Mike Trout is the highest paid player in MLB for 2020

Mike Trout is the best player in baseball, so it only makes sense that he’s the highest paid player in baseball, which he is in 2020.

Trout signed a contract extension in March 2019 that will pay him a total of $426.5 million through 2030. That includes $35.45 million per year from 2021-30, but for 2020 his salary is $36 million. That ties him this year with Gerrit Cole, who signed a nine-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees last offseason.

Normally when we look at salaries, especially for the players who won’t shuttle back and forth between the majors and minors all year, the seasonal total will suffice. But this year, with the start of the season still to be determined, and with many uncertainties during the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 season will almost certainly be shorter than usual.

It’s easy to take 162 games for granted, but by an agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association on March 27, players would be paid on a pro-rated basis in 2020 depending on the length of the season. Which makes it instructive to look at 2020 salaries on a per-game basis so we have an idea where we are headed.

Luckily, Ronald Blum at the Associated Press did just that, detailing the salaries of every player on a major league roster, broken down per game. Trout’s $36 million salary in 2020 translates to $222,222 per game, tied with Cole for tops in the game.

The Angels have four players — Trout, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, and Justin Upton — making at least $100,000 per game, four of 65 players across MLB earning a six-digit salary per game.

Shohei Ohtani, per Blum, has a $700,000 salary this season, or $4,321 per game. The minimum major league salary in 2020 is $563,500, which translates to $3,478.40 per game, by comparison. Second-year pitcher Griffin Canning will earn $570,500, or $3,522 per game.

All in all, Blum reports, “Every game added to the big league schedule earns players about $24 million in aggregate.”

Links

• Picking the Angels’ all-time center fielder is the easiest position of MLB.com’s franchise best series.
• The simulated Angels, using OOTP 21, are hovering around .500 in Baseball-Reference’s 2020 simulation, but Mike Trout is raking to date, hitting .307/.453/.649 with a team-best 12 home runs.
• The working agreement between MLB and Minor League Baseball expires after 2020. J.J. Cooper at Baseball America has the latest on the negotiations between both sides, which he describes as “productive.”
• ESPN will televise six KBO baseball games per week, beginning last night.