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Which MLB Player Earned the First $1 Million Contract?

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Eric W. Bolin | Last updated Feb 28, 2026 9:53 AM ET

Major League Baseball’s highest-paid players make more money than any other athletes in North American professional sports. The highest average annual salary in 2026 belongs to Kyle Tucker, who is set to make about $57.2 million per season over the course of the four-year deal he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason.

Salaries have skyrocketed in the 21st century, in large part because of the lucrative television deals garnered by MLB. The sport also remains one of the only on the continent that doesn’t have a salary cap, something owners have long begrudged.

Things are hairy enough in negotiations between the players’ union and ownership that baseball could be looking at a work stoppage at the end of the 2026 season.

MLB’s highest-paid players by position: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | DH | SP | RP

Twenty seasons ago, Alex Rodriguez’s $27.5 million per year led baseball. But 20 seasons before that, Orel Hershiser made an average of $2.6 million and topped the money list. Hershiser, incidentally, was drafted the same year that the first player in MLB history broke the $1 million-per-season.

Nolan Ryan, at age 32, signed a four-year, $4.5 million deal with the Houston Astros in 1979, making him the first player to hit an average of seven figures per year.

Ryan was a hot commodity on the still-blossoming free-agent market that autumn after finishing top three in American League Cy Young Award voting three times in his previous eight seasons with the California Angels.

And while Ryan struggled in his first season back in his home state of Texas, the deal proved worth it. He led all of Major League Baseball in earned-run average (1.69), strikeouts (195), hits per nine innings (6.0) and home runs per nine (0.1) in finishing fourth in Cy Young voting.

By the time his nine seasons in Houston were finished - incidentally because of a contract dispute - Ryan had racked up 1,866 strikeouts and a 3.03 ERA.

Top MLB Player Salaries Have Exploded Over 5,000% Since 1980s

By that point, Ryan was 41 and not making nearly what the highest-paid players were. The Twins signed Kirby Puckett to a deal that paid him $3 million per season on Nov. 22, 1989, and the Athletics inked Ricky Henderson to a contract that paid the same just six days later.

Less than a decade after that, Kevin Brown, who pitched with Ryan as a member of the Texas Rangers, hauled in $15 million per season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Heading into 2026, dozens of players eclipse Brown’s total. And while it’s possible salaries continue to grow exponentially, it’s impossible to imagine they’ll make the same 5,700% jump over the next 37 years that they did between Ryan and Tucker.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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