Adjusted for inflation, buying power isn’t what it used to be in MLB

Four years, $2 million

The honor of being the game’s first $2 million player is disputed. Some, notably Baseball Almanac, say it was George Foster when he signed a five-year deal with the Mets in February of 1982. But other sources assert that Foster did not clear the $2 million  mark until 1986, when his pay was $2.8 million.

Others say the first $2 million player was Dave Winfield, who in 1980 signed a 10-year deal with George Steinbrenner’s Yankees. But the terms of that deal have always been in dispute, including between Steinbrenner and Winfield, who eventually sued the Yankee owner. The best evidence is that Winfield never actually topped $2 million during his decade-long Yankee stay.

Michael Haupert, a SABR researcher, settles on Mike Schmidt as the first to actually earn $2 million. But even that is in dispute: Haupert says Schmidt broker the barrier in 1986, but Baseball Reference says Schmidt also earned $2.023 million as early as 1984.

Lacking consensus, the best evidence points to Schmidt in 1984.

Schmidt’s $2 million earnings for 1984 translates to about $5.44 million in current money when adjusted for inflation. That’s comparable to the $5.5 million the Boston Red Sox will pay Alex Verdugo to play right field for them in 2023.

In his third season as a Red Sox regular, Verdugo batted .280 with 11 home runs and 74 RBI in 2022. He generated 1.2 WAR and had a 102 OPS+, 1000 representing major league average.

Not that it’s necessarily a fair comparison, but in 1984 Schmidt generated 7 WAR and had a 155 OPS+ on the way to earning that $2 million.

From a performance standpoint, that represents deflation, not inflation.