Joe Mauer
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We saw on Sportscenter this morning that the combined salaries of the players currently on the Yankees disabled list is greater than the entire Kansas City Royals payroll.
Could that possibly be true?
The Yankees have to be the only team that could do that right?
We did some digging, and found an interesting nugget or two.
First, let’s deal with the Yankees question. It turns out that the Yanks have $38.95 million sitting on the training table. That’s nearly $2.5 million more than the Royals’ $36.5 million total player tab. So Sage Steele and Co. were right.
But the Yankees aren’t the only ones. There are three MLB teams that have DL payrolls greater than the Royals’ total payroll.
The lowly, cash-strapped New York Mets are one. Their DL has a $37.9 million payroll right now. While nearly all of it comes from Johan Santana and David Wright, it’s still interesting that the Evil Empire isn’t the only team New York team to dwarf KC.
But there’s one team with a DL payroll that blasts the Yanks and Mets out of the water: the Minnesota Twins.
Yes, the team with only the ninth-highest total team payroll in baseball has an unbelievable DL payroll of $64.9 million. That’s more than the total payrolls of not just the Royals, but eight other major league teams.
Here’s their current DL with salaries:
Joe Mauer ($23M)
Justin Morneau ($15M)
Joe Nathan ($11.25M)
Jason Kubel ($5.25M)
Jim Thome ($3M)
Tsuyoshi Nishioka ($3M)
Kevin Slowey ($2.7M)
Denard Span ($1M)
Glen Perkins ($700k)
This shows three things:
  • The Twins have been ridiculously unlucky.
  • The financial inequality in baseball is laughable.
  • ESPN’s “the Yankees are way, way richer than everyone else and here’s why” trope is half-assed.