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MLB Report Card Grades for the 30 Highest-Paid Players
Major League Baseball's gargantuan salaries have taken center stage amid the salary cap debate that will rage on for months to come.
But how productive are the players who are getting paid the most?
We've assigned first-half grades to each of the 30 highest-paid players* in the sport, with AAV as the contract figure that we're using.
(For reference, Shohei Ohtani is getting $2M cash in 2026, has a payroll salary of $28.2M, has a luxury tax salary of $46.1M and has an AAV of $70M on his 10-year, $700M, heavily-deferred contract.)
Grades are scaled as if these are the only 30 players to consider. So, a C doesn't necessarily mean "league average," but rather "average among these 30 most expensive players."
Statistics are current through the start of play on Thursday, June 25.
*Excluding Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon and Corbin Burnes. Each has a $35M AAV, but two of the three definitely won't be playing this season, and we shall see whether or not Burnes makes it back in September. All three are fully sunk costs at this point.
Pete Alonso, Nolan Arenado and Cody Bellinger
1 of 10
Pete Alonso, Baltimore Orioles ($31M AAV)
.253/.341/.474, 18 HR, 55 RBI
Grade: B+
Alonso's debut year with the Orioles didn't exactly start out with a bang. He ended April with a .198 batting average and just four home runs. Since May 1, though, the Polar Bear has been on fire, operating at a 162-game pace of 45 home runs and 134 RBI with a .904 OPS.
Nolan Arenado, Arizona Diamondbacks ($32.5M AAV)
.238/.313/.387, 8 HR, 33 RBI
Grade: B-
Through his first 14 games with the Diamondbacks, Arenado had a .392 OPS with one double and no home runs. He also recently had a stretch of 25 games with a .471 OPS, one double and one home run. But for the 34 games in between, he looked like in-his-prime, 2015-19 Arenado with a 1.007 OPS, 10 doubles and seven home runs. All told, though, he has been worth about one win above replacement and a B- might be a bit generous.
Cody Bellinger, New York Yankees ($32.5M AAV)
.271/.369/.465, 11 HR, 49 RBI, 10 SB
Grade: A+
As far as bWAR is concerned, the five-tooled Bellinger has been one of the most valuable players in all of MLB this season. After a five-year stretch in which he averaged 2.4 strikeouts per walk, Bellinger has more free passes (47) than whiffs (44) so far this season. And the next pitcher to throw him a slider should be punished in some way, as he is slugging .875 against that particular offering.
Mookie Betts, Bo Bichette and Alex Bregman
2 of 10
Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers ($30.42M AAV)
.230/.290/.415, 9 HR, 21 RBI
Grade: D+
Betts missed more than a month with an oblique strain, and he subsequently struggled to the tune of a .560 OPS in his first 27 games back in the lineup. His full-season numbers are downright abysmal by his eight-time All-Star, future Hall of Famer standards. But at least he has shown some serious life recently, batting .378 with a 1.061 OPS over his last 11 games. Is he finally all the way back from that injury?
Bo Bichette, New York Mets ($42M AAV)
.251/.296/.378, 9 HR, 44 RBI
Grade: D+
Bichette has undeniably turned a corner after his horrific start. What had been a .531 OPS through his first 46 games with the Mets has blossomed into a .902 OPS over his last 34 games. Had he been producing like that all season long, his grade would be in the A- or B+ range. Over the course of the full season, though, he has barely been a replacement-level player. He is expected to opt out of the remaining two years on this deal, but he better have a good second half if he wants to even sniff this salary on his next deal.
Alex Bregman, Chicago Cubs ($35M AAV)
.244/.339/.341, 6 HR, 25 RBI
Grade: B
Bregman's lack of slugging in the first season of this five-year deal has sparked a lot of criticism. He was a career .481 slugger coming into 2026, but he could homer in each of his next 11 plate appearances and still would be slugging worse than usual. Even so, he's reaching base at a good clip and he's providing good value with his glove at the hot corner. That's enough to be better than average in this expensive group of 30.
