Joe Skipper / Reuters file

Mo Vaughn's career might be over, but the Mets are still paying him more than $17 million this season.

Some Major League Baseball payroll figures and facts to ponder while comprehending just how it can be that Mo Vaughn is the seventh-highest-paid player in the game this season at $17.166 million:

• Given Vaughn’s hefty salary, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the New York Mets – winners of only 66 games last season and coming off back-to-back last-place finishes – have the highest payroll in the National League.

Big Mo’s price tag puts the Mets at the $95-million mark, about $2 million more than the Philadelphia Phillies atop the NL payrolls. It also means that the Mets are paying $33-plus million for two guys who should be playing first base, but aren’t – at least not much in the case of Mike Piazza, who will make $16 million and change this season.

Throw in a couple of $10-million-a-year veteran left-handers in Tom Glavine and Al Leiter, and that’s $54.3 million – or close to 60 percent of the payroll – tied up in four players. There is some relief coming, however, as Vaughn comes off the books after this season, and Leiter can become a free agent if neither side exercises a 2005 contract option.

• When Preston Wilson joined Larry Walker and Denny Neagle on the disabled list last week, it meant that the Colorado Rockies have almost half of their $64.6-million payroll on the shelf. That in effect dropped them from 15^th overall on the payroll list all the way to 27^th, the latter of which is far more indicative of their talent level on the field.

Walker, who will make $12.66 million this season, could be back before the end of the month. But Wilson ($9 million) will be out at least six weeks after undergoing knee surgery. The Rockies will get nothing from Neagle ($9 million) this season, but will settle for an insurance policy to cover some of his salary as he recovers from major surgery.

With Todd Helton ($11.6 million) and Charles Johnson ($9 million) gobbling up another $20.6 million, that leaves the remaining $13.4 million for the other 20 active players, only three of whom are making $1 million or more.

It’s going to be that way at least one more year, as Walker, Neagle and Johnson all are signed through 2005, so expect the parade of non-roster invitees and young players to continue. When was the last time eight non-roster players came out of a spring camp on the 25-man roster? That’s unheard of, but it’s what the Rockies have done, including Opening Day starter Shawn Estes and starting shortstop Royce Clayton.

• The small-market plight of the Oakland A’s has been well documented in recent years, when Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen, Johnny Damon, Miguel Tejada and Keith Foulke have left for bigger paychecks the A’s couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. But the A’s have climbed to the middle of the pack this season, coming in at $59.8 million, or 16^th overall.

And that doesn’t include Eric Chavez’s six-year, $60-million extension, which kicks in next season. It does, however, include Jermaine Dye’s $11.66-million price tag in the final year of his three-year contract. At least the A’s are getting their money’s worth so far this season, as a healthy-again Dye has jumped to the league lead in homers and RBI.

But everything you really need to know about the A’s success is tied into this fact: Tim Hudson ($5 million), Mark Mulder ($4.45 million) and Barry Zito ($2.7 million) make $12.15 million combined, or less than Chan Ho Park or Mike Hampton, and roughly equal to Curt Schilling or Matt Morris. That can’t continue for much longer, however, as the Big Three will jump to a combined $16.8 million in 2005, and at least $14.25 million (more with incentives) already is committed to Mulder and Zito in 2006, when Hudson can be a free agent.

The world-champion Marlins apparently have picked up that A’s blueprint, as they are 26^th on the payroll list at $42.1 million, ahead of only the Indians, Pirates, Devil Rays and Brewers. Their entire rotation, which currently is dominating National League hitters, will make only $10 million and change, or less than any of these pitchers - Darren Dreifort, Bartolo Colon, Kevin Millwood, Glavine, Leiter and Brad Radke. That figure will jump to $12 million if A.J. Burnett replaces Darren Oliver later this season, but you get the point.

• How far have the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox separated themselves from the rest of the pack? Everybody knows that the biggest payroll gap in the game is between the Yankees’ $183-million total and the Red Sox’s $125-million figure. But the second-biggest gap is between the Red Sox’s number and that of the third-place Anaheim Angels ($101 million).

The next three teams – the Angels, Mets and Phillies – can’t match the combined Yankees/Red Sox salary total of $308 million. The combined total of the bottom five team payrolls – Brewers, Devil Rays, Pirates, Indians and defending-world-champion Marlins – don’t match the Yankees’ payroll. The combined total of the bottom four teams don’t match the Red Sox’s payroll.

Meanwhile, new Angels owner Arte Moreno spent $145 million this winter to sign Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Jose Guillen and Kelvim Escobar, and already had Troy Glaus at $10.45 million and Tim Salmon at $9.7 million. So where is the money coming from to give Garret Anderson a well-deserved four-year, $48-million extension? Aaron Sele’s $8.67 million comes off the books next season.

• Going in the other direction are the Texas Rangers. They’re still stuck with Park, but they have cleared Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro, and have fallen from nearly $100 million in 2003 to below the A’s and last in the American League West at $54.8 million.

Take away Geoff Jenkins ($8.7 million), and the Brewers’ payroll would fall below $20 million – or less than Alex Rodriguez or Manny Ramirez. Craig Counsell is the second-highest-paid Brewer at $3.16 million, and Junior Spivey is fourth at $2.36 million, and both could be gone before the end of this season, as they make way for top prospects Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy.

Ditto Tampa Bay. Take away Tino Martinez ($7.5 million) and the Devil Rays’ payroll would drop to $21 million. The second-highest paid Ray is Aubrey Huff at $2.67 million.

But the biggest payroll gobbler is Carlos Delgado. His $19.7-million price tag is a tad under 40 percent of the entire Blue Jays’ payroll. He and Roy Halladay ($6 million) together take up just more than 50 percent.

• Besides Vaughn, the all-bad contract team includes pitchers Park ($13.88 million), Hampton ($12.97 million), Dreifort ($11.4 million), Neagle ($9 million) and Sele ($8.67 million), catcher Todd Hundley ($7 million), DH David Segui ($6.815 million), third baseman Jeff Cirillo ($7.1 million) and outfielders Bobby Higginson ($8.85 million), Rusty Greer ($7.4 million) and Matt Lawton ($7.25 million). It’s a bit tougher to come up with overpaid middle infielders, but how about the Cubs’ Alex Gonzalez at $5.75 million and Ricky Gutierrez at $4.16 million?

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