Alex Rodriguez to make more money than entire Houston Astros roster

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will make more money this season than the entire Houston Astros roster combined, and he’ll probably miss at least half of the regular season while recovering from hip surgery, according to the Associated Press.

Rodriguez is under contract to receive $29 million. The Astros budget is about $25 million.

The highest-paid player on the Astros, first baseman Carlos Pena, is slated to earn $7.25 million this season.

“When we get on the baseball field with whomever the opponent is, they are not sitting there saying: ‘Well, their players make more money than us so therefore you’re deemed a winner and we’re deemed a loser,’” Astros manager Bo Porter said.

Not that such talk appears to matter to the Yankees, who have made a habit of outspending every Major League Baseball team since 2001. They’ve also made 11 postseason appearances in that time period.

“The goal of the team every year is to do what’s necessary to field a championship team,” Yankees President Randy Levine said. “That goes for this year and, as Hal Steinbrenner has said, next year and every year going forward.”

When their opening-day roster is set and their season begins Monday against the Boston Red Sox, for a mere $228 million -- roughly 10 times what Houston will pay out -- the Yankees will probably claim the highest payroll in baseball for the 15th consecutive season.

And A-Rod won’t be playing. But he will be getting paid.

ALSO:

Mets’ Johan Santana is facing more surgery

The price of the the Angels and Dodgers lineups

Big-spending Dodgers, Angels could still be big disappointments