Dylan Cease, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Correa
3 of 10
Dylan Cease, Toronto Blue Jays ($30M AAV)
78.2 IP, 2.75 ERA, 2.38 FIP, 1.20 WHIP, 13.5 K/9
Grade: A
Cease has been masterful and would be the favorite for AL Cy Young were it not for Cam Schlittler. If the season ended today, he would have both a career-high strikeout rate and a career-low FIP. The only complaint is that because he either strikes out or walks nearly half of the batters that he faces, he doesn't often pitch deep into games, managing just five quality starts in his 14 appearances. That has been business as usual with Cease throughout his career, though.
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees ($36M AAV)
32.1 IP, 3.62 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 1.18 WHIP, 8.1 K/9 (6 starts)
Grade: D+
After completing his rehab from Tommy John surgery, Cole's season debut came in New York's 52nd game of the season. And though he went 12.2 scoreless innings across his first two appearances, he has a 5.95 ERA in June and hasn't been nearly the strikeout artist that he used to be. Will that change once he shakes off the rust and no longer has an unofficial 90-pitch limit? The answer could have major World Series odds implications.
Carlos Correa, Houston Astros ($33.3M AAV)
.279/.369/.418, 3 HR, 16 RBI (32 games)
Grade: F+
When he suffered his season-ending ankle injury in early May, Correa was having a borderline All-Star campaign. It was overshadowed by Yordan Alvarez's sensational start and the fact that the Astros were a far cry from a winning record, but he would've been a B+ at worst seven weeks ago. However, if you ace your first exam before not showing up for the next three, you're not passing that class. We'll give him a plus for the solid start, but this is a tough sunk cost for Houston.
Garrett Crochet, Jacob deGrom and Rafael Devers
4 of 10
Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox ($28.3M AAV)
30.0 IP, 6.30 ERA, 4.30 FIP, 1.47 WHIP, 11.1 K/9 (6 starts)
Grade: F
Both Crochet and Gerrit Cole have made six starts this season, but Cole was much more productive in his outings and he isn't currently on the IL like Crochet is. So the Yankee gets a passing grade while this Red Sox southpaw gets an F. The latest report is that Crochet is not even ready to start throwing yet in his rehab from a lat injury and isn't expected back until at least after the All-Star break. He won't be part of their fire sale, but not having him dominating like he did last season is a big reason Boston is headed for one.
Jacob deGrom, Texas Rangers ($37M AAV)
88.2 IP, 3.55 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 10.8 K/9
Grade: A-
Because Dylan Cease missed a couple of starts and doesn't quite have enough innings pitched to qualify for the ERA title, it's the 38-year-old deGrom who leads the AL in K/9. He has had a few rough outings, allowing six earned runs against the Yankees, Angels and Padres. But for the most part, he has been one of the better pitchers in the game today, finally getting the long overdue 100th win of his career earlier this month.
Rafael Devers, San Francisco Giants ($31.35M AAV)
.239/.301/.438, 12 HR, 38 RBI
Grade: D-
Devers has been the lightning rod for criticism amid San Francisco's dreadful first half, and understandably so. He had an .872 OPS over the past seven seasons, but that mark has plummeted to .739 this year. His hard-hit percentage is down. His walk rate is barely half of what it was last year. His strikeout rate is higher than ever, on pace for more than 200 whiffs. And that whole fiasco earlier this week of trying to refuse a pinch runner may have been a final straw of sorts.
Max Fried, Tyler Glasnow and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
5 of 10
Max Fried, New York Yankees ($27.25M AAV)
61.2 IP, 3.21 ERA, 2.71 FIP, 1.01 WHIP, 7.3 K/9
Grade: B
Through the end of April, the title of best Yankees pitcher—and maybe even best pitcher in the American League—was a toss-up between Fried and Cam Schlittler. This lefty had gone at least six scoreless innings in four of his first seven starts and had a 2.09 ERA heading into May. But he sputtered through those next three outings before landing on the IL with a bone bruise in his elbow. They hope to have him back before the trade deadline, preferably as good as new.
