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ASIAN AMERICAN SPORTS


The past decade has seen major-league baseball becoming the leading source of newly-minted Asian millionaire athletes

by Sam Orinda

Salaries of Top Asian Baseball Players




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Top Asian Baseball Salaries

aseball is the game for closet statisticians and salary is the stat most zealously tracked and heatedly debated. It goes beyond our usual tacky curiosity about what stars make. In baseball a salary is a cut-and-dried score that reflects someone's gimlet-eyed appraisal of a player's future prospects based on every stat and all the intangibles. Fans get to have fun second-guessing each team's shrewdness or stupidity as the appraisals are laid bare, one game at a time.

     As Asian Americans we have one more reason for wanting to know salaries. During the past few years Major-League baseball has produced more Asian millionaires in the U.S. than any other sport. And of course we want to see if, compared to non-Asian counterparts, our Asian favorites are indentured at a discount, a premium or strictly according to their actual merits. [See chart of Salaries of Top Asian Baseball Players]

     When the Japanese-owned Seattle Mariners committed $29 million (including $14 million buyout fee to the Orix Blue Wave) for a 3-year contract with Ichiro Suzuki, was it paying a premium so it could build a Team Japan on American soil or was that merely the figure needed to outbid other interested teams for a top leadoff batter? In reportedly seeking a long-term contract guaranteeing a $7.5 million annual salary, is Ichiro selling himself at a bargain or at a premium?

     When Chan Ho Park got his free-agency status and wrangled a 5-year, $65-million contract out of the Texas Rangers -- which required a hefty concession from Alex Rodriguez's 10-year $252 million contract -- was he being stupidly greedy or shrewdly exploiting a team blinded by its pitching desperation?

     When Hideki Matsui signed his 3-year, $21 million deal with the Yankees, was he getting a premium based on anticipated revenues from deals with Japanese TV? Or was he getting lowballed because he was seen as a foreigner who wasn't expected to command the Yankees fan following of a native-born slugger?

     The answers to these and other questions may never be answered to anyone's satisfaction. But we can all have fun second-guessing the smart and sucker bets placed with other people's millions.

     It's worth noting that Asians are newcomers to the very top of the MLB salary pyramid. It wasn't until the 2003 season that Chan Ho Park's nominal $13,000,000 got him on the list at number 20 of the 25 best-payed players, at least on a pro-forma basis. The main reason is the fact that as of the start of 2003 Park was the only Asian player to have been in the majors for a decade. He had become a proven commodity, as well as a free agent. As more players like Ichiro and Matsui make it into free-agency status, we should see a multiplying of Asians among the top 25 baseball salaries.

“It wasn't until the 2003 season that Chan Ho Park's pro-forma $13,000,000 got him on the list at number 20 of the 25 best-payed players.”





Salaries of Top Asians in Major-League Baseball

Player / Year 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Chan Ho Park $109,000 $114,000 $124,000 $270,000 $700,000 $2,300,000 $3,850,000 $9,900,000 $6,884,803 $12,884,803
Hideo Nomo -- $109,000 $600,000 $900,000 $2,800,000 $250,000 $1,250,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $7,750,000
Shigetoshi Hasegawa -- -- -- $300,000 $325,000 $900,000 $900,000 $1,500,000 $1,500,000 $1,800,000
Byung-Hyun Kim -- -- -- -- -- $762,500 $562,500 $762,500 $762,500 $3,250,000
Bruce Chen -- -- -- -- -- $200,000 $202,500 $300,000 $300,000 $550,000
Kazuhiro Sasaki -- -- -- -- -- -- $4,000,000 $4,666,667 $5,070,000 $8,070,000
Ichiro Suzuki -- -- -- -- -- -- -- $5,666,667 $3,696,000 $4,697,000
Tsuyoshi Shinjo -- -- -- -- -- -- -- $500,000 $1,350,000 $600,000
Kazuhisa Ishii -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- $900,000 $2,575,000
Hideki Matsui -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- $6,000,000
Top MLB Salary $6,300,000 $9,237,500 $9,237,500 $10,000,000 $10,000,000 $11,949,794 $15,714,286 $22,000,000 $22,000,000 $22,000,000
Median MLB Salary $450,000 $275,000 $300,000 $400,000 $427,000 $495,000 $700,000 $900,000 $800,000 $875,000