NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball's average salary jumped nearly 9 percent to $2.87 million on opening day, and the three highest-paid players were all on the New York Yankees.
Alex Rodriguez topped the list at $25.7 million and was No. 1 for the sixth straight year, according to a study of major league contracts by the Associated Press. Derek Jeter was next at $20.6 million, followed by Jason Giambi at $20.4 million.
San Francisco's Barry Bonds was fourth at $20 million, and Houston's Jeff Bagwell -- who might not play because of a shoulder injury -- was next at $19.3 million.
"Baseball had record crowds last year," Giambi said. "Probably with Barry going to break the (home run) record, it will bump it up and more people will come out and watch it. That makes players more popular, and in turn guys make more money."
This year's $2,866,544 average was up 8.9 percent from last year's figure of $2,632,655.
The Yankees' payroll dropped a bit to $198.7 million from $205.9 million on opening day last year. Boston was second again at $120.1 million, followed by the Los Angeles Angels ($103.6 million), the World Series champion Chicago White Sox ($102.9 million) and the New York Mets ($100.9 million).
Payroll figures don't include cash transactions, such as money the Yankees are receiving from Texas for Rodriguez and the White Sox are getting from Philadelphia for Jim Thome.
At the other end were the Florida Marlins at just under $15 million, including 17 players making the $327,000 minimum. It's the lowest figure for any team at the start of a season since Pittsburgh and Montreal in 1998. It's also less than the top 12 players make and 1/13th of what the Yankees pay their roster.
The number of players making $1 million or more rose from 390 to 409 -- still shy of the record 425 in 2001. The median salary -- the point at which an equal amount of players fall above and below -- rose to $1 million from $850,000, breaking the previous high of $975,000 set in 2001.
Figures for the study included salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income for the 813 players on opening-day rosters and disabled lists. For some players, parts of salaries deferred without interest or with minimal interest were discounted to present-day value.
