Major League Salary



  • Major League Minimum Salary:
    • 2013: $490,000
    • 2014: $500,000
    • 2015: $507,600
  • Meal money is $100.50 (plus cost of living adjustment) per road day.
  • Teams can renew a player’s contract at the Major League minimum until the player is eligible for arbitration. Teams may renew a player’s contract above the minimum out of good faith and to generate goodwill. The record for a player not threatening to go back to his home country is $900,000 (Albert Pujols in 2003 and Ryan Howard in 2007).
  • Players are eligible for salary arbitration when they have three or more years of Major League service time and less than six years of service time. Players ranked in the top 22% of service time who have at least two years but less than three years of Major League service time who accumulated at least 86 days of Major League service time in the preceding season are also eligible for arbitration as “Super Twos.”
  • Players are eligible for free agency when they reach six years of Major League service time.
  • The average Major League salary in 2014 was $3,820,000.
  • Additionally, players receive group licensing money. MLBPA enters licensing agreements with companies seeking to use the name or likeness of three or more Major League baseball players in relation to a commercial product, product line or promotion. Players receive a pro rata share of licensing revenue regardless of popularity or stature.
  • Players begin to accrue pension benefits once they accumulate 43 days of Major League service time. Once a player accrues 10 years of Major League service time, the pension becomes fully vested, yielding a player $185,000 a year beginning at age 66.