Are Baseball Salaries Out of Control: Robinson Cano?

by Posted on

Robinson Cano is about to earn $24M for the next ten years.  That’s insane.  All sports contracts are insane, but are baseball’s way out of whack with the rest of sports?  Football contracts should be out of whack due to their inability to be guaranteed.

Let’s take a look at how the higher salaries in each sport compare to one another on a per game and per hour basis.  Since baseball plays 162 games, of course the salaries are going to be hire. Anyone who worked twice as much in their respective industry as others, say baseball compared to basketball, would seek twice as much compensation.  However, how about comparing the per hour rate of the baseball players salary vs. other sports.  For comparison purposes, I will only look at an hourly bases based on actual game-time. Practices schedules and time working out is impossible to calculate so they are not factored into this discussion.  But, I can find recent reports of the average lengths of actual games.

These numbers are rounded off, so I’ll reserve an error of 1-2%.

Average length of games, in hours:
MLB: 2.95
NHL: 2.35
NBA: 2.3
NFL: 3.14

Here are the salaries of Cano and the highest paid players in the other three major sports.  I’m including Lebron James, only because Kobe has been out most of the year.

MLB: Robinson Cano:  $24M/yr
NBA: Kobe: 30M/yr
NBA: Lebron: $19M/yr
NHL: Crosby: $12M/yr
NFL: Rodgers: $22M/yr

Here is the breakdown of what the players make per game, once salary is divided by games in a season.

MLB: Robinson Cano:  $148K/game
NBA: Kobe: $365K/game
NBA: Lebron: $231K/game
NHL: Crosby: $146K/game
NFL: Rodgers: $1.375/game

PER HOUR:
MLB: Robinson Cano:  $50,100/hr.
NBA: Kobe: $159K/hr
NBA: Lebron: $100.7K/hour
NHL: Crosby: $62K/hour
NFL: Rodgers: $438K/hour

Clearly the NFL salary includes the risk for not being guaranteed.  Cano’s salary would actually be the lowest hourly rate of the group.  Maybe baseball salaries are in line with other professional sports? One thing is clear, NBA salaries in INSANE.

Just something for thought and discussion.