MLB's average salary tops $5 million for first time, AP study shows

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MLB's average salary tops $5 million for first time, AP study shows

2025-04-02 18:00 Last Updated At：19:52

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s average salary broke the $5 million barrier on opening day for the first time, according to a study by The Associated Press.

The New York Mets, with Juan Soto's record $61.9 million pay, led MLB for the third straight opening day with a $322.6 million payroll, just ahead of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at $319.5 million. Those two teams each spent roughly five times as much as the Miami Marlins, who at $64.9 million ended the Athletics’ three-year streak as the lowest spender.

Still, the Mets were down from their record high of $355.4 million in 2023.

The average rose 3.6% to $5,160,245. That was up from a 1.5% increase last year but down from an 11.1% increase in 2023.

Adding Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, the Dodgers boosted payroll by a big league-high $69 million from opening day last year. Baltimore hiked spending by $66 million, followed by Arizona ($55 million), San Diego ($47 million), Philadelphia ($41 million) and Detroit ($39 million).

Los Angeles' payroll figure was held down by deferred payments. Shohei Ohtani’s $70 million salary was discounted to a present-day value of $28.2 million because it won't be paid in full until 2035, causing him to be listed as the 18th-highest-paid player. Other Dodgers with deferred payments include Mookie Betts, Tommy Edman, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Scott, Will Smith and Snell.

Following their record 121-loss season, the Chicago White Sox cut payroll by $60.8 million, San Francisco by $39.1 million, Miami by $31.7 million and St. Louis by $31.6 million. The American League champion Yankees dropped by $18.5 million.

Just five teams were under $100 million, with the Marlins joined by the A's ($74.9 million), Tampa Bay ($79.2 million), the White Sox ($80.9 million) and Pittsburgh ($87.9 million).

Soto broke the previous high of $43.3 million shared by pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander under deals they agreed to with the Mets.

Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler is second at $42 million, followed by Texas pitcher Jacob deGrom and Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge at $40 million each.

Of 953 players in the major leagues on opening day, 526 had salaries of $1 million or more, 55%, and down from 532 last year and 546 in 2023.

There were 15 players at $30 million or more, a drop of two; 66 at $20 million, up from 66; and 177 at $10 million, an increase from 166.

A total of 35 players made the $760,000 minimum.

The top 50 players make 29% of the salaries, the same as in the prior two years, and the top 100 earn 48%, up from 47%.

Baseball's median salary, the point at which an equal number of players are above and below, dropped to $1.35 million from $1.5 million and well below the record high of $1.65 million at the start of 2015.

Average and median salaries decline over the course of the season as veterans are released and replaced by younger players making closer to the minimum. The AP's average was $4.98 million at the start of last season; MLB calculated the final average at $4.59 million and the players' association at $4.66 million.

Because they started the season in the minor leagues, Baltimore pitcher Kyle Gibson ($5.25 million), Detroit pitcher Jason Foley ($3.15 million) and Dodgers second baseman Hyeseong Kim ($2.8 million) were among the players not included in the opening day payroll figures.

The AP’s figures include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income.

Payroll figures factor in adjustments for cash transactions in trades, signing bonuses that are the responsibility of the club agreeing to the contract, option buyouts and termination pay for released players.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Gambian ex-soldier convicted at US trial of torturing suspected backers of a failed 2006 coup

2025-04-16 09:01 Last Updated At：09:11

DENVER (AP) — A former member of Gambia's military was convicted in federal court Tuesday of torturing five people accused of involvement in a failed coup against the West African country's longtime dictator nearly 20 years ago, capping a rare prosecution in the United States for torture committed abroad.

Jurors at the weeklong trial in Denver also found Michael Sang Correa guilty of being part of a conspiracy to commit torture against suspected opponents while serving in a military unit known as the “Junglers,” which reported directly to Yahya Jammeh.

Correa came to the U.S. in 2016 to work as a bodyguard for Jammeh, eventually settling in Denver, where prosecutors said he worked as a day laborer.

Correa, who prosecutors say overstayed his visa, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019 and then indicted the following year under a seldom-used law that allows people to be tried in the U.S. judicial system for torture allegedly committed abroad.

The law has only been used twice since 1994 but both of the previous cases were brought against U.S. citizens. The U.S. Department of Justice said the verdict was “the first conviction of a non-U.S. citizen on torture charges in a federal district court.”

“If you commit these atrocities in your country, don't come to the United States and seek refuge,” said Steve Cagen, the head of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations' Denver office.

Demba Dem, a former member of the Gambian parliament who testified to being tortured by Correa and others, was among those in the packed courtroom to hear the verdict.

“It was a victory of democracy, a victory of all the victims,“ he said. ”Those alive and those who passed away."

1. Dem and other survivors traveled from Gambia, Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. to testify, telling the jury they were tortured by methods such as being electrocuted and hung upside down while being beaten. Some had plastic bags put over their heads.

Prosecutors showed the jury photos of victims with scars left by a bayonet, a burning cigarette, ropes and other objects. The men were asked to circle scars on photos and explain how they received them.

Members of the media from Gambia covered the trial in Denver and immigrants now living in the U.S. attended proceedings, including sisters Dr. Jaye Ceesay and Olay Jabbi. They said their brother was killed by Junglers after returning to Gambia in 2013 to start a computer school for children there and they wanted to support others victimized by the regime.

The defense had argued Correa was a low-ranking private who risked torture and death himself if he disobeyed superiors and that he did not have a choice about whether to participate, let alone a decision to make about whether to join a conspiracy. One of his lawyers declined to comment after the verdict.

But while the U.S. government agreed that there's evidence that the Junglers lived in “constant fear,” prosecutors said at trial that some Junglers refused to participate in the torture.

Jammeh, a member of the military, seized power in a coup from the country’s first president in 1994, and survived three significant coup attempts, making him suspicious of the very military he depended on to stay in power, according to testimony.

Jammeh has been accused of ordering opponents tortured, jailed and killed during his more than 22-year rule of Gambia, a country surrounded by Senegal except for a small Atlantic coastline. He lost the 2016 presidential election and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after initially refusing to step down.

In 2021, a truth commission in Gambia urged that the perpetrators of crimes committed under Jammeh’s regime be prosecuted by the government. Other countries have also tried people connected with his rule.

Last year, Jammeh’s former interior minister was sentenced to 20 years behind bars by a Swiss court for crimes against humanity. In 2023, a German court convicted a Gambian man who was also a member of the Junglers of murder and crimes against humanity for involvement in the killing of government critics in Gambia.

Human rights activists in Gambia hope those who committed torture under Jammeh's regime will also be held accountable at home.

"Correa’s conviction is very significant in the quest for justice for victims of human rights violations, but many Junglers and other human rights abusers continue living in impunity. Some are even living freely in Banjul,” said Kadijatou Kuyateh, spokesperson for the Alliance of Victim-Led Organisations, referring to Gambia's capital.

Correa faces up to 20 years for each of the six counts he was convicted of. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after lawyers determine when survivors can return to Denver to speak about the impact of his actions.