NEW YORK — A $2 million salary makes you only an average baseball player these days.
Only eight years after the average salary broke the million-dollar mark, it nearly reached $2 million on opening day, falling just short at $1,988,034, according to a study of all major league contracts by The Associated Press.
"I don't know if it is negative or positive for the game," New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza said. "It rewards guys with talent who have worked hard all their lives, rode the buses in the minors and now are getting paid very well for what they do."
When Piazza first came up to the major leagues in 1993, he made $126,000. This year, he's making $12,071,429, and that only puts him sixth.
Dodgers pitcher Kevin Brown is No. 1 at $15,714,286, only slightly less than the $16,519,500 the Minnesota Twins are paying their entire roster.
Arizona pitcher Randy Johnson is second at $13.35 million, followed by Baltimore outfielder Albert Belle ($12,868,670), New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams ($12,357,143) and Colorado outfielder Larry Walker ($12,142,857).
Belle had been No. 1 the previous three seasons.
Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. is only 19th at $9,329,700, which includes $7 million in salary, $625,000 as the remaining share of the signing bonus from his Seattle contract and $1,704,700, which represents the 2000 value of $5.5 million in deferred payments.
"If the salaries continue to escalate and you don't have revenues that come close to staying even, then you're in trouble, and that's where we are," said Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo.