Which MLB first basemen actually generate the greatest value to their teams via their on-field performance
In MLB, we’re pretty much obsessed with the concept of value. We apply a plethora of often exotic statistical approaches to measure it: batting average, slugging, home runs, WAR, OPS+, Defensive Runs Saved, Weighted Runs Created…the list goes on.
The one factor we generally overlook in all these assessments is the most meaningfully value-oriented of all of them: salary. What, precisely, was the player paid – relative to all other players tasked with doing what he was doing – and how much of that pay did he “earn?”
The rating system that follows corrects that oversight. Based on 2019 performance, it measures which players were the most “valuable” as judged by their on-field production relative to their salary. And let it be noted here that we are limiting our focus to on-field value only. Some MLB players, megastars, are paid based largely on factors unrelated to on-field performance, their drawing power at the gate, their celebrity, their endorsement/promotional potential being among them. Those factors, while acknowledged as real, are not part of this discussion.
Since different positions require different skills, the standard for determining production will vary depending on position…although for position players there will always be an offensive component.
Today we look at first base, a predominantly offensive position. Our formula for assessing performance at this position has four criteria. Fifty percent of a first baseman’s value will be based on slugging average, with an additional 30 percent pegged to on base average.
The remaining 20 percent focuses on defensive contributions, 10 percent each assigned to innings played and to assists. The latter, indicative of a fielder’s range, is the most variable of a first baseman’s talent indicators.
Since this system is anchored to averages, it’s important to establish what the positional averages are. In 2019, 35 major leaguers played at least 500 innings at the position, the minimum for inclusion. They averaged $7.86 million in salary, although in the case of first baseman that figure has all the flaws of a generalization. In fact, only two were paid within a few million dollar range of that average.
Instead, a dozen earned more than $10 million, among whom seven earned more than $20 million. They were led by Albert Pujols at $28 million.
At the other end of the salary spectrum, 16 earned less than $1 million, and their ranks included several players you’ve heard of: Pete Alonso, Matt Olson, Rhys Hoskins and Ji-Man Choi.
This division between the positional haves and have-not shows up starkly in our top 10. Half earned more than $12 million in 2019, the other half earned less than $1 million.
Here are the group averages for the other elements of the formula: .460 slugging average, .340 on base average, 921.26 innings played, 65 assists.
This makes first base the most paycheck-segregated position in MLB.