Dollars Earned vs. Dollars Made

Earlier this week, the wins above replacement and fair market value calculations were added to the player pages. The additions enable us not just to view the productivity levels of certain players, but also how much money they could have commanded on the open market. The numbers are now available on the leaderboards, too, offering up the capability to find players worth the most/least in a given season or period of time.

One of the most interesting aspects of this data involves comparing what a player earned to what he actually made. For instance, in my Jayson Werth post, the data indicated that, from 2007-09, Werth would make something like $6.55 mil while actually providing $54 mil in wins above replacement. The next logical step would be to show the actual salary next to the deserved salary. This step recently came to fruition, meaning that we can now compare, on a player’s page, what he actually made to what his production merited.

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to take a look at a few players and see how they are valued compared to what they deserve. As an example, we will once again turn to Werth. From 2005-2008, he produced +9.1 WAR. He actually earned $2.9 mil in this span despite being worth $38.5 mil. Sure, he has been under team control, but the numbers here are fascinating. Essentially, Werth has been paid 13.28 times less than his production would indicate over this four-year span.

How about teammate Chase Utley, who has been the second most productive hitter over the last three years? Chase has been worth +30 WAR from 2005-08, a total worth the lump sum of $118.2 mil. Due to being under team control and having some arbitration years bought out in his 7-yr deal, Utley has actually made just $13.4 mil over the last four seasons. Utley has made 8.82 times less than he deserves.

Perhaps some form of this could be parlayed into an analysis of General Manager’s, as getting $118.2 mil worth of production for just $13.4 mil is no small feat.

How about Alex Rodriguez? Would you believe that A-Rod has actually been underpaid relative to his production over the last four years? Sounds ludicrous given his contract, but it is true. A-Rod has been worth +28.5 WAR in this span, which translates to $110.6 mil. His actual salaries add up to $98.4 mil, a full $12 mil below his fair market value.

And, as good as Manny Ramirez may have looked recently, he has actually been overpaid. ManRam has amassed +14.8 WAR since 2005, worth $59.5 mil. He actually made $76.2 mil, just about $17 mil more than his production merited.

These are just a few examples, and it would be extremely interesting to see how an entire roster stacks up in this regard, but all of the data we have used in our dollar valuations is now available on this site. And, even better, we can compare the fair market values with actual money earned to really see who has or has not earned their salaries.