Did Ryan Braun Get Ripped Off?

On May 15th the Milwaukee Brewers signed third baseman Ryan Braun to a historic 8 year, $45 million dollar contract. The deal is the largest in the history of the team, and a pretty significant amount for a player with only one year of big league experience. $45 million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but compared to the other top third basemen in baseball, the contract doesn’t make sense. His numbers are in line with the other top third basemen in the league, so why isn’t his contract?

To put Braun’s contract into perspective, here are a combination of his numbers from this season and last season compared to the other top dogs at his position. (Stats up to date as of 5/18/08)

Ryan Braun: .313 batting average, 45 home runs, 128 RBI’s, 197 hits, 16 stolen bases.
Aramis Ramirez: .295 batting average, 32 home runs, 128 RBI’s, 197 hits, 1 stolen bases.
Chipper Jones: .374 batting average, 40 home runs, 134 RBI’s, 236 hits, 5 stolen bases.
David Wright: .302 batting average, 38 home runs, 141 RBI’s, 239 hits, 40 stolen bases.
Miguel Cabrera: .295 batting average, 41 home runs, 143 RBI’s, 230 hits, 3 stolen bases.
Alex Rodriguez: .300 batting average, 58 home runs, 167 RBI’s, 209 hits, 25 stolen bases.

Looking at these numbers from this and last season, it’s obvious that Braun is among the top players at his position. Now let’s see how their contracts measure up.

Ryan Braun: $45 million over 8 years for an average of 5.625 million a season.
Aramis Ramirez: $42 million over 4 years for an average of 10.5 million a season.
Chipper Jones: $37 million over 3 seasons for an average of 12.33 million a season.
David Wright: $55 million over 6 seasons for an average of 9.17 million a season.
Miguel Cabrera: $152 million over 8 years for an average of 19 million a season.
Alex Rodriguez: $252 million over 10 years for an average of 25.2 million a season.

First let me say that A-Rod and Miguel Cabrera are getting paid a foolish amount of money. Good for them I guess. Comparing Braun’s new contract to that of the other players, it’s obvious that he’s being largely underpaid. David Wright is the closest player to Braun on this list in terms of pay scale and he’ll average $3.6 million dollars a season more. How does that make sense? There are two sides to the argument though. Braun is now guaranteed $45 million dollars, which is something most of us can only dream about. His career could completely fall off, he could become extremely injury prone, and be totally forgotten about and he’s still guaranteed $45 million dollars. But, he could have decided to wait it out for another season or two, continue playing the way he is, and probably receive a contract for almost double the amount of money than the one he just signed.

Most likely Braun’s numbers will stay consistent, and they may even get better. He’s established himself as the teams best player, and one of the best third basemen in the league, but a few years from know we may be saying he’s the most underpaid player in the league.
~Joe Osborne