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30 highest career MLB salaries

By Nathaniel Reeves

Aug 12, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez (13) waves to the fans after playing his final game as a Yankee against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 12, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez (13) waves to the fans after playing his final game as a Yankee against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports /
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Taking a look at the 30 highest-paid players in MLB history.

Year after year, free agent contracts across MLB continue to grow in price to previously unforeseen levels.

Even in a weak free agent class last offseason, players like Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes and Aroldis Chapman received hefty contracts worth upwards of $80 million. Elsewhere, Los Angeles Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw is set to make $35.57 million, setting a new single-season record to eclipse 2016 free agent Zack Greinke’s $34 million contract.

The market is going to get even more wild in upcoming years, with stars like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Mike Trout set to hit free agency down the line. By the 2018 offseason, baseball could have its first $400 million contract, a figure that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

As a result, the list of the top earners in MLB history is constantly changing every offseason. Veterans like Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Beltre are quickly moving up the all-time earnings list, with each eclipsing the $200 million lifetime mark.

Even so, nobody has yet come close to breaking the record set by Alex Rodriguez, which stands at just shy of $400 million. The New York Yankees have traditionally dominated the free agent market with some of the richest contracts in baseball history, but the landscape has changed in recent years with more teams getting involved.

Here’s a look at the 30 highest paid players in MLB history over the course of their respective careers,

30. Ken Griffey Jr., $151,703,682

Despite beginning his career in the late 1980s, “The Kid” continues to hang on to a spot after signing a pair of large contracts with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds.

Griffey Jr. debuted as a 19-year-old in 1989 and quickly became a star with a combined 17.2 WAR from 1990-1992. The Mariners rewarded Griffey Jr. with a four-year, $24 million extension prior to 1993, and he became the first baseball player to make $8 million in a single season in 1997 following another extension.

With his four-year, $34 million extension coming to an end in the winter of 2000, the Mariners traded Griffey Jr. to the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati rewarded the hometown hero with a massive nine-year, $116.5 million contract to make him one of the highest paid players in MLB history.

Things didn’t work out quite as well for the Reds, as Griffey Jr. was slowed by injuries and posted no better season than a 2.9 WAR campaign in 2005. After a brief stop with the Chicago White Sox, Griffey Jr. signed a small contract with the Mariners before retiring in 2010.

While Griffey Jr. will soon be passed on the MLB all-time earning list, he’s still due to make just over $3.5 million per year up until the 2024 season on deferments from the Reds.

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