Who are the most expensive players in professional sports playing in Philadelphia? PennStakes.com, the home of Pennsylvania sports betting insight, wanted to go deeper than just aggregate contract figures and calculate which players cost the most compared to how much they play.
To find this out, PennStakes.com analyzed player salaries and on-field usage across all four traditional major pro teams in Philadelphia – the Eagles (NFL), Sixers (NBA), Phillies (MLB), and Flyers (NHL). Here are the top 50, with a detailed explanation of our methodology below.
| Rank, Player, Position, Team | Cap Hit/AAV | Workload | Cost per Workload |
| 1. Aaron Nola, SP, Phillies | $24,571,429 | 79.7 | $308,299.00 |
| 2. Jose Alvarado, SP, Phillies | $7,333,333 | 32.4 | $226,337.40 |
| 3. Zack Wheeler, SP, Phillies | $42,000,000 | 207.4 | $202,507.20 |
| 4. Taijuan Walker, RP, Phillies | $18,000,000 | 100.6 | $178,926.40 |
| 5. Jordan Romano, RP, Phillies | $8,500,000 | 56.9 | $149,384.90 |
| 6. Matt Strahm, RP, Phillies | $7,500,000 | 65 | $115,384.60 |
| 7. Joel Embiid, C, Sixers | $51,415,938 | 574 | $89,574.80 |
| 8. Daniel Robert, RP, Phillies | $760,000 | 9.7 | $78,350.52 |
| 9. Seth Johnson, SP, Phillies | $760,000 | 11.3 | $67,256.64 |
| 10. Ranger Suarez, SP, Phillies | $8,800,000 | 142.6 | $61,711.08 |
| 11. Bryce Harper, 1B, Phillies | $25,384,615 | 436 | $58,221.59 |
| 12. Joe Ross, RP, Phillies | $4,000,000 | 71.4 | $56,022.41 |
| 13. Patrick Johnson, LB, Eagles | $1,135,000 | 24 | $47,291.67 |
| 14. J.T. Realmuto, C, Phillies | $23,100,000 | 504 | $45,833.33 |
| 15. Trea Turner, SS, Phillies | $27,272,727 | 651 | $41,893.59 |
| 16. Jake Elliott, PK, Eagles | $4,180,000 | 100 | $41,800.00 |
| 17. Paul George, PF, Sixers | $49,205,800 | 1335 | $36,858.28 |
| 18. Kyle Schwarber, LF, Phillies | $19,750,000 | 595 | $33,193.28 |
| 19. Nick Castellanos, RF, Phillies | $20,000,000 | 612 | $32,679.74 |
| 20. Cristopher Sanchez, SP, Phillies | $5,625,000 | 186.3 | $30,193.24 |
| 21. Josh Sweat, OLB, Eagles | $16,438,000 | 630 | $26,092.06 |
| 22. Trevor Keegan, G, Eagles | $1,023,569 | 40 | $25,589.22 |
| 23. Dallas Goedert, TE, Eagles | $10,714,463 | 449 | $23,862.95 |
| 24. Jalen Hurts, QB, Eagles | $21,869,800 | 934 | $23,415.20 |
| 25. A.J. Brown, WR, Eagles | $17,523,497 | 769 | $22,787.38 |
| 26. Max Kepler, LF, Phillies | $10,000,000 | 458 | $21,834.06 |
| 27. Lane Johnson, OT, Eagles | $18,412,000 | 937 | $19,649.95 |
| 28. Tyrese Maxey, PG, Sixers | $35,147,000 | 1962 | $17,913.86 |
| 29. Jordan Mailata, OT, Eagles | $15,235,233 | 864 | $17,633.37 |
| 30. Bryce Huff, OLB, Eagles | $4,934,853 | 293 | $16,842.50 |
| 31. Eli Ricks, CB, Eagles | $1,033,334 | 65 | $15,897.45 |
| 32. Darian Kinnard, OT, Eagles | $1,130,000 | 83 | $13,614.46 |
| 33. Darius Slay, CB, Eagles | $9,441,483 | 699 | $13,507.13 |
| 34. Alec Bohm, 3B, Phillies | $7,700,000 | 572 | $13,461.54 |
| 35. Edmundo Sosa, 2B, Phillies | $3,000,000 | 225 | $13,333.33 |
| 36. Weston Wilson, LF, Phillies | $764,000 | 58 | $13,172.41 |
| 37. Orion Kerkering, RP, Phillies | $773,000 | 60.3 | $12,819.24 |
| 38. Tanner McKee, QB, Eagles | $1,076,630 | 89 | $12,096.97 |
| 39. Tanner Banks, RP, Phillies | $785,500 | 71.3 | $11,016.83 |
| 40. Jordan Davis, DT, Eagles | $5,399,786 | 533 | $10,130.93 |
| 41. DeVonta Smith, WR, Eagles | $7,524,510 | 802 | $9,382.18 |
| 42. Brandon Marsh, CF, Phillies | $3,000,000 | 343 | $8,746.36 |
| 43. Saquon Barkley, RB, Eagles | $6,661,000 | 801 | $8,315.86 |
| 44. Rafael Marchan, C, Phillies | $780,500 | 102 | $7,651.96 |
| 45. Nicolas Deslauriers, LW, Flyers | $1,780,000 | 236.63 | $7,522.19 |
| 46. Jared McCain, SG, Sixers | $4,020,360 | 592 | $6,791.15 |
| 47. Andre Drummond, C, Sixers | $5,000,000 | 748 | $6,684.49 |
| 48. Jalen Carter, DT, Eagles | $5,947,141 | 893 | $6,659.73 |
| 49. Bryson Stott, 2B, Phillies | $3,200,000 | 514 | $6,225.68 |
| 50. Landon Dickerson, G, Eagles | $6,553,000 | 1076 | $6,090.15 |
We compared each player’s salary cap hit (or Average Annual Value) to their “workload” to gather averages.
