Albert Belle Net Worth

What is Albert Belle's Net Worth?

Albert Belle is an American former professional baseball player who has a net worth of $25 million. Albert Belle played for three different MLB teams between 1989 and 2000, spending most of his career with the Cleveland Indians. One of the leading sluggers of his time, he won five Silver Slugger Awards; led the American League in home runs in 1995 and in RBI in 1993, 1995, and 1996; and became the first MLB player ever to record 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season.

Contracts, Salaries & Career Earnings

Over the course of his 12-year Major League Baseball career, Albert Belle earned an estimated $97 million in salary, making him one of the highest-paid players of the 1990s. After establishing himself as one of the league's most feared power hitters in Cleveland, Belle signed a record-setting five-year, $55 million contract with the Chicago White Sox in 1996, which at the time made him the highest-paid player in baseball history. Albert was the first player in MLB history to earn $10 million per year. The deal included a rare clause allowing him to demand that he remain one of the game's top three highest-paid players or become a free agent, forcing the White Sox to either match or release him. In 1998, he signed another massive deal—a five-year, $65 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles—that again ranked among MLB's largest. Unfortunately, a degenerative hip condition forced him to retire in 2001, just three years into that contract, though the Orioles continued paying his salary under insurance provisions through 2003.

Early Life and Education

Albert Belle was born on August 25, 1966 in Shreveport, Louisiana to Carrie, a former math teacher, and Albert Sr., a high school baseball and football coach. He has a fraternal twin named Terry. As a teenager, Belle attended Huntington High School, where he excelled as a baseball and football player and was a member of the National Honor Society. In 1984, he was selected to play for the United States national under-18 baseball team in the World Junior Baseball Championship, where he helped the US win the silver medal. For his higher education, Belle went to Louisiana State University and played college baseball there from 1985 to 1987. He finished his collegiate career with a .332 batting average, 49 home runs, and 172 RBI in 184 games. During the summers of 1986 and 1987, Belle played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Cleveland Indians

In the 1987 MLB draft, Belle was chosen by the Cleveland Indians in the second round. He made his debut for the team in July of 1989 in a win over the Texas Rangers. Belle played a total of 62 games in his first season with the Indians, batting .225 with seven home runs and 37 RBI. He had his breakout season in 1993, when he led the American League in RBI and earned his first of five consecutive All-Star selections. Belle also won his first of five Silver Slugger Awards. His greatest career season came in 1995, when he became the first MLB player ever to record 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season. This was despite the season being shortened by the player's strike. In addition to leading the AL in home runs in 1995, Belle was the leader in RBI, runs scored, slugging percentage, and total bases. Although he was a frontrunner for the MVP Award that year, he lost votes due to his surly demeanor and came in second place to the Boston Red Sox's Mo Vaughn. Belle played one more season with the Indians, in 1996, and again led the AL in RBI.

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Chicago White Sox

As a free agent in late 1996, Belle signed a five-year, $55 million contract with the Chicago White Sox. At the time, this made him the highest-paid player in baseball. Belle played two strong seasons with the White Sox, marked by a 27-game hitting streak in 1997 and two White Sox single-season records in 1998, with 49 home runs and 152 RBI. In 1998, he won his fifth and final Silver Slugger Award. Unusually, Belle had a clause in his contract with the White Sox stipulating that he remain one of the three highest-paid players in MLB, and when the White Sox declined to raise his salary after he invoked the clause, Belle became a free agent.

Baltimore Orioles

Belle signed a five-year, $65 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles in late 1998, breaking his own record as the highest-paid MLB player. However, he played just two seasons with the team before he was forced to retire due to osteoarthritis in his hip. In Belle's final career at-bat, on October 1, 2000, he hit a home run. He remained on the Orioles' 40-man roster for the final three years of his contract as a condition of his insurance policy.

Personal and Legal Troubles

Belle has had a number of personal and legal troubles both during and after his career. Among them was a struggle with alcoholism, which caused the Indians to send him to rehabilitation at Cleveland Clinic in 1990. Later, in 1994, Belle was suspended by the Indians for using a corked bat, and in 1996 he was fined for knocking down Milwaukee Brewers infielder Fernando Viña during a game. He built a reputation for being short-tempered and often violent, and was billed $10,000 a year by the Indians for the damage he inflicted in the clubhouse.

Belle's troubling behavior extended well beyond baseball. In 1995, he chased a teenage trick-or-treater in his car after the teenager was part of a group that egged his house, and was fined $100 for reckless operation of a vehicle. Over a decade later, Belle was sentenced to 90 days behind bars and five years of probation after he admitted to stalking his ex-girlfriend. In 2018, he was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona for indecent exposure and DUI, although the charges were dropped the next month.

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