Top 10 Highest-Paid Baseball Players in 2024

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Money and Baseball have gone side by side for a very long time. When the big team signs talented players by offering them a big cheque, money can’t buy you a title because, for that, the team needs to play as a unit. However, strategy and picking the right player for the right position are other important factors in baseball, which is also shown in Moneyball movie, which is one of the great sports movies.

List Of Top 10 Highest-Paid Baseball Players

We are taking only the signing fee and the amount set during the contract signing, but we do not include the proration for the shortened 2020 season.

1. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers – $700M (10 years)

Years: 2023-32; Average Annual Salary: $70,000,000; Signing Age: 29

Here was quite the stir from the wrongly reported rumor that Ohtani was headed to play for the Blue Jays of Toronto. The very next day, Ohtani announced he was going across town to play for the Dodgers. The contract terms were staggering, which would almost never get towards an estimated $500-600 million deal. It became the largest deal in sports history, beating out Lionel Messi’s $673 million deal with FC Barcelona.

2. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels – $426.5M (12 years)

Years: 2019-30; Average Annual Salary: $35,541,667; Signing Age: 27

Trout signed a six-year, $426.5 million contract extension in March 2019 that added two years to the then-contract of the star outfielder with the Angels and comfortably remained the biggest deal in MLB history. The sum was more than $100 million above the then-No. 1 deal of Bryce Harper, who had agreed to just a few weeks prior.

3. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers- $365M (12 years)

Years: 2021-32; Average Annual Salary: $30,416,667; Signing Age: 27

The Dodgers traded with the Boston Red Sox for the outfielder in February 2020. Then they extended his contract extension with the Dodgers in July, before the season was set to get underway during the pandemic. He got an MLB-record $65 million signing bonus.

4. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees- $360M (9 years)

Years: 2023-31; Average Annual Salary: $40,000,000; Signing Age: 30

Judge bet on himself in 2022 by turning down a seven-year, $213.5-million deal before the season and signing this megadeal after hitting an AL record-tying 62 home runs.

5. Manny Machado, San Diego Padres – $350 (11 years)

Years: 2023-33; Average Annual Salary: $31,818,182; Signing Age: 30

This marks Machado’s second appearance on this list. This superlative extension replaces the 10-year, $300 million deal that the star third baseman signed with the Padres in 2019. The deal follows the announcement that Machado would exercise his option to get out of the final five years and $150 million — of the original contract after preliminary negotiations on an extension fell through.

6. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets – $341M (10 years)

Years: 2022-31; Average Annual Salary: $34,100,000; Signing Age: 27

The extension Lindor signed in March 2021 came two months and two days after the Mets received the shortstop via trade from Cleveland. With $50 million in deferred compensation, the deal will continue flowing annually, paying $5 million for 2032-41.

7. Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres – $340M (14 years)

Years: 2021-34; Average Annual Salary: $24,285,714; Signing Age: 22

MLB teams have been searching for years to sign younger players to long-term deals at the service time level, but Tatis has put everything into a new realm. He was 22 in February 2021 when he signed baseball’s longest contract in years (14).

8. Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies – $330M (13 years)

Years: 2019-31; Average Annual Salary: $25,384,615; Signing Age: 26

Long before Trout topped Harper’s deal, just one week prior, it bested Manny Machado’s then-record total No. 9 in the biggest free agent contract in baseball history, outside of non-extension extensions.

9. Corey Seager, Texas Rangers – $325M (10 years)

Years: 2022-31; Average Annual Salary: $32,500,000; Signing Age: 27

Seager and the Rangers jumped out of the gate before the lockout in December 2021, signing the second-highest free-agent contract in major league history. Only one day earlier, the Rangers agreed to Marcus Semien’s seven-year, $175 million deal, so they had half a billion dollars worth of middle infield deals in two days.

10. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers – $325M (12 years)

Years: 2024-35; Average Annual Salary: $27,083,333; Signing Age: 25

Yamamoto was signed from Japan in December 2023, part of a signing spree on the part of the Dodgers after getting bounced out of the 2023 playoffs by the rival Arizona Diamondbacks. In addition to inking Shohei Ohtani to a record deal, they traded for and signed Tyler Glasnow and added the top free-agent pitching out of Japan, Yamamoto. The deal gives the ace 5-foot-10, 176-pound opt-outs after the 2028 and 2032 seasons. The three trades cost an eye-popping $1.1 billion.