Tyler Glasnow, Los Angeles Dodgers ($27.31M AAV)
39.2 IP, 2.72 ERA, 3.26 FIP, 0.83 WHIP, 11.1 K/9
Grade: C+
Glasnow has been on the shelf since early May, and with no indication that he's likely to come off the 60-day IL when that first becomes an option in early July. But at least for the time that he was available, he pitched well. He made four quality starts within his first five turns through the rotation, including tossing eight innings of one-hit ball against the Giants.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays ($35.7M AAV)
.277/.360/.363, 4 HR, 32 RBI, 6 SB
Grade: D+
It's hard to complain about Guerrero's batting average and on-base percentage. Among qualified hitters, he ranks top 40 in both departments. But after five years of averaging 32 home runs and nearly 100 RBI, he is on pace for roughly eight and 65, respectively. Also, those batting marks were propped up by a hot April. Since the beginning of May, he's batting a woeful .224/.307/.291.
Aaron Judge, Francisco Lindor and Manny Machado
6 of 10
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees ($40M AAV)
.248/.375/.533, 17 HR, 38 RBI, 5 SB
Grade: B+
Even before the rib injury that sent him to the IL in early June, Judge hadn't been his usual Judge-ness. Over the previous four seasons, he had a 1.117 OPS, homering at a 162-game pace of 59. Compared to that, his .907 mark and 47 homer pace through 59 games played was a letdown. Though, by mere mortal standards, he was still pretty great—and his absence really shook up the AL MVP race.
Francisco Lindor, New York Mets ($34.1M AAV)
.226/.314/.355, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB
Grade: D-
The good news is that Lindor is finally back after missing two months with a strained calf. The bad news is he had a .669 OPS when he suffered the injury, and he immediately went 0-for-5 in his first game back Wednesday night. Needless to say, his streak of three consecutive years with at least 31 home runs and 29 stolen bases will be coming to an end. Can he do anything to bring the Mets back from the dead, though?
Manny Machado, San Diego Padres ($31.8M AAV)
.184/.267/.378, 14 HR, 43 RBI
Grade: D-
We'll give Machado a slightly better than failing grade because 14 home runs is no small feat. He has had between 27 and 32 home runs in each of the past five seasons, and he's on pace to do it again. His glove has also been more valuable at third base than he had been over the previous two seasons. Yet, among qualified hitters, he has the worst batting average and a WAR of essentially zero. Only seven years left on that $350M contract...
Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber and Corey Seager
7 of 10
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers ($70M AAV)
.295/.414/.549, 17 HR, 46 RBI, 6 SB; 79.2 IP, 1.58 ERA, 2.56 FIP, 0.90 WHIP, 9.7 K/9
Grade: A+
It's a good thing we're not grading on any sort of WAR curve here, because Ohtani—who has a 2.9 bWAR as a hitter and a 2.5 bWAR as a pitcher—would have pretty much broken the scale. He had yet another quality start on Wednesday, bringing his ERA to 1.58. Meanwhile, he added two more hits to maintain his NL-best on-base percentage. He now has 81 hits at the plate and 86 strikeouts on the mound. Just absurd.
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies ($30M AAV)
.252/.365/.594, 29 HR, 52 RBI
Grade: A
In 338 trips to the plate this season, Schwarber has 29 home runs, 48 walks and 115 strikeouts. That's a "three true outcomes" percentage of 56.8, which is a bit outrageous. But because he's leading the majors in home runs, ranking just outside the top 10 in walks and still batting north of .250, it's kind of hard to care that he's nearly "leading" the majors in strikeouts, too. He entered this season 60 home runs away from 400 in his career, and he might get there.
Corey Seager, Texas Rangers ($32.5M AAV)
.186/.284/.373, 9 HR, 24 RBI
Grade: D
That's a tough pair of acts for anyone to follow, but especially for Seager amid what has been the least productive season of his career. Since homering in three of his first six games, he has a .584 OPS and is on the IL for a second time. He has never had a sub-100 OPS+ before and had been above 140 in five of the past six seasons. His current mark of 91 in that department is hard to digest.
Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Juan Soto
8 of 10
Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers ($32M AAV)
59.2 IP, 3.32 ERA, 3.14 FIP, 0.99 WHIP, 10.0 K/9
Grade: B
Skubal was the favorite for the AL Cy Young before undergoing that "Skubal Scope" operation in early May and missing six weeks of action. And he has looked mortal in his first three games back, posting a 4.96 ERA and allowing six home runs. However, he is still, hands down, the most coveted player liable to land on the trade block, still boasting solid overall numbers, even if they pale in comparison to what won him back-to-back Cy Youngs.
