While MLB owners "continue to push for a new labor contract
that would curtail salary growth through a payroll cap or tax,
there is some evidence that they have found ways of coping with
the system as it is," writes Ross Newhan in this morning's L.A.
TIMES. According to figures compiled by the MLBPA and released
to its executive board yesterday, the average salary declined 5%
in '95 and the median salary dropped 39% -- from $450,000 to
$275,000. Newhan writes the median decline "seems reflective of
a pattern in which the clubs have begun to replace high-salaried
fringe players with younger players from their system." The
union reports the average salary dropped from $1,168,263 to
$1,110,766. Newhan notes, while that is the "first substantial
decline in 30 years, the figures are somewhat misleading." The
clubs actually spent about $15M more on players in '95 (about
$924M in total), but the average went down because there were
more players on rosters (and on disabled lists) on August 31 as
compared to '94. Agent Barry Axelrod called the $275,000 median
salary "astounding." Axelrod: "You have 20% of the workforce
making 80% of the money. Someone referred to it as the
Hollywoodization of baseball, with the leading actors getting the
premier salaries and the rest working for scale. ... I don't know
how one union represents both ends of the spectrum" (L.A. TIMES,
11/29). Murray Chass notes, despite the drop, the Yankees were
the first team ever to average $2M per player (N.Y. TIMES,
11/29).
