The million-dollar arm

Nolan Ryan during his time with the California Angels

Baseball’s million-dollar salary barrier is broken 46 years ago today as pitcher Nolan Ryan signs a four-year contract worth $4.5 million with the Houston Astros.

Ryan is the first player in major league history – 12,518 players precede him there – to receive a salary of more than $1 million per season.

Ryan joins the Astros after a 1979 season in which the future Hall of Famer goes 16-14 for the California Angels with a 3.60 earned-run average.

For that, Ryan is paid $200,000 in his eighth and final season with the Angels.

Nolan Ryan in 1980, his first season with Houston

Angels general manager Buzzie Bavasi seems just fine with letting Ryan enter free agency, infamously saying, “Nolan Ryan can be replaced by two 8-7 pitchers.”

For his part, Ryan is just fine in leaving the Angels, knowing free agency gives him a chance to join a Houston team that plays its home games less than 30 miles from his ranch in Alvin, Texas.

“I’d buy my own bus ticket to get to Houston if I could pitch for the Astros,” Ryan says long before actually getting the chance to sign with them.

Ryan then spends the next nine seasons with Houston, where he goes 106-94 in 282 starts with a 3.13 ERA and 1,866 of his eventual-MLB record 5,714 strikeouts.

For his 27-year career, which lasts through the 1993 season, Ryan earns $25.7 million.

Fast forwarding to now, Zach Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies is the majors’ top-paid pitcher in 2025 at $42 million.

The same payday awaits Wheeler in each of the next two seasons even though questions remain over Wheeler’s health after undergoing surgery in August to remove a blood clot near his right shoulder.

“When I broke into the major leagues (in 1966), the minimum salary was $7,000,” Ryan says, “and I’d have to go home in the wintertime and get a job.”

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