Salaries of Major League Baseball Infielders
Faculty Sponsor(s)
Eric Schuck
Subject Area
Economics
Description
This paper estimates a Major League Baseball infielders' salary for the 2024 season as a function of home runs, slugging percentage, their signing bonus, fielding percentage, batting average, rookie status, American League or National League, and their position on the infield. The data for these variables were collected from various sources. We observe that Major League Baseball is running their organization using standard hedonic price models and pay athletes for more desirable attributes. We also commonly observe many other sports organizations using this structure, as fans are willing to pay more to see a player that has better attributes. The dependent variable is an infielders’ salary. For the purpose of this research infielders are defined as a first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. An econometric regression analysis was run using these variables to estimate the salaries of Major League Baseball infielders. The results from this regression come out that only home runs, fielding percentage, and rookie status were significant at at least the 10% level. The model with only the significant variables came out to be the most accurate model for estimating their salary. Theoretically, an infielder can plug their statistics for those variables from 2023 into this model and estimate their salary for the upcoming 2024 season.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, Austin, "Salaries of Major League Baseball Infielders" (2024). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 34.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2024/all/34
Salaries of Major League Baseball Infielders
This paper estimates a Major League Baseball infielders' salary for the 2024 season as a function of home runs, slugging percentage, their signing bonus, fielding percentage, batting average, rookie status, American League or National League, and their position on the infield. The data for these variables were collected from various sources. We observe that Major League Baseball is running their organization using standard hedonic price models and pay athletes for more desirable attributes. We also commonly observe many other sports organizations using this structure, as fans are willing to pay more to see a player that has better attributes. The dependent variable is an infielders’ salary. For the purpose of this research infielders are defined as a first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. An econometric regression analysis was run using these variables to estimate the salaries of Major League Baseball infielders. The results from this regression come out that only home runs, fielding percentage, and rookie status were significant at at least the 10% level. The model with only the significant variables came out to be the most accurate model for estimating their salary. Theoretically, an infielder can plug their statistics for those variables from 2023 into this model and estimate their salary for the upcoming 2024 season.
