After an off-season of waiting for baseball’s two biggest free agents—Bryce Harper and Manny Machado—to sign with new teams, those deals finally got done within the past two weeks. Harper’s deal is 13 years for $330M, and Machado signed for 10 years and $300M, long-term pacts that yield annual average values of $25.3M and $30M, respectively. However, neither of those deals will be the highest AAV in baseball, as some had speculated. In terms of payroll salary—the amount of cash the player will earn in 2019—neither made the top five.
What gives? Who’s making the most money in baseball this season?