When it comes to the world of elite sport earnings, baseball might not always steal the spotlight. It’s maybe sports that have more global reach, maybe like the NBA or soccer, or even F1 nowadays, that’s taking center stage. But even then, MLB legends have more than held their own.

Now, according to the recent Sportico report, only two Major League baseball players have made it into the list of the highest-paid athletes of all time. And no, it’s not Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto or anyone new. It is, in fact, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

Coincidentally, both Yankee icons, and both friends before they ended up in the major league, and with their history of ups and downs!

Now, Alex Rodriguez might have lost the shortstop spot when he came to the New York Yankees, but in this baseball duo, he has come out a winner. He is standing tall at #22 in the list! A large part of it is his blockbuster contracts; remember his eye-watering $252 million deal with the Rangers? Yeah, he topped it later with a $272 million Yankees deal. But his empire didn’t just stop after he hung up his cleats.

Post-retirement, Alex Rodriguez has been all about business—he built A-Rod Corp. and then landed ownership stakes across real estate and sports. Plus, he was also a shark on Shark Tank! And as for Jeter, the number might fall just under the top 30; with nearly $700 million in career earnings, he is far from behind. The New York Yankee icon didn’t chase headlines, but he instead built quietly and also stepped into MLB ownership with the Miami Marlins, invested in ventures like Arena Club, and more.

As for the list, it features others like Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Floyd Mayweather, and 50 other games known around the world. Today, baseball is not getting the global attention that maybe soccer or F1 does, but for sure, things are changing slowly. And one name putting  MLB on the global map is Shohei Ohtani, of course.

Soto and Ohtani smash MLB earnings records in very different ways

If you thought that in the baseball world the earnings had reached the ceiling, two more players have rewritten the rules: Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani. For decades, no MLB player had managed to crack the $100 million mark in a year. The previous high was $72 million. But in 2025, these two players have managed to do it.

Soto signed a jaw-dropping deal of $765 million for 15 years with the New York Mets. So that’s $129 million this season alone. 95% is coming from the field, and it also has a $75 million signing bonus. He is now the highest-paid player based on salary.

On the other hand, Ohtani’s money just hums even off the field. His 10-year, $700 million Dodgers deal is deferred for sure. But he is projected to earn $100 million in endorsements and memorabilia in 2025. That’s a figure only people like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Steph Curry have managed to earn. From the Fortnite partnership to New Balance, Beats, and more, Ohtani is now a brand. He has equal partners in the US and Japan. Just this stat will tell you everything—Japan averaged 12.9 million World Series viewers last year with Ohtani on the screen! MLB for sure has had a lot to gain from having Ohtani aboard.

So baseball may still be uneven when one looks overall with other sports. But Ohtani and Soto just ensured that the biggest stars of the game get paid like it. Maybe one day their name will be there, whether Jeter’s and A-Rod’s are.