New York ? Baseball salaries topped $2 billion for the first time this year, with Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez atop the list at $22 million.

The New York Yankees led all clubs with a record payroll of nearly $126 million  $92 million more than last-place Tampa Bay.

The figures are the result of a study by The Associated Press of contracts for 849 players on opening-day rosters and disabled lists.

Players will earn $2.023 billion, up from $1.934 billion last season. Owners, however, did slow the increase during a troubled offseason in which baseball unsuccessfully tried to eliminate two teams.

The average salary of $2,383,235 was up 5.2 percent from last year. That was less than half of the 13.9 percent increase of 2001 and the smallest percentage jump since 1998.

While the average salary has increased 126-fold from 1967, when it was $19,000, the Consumer Price Index has gone up only five-fold since then. And while baseball players average $13,000 a day during the season, the average annual household income in the United States is $57,045, according to latest figures from Census Bureau. That’s about four days’ average pay for someone who wields a bat and wears a glove.

Still, baseball’s average is almost half the $4.2 million in the NBA last season, according to figures compiled by the league. The NHL’s average was $1.43 million last season and the NFL’s average was $1.1 million, according to their unions.

Just behind Rodriguez are Toronto first baseman Carlos Delgado ($19.4 million), Los Angeles pitcher Kevin Brown ($15.7 million) and Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez ($15.4 million). Barry Bonds, who hit a record 73 homers for San Francisco, is tied for fifth with the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa at $15 million.

Figures include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income, and for some players parts of salaries deferred without interest are discounted to present-day value.

With high-revenue teams adding stars, the gap between rich and poor increased for the seventh straight season since the 1994-95 strike.

The Yankees were No. 1 for the fourth straight season and sixth time in seven years at $125.9 million. Boston was second at $108.4 million, followed by Texas at $105.3 million and Arizona, which ended the Yankees’ run of three straight World Series titles, at $102.8 million.

“You just go out there and play,” said the Yankees’ Jason Giambi, whose $120 million, seven-year contract was the richest of the offseason. “We had one of the lower payrolls when I played in Oakland, and we did well.”

The Devil Rays were last at $34.4 million, and just above were Montreal ($38.7 million), Oakland ($39.7 million) and Minnesota ($40.2 million).

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says the difference between top and bottom is part of the reason the sport needs a new economic system, saying the low-revenue teams can’t complete. Selig said fans of many teams have lost “hope” and “faith” because of the spending imbalance.

Reflecting the concentration of wealth among the top stars, the number of millionaires dropped from 425 to 413. But players at $2 million or more increased from 312 to 321, and those at $14 million and higher went from two to eight. The median salary  the point at which an equal amount of players are above and below  dropped to $900,000 from $975,000.