List of highest-paid Major League Baseball players

Major League Baseball (MLB) does not have a hard salary cap, instead employing a luxury tax which applies to teams whose total payroll exceeds certain set thresholds for a given season.

[1][2] Free agency did not exist in MLB prior to the end of the reserve clause in the 1970s, allowing owners before that time to wholly dictate the terms of player negotiations and resulting in significantly lower salaries.

Babe Ruth, widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players ever, earned an estimated $856,850 ($19,515,718 inflation-adjusted from 1934 dollars) over his entire playing career.

[6] Kirby Puckett and Rickey Henderson signed the first contracts which paid an average of $3 million a year in November 1989.

[10] Despite this, he opted out of the remainder of his deal after the 2007 season and renegotiated a new $275 million, 10-year agreement with the Yankees, breaking his own record for the largest sports contract.

In 2019, Mike Trout signed a 12-year, $426 million contract with the Angels, the richest contract in the history of North American sports at the time.
A man in a dark batting helmet, grey baseball uniform, and white gloves holds a baseball bat against the ground with his right hand.
Alex Rodriguez earned the highest salary in MLB in 2013 at $28,000,000. He also has the highest career earnings in MLB history, as well as a record 13 years with the highest AAV.
An African American man in a white baseball uniform with "GIANTS" on the chest takes a left-handed baseball swing as a catcher kneels behind him to receive the pitch.
Though retired since 2007, Barry Bonds' career earnings of over $192 million still ranks in the top 50 overall in MLB history.
A man in a white baseball jersey with "ASTROS" on the chest and orange and yellow stripes on his shoulders pitches a baseball with his right hand.
Nolan Ryan (pictured) became the first player to earn an average salary above $1 million in 1979. 17 years later Albert Belle became the first player to average above $10 million a year.