The top contracts for the world’s best baseball players can get insane. All of our jaws dropped when we first heard about Giancarlo Stanton’s $325 million contract which he originally signed with the Miami Marlins, before they traded him to the Yankees this past offseason.
The best in the game get paid accordingly. Even though there is still plenty of time before this season is over, we’re all already looking ahead to free agency, and wondering just how much will Bryce Harper and Manny Machado be earning next season, and more importantly over the next decade. Let’s not forget one other big question: who will be paying those contracts?
MLB contracts are nothing to scoff at, and we all dream of seeing even a fraction of that money at some point in our lives.
Who are the top 20 best paid players in 2018 (for this season, not including money owed as part of a contract for seasons past and years to come)? There are plenty of the usual suspects on this list, including Stanton himself and Clayton Kershaw. Others may be a bit more surprising. Bryce Harper, at least for this season, isn’t on this list (he is in the top 30 though, making $21.6 million) and neither is Machado (you won’t find him until the 60s with a $16 million salary in 2018).
Robinson Cano was supposed to be on this list, but he forfeited half of his salary for 2018 (that is $12 million) when he was suspended for testing positive for a banned substance.
The data and salaries for this article are from spotrac.com. These are the best paid baseballers in 2018:
[post_page_title]Cole Hamels – $22.5 million[/post_page_title]
Coming in at no. 20 is newly acquired Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Cole Hamels. The 34-year-old is in the midst of a six-year, $144 million contract that he originally signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012. He is currently earning $22.5 million for this season alone. His estimated earnings from over the last 13 seasons is just under $176 million, which isn’t too shabby. He was the top paid player on the Rangers before he was traded, is the fourth best paid player on the Cubs, and is the 10th best paid pitcher in the league.
