The average Major League Baseball salary dropped for a third straight year, even before financial issues created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Major League Baseball Players Association says the 2020 average would have been $3.89 million if a full season had been played. That was down 4.2% from the 2019 average of $4.05 million and represented a 5.2% decrease from the record average of just under $4.1 million in 2017. The average started to slip in 2018, falling by $1,436.

Because the pandemic caused players to receive roughly 37% of their pay last year, the actual average plunged to $1.59 million, its lowest since 1998.