MLB's Highest-Paid Player in 2020 Could Be a Retired Guy and That Would Be So Horribly Wrong

The 2020 MLB season may as well be as much of a headache to restart for financial reasons as it is for health and safety concerns. As part of one of many unusual agreements on how player salaries will be adjusted, the player who makes the highest sum of money over the course of the 2020 season might actually be a guy who has *checks notes* been retired for three seasons??

Former Brewers, Tigers, and Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder is set to earn an incredible $24 million this season, which could put him above the likes of Gerrit Cole and Bryce Harper in annual earnings in 2020 due to one very strange rule.

Fielder, who retired after 2016 with 319 career home runs and six All-Star teams due to chronic injuries, was due to be paid $24 million by the Rangers, as he was technically in the final year of his contract.

Due to a March agreement between the players and owners, Fielder was set to be paid the full $24 million in termination pay in one lump sum in the event of a shortened or cancelled 2020 season, while most other MLB salaries will be prorated for a shortened campaign.

Several other players could be paid huge sums of money under this agreement, although Fielder's salary tops the list. Seattle Mariners lefty Wei-Yin Chen is due $22 million from the Miami Marlins, and a shortened or cancelled season would make him one of baseball's richest men in 2020.

The rotund Fielder hasn't been launching bombs halfway up the bleachers with his trademark uppercut swing since 2016, but the coronavirus might allow him to make more money this year than Mike Trout.

Strange times indeed.