1st Year Foreign Player Payscale
I get asked from time to time how much ball players make in Japan, particularly the foreign ones. With Kevin Youkilis becoming the latest bari bari Major Leaguer to venture to NPB, it seemed like a good time to publish this rough guideline.
This was part of a longer article, from my train commute ramblings, thats unfinished and kind of outdated, so the salaries don’t reflect what’s happened so far in the 2013-2014 offseason. That said, it’s still mostly accurate. “Mostly” is kind of a key word, because there is always going to be some variance from team to team, and with injury history and other factors. This is a basic framework.
| Salary Range | Profile | Recent Examples |
|---|---|---|
| $3M+ | MLB All-Star Experience | Andruw Jones, Bryan LaHair, Vicente Padilla |
| $1M-3M | a couple of complete seasons as an MLB regular, maybe a few years in the past; elite Korean players | Casey McGehee, Jose Lopez, Nyjer Morgan, Dae-Ho Lee |
| $400k-1M | “4A player”; fringe 40-man roster player, consistently strong performance in 3A; varying MLB experience; strong performance in Korea | Daniel Cabrera, Ryan Spilborghs, Fred Lewis, Jason Dickson, John Bowker, Matt Clark, Brooks Conrad |
| $100k-300k | 2A/3A experience, Taiwan, Mexico, US independent leagues, etc | Michel Abreu, Orlando Roman, Jim Heuser |
| <$100k | non-ikusei veteran; Japanese independent leagues; Carribean Winter Leagues; Italian League | Alessandro Maestri, Enyelbert Soto |
| $25k-50k | “ikusei” player; Dominican/Venezuelan Summer League; Japanese independent leagues | Edgar Lara, Edison Barrios, Abner Abreu |
For more on NPB payrolls, please see this post.
Update: If you’re new here, consider following me on Twitter: @npbtracker. I update my Twitter account more often than the website.