Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Economics Dept.
Advisor(s)
Dave Findlay
Second Advisor
Tim Hubbard
Abstract
The process of salary determination in Major League Baseball (MLB) includes multiple levels of bargaining power and performance determinants. Previous studies of MLB salary determination have used a variety of measures of player performance. This paper examines the effect defensive ability has on salary determination for arbitration eligible players and for free agent players. Specifically, it will analyze player salary/contract data negotiated during the 2012-2015 period along with performance data from past seasons to examine the extent to which fielding percentage, errors, and the more recently developed measures of defensive ability affect player salary. Particular attention is paid to matching the negotiated contract/salary data to previous seasons’ performance data in order to replicate the informational conditions known to both the team and the player at the time of negotiation. I also included offensive performance, player race and player ethnicity in all models. Results will examine how much emphasis is placed on defensive ability when determining a player’s value.
Keywords
baseball economics MLB
Recommended Citation
Shorey, Christopher B., "Defensive Ability and Salary Determination in Major League Baseball" (2016). Honors Theses. Paper 940.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/940