chicago NL
01-31-1996 $8,500,000 Ken Griffey, Jr. Seattle AL
11-19-1996 $11,000,000 Albert Belle Chicago AL
12-12-1997 $12,500,000 Pedro Martinez Boston AL
10-26-1998 $13,000,000 Mike Piazza New York NL
12-12-1998 $15,000,000 Kevin Brown Los Angeles NL
10-20-2000 $17,000,000 Carlos Delgado Toronto AL
12-11-2000 $20,409,542 Manny Ramirez Boston AL
12-11-2000 $21,726,881 Alex Rodriguez New York AL
$25,705,118
$27,708,525
$28,000,000
$33,000,000
05-29-2014 $34,083,000 Mike Trout Los Angeles AL
Famous First Baseball Salary Levels
baseball almanac flat baseball

baseball almanac fast facts

High bonuses or incentives are not a new invention by teams trying to lower their team payroll: In 1951, Paul Pettit became the first player given a $100,000 bonus and in 1922, Babe Ruth received $500 per home run.

In 1991, Brien Taylor, a first round first selection / non-Major League player taken in the 1991 baseball draft, became the first player given a million dollar signing bonus and in 1995, the New York Yankees payroll became the first to have an average player salary in excess of two million dollars.

Alex Rodriguez, in December 2000, had signed the most lucrative contract in baseball history. From 2001 through 2004, A-Rod's salary was twenty-one million yearly. In 2005, Rodriguez received a four million dollar per year pay raise and in 2007, he received a six million dollar pay raise - the first ballplayer to get a $21, $25, $27, $28 and $33 million dollar per year baseball contract.