MLB Annual Salary Leaders 1874 - 1945

[Chuck9788]

Please share any thoughts/surprises on the baseball "annual salary leaders" listed below.


MLB Annual Salary Leaders between 1874 - 1945




Year Salary Player(s)
1874 $2,800 Fergus Malone (Chi NA)
1875 $2,200 Rich Higham (Chi NL)
1876 $4,000 Al Spalding (Chi NL)
1877 $2,900 Al Spalding (Chi NL)
1878 $3,700 Bob Ferguson (Chi NL)
1879 $1,800 Frank Flint (Chi NL)
1880 $1,800 Adrian Anson (Chi NL)
1881 $2,000 Jim O'Rourke (Buf NL)
1882 $2,400 Monte Ward (Prov NL)
1883 $3,100 Buck Ewing (NY NL)
1884 $3,100 Buck Ewing (NY NL)
1885 $4,500 Jim O'Rourke (NY NL)
1886 $4,500 Fred Dunlap (StL/Det NL)

1887 $4,500 Fred Dunlap (Det NL)
Charles Radbourne (Bos NL)

1888 $5,000 Fred Dunlap (Pit NL)
Buck Ewing (NY NL)

1889 $5,000 Fred Dunlap (Pit NL)
Buck Ewing (NY NL)

1890 $4,000 Hardy Richardson (Bos PL)
1891 $2,000 Paul Cook (Lou/StL AA)
1892 $2,800 Joe Gunson (Bal NL)
1893 no data
1894 no data
1895 $2,400 Jack Glasscock (Lou/Was NL)
1896 no data
1897 no data
1898 no data
1899 $1,800 Victor Willis (Bos NL)
1900 no data
1901 no data
1902 no data
1903 no data
1904 $5,000 Joe McGinnity (NY NL)
1905 no data
1906 $8,500 Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)
1907 $8,500 Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)
1908 $8,500 Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)
1909 $9,000 Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)

1910 $9,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)

1911 $9,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
Nap Lajoie (Cle AL)

1912 $10,000 Roger Bresnahan (StL NL)
Jimmy Callahan (Chi AL)
Hugh Jennings (Det AL)
Honus Wagner (Pit NL)

1913 $15,000 Fred Clarke (Pit NL)

1914 $15,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
Tris Speaker (Bos AL)

1915 $15,050 Fred Clarke (Pit NL)
1916 $20,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
1917 $20,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
1918 $20,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
1919 $20,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)

1920 $20,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
Babe Ruth (NY AL)
Tris Speaker (Cle AL)

1921 $25,000 Ty Cobb (Det AL)
1922 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1923 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1924 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1925 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1926 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1927 $70,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1928 $70,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1929 $70,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1930 $80,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1931 $80,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1932 $75,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1933 $52,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1934 $35,000 Babe Ruth (NY AL)
1935 $31,000 Lou Gehrig (NY AL)
1936 $36,000 Mickey Cochrane (Det AL)

1937 $36,000 Mickey Cochrane (Det AL)
Lou Gehrig (NY AL)

1938 $39,000 Lou Gehrig (NY AL)

1939 $35,000 Lou Gehrig (NY AL)
Hank Greenberg (Det AL)

1940 $35,000 Hank Greenberg (Det AL)
1941 $55,000 Hank Greenberg (Det AL)
1942 $43,750 Joe DiMaggio (NY AL)
1943 $27,000 Joe Cronin (Bos AL)
1944 $27,000 Joe Cronin (Bos AL)

1945 $25,000 Lou Boudreau (Cle AL)
Joe Cronin (Bos AL)

[darwinbulldog]

I assume it's been pretty much flat since 1945.

[Chuck9788]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I assume it's been pretty much flat since 1945.

LOL,


2016 $33,000,000 Clayton Kershaw (LA NL)

[sycks22]

Pretty good gig for Cliff Lee too, he still gets $25m / yr and hasn't pitched in 3 years.

[midmo]

I've never seen this list before. The war years stick out to me when the top guys were basically making half what Ruth did 20 years earlier. I'm not sure if that's because of the war or because Ruth was the exception. Or maybe a little of both.

