Here’s how big a pay cut Alejandro Bedoya took to re-sign with the Union

Longtime Union captain Alejandro Bedoya took a pay cut of over $600,000 to play this year with the Union, new data from the MLS Players Association show.

The MLSPA released the first of its two annual sets of player salary data on Thursday, which means we now know Bedoya’s pay and the raises that many players got.

Bedoya, who turned 37 last month, likely is in the last season of his playing career. His one-year contract includes a provision for him to do front-office work too, though he’s spent plenty of time on the field: 874 minutes over 16 games, including starts in four of the Union’s last six contests.

Left back Kai Wagner’s new contract is paying him just over $1 million this year, a $331,500 increase over his prior deal that expired last year. Wagner looked for opportunities in Europe, but didn’t find one good enough. There was a belief at the time that the Union offered more money than teams abroad, and that seems even more believable now.

» READ MORE: More details of Alejandro Bedoya's one-year deal with the Union

Attacking midfielder Dániel Gazdag got the team’s biggest raise, just over $400,000, in the second year of a four-year deal. Midfield colleague Jesús Bueno’s new contract that started this year saw his pay go up just over $127,000. Two other players got pre-set $100,000 raises, striker Mikael Uhre and centerback Jakob Glesnes.

Also of note, of the seven players the Union signed in the offseason, none is being paid all that much. Goalkeeper Oliver Semmle’s salary is the highest at just over $106,000. Forward Markus Anderson is the only other one on six figures, right at $102,000.

Cavan Sullivan’s salary has not been officially published yet, because the Players Association cuts off its data window when each transfer window closes. This spring, it was April 25. Academy-bred goalkeeper Andrew Rick also was promoted to the first team after that point.

When the 14-year-old Sullivan was signed, a source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that he’ll earn just over $500,000 per season until he leaves for Manchester City after 2027. It’s the highest homegrown player salary in MLS history — the league broke its rules to sign him — and is higher than what Freddy Adu earned when he turned pro at 14 in 2004.

» READ MORE: Is Cavan Sullivan really that good? Here’s what to know about the Union academy and its teen phenom.

Around the rest of the league, the highest-priced newcomer this year is New York Red Bulls playmaker Emil Forsberg at a little more than $6 million. Orlando’s Luis Muriel is making around $4.3 million, and Chicago’s Hugo Cuypers is making just over $3.5 million — after the Fire spent a reported $12 million on his transfer fee.

Each player’s salary figure officially includes two numbers: the base salary and the guaranteed compensation. The latter number includes signing and guaranteed bonuses, plus marketing bonuses and agents’ fees, annualized over the term of a player’s contract, including option years.

For conversational and reporting purposes, the guaranteed compensation number is the one usually used here and around the league.

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The annotations in parentheses mean the following:

— (1) Senior roster player; (2) Supplemental roster player; (3) Supplemental roster spot 31, loaned to the Union’s reserve team for the entire year

— (4) Off-roster supplemental player; (5) Designated Player; (6) Cap hit bought down with Targeted Allocation Money

— (7) Homegrown Player status; (8) Under-22 Player status to reduce salary cap charge; (9) Currently loaned out

Across the landscape, MLS teams are paying a total of $518,902,285 to 873 players. The total spending is up from last fall, though the number of players is down. (That happens in many years.)

The average salary is another new record, $594,389.79. So is the median salary, $308,750. The lowest salary in the league, which is set by the CBA, is $71,401. It’s also the most common salary leaguewide right now, with 61 players earning that sum.

The Union aren’t paying any players the minimum, but other teams have a lot of such players. Dallas has seven, the most of any team; Kansas City and Charlotte have five; and Atlanta, Miami, and St. Louis have four.

Salary data does not include transfer fees, which occupy a significant portion of MLS teams’ budgets.

» READ MORE: What are the Union’s ambitions? Owner Jay Sugarman opens up about how he sees them.

It took 19 years for MLS to see its first $20 million payroll, seven more to see its first $30 million payroll, and now just two more to see its first $40 million payroll.

To no surprise, Inter Miami is the team that did the honors. Lionel Messi is the biggest reason why, with a salary of just under $20.5 million, and Sergio Busquets comes in second at just under $8.8 million. Luis Suárez is making just $1.5 million, but it’s worth remembering that he isn’t actually a Designated Player. His cap hit is being bought down with allocation money, as is Busquets’.

The second half of last season was the first time that five MLS teams had payrolls above $20 million. The total has dropped to four this spring: the two Los Angeles teams are out after a lot of winter house-cleaning, and Nashville SC is in thanks to some big raises for its stars.

But expect plenty of movement this summer, especially from LAFC. The team just announced French star striker Olivier Giroud will come over from AC Milan in the summer, and it still has another Designated Player spot open. Charlotte FC, whose payroll currently is lower than the Union’s, has two DP spots open and lots of money in the bank from super-rich owner David Tepper.

» READ MORE: The Union are running it back again. Will it work this time?

The Union’s officially listed payroll (without Cavan Sullivan) of $14,821,159 ranks 24th out of MLS’s 29 teams. Add in $500,000 for Sullivan and the new total of $15,321,159 would rank 21st.

Just because a team is ranked down the list here doesn’t mean that team doesn’t spend on transfer fees. But the payroll comparison still is a snapshot of how teams handle the salary part of the equation. To learn more about teams’ histories with player sales and purchases, check out the data at Transfermarkt.us.

It’s also important to note that players who are loaned out internationally usually still are counted on the MLSPA’s books. That can have a significant impact on the payroll rankings.

For uniformity’s sake, all players listed in the MLSPA’s records are included in the calculations here, whether they’re big names or not.

Click here to see the team payroll comparison from the previous set of data last October.

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The number of millionaires leaguewide continues to grow. Right now, there are 115 millionaires on the books.

As with the payroll rankings above, the table below may include some players who are loaned to clubs outside the league, but technically still on MLS teams’ books.

By the way, the positions listed here come from the MLSPA’s database. They might not all be perfect matches, but they’re close enough.

Here are the latest versions of other charts that are recurring features with this analysis. Many of them show changes in key MLS salary metrics over time.