<P> The highest paid player in Major League Baseball ( MLB ) from the 2013 season is New York Yankees ' third baseman Alex Rodriguez with an annual salary of $29,000,000 , $4 million higher than the second - highest paid player , Cliff Lee . MLB does not have a hard salary cap , instead employing a luxury tax which applies to teams whose total payroll exceeds certain set thresholds for a given season . Free agency did not exist in MLB prior to the end of the reserve clause in the 1970s , allowing owners before that time to wholly dictate the terms of player negotiations and resulting in significantly lower salaries . Babe Ruth , widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players ever , earned an estimated $910,696 ( $14,341,967 inflation - adjusted from 1931 dollars ) over his entire playing career . When asked whether he thought he deserved to earn $80,000 a year ( $1,146,932 inflation - adjusted ) , while the president , Herbert Hoover , had a $75,000 salary , Ruth famously remarked , `` What the hell has Hoover got to do with it ? Besides , I had a better year than he did . '' </P>
who is the highest paid baseball player in the major leagues
Alex Rodriguez