While teams like the Dodgers and Yankees have already committed to nine-figure payrolls in 2013, others have less than $15MM committed to the '13 roster. Cot’s Baseball Contracts has compiled each team’s payroll obligations for 2013. Here's the list, starting with the largest commitments:
- Dodgers, $193.8MM
- Phillies, $133.1MM
- Yankees, $119.1MM
- Cardinals, $92.8MM
- Angels, $92.3MM
- Tigers, $90.2MM
- Rangers, $84.4MM
- White Sox, $83.3MM
- Giants, $81.0MM
- Reds, $74.1MM
- Twins, $68.3MM
- Marlins, $67.5MM
- Blue Jays, $61.3MM
- Nationals, $58.6MM
- Diamondbacks, $55.0MM
- Mets, $54.5MM
- Orioles, $53.2MM
- Brewers, $52.4MM
- Rockies, $46.5MM
- Red Sox, $45.6MM
- Cubs, $41.8MM
- Mariners, $40.5MM
- Royals, $34.9MM
- Pirates, $27.9MM
- Padres, $26.0MM
- Athletics, $23.0MM
- Rays, $18.6MM
- Braves, $15.2MM
- Indians, $11MM
- Astros, $5.5MM
Please note that these figures don't include club or vesting options or figures for players whose salaries will be determined via the arbitration process. The totals include commitments to players no longer in the organization.
I know it’s just reporting contract commitments, but even if you have a roster of 25 players at the minimum salary you have to pay over $12 million, right? Incredible how little Houston has… That has to be some sort of a modern record…
Any player that is arbitration eligible or pre-arbitration would not be included in this figure. Which would explain why a team with so many young players would be so low.
I understand. My first sentence was just commenting on the actual “commitment” being more than $12 million (and I guess the rest of the teams have the minimum salary times the amount of open slots more than that). I get what the list represents, though.
I was more just reacting to how incredible Houston’s salary situation is.
It is incredible. I think Luhnow has done a fantastic job of already rebuilding the farm system (every team from rookie league Greeneville all the way up thru Tri-City, Lexington, Lancaster, Corpus Christi and Oklahoma City (AAA) ) in the Astros farm system finished at .500 or better this year. And he has almost no commitments at the major league level. Luhnow indicated payroll will be in the $50M range next year, which means he can go out and add 8-10 players at $4M each and be within his payroll target. But he won’t – he ‘ll stick to plan and add 3-4 pieces max . And the Astros have a contract with Comcast next year which adds $30M in annual revenue to their coffers. He is truly rebuilding from ground zero.
The Astros’ total commitments are slightly more than a fourth of what the Angels owe Vernon Wells next year.
Just marveling at that.
If I had 4 dollars and you had 1…Id have four times has much as you but we would both be broke.
It would be nice to know how many players each team has money committed to so the dollar values would have a little more context.
I thought the same thing. If a team only owes 10 million but has a huge arbitration group looking to earn a lot, it doesn’t tell much about their payroll obligations in regards to free agency, etc spending possibilities.
I agree, too.
$5.0M of the $5.5M 2013 payroll commitments is for a player they don’t even have, Wandy Rodriguez. The only player they have with enough service time to have established FA on the payroll for 2013 is Chris Snyder and his $0.5M buyout.
The A’s and Rays owe their entire rosters less than the Yankees owe A-rod
And the Philiies with Cliff Lee
True, but its only a matter time before many of them become arbitration eligible and that’s when it gets hairy.
Giants only have 81 committed!! How many players do they need to get? If they bump their payroll up then they would have about 60mm to spend this winter.
keep in mind some of that 60 will be going towards players we already have. Pence’s 13/14 isn’t in the 81. And Posey will likely get an extension.
I think Posey gets his Bumgarner and Sandoval early extension. They’ll non-tender WIlson which will save them a lot of money. Pagan gets a $7-$10 million.
Pence gets his $14 million or they can shock everyone and extend him for a lot less. Which means Romo and Casilla are the only ones that are owed any money and they’ll still be below their $135 million where they are at.
I’m sure the hope of every Giants fan is to secure quite a few free agent seasons in a Posey extension (at least with club options), which is something they didn’t do in the Sandoval extension. I don’t see them non-tendering Wilson unless there is a pre-arranged deal in place to re-sign him for less. Pagan is a free agent, so there is no telling if he will re-sign.
All told, if Pagan does re-sign, I think it will leave them with roughly $10M to spend to get to this year’s payroll. However, given the Dodgers’ splurge, I imagine the Giants will dig a little deeper this offseason. We all know they have money to spend after two straight years of sellouts.
