Danny Tartabull Net Worth

What is Danny Tartabull's Net Worth?

Danny Tartabull is a Cuban-Puerto Rican former professional baseball player who has a net worth of $2 million. In an MLB career spanning 14 years, Danny Tartabull played for six different teams, having his greatest success with the Kansas City Royals between 1987 and 1991. Since his retirement, Tartabull has experienced serious legal trouble in relation to unpaid child support for his two sons, and was placed on the Los Angeles County Child Services Department's Most Wanted List.

Contracts, Salaries & Career Earnings

Over a 14-season MLB career, Danny Tartabull earned roughly $33 million in salary. His first major payday came with the Kansas City Royals, where his strong production as an outfielder set him up for free agency. In December 1991, he signed what was then one of the biggest contracts in baseball history: a five-year, $25.5 million deal with the New York Yankees. That contract made headlines at the time, averaging more than $5 million per year. Amazingly, that made him one of the three highest-paid players in baseball at the time, ranking alongside Ryne Sandberg and Barry Bonds who had just signed very similar contracts.

Tartabull played with the Yankees until 1995, then finished his career with short stints for the Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies. While he never quite lived up to the enormous expectations tied to his Yankees contract, the deal secured his place among the highest-paid players of the early 1990s and ensured he retired with more than $30 million in career earnings.

Early Life and Education

Danny Tartabull was born Danilo Tartabull Mora on October 30, 1962 in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents. His father is José Tartabull, who played in MLB as an outfielder from 1962 to 1970. As a teenager, Danny went to Miami Carol City Senior High School in Miami Gardens, Florida. He played baseball there, and in his senior year was an all-state second baseman.

MLB Career

In the 1980 MLB draft, Tartabull was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the third round. However, he never played for the team. Tartabull made his MLB debut in 1984 with the Seattle Mariners, originally as a shortstop. He had his breakout season in 1986, when he was moved to right field and batted .270 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI. The next year, Tartabull was traded to the Kansas City Royals. In his first season with the team, he batted .309. He spent the longest tenure of his career with the Royals, playing five seasons through 1991. That year, Tartabull led the league in slugging percentage, with .593, and earned his first and only All-Star selection. He subsequently became a free agent and signed with the New York Yankees. Tartabull spent three-and-a-half seasons with the Yankees, but was unable to match his success in Kansas City.

Midway through the 1995 season, Tartabull was traded to the Oakland Athletics. Contemptuous of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, he described his departure from New York as akin to being "released from jail." After the end of the 1995 season, the Athletics traded Tartabull to the Chicago White Sox. He played one season with the White Sox in 1996 before ending his MLB career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997. Tartabull ultimately played in just three games with the Phillies, however, making his final appearance in early April. He retired at the end of the 1997 season with a career batting average of .273 with 262 home runs and 925 RBI.

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Other Media Appearances

During the 1994-95 MLB strike, Tartabull appeared with a number of other striking players in an episode of the Fox television sitcom "Married… with Children." Just before that, he made cameo appearances in the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Chaperone" and "The Pledge Drive."

Legal Trouble

Tartabull has been entangled in serious legal trouble on account of unpaid child support for his two sons, having allegedly neglected to pay over $275,000. In the spring of 2012, a warrant was issued for his arrest after he had failed to appear for a 180-day jail sentence. Tartabull was arrested again in the summer of 2017 after he called the police due to a break-in of his car, and he was again suspected of unpaid child support. He was consequently placed on the Los Angeles County Child Services Department's Most Wanted List.

Real Estate

Soon after signing a $25.5 million contract with the Yankees in 1992, Danny paid $1.95 million for a seven-bedroom mansion in Saddle River, New Jersey. He then spent around $2 million on improvements. In 1995, after being traded to the Oakland Athletics, Danny listed the home for sale for $5 million. He ultimately accepted $2.65 million in November 1997. Here's a video tour:

In 1994, Danny paid $2.385 million for an 8,000-square-foot mansion in Malibu, California. The home features a 2,700-square-foot master bedroom. He sold this home in April 2001 for $5.3 million. The buyer was Reggie Miller. Reggie still owns the home, and today it is worth at least $10 million.

At the peak of his playing career, Danny Tartabull set his sights on building one of the most extravagant athlete homes of the era. In 1992, just months after signing a five-year, $25.5 million contract with the New York Yankees, he and his wife Kellie commissioned plans for an 11-bedroom, 27,000-square-foot mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

The property, expected to be worth around $30 million upon completion, was designed to include a private batting cage with a viewing platform, an indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall and waterslide, and even a scaled-down train to shuttle family and guests around the estate's game room, tiki bar, sports courts, and putting green. Other features included a 20-foot-deep saltwater aquarium separating sharks from swans, a two-story movie theater seating 45, a massive arcade, a 3,500-square-foot master suite, and a 20-foot glass dome above the entryway. Unfortunately, this plan never came to fruition.

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