San Francisco Giants news: ‘Opening Day’ payroll falling

The San Francisco Giants’ payroll ranks in the middle of the MLB crowd.

The San Francisco Giants’ “Opening Day” payroll comes in at about $157 million, per the Associated Press’ MLB salary analysis released on Monday. This includes both salaries owed for 2020 as well as a prorated portion of any signing bonuses.

Each year the organization looks at where rosters stand as MLB gets back underway. This year, with baseball and every other professional league in the United States delayed indefinitely, the AP went with the approximate date the sport would have gotten back underway: March 28.

The average major league player makes $4.4 million, up 1.3 percent from 2019. Salaries have essentially plateaued since reaching a high of $4.5 million in 2017.

The Yankees ($241.9 million) and Dodgers ($221.7 million) unsurprisingly lead MLB. The Pirates are in the cellar at $54 million.

San Francisco’s figure puts it 13th this year. The team’s roster came in at about $170 million to start 2019.

The Padres ($158 million) were slightly ahead, with the Rockies  ($156 million) also in the neighborhood, and Diamondbacks near the bottom at $107 million.

Keep in mind, of course, the Giants are MLB’s fifth most valuable team.

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The AP took it a step further and broke what players are being paid down by game.

For instance, Angels superstar Mike Trout and Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole each earn an astounding $222,222 per game.

The Giants check in a bit lower.

Catcher Buser Posey (taking home a little over $22 million this season) earns $132,099 per game. Starting pitcher Johnny Cueto earns $129,630.

The only other Giant to top $100,000 per game is Jeff Samardzija, at a visually pleasing $111,111.

The league minimum is “just” $3,478 per game, which sounds terribly small as long as you don’t think about it in actual human dollars. Several Giants players would come in at that rate.

You can click the link above to get a per-game breakdown for the Giants’ roster, or others.

The per-game total matters right now, because MLB and the players union agreed to prorate the salary for 2020. Each game not played is a game not paid. If MLB plays just 81 games, Posey would only earn about $11 million for the season, for instance.