Roster's pay structure

[hamhead]

I was looking at roster for mariners and found this:

Player Salary (US$)
1. Ichiro Suzuki 18,000,000
2. Milton Bradley 11,000,000
3. Cliff Lee 9,000,000
4. Chone Figgins 8,500,000
5. Felix Hernandez 7,200,000
6. Jack Wilson 5,000,000
7. Ian Snell 4,450,000
8. Casey Kotchman 3,517,500
9. Jose Lopez 3,000,000
10. David Aardsma 2,750,000
11. Ken Griffey Jr. 2,350,000
12. Franklin Gutierrez 2,312,500
13. Brandon League 1,087,500
14. Mike Sweeney 650,000
15. Ryan Langerhans 525,000
16. Ryan Rowland-Smith 440,000
17. Sean White 415,000
18 a. Rob Johnson 412,500
18 b. Jason Vargas 412,500
18 c. Shawn Kelley 412,500
21. Doug Fister 406,500

As you guys know I'm a dumb limey half wit but dont get how you can pay Ichiro $18m and two pitchers Vargas and Fister under 1/2 mil and expect them to play as a team, especially when the pitchers are the most important players in the team?

I know any sport and any team will have superstars but this seems way to much of a gap.

Why not cash in on Ichiro and spend the 18m on 6 $3m pitchers?

Be gentle when you guys shoot me down

[hamhead]

i mean 20%+ of wage bill to one guy cant be right

[JosephC]

The longer time a player plays on a team, the more their salary increases. A player signs a small contract with a team when starting out and once that contract expires they then are granted free agency. That is where players like Milton Bradley, Chone Figgisn and Ichiro make their dough. They have reached free agency so any team can purchase their contract. Thus it becomes a bidding war in a sense.

[Igoe4Mariners]

Plus Fister and Vargas have never proved themselves as starters therefore they don't have a high-paying contract yet. Now if they go out and continue this for the course of a season, they will get rewarded.