Blake Snell, Los Angeles Dodgers ($36.4M AAV)
3.0 IP, 12.00 ERA, 1.77 FIP, 2.67 WHIP, 15.0 K/9 (1 start)
Grade: F
Snell might as well be in the same "sunk cost" section as Strasburg, Rendon and Burnes. But he did make one appearance, and he'll probably be back before Burnes, throwing a fastball-only bullpen session on Thursday as he begins his elbow rehab. Given his history of pitching way better in the second half than the first half, though, there's still hope for a repeat of last season, when he returned in early August and played a key role down the stretch and through the postseason.
Juan Soto, New York Mets ($51M AAV)
.299/.395/.570, 17 HR, 38 RBI, 6 SB
Grade: A
New York's season has been a waking nightmare, but Soto is having an impressive run amid the wreckage. His .965 OPS ranks slightly ahead of both Shohei Ohtani (.963) and Kyle Schwarber (.961) for the lead among qualified NL hitters. And at least he has given the fans at Citi Field something worth cheering about, batting .365 with a 1.132 OPS in 29 home games this season.
Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker and Trea Turner
9 of 10
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels ($35.5M AAV)
.234/.394/.472, 17 HR, 36 RBI, 7 SB
Grade: A
The clean bill of health was too good to be true. Trout played in 74 of the Angels' first 75 games before landing on the IL with a hamstring strain one week ago. It doesn't sound too serious, though, and the hope is that he'll be back before the All-Star break—and able to play in the All-Star Game. And up until that strain, he was on pace for his best season since winning AL MVP in 2019.
Kyle Tucker, Los Angeles Dodgers ($60M AAV)
.234/.333/.374, 6 HR, 40 RBI, 6 SB
Grade: D
The crown jewel of this past offseason's free agent class has been anything but a gem in his new home. It hasn't done anything to slow down the mighty Dodgers, but Tucker has gone from a top 10 position player over the past six seasons to a replacement-level player in 2026. And now he's dealing with back spasms after already having a bit of a rough run through June.
Trea Turner, Philadelphia Phillies ($27.3M AAV)
.229/.280/.335, 7 HR, 23 RBI, 15 SB
Grade: D-
Since starting out 9-19, the Phillies have been one of the winningest teams in the majors. But Turner's season has gone in the opposite direction. His .702 OPS at the end of April wasn't great, but it sure was better than the .557 mark he has posted since then. It has been a good week for him, though, going 10-for-28 in his last seven games, including a clutch two-out hit that jump-started the ninth inning rally on Tuesday. That spared him from a failing grade and could be the start of a changing tide.
Framber Valdez, Zack Wheeler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto
10 of 10
Framber Valdez, Detroit Tigers ($38.3M AAV)
89.2 IP, 3.91 ERA, 4.14 FIP, 1.33 WHIP, 7.5 K/9
Grade: C-
Before that 10-run, intentional-beaning fiasco against Boston in early May, Valdez had a 3.35 ERA. In eight starts since his brief suspension, he has a 3.30 ERA. All told, he has made nine quality starts, good for fourth-best in the American League. Yet, it's kind of hard to forget that outlier outing, considering it was the unofficial tipping point in Detroit's fall from grace. That was when the Tigers needed him more than ever, and he failed in spectacular fashion.
Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies ($42M AAV)
68.1 IP, 2.11 ERA, 3.48 FIP, 0.88 WHIP, 9.1 K/9
Grade: A+
The perfect example of "better late than never," Wheeler missed the first month of the season while recovering from thoracic outlet decompression surgery, but you wouldn't know it from the way he has mowed down the competition since returning to the mound. His strikeout rate isn't quite what it was last year (11.7 K/9), but he has both the lowest ERA and lowest WHIP of his career. Even though that NL Cy Young race is absurdly crowded, Wheeler is shoving his way into the mix.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers ($27.1M AAV)
91.2 IP, 2.65 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 0.87 WHIP, 8.4 K/9
Grade: A
Yamamoto almost tossed a perfect game earlier this month against the White Sox, but a Tristan Peters solo home run to lead off the ninth inning put an abrupt end to that quest for history. It was still a quality start, though, which he has done 11 times in his 14 turns through the rotation. And when Yamamoto gets at least three runs of support, the Dodgers are a perfect 8-0.
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