wezen - ball: The History of the Highest Paid Player in Baseball

Looking for a “Timeline of the Highest Paid Player in Baseball” (as opposed to the “Timeline of the Shortest French Zouave Jazz Drummer During the Battle of Magenta”...which I’m not having much luck with)? Well Granillo has it!

In fact, it’s been a long time since we last heard the words “the new highest paid player in baseball”. It was nine years ago Thursday, when Tom Hicks (yes, the same Tom Hicks who has piled the Rangers under mountains of debt) signed Alex Rodriguez to the richest contract in sports history, totalling 10 years and $252 million. Since then, we’ve had a few different players take the mantle of “2nd Highest Paid Player” (and we’ve even had A-Rod outdo himself), but no one has yet been able to de-throne the Yankees’ third baseman from his place on high.

And it’s not looking like anyone will in the near future. Which makes it a perfect time to look back at the history of the highest paid player in baseball. Using newspaper accounts of the signings, and my rough knowledge/recollections, I was able to trace back the title of “highest paid player” in baseball all the way back to Nolan Ryan’s 4 year, $4 million contract signed in the winter of 1979. For example, when Mike Piazza signed his then-record seven-year, $91 million contract with the Mets on Oct 26, 1998, the New York Times article announcing the signing said this:

  “Piazza surpassed pitcher Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, who last December signed a six-year contract averaging $12.5 million a year, as the highest-paid player in baseball history.”

If I then went back to the article announcing Pedro’s contract signing, it would tell me that Greg Maddux and Barry Bonds were the last two players to hold the title, and so on. While this proved a little tricky, especially in the mid-80s, when the press hadn’t decided on a good standard for judging contacts, etc., I was able to fill in all the gaps. And by “all the gaps”, I mean every single player who, at the time of their contract signing, was considered the highest paid player in baseball - even if it was for only a day or two. So, the three days that Rickey Henderson was at the top of the charts in late-1989, or the two days that Mike Hampton owned the largest total contract ever, are accounted for here.