[packs]

These lists are great because it really shows that athletes have nothing to complain about when it comes to money even before today's huge contracts. Look at Cronin in 1944. He made $27,000. Doesn't sound like a lot, right? Well, consider that while he made his $27,000, the average family took in $2,600.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by sycks22

Pretty good gig for Cliff Lee too, he still gets $25m / yr and hasn't pitched in 3 years.

Lee got a buyout from his 2016 salary and was released, then retired prior to the 2016 season. He last got $25M in 2015

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Lee got a buyout from his 2016 salary and was released, then retired prior to the 2016 season. He last got $25M in 2015

Well, I guess he will have to find a way to live on that, huh?

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

Well, I guess he will have to find a way to live on that, huh?

You think that's bad? I can't remember the last year I made even half that much.

[Jobu]

Any chance someone wants to adjust for inflation and post modern day equivalents?

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by Jobu

Any chance someone wants to adjust for inflation and post modern day equivalents?

I'm not gonna do all of them, but Ruth made $1,182,366.47 in 1930.

[nat]

Originally Posted by Jobu

Any chance someone wants to adjust for inflation and post modern day equivalents?

Don't have time for all that, but there's an inflation adjuster at the bottom of each player's page on baseball-reference.com

The most Babe Ruth made in 2017 dollars is about $1.3 million.

Fergus Malone's 1874 salary comes out to about $42,000.

Joe Cronin in 1944 made about $367,000.

Cliff Lee's 2015 salary comes out to $25,259,722.

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by nat

Don't have time for all that, but there's an inflation adjuster at the bottom of each player's page on baseball-reference.com

The most Babe Ruth made in 2017 dollars is about $1.3 million.

Fergus Malone's 1874 salary comes out to about $42,000.

Joe Cronin in 1944 made about $367,000.

Cliff Lee's 2015 salary comes out to $25,259,722.

Yeah well, Cliff Lee was better than Fergus Malone.

[packs]

I don't really have a lot of faith in those calculators. It ignores a lot. For example, if Ruth bought an apartment in NYC in 1930 with his money, that apartment value would far exceed whatever the 2017 dollar calculation is today.

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't really have a lot of faith in those calculators. It ignores a lot. For example, if Ruth bought an apartment in NYC in 1930 with his money, that apartment value would far exceed whatever the 2017 dollar calculation is today.

Alternatively, what if he bought a house in Detroit? A house that's now sitting on the market with an asking price of $10,000?

That is, why pick something that's done disproportionately well relative to the rate of inflation, consumer price index, rise in minimum wage, etc. as the means of undermining the validity of the calculator?

I mean, sure he could have bought an apartment in New York, but he could also have bought over a billion dollars in present-day value of vintage baseball cards for the same amount.

[packs]

The calculator is a strict interpretation of past wealth to today's wealth, but like I said it ignores a lot. The purchasing power of $80,000 in 1930 was much higher than it's conversion today. You need only to look at the relative cost of things. In 1930, it cost $400 a year to go to Penn State. In today's dollars that $400 tuition would only amount to $5,863, which would not get you an education at Penn State. In 1930 the average cost of a new home was $7,145. Today that $7,145 equates to just over $100,000, but the average price for a new house is listed as $368,100 by the census.

[nat]

The calculators do ignore a lot, because (as has been amply demonstrated here) inflation affects different goods at different rates. So you can't use the calculators to tell you what kind of a house Ruth could have bought. It's more like, if you bought a random assortment of stuff in 1934 how much would you expect the same random assortment of stuff to cost in 2017. Which you can't use for any precise purpose, but gets you a sort-of-rough idea about how far baseball paychecks used to go. And I take it that "a sort-of-rough idea" is good enough for government work, as well as for posts to baseball card websites.

[oldjudge]

My bad, I was thinking of Denny

[GaryPassamonte]

Jay- Dunlap in the large Gypsy Queen set?

[oldjudge]

No Gary—my bad, I was thinking of Denny

[GaryPassamonte]

In the recently published book, "Boston's First Nine", the salaries are listed for the 1874 Boston Red Stockings. The highest paid players were Harry Wright , Spalding, and Barnes at $2000. Interestingly George Wright was only paid $1800 and Deacon White was one of the lowest paid players at $1350. Fergy Malone was very fortunate to have worked out a deal for his salary at such a high amount in 1874.