Jed Lowrie - $30 Million Man

I'm not sure why, but it struck me that the Houston Astros paid a lot of money to get back Jed Lowrie who was a free agent. A little digging resulted in the following numbers. Lowrie has a career (7 years) .261 batting average & .330 on-base percentage. Average offense. As a shortstop, he is average defensively. From age 24 to 27 with the Red Sox Lowrie made $1,298,000 or $325,000 a year. At age 28 he joined the Houston Astros for one year & made $1,150,000, a 350% raise. From ages 29 & 30 with the Oakland A's Lowrie made $7,650,000 or $3,825,000 a year, another increase of 330%. From ages 31 to 33 Lowrie just re-signed with the Astros for $22,000,000 or $7,300,000 a year, another increase of 190%. He also has a club option at age 34 for $6,000,000. So in the last 10 years, an average player like Lowrie will make $32,000,000 or $3,200,000 per year average. It just shows you the money within the game & how it has risen over the past few years, even for average guys.