By signing Sandoval they have no worries about commitments in arbitration.
There’s a possibility of non-tendering Wilson because of the allure of signing him for less money. That would be a lot less than if he did go to arbitration even after his 2nd TJ. Right now the Giants are in a tough spot. They can offer him a one year extension but they really don’t know what they’ll get from him. So in my opinion best to non-tender him and sign him to a value deal. If he doesn’t accept than its time to move on. This scenario is only based around if Wilson decides the arbitration route.
As for payroll Giants can conceivably increase a little if they factor in that Zito/Lincecum contracts up the following season and the way Zito is pitching I don’t think his option will vest for 2014.
Extensions are usually a wash, cost-wise. Teams buy out the arbitration seasons for about what the player would have got in arbitration, then add seasons based on the player’s projected free agent market value.
Most of it is in Zito/Timmy/Cain haha
I remember when the Card fans used to hate on the Yankees for “buying” their talent, but look at the Cards now, LOL
they’re just clapping bobbleheads anyways, don’t pay them any mind.
Wait and see where the payroll is when the season starts. They have zero needs and only a few minor arbitration cases. The Cardinals could easily go into the 2013 season with under $100MM payroll and be ready to compete again. There are many teams below the Cardinals that will end up well ahead of them because of Free Agent singnings, abritration raises, or options that will easily be picked up.
Really? They have $92.8 million committed to 9 players. For $7 million, they would need to deal with the arbitration cases of Motte, Freese, and possbily Mujica unless they trade/non-tender him. They owe Furcal $7.5 million, and who knows what he’ll be able to do next year. At least they have Jay, Craig, and Kelly on the cheap, but “easily” could be pushing it.
okay, there are no major needs. The only people they need to replace from this year are Berkman and Lohse. Both will come internally. Of course they could upgrade somewhere (SS would be great) but they don’t NEED to. They can take what they have under control for next year and compete. It would be no different than the team they have right now, besides whoever replaces Lohse.
and I have no idea why they would non-tender or trade Mujica, he has been great since coming to St. Louis.
The big savings will be in 2014 with Carpenter, Furcal, Beltran and likely Westbrook off the books. That’s a savings of @$41 million, enough to re-sign Wainwright and lock up Freese and Craig for at least one or 2 free agent years. At that point Holiday, Molina and Garcia’s contracts expire.
There’s a difference between throwing bucket loads of cash at free agents and re-signing your own free agents and/or extending your homegrown players.
Love seeing how low the Braves’ commitments are, but I hate to know how much of that is Dan Uggla – the best benchwarmer in the land. And I’d love to know how much we’re headed for in arbitration knowing how many youngins we have producing past their price.
With the new TV deal, the Astros team salary will probably be in the 40-50 Million range next year. Expect them to try to sign the MCcarthy, Edwin Jackson, Napoli, Ross type players. They won’t go for any big fish, but they will try to sign some mid guys, especially pitchers 30 yrs and under. They need some vets to mix in with the young guys to show fans they will compete a little, without ruining the future guys playing time. Catcher, OF and pitching would do that.
You’d have to say the Rangers example of making it rain players is a better result than most. Admittedly the Dodgers have not been vetted, but lord have mercy if they don’t win with that clubhouse. The Fish and the Halos have come up so shy it’s certainly not a proven formula to go with the olden day Yankee buying spree.
The old Yankee buying spree, doesn’t really work for the Yankees either. They have only won one World Series since 2000, when they really started to spend like sailors. They had won three in a row prior to that, with somewhat modest payrolls and from building from with in, with the odd trade or signing to augmnet their team.
Lets be honest, if they hadn’t hit it out of the park with Jeter, Rivera, Williams and Pettite all roughly at the same time, the Yankees would be looked at alot differently.
Nope, that’s my point. Especially with the ridiculous contracts of today teams aren’t finding a way to guarantee anything in terms of winning in PS.
It’ll be a real test to see how far the Rangers go this year- if they fail you’d have to say Darvish’s contract didn’t change anything from the last 2 years.
Regular seasons are a lot more random and can be had, but with an expansion of WC playoffs it will reward the teams that have home grown talent able to produce as a team in the pressure of the PS.
I’m a Padre fan and there are alot of fans wanting the Padres to dive head first into the free agent market this off season because of the new ownerships financial backing, but I would rather they just stay the course and build from within. Now don’t get me wrong if they could get a big time frontline pitcher for a discounted price, I would be all over that, but to throw over $100 million at a guy who has never thrown a pitch for the club I find crazy. Reward the players that have gone to battle for you and yes pickup free agents to help out the team, but don’t go for the top ones who cost a fortune.
