Trevor Bauer's 2021 Salary Is Currently Higher Than 3 MLB Team's 2021 Payroll
If you weren't living under a rock yesterday you saw and read that 2020 Cy Young Award winner, Trevor Bauer signed with the Dodgers. Rich get richer, literally. The big news besides him blue balling the Mets and their fans was his insane salary.
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$40 million in 2021, $45 mill in 2022, just insane. Highest paid player in the game. Does he deserve to be paid the most? That's up for discussion. What's not up for discussion is the fact that his 2021 salary is currently higher than 3 MLB teams, the Indians, Pirates, and Orioles. That is insane to even think about. We all know about the Indians shedding payroll like it's going out of style while they trade off several key members the last few years, the Pirates literally are a farm system for other teams and don't even pretend to care or try to field a competitive team, and the Orioles are still rebuilding, but getting closer to fielding a competitive team. The Birds did just trade Alex Cobb to get some money off the books, but they still have Chris Davis making a whopping $21 million this season, accounting for over half the Orioles payroll, in fact, he's the only member of the Orioles making over $4.75 million this season.
I'm not sure what this really shows about the game and where it's at right now. We're used to always seeing X player make more than Tampa or something like that, but now we've got a handful of teams in that position, and it's not good at all. And I know that we saw the Rays and their 28th ranked payroll last year in the World Series, but they seem to be the exception to the rule. You can also point out that 5 of the 8 lowest payrolls made the playoffs last year, but we all can agree it wasn't a normal season and that was kind of bizarre.
It's no secret that there seem to be only a few teams out there willing to hand out massive deals. It seems like the Dodgers, Angels, Yankees a little, Padres, and that's about it. You have big market teams like the Cubs and Red Sox having to trade their generational talents because they know they can't afford to keep them. This isn't just a small market problem anymore, it's not the Orioles playing poor, it's Boston and Chicago now. So good for Bauer for getting this massive deal, but it's a rough look for the clubs in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore right now. There is a chance these 3 teams payrolls go down EVEN MORE before the season starts too. Do we have to put in a salary floor or something in this sport?