Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Baseball is a different story because of their extensive minor league system (and as people already mentioned, big signing bonuses).
You would be surprised how large some of these signing bonuses are these days, even for players with limited upside. I actually knew a guy personally who got almost $2 million as a signing bonus, and he was far from a heralded prospect (and indeed never endied up setting foot on a Major League field.)
The problem for baseball is that they have to keep early-career player salaries low in order to incentivize player development. If young players were eligible for big salaries simply because they produce, then teams would be smart to pretty much blow off their minor league systems and simply sign free agents. Players like Trout are essentially paying for all of the other players who were given big signing bonuses but never made it. Sucks for Trout (especially if he gets injured or declines before it's time to get the big money in free agency), but unfortunately that's the system in place, and there's no easy solution to it.
I think the most fair thing to do at this point would be a blanket reduction of signing bonuses, and then use that money to allow young high producers to get paid. Or at the very least, set up some after-the-fact bonus system where really high producers like Trout at least get something when they put up huge numbers while making $500,000.