Positional Pricing: Paying for Power and Aces

Power is still king when it comes to getting paid. On the pitching side, power pitchers anchoring staffs are paid well. On the hitting side, power hitters are among the highest paid players in Major League Baseball. The defensive positions like catcher, shortstop, and center field are highly spoken of, but nobody gets paid like first basemen and corner outfielders. The defensive spectrum as well as the WAR positional adjustment tends to go, from most difficult to least difficult, C-SS-2B-CF-3B-RF-LF-1B. However, when it comes to getting paid, the opposite is true.

Using the FanGraphs Depth Charts, and the salary information from Cots at Baseball Prospectus, I took a look at every projected starter in the majors and their salaries. I added designated hitters in the American League as well as closers and the highest paid pitcher for all teams. While the highest paid pitcher is not necessarily a team’s best pitcher, it is an easy proxy in this case. Where a team received money from another to help pay for a player’s salary, only the salary paid by the team employing the player was counted. The money paid by the other team is not included in their own figures.

Top starting pitchers lead the way by a decent margin followed by first basemen.

Given the high cost of obtaining a starter in free agency it is not a big surprise that the top starting pitcher comes in first. All starting pitchers are paid fairly well with the average starting pitcher coming in at about half of the average of the ace, above almost all position groupings. Very few teams can get away without paying at least some starting pitcher a high salary. Here is the distribution among teams.

Cleveland has one of the best young pitching staffs in MLB with Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer, yet no starter makes more than $4 million. Two-thirds of the teams top starters sit between $10 million and $20 million with Clayton Kershaw’s salary topping all of baseball.

In free agency, being a power hitting first baseman has paid off.

Detroit has paid two first basemen major free agent money in recent years. Joe Mauer, Ryan Zimmerman, and Mike Napoli have had to move to first base from more demanding defensive positions, but the rest of the high-salaried group has played first base for the bulk of their playing careers.

The designated hitter is used more in the National League than it has in the past, but only the American League teams tend to pay a decent salary for someone just to hit.

The Yankees jump to the top of the pile here. After retaining Chase Headley, Alex Rodriguez’s return from suspension makes him a highly paid designated hitter. David Ortiz is still going strong in Boston, and Nick Swisher is one of Cleveland’s most highly paid players, but how much he will hit is a question heading into 2015. Depending on Albert Pujols‘ condition going forward, the Angels’ designated hitter situation could quickly go from least expensive to most expensive.

Left fielders are not generally thought of as great in the field, but they are handsomely compensated for their ability to hit.

Left field shows a unique distribution. Almost half of the players have salaries exceeding $10 million, topped by Josh Hamilton and Jason Werth above the $20 million mark. At the other end, half of the left fielders make under $5 million dollars with just two teams paying players between $5 million and $10 million.

The average takes a decent drop moving from left field to right field.

Right field does not start as high as left field with Hunter Pence receiving a top salary under $20 million. It also has a more linear drop. More than half of the players make between $5 million and $15 million, although former Braves Justin Upton and Jason Heyward figure to top this list a year from now.

There is another drop to center field where the rest of the positions are fairly even.

Jacoby Ellsbury of the New York Yankees leads the way for center fielders by a good amount. Melvin Upton, Jr. and Michael Bourn have not shown themselves to be great free agent deals, and one-third of all teams have chosen to start someone who has yet to reach arbitration.

Closers do not get paid a lot of money at the upper end, but the level of pay is pretty evenly distributed.

Jonathan Papelbon sets the bar, but most closers are in the $5 million to $10 million dollar range. Just three teams choose to pay their closers the minimum, and those teams have other relievers earning more money.

Despite a push by Pablo Sandoval, David Wright remains the highest-paid third baseman.

While third basemen are on the low end of the scale by pay, the middle tier of players is full of players who will earn more soon. Josh Donaldson, Todd Frazier, Matt Carpenter, and Kyle Seager all make under $5 million this year, but should see their salaries rise in the coming seasons.

Shortstop get paid when they hit free agency, like Jose Reyes, but they rarely make it to free agency.

It is not completely surprising that so many shortstops make so little. It is a very valuable defensive position, and the best defenders tend to be younger players. Teams take less on offense to get good defense, and defense is rarely compensated as well as offense. Nearly half of all teams pay the minimum for their shortstop.

Second basemen get even less than shortstops.

Robinson Cano is propping up the entire position. Miami, all the way on the other end of the spectrum is not even paying for a second baseman. Dee Gordon’s salary is being paid by the Dodgers. The Dodgers are paying the complete salary for the Marlins highest paid pitcher in Dan Haren as well.

Catchers take the worst of it on the field, but do not get compensated for the work off of it.

Buster Posey, Brian McCann, and Yadier Molina, and Miguel Montero earn the most at the catcher position. No other catcher earns more than $10 million, though Russell Martin will get there when his contract escalates in 2016.

Whether teams overpay in free agency for hitting, or are unwilling to commit long term to players who might need to move off of their position, the better fielding positions tend to pay less. Defense peaks earlier than hitting, but that appears to overlook the obvious answer. Players with big offensive lines get paid, and nobody more than first basemen on the hitting side, but pitchers still take the cake when it comes to buying an ace.