What’s a workload? It’s snaps, minutes played, at-bats or innings pitched. We calculated a “Dollars Per Unit” metric that shows which stars are costing the most per snap, minute, at-bat or inning.
This isn’t about performance – rather, it’s about price per opportunity. The analysis ranks the 50 most expensive players in Philadelphia sports based purely on how much they cost relative to their workload, offering a unique cross-sport look at usage, health and financial investment.
We compiled active rosters and contract data for the Eagles, Sixers, Phillies, and Flyers, cross-referencing 2024–25 player salaries with available usage stats.
The data for innings, at-bats, minutes and snap counts is from the various sports-reference.com websites for each sport. Salaries come from Spotrac.com figures.
To maintain consistency across sports, we refer to all compensation figures as “Cap Hit” in the table, though MLB uses AAV. We then calculated Dollars Per Unit by dividing cap hit by the relevant usage stat to gauge cost-efficiency.
Only the top 50 most expensive players – based on dollars per contribution per minute – were included in the final list.
Aaron Nola has been a standout pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies for more than a decade but he is struggling this season. He is 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA in nine starts and has been out since mid May as he works his way back from ankle and rib injuries. Ordinarily Nola is durable (he has pitched at least 180 innings per season in each of the past six full MLB seasons) but for now, because of his limited availability so far in 2025, he’s the most expensive Philly athlete at more than $300,000 per inning.
If the 32-year-old right-handed pitcher can get healthy and boost Philadelphia Phillies 2025 World Series odds down the stretch, he might yet be worth his $24.57 million salary for this season.
| Rank, Player, Pos, Team | Cap Hit/AAV | Workload | Cost per Workload |
| 1. Aaron Nola, SP, Phillies | $24,571,429 | 79.7 | $308,299.00 |
| 7. Joel Embiid, C, Sixers | $51,415,938 | 574 | $89,574.80 |
| 13. Patrick Johnson, LB, Eagles | $1,135,000 | 24 | $47,291.67 |
| 45. Nicolas Deslauriers, LW, Flyers | $1,780,000 | 236.63 | $7,522.19 |
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid is a former NBA Most Valuable Player and a franchise cornerstone. However, this past season he played just 574 minutes over 19 games as health issues took a toll and his cost per minute (nearly $90k with his $51 million-plus cap hit) rose. Fans and Sixers backers at Pennsylvania sportsbook apps saw their hopes dwindle when the 31-year-old was sidelined along with fellow veteran Paul George, who shows up on our list at No. 17.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl so there’s little reason to complain about value for any of them. For instance, quarterback Jalen Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley, defensive tackle Jalen Carter and wide receiver A.J. Brown all show up on our list, but what Eagles fan in their right mind would complain about their performance? A championship ring makes any player feel like a bargain and Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl odds look good this season as well. Even the team’s top player on this list has a caveat: Patrick Johnson only played one game for the Birds in 2024 before being waived and picked up by the New York Giants.
As for the Flyers, the NHL franchise missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season but only one of their players shows up in the top 50 for the athletes making the most money per workload contribution. Left wing Nicolas Deslauriers played just 231 minutes in 31 games; that was his fewest minutes in a season since his rookie year of 2013-14, when he was with the Buffalo Sabres.
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Author
Jim has more than 20 years of experience in sports journalism and covers sports, gambling and the intersection of those two industries for PennStakes.com. He has worked for publications such as the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag.com, SaturdayDownSouth.com and SaturdayTradition.com. He is passionate about getting Pennsylvania sports betting fans in the know and finding the latest PA sportsbook promos.
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