Baseball dominates the sports world when it comes to player salaries
The top 100 Major League Baseball players will make an average salary of $16.4 million during the 2015 season led by Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who will make $30.0 million in the second year of his 7-year, $215 million contract.
The average salary among the top 100 players in MLB is $4.5 million more than the average for the NBA ($11.9 million) and nearly twice as much as the NFL ($8.9 million). However, things are a little trickier in the NFL as this does not include signing bonuses which are a large component of what the top players are paid. The average salary cap hit for the top 100 players, which includes prorated bonuses, is $12.7 million.
At the other end, the top salaries (or winnings) for Major League Soccer and the PGA Tour are comparable. However, salaries drop off very quickly in MLS with an average of $874,000 for the top 100 players compared to an average winnings of $2.4 million for the top 100 golfers in the PGA.