And is it just me or are there alot more teams following the Yankees MO, but the Yankees are the only ones who still get thrown under the bus?
There maybe a lot of teams spending out of their heads but very few are succeeding (yet). Using the Dodgers as an example: if the AGon of CC contracts go bad most people are saying they’ll just eat the $. Ala Andruw Jones who ironically ends up back with the Yanks and contributing this year. It’s kind of a vicious circle for the big $ teams this way. That’s why the BoSox were SO lucky to trade those massive deals away.
The big $ homegrown players like Votto or Stanton are’t going away- it’s up to the GM’s to see the rational for not signing the Werth’s and the Zito’s to these super long term deals.
The Pads are putting a lot of hope in Alonso and Grandal- personally I think letting Rizzo go was a mistake because he’s likely going to be better than both of them. I don’t understand how you trade AGon and then basically give away the guy you get back. If Maybin doesn’t get right at the plate that team is as long away as those fences. but they’re moving them in right?
If Cash and Kelly can stay healthy and effective the padres will have no regrets trading someone who won’t hit in their ballpark.
Alonso is going to be in the mold of a Joyner I believe. A ton of doubles with 10-15 homers and an avg in the .290’s. Grandal is a stud, he will be an All Star very shortly. Maybin does need to get more comsistent, but he has been raking after experimenting with his swing almost the whole first half of the season.
I am one of the few Padre fans who hope they leave the fences the way they are. The front office has been trying to build a team suited for the Petcos’ dimensions and just when it looks a though they may be onto something they are going to change the park. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Grandal I would agree has some more upside if he works on his RH hitting, S hitting C who can rake from both sides are a fine commodity- in SF we have Hector Sanchez. But Alonso I’m not convinced will be the corner IF you want. He’s a good hitter but his power is to all fields. He hits gap to gap, but he doesn’t have enough speed to make that really hurt. If they do move the RF fence in (which I thought was a done deal?) on those warm SD nights you will get a fair amount of LH pull jacks, but Rizzo is the kind of dead pull guy who would hit them, not sure Alonso is going to crank 25+. I’m a Giants fan so it’s not like I’m all that about in the Pads, but 2010 was a lot more fun down the stretch than this year will be.
Giants fan? Why am I even talking to you? Just kidding. The Dodgers are doing their best to make the race interesting, I don’t think you guys are running away and hiding just yet.
haha, been trying to get disqus to get my twitter avatar up there so you can clearly see the Orange and Black dominance on my head:). There’s no way a team takes a kick (there) losing their #3 hitter and doesn’t feel it… I am really surprised at the resilience. But hey now- can’t we all just get along beating the Dodgers?
I’m actually quite shocked that Sabean didn’t grab someone after Cabrera was suspended. I guess if Lincecum can get back to his old form, you never know the Giants could ride their pitching again. Oh yeah, if it helps you guys beat the Dodgers, would you like to borrow Headley for a month or so? : )
Nah, you go ahead and keep Headley as a handicap 🙂 I think it boiled down to a similar situation as losing Posey last year where teams realized they could hold out for the fleecing the Mets got for Beltran.
I was hot that Atl got Reed Johnson who was my #1 target prior to the deadline, I fault Sabean some for not thinking clear enough to a solid backup in case of injury or the oddity that did happen. I mean if you didn’t want to look at the spike in Melky’s #s you could still see the typical juiced hammy injury he suffered returning to possibly plague him.
The problem is the situation won’t change in the offseason- Melky was the long term plan. Teams will still hold the Giants over a barrel to trade for an OFer. And the FA signings are really slim in terms of a RH power bat the Giants need, they too will recognize the grave need there and the ability to gouge.
Most if not all of atlantas is to a back up 2nd baseman. Heres to hoping uggla can figure it out
What’s craziest to me is despite that huge number for the Dodgers, that’s still a very incomplete team. There are a lot of holes to be filled, so that number will climb much higher. (For example, that number only include Coffey and Guerrier for the bullpen). Even crazier, they already have $90 million committed for 2017, and that’s just for 5 guys!
Uh yeah, like beyond Kershaw how many solid starters can they pencil in for sure healthy and able next year?
The Cardinals have 20 million to spend and nowhere to spend it. Not a terrible problem I guess. The only pickups I’d like to see are Jeremy Affeldt and possibly Elvis Andrus if Texas tries to trade him.