NEW YORK — Baseball salaries started to slow this year even before the economy nosedived.

The average salary in Major League Baseball this season was $2.93 million, the players’ association said Thursday in its annual report. The 3.6 percent increase was the smallest since 2004, when the average declined 2.5 percent from the previous season.

“I’m not sure that year-to-year movements necessarily tell us very much,” union head Donald Fehr said. “Obviously, salaries went up, revenues went up, and we would like to see that trend continue.”

The New York Yankees topped the major leagues in average salary for the 10th consecutive season despite a disappointing year in which their streak of postseason appearances ended at 13. The Yankees’ average of $6.86 million was down from a record $7.47 million last year.

The Chicago Cubs were second at $4.68 million, followed by the Los Angeles Angels ($4.56 million), the Chicago White Sox ($4.5 million), the Los Angeles Dodgers ($4.37 million), Boston ($4.2 million) and Detroit ($4.15 million). Philadelphia, which won its first World Series title since 1980, was 11th at $3.39 million.