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Rays getting their money’s worth from All-Stars selections

Posted Jul 14, 2009 by Jeff Scullin

Updated Jul 14, 2009 at 08:31 AM

Take a look at how much money the players lining up for tonight’s All-Star Game in St. Louis make, and you’ll find some things that may surprise you – especially among the five members of the Tampa Bay Rays representing the American League.

Two Rays – Evan Longoria, who is starting at third base, and utility player Ben Zobrist, a reserve - rank among the lowest paid of the 66 players selected as All-Stars. Zobrist, who’s developed into a clutch hitter, is making $415,900 this year, slightly above the league minimum. Longoria is making $550,000, which isn’t much better by major league standards.

Those are their base salary numbers, reported as of Opening Day, and don’t reflect any incentives the players may have coming – say, for making the All-Star team.

Jason Bartlett, who will back up the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter at shortstop, also ranks near the bottom of the list at just less than $2 million. Nice work if you can get it, but it puts Bartlett in the bottom 20 of All-Stars and is a far cry from Jeter’s $20.6 million salary – tops among All-Star players.

Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena, a late addition to the AL roster, fall just outside the top third of All-Star players, in terms of base salary. Pena is making $8 million this year, while Crawford is making $8.3 million.

That makes Crawford, the Rays’ highest paid player, the most expensive left fielder in tonight’s game—ahead of Boston’s Jason Bay, Philadelphia’s Raul Ibanez and Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun. Crawford ranks as the No. 4 among All-Star outfielders, behind the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran, Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki and the Los Angeles Angels’ Torii Hunter.

Who’s not on the list might surprise you, too. Baseball’s top-paid players – the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez, both of whom missed considerable playing time in the first half of the season – weren’t selected. Neither were several other marquee players, including Yankees pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and Angels slugger Vladimir Guerrero – all of whom make at least $15 million as a base salary.

We’ve created a couple of data visualizations, using the Many Eyes site, based on All-Star salaries. Have fun with them, and don’t forget to check out the entire Major League Baseball salary database, in case your favorite player didn’t make the All-Star list.

Here are the Many Eyes visualizations. one presented by player positions and one with bubbles proportionate to their pay.