The MLB injured list: Everybody’s doing it

Big money

It’s not merely that more MLB players are going on the injured list, more highly paid stars are being stricken.

Nearly one-third of injured list players were drawing salaries in excess of $5 million when they went down. More than two dozen $10 million players were sidelined, eight of them in the $20 million class. Three of the MLB’s 10 best-paid stars – Mike Trout, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander – were out.

That’s causing some teams to spend remarkable amounts of money on damaged, unusable assets. The Houston Astros – with Verlander ($33 million), Michael Brantley ($16 million), Jake Odorizzi ($9 million), and Lance McCullers ($6.5 million) among 11 sidelined players – are writing checks amounting to 40 percent of their payroll to players who are not presently in uniform.

So are the Baltimore Orioles, although in the case of the Orioles that’s because their one high-payroll name –Chris Davis ($21 million) — is the sidelined player. But they’re not unique: the Phillies, Mets, and Angels are all sending more than one-third of their payroll to players on the injury list.

The Mariners, Yankees, Blue Jays, Pirates, and Rangers are all at or above 25 percent.

Across the sport, the average amount of team payroll now going to players who are on the injured list is 22.2 percent.

In terms of raw dollars, the Astros lead. Houston management has $75 million worth of talent on the injury list. The Phillies, Dodgers, Angels, and Mets are all above $60 million. That’s more than three teams – the Indians, Pirates, and Orioles – are paying their entire talent base.